the roadmap to national restoration 2014 apr 04
learning righteousness and wickedness from the ten commandments 2012 nov 19
1st commandment: have no other gods before God 2012 nov 20
2nd commandment: you shall not make idols 2012 dec 09
3rd commandment: do not profane YHVH’s name 2012 dec 18
4th commandment: honor the Sabbath day 2012 dec 21
5th commandment: honor your father and mother 2013 jan 07
6th commandment: do not commit murder 2013 jan 16
7th commandment: do not commit adultery 2013 jan 24
8th commandment: do not steal 2013 feb 13
God will do three things — hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land — after His people do three things — humble themselves and pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways (2 Chr 7:14). The cooperation of atheists and the ungodly is not required. We are examining the summary of Torah, God’s definition of righteousness and wickedness, in the Ten Commandments, in order to understand what He considers wicked about our ways, from which He is waiting for us to turn.
The Ten Commandments are given in Deu 5. The 9th commandment, Do not bear false witness, is explained in Deu 24:8-9. That is it, just two verses! Following is the summary of what Deu 24:8-9 teaches ‘Do not bear false witness’ means. Please visit the links for the fascinating in-depth analysis. But the real reason for the in-depth analysis, is so that we can recognize any wicked way among us, in falling short, and repent of it! As His people do so, He will hear us from heaven, will forgive us these sins, and will heal our land!
The Hebrew paragraph divisions are:
Deu 24:8-9 {s} Tzaraas, or the evil tongue
Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you; just as I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt! Deu 24:8-9
The history of what the Lord did to Miriam is in Num 12. Miriam and Aaron had spoken against Moses:
… and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) Suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed. But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Num 12:2-10
Leprosy here in Deu 24:8, in Num 12:10, and in Leviticus where are found the instructions for cleansing the leper, is in Hebrew, Strong’s H6879, tsara, tsadey + resh + ayin. The ancient Hebrew pictographs are of the tsadey or the man lying down or on his side; the resh, the head of a man, and the ayin, or eye. The story the pictographs are painting are of “bringing the man (or head) down in one’s eyes.” This is the Lord’s complaint against Miriam and Aaron: Moses is not only a prophet – a man who sees – but he is the steward of the Lord’s house, and the Lord speaks to him face to face, and not in visions or dreams. Miriam and Aaron were bringing him down in their own eyes and in the eyes of the congregation by speaking against him. The tsadey is also the pictograph of the man lying down or hiding in wait or in ambush – as a hunter or an enemy, further bringing out the concept that the origin of the speaking, is the enemy and not the Spirit of God.
Miriam’s sin was to speak against. The disease which she experienced was not the leprosy we are familiar with as an infectious disease. It is tzaraas in Hebrew, translated as “leprosy” in our English Bibles, but defined by Torah scholars as a skin disease caused by an evil tongue. In other words, the disease was brought on by the evil speaking, i.e., bearing false witness, and not a pathogen. The 9th commandment chiastic structure reveals more truths.
The studies on ‘Do not bear false witness’ linked in this explanation:
tzaraas or the evil tongue (deu 24:8-9) 2013 feb 26
9th commandment chiastic structure (deu 24:8-9) 2013 feb 27
This series is continued:
10th commandment: do not covet (deu 24:10-26:15) 2013 feb 28
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