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The Ten Commandments are a testimony, a witness of the Holy One and Heaven’s plan for humanity on Earth now and l’olam v’ed (over the horizon and beyond, i.e., “forever and ever”).
But thankfully, in the orah reading יתרו Yitro (“Jethro,” Exodus 18:1–20:23) we learn how Heaven offers to free us from the things that have chained us to a life headed toward true death and introduce us personally to a way that leads to true life and peace — no matter what happened before or what’s going on now.
The Torah reading יתרו Yitro (“Jethro,” Exodus 18:1–20:23) the answers to three important questions:
- Identity: Who am I?
- Purpose: Why am I here?
- Goals: Where am I going? How do I get there?
The spiritual equation for eternal life is Sinai + Spirit = New Birth = New Covenant. The starting point on this journey to the new birth is God giving us a new heart which is a change in our desires as directed by Sinai and powered by God’s Spirit (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–27).
The destination and path to this new birth is to know the Holy One and to know a new life without the stain (guilt) of sins (failings), transgressions (willful disregard) and iniquity (rebellion, treason).
There was a fad in Christian circles on gaining direction in life by asking oneself the question, “WWJD?” (“What would Jesus do?”). Well, we do know that Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) said in the Sermon on the Mount introduction (Matt. 5:17–20), that He did not come to change, abolish or nullify the Law of Moses. What would Jesus do? He would do what Moses did and said — yet without his sin, transgression and iniquity. Yeshua would do what the prophet Isaiah did. He would do what the other prophets instructed the people of Israel to do.
One thing that Jesus would never do is tell us that He kept the Law so we would not have to do so. But too many people who call themselves Christians really have this idea in their minds that Yeshua came to change the Law.
When Yeshua said that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20), He seems to be referring to their scrupulous knowledge of the Law, rather than their scrupulous obedience to the Law. Yeshua said many of them knew the Law but didn’t really follow it (Matt. 23:1–3). They didn’t combine knowledge of the Torah with trust and faith in God. They did not make it a part of them. It was just something on the outside.
Yeshua did not keep the Law and go to the cross so we would not have to keep the Law but pick out our own cross.
One of the ways that we can combine our knowledge of God’s words with faith and trust is to walk it out by living the way the Torah tells us. The “appointed times of the LORD” (Lev. 23:1ff) that God instructed the children of Israel to celebrate every year — and each week, as in the Shabbat (Sabbath) — are like stations of faith we can visit throughout the year — then revisit the next year. The annual pilgrimage festivals of Pesakh (Passover), Matzot (Unleavened Bread) and Shavuot (Pentecost) are stations along our walk in the Messiah.
Our Identity: Who am I?
God’s people are Israel, who are:
- “a kingdom of priests”; “a royal priesthood” (Exodus 19:3–8; 1Peter 2:9–10)
- “My son, My first-born” (Ex. 4:22–23; Hos. 11:1)
- “sons [and daughters] of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua”(Gal. 3:26)
- “children of God” (1John 2:28–3:5)
As the meanings of the biblical Hebrew word Israel suggest, the people of Israel both rule with God and struggle with Him. They are called to teach others about God’s’ kingdom but we also struggle to interpret God’s laws in language that those in the world will understand and take on themselves.
Heaven’s flight school
Exodus 18 seems to be chronologically out of place, because it involves judging the people by instructions they were about to receive at Sinai. But we can see thematically why it is placed where it is. That chapter is part of how the people prepared to meet God at Sinai in Exodus 19. They were “learning to fly” with Heaven, preparing to meet their Tutor and Helper. (We’ll go more into this below.)
Humans like to fly above things, because we can see more from the air than on the ground. We yearn for this view from the sky, we want to see the big picture.
“If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
Exodus 18:23 NASB 1995
Yitro (Jethro) exercised humility in bringing this advice to Moses to delegate his authority, and Moses had the humility to accept it. Moses realized he could not carry on micromanaging the people for the rest of his life. He had a duty not only to discern God’s law and teach God’s laws to others but he also had a duty to raise up future leaders. He was not to be a dictator over the children of Israel, he was a wise counselor and sought counsel and wisdom from others such as his father in law.
Why was this story of Yitro inserted in this point before the revelation of the Ten Commandments, even though Yitro gave his advice after God gave His Torah on the Mountain?
| Adam (Genesis 2–3) | Moshe (Exodus 18) |
|---|---|
| “Not good” to be alone | “Not good” to decide alone |
| Needs partner | Needs partners |
| Search for partner | Search for partners |
| Finds helper | Finds helper |
| Finds a helper after getting the instruction to decide between the trees of Life and Knowledge | Finds helpers after getting the Ten Words |
Purpose: Why am I here?
Adam needed Eve to help in weighing the decision between the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad.
Proverbs 31:10–31 tells about an “noble/able/valiant/valorous” wife who is a helper in ruling the family and their dealings. The Hebrew word חַיִל chayil/khayeel (H2428) is translated “noble” in Proverbs 31 and “able” in Exodus 18. The root meaning is “strength, wealth, army.”1Carl Philip Weber, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1:271.
The husband was able to delegate his authority to his wife — even real estate dealings — because she is strong enough to deal with it.
