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Covenants and contracts: A Biblical perspective on property rights
In Torah reading חַיֵּי שָׂרָה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18), we read how Abraham buried the Matriarch Sarah in a cave in Hebron (Genesis 24). She was the first person buried in the cave that is now called “The Cave of the Patriarchs” or Machpelah in the land of Israel. Abraham has been a nomad for decades but upon the death of Sarah, he chooses to put down roots in Hebron, where Sarah died.
Abraham purchased Sarah’s burial spot with her blood and his tears just as David purchased a resting place for Adonai in Jerusalem with his blood and tears. There was sorrow in both cases, both in Abraham’s profound sorrow but also in David’s profound sorrow for those killed in the plague.
Abraham mourns deeply for Sarah, and we all know that death has its sting. We remember our deceased loved one, but we do not mourn in hopelessness.
We see that in the depths of his despair, Abraham bargains with the people of the land for his first real-estate transaction. We are given a little window into ancient real estate transactions and ancient contracts. We see a high form of hospitality. There’s a lot of bowing or showing respect between the parties. Then we see that the seller sets out the price. At this point, we might expect the parties to start to haggle to reach a mutually agreed price but that is not what happens. In this case, it’s presented as being a fair price for this particular plot. This particular plot will be a pivotal anchor for the people of God going forward.
We have two anchors for the Israelites in the Promised Land: The graves of the patriarchs in Hebron and the Temple in Jerusalem.
Origin of ‘Palestine’
Now, in our days, we see the fulfillment in the modern nation state of Israel, but the roots of the return didn’t start in 1948. We have to go back much further.
Six decades after the destruction of the Temple by Rome, emperor Hadrian in A.D. 132 created the colony of Aelia Capitolina on the site of Yerushalayim, sparking the Second Jewish War. After the Romans defeated Bar Kochba and banned Jews from Jerusalem in A.D. 135, Rome renamed Judea as Syria Palaestina, later just Palaestina. The Holy City became a deliberately pagan city.
In 1858, the Ottoman Land Law brought to the land of Israel a free trade zone, allowing for the private ownership of land in the land of Israel. Private land ownership was an anomaly in the Eastern world. In most cultures, the land belonged to the king, all of it, and the king was just kind enough to let people live on his land. You just had to hope that you didn’t make the king mad, because then you couldn’t live there anymore, you were forced into exile at best or you were toast at worst. Where you lived and if you lived was in the king’s hands.
Many Jewish families came with the French, Russian and German colonies in the Holy Land. Most of the people of the Ottoman empire had no experience with how to own property so many of their financial endeavors did not work out well, but for the Jews, who had experience with land ownership and entrepreneurship, they were able to succeed in making the land of Israel blossom, hiring many Arab laborers, which helped them too.
Even in the Americas, when the pilgrims and other Europeans arrived, the native Americans thought the concept of land ownership was very strange. Yet, the concept of land ownership comes right from the pages of the Torah. The Torah gives guidelines and rules about personal land ownership in Deut. 19:14; 27:17 lay out the concept of “boundary stones,” with repeated instructions not to move your neighbor’s boundary stones and placing curses on a person who does so.
You just don’t impose yourself upon somebody else, to move their boundary stones and impose yourself upon them. In our culture today, we talk a lot about respect people’s “boundaries.” Well, that whole concept comes really from the biblical guidelines of personal property of what is mine, and what is yours.
And that’s something that’s cemented throughout the Word of God: that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” Heaven, in effect, says we are given this or that but we must respect it because it still ultimately belongs to the Holy One. We may possess a “land lease,” but the deed to the land belongs to God.
What we are witnessing now is people who covet what is not theirs and are willing to steal, kill and destroy those who rightfully own the land and take it for themselves.
Yeshua, as the resting place of Adonai, God made flesh (John 1:1, 14), purchased rest for our souls with his blood, sweat and tears (Hebrews 3–4).
Personal property is a crucial tool of generating intergeneration wealth. The Torah teaches us not to move Heaven’s boundary stones and we aren’t to move the boundary stones of our neighbors, either. Ultimately, every inch of the earth belongs to God, who is the ultimate owner.
