Neighbours, Solemnities, and The Messenger
With Questions and Proposed Answers
Background and printed text: Exodus 22
Thou shalt not carry an empty report.
Thou shalt not carry thy hand with a guilty-[one] to be unto violence!
2Thou shalt not be after many to bad-do. And thou shalt not humble concerning a multiple [many] to incline after multiples to cause inclining.
3And thou shalt not honour a poverty-stricken-[one] via his fight.
4If thou meet an ox of thine enemy or his ass wandering, returning, thou shalt return him to him.
5When thou wilt see an ass of thine enemy couching under his burden and thou wilt desist from loosening to him, loosening, thou shalt loosen with him!
6Thou shalt not incline justice of thy poor-[one] via his fight.
7Thou shalt distance from a speech of a lie. And thou shalt not slay an innocent-[one] and a righteous-[one]. For I will not justify a culpable-[one]!
8And thou shalt not receive a bribe. For the bribe will blind perspicuous-[ones] and has subverted speeches of righteous-[ones].
9And thou shalt not oppress a sojourner. And ye, ye knew the being of the sojourner! For ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt!
10And thou shalt sow thy land six years. And thou shalt gather her bringing. 11And the seventh, thou shalt release her and thou shalt abandon her. And poor of thy people shall eat. And a living-[one] of the field shall eat their excess. Established, thou shalt do to thy vineyard, to thine olive.
12Thou shalt do thy doings six of days. And in day the seventh thou shalt cease in order that thine ox will rest, and thine ass. And the son of thy slavewoman has been ‘re-beinged,’ and the sojourner.
13And ye shall guard via all that I said unto you. And ye shall not remind-of the name of other gods. He shall not hear upon thy mouth!
14Thou shalt solemnize three feet to me in a year. 15Thou shalt guard the solemnity of the Matzahs seven of days—thou shalt eat Matzahs just-as she commanded thee to an appointment, month of the spring. For thou exited from Double-Adversity (Egypt) in him. And they shall not see my faces, their emptiness!— 16and the solemnity of the harvest, firstborn-[ones], thy doing—what thou wilt sow in a field; and the solemnity of the gathering via exiting of the year, via thy gathering thy doing from the field! 17Three strokes in the year, Mighty-[One], Faces of the Lord [sing.] Yehovah, will see each: thy male!
18Thou shalt not sacrifice blood of my sacrifice upon vinegar. And fat of my solemnity shall not lodge unto morning!
19Thou shalt bring beginning of firstborn-[ones] of thy soil House of Yehovah thy Gods.
Thou shalt not boil a goat-kid in the fat of his mother!
20Behold, I am sending a messenger to thy faces to guard thee in the way and to bring thee unto a place that I prepared. 21Be-thou-guarded from his faces! And hearken via his voice! Do not embitter thou via him! For he will not carry to your transgression! For my Name is via his approach! 22For if, hearkening, thou shalt hearken via his voice, and thou shalt do all that I will speak, and I ‘will enemy’ thine enemies and I will ‘tribulate’ thy tribulators! 23For, my messenger will walk to thy faces. And he will bring thee unto the Emori and the Khiti and the Preezi and the Canaani, the Khivi and the Yevoosi. And I will obscure him!
24Thou shalt not prostrate to their gods. And thou shalt not serve them. And thou shalt not make as their makings. For smashing, thou shalt smash them, and shattering, thou shalt shatter their pillars!
25And ye shall serve Yehovah your Gods. And He will bless thy bread and thy waters. And I will forefend sickness from thy approach! 26A bereaved-[woman] shall not be, and a barren-[woman], in thy land. I will fill a scrolling of thy days! 27I will send my terror to thy faces. And I will hum [buzz] every people that thou wilt come via them. And I will give all thine enemies unto thee: neck! 28And I will send the hornet to thy faces. And she will expel the Khivi, the Cnaani and the Khiti from thy faces. 29I will not expel him from thy faces in one year lest the land will be a desolation, and a living-[one] of the field will multiply upon thee. 30I will expel him a little, a little from thy faces until-that thou wilt be fruitful. And thou wilt inherit the land. 31And I will set thy border from Ending Sea and unto Palestinian Sea, and from the desert unto the river. For I will give inhabitants of the land into your hand. And ye shall expel him from thy faces! 32Thou shalt not cut a covenant to them and to their gods! 33And they shall not dwell in thy land lest they will sin-cause thee to me! For thou shalt serve thy Gods! For he will be to a snare to thee!
I. An Empty Report (verse 1)
Yehovah commanded each Israeli: “Thou shalt not carry an empty report.”
Questions
1. What is an empty report? It is a report without backing. It is a form of gossip. It is telling things about others that haven’t been substantiated (that is, haven’t been checked to be certain that they are true).
2. What does “carry an empty report” mean? The means to hear it in one place, and deliver it to another place and another person or group.
3. What is wrong with carrying an empty report if the first thing said is, “Now, I don’t know this for sure, but this is what I heard”? Making excuses for carrying the empty report, or claiming that it isn’t necessarily true while still carrying it are not only just as wrong as carrying the report, but this is even more wrong! This teaches others techniques for carrying lies, gossip and rumours while looking innocent!
4. Who is thou? This refers to each Israeli. (I had to go back to Exodus 21:1 to see this.)
II. Joining in Violence (verse 1)
He continued, commanding each Israeli to not “carry thy hand” with one who is guilty so that the hand will be unto violence.
Questions
1. What does “carry thy hand” mean? A person’s hand is a tool of that person’s works (even if the person doesn’t have hands that function). This is written for young children; their hands show them how much power they have to grasp, control, and even throw things. Carrying the hand is going somewhere, and taking his/her hand (and therefore, his/her power to do anything) with him/her.
2. Explain the entire command: An Israeli must not go (carrying his/her hand of power) with a guilty person who is planning violence. If he/she does go, he/she must not carry his/her hand with this guilty person, but must leave the power to do violence behind. (It is possible to refuse to carry the ability and power to do wrong!) Thus, the Israeli must never participate with a guilty person in doing violence.
III. Yielding to the Majority (verse 2)
Yehovah command each Israeli to not be after a large group to do bad. Also, each Israeli must not humble himself or anyone in matters of many in order to bend anyone or any group to go after large groups to bend others to do something. (See questions.)
Questions
1. What does “be after many” mean? It describes accompanying a large group. Being after indicates following them.
2. What does “Thou shalt not be after many to bad-do” mean? This command is for every Israeli: No Israeli is to accompany or follow a large group to do any form of harm. (Doing harm is bad-doing.)
3. Suppose that the Israelis are grouping to rightly and properly execute a person who has done a death-penalty offense; if another Israeli accompanies this large group, is this group about to ‘bad do’? No. Doing justice is not considered ‘bad-doing’ even when it puts a person to death for a death-penalty offense.
4. What does “thou shalt not humble…” mean? I have formerly proposed that humility means to know where one stands before God and man in terms of rank and responsibilities, and to live that way. I have also stated that the same Hebrew word that means humble also means humiliate or be humiliated, since a person in this case is being forced to realize his/her true rank before others—or at least, the rank that another is trying to force on him/her.
In this text, humbling oneself is voluntarily taking on the rank assigned by the group—the rank as one who is cooperating with this group. (If a person refuses to do this, members of the group will sometimes accuse the person of being arrogant or ‘stuck up’ when in fact the person is being wise and humble before God and not the group.) Thus, humbling concerning a multiple in this case is giving in to a group in order to be accepted by the group and to go along with the group. This is a great evil, and it is very common.
5. What does incline mean in this text? An incline is a surface that is tilted toward one direction. If the incline is great enough, anything on it will slide in the direction of its tilt. An example of an inclined object is a teeter-totter in which one person is down and the other person is up.
To be inclined, then, is to be leaning in a direction—to feel a strong pull to go into that direction.
6. This command has several parts. What is being commanded by “thou shalt not humble concerning a multiple [many] to incline after multiples to cause inclining”? First, “thou shalt not humble concerning a multiple” means that the Israeli is being commanded to refuse to give in when it comes to issues in which a multiple (a group of folks) has decided to go in one direction together. This has to do with a group that is about to do what is wrong.