In the brutal world of the Ancient Near East and the Roman Empire, women were the “weaker vessel,” unless there was something to equalize that power against a men with bad intentions.
People today ask why women need to know how to use a firearm. That’s because in ancient times as today, in hand-to-hand combat between an evenly skilled man and woman, the man will almost always win — no matter what Hollywood tries aggressively to portray otherwise. But if a woman has a weapon — particularly, those that work effectively at a distance — she has something to equalize or even dominate the aggressing power.
In North Korea, the primary dictator is Kim Jung-Eun, but his sister, who the South Koreans call “The Iron Queen,” is a formidable power, basically a co-dictator with her brother. She exercises power with keen intelligence that no one dares to dispute, and she can do so because her power is the state’s power. She is his helper in many ways, particularly in foreign affairs.
Deborah, as a judge of Israel, also exercised similar power with Barak. Actually, she was in many ways more powerful than him, because he didn’t feel confident enough to do what needed to be done on the battlefield unless he had Deborah’s moral authority behind him.
Goals: Where am I going? How do I get there?
In John 13–17 (specifically, John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7), Yeshua said that He had to send the Comforter/Helper the Spirit to carry on the work of the Comforter the Son in reforming Heaven’s priesthood partner, Israel, to widen her service to the world.
The Messiah was the foretold in the Prophets (Isa. 61:2; Jer: 31:13; Lam. 1:9) to be the מְנַחֵ֖ם Menachem/Menakheym, or “Comforter, Relenter, Consoler,” from the verb נָחַם nacham/nakham (Strong’s No. H5162, “be sorry, repent, regret”) and related to its derivative nouns נֹחַם nocham/nokham (H5164, “sorrow, repentance”) and נִחוּם nichum/nikhoom (H5150, “compassion”).2Marvin R. Wilson, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 2:570.
Comforter, the Spirit of God is the comforter, God’s Torah is also a comfort to us.
Paul wrote to the congregation in Corinth to settle their disputes and to not bring them to secular courts, as a witness to Heaven’s transformative power.
“Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
1Corinthians 6:1–11 NASB 1995
What we see here is that Paul was asking them if they even handle the smallest matters themselves? Yitro counseled Moses to set up courts with levels of authority and Paul is scratching his head how the believers in Corinth would take even the smallest matters to courts that did not adjudicate through the Torah, but through Roman law.
Heaven gives you wings to soar above your past and present
“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
Exodus 19:4–6 NASB 1995
Look at how this Evangelical commentator expounds on this passage:
They had seen “what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” The Lord spoke very personally, saying: “I did,” “I carried you,” and “I brought you to myself.” The point is that it was the Lord who brought them out of bondage, who carried them through their fears in the wilderness, and who brought them beyond those external and internal forms of oppression to worship God. They did not seek God before God sought them. They did not begin by keeping laws or making sacrifices. They simply cried out for help. Their relationship with God began with God’s own unexpected mercy and provision. Moses expands the reference to the Lord carrying Israel on “eagles’ wings” in his song at the end of the wilderness sojourn in Deuteronomy 32:10b–11.
James K. Bruckner, Exodus, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series.
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012), 172. Referring to Ex. 19:3–6.
When you speak with others who tell us that Torah is bondage or that Yeshua came to free us from bondage, we can rebuke that lie with the truth. Following the Torah was not God’s plan A in opposition to God’s plan B with Yeshua. The truth is that if the inside isn’t changed, than the outside will not change either.
“For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. The LORD alone guided him, And there was no foreign god with him.”
Deuteronomy 32:9–12 NASB 1995
Isaiah 40 starts humbling people by comparing them to worms or grass but at the end of the chapter, he lifts them up by saying:
“Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”
Isaiah 40:31 NASB 1995
The prophets came to “make straight the way of the Lord.” They were filling the potholes in the road so the leader’s travel will be smooth and easy. When Yeshua came, he spoke in parables and those who wanted to understand were given understanding but those who didn’t understand, attacked the Shepard God sent.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
“Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ [Psa. 118:26].”
Matthew 23:29–39 NASB 1995
When we see what will things be like in the Day of the Lord, it will be a time when evil is rampant and wickedness reigns, as we read in Rev. 12:13-17, but we see that even in the most evil of times, there is a righteous remnant, God’s family. The vision of the woman standing on the moon with the tiara of stars around her head mimics the vision given to Joseph in Genesis.
Much of the symbology in Revelation is found in Ezekiel and Daniel so to understand these symbols, you need to understand not only the New Testament but the Prophets and the Torah.
What we read in Revelation 12 that the testimonies of God and the commandments of Yeshua, who is the Word of God, are to be written on our hands, our foreheads and our hearts. They should go from our heads, to our hearts to our hands and come out in all our action.
The children of Israel received the testimony of God from Sinai and when we receive the Spirit of God, this brings a new birth in us from the inside out. Heaven not building robots. Heaven is building people with character who are transformed. When we see God transform people, we witness a miracle.
Like Yeshua said, there is something worse than death:
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 10:28 NASB 1995
It is a fate worse than death to lose who you are, as it says, to lose your soul and have that destroyed. If we reject God, then we reject our own souls.
Summary: Tammy