Legacy matters: Property ownership and the search for Isaac’s wife
When we read about Abraham’s search for a wife for his son Isaac, we learn that legacy matters, as Abraham refuses to find a wife for his son from the people of Canaan, and also not from the land of Haran, all the way back in Mesopotamia, but Abraham found a wife for Isaac from the family of his nephew Laban, who lived between Mesopotamia and Canaan. Laban lived in an area near the modern border of northern Syria and southern Turkey, which at this time, was a part of the Hittite Empire, just as Israel itself was part of the Hittite empire. Isaac’s family line was important, Israel’s legacy in Messiah Yeshua is even more important.
Resurrection hope: Caring for the dead as trust in our secure future
One lesson we see here is that when you establish a grave for the dead, you are expressing a hope in the resurrection. By respecting the body of a deceased person, you acknowledge the hope of their inevitable resurrection. Like the book of Job says that God is not going to leave his body in Sheol, in the grave as though it’s nothing. Even Job understood there would be a resurrection of the dead.
We also see this in Ezekiel 37, the prophecy of the Valley of Dry Bones. It represents not only a spiritual resurrection of the people but also their physical resurrection.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1Corinthians 15:13–18 NASB
We see an important lesson here. The hope of the resurrection was not just for Yeshua but for all those who are called to Him. Just as He was raised up in glory, we also will be raised up with Him in glory. We are a part of the living people of God, not just a people who merely associate with each other and show up in a social club. We are much more than that, we are connecting with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, “LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE.”
1Corinthians 15:29–32 NASB
Those who take care of the dead are called a holy society, or chevra kadisha. The job of the members of the chevra kadisha was to wash and purify the body of the deceased. There were women who were called to take care of the women who had died and a group of men who performed this duty for the men who died.
Members of the chevra kadisha would prepare themselves for this sacred duty by cleaning their own bodies and immersing in a mikvah before they went into the room where the deceased person was laying to wash them.
So the point that the Apostle Paul is making is why bother going through that rigmarole of cleansing and preparing yourself and then cleansing and preparing the body for burial if there’s no hope that this person is ever going to be seen ever again, and they’ve just gone on to the great good night, and they’re going to be lost forever? But since there is a hope of resurrection, then there is great value in treating the dead body with reverence and respect. Paul says that what was sown in dishonor is raised in honor. So you might think it’s just an ignoble end that the body dies. You put it in the grave. It decomposes; what a loss. No. The hope is is that that thing that God has created, that He will recreate it again.
Although the body is dead, the bones are allowed to rest, awaiting the resurrection. Those who die in the Messiah’s good graces will be resurrected, just as their Master Yeshua was resurrected.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NASB)
In our New Testament reading for today, we have read Matthew 2:1-23 about the events immediately after the birth of Yeshua.
We see four messianic prophesies reviewed in this section:
1. “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”
2. “Out of Egypt I have called My son”
3. “A voice was heard in Ramah … Rachel weeping for her children”
4. “He shall be called a Nazarene”
There were wisemen who came from the east, from the land of Parthia, to find the King of the Jews. The Parthians were the superpower to the east of Rome. Rome and Parthia locked horns all the time. Rome tried several times to conquer Parthia and they lost each and every time. So, that ended Rome’s eastward expansion.
Just as if the President of the United States were to visit our area, his visit would be precluded with a large entourage of Secret Service, and a large contingent of law enforcement, which always attracts attention. In ancient times, when things were quite rough, and you didn’t know what kind of welcome you were going to expect, they traveled with a good contingent of security.
So you can imagine that a large entourage of wealthy noble men from Parthia, coming in with armed guards, with regalia befitting their status would cause quite a stir, and raise a lot of eyebrows, especially when they came to Judea to ask “Where is the King of the Jews” in the capital of Judea. These powerful men were not looking for Herod, which caused even more alarm.
These wise men from Parthia were acting on information that had been handed down from the prophet Daniel several hundred years before, when he was serving as a magi in Babylon.
Genesis 12:1-3 tells us that the seed of Eve would pass to Noah, then to Shem, and then to Abraham and Sarah to their son Isaac to bless all the nations of the world. Later, the Torah show us that this blessing would carry through Isaac’s son Jacob, and then through Jacob’s son Judah, in Gen. 49:10-12.