The next part, “to incline after multiples” means that there are other groups that are determined to join together to do something (which will be an injustice). The Israeli must not join in with the first group to lean toward these other groups. It may feel like it is the right thing to do, but it is sin, and will lead to violence.
The last part, “to cause inclining,” shows that all the groups are now gathering other persons and pressuring them to bend in the direction that the groups have determined to pursue (in a case of injustice).
Great movements have often started exactly the way this text describes: one person speaks to another, and soon there is a group. That group pressures another person to become part of the group. In the meantime, other groups that are similar (with some more violent in their approaches) have formed, and those groups are pressuring the first group to take the same stands. Soon, great injustices are done for the sake of the great movement, and those who desire to remain with good consciences either greatly suffer or are killed because they didn’t go along with the majority.
Yehovah warns the Israelis to refuse to join in with these groups even though they might be inclined to do so.
IV. Honouring the Poor (verse 3)
Each Israeli must never honour another who is very poor by means of the fight of that poor one. (See Questions.)
Questions
1. What is a poverty-stricken person? It is a person who is very, very poor; this person seems to be unable to escape from being poor.
2. Why would a poverty-stricken person have a fight? What is this fight? The poverty-stricken person is being treated in a way that he/she believes is without justice. Therefore, he/she has taken the issue to others to judge and to give help. He/She is therefore fighting for his/her cause. (This isn’t usually a physical fight, though it can be; it is usually a court-type of a fight.)
3. Shouldn’t a person stand up for a poverty-stricken person who is being mistreated? Standing up for a person isn’t the same as honouring the person. Standing up for a person who is being mistreated is right (if the person needs aid). Honouring a person just because the person is poverty-stricken is a violation of the Torah (Teaching).
4. What is wrong with honouring a poverty-stricken person by means of his fight? Justice in any fight isn’t about the monetary status of anyone; it is about what is right and what is wrong shown by evidence or proof. The idea isn’t equal justice; it is just justice: rendering a right decision based on all pertinent facts (all facts that have to do with the case). Thus, bending justice for the sake of a person who is poverty-stricken is corrupting justice. That must not be done.
V. Meeting a Wandering Ox and Ass (verse 4)
Yehovah commanded each Israeli to return a wondering ox of an enemy or a wandering ass of an enemy to the enemy owner.
Questions
1. Why must an Israeli return to an enemy an animal that isn’t his own and that belongs to the enemy? This will be a demonstration of loving one’s enemy as himself/herself. Yehovah has commanded each Israeli to love his/her neighbour as himself/herself.
Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge or bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. I am Yehovah!
2. Does this command only have to do with wandering animals of enemy neighbours? All of these commands are given in the form of individual cases. The Israelis were taught these cases so that they could determine other cases based on them. This is the briefest way to teach correct behaviour.
Thus, this command has to do with many other cases that are not mentioned in the text. For example, based on this command, suppose that an Israeli finds a tool that she knows belongs to another Israeli who has been unkind to her; suppose that she knows that this unkind Israeli lost this tool, and might not be able to find it. What must she do? You are right! She must return the tool to the unkind Israeli based on this Teaching!
3. Suppose that the enemy Israeli accuses the Israeli returning the item of stealing it; what must the Israeli do, and should the Israeli refuse to return another lost item or animal next time? If the mean-spirited Israeli formally charges the returning Israeli with theft, the Israeli will go before the judges at the city gates and will testify what happened. If the same loss occurs again, the obedient Israeli will again return the item or animal, but this time might take another as a witness so that the accusation won’t even begin to hold.
4. Suppose that the Israeli returning the wandering ox just takes the ox directly to the stall, and then leaves without seeing the owner; would that be sufficient? It might be sufficient, or, if the owner sees the person with the ox, this might raise suspicions. The Teaching states to return the animal to the owner. That way, the owner will know that the animal got out of the property, so that the owner can secure the animal.
VI. An Enemy’s Couching Ass (verse 5)
When an Israeli will see an enemy’s ass couching (that is, setting itself down on the ground) under his burden, and when the Israeli will desist (stop participating in action) from loosening to him—that is, from helping to unload the ass’s burden, the Israeli instead must loosen the ass with the enemy.
Questions
1. What does couching mean? It is when an animal settles down on the ground with its paws or hooves in a forward position as if it is at rest.
2. Why would an animal couch under his burden? If the load is very heavy, and therefore uncomfortable, the animal might just couch on the ground. Once it does this, it might not be able to get up.
3. What does “desist from loosening to him” mean? To desist is to cease to proceed or to act (Mirriam-Webster). Thus, it is to begin to do something (to help, in this case), and then to stop (realizing that the animal belongs to an enemy).
The purpose of loosening the animal is to remove enough of the burden for the animal to rise on its hooves.
4. What does this text command the Israeli to do? The Israeli must help his enemy Israeli by working with him to loosen the burden from the animal so that it can get up.
5. Does this command only cover animals and burdens? It doesn’t! It is just one case; the Israelis are responsible to consider this one case, and to determine what to do in any other case that is at all similar. For example, if an Israeli sees the oxcart of an enemy broken down, a wheel being broken, and the enemy is trying to unload the oxcart in order to put another wheel on it, the Israeli must help unload the oxcart.
6. Suppose that the Israeli has an appointment that he must keep, and time is very important; can he go on his way, and leave his enemy in order to keep his appointment (including keeping his word that he gave when he made the appointment)? A wise Israeli will make appointments, but will always include a statement that he might be late if he is delayed because of a Torah command! Yehovah has commanded the Israeli to loosen with him—with the enemy Israeli. His command is intentional. He knows all the various circumstances that can occur; His command still stands.
VII. Inclining Justice of the Poor (verse 6)
No Israeli is permitted to incline justice (that is, to make justice go in a particular direction) of the Israeli’s poor one by means of the poor one’s fight.
Questions
1. Isn’t this command the same as the one in verse 3? No. They differ. Honouring a poverty-stricken one in his fight is helping the poverty-stricken one win by showing greater respect for him/her than for justice; it is perverting justice by viewing that person as high-ranking. In verse 6, inclining justice is tilting the balance of justice of a poor person so that he/she will win without considering his/her supposed rank for being poor. Thus, verse 3 has to do with respect of persons—viewing folks as high in rank, and making sure they win for that; verse 6 has to do with perverting justice by giving a poor person a win by any means.
2. Why is Yehovah so against helping poor folks win in cases of justice? Yehovah isn’t against others helping poor folks to win in a fight; He is against perverting justice to do so. Yehovah is the One who sets the ranks of all humans; He is the One who gave the poor person that rank! He could have easily had that person be born wealthy or obtain great riches and rank. Instead, He set the rank of that person (and He can change that rank at any time that He chooses). Justice, however, must never be perverted. Justice is a reflection on Yehovah; perverting justice would be perverting Yehovah’s reputation!
3. Suppose that someone wealthy and very intelligent takes advantage of the ignorance of a poor person, and by that means cheats the poor person using legal means; wouldn’t giving the poor person a justice advantage be the right thing to do? The right thing to do is to expose what the other did to the poor person, and then to take care of the poor person using the Torah (instead of perverting it). The ‘intelligent’ person will not outsmart Yehovah Who will hear the shouts of the poor person; Yehovah will avenge His Torah (Teaching)! That vengeance will be far better than whatever could be accomplished by perverting (twisting, bending and ruining) justice.
VIII. Distancing from Injustice (verse 7)
The Israeli must distance himself/herself from a speech of a lie. The Israeli must not slay one who is innocent and one who is righteous. Yehovah will not justify (declare righteous) one who is guilty!
Questions
1. What is a speech of a lie? It is what someone says (usually giving details) that just isn’t true. Now, it might be partially true, but partial truth is far worse than a total lie. Partial truth employs what is true in order to make a lie sound true.
