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Reading
– Deuteronomy 21:10-21
By
Dan and Brenda Cathcart
The
previous Torah portion dealt with the selection and conduct of the leaders Israel
is to place over them. This Torah portion deals with the behavior of the people
as they enter the land. Moses had already warned the people to follow God’s
commandments to do what is right and good when they entered the land so it
would go well with them.
Deuteronomy 6:18-19 NKJV 18 "And
you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be
well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the
LORD swore to your fathers, 19 "to cast out all your enemies from before
you, as the LORD has spoken.
As
we read some of these instructions, we cringe. However, in the context of the
culture of the day, these commandments seemed radical in that they protected
the vulnerable, upheld the sanctity of the family, and promoted unity and
cooperation within the nation.
There
are many specific rules contained in this Torah portion and we cannot cover all
of them. Instead, we will focus on those involving the family. Paul tells us
that we are the children of God.
Romans 8:16 NKJV 16 The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
He
tells us that, together, through Yeshua, we are all one family.
Ephesians 3:14-15 NKJV 14 For this
reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named,
What,
then, can we learn about these instructions about the relationships within our
biological families, our spiritual families, and our position as children of
God?
The
Torah portion opens with Israel going to battle against their enemies and
defeating them. All that the enemy owns now belongs to Israel. The spoils are
divided among the victors, but what happens to the women? In the prevailing
culture and, indeed, up to modern times, the women were routinely raped and
then killed, used in prostitution, or abandoned to die. In Israel, they were
not allowed to rape a captured woman.
Deuteronomy 21:10-13 MKJV 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, 11 and see among the captives
a beautiful woman, and have a desire to her, that you would take her for your
wife, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house. And she shall shave her
head and dress her nails. 13 And she shall put off the clothing of her
captivity, and shall remain in your house, and shall sorrow for her father and
her mother a full month. And after that you shall go in to her and be her
husband, and she shall be your wife.
Notice
that the assumption is that she would not be taken as a slave or a concubine,
but that she would be taken as a wife. Okay, we would look at this and think
that the woman is being taken advantage of and forced into a relationship of
which she has no choice. But in that day, to be taken as a wife was to be
honored and respected.
The
woman was to shave her head and dress her nails. To us, this just sounds weird!
Shaving one’s head is an act of mourning, but what does it mean to “dress”
one’s nails? Many translations interpret it to mean trim the nails. The Hebrew
word translated as dress or trim is the word “aw-saw,” number 6213, meaning to
make or do in a variety of applications. So, she was to “make or do” her nails.
The Stone Edition Chumash translates the phrase as “let her nails grow” as a
further act of mourning. This mourning was to last thirty days. This serves two
purposes; the man has thirty days to reconsider his decision to marry her, and
the woman has the time to mourn the loss of her family and culture and get used
to her new life. The NKJV Study Bible comments on this practice.
This ritual was intended to give the
woman time to adjust to the new culture and to mourn over the forceful
separation from her family. It was also a symbol of cleansing. She was
preparing to become part of a new community.
After
the mourning, she was to remove the garments she wore when she was captured and
be given new garments fitting a wife. Putting off the old garments provides
additional separation from her old life. The new garments reflect her new
position as a wife in Israel. As a wife in Israel, she has more rights and
protections than a wife would have in her previous culture. In fact, in this
particular marriage, she could be set free to go where she chooses, but she
could not be sold into slavery.
Deuteronomy 21:14 MKJV 14 And it shall
be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will.
But you shall not sell her at all for silver, you shall not make a slave of
her, because you have humbled her.
So,
what does this have to do with us today? Women are not taken as captives and
forced into marriage during or after a war. This situation shows how God makes
provision for the vulnerable. There was no one more vulnerable in war time than
an unprotected woman. We can also see this situation as Yeshua in the role of
Israel defeating his enemies in battle. He sees a “beautiful woman,” literally
the “form of a beautiful woman,” and takes her as his wife. In the outline of a
beautiful woman, Messiah sees the potential of this life created in the form of
God. This bride can be thought of as the Gentile church brought into Israel as a
wife, or even as each one of us won by Messiah by defeating the hold Satan had
over us. The woman becomes a part of Israel through her marriage. First Fruits
of Zion in Shadows of the Messiah explains this metaphorical meaning.
