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The Ten Words of LIFE
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What's NEW?
Forgiveness
by haRold Smith
a citizen of the Commonwealth (Ephesians 2:19)
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"Then Peter came up and said to him, 'Lord, how often will
MY BROTHER
sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Yeshua said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times'...
So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive
YOUR BROTHER
from your heart." Matthew 18:21-22, 35
"Pay attention to yourselves! If
YOUR BROTHER
sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."
Luke 17:3-4
Bob recently wrote to ask, "I am having a very difficult time dealing with total forgiveness. For 2000 years it has been documented that we have been fighting Muslim Extremists. Most prominent today is ISIS. I do not know how to forgive someone who will go to any lengths to kill me or my family. They obviously are also trying to destroy the concept of the one and only god I believe in. I keep reading your comments that you are sinning as well as the sinner if you do not forgive. Any suggestions?"
As seen in the article
What Is Sin? (click on highlighted words to view content),
sin is only applicable to those within YHVH's Kingdom. According to the words of Yeshua above, the forgiveness scripture speaks of is also only offered to the brethren of the Kingdom of YHVH - not the world. Perfect love in defined in 1John 3:16 - "By this we know love, that He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers" - not the world. In response, most Christians will then point to the parable of the Good Samaritan:
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"And behold,
a lawyer stood up to put him to the test,
saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?' And he answered, 'You shall love YaHoVeH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And Yeshua said to him, 'You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live'. But the lawyer,
desiring to justify himself,
said to Yeshua, 'And who is my neighbor'?"
Luke 10:25-28
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To properly understand the words of scripture, we must always consider the context they are presented in, the context of the Hebrew perspective they are presented from and the audience they are presented to. In the passage from Matthew at the start of this article, the audience Yeshua is speaking to are the disciples, those of the
Kingdom of YHVH.
Why are they considered part of the Kingdom? Because they keep
the Ten Words of Life.
The audience Yeshua was speaking to in the passage from Luke was a lawyer. Lawyers in Yeshua's day were not like the contemporary attorneys we deal with in today's culture. They, along with scribes, were the primary arbiters of the Pharisaical Orthodoxy - scholars and teachers skilled in the ways of
the Torah of Moses,
the Mishna and the Talmud (what are considered the "oral" law of Pharisaical Judaism). Most are not aware that the issues being discussed in this passage are literally taken from Torah - not some "new" revelation
(Deuteronomy 6:4-5,
Leviticus 19:18).
Here, in Leviticus, it is clearly stated who is to be considered your neighbor - the "sons of your own people". This same contextual Hebraic examination holds true for Yeshua's parable concerning the Good Samaritan when asked "who is my neighbor" in
Luke 10:29-37.
In this parable we have four participants: the injured party, a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. Who are these people? Since the parable is ensconced in the context of
the discussion
between Yeshua and the lawyer following the vindication of
Deuteronomy 6:5
and Leviticus 19:18,
we can be confident that the victim was Hebrew. So, who are the others? Christianity has taught them to be merely incidental in their origin - however, when we look at what the words mean, we see a different picture.
The family of
Kohen
(meaning "priest") are direct descendants of the Kohanim ("priests") in the days when the ancient Temple stood in Jerusalem. They are, therefore, direct descendants of Aaron, Moses' brother, who was the first High Priest. All of Aaron's sons were automatically Kohanim, and one of them became the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) when their father died. That process continued for as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood (until 70 CE). Since then, the descendants of Aaron became only Kohanim (priests); there were no more Kohanim Gedolim (High Priests) as there was no longer a
physical Temple
for them to serve in. Since Moses and Aaron were members of the tribe of Levi, the Kohanim are a subset of the Levi'im, descendants of the tribe of Levi who, at the time the Temple stood, were the assistants who served the Kohanim (priests). They were intimately involved in assisting Temple sacrifice as well as providing the vocal and instrumental music in the Temple. The Priests and the Pharisees were not members of the Kingdom of YHVH because they were continually attempting to circumvent the Words of YHVH to accommodate their own agenda
(Mark 7:6-13,
Matthew 23:13).
Yeshua had studied the Pharisees and knew of their intense distain for Samaritans
(John 8:48),
thus the need for the lawyer to "justify himself" before this Rabbi. This is precisely why Yeshua chose to answer this lawyer with the parable of the Samaritan.