2. What does “Thou shalt distance from a speech of a lie” mean? This is a command to get far away from such a speech! When the Israeli hears such a speech and knows that it is a lie, the Israeli must get away from the person and the speech. (If he/she cannot get away, at least he/she can tune the person out!)
3. What is an innocent one? That is a person who is being accused and who is not guilty. If the Israeli knows that the person isn’t guilty of a crime charged against that person, he/she must refuse to slay that person.
4. What is a righteous one? That is a person who has done what is right (in the eyes of Yehovah). Every Israeli is commanded to refuse to slay one who is righteous.
5. Was Yeshua righteous? He was.
6. Did the Israelis have to slay Yeshua? Yes! They had to slay Him. Had they not slain Him, no one (Jew or Gentile) would have obtained everlasting life. Now, Yehovah Himself was the One who slew Yeshua. Yet, the Israelis were the only humans who were responsible to offer Yeshua as a sacrifice for sin. Still, the Romans put Him on the cross, and Israeli priests participated in perverting Roman law by blackmail; yet, all Israelis and all non-Israelis of all time were responsible for Yeshua’s death. Yeshua offered Himself up, so that He was responsible for His death. Thus, all humans and the Gods of Israel were responsible for His death. That being said, Yehovah commanded the Israelis to not slay an innocent one and a righteous one (Yeshua was both).
7. Why must the Israelis refrain from slaying an innocent one and a righteous one? The text explains: “I will not justify a culpable one!”
8. What does justify mean? It either means to cause an unrighteous person to now be righteous, or to declare a righteous person as righteous (because the person did what was right).
9. What does culpable mean? This means guilty or responsible for a wrong.
10. Yehovah stated, “I will not justify a culpable one.” If this is true, how can a person who is guilty before Yehovah ever become righteous? This answer has several parts.
First, the text refers to a person who slays an innocent person and a righteous person knowing that the person is innocent and that the person is righteous. (If he/she doesn’t know, he/she cannot obey this command!)
Secondly, Yehovah won’t view the killing of an innocent person or a righteous person ‘for the greater good of all’ as a reasonable excuse, and therefore He won’t declare a participant in such a killing as a righteous person. (Folks who have committed racist murders have thought that they had this excuse, thinking that their ‘greater good’ was for their own people’s supremacy, but they will find out that they were both dead wrong and damnably wrong.)
Thirdly, Yehovah doesn’t justify anyone who is culpable. He has given that position to Yeshua who took sins upon Himself in order to justify those who believe in Him and who turn to Him for that justification.
IX. The Bribe (verse 8)
An Israeli must not receive a bribe. A bribe blinds folks who normally see very well so that they won’t see well. A bride has subverted (turned into the opposite) speeches of righteous ones (so that the speeches are those of guilty ones).
Questions
1. What is a bribe? It is a payment paid in advance so that a person will do what the person knows is wrong.
2. What is wrong with receiving a bribe? The text explains, “The bribe will blind perspicuous-[ones] and has subverted speeches of righteous-[ones].” (We will discuss what these mean in future questions.)
3. Is offering a bribe wrong? It is wrong for an Israeli to offer a bribe to an Israeli, because it is tempting the Israeli to sin! (These commands do not hold for Israeli spies in other lands! Spies can do what would otherwise be wrong if they are spying on an enemy land, and they are heroes and heroines—just as long as they don’t deny Yehovah!)
4. What does perspicuous mean? It means having the ability to see clearly through a situation and through the actions and reactions of others. A person who has perspicuity will therefore understand what is occurring and why, when others won’t understand, and this person will also often be able to be of benefit to others even to the saving of lives.
5. What occurs if a perspicuous one receives a bribe? That person becomes blinded—that is, that person loses the ability to demonstrate perspicuity (the ability to see clearly through a situation and through the actions and reactions of others). Thus, the person becomes part of the causes of problems, and isn’t helpful to solutions to problems.
6. What does subvert mean? It means to undercut by making good and helpful actions and views look like the wrong answer. Sub means under, and vert means turn. It is turning under (like overturning) what is good.
7. Explain “the bribe has subverted speeches of righteous-[ones]”: Righteous persons have spoken what is right and what is true. Yet, the bribe has paid others to argue against what is right and true, making them look like what is wrong and false. This has led to harm and death of innocent folks.
Hate bribes!
X. Oppressing a Sojourner (verse 9)
An Israeli must not oppress a sojourner. The Israelis knew the being (body, soul and spirit) of the sojourner! They were sojourners in the land of Egypt!
Questions
1. What does oppress mean? It means to unjustly hassle, torment, humiliate, and keep from doing well.
2. Why would a person desire to oppress a sojourner? A sojourner doesn’t have family or friends to help, and a sojourner is usually not familiar with the justice system of the location in which the sojourner is sojourning. Thus, mean-spirited folks might seek to mistreat the sojourner figuring that they can get away with this, and figuring that they can make much money off of the sojourner.
An excellent example of a sojourner is a foreign worker; another example is a foreign girl tricked into the sex-traffic trade. Both are sojourners. Yehovah watches.
3. What does “ye knew the being of the sojourner” mean? Since the being includes the body, the soul and the spirit, this includes all of the person and what the person experiences. The Israelis knew what it was like to exist as a sojourner since they were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
4. Why were the Israelis sojourners in the land of Egypt? Their forefathers came to Egypt during a great famine, and the Israelis stayed. Egypt wasn’t their native land, however, and they always were eventually going home to the Land of Israel. Yehovah temporarily brought them to Egypt so that they would grow very large as a group, and very strong.
XI. Releasing the Land and Vineyard (verses 10-11)
An Israeli will sow his/her land six years. He/She will gather what the land brings. The seventh year, the Israeli must release the land, and the Israeli must abandon the land. The poor of the Israeli’s people will eat, and a living one of the field will eat their excess (their leftovers). It is established also that the Israeli must do the same to his/her vineyard and to his/her olive.
Questions
1. Who must sow the land six years? This isn’t a command to sow (that is, put seed into) the land for six years; it is a command of the maximum number of years in a row that the land can be sown. This command is for every Israeli who will put seed into the land of Israel.
2. What does “And thou shalt gather her bringing” mean? This means that the Israeli who sows seed (puts seed) into the soil of Israel can gather whatever the soil gives from that seed (for six years in a row).
3. What does “thou shalt release her and thou shalt abandon her” mean? In the seventh year (after six years of using the land to grow crops), each Israeli must let go of the land and must abandon the land. This doesn’t mean that he/she must move; it means that he/she must not even try to grow any crop in the soil in the seventh year. Just leave the soil alone, and let it go wild for one year.
4. If plants that produce food grow on their own in the seventh year, what can be done with that crop? The person who holds that land (who previously grew crops on it) is not allowed to touch any of the crops in the land. The poor of the people of Israel can freely come and eat from the land; all the produce belongs to the poor and to the wild animals.
5. What does “a living-[one] of the field shall eat their excess” mean? The living one of the field refers to each wild animal, bird, etc. This crop is for them and for the poor; not for the one holding title to the land.
6. Suppose that a person has many grape vines or has an olive orchard; should the person gather from those? The person holding title to the land is not permitted to touch any of the fruit growing on the vines or trees! The seventh year’s crop is strictly to others who are poor (that means that a neighbour who isn’t poor also isn’t allowed to come to gather the fruit).
7. What is the holder of the land supposed to eat if he/she cannot eat from anything growing on his/her own land? Yehovah elsewhere promises the Israelis that He will give a triple crop in the sixth year if all Israel will do as He said regarding the treatment of the land!
Leviticus 25:20 And when ye shall say, “What will we eat in the seventh year? Behold, we won’t sow and we won’t gather our produce!” 21And I will command my blessing to you in the sixth year and to make the produce to three of the years! 22And ye shall sow the eighth year. And ye shall eat the ‘dormant’ {that is, what has been stored as is ‘sleeping’} from the produce unto the ninth year until the produce comes. Ye shall eat the ‘dormant!’
8. Why did Yehovah command this seventh year release and abandonment? This gives the land the ability to totally recuperate from being used. It gives wild creatures a year to grow without being bothered, and it gives insects opportunity to grow (including creatures that eat troublesome plant insects). What the poor take from the land doesn’t hurt the land in any way.
