Slavery in the Bible

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). As true as this is, it does not change the fact that slavery was permitted by the Torah. Why would God permit such an institution at any point in time? Is the Torah a pro-slavery document?

Good questions deserve meaningful answers. I have encountered those who ask good questions but do not want to take the time to explore meaningful answers. If you’re ready to ask about slavery in the Bible, then you have to be ready to explore a meaningful answer. I believe a meaningful answer begins with a conversation about the nature of the Torah itself. The following is lifted from Rabbi Akiva Tatz in his book WorldMask:  

“All relationships between people involve giving and taking. In some aspects of a relationship, one party is the giver and the other receives, and in some aspects the direction of giving is the reverse. Any particular individual relates to others on a continuum of giving or taking––some people are the givers, some are the takers. 

“In human relationships, the polarities of giving and taking can be expressed as obligations and rights. My rights are your obligations: my right to property is your obligation not to steal. My right to free speech is your obligation to allow me to speak freely. A worker’s right to a living wage is his employer’s obligation to pay that wage. It is your obligation to see to it that my rights remain intact. Every right implies an obligation; the rights of an individual are the obligations of society at large. 

“The important point to grasp here is that rights and obligations are interlocked; neither is meaningful without the other. There can be no rights without obligations. 

“Rights are parallel to taking, and obligations are parallel to giving. After all, my rights are due to me; they are mine. Obligations are those things which I have to do for you; I have to give up some of my freedom and desires in order to accommodate your rights. In guarding my rights, I am a taker; in honoring my obligations, I am a giver.

“Of course, both rights and obligations are true and necessary. Each individual has a right to expect that which is due to him and an obligation to provide others with all that is due to them. But the essential question is: where is your focus? What concerns you more––your rights or your obligations? A person who is concerned with his rights is a taker; one who is concerned with his obligations is a giver. Focusing on one’s rights is focusing on the self––a constant awareness of one’s needs and the desire to satisfy them. Focusing on one’s obligations is focusing on others and the function of giving.

“Modern society is largely concerned with rights. The wording of the Constitutions of Western democracies is revealing––they unfailingly focus on rights. In fact, they are often little more than a detailed enumeration of the rights of the individuals within that particular society.

“In striking contrast is the Torah. The Torah never mentions rights, only obligations! Nowhere does the Torah speak of an individual’s right to his property; only his obligation not to steal. No mention of a right to life or liberty; only stringent admonitions not to murder or interfere with the liberty of one’s fellow. Not even a cursory mention of one’s right to happiness, dignity, physical well-being or sustenance; only strong reminders of the duty to provide others with these. And so on. 

“Of course rights exist; of course they are important. But the point is that the focus is everything. When each person focuses on his obligations carefully, the rights take care of themselves. If no one steals, everyone’s right to property is assured automatically. If no one bears false witness, everyone’s right to know the truth is assured automatically. When everyone is giving, everyone receives.

“This difference of focus has far-reaching practical consequences. Consider the relationship between master and slave: the slave must work for his master as best he is able, and the master must treat his slave as a brother. Obviously, if both live up to their obligations, the relationship will be productive and peaceful. But when the master focuses on the slave’s obligation to work hard, and the slave keeps demanding that the master treat him better instead of working as he should––when each one forgets his obligations and thinks only of his rights––the result is war. And both are quoting the Torah! When the master reminds the slave that he is supposed to work single-mindedly and the slave reminds the master that he is supposed to treat him like a brother, both are absolutely correct––but they are focusing on the wrong end of the deal, and that is where the problems begin.

“In like manner, consider two people in marriage, each trying to give to the other––the result is an idyllic relationship. Two people, each focusing on what the other owes––the result is marital strife. And paradoxically, the surest way to lose one’s personal happiness is to demand it as a right from one’s spouse. 

“Applications of this principle are to be found everywhere. In an industrial society, when employers treat employees fairly and the workers serve loyally, all is well. But when workers are concerned about their rights primarily, the natural result is that in order to protect and enforce their rights, they band together in a union. The union has the power to paralyze the industry, so the employers form a national association of employers to fight the stranglehold of the union, and the result is battle.

