(This teaching consists of a study by Bill Bullock which I rewrote and added parts of my owns study.)
Part one: Read Exodus 21:1-15
Before I begin with this study, I want to point out to you to remember that the Torah and all its ‘stories’ are blueprints or examples for all believers, especially the last generation, because it teaches and warn about a time still to come.
We know that Egypt/Mitsrayim also represents the world of today. The Wilderness represents your life after you have come out of Egypt. During your time in the Wilderness you will get to know the Elohim who saved you. He will cleanse you from Egypt and reveal to you whom He is. Here He will teach you His ways.
Why did He give the “Law” in the Wilderness?
Yisrael (us) has come out of Egypt and has been washed by the Sea of Reeds (Mikvah/Baptism). Being saved and cleansed (Reborn), she is ready to receive new instructions on how to live a life pleasing to her Elohim.
I think the first step, a very important one, is to renew how one thinks. Just like the Yisraelites, we too have to changes our way of thinking from being enslaved to becoming the Bride of YHWH.
A slave execute orders BUT a Bride eagerly follow her husband because she knows she can trust Him and that He knows what is best for her.
When we are save BY GRACE from Egypt we recognize YHWH as our DELIVERER and OUR SAVIOR. We realize that He loves us beyond what we can imagine and that we cannot live of bread alone, but we need every living Word that comes from His mouth.
In the Wilderness some of us needs to get thirsty and hungry before we accept what He gives us to eat…on His terms, NOT ours. He will then give you bread of everlasting life and Water so that you never thirst again!
When He gives us these right rulings, He wants to teach us how to think like Him. He wants us to understand and see the world a little more like He sees it. He gives examples of real life situation, to try to explain how He thinks a situation must be judged.
Just like your body responses to your brain/head, so must we respond to our Head, without questioning, just doing…because we think alike.
Through this process we become His Bride, obeying Him out of love. We are not legalistic robots HAVING to do stuff just because He said so. If you think in the latter way, you are trying to get saved by keeping the law and that is WRONG.
How does He train us to think like Him?
The Hebrew word “Mishpatim” (Masculine) is translated into English as judgments/ordinances/laws. The Hebrew word “Mitzvot” (Feminine) is translated as commandments.
Its sketches a VERY LEGALISTIC pictiure! But in truth it is misunderstood. The commandments and ordinances given to Yisrael at Mount Sinai is more the picture of vows/covenant between a Bridegroom and His Bride rather than a general screaming orders to his soldiers.
Change the way you think about the Torah (from legalism to loving). Renew your mind! If you have this perspective, things will start to look different to you.
The Torah is there to teach us right from wrong. It is a light on our paths that guides us. If you yield to the Torah and rest in it, you will start to see the reflection of YHWH and the Messiah – for the Torah is the image of the Father and the Messiah is the living Torah!
A “shirt erusin” is given to a Hebrew bride to be. She has to study and meditate on it for all her engagement. This prepares her to become the bride her husband desires. In the same way Yisrael, the Bride, has received the Ten Commandments and the Sinaitic Ordinances to prepare her for a life of intimacy with YHWH and the Messiah.
In the first day of law school, Bill Bullock recalls what the professor told them: “I hope you did not come here expecting me to teach you the law,. I am not here to do that. I am here to do something much more important. I am here to teach you how to think like lawyers”
YHWH was teaching Yisrael the same principle as this professor – Not to learn His Commandments and ordinances like robots, but rather to teach them how to think like the Bride of YHWH, how to think like Him. Through His Torah we learn how to handle real-life situations and circumstances with His unique combination of WISDOM and COMPASSION.
Just like law students have casebooks (books filled with hundreds of cases to study) to learn to think like a lawyer, YHWH also gives us case studies in His Torah. Through these “cases” we start to realize how He sees and judges certain actions and people.
Case nr one:
We see a lot of poverty in the world…I know everybody had to deal with at least one poor person in his life. The Torah teaches us a lot about how to handle and deal with people less fortunate than ourselves.
The Torah of YHWH sees poor people very different from how the rest of the world sees them. When you read these cases about the poor, you have to remember to not just try and apply the ruling but RATHER to UNDERSTAND His way of thought. Like the Messiah we are not to just by sight or hearing, but with Righteousness.
Working for Food:
Many a time have I come upon somebody begging for a little money or food and usually, if possible, I will help him or her out with a bite to eat or some coins. I am sure all of you have had similar experiences.
Do you still remember the story of Yoseph? He took in many poor people, including his own family. He gave all of them work and for that he fed them. They had to work for food. (Gen 47:18-25) This is a Scriptural concept that has been misused and changed by the world.
