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Socialism and racism are big topics of today’s society. Does the Bible have anything to say about these issues? Torah reading ראה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) gives us Heaven’s insights into these two important matters.
How do we end poverty? Can we ever end it? (Deuteronomy 15)
Torah reading ראה Re’eh (“see,” Deut. 11:26–16:17) gives us Heaven’s insights into two important issues of our time: socialism and racism.
This passage discusses serious issues regarding property rights, commerce and micro-economics. The Torah discussed these issues 3,000-plus years ago and we are still discussing these same issues today, using different terms such as socialism v. capitalism, command economy v. free market economy. Where do our property rights come from and how are they, or how should they be enforced?
The Scriptures seem to contradict themselves when on one hand we are instructed “there will be no poor among you” (Deut. 15:4) to “open your hand to the poor” (Deut. 15:7–11), yet we also are warned that “the poor will never cease to be in the land” (Deut. 15:11). But here we see Heaven’s design for economics: God blesses, those blessed then bless others.
We see that concern for one another continued in the Apostolic Era after Yeshua returned to Heaven:
“all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”
Acts 2:44–45 NASB; compare Acts 4:32, 37; 5:2
But the “spiritual gravity” of sloth and pride eventually turned that mutual benevolence into entitlement. The Apostle Paul at one point had to strongly warn his students:
“if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.”
2Thessalonians 3:10 NASB
We are to open our hand to brother but we have no right to grab what we feel we need out of our brother’s hand. When we open our hand, we are looking beyond our self to the needs of others.
In our modern culture, these ideas have been turned on their head. Rather than people being allowed to open their hand voluntarily, the government takes it by force. Rather than supporting the biblical narrative that if you are able to work but do not work, you do not eat, the government takes money from those who work hard and gives it to those who refuse to work to buy their votes.
Racism, genocide and the renewing of the world
There is a popular rabbinic hermenutic formula called khol v’ homer, which means “light and heavy” in English. Paul uses this in his writings all the time. When you accept the simple truism to solve a simple problem, the khol, then when you apply that same principle to a tougher problem, the homer, you see how significant it is.
Secular humanists have proposed that we change our society for the better through the exercise of Critical Theory. Critical Theory is an offshoot of Marxism and it’s an insidious ideology we are confronting in today’s society. The point of Critical Theory is to harshly criticize and critique all societal norms, laws and cultural artifacts. The proponents of Critical Theory believe that the “solution” to fix the shortcomings of Western Civilization is to destroy it and to rebuild it from the ground up, to create a perfect utopia in its place. But they don’t want to build their new society from the ground up with the principles laid out in holy scripture but based on the principles of Karl Marx and other secular humanists. Critical Theory is modern secular humanist theology.
For atheists and secular people, this is an ideal that is so significant, that to make it true to make it come to be, you have to tear down everything that is fighting against that.
How much more then, if the Creator of Heaven and Earth says that He has a vision, a plan that is so important and significant that He has to tear down one culture or civilization to put something better in its place. We can ask ourselves how really important is it to have Israel in this particular place on the eastern shore of the mediterranean? Can they just put them somewhere else going out in the desert where there’s nobody else? Does He really need to displace the Canaanites and replace them completely with the people of Israel?
The Creator of Heaven and Earth told Moses and the children of Israel repeatedly that the social and spiritual cultures of the different people in the land of Canaan were so heinous and evil that the only solution was to eradicate their cultures utterly and completely from the Earth.
Unfortunately because the children of Israel did not utterly annihilate the Canaanite cultures in the land God gave them to live in, the children of Israel became corrupted by the Canaanites. God had to tear down and rebuild Israel itself through the exiles, exactly because the children of Israel did not eradicate the evil of Canaan. Instead, they mixed Canaanite practices into the practices God gave them and corrupted themselves.