“A society which enshrines rights is a society which develops takers. A society which focuses on obligations develops givers.”

Rabbi Akiva Tatz, WorldMask: The World of Obligations, pg. 100-106

As you can gather, rights and obligations are two sides of the same menorah. Your right to property is my obligation not to steal. Your obligation not to murder is my right to life. In the Torah, rights are implicit and obligations are explicit. This is because God is a giver, and He wants His people to be like Him. Since obligations are equivalent to giving, the Torah speaks in terms of obligations. Here is an example of this in a different context…

“At the end of every seven years, you are to cancel debts. This is how you are to cancel debts: every creditor is to release what he has loaned to his neighbor. He must not force his neighbor or his brother to repay, for God’s debt cancellation has been proclaimed…If there is a poor man among you, you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother. Rather, you must surely open your hand to him and you must surely lend him enough for his need––whatever he is lacking. Watch yourself, so there is no unworthy thing in your heart saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,’ and your eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing. Then he may call out to God against you, and it will be a sin upon you” (Deuteronomy 15).

Notice, God focuses on the creditor’s obligations, not on the debtor’s rights. Can you imagine the passage reading this way:

“At the end of seven years, everything you owe is cancelled. This is how you become debt-free: every debtor is to be released from his debt. You cannot be forced to repay. . .If you are a poor man, you must be given enough for your need. Do not let a creditor give you nothing. If a creditor gives you nothing, call out to God against him. It will be a sin upon him. You must surely get what you need.”

I’ve taken the same passage but adjusted the focus to rights instead of obligations. The effect is drastic. My version would create takers, not givers, and you can imagine the ungrateful and demanding attitude that would ensue. Therefore, it’s important to see that God speaks to the creditor, with the emphasis on obligation. 

Elsewhere, He speaks to the debtor: “If a man...swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth” (Numbers 30:2). Again we see the emphasis is obligation. A debtor’s obligation to the creditor is to repay the debt. Only when the priority is obligation does the system work.

Returning to our conversation about slavery, only when the priority is obligation does the system work. When the focus is on obligation, here is the result: as a slave owner, I am obligated to treat my slave justly and fairly, without partiality. After all, he is my brother. As a slave, I am obligated to obey my master sincerely, rendering service of a good will. After all, he is my master.

Paul understands this concept well when he writes: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him” (Ephesians 6:5-9 NIV).

As long as the two parties focus on their obligations to one another, the relationship remains healthy. However, if they turn to focus on their rights––on that which is owed to them––the relationship sickens. The slave owner says, “I am your master; you owe me work.” But the slave says, “I am your brother. You owe me equality.” Although they are both correct, their prioritizing of the self corrupts the relationship. 

If they flip their focus right-side up, the slave owner says, “You are my brother. If we have one pillow, you get the pillow. If we have food, you eat first. I will treat you as my brother.” The slave says, “You are my master. I will obey you, and serve you wholeheartedly. I will treat you as my master.” 

This follows along with what Rabbi Hirsch says in his commentary on the Torah. He writes, “The master is obligated to treat the servant with complete equality in all matters of the household: in food, in drink, and in clothing. Thus the maxim: Whoever buys a Hebrew slave is like one who buys himself a master. Both parties face a formidable moral test: ‘You (the master) must treat him as a brother, but he (the slave) must treat himself and behave as a slave’ (Toras Kohanim on Vayika 25:39-40)” (The Hirsch Chumash, Shemos, pg. 368-369). 

Suffice to say, the kind of slavery God permitted in the Torah was a very different experience than the kind of slavery America permitted. The slavery that came about in America’s history was despicable, ungodly, Torahless. Abolitionists like John Adams were correct to call it “evil” (Source). Being a society built on rights, America’s version of slavery was doomed from the beginning. It had no choice but to become more and more evil.

Being a system built on obligations, however, the Torah’s version of slavery was not evil. To the degree ancient Israel abided by the Torah, to that degree the institution of slavery was permitted by God. In other words, God permitted slavery so long as the spirit of obligation was at the center of it. 

Is the Earth Young or Old? Yes!

