Parasha Ki Tisa (When You Take): Standing in the Gap

KI TISA (When You Rob)
Exodus 30:11–34:35; 1 Kings 18:1–39 (Ashkenazi); 1 Kings 18:20–39 (Sephardic); Matthew 17:1–13

“Then the Lord talked about to Moses, ‘May presumably well get hang of to you grab a census of the Israelites to depend them, every must pay the Lord a ransom for his life on the time he’s counted. Then no plague will scheme on them if you number them.” (Exodus 30:11–12)

The Numbering of the Israelites, by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux

Our final two Torah analysis, Terumah and Tetzaveh, get hang of fascinated by the invent of the wasteland Tabernacle, furnishings, and priestly garments.   This Shabbat continues with God’s instructions to Moses on the mountain.

The Israelites are to assign the Sanctuary’s water basin, anointing oil, and incense. God tells Moses that He has chosen a “wise-hearted” artisan named Bezalel, along along with his companion Oholiab, to handbook the sacred constructing finishing up.

“Peep, I even get hang of chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.” (Exodus 31:2)

In present to fund the constructing of the Sanctuary, God commands Moses to grab a census of the of us of Israel and to declare them to present a half shekel of silver.

“Here’s what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel … as a contribution to the LORD.” (Exodus 30:13)

A half-shekel coin from the First Jewish Wrestle (AD 66–70). Spherical the chalice it says, “Half Shekel,” and above it “Year 2.” The sprig of pomegranate aspect states, “Jerusalem is holy.” (Picture by Classical Numismatic Community)

Even supposing the constructing of the Sanctuary is a extremely crucial and sacred project, God makes it decided that His commandment to relaxation on the Sabbath takes precedence over this well-known aim.

We additionally would possibly possibly well be working toward functional achievements (and even of us who are for the rationale for serving the Lord), however we must keep in mind that God prefers us to attach them on defend for a day in present to defend the Shabbat holy.

Resting and being refreshed on the seventh day Sabbath is a clear signal of our covenantal relationship with the Almighty God.

It is an affidavit that He is the Creator.  And proper as He created the sector in six days and rested on the seventh, so are we to work for six days and relaxation on the seventh.

“This would possibly possibly per chance be a signal between Me and the Israelites without end, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and changed into once refreshed.’” (Exodus 31:17)

It’s mature to get hang of two loaves of challah (braided egg bread) on the Shabbat meal on Friday evening. These loaves are a commemoration of the double allotment of manna that the Israelites purchased every Friday in honor of Shabbat.

Standing within the Gap

“And when the of us saw that Moses delayed to scheme reduction down from the mount, the of us gathered themselves collectively unto Aaron, and talked about to him: ‘Come, shatter us a god who shall race sooner than us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know now not what’s turn out to be of him.’” (Exodus 32:1)

While Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving God’s instruction, the of us turn out to be impatient for his return and query that Aaron shatter them a god they’ll note.

Aaron affords in to the strain and fashions a golden calf, proclaiming the idol as their god: “Here’s your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4)

When God sees the of us worshiping a golden calf, He threatens to homicide the nation of Israel and to open up all any other time with Moses.

“‘I even get hang of viewed these of us,’ the Lord talked about to Moses, ‘and so that they are a stiff-necked of us.  Now race away Me by myself so that My anger would possibly possibly per chance merely burn towards them and that I would possibly possibly per chance merely homicide them.  Then I will shatter you into a well-known nation.’” (Exodus 32:9–10)

An Israeli artist fashions a mosaic.

In its establish of accepting God’s provide to shatter him the starting of a well-known nation, Moses stands within the hole and intercedes on behalf of the of us of Israel.

We note on this Parasha that even though Moses prays for the of us, he’s so excited when he comes down from the mountain and witnesses their idolatry that he smashes the tablets of testimony that God had engraved with His gain hand.

Moses then destroys the Golden Calf, and the key instigators to this idolatry are attach to loss of life.

Even supposing God relents from destroying Israel totally, their sin is now not without penalties — 3,000 men fall under the sword of judgment that day. Amazingly ample, on Shavuot (Pentecost), which commemorates the giving of the Torah, God poured out His Ruach (Spirit) in Jerusalem soon after the resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) and the right kind identical number had been saved!

