8.21.26 – Over, Not Against

 Ki Teitzei—"When you go forth to war." 

One of the challenges that we face every time that we study a Torah portion is to look at the Torah portion independent of all of the other Torah portions that have come before it. In this week's Torah portion, "When you go forth," "When you go out to war," it's really important for us to connect it to the last verse from last week's Torah portion. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 9. The last phrase is, "When you shall do that which is right in the sight of the Lord." That's the catalyst that propels us forward to look into what's going to be said in verse 10: "When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hands, and you have taken them captive." Now when we look at this verse, it just talks of warfare, but there's more to it. Let me help you understand. When it says, "When you go forth to war"—Ki Teitzei—and then it uses the word for war—milchamah—but then the word "against"—the King James says "against," but if you look at the Hebrew for the word "al," ayin and lamed, it's really "over" your enemies. So let me put this all together for you. Verse 9: "When you shall do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, when you go forth to war over your enemies, and the Lord your God has delivered them into your hands." You see, to be "over" your enemies versus "against" your enemies is the difference between night and day.

"Against" is like football season—one team opposing the other team, they're on the same playing field, they're banging heads together. That's "against." But the Scripture here says, "When you go forth to war over your enemies." One of the most strategic places in a battle is to be on top of a hill. On top of a hill allows you to be able to shoot down at your enemy. Your enemy has to come up the hill. To be over your enemy is to have a very distinct advantage. Where does this distinct advantage come from? Doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord. When you go forth to war over your enemies, now the word for war is "milchamah." If I was spelling that for your notes, it'd be M-I-L-C-H-A-M-A-H. And right at the heart of that word is the word "lechem"—the word for bread. You see, that's what every war is over. It's over bread.

Now let me build the picture for you. And I'm going to reverse engineer the entire process. Where does bread come from? Where does lechem come from? Like Beit Lechem—Bethlehem—the house of bread. Milchamah—why is lechem at the center of war? Because every war is over bread. Every war is over land. Every war is over the earth. The more land you have, the more bread you can grow. The more bread you can grow, the more you can feed. Now, if we reverse engineer this entire picture and ask ourselves the question, where does lechem come from? Well, the lechem comes from a wheat stalk. And a wheat stalk is a fully mature seed that has died to itself, grown up, reached its maturity, and has been harvested. That grain is then mixed with other grains, and when you put them all together, you add water, a little baking powder, mix them all together, knead them, put it in a pan, put it in an oven—you get bread. But before you get the wheat stalk with all the grains on it, you have to start with the seed.

Yeshua told us in John chapter 12, if a grain of wheat abides by itself, it's just going to continue to be by itself. But if it dies to itself, then it will bring forth much fruit. Yeshua likened Himself to a grain of seed of wheat, and He likens us to a grain of seed of wheat. He doesn't liken us to a tare, because according to Matthew chapter 15 and Matthew chapter 13, the enemy sows the tares. So, in your mind, when you think of bread, think of the process—the process of a seed dying to itself, with water, sunlight, nurturing—it grows, and it matures into a stalk of wheat; it's harvested, mixed with other grains of wheat, and then it's made into bread.

In Scripture, the seed is known as the Word of God. Luke chapter 8 verse 11: "The seed is the Word of God." In Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, after the sin in the garden, Adam and his honey bunny were told specifically, "You know what, there's going to be a little bit of conflict in this world from this day forward. The seed of the woman"—which is where the Messiah would come from—"and the seed of the serpent are going to be contrary to one another." You see, the seed is the word of God. And the Word of God is very, very important, because it's through the Word of God that we get our faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The question that we have to ask ourselves is: Which God am I listening to?

In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, Paul says that Satan, the God of this world, has blinded the eyes of individuals to keep them from seeing the glorious gospel of Christ. So, there's a god of this world and he speaks words that are seed. There's the God of creation who speaks words and His words are seed. Now, the question is, which one is going to grow in my garden, in my field? Well, Yeshua taught a parable about the good seed. And He said the good seed was sown in the ground, but then when men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares. Now you can grow bread from tares? You know, Hollywood would be a tare. The music industry would be a tare. The athletic world would be a tare. Anything that produces idolatrous practices that take you away from the Torah would be a tare. Anything that would draw you close to the Lord would be wheat. That's why Yeshua in John chapter 6 says, He is the bread from heaven. And that's what we're to be feeding on.

Now, how does all this fit in? When you do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, when you go forth to war, when you are fighting seed against seed, bread against bread, over your enemies—when you're living the way you're supposed to, walking in obedience to the Torah, walking in obedience to God, living according to the light that God has given to you, always being willing to grow, always soaking up, sponging up, taking in more of God's Word, conforming your life to His Word—whenever you're doing that, and you're doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord, you are over your enemies, because the Lord your God has delivered them into your hands, and then you've taken them captive.

This is the war. This is all about finding a bride. This is what God is doing. He's saying, "I want you to be walking in obedience. I want you to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, not which is right in the sight of your own eyes. And when you do, you're going to find that you are over your enemies—not fighting against your enemies, over your enemies." And I want to challenge you, as we're heading into the month, through this month right now, before Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, that you really seek to do the things that the Lord wants you to do, so that you can have victory over your enemies. That's the best thing. Feet on the bread. He's the bread of life.

Shalom, 
Alan 

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