Monarchs and usurpers: Unraveling the Messianic lineage from David to Yeshua
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
Genesis 49:10 NASB
This long-pivotal messianic prophecy reveals that the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) will come from the tribe of Judah, and this tribe is the tribe becomes the vehicle of Abram’s blessing (Gen. 12:1–3). Judah’s line would be a line of kings.
Yet by the time of Yeshua, there was no Davidic ruler on the throne of Israel. We are fast approaching the time of Hanukkah/Chanukah when we will recall again what was happening in Israel in that time, when the Greeks came in and messed with the re-establishment of the holy services in Jerusalem. That is what provoked the Maccabean revolt. The Hasmoneans, who were of the priestly line, as the descendants of the Macabees, usurped the throne, like the Herodians after them. Both of them were usurpers, pretenders to the throne of Israel. So, what do we do with this promised Seed?
Our reading in 1Kings 1 shows us that the Hasmoneans and the Herodians were not the first to attempt to take the throne from the rightful David heir. This is a sad story that happened while King David was still alive.
Bat-Sheba (Bathsheba), the mother of Solomon, had to remind King David that he had already promised the throne of Israel to her son Solomon (2 Sam. 7:12-16), just as a usurper, Adonijah, was conspiring to take David’s throne for himself. There have always been usurpers who have attempted to steal the throne and the crown for themselves, coveting what belongs to the root of Jesse for themselves.
We see in 2 Samuel 7, how the promised seed would go through Judah, to David, to Solomon, not to Adonijah. But there’s a problem because in the first century, there was no descendant of David on the throne of Israel. So someone would have to “sprout up.” The prophet Zechariah mentions several times about the branch, the roots, the sprouts as well as in the writings of the prophet Isaiah specifically about the sprout from the stump of Jesse, who was David’s father and that this sprout would grow from the stump. Isaiah 53 says that this sprout would be considered unimportant and of no interest. The prophet Micah also tells us that this sprout would come from a seemingly insignificant city, Bethlehem.
Bethlehem was not only the birthplace of King David but also of his heir, the Messiah. The Messiah is also known as coming from Nazareth, where he was raised, which in His day, was an insignificant backwater. Basically, the name of the town is “insignificant twig.” We can say emphatically that yes, the most significant person ever born came from Nazareth. Yeshua was that branch, the one who restored the Davidic line and returned it to the throne, not only of Israel but the entire world.
Shiloh: Messiah’s name in early Jewish writings and how critics shifted interpretations
Texts such as Gen. 49:10-12, 2Sam. 7:12-16 and Dan. 7:13-14 are referenced repeatedly in intertestamental Jewish writings and early first and second century Jewish writings as messianic prophesies.
Rav says: The world was created only for the sake of David, by virtue of his merit. And Shmuel says: It was created by virtue of the merit of Moses. And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: It was created by virtue of the merit of the Messiah.
Talmud: Sanhedrin 98b
Apropos the Messiah, the Gemara asks: What is his name? The school of Rabbi Sheila says: Shiloh is his name, as it is stated: “Until when Shiloh shall come” (Genesis 49:10).
These three different rabbis had three different opinions about the purpose for the creation of the world. The Rav, who was the key sage, says it was created on David’s account. Another rabbi says it was created on Moshe’s account and the third rabbi references the Messiah and tells us that the Messiah’s name is Shiloh. The Talmud shows us that in the early days, the name Shiloh was a well established as a title for the Messiah, son of David.
This is another proof that the new testament authors were not re-writing Jewish tradition, or an example of history belonging to the victors. The Christians as they grew much larger than the Jewish community did not rewrite the messianic prophesies. The earlier Jewish sages themselves taught and referenced these prophesies as being messianic.
It was only much later in Jewish history, in the early middle ages, many years after the ascension of the Messiah Yeshua and the establishment of the church, that these messianic references become caustic for the synagogues.
