14.2 Par’shah- Va’era

[alon]

This week’s readings:
Date of reading- Jan 5, 2019/ 28 Tevet 5779
Name of Par’shah- Va’era, I Appeared
Par’shah- Exodus 6:2-9:35
Haftara- Ezekiel 28:25-29:21
Brit Chadashah- Romans 9:14-17, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

D’rash: I want to focus on the B’rith Chadashah portions this week:

Romans 9:14-17 (ESV) … Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” … “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

We tend to think this means there are winners and losers in God’s arbitrary decision. However I want to put forth that this is a win-win act of mercy on God’s part.

Exodus 7:1 (ESV) And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

In Moshe, the greatest prophet, we see the principle that a prophet of God is also a shaliach.

Exodus 7:2-5 (ESV) … tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land.  But … Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

In judging Mitzrayim so harshly God showed the Egyptian people just who actually is Adonei HaAdonim, Lord of Lords (Deu 10:17). Thus they had the option to join His people and worship Him only, which many of them did. He showed rachem (mercy) to all people.

Ezekiel 28:25-26 (ESV) “… When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land … They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors … Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”

Again, “they will know that I am the Lord.” The Hebrews knew that He was their God. But His holiness was manifest “in the sight of the nations,” who also knew He was Adonei HaAdonim. This is the calling of the Jews, to be a light to the nations so that they may have salvation. So again, a win-win, and act of rachem by Elohe Yeshuathi, God of My Salvation (Psalm 18:46).

2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 17b; 17:1 (ESV) Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? … Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? … Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body [Greek flesh] and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

So when we become Messianic should we divorce an unbelieving spouse?

Devarim 24:1 (OJB) When an ish hath taken an isha, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no chen (favor) in his eyes, because he hath found some ervat davar (matter of immorality) in her; then let him write her a sefer keritut and give it in her hand, and send her out of his bais;
H6172 immorality- ערוה ʻervâh, er-vaw'; from H6168; nudity, literally (especially the pudenda) or figuratively (disgrace, blemish):—nakedness, , uncleanness.

Some sages interpreted “uncleanness” as “for any reason.” Others maintained marriage could only be dissolved for grave sins. Yeshua settled this question, “Can a man divorce his wife for any cause?” “No,” only for the reasons God allows. Rav Shaul would later expand on this; ample evidence that Yeshua’s answer is specific, not comprehensive:

1 Corinthians 7:12,16 (ESV) To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. … For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

The most complete recording of Yeshua’s comments on divorce is in Matthew:

Matthew 5:31-32  (NASB) “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matthew 19:3-9 (NASB)  Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”  And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? … What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”  He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality [Lit fornication], and marries another woman commits adultery [Some early mss read makes her commit adultery; others add and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery].” 
G3429 adultery- μοιχάω moicháō; from G3432; (middle voice) to commit adultery:—commit adultery; to have unlawful intercourse with another’s wife

Yeshua answered the idea of “divorce for any cause” by rejecting it. But this only addressed men divorcing their wives for frivolous reasons. He does not address reasons for a woman to divorce her husband. God did not nullify a woman’s right to be divorced from a man for cause. Verse 27 deals with a slave, however it is in the same passage, and it would be inconceivable a slaves rights are more than a wife’s:

Exodus 21:10-11, 27 (ESV) If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing … If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

[alon]

Jan 3, 2019 11:50:29 GMT -8 alon said:

Matthew 5:31-32  (NASB) “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matthew 19:3-9 (NASB)  Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”  And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? … What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”  He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality [Lit fornication], and marries another woman commits adultery [Some early mss read makes her commit adultery; others add and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery].” 
G3429 adultery- μοιχάω moicháō; from G3432; (middle voice) to commit adultery:—commit adultery; to have unlawful intercourse with another’s wife

Rav S pointed out tonight that the Greek translators often got the terms or divorce and put away confused. They interchanged them  lot, which has caused some confusion.

To "put away" meant to place her in one home and support her, but either be fooling around or even have another family of which she knows nothing. But he unlawfully withholds his affections rom her, so she may think she is divorced.

"Divorce" is severing the covenant; setting her free.

What Yeshua is talking about is men who do not make her marital status clear to her, so she goes and marries another while still actually married to him. That is how they made her guilty of adultery. He is not saying divorced people cannot remarry.

Dan C

[Elizabeth]

We are a little behind as the kids visited my parents over the holiday break, so we were reading through chapter 9 in Exodus today. We noticed an interesting commentary on the state of rebellion and what evil does to people in the reading. Everything the magicians were able to actually accomplish only made the physical situation worse. A really good way to help illustrate the blind stupidity of rebellion is to point out that Pharoah had a problem with too many frogs, meanwhile he summoned magicians to make more frogs.

This also shows the wisdom of G-d and how He can actually work with even those who refuse to work with Him in their stubborn foolishness. We are really good at making our situations worse, and I think G-d used the magicians to show this. Pharoah literally helped G-d even while he tried to thwart Him.

I used to wonder why He allowed the magicians to accomplish anything. I had settled with it being just about how G-d worked with the state of Pharoah's heart, but it's actually a really wise and obvious truth we can see. Nothing outside the will of G-d can happen that doesn't ultimately help but reveal Him. Meanwhile we can plan on it also revealing a lot of blind, stubborn, fleshly stupidity.