When folks sow and take produce from the land without a break, the land becomes worn out. Just one year out of seven gives the land a chance to rest.
Yehovah will do such a miracle during the seventh year of the Tribulation. No one will be sowing anywhere on earth, and no vineyards or fruit trees will be tended; yet, the poor who fear Yehovah and who do what is right will obtain what they need.
XII. Ceasing for Others (verse 12)
Each Israeli must do his/her doings six of the days (of a week). Each must cease from his/her doings in order that his/her ox and ass can rest. Even the son of his/her slavewoman has been ‘re-beinged,’ and the sojourner, from this ceasing.
Questions
1. The text states, “Thou shalt do thy doings six of days.” What are these doings? They are the normal work functions that folks do. Some will farm; others will have cattle; others will make pottery; others will trade with foreigners; others will build homes for a living, etc.
2. Must the Israelis work six days? They are free to do their work and errands six of the days of the week. That doesn’t mean that they must work six days, but Yehovah did set up a six-day work-week. (They can take vacations.)
3. What must occur on “day the seventh”? Each Israeli must cease (from errands and from work) in order that the Israeli’s ox and ass will rest, and in order that the son of the Israeli’s slavewoman will have been ‘re-beinged,’ as well as the sojourner.
4. Why would an ox need to rest? Won’t it still eat grass in the field? The ox can eat the grass, but the ox won’t be used as a farm tool (pulling and carrying things) on this day.
5. Why does the text mention the son of the slavewoman instead of the slavewoman herself? Doesn’t she get to cease from working on this day? Indeed, she must! Her son is mentioned, however, because Yehovah knew the way that the Israelis would think: they would give their slavewomen rest, but would demand that children of their slavewomen still serve them. Thus, Yehovah worded it this way to avoid such ideas.
6. What does re-beinged mean? Since the being consists of the body, soul and spirit, if any of these three becomes tired or worn down, being re-beinged means to have the body, soul, and/or spirit re-energized, refreshed, and ready to fully function.
7. Why is the sojourner also mentioned? The Israelis might have thought that the sojourner wasn’t included because the Torah wasn’t given to the sojourner. Therefore, the Israelis might have thought that the sojourner didn’t need to cease, and could even serve the Israelis while the Israelis ceased from their labours and errands. (Even today, Orthodox synagogues hire non-Jewish workers to function in the kitchens of the synagogues on the Sabbath—the day of ceasing; this is a blatant violation of the Torah.)
XIII. Guarding and Not Naming (verse 13)
The Israelis must guard (and will guard) all that Yehovah said unto them. They must not remind of the name of other gods! He shall not hear that name upon an Israeli’s mouth!
Questions
1. Why did Yehovah command at this point, “And ye shall guard via all that I said unto you”? He is warning the Israelis to leave out no detail from all that He said to them. If they leave out a detail, and if they consider that detail a small point, it will end up being the most important detail for some of the Israelis: a matter of life and death. (The Israelis have certainly not guarded by means of all that Yehovah said unto them. They have therefore put themselves into Yehovah’s wrath.)
2. What does “And ye shall not remind-of the name of other gods” mean? Every false god has a name. It is against the commandment of Yehovah for one Israeli to remind another Israeli (or anyone) of the name of other gods. Thus, they must not speak the name of a deity that Isn’t Yehovah, since that is reminding another of the name.
3. Aren’t the names of other gods mentioned in the Bible? Isn’t the Bible designed and meant to be read out loud (besides reading it in private?)? The names of other gods are mentioned in the Bible! The Bible is designed and meant to be read out loud!
Now, the Orthodox Israelis do the following: When they read Yehovah in Hebrew, they replace this with Ha Shem (meaning the name), or with Adonai (meaning my Lords). When they read Elohim, they replace this with elokeem or elokeen, which has no meaning and is an intentional mispronunciation of Elohim (where Elohim means Gods, and it is a title for the Gods of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob). These are violations of the Torah which commands the Israelis to swear (vow) using His Name. If they find replacing the Name and titles of the True Gods of Israel with other titles or false names so easy to do, when it is a violation of the text, they certainly can replace the names of false gods with other things like abbreviations, etc. For example, when I see the false god called Baal, when I read it out loud, I replace Baal with “the B-god.”
4. What does “He shall not hear upon thy mouth” indicate? This indicates that the Israelis have no business pronouncing those names, since Yehovah won’t hear those names upon the mouth of any Israeli! (That is, it is a command for the Israelis to make sure that Yehovah never hears it.)
XIV. Three Feet: Matzahs, Harvest, Gathering (verses 14-17)
Each Israeli must guard the solemnity of the Matzahs seven of the days. He/She will eat Matzahs just as she commanded each Israeli for an appointment, the month of the spring. This is because each Israeli exited from Egypt in the month of the spring.
The Israelis will not see Yehovah’s faces along with their emptiness!
They must also guard the solemnity of the harvest: the firstborn ones, the doing of each: what each will sow in a field.
They must also guard the solemnity of the gathering by means of the exiting of the year, by means of each person’s gathering from the field what he/she is doing.
Mighty One, Who is the Faces of Lord Yehovah, will see each—the male of every Israeli—three strokes (times) in the year.
Questions
1. What are feet in, “Thou shalt solemnize three feet to me in a year”? The foot pictures the walk (since those who can walk use their feet to do so). The three feet, then, have to do with transportation.
2. What does “Thou shalt solemnize three feet to me in a year” mean? The Israelis must transport themselves to a location that will be specified three times in a year in order to keep a particular solemnity. (Yehovah will explain if there will be exceptions—cases where individual Israelis must not come.)
3. What is Matzah? It is bread that has been made without leaven and without vinegar; it is made only from flour and water.
4. How can one guard the solemnity of the Matzahs? The text explains: “Thou shalt eat Matzahs just-as she commanded thee to an appointment, month of the spring.” Eating the Matzahs in this way will be guarding the Matzahs. (Another question will look at what this typifies.)
5. Who is she in, “just as she commanded thee…”? She, I propose, is the statute (which is feminine) mentioned in Exodus 12:14. The statute tells exactly how to do this.
6. What is this appointment? An appointment, in general, is a set time for a meeting.
The Torah (Teaching of Yehovah, Genesis through Joshua) teaches the numerous appointments that Yehovah has set to meet with Israel (and to those who will be true friends of Israel) in the End Times. These appointments won’t only benefit Israelis/Jews; they will benefit all Saints of all time. One of those appointments is Yeshua’s arrival with all resurrected Saints!
Eating the Matzahs is doing a show-and-tell of one of those appointments. In order to figure out what this appointment is, the reader must know what matzah, in general, typifies (pictures). (That will be the next question.)
7. What does matzah, in general, typify? Consider what matzah is. Think about flour: how it is the crushed seed of wheat (or of some similar grain). It is crushed to a powder. It is then mixed with water, making a dough ball. (You can do this to see how it is made.) It is then rolled out flat and quite thin. It is then baked in an oven or on a hot stone (a frying pan can be used). Now, consider each grain of flour before the water is added. Think of that as one person. When the water is added, the grains stick together to form something like a body: a dough ball. Yet, the dough ball can be easily divided. Once it is rolled flat, it is then baked using heat (or, using fire). That makes the separate grains disappear into one matzah unit that is quite firm, and the grains can hardly be seen. This body, formed by heat, can then be broken into pieces (as Yeshua said: “This is my Body that is broken for you.” Since there is no leaven and no vinegar, and since leaven is a type of sin (when it is used as a type), and vinegar is a type of violence, matzah typifies a body of Saints that is without sin. All have been put through the fire, and all refuse to sin.
Now, anyone eating the matzah typifies those who will take good advantage of the Saints in this entirely righteous Body in order to live, since food gives life. They will not only eat this to live, but they will also be making the Body of the matzah a part of themselves, thus becoming one with the matzah!
