Parasha Shoftim August 26, 2017 Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 Isaiah 51:12-52:12 John 1:19-27

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1 Parasha Shoftim August 26, 2017 Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 Isaiah 51:12-52:12 John 1:19-27 Our parasha is Shoftim meaning, Judges. Moshe begins by commanding that judges and officers be appointed within each of the tribes of Israel. ADONAI is concerned about צ ד ק צ ד ק, ת ר ד ף begins: righteous judgment; judgment without partiality or bribery. Verse 20 Tsedek tsedek tirdof, translated justice, justice, you must pursue (TLV). There is also another way to look at it. You are familiar with Hebraic doubling. The example we think of most often is shalom, shalom. We say this often to each other. It means perfect peace. Doubling a word causes it to be perfect. Isaiah uses this same imagery in 26:3: 3 You keep in perfect peace one whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You (Isaiah 26:3 TLV). That s a great verse too, a verse that we also need to focus on during these troubled times. The Hebrew in Isaiah 26:3 says shalom, shalom, but is translated perfect peace in English. In Deuteronomy 16:20 we can translate tsedek, tsedek tirdof as pursue perfect justice. That s what ADONAI has commanded Israel to do; be unbiased and fair, perfect justice, in all matters of justice. Today, we re going to go back a few weeks and consider the Seven Shabbats of Consolation which began three weeks ago with Parasha Va etchanan. It s about the seven haftarah portions from Isaiah beginning with Parasha Va etchanan (haftarah Isaiah 40:1-26). Va etchanan is the Shabbat which follows Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the month of Av, which occurred four days earlier on Tuesday, August 1 st. The 9 th of Av has been a terrible day in the history of Israel and includes such catastrophic events as the return of the twelve spies from Canaan with a bad report, the destruction of both the 1 st and 2 nd Temples and a number of other terrible events which befell the Jews. The first Shabbat after Tisha B Av, the first of these seven Shabbats of comfort, is called by the rabbis, Shabbat Nachamu, which means Sabbath of Comfort. Nachamu is the first word in the haftarah portion for Parasha Va etchanan. And, the words of these seven haftarah portions are messages of comfort from ADONAI to Israel after the trials and sorrows of Tisha B'Av. It s very possible that these haftarah portions date from the time of Yeshua and before. In Hebrew, Isaiah 40, verse 1 reads: Nachamu nachamu ami yomar Eloheychem. "Comfort, comfort my people, says Your G-d" (Isaiah 40:1 TLV). Verse 2 says: 2 "Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her that she has completed her time of service, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received at the hand of ADONAI double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:2 TLV). This is a prophetic message from ADONAI to Judah through Isaiah proclaiming the coming of their salvation. Here in verse 1 we have another example of Hebraic doubling. Saying nachamu, nachamu, the Prophet Isaiah is saying to his kinsmen that ADONAI said: give perfect comfort to my people. The haftarah portion from Isaiah for each of these seven Shabbats has the same theme; comfort. The theme of these seven portions becomes even more significant if we go back one week before Parasha Va etchanan and understand the haftarah portion of Parasha Devarim, 1

2 the parasha of the Shabbat which immediately preceded Tisha B Av. It is called Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision, because the haftarah portion that week describes Isaiah s vision of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which includes the Temple (Isaiah 1:1-27). Because of Israel s unrighteousness, ADONAI describes His punishment for them in the haftarah for Parasha Devarim, but after the terribleness of Tisha B Av, He follows it with seven haftarah messages of comfort. These words of comfort emphasize His love, His forgiveness and the message that He will redeem them. What we also need to understand today is that these words in Isaiah are messages to the southern kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah and to Jerusalem. The northern kingdom of Israel was no longer present, having been defeated and taken into captivity by the Assyrians some twenty-odd years before Isaiah wrote this. And, the truth is, that at the time Isaiah is prophesying, many of those from the northern tribes are now living in Judah, having fled from the invaders, some from each of the tribes. The first Shabbat of Comfort, Parasha Va etchanan, as we said, is called Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation. It is the only one which was given a name. For all seven of these haftarot, I have chosen a verse or verses from them which is representative of ADONAI s comfort to Judah. Parasha Va etchanan (40:1-26) 1 Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. 2 Speak kindly to the heart of Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed. For she has received from Adonai s hand double for all her sins (Isaiah 40:1-2 TLV). Parasha Ekev (49:14-51:3): 15 Can a woman forget her nursing baby or lack compassion for a child of her womb? Even if these forget, I will not forget you (Isaiah 49:15 TLV). Parasha Re eh (Isaiah 54:11-55:5): 17 No weapon formed against you will prosper and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Adonai s servants their vindication is from Me. It is a declaration of Adonai (Isaiah 54:17 TLV). Parasha Shoftim (Isaiah 51:12-52:12): 22 Thus says your Lord, Adonai your God who defends His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of reeling, the bowl of My wrath. You will never drink it again (Isaiah 51:22 TLV). Parasha Ki Tetze (Isaiah 54:1-10) 5 For your Maker is your husband Adonai-Tzva ot is His Name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called God of all the earth (Isaiah 54:5 TLV). Parasha Ki Tavo (Isaiah 60:1-22): 1 Arise, shine, for your light has come! The glory of Adonai has risen on you (Isaiah 60:1 TLV). Parashot Nitzavim/Vayelech (Isaiah 61:10-63:9): 4 No longer will you be termed Forsaken, no longer your land termed Desolate. Instead you will be called, My Delight is in Her and your land, Married. For Adonai delights in you, and your land will be married (Isaiah 62:4 TLV). Some Christians, over 50%, believe that ADONAI has permanently divorced Israel and the Church is the new Israel. I believe they have seriously misunderstood these prophecies which ADONAI gave to Isaiah. In Isaiah 50, verse 1, ADONAI is speaking to Zion, Jerusalem and says through the prophet: 1 Thus says Adonai: Where is the divorce certificate, by which I sent your mother away?.. (Isaiah 50:1 TLV). This is a rhetorical question by ADONAI, and in effect, He is saying: I don t see a divorce certificate. In other words, you have not been given a divorce certificate. This is shown to be true by later statements by ADONAI to Isaiah. ADONAI is still Zion s and Judah s husband. He has not given her a get, a bill of divorcement. The ketubah, the marriage contract, given at our kiddushin, our betrothal at Mount Sinai, is still in effect. After betrothal, bride and groom are officially married, but the marriage is not consummated until after the erusin ceremony, which has not yet occurred between ADONAI and Israel. He makes it clear in Isaiah 62 that there has been no divorce: 5 For your Maker is your husband Adonai-Tzva ot is His Name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called God of all the earth (Isaiah 54:5 TLV). Our Creator is our husband, ba al in 2

