Mishpatim: Judgments - משפטים

Thoughts on Torah for Last Week
 
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Exodus 18-20
As Israel approached Sinai, Moses ascended the Mountain and God spoke with him saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:  ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all 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 people of Israel.”

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 Some of the key concepts the Lord conveys in His utterance in this Torah portion includes:

                                                                   Keep His covenant.
                                                       Being His treasured possession.
                                                           Being a kingdom of priests.
                                                                  Being a holy nation.

In this review,  we will examine God's Covenant and save the other three points for a later portion review.  God's Covenant has plenty of meat theology.

God’s Covenant
Whenever God restores His covenant with humanity, it is a new covenant and since His laws are eternal, His covenant is everlasting; hence, The New & Everlasting Covenant.  And since God is unchanging, The New & Everlasting Covenant was revealed to Adam and continued through to the Messiah Yeshua and with Paul.  We see in scripture where man rejects God and His law, only for God to wait for another opportunity to restore His covenant.  We see this restoration here with Moses and Israel; and, we will see an Endtime restoration with God's Servant. Because the scriptures don't set out God's covenant in a nice neat package, it takes some work to uncover.  The New & Everlasting Covenant is a unification of all of the everlasting covenants that God has set out in the scriptures.  The table below summarizes these covenants.

This is the covenant that God intended to reveal to Israel, but as we will see Israel wasn’t ready to live God’s full covenant.  Israel’s disobedience forced God to activate other eternal laws. One of the first adjustments He made with Israel was the priesthood, which we will review when Israel sins with the golden calf.
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The Apostle Paul and God's Covenant
Paul understood that God's full covenant wasn't possible to live during his time.  But he did understand that at the End of Time there would be a restoration of all of God's laws and covenants.  Paul addresses this in the first chapter of Ephesians when he writes:

"That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:"  Ephesians 1:10

But this view does not preclude us from living what we can today.


Sinai Covenant
In this portion, the Lord gives the Ten Commandments as His basic law.  To fully understand how these laws are to be applied, Yeshua's primary teaching on the law centered around the condition of our hearts.  We see in the New Testament terms like the Pure In Heart and the Pure Love of Christ/Messiah.  Yeshua could have delivered the Jews from Roman rule, but unless the Jewish heart was made pure, they would just corrupt the law and be back in bondage.  Graphically, this how these concepts relate:

Hebrew Study

The Hebrew words for The New & Everlasting Covenant:

Everlasting the	New the	Covenant The
​הָעוֹלָ֤ם	הַחֲדָשָׁ֖ה	הַבְּרִ֥ית
ha-oh-lam	ha-ka-da-shah	ha-brit

Isaiah 16
Isaiah uses Moab as a type and a shadow for Endtime Babylon whom God warns for three years before Jehovah's Day of Judgement.

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Resource Links for this Week's Portion

TORAH: Exodus 21:1-24:18
GOSPELS: Matthew 26:20-30

Listen and Read the Portion
First Fruits of Zion

​​Commentary with Nehemia Gordon
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HAFTARAH: Isaiah Chapter 17

Commentary with Avraham Gileadi, PhD