When the Israelis eat the matzah and do as this type pictures in the Tribulation, they, too, will become unleavened (freed from sin and sinning), and they will fulfill the appointment that Yehovah has set for all Israel to become righteous. This will occur in the month of the spring in one of the years of the Tribulation many centuries from now.
8. What event will mark the time of the appointment being fulfilled? It will be an event that will remind the Israelis of a historical event! Israel will again exit from Egypt in the spring of the year during one of the latter years of the seven-year Tribulation! This time, the Israelis who exit from Egypt (with Egyptian help!) will be entirely righteous!
9. Yehovah now inserts a threat. What is the threat, and why does He threaten using this? The threat is this: “They shall not see my faces, their emptiness!” It is a warning to all Israelis (and to others): They will not be permitted to see Yehovah’s faces if they arrive empty—that is, if they arrive without bringing someone else whose life they are saving! They must arrive with others! If they attempt to come (to Mount Zion in Israel) without bringing someone else, they will not be permitted to come up Mount Zion, and they will not gain refuge (a place of safety from attack) on Mount Zion; and they will not see Yehovah’s faces (meaning that they will be turned away from Him)!
10. Explain the solemnity of the harvest: The text explains it. When the Israelis do a harvest of what they have done—that is, what they have planted, some of the harvest will come ripe before the rest. Those are the firstborn ones. The firstborn belong to Yehovah!
How to do this is explained in the following text:
Leviticus 23:9 And Yehovah spoke unto Moshe to say, 10 “Speak unto the children of Israel. And thou shalt say unto them, ‘When ye shall come unto the land that I am giving to you, and ye shall reap her reaping. And ye shall bring a first binding of your reaping unto the priest. 11And he shall wave the binding to the faces of Yehovah to your desirability. The priest shall wave him from tomorrow of the ceasing.’”
Now, there are more instructions after this. Each of these instructions is a show-and-tell of events to come, and this makes up another appointment of Yehovah.
The priest participates in this, because Israeli priests will do exactly what this pictures, but they will do it with humans, and not with plants (which typify humans). They will do this with Israelis. The first Israelis (of all the Israelis) to come to faith and to produce fruit will often be killed by the priests of Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation and just before it begins. The priests will think that they are doing right, when they are not; and some priests will know that they are doing wrong, but will still do it. (Other priests will know of this violence against believing Israelis, and will take sides with the believing Israelis.) Yehovah therefore has given a show-and-tell of what the priests did by bringing the first of the harvest of Israeli Saints before Yehovah under arrest, and to put them to death as sacrifices (though the priests will see them as evildoers, thinking that their faith in the Salvation of Israel is actually idolatry).
11. Explain the solemnity of the gathering: This event takes place “via exiting of the year”—that is, as the Biblical year is ending (which means that it is in the spring of the year). It will take place “via thy gathering thy doing from the field,” picturing Israel’s gathering what Israel has done (including saving lives of Israelis and others who will help save the lives of other Israelis) “from the field”—that is, from all over the world. (Yeshua explained that the field is the world in Matthew 13:38.)
Yeshua mentioned this gathering in several texts. For example,
Matthew 24:31 “And He shall send His angels with a trumpet, and a great voice! And they shall gather His elect together from the four winds: from one end of the heavens to the other! 32Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and he puts forth leaves, ye know that summer is near. 33So likewise ye—when ye shall see all these things, know that he [the Gathering] is near: even at the doors. 34I say faith unto you: this generation shall not pass until all these things are fulfilled! 35The heavens and the land shall pass away, but my speeches shall not pass away! 36And no one knows of that day and hour—no, not the angels of the heavens, but-rather only my Father!”
It is such an important event in the future!
12. What are strokes? They are times (as if a clock is beating out its rhythm).
13. Who is this Mighty One? He is described as Faces of Lord Yehovah. That describes One Who said,
John 14:9 Yeshua says unto him, … “He who has seen me has seen the Father!”
Thus, it is Yeshua, the Salvation of Yehovah!
14. How often will this Mighty One see every male of Israel? He will see them three times in the year! Each time is a picture of the times that He saw the Israelis during the heroic events of the three solemnities described above!
15. Why will He only see the males? Aren’t the females important to Him, and won’t they be heroic? Indeed, they will be heroic! I expect that there will be at least as many heroic women during the Tribulation as men, and perhaps more!
The females are every bit as important to Yehovah as the males! They are equally made in His image, and they both reflect Him and His attributes (His good characteristics)!
I propose that He only sees the males because He knows that the females will be active, heroic and willing to do what is right during the Tribulation, whereas some of the men will require being commanded to do what is needed. The men need to give the example, and so often the women will have to do what the men are too afraid to do. If I am right, this can give one reason why Yehovah commands that the males will come before Him during these three times. (I am certain that there are other reasons.)
Also, the Israeli males will be the ones saved when Yeshua skips over during the Tribulation. All the males of the bad guys will be slaughtered. Therefore, in remembrance of this slaughter, the males will appear before Yehovah to show that they were not slaughtered when Yehovah skipped over.
XV. No Sacrificial Vinegar or Lodging Fat (verse 18)
No Israeli is permitted to sacrifice the blood of Yehovah’s sacrifice upon vinegar.
The fat of Yehovah’s solemnity shall not lodge (spend the night) unto morning!
Questions
1. What does vinegar picture (when it pictures anything in the Bible)? It pictures violence. When juices ferment, they usually produce wine. If the fermentation continues, the bubbling process occurs, and soon vinegar is produced. That bubbling is like what happens inside of a person or a group that is becoming more and more angry until the pressure builds and the acidity level also builds. When vinegar finally reaches its greatest level, all fermentation stops because the organism (the microscopic creature that makes the wine and the vinegar) is dead.
2. What does blood typify? Since the life of the flesh is in the blood, it is offered as a picture of one (or a group) giving his/its life for another.
3. What is wrong with sacrificing blood upon vinegar? Blood has everything to do with life, while vinegar has everything to do with violence. (Violence often results in the lives of innocent ones being involuntarily taken.) Those two cannot go together, since it would portray Yehovah’s sacrifice as murderous (that is, due to violence).
4. Why did Yehovah refer to the sacrifice as “my sacrifice”? Not only does He own the sacrifice (in the form of the animal) that a person is about to sacrifice to Him, but He also owns (or is) what the sacrifice typifies!
5. What is the fat of Yehovah’s solemnity? It is the fat of the animal being sacrificed at Yehovah’s solemnity, or it is the rich excess of what has been produced in the field. Yet, more importantly, it is what that fat typifies.
Fat is the excess of anything—what is extra beyond what is presently being used. This word either describes productivity (as in the case of a field) or abundance (either plenty or too much).
It signifies the rich excess and increase to Yehovah.
The Israelis are not allowed to eat fat from any kind of animal species that is sacrificed; such fat belongs to Yehovah.
When animals were sacrificed, the fat was burned, and the smell was and is very pleasant. (It is what makes a cook-out smell so good!)
Joseph said to his brothers,
Genesis 45:18 And take your father and your households, and come unto me! And I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.
6. What is wrong with permitting the fat to lodge (to stay overnight) unto morning? Since the fat of the land is what the land produces in abundance, I propose that bringing the fat to Yehovah can typify bringing both the Israelis and those who have helped the Israelis to Mount Zion. Leaving them behind would be leaving them to lodge where they are unto the morning. Instead, they must be brought as a sacrifice to Yehovah for a savour of restfulness (a smell that reminds Yehovah of the rest that He will provide). (It is like the very good smell of a steak cooking over a fire.)
Thus, once the Israelis harvest their crops, they must not delay bringing them for even one day; they must bring them right away. (This will be the difference of life and death during the Tribulation.)
XVI. Firstborn of Soil (verse 19)
The Israeli must bring the beginning of all firstborn ones of his/her soil, the House of Yehovah, His/Her Gods!
Questions
1. What is the “beginning of firstborn-[ones] of the soil”? The firstborn of the soil are also called the firstfruits since they are the first-ripened fruits. The rest of the fruits will ripen later, but these have come ripe first in that year. There will be other firstfruits to that crop that come even before the main crop, but these are the very first of the first-ripened fruits! They must be brought!