It gets down to this: It is better to work for somebody else whom YHWH has blessed than to starve or beg. It is more humane and right to for a blessed man of YHWH to give a poor man work to do, to earn his food, than it is to just give hand-outs and turn them into beggars.
The world has turned this Torah principle into something VERY BAD (Like almost everything else) called slavery. Torah slavery and the slavery that happened at the hands of immoral men is VERY DIFFERENT. Lets see what Torah says:
Exodus 21:2-4 “When you buy a Hebrew servant, he serves six years, and in the seventh he goes out free, for naught. If he comes in by himself, he goes out by himself: if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children are her master’s, and he goes out by himself.”
In most modern civilizations it is considered revolting to even think about buying another human being. (Yes, in cases like human trafficking against their will it is more than sickening.) It is better for people if they starve to death than to let them work for food. Slavery got a bad name because of a trade FORCED on weaker African tribes (First by stronger tribes then by Europeans).
But the Slavery described in the Torah was a system put there by YHWH so that people would never have to starve or beg. A system to help people survive and to get strong until they are released in their 7th year.
The Torahs system:
The Torah does not consider it a sin to buy somebody to keep them from starvation or degradation. It is unthinkable to let people starve or to let them waste their lives not learning or doing anything.
The Torah says do not let fellow Hebrews starve or do not turn them into beggars by just giving them hand-outs. Rather buy/ REDEEM such a person by giving him work and food for 6 years, teaching him a trade so that when he is released he will never be hungry again but will be able to provide for himself.
The Torah shows that to buy/REDEEM a person is usually the last option out. Torah first teaches that one must loan them money WITHOUT interest. If that does not produce any fruit, you can buy his property (only for your use until the next Jubilee.) If the person is still suffering after this, only then the man himself is purchase or REDEEMED.
The heart of this system is to HELP, TO MAKE BETTER, not worse.
Becoming a Bondservant:
Exodus 21:5-6 – Often slaves chose to rather stay in their masters service than to be let free. There could be numeral reasons for this. Either the master is extremely good to the servant and it is to daunting to go out on his own or maybe the servant has married and has children and he wish not to leave them behind. In cases like these the servant was marked on his ear and he would be his masters for life.
I want to refer back to a previous class I did on being a bondservant:
Lets look at: Mat 5:17 -48 "...if one slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek..." – Please read the whole passage.
Why what does that mean? He quotes Torah but then says something else? The Messiah WAS quoting Torah. The Torah never changes. It remains an eye for an eye…but then why must we turn the other cheek? The Messiah is talking to a specific group of people; He is talking to the bondservants of Yehuweh.
What is a bondservant and why does He refer to us in such a way?
In the Torah you get a set of laws concerning bondservants. It is the first set of Laws after the 1o Commandments (The Covenant). You find the law of the bondservant in Ex 21. The bondservants we become are the servants who for the reason of love, turns his freedom into further service.
We read in the Torah that the Hebrew servants were set free every 7 years. But if a servant, by choice decides that he would rather become a servant for life in his masters’ house, his ear was marked and he became a bondservant for life. In return he will get food, shelter and protection. The Torah also applied to the bondservants but through their masters, because they had no identity and were seen as the property of their masters.
The same way we were set free, but by choice you become a servant to Elohim. You then have to obey His rules and in return you get food, shelter and protection.
Ex 21 goes on to explain that if a bondservant gets struck, so that he suffers injury, he gets his justice or retribution from his Master.
In other words an eye for an eye still counts, but the Master will get the revenge, not the slave. Thus if a man does slap you on the cheek, turn your other cheek, because you do not get your justice from him, but you get your justice from Elohim!
Thus Yehshua did not change the Torah from ‘an eye for an eye’ to ‘you must just get slapped and be the better person’. No He made it better! We are His servants and He will get revenge:
Rom 12:19, "Beloved, do not revenge yourselves, but give place to the wrath, for it has been written, “Vengeance is Mine, I shall repay,” says YHWH””
The Word teaches us that we are bondservants of the Messiah. That is why Sha’ul and John said, “I am a bond servant of Messiah, called an apostle” Yehshua came as a servant of the Father.
Grace = unmerited favour/receiving something you did not deserve. SALVATION.
Mercy = Not getting something you do deserve. NOT GETTING PUNISHED FOR OUR SIN.
Yeh’shua dying for our sins is the ultimate MERCY.
He did not take away the law; He took away the penalty for breaking the law!
So we are free, free from our penalty, not from obedience.
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