3 Hebrew; our Lord. The Hebrew translated Redeemer is go el, which actually means kinsman redeemer. Who is Israel s Kinsman Redeemer? It is the one who will be called God of all the earth; Yeshua! Continuing in Isaiah 62: 4 No longer will you be termed Forsaken, no longer your land termed Desolate. Instead you will be called, My Delight is in Her and your land, Married. For Adonai delights in you, and your land will be married. 5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you (Isaiah 62:4-5 TLV). When ADONAI speaks of Israel as a bride, we have to remember that our relationship to Him is: we are His betrothed; Yeshua s betrothed. The actual marriage ceremony, erusin, has not yet occurred and the marriage has not yet been consummated. We are waiting with oil in our lamps, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, for Yeshua to return and take us into His Father s house (See Matthew 25:1-13; The Parable of the Ten Virgins). There, at that time, the marriage will be symbolically consummated and we will be fully and completely His. Our focus as members of Messianic Judaism is different than that of the Church. Although ultimately our goals are the same, our immediate goal is the salvation of Israel while the Church focuses on the salvation of everyone. Whose focus is correct? The answer is, the focus which ADONAI has given each. He has called us, Messianic Judaism, to pray for the salvation of our brother and sister Jews and to restore a correct interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures. The church has lost its Jewish focus and sees Scripture as generic or universal. Although we have the same Messiah and the same ultimate goal, at this time, we are different. And, as Messianic Judaism, we understand that the salvation of all Israel, when it occurs, will ultimately lead to the salvation of a great multitude of Gentiles. If we look at these seven haftarot of comfort as a group, we see within them, another message of comfort. It is Isaiah 53, verses 1-12: <1. Is. 40:1-26> <2. Is. 49:14-51:3> <3. Is. 54:11-55:5> <4. Is. 52:12-52:12> <Isaiah 53:1-12> <5. Is. 54:1-10> <6. Is. 60:1-22> <7. 61:10-63:9>. Isaiah 53 is also a message of comfort, but one that has been rejected by this present Jewish generation. Our Messianic Jewish theologians do a great job in debating Jewish anti-missionaries, traditional Jews who insist that Isaiah 53 does not refer to the Messiah, but to the people of Israel, the Jewish people. The anti-missionaries put forth all sorts of arguments as to why this man of suffering in Isaiah 53 is a picture of the Jews and not the Messiah. But, the truth is that many Jewish rabbis, ancient and modern, have seen the truth, the truth that Isaiah 53 is a picture of Yeshua. There is not time to cover them all. Here is a link to an excellent article which shows that many prominent rabbis, from the 1 st century to modern times, have understood that these 12 verses refer to the Mashiach. Now, let s examine the 12 verses of Isaiah 53 (TLV). 1 Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of Adonai revealed? Arm, zeroah in Hebrew, is a picture of Messiah: 10 Adonai has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:10). His holy zeroah is the right arm of ADONAI, Yeshua our Messiah! 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, nor beauty that we should desire Him. Root, shoresh in Hebrew, is also a reference to Yeshua: 10 It will also come about in that day that the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek for Him, and His resting place will be glorious (Isaiah 11:10). Yeshua, the descendant of 3