The following comes from Dr. Gerald Schroeder, a distinguished physicist (also an Orthodox Jew) who received his PhD in nuclear physics and planetary sciences from MIT. He worked for MIT for five years, and he was a member of the US Atomic Energy Commission. He now lives in Israel where he teaches on a variety of subjects. I came to know him when I first heard what I am about to share with you. Before hearing this, I was one of those believers perplexed by the young earth vs. old earth debate. I had heard solid arguments from both sides. In fact, my mom was a young-earther and my dad was an old-earther; I was literally caught in the middle. But when I came across Dr. Schroeder’s position, I realized that my mom and dad both had it right. For the first time, I saw the menorah that balances the whole matter. Allow me to share with you the position as he explains it:

The universe began as an infinitesimal speck smaller than the period at that the end of this sentence. This speck did not exist in a vacuum, because a vacuum is space. The speck by itself was physically all that existed. It harbored all the energy of the universe. There was a blast unlike anything we can comprehend. The universe expanded outward, and as it did so, the energy within it congealed, coalesced, and condensed into matter. (Einstein proved that energy can become matter.) Once the energy turned into matter, time grabbed ahold and the clock began.

When God tells Moses the story of creation, He is looking forward from the beginning. He is not looking backward from Sinai. God is looking forward from the beginning. From this vantage point, God tells Moses in six days the universe is created. So accordingly, Moses writes in the Torah that God created the universe in six days. 

We have an issue now, because modern cosmologists are confident that the universe is billions of years old. They will tell you with certainty, “The universe is billions of years old.” However, there’s another half of the sentence that goes unsaid, because it goes without saying for everyone in their profession. The full statement is, “The universe is billions of years old as seen from the space-time coordinates we exist in.” And it’s this second-half that holds the key! It makes all the difference, because the Torah looks forward in time from very different space-time coordinates––from the beginning, when the universe was small. But since that time, the universe has expanded outward via a stretching of the fabric of space. The stretching of space radically changes the perception of time. This is Einstein’s understanding of relativity.

To illustrate this idea, let’s say we time-travel back billions and billions of years ago. We reach a place somewhere in the universe that is close to the beginning of time. We’ve taken with us a special laser that can send pulses of light forward in time. We hold up the laser and send a pulse of light once every second. These beams of light fly off like segmented lines, each one separated by a second in time. Now our friend––who remained in the present moment of 2016 AD––has a huge satellite dish that’s ready to detect our signal coming from the beginning of time. Suddenly, his dish picks up the first pulse of light. Our friend is ecstatic! Catching his breath, he waits for the next one. Does the next one come in one second? No! Not at all. In fact, our friend may have to wait millions of years before he receives the next pulse of light. 

The reason for this is because of what separates us from our friend. While those pulses of light journey through space over time, the universe expands. Space itself stretches. The space between each beam stretches, so the beams get further and further and further apart. To us, what is a second’s worth of space between each beam is perceived by our friend in the distant future as a gap spanning millions of years. 

You see, scientists look at time going backward, and they see billions and billions of years. God looks at time from the beginning going forward, so He tells Moses six days. Neither are incorrect. And here’s something amazing: according to Dr. Schroeder, we now have the data to know the relationship between the view of time at the beginning relative to the view of time today. It’s been quantified. The general relationship between the view of time then to the view the time now is X times a million million (1,000,000,000,000x). To be clear, let’s return to our illustration: if our view from the beginning looking forward observed a one second gap between each pulse of light, our friend in 2016 would observe a pulse of light once every million million seconds. This measurement accounts for the stretching of space. It’s the effect of the expansion of the universe. 

So the Torah says the creation of the universe took place in 6 days. The question becomes, how would we today perceive those 6 days? Well, taking into account the stretching of space, we would observe them as 6 million million days. And you can do the math: 6,000,000,000,000 divided by 365 comes out to 16.4 billion years! Essentially the age of the universe estimated by today’s scientific community.

So is the earth thousands of years young? Or is the earth billions of years old? The answer is yes! It just depends on which direction you’re looking.

