9.30.24 ~ The Spiritual Spark
Good morning!
A couple weeks back we studied the Torah portion Ki Tetzei, which translates, "When you go out..." A passage that describes a situation of "going out" to war:
When you go out/ki tetzei to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive and you will see among the captives a beautiful woman/Yefat Toar, and have a desire/chashak for her and would take her as a wife for yourself... (Deut. 21:10-11)
This passage may seem outdated to modern readers, but with the fall feast season upon us, these Scriptures are as practical as ever. A truth that we have learned over the years is that God is a God of war (Ex. 15:3) and He has found you a yefat tofar in you.
This passage describes what could be best described as the conversion process. After a month of mourning in which her hair is shaved, her nails left unmanicured, and her beautiful eyes are red and swollen from weeping, the Israelite may find her more of an annoyance, always underfoot, yet untouchable.
Ancient armies, like the Moabites and Midianites, would dress their most beautiful young women in fine garments, jewelry, and fancy hairdos, and then send them ahead of the army to seduce the enemy and distract them from the battle ahead. This tactic was used on the Israelites at Baal Peor, and without an arrow shot, the Israelites succumbed to adultery and idolatry. Fortunately, our Commander and Chief, the Lord of Hosts didn't fall for our ploys, but rather saw something deeper.
Now this most beautiful young woman has exchanged her fine garments for ones of mourning, ugly sackcloth. At the end of the month, if the young woman has not agreed to abandon her foreign gods, then she must be given her freedom. If she agrees to cling to the Elohim of Israel, then she may be married to her "captor" and assume all the rights and responsibilities of any Israelite wife. Either way, the foreign woman loses her "captive" status and finds freedom. One kind of freedom sends her back into captivity to foreign gods. The other gives her freedom in the perfect Torah of liberty (Jam. 1;25; 2;12).
Tetzei is from the root yatzah, which means to go out or to bring out. Going out to war for an Israelite has a deeper meaning, especially since it may result in bringing a captive woman home to marry. Let's apply the Rule of First Mention and another significant context that uses the root yatzah.
On the Third Day of Creation:
The earth brought forth/totzei vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Gen. 1:12)
You may recall from our previous studies how people are likened to trees in Scripture (Deut.20:19). This begs us to ask the question: What went out/totzei of the prophetic people even before the Sixth Day when mankind was created? The answer: Fruit with like-kind seeds! Likewise, the plants are described as mazria zerah, or seeding seed or sowing seed (or making pregnant) after their kind. God saw that when plants and people bear fruit with seed after their kind, it is tov/good. When an Israelite warrior sees a beautiful foreign woman, what is in question is whether she will reproduce children with a like kind seed of the Word in them. If so, it will be good/tov.
What God sees as good/tov, may not be what human beings see as tov. With free choice, our view of tov may change. But our view will never change what is tov.
The Torah recognizes the possibility of the seed to replicate after His image. The risk, during battle, is that the young warrior is carried away by his passion/chashak, which will lead him into decisions based on outward form, image, or appearance/toar.
The captive woman is beautiful in 'form,' no doubt...but is she also beautiful inside? The month of seeing her ugly on the outside may reveal the passionate warrior's true motivation. Is it love or lust? The prospective husband will not see her outer beauty for a full month, like Yahweh does towards us in the 6th month on God's prophetic; ironically the time when the law of the Yefat Toar is read in the annual Torah cycle. This sixth month is also known as Elul/vain emptiness, and so the ugly captive will be on the exterior, and perhaps so is the warrior's heart, but the hearts will be revealed on the 1st of the Seventh Month at Rosh Chodesh. It is the Day of Trumpets, the resurrection of the dead, the day of shouting, judgment and remembrance.
Free will MUST be a part of the Yefat Toar marriage procedure to reveal the true form of the marriage. The captive woman is not just a captive of Israel. She has been chained to the idols of her heritage. For a full month, she distances herself from their idolatry. If she will not be like Ruth, a true convert, and leave her idols behind, she is not permitted as a wife and must go free back to the realm of death. Her seed will not be sown in Israel to produce a mixed field of the Word and tares. In a way, this weeds out the seed of the woman that will reproduce idolatry. A woman who converts to cling to the Land, Covenant, and People of Israel enters into true life and freedom.