For example, in Ezekiel 14, there’s an interesting passage that foretells the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the coming exile of the Jews to Babylon. The prophet laments and asks was this really worth it to tear the whole thing down? God replies to the prophet and tells him look at the survivors who will come out of Babylon and return to the land. Look at their deeds, look at their actions. This is the fruit that Israel should have produced.
The prior generation was a bad crop of fruit so the Master Gardener had to do some massive pruning and disease control. He had to uproot the corrupt political and spiritual leaders.
God told the prophets that the children of Israel were supposed to produce good fruit but Israel was not producing good fruit so He had to do a lot of pruning. God’s pruning of Israel helped Israel produce good fruit.
What God did to the children of Israel through the exiles of Assyria and Babylon are microcosms of the pruning and disease control He had to do on Canaan. God had to go to these extremes for the sake of the entire world, not just the nation of Israel.
Secular society claims that Western civilization is so evil that it has to be torn down and eradicated and replaced with their Marxist social gospel, so how much more did God have to eradicate the Canaanite society to purge their evil from the world?
One of the tools that the proponents and students of Critical Theory have using since the 1950s to advance the agenda is called “repressive tolerance.” That means that anyone or any organization that stands up and opposes their utopian efforts — such as to tear down Western civilization — must be repressed so that they never see the light of day and no one ever hears about them. They disappear, they’re shunned and blocked from their version of polite society.
Repressive tolerance is the playbook of what we are seeing today in some social media reactions to posts or channels/profiles that present views deemed counterproductive.
If a secular society can have an idea that is so important that it has to tear apart anything opposing their vision of utopia, how much more so is it important for God to nudge, push or shove aside those who would oppose His plans for the world?
The Promised land was God’s beachhead on the earth to spread His truth to the entire world. It was the crossroads of all the nations, not just the nations of the Ancient Near East. The people who were there before, the Canaanites had to be replaced for the sake of all the world. They were spreading their evil to the ends of the earth and to save humanity, God could not allow that to continue.
Critical Theory (and its offshoot of Critical Race Theory) and the secular humanist desire to abolish western civilization and God’s tearing down of the Canaanite ideology seem similar but they can’t be more different. God’s anger against the Canaanites was not racial but cultural. Secular humanism, Critical Theory, and Critical Race Theory are in direct rebellion against God.
Are eating pork and blasphemy connected?
It’s very interesting that the rules of clean and unclean food is listed along with other guidelines on how the children of Israel are to avoid blaspheming God. There are Christians, particularly many strains of Protestant Christians who abstain from completely abstain from alcohol, even though there is no direct requirement in the Bible to do so. They say their complete abstinence from alcohol is sanctioned by Scripture.
Yet, these same Christian traditions promote the consumption of pork and shellfish, which are specifically forbidden in Torah by (falsely) claiming that God, after Yeshua’s resurrection and triumph over death, has now given us sanction to eat these things. In their ignorance, they blaspheme God and teach others to do so, too. We are to live not just with food and water but by every word that proceeds from God.
When one establishes a beachhead, one doesn’t just stay put, but you go from that point and push out into the world and it’s not easy. Just as D-Day was not easy, pushing the message of the Gospel into the world is not easy either. D-Day was just the beginning of a long campaign to defeat the Nazis and Fascists and the work of the Gospel is a campaign to defeat atheism and the falsehoods of the demonic world.
Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding all come from God. Knowledge is the what, wisdom is the how and understanding is the why. It’s good that we study the Torah in cycles so that we learn, relearn and reinforce our knowledge, wisdom and understanding of God’s Torah so that we can enter His rest, so that we can reach the destination God has in mind for us. We started this journey in bondage but we are moving towards freedom.
2nd Commandment: Do we resemble our Maker or our captor? (Deuteronomy 12)
““You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Exodus 20:4–6 NASB
When we bring the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and understanding into Deuteronomy 12, we see that we are instructed not to even inquire about the idolatrous practices of the world.
“ ‘(D)o not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?” ’ ”
Deuteronomy 12:29–31
The LORD put the image of God into mankind at creation (Gen. 1:26–27) and Yeshua the Mashiakh was born into mankind to maximize the image of God on Earth.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him.”