(Dr. Schroeder’s book, The Science of God, takes you by the hand and walks you through the math of these calculations. I recommend listening to his hour long lecture on this subject, via simpletoremember.com. The lecture is one of their top audio teachings. Also, someone posted the lecture to Youtube and broke it down into five parts with added video; for that, click here. In Part 5 (the end of his lecture), he provides additional information I have not included. I should mention that in the lecture, he builds the case slowly, whereas I have distilled the subject to its core essence. I urge you to hear the whole lesson.)

Genesis 1 in the Gospel of John

-John 1:1-

Ἐν  ἀρχῇ  ἦν  ὁ  Λόγος,  καὶ  ὁ  Λόγος  ἦν  πρὸς  τὸν  Θεόν,  καὶ  Θεὸς  ἦν  ὁ  Λόγος. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.”

With an opening phrase like, “In the beginning...” John is clearly making a parallel to the creation story in Genesis 1. What isn’t so obvious is that the parallels don’t end there. By way of his Gospel, John is communicating a profound message: that Jesus, the Word, is God. And just as God brought forth the world in Genesis, Jesus came to bring forth a world to come, a spiritual world, a world into which He invites even the chief of sinners. Therefore, the story of Jesus is no less significant than the story of creation itself. To refresh our memory, let’s look briefly at the story of creation.

“In the beginning...” it begins. The central element introduced on Day 1 is light. God declares, “Let there be light!” And there is light, which He separates from the darkness. On the second day, God separates the waters above from the waters below by creating a firmament in between called sky. On the third day, “seed” is the key word. It is repeated 6 times when describing this day: there is seed seeding seed. Seed goes forth to spout up new life across the dry land: all sorts of seed-bearing plants and trees with seed-bearing fruit crop up across the land. On the fourth day, God creates the sun, moon, and stars; He says let these heavenly bodies serve as signs, and for appointed times. On day five and six, He creates an abundance of animals. Thereafter He creates man, and then woman. On the seventh day, it is the Sabbath day, and God rests.

I was shown that the first five chapters of John follow the same format! It’s very subtle, but John drops just enough hints for his readers to sense the parallels. Let’s go through John’s account and connect the dots.

Beginning in John 1, we encounter a light shining into the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it. We’re given a revelation about this light––that Jesus is the true light that gives light to all men. 

Following this description of Jesus being the light, we’re introduced to a man named John. What does John do? He baptizes in water––the waters below. When he baptizes Jesus, we encounter a dove that crosses the firmament, coming down from above to land on Jesus in the waters below. 

We come to the next part of the story: Jesus turns around and sees two of John’s disciples following Him. Andrew is one of them. Andrew goes and gets his brother Simon Peter. They both become Jesus’ disciples. Then Jesus calls Phillip. Phillip goes and finds Nathaniel. What do we see here? We see the seed going forth; the word is getting out. Life is beginning to spread, and spread, and spread. We encounter the first mention of the word tree in this section, a nod to Day 3 of creation. 

The next portion of John’s Gospel describes a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Here we encounter the first mention of the word sign, a nod to Day 4 of creation when the sun and moon were created to be signs marking appointed times. Jesus says, “My appointed time has not yet come.” Also interesting to note: in Jewish thought, the sun is viewed as the masculine and the moon is viewed as the feminine. (The sun initiates the light; the moon receives and reflects the light.) Here we have a wedding celebration which brings a masculine and a feminine together. But note, it’s a fallen wedding because there is no wine. In other words, the joy has run out. So Jesus brings correction. The master of the wedding tastes what Jesus has done, and he declares it good. 

After the wedding, we then follow Jesus to Jerusalem where we encounter animals. We see cattle, sheep, and doves being sold in the temple courts. Jesus drives the animals and the money-changers out of His Father’s House. It’s like the animals that God had created for man to look after were being brought into the very temple of God where man was exploiting them to make a profit. Again we see Jesus bringing correction.

In the story of creation, what comes after the animals? Man, and then woman. So after this event with the animals, we next encounter Jesus having a conversation with a man . . . and then a woman. He speaks with “a man named Nicodemus” in chapter 3; He speaks with the woman at the well in chapter 4. 