2. The text doesn’t say, “to the House of Yehovah thy Gods.” Is this an error, or is it intentional? It is intentional. If the text had said, “Thou shalt bring beginning of firstborn-[ones] of thy soil to the House of Yehovah thy Gods,” it would have only been communicating about the location: where to bring them. With it worded as “Thou shalt bring beginning of firstborn-[ones] of thy soil House of Yehovah thy Gods,” it shows the careful reader that the beginning of the firstborn ones from Israel’s soil, whether Jewish or not, are the House of Yehovah Gods of Israel! They are not just spectators; they are a vital part of Yehovah’s House!
3. Who is thou in, “Thou shalt bring…”? From verse 20 and on, I can tell that thou refers to all Israel.
4. What does “Thou shalt bring beginning of firstborn-[ones] of thy soil House of Yehovah thy Gods” typify? If I am right about the types, Israel is responsible to bring the very first of the non-Jewish ones who have produced fruit to Israel and to Yehovah (by willingly risking their own lives to save Israelis), since they are also the House of Yehovah Gods of Israel.
That House pictures all the Israeli Saints, all the non-Israeli Saints, and all those who aren’t (yet) Saints who will be helping Israel during the Tribulation.
XVII. No Kid-Boiling (verse 19)
An Israeli must never boil a goat kid in the fat of his mother!
Questions
1. Why would anyone want to boil a goat kid (baby or young goat) in the fat of his own mother? This was one of the idolatrous practices that pagans around Israel did. From the text, I see that they would slay the mother, take its milk and its fat (since both are forms of fat), get it boiling, and then put the baby goat into that fat to cook it. This was a sacrifice to a mother-son/goddess-god set of deities. Yehovah strictly forbade Israel from doing this practice.
2. Orthodox Jews believe that this command means that no meat should ever be cooked with dairy, and that no meat should ever be eaten with dairy. They even believe that this command disallows eating meat on a dairy dish with dairy utensils (that is, with silverware that has been dedicated to use only with dairy products), etc. Is this what this command is saying? No! Had Yehovah desired to command all that, He would have done so. He is commanding against idolatry; He isn’t commanding against eating meat with dairy.
While the rabbis in Judaism thought they were helping the Israelis avoid sinning by adding all those commands, including commands against eating meat with dairy, they were actually distracting the Israelis from reading Biblical texts entrusted to them. Even Avraham and Yehovah ate meat and dairy together (see Genesis 18:8)!
XVIII. The Messenger (verses 20-23)
Yehovah next announces that He is sending a messenger to the faces of Israel to guard Israel in the way and to bring Israel unto a place that Yehovah prepared.
Israel must be guarded from his faces! Israel must hearken to his voices! Israel must refrain from embittering by means of him! The reason: this messenger will not carry to the transgression of the Israelis! Yehovah’s Name is by means of his approach!
Now, if Israel will truly hearken by means of his voice, and if Israel will do all that Yehovah will speak, Yehovah will ‘enemy’ Israel’s enemies, and He will ‘tribulate’ Israel’s tribulators! For, Yehovah’s messenger will walk to Israel’s faces. He is the One who will bring Israel unto the Emori and the Khiti and the Preezi and the Canaani, the Khivi and the Yevhoosi.
Yehovah will conceal this messenger!
Questions
1. What is a messenger? It is anyone sent with a message or to do an errand on behalf of another.
Every angel is a messenger; the Hebrew word for angel is also the Hebrew word for messenger.
2. What will this messenger do? This messenger will guard Israel in the way; this messenger will bring Israel unto a place that Yehovah prepared.
3. What does “to thy faces” mean? It means straight in front of thee.
4. Will Israel be able to see this messenger? The text to this point doesn’t tell us. (If you read ahead, you will see that the messenger will be quite visible.)
5. Where is this place that Yehovah has prepared? Another text refers to the same place and its preparation:
John 14:1 “Your heart shall not be troubled. Ye believe in God. Also believe in me! 2There are many abodes in the House of my Father; otherwise, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take hold of you to myself so that ye shall be where I also am. 4And ye know where I go; and ye know the way.”
This place is Mount Zion in Israel.
6. Is this place already prepared at this very time (in 2011)? It isn’t yet prepared, and the messenger hasn’t yet been sent. By the time the messenger has been sent, the place will be prepared.
7. Who is thou in, “Be thou guarded from his faces”? This still refers to Israel as a group.
8. Why must Israel be guarded from his faces? The text explains: “He will not carry to your transgression!” (The expression, carry to, means forgive, among other things.) This messenger must be exactly obeyed, and thus Israel must be very guarded in all that Israel does.
9. The next statement is, “And hearken via his voice.” What does this command mean? The Israelis must hear, listen, and do all that he communicates.
10. What does “Do not embitter thou via him” mean? This can carry two meanings, and both will fit. The first meaning is this: Don’t cause bitterness to him by means of what he will do and command; this would occur if Israel were to disobey him. The second meaning is similar: “Don’t cause bitterness to each other by means of what he will do and command; this would occur if the Israelis were to murmur against what he is commanding.
11. What does “he will not carry to your transgression” mean? This messenger will not forgive any transgression of the Israelis. He will also not bring any sacrifice to the Israelis for their transgression, should they transgress (that is, should they go beyond and violate what will be commanded them). This messenger is very different!
12. Yehovah then stated, “For my Name is via his approach!” What does this mean? Yehovah’s Name always carries two significances. One is in the meaning of His Name: He will be, He is, He was. The other refers to the Person Who is His Name. I am referring to Yeshua. The statement, “For my Name is via his approach,” refers to Yeshua: For Yeshua, that is, Salvation, is by means of his approach! This is why Israel must be so careful. This messenger’s approach to the destination of Mount Zion carries Israel’s Salvation in it! Thus, the Israelis must exactly obey this messenger. If they do, they will all be physically saved from the terrible danger of the Tribulation, and they will also be everlastingly saved from sin and the everlasting death that is the result of sin once they have believed the Truth that the messenger will also demonstrate.
13. Yehovah makes this statement: “For if, hearkening, thou shalt hearken via his voice, and thou shalt do all that I will speak…” Yehovah combined hearkening via his voice with “do all that I will speak.” What does this show? This messenger will be a prophet: he will speak the speeches of Yehovah exactly as Yehovah will give those speeches. Therefore, hearkening to this messenger will be the same as hearkening to Yehovah!
14. What will be the results of hearkening to this messenger, according to verse 22? If Israel will hearken to this messenger, Yehovah will be an enemy to Israel’s enemies, and Yehovah will ‘tribulate’ (that is, cause continuing trouble to) Israel’s tribulators—those who continuously trouble Israel. Obviously, Israel’s enemies and tribulators will be too busy to harm Israel at that time!
15. Why doesn’t Yehovah just turn these enemies and tribulators of Israel into friends? Yehovah never forces humans to believe in—that is, to have faith in—Yehovah, in Truth, in His speeches, etc. He will force all humans to behave right during the Millennium, but He never forces faith. That is an area that belongs to humans. If anyone believes, that is strictly voluntary!
16. Why does Yehovah again state that His messenger will walk to Israel’s faces? This shows that the messenger will be in front of Israel. It also gives a little evidence that the messenger will be visible. Since the messenger will be sent to Israel while part of Israel still isn’t in faith, that messenger has to be visible (since faith has to do with what is not seen, and the messenger will give directions to the Israelis both in faith and not in faith).
17. Verse 23 states, “And he [the messenger] will bring thee unto the Emori and the Khiti and the Preezi and the Canaani, the Khivi and the Yevoosi.” The text didn’t say, “unto the land of,” but instead mentioned six races. Is this event the historical event in Joshua’s day, or is this referring to another event in a future day? While this sounds like the historical event, it is placed in texts that have never occurred! (Read verses 25 and on!) I propose that this is a future event, and that these races will again be trouble to Israel!
18. At the end of verse 23 is the statement, “And I will obscure him!” Who is him, and what will occur that is described by obscuring him? I propose that this refers to this messenger. If I am right, Yehovah will cause Israel to not see this messenger, his characteristics, and other things about him in a clear light.
