Mashiach's Torah and the Lawless One

After reading Parsha Ki Teitzei I find it very difficult reconciling the teachings of many Bible scholars, pastors and teachers who say that we are no longer under the law, the ones that say the law of Moshe (Moses) has been done away with. Let us look together at some of the things HaShem is teaching us in this Parsha:

Devarim {22:1} You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother.

In other words if you find something that does not belong to you but you know whose it does belong to, do not keep it, return it! Does that sound like something that has been done away with by Yeshua HaMashiach? Should it be done away with?

Devarim {22:4} You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again.

In other words if you see someone who is in need of help, someone who is struggling in labour over something, do not pretend you do not see him, help him. Does that sound like something that has been done away with by Yeshua HaMashiach? Should it be done away with?

Devarim {22:5} an ishah (woman) shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall an ish (man) put on a ishah's garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to HaShem your G-D.

In other words transvestites are not for entertainment, they are something we should abhor. Why? because G-d abhors them! Perhaps if we would adhere to this mitzvah (commandment / law) we would not be in the mess we are in now!

Devarim {22:8} When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you do not bring blood on your house, if any ish fall from there.

In other words do not be negligent. You are responsible for the safety of people who work on, live in or visit your home. If you are negligent and someone gets hurt on your property, you are accountable. Does that sound like something that has been done away with by Yeshua HaMashiach? If it has, why are our courts so full of negligence cases? Should it be done away with?

Devarim {25:13} You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small. {25:14} You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small. {25:15} A perfect and just weight shall you have; a perfect and just measure shall you have: that your days may be long in the land which HaShem your G-D gives you. {25:16} For all who do such things, [even] all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to HaShem your G-D.

Very loosely translated this means, ‘keep your thumb off the scale’ and do not cheat anyone! Does that sound like something that has been done away with by Yeshua HaMashiach? Should it be done away with?

I could go on and on and explain each and every one of these mitzvot from the hardest to the easiest and I know that I will find a practical modern day application for each one of them. HaShem is timeless, therefore His Torah is timeless.

Ok, I can anticipate someone writing me and asking how this next mitzvah has application today, so I will pre-empt their question and answer it for you right away.

Devarim {25:5} If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a Zar (stranger): her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. {25:6} It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Yisrael. {25:7} If the ish doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Yisrael; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. {25:8} Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don't want to take her; {25:9} then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the ish who does not build up his brother's house. {25:10} His name shall be called in Yisrael, The house of him who has his shoe loosed.

This is a very interesting commandment and just because it is not practiced in our modern society does not render it obsolete or ineffective. People make HaShem’s laws ineffective by giving them no effect, however that does not make G-d wrong and them right, the opposite in fact is true; “Let G-d be true and every man a liar.” Today man’s law prevails but soon Yeshua HaMashiach will return and:

HaHitgalut/Revelation {19.15} And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of El Shaddai (Almighty G-d).

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) to another, and from one Shabbat to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, says HaShem.

Family is very important to HaShem therefore the preservation of family is at the core of this mitzvah. A wife becomes one with her husband therefore she is an inseparable member of her husband’s family. If after her husband’s death, she being childless (without a son), marries another man, the family chain is broken and the wife and her children from a Zar are alienated from the family. So in order to preserve the family, the place of the widowed wife in the family and the posterity of the dead husband, HaShem has given us this mitzvah. Notice that in cases other than the death of her husband a brother is forbidden to have sexual relations with his sister-in-law. This fortifies the reasoning that this mitzvah is given to preserve family. With that said how does it apply to us today in an age and society where such a practice is illegal?

There is a Scripture which I would like to use to explain this mitzvah:

Bereshit (Genesis) {2:24} Therefore an ish will leave his 'ab (father) and his 'em (mother), and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

When two become one flesh it means that the husband’s family now becomes the wife’s family. Therefore if the husband should die childless the wife should not be excluded from the family. Think about it, had there been children the widowed wife would always be a part of the family, but childlessness with remarriage to a Zar she would most likely be estranged from the husband’s family. However in fulfillment of this mitzvah today, whatever inheritance the husband would have received should now go to the wife, and the family should embrace the widowed wife by providing for her and defending her as if she were one of their own, because biblically she is!

We can practice this mitzvah today not by the surviving brother raising up an heir for his dead brother, which as I said is illegal today (unless he is single), but by never excluding a childless daughter / sister-in-law from her inheritance and her rightful place as an inseparable part of the family.

HaShem’s law is just, it is timeless and as such it has application in every believer’s life for every generation. We cannot be justified (saved) by observing the law but we can be sanctified (have the joy of our inheritance) by observing it.

As a further point of interest I would like to comment on:

Tesolonikim Bet/II Thessalonians {2.8} And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the L-rd shall consume with the Ruach (spirit) of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:

The “Wicked” being referred to in this passage is the devil, HaSatan (Satan). However the word “Wicked” used by the King James translation of the Bible according to Strong’s Concordance definition, should read “Lawless, not subject to Jewish law.” The Jewish law Strong translation is referring to is the Torah. Therefore what we can understand from this is that Satan will be someone who has excluded himself from the Torah, the law of G-d.

If in Scripture HaShem describes HaSatan as the lawless one, how will He describe you?

Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada.

Copyright 2004