Of course, after creating man and woman, God rested on the Sabbath Day. After Jesus speaks with the man named Nicodemus and the woman at the well, we segue into chapter 5 where John tells of Jesus restoring the wellness of a man at the pool of Bethesda. We read in verse 9: “The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.” John 5 occurs on the Sabbath Day! What a beautiful thing! It aligns with the pattern set down by God in Genesis 1. And even more beautiful––it’s at this point that Jesus says, “Truly truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” 

John senses the big picture; he sees that it’s come full circle. Genesis describes the creation of a flawless and sinless world. But man sinned, and thereby departed from God’s Presence. So here is John describing how God brings correction: God embodies His Word––the very words of creation––and as a flawless and sinless man, He opens a pathway for us to enter into a new world. 

God’s first statement to sinful man is, “Where are you?” 
In John, His first words to man (through Jesus) are when Jesus notices some people following Him. He turns around and says, “What are you looking for?” 

You see, in Genesis, God is seeking man. But now after this long passage of time since man’s departure from the Garden, in light of all the suffering that sin has caused, the tables have turned, and now man is seeking God. 

Notice how they respond to Jesus. They ask, “Where do you live?” 

“Come,” He says, “and you will see.”

Exodus 23:5

People are entitled to receive help from others only if they do what they can to help themselves first. Thus, Exodus 23:5 rules that “When you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.” The obvious implication of the words “with him” is that the animal’s owner must work with the passerby to help raise the animal. But, notes Rabbi Avrohom Feuer, “If the owner. . .refuses to do so because he expects the passerby to do it himself because it is a mitzvah, the passerby is excused...” (see Mishnah Bava Mezia 2:10). Basing himself on this Torah verse, Rabbi Ephraim of Luntshits (1550-1619) teaches that “we may derive an application of this idea to the poor among our people who impose themselves on the community by refusing to work though they are able. They cry that we do not supply them with their needs, but they are wrong. God did not command us to help them in those situations where they can help themselves.”

In short, poor people should not refuse gainful employment they are capable of performing. Only if someone makes the efforts to support himself and fails is the community and its members obliged to support him.

  Code of Jewish Ethics vol. 2, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pg. 244-245

What Is This About?

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed. . .You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together” (Deuteronomy 22:9-11 ESV). 

These three laws appear together twice in the Torah, once here in Deuteronomy and once in Leviticus 19:19. We encounter a law about plants, a law about animals, and a law about wearing wool mixed with linen (an animal-derived material mixed with a plant-derived material). What is this about? 

The answer: unnatural pairing. As we will see, unnatural pairing is any pairing that interferes with growth, strains or aggravates progress, or damages the unity or harms the integrity of the whole. To explain, let’s start with the first one listed.

You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed. “Sowing diverse seeds is forbidden only without separation. Hence, it is permitted to sow two different varieties of seeds one next to the other, provided that one separates them properly. For example: one keeps them far enough away from each other, so that, underground, they draw sustenance separately and not one from the other” (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Hirsch Chumash, Vayikra, pg. 632). Diverse seeds sharing the same soil can interfere with each other. For instance, if oats and wheat are sown together, the latter is injured, and the former ruined (Source). 

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. “Being of unequal size and strength, both animals, particularly the weaker one, will suffer; the donkey will experience strain, and the ox frustration” (Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Code of Jewish Ethics Vol. 2, pg. 301). Note: the practice of yoking a younger, less experienced ox with a stronger, more experienced ox is commonplace, seeing as how the younger ox will take its cues from the older ox, and its strength will develop in time. This law is about yoking two animals together that are hopelessly incompatible. 

You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together. When washed, wool and linen react differently. Wool is vulnerable to felting shrinkage. This occurs because animal hair fibers like wool have scales along the surface. When exposed to moisture and heat, the scales on the wool swell, rub against each other and bind together, creating a denser, shrunken fabric (Source). Linen, on the other hand, is not vulnerable to felting shrinkage. Linen will shrink a small amount, but not as much as wool. The net result is that, over time, the two fabrics will tear at each other, and the garment will be weakened.