It goes back to the original lie in the garden of Eden, which could be seen in two complementary ways, either Satan was implying “Did God really say?” or even more insidiously, Satan was implying that “Even if God did say this, does it really matter what God said?” Maybe it was meant to be something else, and just as Satan planted seeds of doubt in Eve about the proper understanding of God’s instruction about the tree of knowledge, we see this also in modern scholarly research where all they want to do is poke holes in the traditional interpretations of the scriptures because they don’t fit in with modern sensitivities.
This is when famous Jewish sages such as Rashi and those after him starting to reinterpret these passages, because the ancient understanding of the messianic prophesies, because after the death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah Yeshua, the traditional interpretations of the messianic prophesies were no longer convenient for them. The Sages slandered the New Testament authors claiming that they were playing fast and loose with their interpretation of the Tanak’s messianic prophesies.
From despair to hope: Rachel’s lamentation and the promise of the ‘lost tribes’ restoration
“A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”
Matthew 2:18 NASB
Matthew is quoting a prophesy from Jeremiah 31:15. Ramah was a city in the tribal territory of Benjamin, which is one of three tribes directly connected to the Matriarch Rachel. The other two tribes connected to Rachel were Ephraim and Manasseh via Joseph.
Jeremiah 31:1-30 is about the restoration of the people physically and spiritually so they would be deemed “virgin” again in Heaven’s eyes. This is the immediate context of the New covenant prophesy (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Jeremiah is speaking before the Babylonian exile. The reason that the prophet Daniel knew that the Babylonian exile would last 70 years is because he had access to Jeremiah’s writings.
David had personally purchased the land on which the Temple was built, the place where God was to place His name, and the enemies of God had destroyed it. Imagine the despair and lamentation of that? We don’t have to imagine it, we can read the book of Lamentations, which is a record of the depths of despair of the destruction of Solomon’s temple. The walls knocked down, the buildings destroyed, the temple destroyed, and her people hauled away.
Yet, further in this passage there is hope for Rachel”
“Thus says the LORD, “Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears; For your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD, “And they will return from the land of the enemy. “There is hope for your future,” declares the LORD, “And your children will return to their own territory. “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God. ‘For after I turned back, I repented; And after I was instructed, I smote on my thigh; I was ashamed and also humiliated Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’ “Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah 31:16–20 NASB
Who are Raquel’s children again? Benjamin and Joseph, and Jospeh’s sons were Ephraim and Manasseh. Who are the main ringleaders of the northern tribes? Ephraim and Manasseh.We refer to the 10 northern tribes, which were lead by Ephraim and Manasseh, as the “lost tribes,” because Assyria conquered the Kingdom of Israel and sent much of the population away in exile. These were descended from Rachel, and they were scattered and sent afar off. But in this prophesy, we see that something will call these scattered ones back.
The promises that were passed on through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David and to the Messiah were to a blessing not just to Abraham’s descendants, but to the entire world. God is not just interested in restoring the descendants of Jacob physically to the land of Israel but also spiritually.
““Set up for yourself roadmarks, Place for yourself guideposts; Direct your mind to the highway, The way by which you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.”
Jeremiah 31:21 NASB
You see in Jeremiah 31:21 the prophet describes the people of Israel as a virgin people, which is amazing because you read repeatedly in the prophets how they talk about the people of Israel before the exiles as playing the harlot, because although they were supposed to be espoused to God, they could not keep their eyes on Him. They had wandering eyes, wandering all over the place. The people of God were with every other deity out there, they didn’t have their eyes set only on their God, no, they were looking for all the other deities, even Moloch, who encouraged them to cast their own children into the fire, for the sake of fertility.
Even today, the kingdom of death (the way of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) lies to us, telling us that we can have more children by sacrificing our children to demons. The Kingdom of life shows us that we can be restored, not through the death or our children but by the death, resurrection and ascension of His Son, Yeshua. When we allow God to write His laws on our hearts, we will not have to guess and question who God is and what He asks of us. The way to eternal life will not be a mystery, but a gift by God to us. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”
The Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, did not come just to give us an intellectual knowledge of the Kingdom, but a heart knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven, too. We have hope that our past is in the past, just as Sarai became Sarah and Abram became Abraham.
Summary: Tammy
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