Parashat Bechukotai - in my statutes

Shelley Wood Gauld

Lev 26:3-27:34, Jer 16:19 - 17”14, Matt 21:33 - 46

 “If you live by my regulations (chukkot), observe my mitzvot (commandments) and obey them; then I will provide the rain you need in its season, the land will yield its produce and the trees in the field will yield their fruit.” Lev 26:3, 4 CJB

It was HaShem’s desire that His people study Torah and live in accordance with its commandments. While the product of a life of observance would be manifold blessings, rejection of His ways would bring untold tsuris (hardship). With the added insult (to HaShem) of refusing to do teshuvah (repentance), would come exile from the land and from His presence. In this parashah we become acutely aware of the physical outworking of a spiritual ‘cause and effect’ phenomenon; one that was entirely dependent on an individual’s attitude toward HaShem.

In order to understand this precept, let us first clarify terms that relate to the commands or mitzvot (sing. mitzvah). They occur in three forms: chukkim (sing. chok), mishpatim (sing. mishpat) and eidot (sing. ‘ed).

1. A chok is a command that defies human understanding. It is obeyed simply because the Lord decreed it. The classic example, in Judaism, is the ancient red heifer ritual. (For believers in Yeshua this, a clear picture of Messiah, is no longer a chok.) 2. A mishpat is a law that seems altogether logical and rational: such as the prohibition of murder, adultery and theft; and the giving of alms to the poor. 3. An ‘ed serves as a witness to, or remembrance, of Israel’s ‘otherness’; their ‘set-apartness’ or ‘choseness’. Eidot are ‘identifiers’, outward symbols of Judaism; such as wearing tzitziyot (fringes) and t’fillin (phylacteries), a kosher diet and observing the mo’edim (feasts).

Parashat Bechukotai includes the first great ‘rebuke’ (tochacha) found in the Scriptures (Lev 26: 14 - 40). The words are ominous, disturbing and sobering... The rabbis teach that the repeated phrase “If you walk carelessly with me” suggests that Israel was being warned against becoming casual or careless in their attitude toward HaShem. They had to guard against attributing His activity in their lives to mere ‘co-incidence’, ‘circumstance’ or ‘random’ good/bad fortune. This would have been tantamount to denying His faithfulness, authority, presence and providence; in fact, denying His very existence. A casual, careless or reckless attitude towards HaShem was, and still is, precarious; because it is the first step to apostasy. Divine reproach would follow, in the form of senseless tsuris (troubles)...

As we continue to ‘Count the Omer’ we move ever closer to Shavuot (Weeks), the feast that commemorates the giving and receiving of a very great gift; the gift of Torah. Believers in Yeshua should be cognisant of this first great gift, but many are only aware of the second great gift that was given on the same feast day many centuries later; the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit. These two gifts -- as with the Sinai and Newer Covenants -- are inextricably linked:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days”, says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or brother, saying ‘Know Adonai’ for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.”Jer 31:33-35

And so it is with those who know Yeshua. How blessed to be ‘the place’ where His Ruach (Spirit) dwells and subtly prompts, where Torah is written on the heart and understood through the lens of the Spirit. We understand that the gradual regeneration of our souls is a sovereign act of HaShem and that godliness is not achieved only by human effort, good deeds or intellectual pursuits -- but by the activity of HaShem through His Ruach. As we are led by the Spirit, over time hearts and minds become supernaturally ‘tuned’ to please the Father. This activity is a gift to be savoured, nurtured and guarded... It should never be played down, taken lightly or viewed with nonchalance. Heaven forbid that HaShem’s activity in our lives should ever be relegated to the banal domain of random ‘co-incidence’, ‘circumstance’ or ‘good/bad fortune’. For it is by means of His activity in our lives that we are transformed to become ‘new creations’ (‘briah khadashah’) in Messiah.... Baruch HaShem...

“I know what you are doing: you are neither hot nor cold. How I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth! ...... As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves and turn from your sins!” Rev 3:16 - 19