The Simcha of Mishpocha, Part Three
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The Simcha of Mishpocha
Part Three: From Slave to Servant, from Foreigner to Friend
In Part One we clarified that one of the key purposes of living a Torah-observant lifestyle is to testify to the truth of HaShem and the atoning sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. In Part Two, we concluded that the foundation of our halacha (our walk with HaShem through daily observance of the mitzvot) is our love for HaShem, grounded in our trust in Yeshua HaMashiach. We discussed the familial structure outlined in Torah. We applied it equally to the people of Israel and the talmidim of Messiah. We concluded that this familial structure was designed to act as a support system in accordance with the mitzvot and the teachings of Yeshua. Finally, we asked:
If the greatest command is to "love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, soul, and strength," and, in order to testify to the truth of this, we must live out the mitzvot, how can we claim the veracity of this greatest mitzvot without also observing the second greatest, "to love your close companion as yourself," with equal fervor?Here, in Part Three, we seek to answer the following questions:
What does it mean to love your close companion as yourself?
How do you go about exhibiting such love?
What rewards come from loving each other in accordance with Torah?
The What
In loving each other as Yeshua loved us, we must recognize that, along with being the servant of Adonai, Yeshua was the shamas, the servant of His people. If we are to mirror His actions in loving one another, we must take into account His level of servitude towards His talmidim. For it was Yeshua Himself who instructed, "No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends" [John 15:13].
After [Yeshua] had washed their feet, taken back his clothes and returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me `Rabbi' and `Lord,' and you are right, because I am. Now if I, the Lord and Rabbi, have washed your feet, you also should wash each other's feet. For I have set you an example, so that you may do as I have done to you. Yes, indeed! I tell you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is an emissary greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. [John 13:12-17]This lesson was not an easy one for the talmidim. Although they followed Yeshua faithfully, leaving their jobs, their families, and all that they knew to go with Him, the talmidim did not always understand or apply Yeshua's principles to their own lives. For example:
They [Yeshua and the talmidim] arrived at K'far-Nachum. When Yeshua was inside the house, He asked them, "What were you discussing as we were traveling?" But they kept quiet; because on the way, they had been arguing with each other about who was the greatest. He sat down, summoned the Twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all." [Mark 9:33-35]As with the Torah, Yeshua repeated His teachings multiple times in order to be understood. At a different time, Yeshua repeated to the talmidim the lesson that, in order to lead, one must first be willing to serve:
"Nor are you to let yourselves be called `leaders,' because you have one Leader, and he is the Messiah! The greatest among you must be your servant, for whoever promotes himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be promoted." [Matthew 23:10-12]
Yeshua called them and said, "You know that among the Goyim, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. Among you, it must not be like that. On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave! For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve -- and to give his life as a ransom for many." [Matthew 20:25-28]In other words, we, as His talmidim, are to consider ourselves servants, even slaves, to both Adonai and each other. There are three analogous testimonies made through incorporating servitude into our halacha. Our servitude testifies to:
*Our love for each other :: our love for Adonai, the foundation of our relationship with Him.
*The truth of Torah :: The veracity and character of Messiah Yeshua
*Our separation from the pagan world of the goyim :: Our role as those called out and set aside for G-d's unique purpose
The How
In order to understand how to take on the attitude of a servant/slave, we must understand the role of the servant within the body of Messiah. To understand this, we must first look to Torah.
Servants and slaves are mentioned throughout the mitzvot. They are instructed to keep Shabbat (Exodus 20:10), to be given refuge when they have escaped from their masters (Deuteronomy 23:15-16), to be liberated on the seventh year of their service (Exodus 21:12), to be given an equal share of the food stored for the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:6), and, if they are a slave of the cohen, to be the only members of the household to partake in his food with him (Leviticus 22:10-11). The level of equality granted to the servant/slave in the mitzvot is affirmed in the cofirmation of the covenant in Deuteronomy:
Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper. "Today you are standing, all of you, before ADONAI your God - your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers - all the men of Isra'el, along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water. The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of ADONAI your God and into his oath which ADONAI your God is making with you today..." [Deuteronomy 29:9-12, emphasis mine]Here, servants or slaves, those who do the work for the Israelites, also known as foreigners, are counted among those entering into the covenant of Adonai. Therefore, the same blessings and curses that apply to the people of Israel apply to the foreigner/servant/slave in their midst. The Torah was not just a gift to and contract with the Hebrew people. In fact, the Torah was a gift to and a contract with all those present at Mount Sinai, both Hebrew and gentile alike.
The concept of servants being foreigners on equal footing with the rest of am Yisrael (the people of Israel) is one that continues through the prophets. In speaking of the "end of days," the prophet Isaiah writes:
"Adonai ELOHIM answers: "I am beckoning to the nations, raising my banner for the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster-fathers, their princesses your nurses. They will bow to you, face toward the earth, and lick the dust on your feet. Then you will know that I am ADONAI - those who wait for me will not be sorry." [Isaiah 49:22-23]and,
"Foreigners will rebuild your walls, their kings will be at your service; for in my anger I struck you, but in my mercy I pity you." [Isaiah 60:10]Foreigners--even foreign rulers--will be at the service of am Yisrael. Yet, the people of Israel will not be in the status of royalty, per se. Their cities will be destroyed, their country ruined, and they will be carried back to a devastated land from Diaspora. Truthfully, this is not a glorious picture of Israel, because the glory does not belong to Israel. The glory is for Israel to witness, and they will witness it through the servitude of the foreigner. It is the servitude that acts as a testimony to the truth of Adonai, to whom is given all the glory.
