Beha'alotcha - בהעלותך - "When you set up"
Numbers 8:1-12:15
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. (Numbers 12:1-9)
Throughout this year’s Torah cycle we have explored the meaning of Torah continuously in the commentaries. So far we’ve established that Torah is the constitution of Israel, it is the lifestyle that we should live, it is the physical end results of our faith and it defines righteousness and sin according to God. Torah is the guideline for establishing and maintaining a relationship with God. There is so much to learn from Torah that I doubt anyone can get the full understanding of Torah in one lifetime.
We also explored the fact that Torah is the foundation of the entire Bible. After we read the book of Deuteronomy, just about every other book in the Old Testament is God primarily trying to get Israel back to His Torah. Torah is so important that the “New Covenant” is based on Torah being in our hearts and the Holy Spirit leading us to obey it.
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:22-27)
Torah is important to God and Torah is important for us today. Torah was important to Paul otherwise he would not have said things such as;
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31)
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:12)
Torah is important to Yeshua. Many people do not realize that when Satan was tempting Yeshua in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), Yeshua was repelling Satan’s attacks with scriptures only from the book of Deuteronomy which is also known as the “Book of the Law” because it repeats all the commands that God gave Moses to give to Israel.
In this week’s Torah portion we learn little bit more about Torah.
And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. (Numbers 12:6-8)
Although the entire Bible is important from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 the root books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy stands apart from all other scriptures. After the book of Deuteronomy, every book is the inspired Word of God written by men who interacted with God through visions and dreams. We can go down the list of great prophets from Joseph, to Daniel, Isaiah, even if we look at the Minor Prophets they all encountered God through dreams and visions. However, this was not the case with Moses.
What God had to share with Moses was so important, that the All Powerful, All Spiritual Creator of the Universe, physically stood before Moses and told him, “Write this down.” Moses was not sleeping or caught up in visions when he communicated with God, they were speaking to one another as 2 people sitting in a room engaged in a conversation.
Not only did God speak to Moses directly and physically, but He spoke to him “clearly, and not in riddles.” We do not have to guess at what God is saying in Torah. Of course we will have questions as we continue to study Torah, for example; in last week’s Torah portion we read the process of what a husband should do if they believe that their wife had an affair. As we read this section we can come up with tons of questions, “Why does it only apply to the wives and not the husbands?” “Why did God use that particular method?” We can continue to pile on the questions; however, if there was a Temple today and the Levites were still administering Torah to Israel, there would be no question as to what should be done or how it should be done in that situation.
There is so much confusion within the body of Messiah because so many have strayed from Torah. Torah is straight and simple. If everyone truly understood that Torah is the root of the entire Bible we would not have silly debates within the body of believers about gay marriages, tattoos and what is food and not food. If we all focused more on Torah we would not need to question whether or not to watch a movie that promotes magic as something good or whether we should watch a movie whose main hero is the thunder god.
As we read this week’s Torah portion it makes more sense when Yeshua said, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30).” God does not give us commands that we cannot keep, if He did then He could not be just or loving. The things that Moses wrote down were clear and simple, without riddles and without parables. God loves us so much that He made loving Him easy to do, but let me leave you with a word of caution.
As I mentioned before in previous commentaries, righteousness does not come from following Torah. If an individual reads the Bible and choose to follow it, where is their salvation?
If it is based on their own decision to follow God, then they become their own salvation. We do not choose God; our walk with Him begins when He chooses us. Do not put faith in your actions of following Torah; you must place your faith in Yeshua because He alone brings salvation.
Even if you are perfectly following Torah, if your actions are not lead by the Holy Spirit then your actions are still without righteousness. Pray to God that your actions are powered by His Holy Spirit, pray to God that Jeremiah 31:33-34 and Ezekiel 36:22-27 becomes an experience in your life.
Continue to seek His face and continue to develop a perfect walk with Him and when your heart is ready He will call you.