This obscuring has already happened. Many who read these texts and other texts related to this messenger think that this messenger is Yeshua. They are not right, but they think that they are right. If this messenger were Yeshua, Yehovah would have stated either that His (Yehovah’s) Name is in Him (in Yeshua), or that He is Yehovah. Instead, Yehovah has carefully described the messenger as different. Texts in other places describe him as being like Moshe. (Yeshua and Moshe did very different things and were not alike in their assignments.)
This messenger is therefore already obscured.
19. Why does Yehovah desire to obscure him? If I am right that the one being obscured is the messenger, this is to protect the messenger from being recognized until the right time. It also guarantees that most Israelis educated in the Bible won’t figure out who this messenger is, and will therefore assume that he fits what they already believe (which isn’t Biblically correct). That way, the Israelis can continue in their own faiths and in their own ways until they are ready for Truth only. (Individuals from Israel will believe Truth; and all who care at all about the Truth of the Bible will desire to see Israelis come to true Biblical faith.)
XIX. Dealing with Other Gods (verse 24)
Israel must not prostrate to the gods of the races mentioned above. Israel must not serve them. Israel must not make as they make. Instead, smashing, Israel must smash those gods! And shattering, Israel must shatter their pillars!
Questions
1. What does prostrate mean? It means to lie face-down before another. This can show several things:
- One’s willingness to serve another
- One’s surrender to another
- One’s recognition of another’s much higher rank
- Making a very urgent request to another who can grant the request
2. Why would anyone prostrate himself/herself to false gods? If the person believes that the gods are not false, and if the person believes that the gods can do something for him/her, the person will probably prostrate before those gods.
3. Why would Yehovah have to command Israel to refrain from prostrating to the gods of the Emori, Khiti, Preezi, Canaani, Khivi and the Yevoosi, and who are these folks? Yehovah knew that the Israelis would quickly prostrate to the gods of these folks! The Israelis are quick at getting into idolatry!
The Emori is one person who is of the race of the Emoreem (called the Amorites in most Bibles). In the same manner, the Khiti is one person who is of the race of the Khiteem (called the Hittites in most Bibles). Thus, Yehovah spoke of one person from each of these races, making it very personal.
XX. Results of Serving Yehovah (verses 25-33)
The Israelis shall serve Yehovah their Gods. Yehovah will bless Israel’s bread and Israel’s waters. Yehovah will fend off sickness in advance from Israel’s approach.
There won’t be a bereaved woman in the Land of Israel, and there won’t be a barren woman in that Land.
Yehovah will fill a scrolling of Israel’s days.
He will ‘buzz’ every people that Israel will come by means of them. Yehovah will give all Israel’s enemies unto Israel: the neck!
Yehovah will send the hornet to Israel’s faces. She, the hornet, will expel the Khivi, the Canaani and the Khiti from Israel’s faces. Now, Yehovah won’t expel one of these races from Israel’s faces in one year; that would cause the land to become desolate, and every living creature of the field would multiply upon Israel. Instead, Yehovah will expel him a little at a time, a little at a time from Israel’s faces until Israel will be fruitful.
Israel will inherit the land.
Yehovah will set Israel’s border from Ending Sea (‘Red Sea’) unto Palestinian Sea (the Mediterranean), and from the desert unto the river. Yehovah will give inhabitants of the land into Israel’s hand. And the Israelis will expel ‘him’ from Israel’s faces.
Israel must not cut a covenant to them and to their gods. And they must not dwell in Israel’s land lest they will cause Israel to sin to Yehovah! Instead, Israel shall serve Israel’s Gods! For ‘he’ will become to a snare to Israel!
Questions
1. When will the Israelis serve Yehovah their Gods? They will do this in the last part of the Tribulation, and throughout the Millennium. There may be occasions where many of the Israelis do this before the End Times, but those occasions, if any, will be followed by the Israelis going after other gods.
2. What must the Israelis do to be serving Yehovah their Gods? They must treat the Land of Israel right according to Yehovah’s commands. They must treat fellow-Israelis, sojourners, widows and orphans right according to Yehovah’s commands. They must do what is right before Yehovah in all things, according to Yehovah’s commands. Now, Yehovah’s commands are not numerous or hard. Israeli difficulties when it comes to doing Yehovah’s commands have to do with the Israelis desiring to live another way; there aren’t difficulties if folks desire to do what is right before Yehovah. He just didn’t make it all that hard. Living according to regular rules of societies is usually far more difficult, and sometimes impossible.
3. What does bless mean? To bless is to give something or someone to another so that what is given will be used to benefit others (besides the person to whom the blessing was given). This is not the same as gift-giving, since a gift is given for the person’s own usage, and not for the benefit of others. Thus, a blessing may have only a little benefit on the one to whom it was given, but it will potentially greatly benefit others.
Blessings always come with responsibilities. They must be used in the right way.
4. What will occur if Yehovah blesses bread and waters? Items (like bread and waters) are not usually blessed in the Bible; persons are, and Yehovah can be blessed. This is a rare text.
Since bread in the Bible can also refer to food, this is a text in which food can be blessed. This isn’t referring to what is done at the time of a meal, and it doesn’t refer to a prayer over the meal. If Yehovah blesses Israel’s food, He is giving gifts to that food so that it can give to others! I propose that Yehovah will give that food the ability to benefit others outside of Israel in special ways, including providing more healing benefits than what food should be able to provide. There are other ways in which the food of Israel can do much more for others than what it would normally be able to do. For example, it might have tastes that are very good to folks in distant and very different cultures. (Humans eat so many different kinds of things throughout the world; what tastes very good to one culture might make the other culture sick!)
The same will be true of Israel’s waters. Yehovah will give those waters abilities that far exceed what normal very good waters could do. Thus, Israel will be able to benefit folks from all the races with the food and waters that Yehovah will bless.
5. What does forefend mean? It means to fend off in advance; to prevent and to stop something from coming.
6. What does “I will forefend sickness from thy approach” mean? Yehovah will stop sicknesses (like disease outbreaks) from approaching Israel. Thus, Israel will not experience disease outbreaks that are traveling throughout the world.
7. What is a bereaved woman? She is a woman who has lost a child—that is, her child died.
8. Why won’t a bereaved woman be in the Land of Israel? Every woman in the Land of Israel will experience all of her children living.
9. What is a barren woman? She is a woman who is unable to conceive, and therefore she cannot produce a child.
10. Why won’t there be a barren woman in the Land of Israel? Every woman who desires to conceive and birth a child will be able to do that! Yehovah will make sure of that.
11. What does “I will fill a scrolling of thy days” mean? A scroll is a record that is continuous from page to page (unlike a book that has two continuous pages, and then it discontinues until the page is turned). a person’s life, including the records of the person’s days, is recorded on a scroll. A document that is very brief doesn’t fill a scroll’s pages. Thus, a life that is very short doesn’t have much information in that person’s scroll.
If Yehovah will fill a scrolling of the person’s days, that shows that the person will live a long time!
12. What will occur if Yehovah will send His terror to Israel’s faces? Will He terrorize Israel? He will terrorize Israel, but in a good way! He will put a great fear into Israel! This terror, however, is intended for Israel’s enemies! Yehovah will send a terror into them that will cause them to want to run! That terror will be to Israel’s faces because it will be in front of Israel, preparing the enemies of Israel to run like… like Sheol!
13. What occurs if Yehovah hums (buzzes) every people to which Israel will come? When He ‘hums’ a people, he makes them talk to each other in great fear, wondering what they are going to do, where they are going to go, how they are going to live, etc. Their conversations with each other together sound like a hum. Yehovah will cause them to act as if they have the buzzing of a bee in their clothing! (That is rather frightening.)
14. What does “And I will give all thine enemies unto thee: neck” mean? The enemies will be delivered into the hands of Israel (either in defeat or surrender). When they give the neck, it will be Israel putting Israel’s foot on the enemy’s neck! That is a total surrender position, and one in which the enemy will have no will to resist!