“So then, those who had purchased his note had been baptized; and that day there had been added about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)

His pouring out of God’s Ruach underscores the real fact that Yeshua did now not system to condemn us however to place us.  There would possibly possibly be hope for us but.  We’ve got been given the Spirit of God to lift us into life, now not loss of life, by leading and guiding us into all truth.

Jerusalem

God Presents 2d Probabilities

Fancy the Israelites, some of us would possibly possibly per chance wade by lessons of our lives where we plunge into sin or fall away from the Lord, however God guarantees the hope of restoration and renewal if we’re going to have the option to comply with scheme reduction reduction into His presence in repentance to search out forgiveness.

This, presumably, is represented by God calling Moses to scheme reduction reduction up the mountain to internet a 2nd location of tablets, even though Moses destroyed the first location in a rage.

“Now the Lord talked about to Moses, ‘Slit out for yourself two stone tablets love the frail ones, and I will write on the tablets the phrases that had been on the frail tablets which you shattered.’” (Exodus 34:1)

Moses and the Ten Commandments

God is so correct!

He passed in entrance of Moses and proclaimed to him His Divine persona:

“The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, gradual to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness[[chesed / covenant loyalty] and truth; who retains lovingkindness [chesed] for hundreds, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:6–7)

The extra we turn out to be conformed and remodeled into the image and likeness of God, in whose image we had been created, the extra we’re going to have the option to expose these astonishing qualities of His chesed treasure, mercy, grace, persistence, lengthy-struggling, goodness, and truth.

We are going to have the option to turn out to be much less judgmental and additional merciful; we’re going to have the option to criticize much less and intercede extra.

Oh, how we lengthy to be changed — to be extra love Him.  Coming into covenant with God is now not about correct following the foundations; it is about having a deep, abiding, intimate relationship with a loving God.

A Jewish man along with his tallit (prayer scarf) draped over his head stands sooner than an open Torah ark on the Western (Wailing) Wall.

Battle for the Eternal Covenant with Israel

At the moment time, there is a allotment of the Christian Church that believes within the doctrine of replacement theology, a fallacious teaching that contends God is now not any longer in covenant with the Jewish Other people — that He has disowned them and has changed them with the Church.

These that imagine they’re in actual fact God’s contemporary Israel present an conceitedness that starkly contrasts Moses’ humility — a person that would possibly possibly per chance presumably get hang of changed Israel however, as a replacement, prayed for their survival.

The apostle Paul warned the church towards the conceit of non-Jews within the family tree of God: “Manufacture now not be boastful toward the branches; however if that you simply can per chance presumably also very smartly be boastful, keep in mind that it is now not you who helps the foundation, however the foundation helps you.” (Romans 11:18)

As a replacement of replacing the tree, Gentile Believers are grafted in as branches to an frail tree whose root is accumulated Jewish.  It’s somewhat now not doubtless that God has substituted but any other of us for His Chosen because of He has promised that He’ll by no device forsake or abandon His of us Israel:

“For the Lord is now not going to desert His of us, nor will He forsake His inheritance.” (Psalm 94:14)

Torah and yad (Torah pointer)

Haftarah Ki Tisa: Battle for Truth

On this week’s Haftarah (prophetic) reading, the prophet Elijah has a mighty victory on Mount Carmel when he sets out to expose to the Israelites that there’s now not this form of thing as a God however the God of Israel.

He challenges the prophets of the fallacious god, Baal, to a contest.

Two altars are made:  one for Baal and one for the God of Israel.  Oxen are slaughtered and placement on the altars.  However the contestants enact now not light a fireplace to burn the sacrifice.  Elijah and the prophets of Baal tell the particular God to ship fire down from Heaven to exercise up the sacrifice.

Elijah makes a mockery out of their fallacious god and proves in dramatic style without any doubt that YHVH (יהוה – LORD) is Elohim.

Elijah’s Sacrifice, by Albert Joseph Moore

Elijah effectively begins Israel on a course away from their infidelity and reduction to the One Appropriate God.