“The Messiah can be compared to the
conquering warrior who sees a spark of beauty within one of the captives and
takes her into his household. In that sense, the captive symbolizes the
believer who becomes a member of the Assembly of Messiah, which is also called
the Bride of Messiah. He takes her as both His trophy of conquest and His true
love.”
Paul
tells us that when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we become new creatures.
2 Corinthians 5:17 MKJV 17 So that if
any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new.
We
are allowed to mourn the passing of our old lives, but we are not to continue
to mourn or look back. We are to put on the garments of the wife of Messiah.
Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as the bride of Messiah who is no longer forsaken
and brings delight to the LORD.
Isaiah 62:4 NKJV 4 You shall no longer
be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you
shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you,
And your land shall be married.
The
next instruction protects the position or right of the firstborn son.
Deuteronomy 21:15-17 MKJV 15 If a man
has two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have borne him sons, the
beloved and the hated; and if the first-born son was of her that was hated, 16
then it shall be in the day when he makes his sons to inherit what he has, he
may not cause to inherit the son of the beloved first-born before the son of
the hated one, he who is truly the first-born. 17 But he shall acknowledge the
son of the hated as the first-born by giving him a double portion of all that
he has. For he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the first-born is
his.
As
Jacob, David, and Solomon all found out, having multiple wives and having sons
by all of them leads to jealousy and strife within the family. In this next instruction
related by Moses, if a man has more than one wife, he is not to show favoritism
to the sons of the wife he loves more than the wife he doesn’t love. We can
easily see a reference to Jacob. He loved Rachel and didn’t love Leah. He
favored Joseph, his son by Rachel, which provoked jealousy in his other sons
including his firstborn son Reuben.
Ideally,
a man will only have one wife. Yeshua states that in the beginning, marriage
was between one man and one woman.
Mark 10:6-7 NKJV 6 "But from the
beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.' 7 'For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
Solomon,
who wrote the book of Proverbs, had many wives. These wives ultimately turned
his heart away from the LORD. In hindsight, it seems that he regrets taking so
many wives. He cautions his son to take only one wife and cherish her.
Proverbs 5:18-20 NKJV 18 Let your
fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. 19 As a loving
deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always
be enraptured with her love. 20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an
immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
In
our culture, having multiple wives happens through divorce or through the death
of a wife. When a man remarries, he is not to favor the children of the new
marriage over those from his first marriage. We often hear of a man totally
neglecting the children of a first marriage and giving all of his love and
attention to the “new” children! Blending two families is not easy in any
circumstances, however neglecting the older son or showing favoritism to the
younger son or sons only adds to the difficulty.
We
can gain a deeper understanding of this instruction when we remember that God
called Israel His firstborn son.
Exodus 4:22 NKJV 22 "Then you
shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD: "Israel is My son, My
firstborn.
How
has Israel received the double portion of the firstborn? When God set the
boundaries of the nations, He set them according to the number of the sons of
Jacob and, from all the nations, He chose Jacob or Israel as His inheritance.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 NKJV 8 When the
Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons
of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the
children of Israel. 9 For the LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the place
of His inheritance.
When
Jacob died, he split the inheritance of the firstborn. Joseph, the son of his
second wife whom he loved, received a double portion of the land through his
sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Judah, the qualifying firstborn son of Leah after
the three older sons were disqualified received the kingdom itself!
Genesis 49:10 NKJV 10 The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh
comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
Yeshua,
the ultimate firstborn of Israel, the son of Judah, the son of David is God’s
firstborn and only begotten son.
John 1:14 NKJV 14 And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Yeshua
is also the firstborn of the resurrection.