Colossians 1:15-16 NASB
“… in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
Hebrews 1:2-4 NASB
“Jesus said to [the Samaritan Woman], ‘Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ”
John 4:21-24 NASB
If you desire to live in the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven, you will not mix the ways of the world with the ways of the Kingdom. Mixing God’s ways with the world’s ways ends in disaster.
Fighting against apathy and laziness is a real spiritual battle. God’s message important enough to us that we have to be ready to do some “tough love” to move it forward. Our righteousness should surpass those who know the law from front and back, but don’t actually do it. We also understand that seeking God’s kingdom is a lifelong practice and the more we “know” the more we don’t know, which should humble us.
When we come to understand our shortcomings, we should not exercise in navel-gazing and look down on or tear ourselves down. We should not allow depression or despondency to creep into our minds. We should look up to the One who can change and save us. We should see others as greater than ourselves, rather than using the shortcomings of others as an excuse to ignore our own. We should let God show us who we are, and not look to the world to tell us who we are. We are not called to carry all the baggage of our prior life, we should cleanse ourselves of our past habits and shortcomings.
““You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”
Exodus 20:7 NASB
3rd Commandment: Ferreting out false prophets (Deut. 12:32–13:17)
Remember the warning in Torah reading Va’et’chanan (Hallel.info/p45) to “not add to the word … nor take away from it” (Deut. 4:2)? We see this warning again here:
“Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.”
Deuteronomy 12:32 NASB
Why is this important? The following verses explain it:
““If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”
Deuteronomy 13:1–4 NASB
The people of Israel are to be the heralds of God’s kingdom, presenting Him accurately and to represent Him honestly. They are to tell the real news about God’s Kingdom, not the “fake news” of syncretism, and compromise with worldly standards.
What is a “dreamer of dreams”? It’s someone who claims to have an instruction from God beyond what’s in the Torah.
There will be some who will perform legitimate signs (אותות, like the bronze serpent on the pole) and wonders (מופתים, like the plagues of Egypt and Aaron’s serpent-rod), but we are warned that just because a called-for spectacle happens may mean that it is certification of judgment, rather than an affirmation of truth.
“Israel as a nation will become a ‘sign’ or ‘wonder,’ i.e. a spectacle or demonstration of the rewards of disobedience (Deut. 28:46). Psa. 71:7; Isa. 8:18; 20:3; Ezek. 12:6, 11; 24:24, 27; and Zech. 3:8 use the word [מופת] similarly. The psalmists or the prophets are themselves the object lesson.”
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, s.v. “מופת,” paragraph 4.
There’s a reason that the story of Bilam (Balaam) is repeated over and over again in the Scriptures, even in Revelation. What did he do? Bilam drew the desires of the people of Israel away from God. Bilam gave them idolatry and fornication to distract them and pull them away from God.
Bilam said so many things that were true, even messianic prophesies came out of his mouth, yet he was leading people away from God.
False prophet: Inciter to apostasy, promoter to infidelity
Bilam was:
- An inciter to apostasy: Turning away from the Source of Life — Whom Israel has witnessed bring her back from being as good as dead in Mitzraim — is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- A promoter of infidelity: Through the Exodus, the LORD has shown Israel the better path of cleaving to the LORD with all the heart (emotions in action), soul (life) and strength (resources).
- Follow the passions of the flesh, and fall victim to scheme of Bil’am (Balaam) and Ba’al-Pe’or with the help of Midian.
- Fear death from the giants of Canaan, and be left to die outside the Promised Land.
- Crave the ample food and water of Mitzraim over morning manna and water from a rock, and be given piles of quail that becomes a plague.
Test No. 1 of a prophet
The first test is that if the prophet tells you to נלכה אחרי אלהים אחרים אשׁר לא־ידעתם ונעבדם naylkhah ’akhray ’elohim ’akharim ’asher lo-y’da’tam v’n’avadaym “go after other gods, whom you have not known, and serve them.”