This is the crux of it: That the role of the servant is not a personal (or personnel) classification, but an action that glorifies Adonai and testifies to the truth of His promises. This is why the servant, the slave, the foreigner is put on equal footing with the rest of am Yisrael: because their role is that of a servant of Adonai, not of men. In serving the people of Israel, they are serving to attest to the truth of Adonai and His promises to His people.
The Rewards
In humbling themselves and becoming servants of Adonai, the foreigners opened themselves to the blessings of HaShem. When Yeshua taught that "whoever humbles himself will be promoted," truly, among those He was speaking of were the foreigners of Sinai who, by humbling themselves into "chopping wood" and "drawing water" for the people of Israel, became equal inheritors of the promise of Torah: Yeshua the Messiah Himself.
Yeshua was also speaking of the foreign servants and kings who would "lick the dust" from the feet of am Yisrael when they are called rebuild the land. In speaking of the foreigner, the prophet Ezekiel said:
"You are to divide [the land] by lot as an inheritance both to you and to the foreigners living among you who give birth to children living among you; for you they are to be no different from the native-born among the people of Isra'el - they are to have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Isra'el. You are to give the foreigner an inheritance in the territory of the tribe with whom he is living,' says Adonai ELOHIM." [Ezekiel 47:22-23]This is not merely a prophecy of a future event. It is the teaching of a principle found in Torah and echoed throughout Jewish history, most notably, in the story of Ruth. Given three chances to turn back, Ruth from Moav not only chose to stay with Naomi, but to claim her Hebrew mother-in-law's G-d and people as her own through swearing an oath in the name of Adonai. [Ruth 1:16-17]
Ruth was not prized by Naomi, who changed her name to Marah (bitter) and declared, "I went out full, and Adonai has brought me back empty" [1:20-21]. Likewise, the Israelites of Bethlehem viewed Ruth with little regard, referring to her as nothing more than "a girl from Moav" [2:6]. However, Ruth willingly relegated herself to the duty of servant to her embittered mother-in-law. Taking the lowest of jobs, Ruth asked to gather grain behind the reapers in the fields, a role usually reserved for beggars. Although Naomi elected to return to Israel, it was her foreign daughter-in-law Ruth who acted as her servant in the land, willingly providing food for the household.
Boaz, the owner of the field in which Ruth gathered her grain, proved the exception to the rule when it came to Israeli character. Unlike his neighbors, Boaz protected, provided for, encouraged, and blessed Ruth. He also treated her as an equal, inviting her to dine and glean alongside the other reapers, and instructing his workers not to rebuke her. [2:8-16] Boaz respected Ruth for her actions in standing with and serving Naomi in a land and among a people totally foreign to her. In exhibiting such respect, Boaz was fulfilling the mitzvah regarding how Israelites should treat the foreigners in their midst:
"[Adonai] secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. Therefore you are to love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt." [Deuteronomy 10:18-19]In adhering to the teachings of Torah, both Ruth and Boaz were blessed with their marriage to each other. Through their union, Naomi's ancestral lands were made secure for future generations, passing to Boaz and Ruth and to their children. [4:9-10] Through their obedience to the instruction of HaShem, Ruth and Boaz also opened themselves to an even greater reward: the gift of continuing the family line through which Yeshua would come into this world. So, you see, the foreigner in our midst who elects to worship Adonai and adhere to His principles, His mitzvot, are given an equal part in the covenant, the land, and the lineage of Israel. As HaShem speaks through the prophet Isaiah:
I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows on the riverbanks. One will say, "I belong to Adonai." Another will be called by the name of Ya'akov. Yet another will write that he belongs to Adonai and adopt the surname Isra'el. '[Isaiah 44:3-5, emphasis mine]We began this portion by quoting Yeshua's teaching, No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. It is examining the passage from which this quote is taken in its entirety that we clearly see Yeshua illuminating the principles of Torah, the promises of the prophets, and the teachings of our history:
"Just as my Father has loved me, I too have loved you; so stay in my love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in my love -- just as I have kept my Father's commands and stay in his love. I have said this to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy be complete. "This is my command: that you keep on loving each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave doesn't know what his master is about; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you. This is what I command you: keep loving each other!" [John 15:9-17]To love each other, we must be each other's servants. It is through our willingness to serve each other that we glorify Adonai, thereby opening ourselves to the blessings and promises of Torah. Whether we are Hebrews or goyim by birth does not matter; in choosing to become G-dly servants we are equal inheritors of the covenant (Torah) the land and the lineage of Israel.
Messianic Judaism
Judaism
Torah
Yeshua
Ruth
mishpocha
Christianity
posted by Shoshana @ 8:00 PM
