“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3 NASB)
Torah reading רְאֵה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) immediately starts out with Moses’s reminder that God wants to bless the legacy of Israel in the land He provided, but He expects them to act in a certain manner. As His representatives on earth, the descendants of Israel are to act like Him, not like people of the nations around them.
Yeshua (Jesus), the Word of God made flesh, gave His apostles and those who would follow them the same advice: If you want to know how Yeshua walked and how to imitate Him, then all these stories will help you understand Yeshua better.
Deuteronomy 11:32: Judging with right judgments
“and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.” (Deuteronomy 11:32 NASB)
What is the difference between the statues (chukkim) and judgments (mishpatim)? Chukkim can be roughly described as the rules that God gives us to follow for no other reason other than that He said so. Mishpatim are legal precedents that elaborate on how the laws of Torah apply to day to day life.
Deuteronomy 12:6–7: To tithe and what to tithe
Challah is not merely a Yiddish or Hebrew term for “fancy braided bread.” The term “challah” is a reference to the practice in the days of the Temple that the people would set aside a small portion of the bread they made for their home and brought it to the Temple as a gift to the LORD. In our time, there is no Temple, so pious Jewish households will store the small bits of challah in the freezer, saving them to burn with the rest of their leavening during Passover, or they might bury it or they might just burn it immediately in their ovens’ cleaning cycle.
And the Bible doesn’t teach a three-fold tithe every third year (30%). Find out more in “The Truth About Tithe.”
Deuteronomy 12:20–22: Pleased to meat me
“the unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.” (Deuteronomy 12:22 NASB)
God is saying we aren’t limited to eating the meat of clean animals only in the context of the holy temple. We are not required to be vegans because the temple is gone and they weren’t required to be vegans when the temple was standing in Jerusalem, either.
We have the freedom to slaughter our clean animals (such as cows, sheep, goats, deer, elk, etc.) and prepare them as food “whatever you desire.”
And we can eat of this food regardless of our status of ritual purity and we can share our food with other regardless of their ritual purity, whether they are Jewish or Gentile and whether we are Jewish or Gentile.
Deuteronomy 13:1–3: Warning against prophets and miracle-workers
This sounds similar to the “man of lawlessness” warning apostle Paul wrote for believers in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) as the Day of the LORD approaches (2Thessalonians 2:1–12).
Yeshua also warned us about two different phenomenons. One is that there will be people who claim to be the Messiah themselves. He also warned that there will be people who claim to be followers of Yeshua but they will try to lead them to follow a path that Yeshua never followed. Both of these groups of people are spiritually dangerous for our souls.
Deuteronomy 14:29: Take care of the Levite, alien, orphan and widow
This is not a “path to socialism.” What do the alien, orphan, widow and Levite have on common? All of these groups have no “alpha” male patriarch with a firm foundation in the land to take care of their daily needs, so God encourages the entire community to help. This is not to support the entire community. These funds were only for those who have no other means of support.
This instruction sets up a seemingly contradictory passage:
““However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. “For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. “Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. “For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’” (Deuteronomy 15:4–11 NASB)
There will always be people who need help but no one should ever live in abject poverty in the land. It is not a mitzvah to delegate this duty to the government.
Deuteronomy 15:13–15: Filling the pockets of the freed servant
“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.” (Deuteronomy 15:15 NASB)
When the children of Israel left Egypt, God told the children of Israel to ask the Egyptians for gold, silver, fine clothes, etc., and the Egyptians willingly gave those things away. In this instruction, the master of the house is to give good gifts to the released servant in a similar manner as a ritual reenactment of the Exodus. Those who have means are to build up the less fortunate, not tear them down.
Summary: Tammy