“Go after” is translated from Hebrew words הלך halakh (H1980) and אחרי akhray (H311).
Halakh means “to walk” and is used in the Scriptures (as in v. 5) to refer to the “path” or “way” toward life the Creator wants people to “walk,” i.e., how people who trust God behave.From this comes the Hebrew term for sages’ or congregational leadership’s rulings: הלכה halakhah, or “way of walking.”
Akhray comes from the verb אחר akhar (H309), which means “to remain behind, delay, tarry.” The adjective akhar, translated “another” or “other,” means “one coming behind.”
So, נלכה אחרי אלהים אחרים naylkhah akhray ’elohim ’akharim can be translated “let us walk after gods that come behind,” i.e., let’s obey the teachings from gods that postdated or are inferior to the Lord, Who vanquished the ’elohim of Egypt, delivered Israel from בית עבדים beit ’avadim (“house of servants/slaves”).
Moses told the children of Israel to look for a prophet coming out of Israel like himself, who accurately spoke the words God gave.
The words God gave Moshe were the Testimony of God, revealing Who God is, what He has been doing and what He wants.
Consistent with the tests of prophets in Deuteronomy 13, this coming prophet would speak according to the words God gave Moshe.
To pass these test, true followers of God must learn well what God gave Israel through Moshe.
Surprisingly, Bilam passed the first test of a prophet, just as Moses did. Bilaam spoke directly to God plainly, just as Moses did. But, Bilaam was not a faithful prophet. Bilaam was the anti-Moses. He is also the template of the future anti-Christ.
Test No. 2 of a prophet
The second test is that the prophet’s words will point you toward the Greatest Commandment:
“ ‘Hear [שמע], O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one [אחד]! 5 “You shall love [אהבה] the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”
Deut. 6:4–6; partly quoted in Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30-33; Luke 10:27
As described in Deuteronomy 13, this love (אהבה ’ahavah, H0157) for the LORD involves these elements:
- Fear God
- Halakh akhray (follow after, walk behind) God.
- Keep [שמר shamar, H8104, “to keep, watch, preserve”] His commandments.
- Yeshua connected love for Him with love from the Father and observance of His commandments, one of which was not to think He would abolish the Law and Prophets.
- “ ‘He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.’ ” (John 14:21; cf. v. 14)
- Listen [שמע shama, H8085, “to hear and accept a request”] to His voice. Listen for God’s direction, and respond to His call to turn back from and leave behind behavior not in line with His direction.
- Keep [שמר shamar, H8104, “to keep, watch, preserve”] His commandments.
- Halakh akhray (follow after, walk behind) God.
- Serve [עבד ’avad, H5647, “to work, serve”] Him.
- Cling [דבק dabaq, H1692, “to cling, cleave, keep close”] to Him.
- This is the word used to describe the first marriage. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined [דבק] to his wife; and they shall become one [אחד] flesh.” (Gen. 2:24)
- Another word used to describe this ’ekhad-dabaq of husband and wife is ידע yadah (H3045), which literally means to know, recognize, discern or understand via observation and reflection. In Gen. 4:1, it’s used euphemistically to mean “coming together” of the first husband and wife for procreation.
- Elsewhere in the Bible, it’s used to refer to acknowledging God or discriminating between Him and false leaders.
The world tries to make the “knowing” of husband and wife only related to one thing, which is sexual union, but the Bible tells us that the sexual knowing between husband and wife is only one aspect of the knowing between husband and wife.
Cultures that have latched on to the idea that the only knowing between husband and wife that matters is sexual, to the detriment of other aspects of knowing are suffering a precipitous decline in the number of people who are choosing marriage and family. This is bearing fruit in Japan where people have given up on marriage and family altogether. It’s also bearing fruit in countries like South Korea, where the birthrate is not keeping pace with the death rate.