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...the good Samaritan
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Most in Western cultures do not appreciate or understand who Samaritans are. They are not considered
Gentiles
in the general use of the term as Christianity has been prone to teach. In fact, history teaches us that one of the consequences of the Assyrian invasion of Israel in 722 BCE involved the settling of Israel by Assyrians who intermarried with those Israelites choosing to stay in their devastated country. This group settled in the then capital of Israel, Samaria, and brought with them Assyrian gods and cultic practices. But the people of the Middle East were and are, above everything else, highly superstitious. Conquering peoples constantly feared that the local gods would wreak vengeance on them. Therefore, just in case, they would adopt the local god or gods into their religion and cultic practices. Within a short time, the Assyrians in Samaria were worshipping YHVH as well as their own gods and within a couple of centuries of marrying local Hebrews, subsequent generations were worshipping YHVH exclusively by keeping His Words. The Samaritans began to be considered non-Hebrew because of their blood being part Assyrian even though they adopted almost all of the Hebrew Torah and practices. Unlike the religious Pharisees, however, they believed only the Pentateuch to be sacred, rejecting the "oral Torah" (Talmud) and building their own temple on Mount Gerizim (the mount of blessing) where they could sacrifice to YHVH outside of the temple in Jerusalem until this temple was destroyed in 129 BCE by John Hyrcanus. Deprived of their temple, the Samaritans nevertheless continued to worship on their sacred mountain right down to the present time (there are only about 600 Samaritans left in the world and mostly still in Israel, decimated by inbreeding). The religious Pharisaical leaders frowned on the Samaritans, denying that a non-Hebrew had any right to be included among the chosen people (in spite of the clear instructions of
Leviticus 19:34)
and angered that the Samaritans would dare to sacrifice to YHVH outside of Jerusalem. Thus was formed the only major schism in the Hebrew family: the schism between the religious Pharisees and the Samaritans. Which is why Yeshua approached the Samaritan woman at the well in the manner He did, making the distinction between
one flesh
and marriage - she knew Torah and He spoke to her from that perspective. He was not rewriting scripture.
In spite of Christianity's attempt to center this parable and Yeshua's words from John around an elevated sense of emotional concern for everyone on the planet, from Yeshua's non-religious Hebraic perspective the primary subject of His parable was addressing just who were to be considered members of YHVH's family - who were the "neighbors" of
Leviticus 19:18.
Yeshua was illustrating that whoever keeps the Words of the Father through their actions is a member of His Family. Thus, to love your "neighbor" as you would yourself is to not let factious,
religious strife
keep one from aiding a family member in need. With this parable, Yeshua was upholding what He had already previously affirmed to the lawyer was the way
to find Life
- that to keep YHVH's Words was more than proclamation and ritual. To keep His Words is to become obedient to the Essence of YHVH's Nature in those Words by not allowing another member of His Family to be neglected
(Galatians 6:10).
Yeshua's comment in
John 13:34-35
was a further endorsement among the twelve that what they had witnessed in His Life was the
restored behavior
of the Kingdom they were to exhibit toward one another - which would distinguish them from the rest of the world and be a proclamation that
the promised redemption
of the Kingdom YHVH had occurred. YHVH's family of Israel are not a people of definers of religion but a people of witnesses to His love for His Family. Scripture shows us the Hebrew has always had the ability to keep the Words of the Father.
YHVH's Presence
was manifested to Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel immediately after their separation from the Garden. Keeping His Words brings those of His Family into His Presence - but, until YHVH through Yeshua
restored the Kingdom,
they had only been able to come into His Presence externally. That restoration allowed anyone who keeps His Words the opportunity to become
echad
(Hebrew for "one or unity") with the
Present Presence.
Christians can not be considered "brethren of YHVH's Kingdom" any more than Islamists because they break the first of the Ten Words of the Father by worshipping "Jesus" as a god.
(see what is Scriptural Salvation
and what it means to be a Divinity).
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Forgiveness, a discussion
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"And we know that the Son of YHVH has come and
has given us understanding,
so that we may know Him Who is True; and we are in Him Who is True, in his Son, Yeshua, the promised Messiah to Israel. YHVH is the true God and eternal life." 1John 5:20
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the What's New? Series
Part One: the Beatitudes
Part Two: a NEW commandment?
Part Three: a NEW Covenant?
Part Four: Forgiveness
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???Questions???
Please feel free to email me at harold@hethathasanear.com.
While not claiming to have all
the answers, it would be an honor to partake with you of what Spirit is uncovering.
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