However prophets of God tend to be unappreciated, and in frail days many had been attach to loss of life.  In its establish of thanking Elijah for killing the total prophets of Baal, King Ahab blamed Elijah for inflicting Israel anxiousness. (1 Kings 18:17)

Ahab chose to forsake an accurate prophet of God, Elijah, to present protection to the interests of his Phoenician wife, Jezebel.  It changed into once this pagan girl who enticed the Chosen Other people of God to discover her fallacious god, Baal.

It has been talked about that behind every correct man is a well-known girl, and the wicked girl can additionally be a person’s downfall.  We note many examples within the Bible in which a lady has highly efficient affect for correct or for wicked.

We want totally to head wanting on the examples of Eve and Adam, Sarah and Abraham, Esther and King Ahasuerus, Bathsheba and David, Abigail and David, and Delilah with Samson to notice this truth.

Thanks to those dangers, God has warned us to now not marry non-Believers, lest they turn our hearts away from God.

We note this warning played out with King Solomon, whom God gave such well-known recordsdata to however who, however, lacked recordsdata in his dedication to marry foreign females.  In the reside, they became his coronary heart away from God to like fallacious gods.

Godly females must grab note to the affect they’ll get hang of over the boys of their lives and exercise it wisely within the phobia of the Lord.

Jezebel and Ahab Meeting Elijah in Naboth’s Vineyard, by Sir Francis Dicksee

Queen Jezebel extinct her highly efficient affect to handbook Israel into the sin of worshipping idols

Elijah helped Israel to notice the error of their fallacious beliefs.

However if we examine their lives, on the bottom it can per chance presumably appear that Jezebel changed into once extra blessed than Elijah.  She had vitality, establish, and prosperity, while Elijah had no lineage, no worldly establish, and every so usually he went hungry.

He even despaired at cases, believing that no one changed into once left who wanted to help God.  He longed for fellowship however usually felt lonely.  There had been cases he felt so sorrowful and downhearted, he wanted to die.

He no doubt doesn’t sound worthy love a blessed man, does he?  On the replacement hand, we are in a position to’t grab totally a temporal discover of life; we needn’t note this life because the reside, for all of eternity awaits us, and we would possibly possibly per chance merely get hang of treasures kept up in Heaven that no survey has even viewed!

“Better is the cramped of the righteous than the abundance of many base.” (Psalm 37:16)

Elijah within the Desolate tract, by Washington Allston

If we glance on the lives of Elijah and Jezebel, we note that vitality, establish, and prosperity can now not be our reside aim; slightly, our significant aim in life must be to defend trustworthy to the Lord God of Israel — in illness and in smartly being, in riches and in poverty, for better or for worse — from this time forth and forevermore!

“Manufacture now not let your coronary heart envy sinners, however dwell within the phobia of the LORD continuously.” (Proverbs 23:17)

We can note that these two of us, Jezebel and Elijah, are every zealous of their gain mission — one for the Lord and one for a fallacious god — however their lives resulted in vastly deal of ideas.

While Jezebel sat applying her makeup, she changed into once pushed out the window by her servants and fell to her loss of life. The horses trampled her body, and the dogs savagely ate her flesh.  What a frightful reside — but, her eternal future is worthy extra horrifying.

Elijah, who persisted well-known and severe trials on this lifetime, went up to Heaven on a chariot of fireplace.

An Israeli cramped one inserts a written prayer into the crevices of the Western (Wailing) Wall, a convention that arose after the destruction of the Holy Temple, which changed into once situated behind this wall. (Toddle Israel portray by Noam Chen)

One day, love Elijah, we’re going to have the option to be in Heaven and bask in God’s Presence without end.

Lifestyles’s indicate troubles and trials will disappear away.  There, we’re going to have the option to be comforted on every aspect, as God wipes away all our tears.

So enable us to now not despair if our lives must now not splendid; if we note sinners that appear to prosper of their ideas while we battle and suffer hardship.

In some unspecified time in the future God will present us His glory, and we’re going to have the option to be without end accumulate with Him. In the intervening time,  His presence and treasure will lift splendid peace within the course of our conditions.

So, enable us to attach on the stout armor of God, that we can face company till that final day.  Amen.

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