In spite of the risk and warning of such a marriage producing mixed seeds, the Torah does establish this provision for free will to be sown. Despite the risk of producing rebellious, idolatrous offspring, there is some redeeming possibility in marrying a Yefat Toar. When Boaz reminds Ruth that she could have any nice-looking young man she wished because of her beauty, it signals to us that she has ALREADY become a modest, virtuous woman of good reputation, a fact later acknowledged by the elders in the city gates of Bethlehem.
Marrying Boaz did not make her righteous; he married her because she WAS righteous. It is only AFTER he's noticed her beautiful hard work that he finally points out her physical beauty. Neither Ruth nor Boaz looked on the outward appearance, toar, but inside the heart for spiritual beauty. The righteous Israelite warrior looks for a spiritual spark of tov inside the captive woman IN SPITE of her outward beauty. The 'ugly month' is as much to search his own heart as hers as she mourns the death of the religious heritage she inherited from her natural father and mother even as she embraces the heritage of her spiritual father and mother, Abraham and Sarah.
Yeshua sent his disciples to seek out the Yefat Toars scattered among the nations because of his passion for a foreign bride. This passion was not the desire of Shechem or Amnon for natural beauty (Gen. 34), but a passion generated for the very reason that this torah was written for the marriage of a beautiful captive. After 2,000 years, Yeshua still awaits a decision of free will. Not all foreign women are the same, just as Ruth and her seed was nothing like her idolatrous ancestors and their corrupted seed who led Israel to idolatry at Baal Peor.
So if we've been captivated by a potential Groom, Step 1 has been completed. We've been saved from total idolatry and depravity. If now we sit in the Groom's House, mourning our parents and the things we left behind, then Step 2 is not a pretty picture. The Groom desires us anyway, even though we cry about so many things.
So now the decision is ours. Will we finish our funeral for what we left behind and bravely take hold of the Covenant, the Land, and its People? Was the place of our birth simply the starting place, but not our final destination? Will we "marry" a holy mission and resurrect at the Feast of Trumpets, experience the complete sealing at Yom HaKippurim and the celebration at Sukkot?
Chag Sameach!
Shalom
When you go out/ki tetzei to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive and you will see among the captives a beautiful woman/Yefat Toar, and have a desire/chashak for her and would take her as a wife for yourself... (Deut. 21:10-11)
This passage may seem outdated to modern readers, but with the fall feast season upon us, these Scriptures are as practical as ever. A truth that we have learned over the years is that God is a God of war (Ex. 15:3) and He has found you a yefat tofar in you.
This passage describes what could be best described as the conversion process. After a month of mourning in which her hair is shaved, her nails left unmanicured, and her beautiful eyes are red and swollen from weeping, the Israelite may find her more of an annoyance, always underfoot, yet untouchable.
Ancient armies, like the Moabites and Midianites, would dress their most beautiful young women in fine garments, jewelry, and fancy hairdos, and then send them ahead of the army to seduce the enemy and distract them from the battle ahead. This tactic was used on the Israelites at Baal Peor, and without an arrow shot, the Israelites succumbed to adultery and idolatry. Fortunately, our Commander and Chief, the Lord of Hosts didn't fall for our ploys, but rather saw something deeper.
Now this most beautiful young woman has exchanged her fine garments for ones of mourning, ugly sackcloth. At the end of the month, if the young woman has not agreed to abandon her foreign gods, then she must be given her freedom. If she agrees to cling to the Elohim of Israel, then she may be married to her "captor" and assume all the rights and responsibilities of any Israelite wife. Either way, the foreign woman loses her "captive" status and finds freedom. One kind of freedom sends her back into captivity to foreign gods. The other gives her freedom in the perfect Torah of liberty (Jam. 1;25; 2;12).
Tetzei is from the root yatzah, which means to go out or to bring out. Going out to war for an Israelite has a deeper meaning, especially since it may result in bringing a captive woman home to marry. Let's apply the Rule of First Mention and another significant context that uses the root yatzah.