15. Yehovah next states, “I will send the hornet to thy faces.” What is this hornet? A hornet is like a bee, but much, much more frightening. Yehovah easily can send a hornet (the real insect) before Israel’s faces to destabilize and frighten an enemy. When a word like hornet is used in the singular form in texts like this in the Bible, it often indicates a huge number! Yehovah can send swarms of attacking hornets! Armies will run from hornets, and they won’t be able to fight!
Yehovah can also send the sound of hornets when there are none! This sound will have the save effect, except that there will be no need to sting! Enemies will still run with terror!
16. What will be the effect of sending the hornet? Three of the six races (Khivi, Cnaani and Khiti races) will run and be gone!
17. Yehovah next states, “I will not expel him from thy faces in one year…” Why will Yehovah not do it in a year? Will He take two years to do this? Yehovah does not desire for the land to return to desolation (since the land requires tending to keep it from returning to its wild state), and He does not desire that the living one (the animal, referring to all the animals) of the field to multiply to the point of their becoming either a nuisance or dangerous for the Israelis.
Since Yehovah will do the expelling, He will do it in a way that will permit the Israelis to take and move in to one section, take and move in to another section, etc.
18. Where will the inhabitants of the land go as their homes and their lands are taken from them? They won’t go! They will fight! Therefore, they will have war, and Israel will slaughter them when they attack Israel!
It may seem as if Israel will attack them, but that isn’t the way it usually works. Whoever attacks is considered to have the advantage. Also, whoever knows the land the best is considered to have the advantage. Thus, as Yehovah drives them to leave, they won’t leave, but will come with great force against Israel. Yehovah will make sure that Israel has the victory (as long as Israel is doing right), and then the Israelis will slaughter all remaining inhabitants.
19. Doesn’t Yehovah love the little children of the world, including the children of the Canaanites? No text states that Yehovah loves the little children of the world; that is from a song that someone wrote.
The Canaanites and these other groups became very vile, and did things like sacrifice their children on burning statues, burning their own children alive so that they could get the attention of their false gods to have good crops (for example). They horribly murdered many of their own children. They did many other things that texts describe, and Yehovah hated them for their sinfulness and violence against the innocent. Yehovah also gave them much warning and much time to turn, but they only became worse. Yehovah finally determined to stop these races: kill these races. (That is called genocide.)
Yehovah commanded the Israelis to leave nothing alive. They had to slaughter children, babies, cattle, sheep, etc. (They were not to touch the fruit trees.)
While the young children and the babies had done nothing wrong, Yehovah knew that they would grow up to be worse than their parents. (Yehovah knows all things that will occur.) He therefore determined to kill them, also—not to have the Israelis adopt them, since they still would grow up to be just like their dead parents!
Now, young children and babies who die, not having sinned, are not under any accusation by Yehovah. Everlasting Salvation from sin is by His Grace, and His Grace is toward such children and babies.
20. If Yehovah is just expelling the Hivite, won’t he live and move to another location? If any of the members of these races had just left, they would have lived! I see no indication that Yehovah would have chased them down. Instead, they stayed to fight! Now, Israel was outnumbered, and these races had more gods than the Israelis. They should have easily been able to win! Instead, Yehovah drove them into the hands of Israel with the command to leave none of them alive.
21. Yehovah stated that He will expel him (the inhabitant of the land) a little, a little “until that thou wilt be fruitful.” What does that last part mean, and why will He stop doing what He is doing when they are fruitful? The Israelis will take over the lands of these other peoples. Israel will get crops from the plants that these races planted. Yehovah will continue to expel these other races until the Israelis have good crops, plenty of children, and multiplication of sheep and cattle.
The word until in Hebrew does not mean the same thing as it does in English. In the English language, until means that whatever is occurring will stop at that point. In Hebrew, it doesn’t indicate that anything stops. Thus, Yehovah will expel them until Israel is fruitful, and He will continue to expel them even afterward until they are all gone!
22. Who will inherit the land, and what land is this? Israel, the whole group, will inherit the land of Canaan—the land where the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Amorites, the Jebusites, the Hittites, etc. are living.
23. What sea is Ending Sea? It is what is normally called the Red Sea. Look on a map to find it.
24. What is the Palestinian Sea? It is the Mediterranean Sea. Look on a map to find it.
25. What desert is mentioned in verse 31? It is the desert called the Negev, and the word Negev means south. It ends at the Red Sea on both sides.
26. What is the river mentioned in verse 31? I understand it to be the Euphrates River. (Find that river on a map.)
27. If Yehovah gives the inhabitants of the land into the hand of the Israelis, who does the expelling? Yehovah does it; the Israelis do it. Thus, credit is given to both for doing it.
28. Explain the wording, cut a covenant: Normally when two or more made covenants, they did an animal sacrifice. The animal’s throat was cut to both kill the animal and to drain the blood so that the animal could be cooked on the altar, and the participants would eat. (Thus, it was like a barbeque.)
A covenant is like a vow, and a vow is much stronger than a promise.
A promise is a statement in which one or more persons says that he or she will or won’t do something, or it is a statement in which a person guarantees that something will or won’t happen.
A vow is a promise made with a higher power, authority or rank as a witness and whose reputation is used to guarantee that the one making the vow absolutely will or won’t do something, or that something will or won’t happen.
A covenant is a vow made before a deity (a god or God), usually including an animal sacrifice, in which the deity acting as the guard of the covenant will avenge any break in the covenant!
Thus, a covenant is cut, referring to the animal that is sacrificed.
29. What is wrong with cutting a covenant to the inhabitants of the land of Canaan? Yehovah desires them expelled from the land. Any covenant cut with them will include their staying on the land!
30. What is wrong with cutting a covenant to the gods of Canaanites, etc.? Cutting a covenant to the false gods is idolatry!
31. What is wrong with permitting these other races to stay where they are, while the Israelis move in? The text explains: “They shall not dwell in thy land lest they will sin-cause thee to me!” In other words, they will end up being a cause of Israel sinning! The Israelis will do as they do, and the Israelis will practice idolatry.
32. Can one person really cause another person to sin? The only way one person can cause another person to sin is by both of them being willing to sin in the first place. Now, one person may be deceived, thinking that a particular act isn’t a sin, but that person is still willing to do the sinful act (while thinking it isn’t sin).
33. Who is he in, “For he will be to a snare to thee,” and what is a snare? A snare is a trap designed to fool what is being caught into being entangled. He is each individual person from the races that Yehovah commanded to be expelled from the land of Canaan. Every Canaanite person will be a personal trap to Israel!
, which can mean “an angel of Yehovah” or “the angel of Yehovah,” but more often means “Angel Yehovah,” referring to Yehovah Himself as His own messenger (as it does in this case). His appearance was not extraordinary, but His behaviour was; He came and sat. He then appeared to Gideon, because Gideon didn’t see His arrival. He then called to Gideon who was in the winepress.
). The word angel means messenger, and it always has this designation. A human can as easily be called a messenger as an angelic being or Yehovah. Since the word Gods refers to the True and Living God of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob when used this way, He is all the Gods there are, and any other god is false. He is the God of the field, the God of creation, the God of power, the God of the oceans, the God of war, the God of peace. Israel too often feared false gods. This text shows the Messenger of the True Gods appearing to Gideon.
indicates a debtless relationship or the payment of a debt; the completion of an agreed transaction; no outstanding disagreements; vengeance for a crime. (There is no peace when a crime goes unavenged.)
(Elohim) literally means Gods. It can refer to the One True and Living God, Yehovah (which is normally the case), or it can refer to false gods (as it does in Exodus 20:3). The title, Elohim shows that Yehovah is all the Gods there are, since the Bible opens with this pronouncement: “In the beginning, Gods (plural) created (singular) the heavens and the land.”
, which differs by the addition of the article ‘the.’ The expression ‘The Gods’ becomes all the more significant, dismissing anything that is not part of The Gods as not gods.
, Yehovah my Signal. The word Signal also carries the idea of something placed very high so that others who need to see it and who understand its significations will be able see it.