4 Jesse, Yishai, the father of King David, is the unlikely shoresh which will grow into a banner covering all of Israel. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, One from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. The we is the majority of Jewish people through the ages. They have not seen Yeshua as their Messiah. But, this is ADONAI s plan: 25 For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be ignorant of this mystery lest you be wise in your own eyes that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; (Romans 11:25). We cannot question our Creator in His reasoning; His plan is perfect. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. Carried is nasah in Hebrew: 22 The goat will carry all their iniquities by itself into a solitary land and he is to leave the goat in the wilderness (Leviticus 16:22). The goat is the scapegoat, on which all the sins of Israel were placed on Yom Kippur. Yeshua fulfils that picture. As the Scapegoat, He took upon Himself the sins of the world; every sin ever committed or that ever will be committed. 5 But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 17 For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet (Psalm 22:17). Yeshua had spikes driven into His hands and feet because of our sins, but the stripes of a lash on His back, have healed us; of our sins and also of our diseases. 6 We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to his own way. So Adonai has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Way in Hebrew is derech. 25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death (Proverbs 16:25). Each of us has sought his own derech, his own way, but Yeshua is the only derech! And, because Yeshua is the only derech, ADONAI has laid our iniquity, our avon, our guilt, on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb for the household (Exodus 12:3). Lamb in Hebrew is seh. Yeshua is the seh who entered Jerusalem on the 10 th of Nisan and was examined for four days until the 14 th of Nisan when He was slaughtered. And, He remained silent to all of the torture and pain that was placed upon Him, the Passover Lamb, the Pesach Seh! 8 Because of oppression and judgment He was taken away. As for His generation, who considered? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people the stroke was theirs. 26 Then after the 62 weeks Mashiach will be cut off and have nothing (Daniel 9:26a). Cut off from the land of the living is to be killed. Yeshua was killed for the transgression of Daniel s people, the Jews, but ultimately for the transgression, the sins, of the whole world. And, it happened at the proper time in the 1 st century, just as Daniel prophesied. 9 His grave was given with the wicked, and by a rich man in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. His grave, kever in Hebrew, was among the wicked, the criminals on either side as He died. And, His tomb, His kever, was provided by Yosef, His wealthy disciple. See Matthew 27: He had done no violence, no chamas, and there was no deceit, no mirmas, in His mouth. 4

5 10 Yet it pleased Adonai to bruise Him. He caused Him to suffer. If He makes His soul a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the will of Adonai will succeed by His hand. Guilt offering, asham in Hebrew, was a type of offering which carried with it a penalty of restitution for that which was lost. Yeshua, as our asham, has restored to us our lives, our lives which were forfeited because of sin. He was made a sin offering for us (2Corinthians 5:21) so that we might obtain the righteousness of G-d. As we said a few moments ago regarding Isaiah 53:4, the Scapegoat is a picture of Yeshua. Yeshua became sin for us. As the Scapegoat, He had all the sins placed upon Him and then died in the wilderness for those sins. He was both the sin and the sacrifice and was the only one who could be both the sin and the sacrifice. And, that is because ADONAI placed all of our sins on Him and then gave His Son as our sacrifice, He took with Him all of our sins. 14 He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us (our sins), which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul (Messiah Yeshua s) He (ADONAI) will see it and be satisfied by His knowledge. The Righteous One, My Servant will make many righteous and He will bear their iniquities. ADONAI saw His Son Yeshua in anguish and was satisfied that what He had planned, forgiveness and salvation for everyone, had been accomplished. Tzadik Avdi, My Righteous Servant, Yeshua, has borne our iniquities and made us righteous. 5 Behold, days are coming it is a declaration of Adonai when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as king wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jeremiah 23:5). Yeshua, the righteous Branch, will soon be our King! 12 Therefore I will give Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the mighty because He poured out His soul to death, and was counted with transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. Yeshua poured out His nefesh, His soul, to mavet, death. He died as a criminal. But He nasah, He carried, our sins as the Scapegoat of Leviticus 22. And, He interceded for those who had done this to Him: 34 But Yeshua was saying, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). The majority of the Jews of today will not understand this picture of the man of sorrows as a description of Yeshua, who paid for their salvation. But, some Jews will, and we continue to pray for Jews to come to Yeshua now. Those saved now are the firstfruits of Israel, the firstfruits of the salvation of all Israel which will soon happen. 20 But a Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression. It is a declaration of Adonai. 21 As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Adonai: My Ruach who is on you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your offspring, or from the mouth of your children s offspring, says Adonai, from now on and forever (Isaiah 59:20-21). Pray for Israel, the Jews, that many would come to Yeshua as firstfruits, even before the salvation of all, according to ADONAI s eternal promise. Show those whom you have the opportunity to show, that Yeshua is also the Prophet like Moses in today s parasha in Deuteronomy 18 (Deuteronomy 18: 15; 18-19). And, pray that the Church will come to understand the Jewishness of their Scriptures. Shabbat shalom! 5

Route 66 Understanding Isaiah. Dr. Stephen Rummage, Senior Pastor Bell Shoals Baptist Church May 18, 2016

Route 66 Understanding Isaiah. Dr. Stephen Rummage, Senior Pastor Bell Shoals Baptist Church May 18, 2016 1 Route 66 Understanding Isaiah Dr. Stephen Rummage, Senior Pastor Bell Shoals Baptist Church May 18, 2016 Isaiah 6:1 (ESV) In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high