On the Third Day of Creation:
The earth brought forth/totzei vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Gen. 1:12)
You may recall from our previous studies how people are likened to trees in Scripture (Deut.20:19). This begs us to ask the question: What went out/totzei of the prophetic people even before the Sixth Day when mankind was created? The answer: Fruit with like-kind seeds! Likewise, the plants are described as mazria zerah, or seeding seed or sowing seed (or making pregnant) after their kind. God saw that when plants and people bear fruit with seed after their kind, it is tov/good. When an Israelite warrior sees a beautiful foreign woman, what is in question is whether she will reproduce children with a like kind seed of the Word in them. If so, it will be good/tov.
What God sees as good/tov, may not be what human beings see as tov. With free choice, our view of tov may change. But our view will never change what is tov.
The Torah recognizes the possibility of the seed to replicate after His image. The risk, during battle, is that the young warrior is carried away by his passion/chashak, which will lead him into decisions based on outward form, image, or appearance/toar.
The captive woman is beautiful in 'form,' no doubt...but is she also beautiful inside? The month of seeing her ugly on the outside may reveal the passionate warrior's true motivation. Is it love or lust? The prospective husband will not see her outer beauty for a full month, like Yahweh does towards us in the 6th month on God's prophetic; ironically the time when the law of the Yefat Toar is read in the annual Torah cycle. This sixth month is also known as Elul/vain emptiness, and so the ugly captive will be on the exterior, and perhaps so is the warrior's heart, but the hearts will be revealed on the 1st of the Seventh Month at Rosh Chodesh. It is the Day of Trumpets, the resurrection of the dead, the day of shouting, judgment and remembrance.
Free will MUST be a part of the Yefat Toar marriage procedure to reveal the true form of the marriage. The captive woman is not just a captive of Israel. She has been chained to the idols of her heritage. For a full month, she distances herself from their idolatry. If she will not be like Ruth, a true convert, and leave her idols behind, she is not permitted as a wife and must go free back to the realm of death. Her seed will not be sown in Israel to produce a mixed field of the Word and tares. In a way, this weeds out the seed of the woman that will reproduce idolatry. A woman who converts to cling to the Land, Covenant, and People of Israel enters into true life and freedom.
In spite of the risk and warning of such a marriage producing mixed seeds, the Torah does establish this provision for free will to be sown. Despite the risk of producing rebellious, idolatrous offspring, there is some redeeming possibility in marrying a Yefat Toar. When Boaz reminds Ruth that she could have any nice-looking young man she wished because of her beauty, it signals to us that she has ALREADY become a modest, virtuous woman of good reputation, a fact later acknowledged by the elders in the city gates of Bethlehem.
Marrying Boaz did not make her righteous; he married her because she WAS righteous. It is only AFTER he's noticed her beautiful hard work that he finally points out her physical beauty. Neither Ruth nor Boaz looked on the outward appearance, toar, but inside the heart for spiritual beauty. The righteous Israelite warrior looks for a spiritual spark of tov inside the captive woman IN SPITE of her outward beauty. The 'ugly month' is as much to search his own heart as hers as she mourns the death of the religious heritage she inherited from her natural father and mother even as she embraces the heritage of her spiritual father and mother, Abraham and Sarah.
Yeshua sent his disciples to seek out the Yefat Toars scattered among the nations because of his passion for a foreign bride. This passion was not the desire of Shechem or Amnon for natural beauty (Gen. 34), but a passion generated for the very reason that this torah was written for the marriage of a beautiful captive. After 2,000 years, Yeshua still awaits a decision of free will. Not all foreign women are the same, just as Ruth and her seed was nothing like her idolatrous ancestors and their corrupted seed who led Israel to idolatry at Baal Peor.
So if we've been captivated by a potential Groom, Step 1 has been completed. We've been saved from total idolatry and depravity. If now we sit in the Groom's House, mourning our parents and the things we left behind, then Step 2 is not a pretty picture. The Groom desires us anyway, even though we cry about so many things.
So now the decision is ours. Will we finish our funeral for what we left behind and bravely take hold of the Covenant, the Land, and its People? Was the place of our birth simply the starting place, but not our final destination? Will we "marry" a holy mission and resurrect at the Feast of Trumpets, experience the complete sealing at Yom HaKippurim and the celebration at Sukkot?
Chag Sameach!
Shalom
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