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Reflection for B’har-B’chuqotai

“Obedience and Love for One Another”

Luke 4:16-21
1 Corinthians 7:21-24
Galatians 6:7-10

John 14:15-21; 15:10-12
1 John

excerpted from TorahScope Apostolic Scriptures Reflections

This week with our Torah reading (Leviticus 25:1-26:2; 26:3-27:34), we complete the Book of Leviticus. For most of this text, Moses has been instructing the Israelites in various regulations, commands, statutes, and laws, for them to be holy and live reverently before God. Without any significant fanfare, the foundational concept communicated to Israel was simply: If they obeyed the Lord, then He would bless them. Here is just a small summary of the blessings He promised:

“If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land” (Leviticus 26:3-6, WMB).

In the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, when the Southern Kingdom was about to be chastised for its disobedience, the contrast was made between trusting or obeying mortals, versus trusting and obeying the Lord. Jeremiah directly communicated how evil and deceitful the human heart can be:

“The LORD says: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings’” (Jeremiah 17:5-10, WMB).

At the end of Jeremiah 17, readers see how there is an emphasis placed on proper remembrance of the Sabbath. If the Sabbath was honored and kept, then God’s blessings would manifest themselves—but severe penalties and consequences would manifest themselves if the Sabbath was improperly observed and or just flat disregarded:

“The LORD said this to me: ‘Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. Tell them, “Hear the LORD’s word, you kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: The LORD says, ‘Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,’ says the LORD, ‘to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever. They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD’s house. But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. It will not be quenched’” (Jeremiah 17:19-27, WMB).

It was probably passages just like this one which led to the Jewish Sages concluding that final redemption would come to Israel, if it could keep two consecutives Sabbaths properly: “Said R. Yohanan in the name of R. Simeon b. Yohai, “If the Israelites keep two successive Sabbaths in a proper manner, they will be saved immediately” (b.Shabbat 118b).[1] How much is involved in understanding the significance of Shabbat—its message of rest from labors, communion with the Holy One, and a sanctified time—which is still yet to be understood by His people? How long could it be for Israel to keep two Sabbaths in a row properly?

Yeshua the Messiah taught how love for Him would manifest itself, by proper obedience to the commandments. Such obedience would not only naturally result in blessings, but also in His followers truly experiencing spiritual intimacy with the Father:

“If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive, for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him’…If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 14:15-21; 15:10-12, WMB).

If love for God manifests itself in obedience—and Messiah followers get to experience a great communion with Him as a result—what would disobedience bring? We are not talking about human ignorance of various commandments, but a strong willed desire to not obey at all or have any instructions regulate our behavior. Would this not merit some kind of (severe) penalty from the Creator?

There is a direct link between loving the Lord, and following His commandments. This does not only evidence itself in a reverent fear for Him, but also in a recognizable love for one’s fellow Believers. As the Messiah put it, how His own demonstrate love for one another, will be natural evidence that they are truly His:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35, WMB).

Remembering Shabbat as a holy time every week is very important, and there is probably much about the Sabbath which Believers today do not yet understand. Unfortunately, many of today’s Messianics have a tendency to become overly-worried about the regulations of the Sabbath—becoming embroiled in nitpicking and arguments about why others are not as good as they are in keeping it—and very little energy is actually expelled on loving and treating others with kindness and respect. Is not Shabbat to be a time where we focus on the Lord, and from our relationship with Him we do what is right?

If Believers can exemplify the tangible ability to love one another, then perhaps the lost world observing such love just might be attracted to the message of the gospel. We can then welcome them into our Sabbath fellowships, and all enter into His presence together! Let us make this happen this week!