4th Commandment: God wants us to know the ‘rest’ of His story
“‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.’”
Exodus 20:8–11 NASB; cp. Deut. 5:12–15
“‘You shall remember [literally, guard, observe] that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.’”
Deut. 5:15 NASB
God provides many opportunities for rest and fellowship with Him in His place. He extends the invitation and we have to accept it.
If we don’t accept it, God says, “I swore in My wrath, ‘You shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalm 95; Hebrews 3–4) What is the rest that God wants for us?
“Rest” = Israel’s shalom home = Presence of God
- Foretaste: Testimony of God (10 Words/Commandments, etc.)
- Foretaste: Tabernacle and Temple)
- Foretaste: Promised Land (Abram, Moshe/Yehoshua, Ezra/Nehemiah)
- Foretaste: New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34) = “Put My Spirit in you”; the Comforter; “Messiah in you”
Our ultimate destination is the Messianic era (“God with us”).
The Kingdom of Heaven, unlike the French Revolution or the promoters of Critical Theory, has a plan for what the world will look like after the fighting is done.
We are reaping everything that Romans 1 warned us we would reap when we deny God and deny the common sense that is increasingly becoming rare. The slippery slope is real especially when there is little resistance to its slide and it picks up speed. Depravity in motion tends to stay in motion until some force comes to put a stop to it. When the culture is desensitized and their collective conscience is seared, that is when the culture is in real danger.
There’s a terrible story that happened off the coast of Honolulu in 1961 during the height of the Cold War in which was the Soviet’s first nuclear submarine outfitted with ballistic missiles. On its maiden voyage, it suffered from a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The Soviet sailors had to scuttle their nuclear submarine to keep it from launching its entire ballistic missile payload. They sacrificed themselves to prevent chaos, death and destruction from enveloping the world. They sacrificed themselves for us to keep the whole world from blowing up.
The angels, the messengers of God, are at the four corners of the earth holding back the winds of chaos from blowing over the earth. We pray for peace but we know what is coming.
Our spiritual forefathers and foremothers did not inherit a spirit of fear, they did not fear that which could kill their bodies. They only feared Him who can destroy body and soul. They sought their rest in God alone.
Entering the Land, entering God’s rest is a foretaste of many things, including shalom, contentment, and wellbeing. The tabernacle were also a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven as God’s presence living with the people. The Promised Land is a foretaste of our ultimate destination, which is the Messianic era when God will live with us.
Rest also means to Cease from your labor, and visit the LORD (Deuteronomy 16:1–17)
These three appointments are pilgrimages, meaning that the stopping from labor isn’t just for 24 hours, but a change of venue as well.
Sabbath year aka Shemitah (Deuteronomy 15:1–23)
“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. … It shall not seem hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you do.” (Dt. 15:15, 18 NASB)
Perhaps, this instruction to debt holders to lavish on freed debtors joyfully is part of breaking the psychology of slavery (David Fohrman, Aleph Beta). Slave mentality is known to keep people from imagining and striving for a life of freedom. “Stockholm syndrome” or joining the cause of captors also are mental chains.
Yeshua said in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Lord’s Prayer: “‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’” (Mt. 6:12 NASB; cf. vv. Mt. 6:1–18 true righteousness isn’t for public display).
Lesson from Shemitah: Pause from striving for a crop and release a debtor.
Feast of Passover (Deuteronomy 16:1–8)
Cease from being a slave to your fears, compulsions and boredom. The LORD will lead you to a new, better life.
Feast of Weeks (Deuteronomy 16:9–12)
Cease from the agony to affect change in your life from the outside–in. Rather, work on the heart issues that are locking you into these life ruts.
Feast of Booths (Deuteronomy 16:13–17)
Cease from trying to find contentment apart from the Kingdom of God. That’s where you will truly find rest (Hebrews 3–4).
We didn’t earn this rest, it is a gift from our Creator. We take a rest to acknowledge the One Who is the True Source.
Summary: Tammy