Colossians 1:18 NKJV 18 And He is the
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Not
only does a father have responsibility to a son, but a son has responsibility
to his father. The son is to respect his father and live a life obedient to
Torah.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 NKJV 18 "If
a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his
father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will
not heed them, 19 "then his father and his mother shall take hold of him
and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20
"And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is
stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a
drunkard.' 21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with
stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall
hear and fear.
This
commandment should generate fear in the heart of every parent! How awful to
have to call for the death of one’s own son due to a life of rebellion and
dissipation! In reality, this commandment was probably never carried out. First
Fruits of Zion in Shadows of the Messiah comments on the purpose of this
decree.
“The sages teach that this commandment
was never actually carried out. Instead, it represented an extreme standard to
warn parents about the grave responsibility of raising their children in an
upright manner.”
As
parents, the most important task that God gives to us is to teach our children
the Torah. The Torah instructs that we are to teach our children God’s ways.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NKJV 6 "And
these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 "You shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
We
have a responsibility to bring them to an early knowledge of God and the
knowledge that Yeshua is their Messiah. The greatest joy a parent can know is that
their children know the LORD and have received Yeshua as the Savior and master.
Once
again, David is an example of a parent who failed in his mission to raise his
children responsibly. His oldest son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar. His
third son, Aminadab who was Tamar’s brother, killed Amnon. The Bible then records
that David failed to demand accountability from his fourth son Adonijah.
1 Kings 1:6 NKJV 6 (And his father had
not rebuked him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" He was
also very good-looking. His mother had borne him after Absalom.)
At
another level, Israel as God’s son, was stubborn and constantly rebelled. The
Psalmist warns the generation to come not to be stubborn and rebellious like
their fathers.
Psalms 78:5-8 NKJV 5 For He
established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He
commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; 6
That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their children, 7 That they may set
their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments;
8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A
generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful
to God.
God,
who is Israel’s parent, could have denounced Israel and had Israel destroyed
according to this commandment in Deuteronomy. However, God has not and will not
totally destroy Israel. He will punish and chastise Israel until they turn and
repent of the ways they have turned from God.
This
applies not only to Israel as a nation, but to each of us individually. Isaiah
tells his readers that everyone has strayed from God, and the just punishment
for our sins is death.
Isaiah 53:6 NKJV 6 All we like sheep
have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
This
leads us to the one obedient Son, Yeshua. His detractors tried to label him as
a rebellious son who was a drunkard and a glutton.
Luke 7:34 NAS95 34 "The Son of
Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'
Far
from being the rebellious son, Yeshua was the son who obeyed God even though it
led to His death on the cross for the iniquity of us all.\
Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV 5 Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did
not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of
men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Paul
tells us that we need to have the same mind as Yeshua and practice obedience so
that we can be proved as children of God in whom no fault is found.
Philippians 2:12-15 NKJV 12 Therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for
it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 14 Do
all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless
and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
God
set standards for the children of Israel as they entered and took possession of
the land. Many of these decrees involved the function of the family. As we,
like the captured bride, are included in the family of God, we also need to
uphold those standards so that we may be found blameless and harmless and able
to shine as a light in the world.
Study
Questions:
2.
How does the commandment about taking a
captive woman as a wife apply metaphorically to the believer in Messiah Yeshua?
3.
In the book of Hosea, the northern
kingdom of Israel spoken of as Ephram is characterized as a rebellious son.
Read Hosea 11:8-12 and 14:1-8. How does God treat this rebellious son? How is
this an example for us?
General
Portion Questions
4.
In the teaching, we quoted Isaiah 53:6
where Isaiah declares that “All we like sheep have gone astray” and are
deserving of punishment. The Torah portion, Deuteronomy 22:1-3 includes the
instruction to return a brother’s lost ox or sheep to its owner. How would this
apply to believers as members of God’s flock?
5.
In this teaching, we look at taking a
captive woman as a wife as a way God makes provision for the vulnerable. What
other provisions does God make for the vulnerable in this Torah portion?
6.
What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in
this Torah Portion that point to Messiah Yeshua?
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2023 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.