Speaking practically, I see these laws playing out where I work. My position serves a large department in the company, with eight separate teams in my division alone. On each team there are 7-10 people. I’ve observed how much deliberation the managers put into their hiring a new member for their particular team. It goes beyond whether or not the candidate is qualified and capable. A critical factor that each manager takes into account is the team dynamic. Is this person right for my team? is a central question they ask themselves. To make a wise selection on their part is to adhere to these laws in the Torah. Even more, they must exercise this wisdom in creating something as seemingly simple as the seating arrangement of their team. Since the desks are arranged in such a way that two people sit in close proximity to one another all day every day, an unnatural pairing of two people is problematic. Personalities may clash, styles may interfere, work may be hindered. I have witnessed an unnatural pairing ignite drama within the team, which then weakens the integrity of the whole and harms the unity of the group.  

Speaking spiritually, unnatural pairing is a matter more serious. “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). To some degree, we must have fellowship with unbelievers; we should find common ground with unbelievers. Building such relationships is good and natural. But when do we cross the line? As Deuteronomy 22 teaches, the point at which a violation occurs is when that relationship causes interference to the believer’s growth, aggravation to the believer’s purpose, or damage to the integrity of the believer’s character. 

The Marital Duality of God's Word

In More than a Rib, we established that the word translated as “rib” in Genesis 2 is really the word tzela in Hebrew, which means “side.” We explored the idea that the side God removed from Adam is more than a rib. Better yet, the side He removed from Adam is femininity. Before such a removal took place, original Adam possessed both the natures of masculinity and femininity within himself. He was created in a state of completion. This teaches that, at its source, masculinity and femininity are of one whole. 

Keep in mind, these natures go beyond the physical confines of gender. It’s not that original Adam was anatomically a man and a woman. It’s that, when he possessed both sides, he reflected God’s ubiquitous blend of masculinity and femininity. Masculinity and femininity are spiritual and eternal aspects of God’s Oneness. Adam, when he was first created, reflected that oneness. 

But you know the story: God removed the side of femininity from Adam, and with it, He created Eve. By doing so, God isolated the side of masculinity in Adam. As a result, Adam became a pure expression of masculinity, while Eve expressed a pure form of femininity. So, as I like to say, the double-helix DNA of masculinity and femininity is laid out (in condensed code) by their story in Genesis 2. This is an important idea if we are to explore what is coming next. 

First let me say this: in the context of Christ and the Church, Jesus is in the masculine role and the Church is in the feminine role. He is the Bridegroom and we are the Bride. He leads; we follow. He initiates; we receive and reflect. We submit to His direction and authority; He loves us and cares for us like a husband who treasures his wife. Again, He is the masculine and we are the feminine. If you’ll notice, though, we are speaking in terms untethered to gender. This idea is also important: that masculinity and femininity can be understood in terms of relational roles, roles that transcend gender. For instance, if two men are working together on a project, one may lead the project and the other may follow. The leader plays the masculine role and the other plays the feminine role in that one initiates and the others reflects. Gender is irrelevant here because we’re talking about roles. Or, for example, my wife is better at budgeting our money than I am. When it comes to the budget, my role is feminine and her role is masculine, as I submit to her leadership in this area. Again, gender is irrelevant because we’re talking about roles. Going forward, I will speak of masculinity and femininity in terms of relational roles, because we’re discussing something that is larger than gender. That said, I will use Adam and Eve (man and woman) as a pattern because they are an authentic expression of these natures. They manifest the truths of masculinity and femininity.

A few years ago, I started thinking about the Written Word and the Living Word (the Torah and the Messiah). I found it interesting that the Word––in becoming the Torah––passed through the masculine side (Moses), and the Word––in becoming Jesus––passed through the feminine side (Mary). Out of curiosity, I began to think about God’s Word in terms of masculinity and femininity––that is to say, their roles relative to each other. Little did I realize, a world of meaning was about to be discovered which would yield so many connections and insights. The task is now to condense these discoveries and share them in a succinct manner.

Regarding Adam and Eve as the quintessential models of masculinity and femininity, let us list the details set down in Genesis 2:

If we compare this to the Torah and the Messiah, we find that the pattern holds:

Like He did with Adam and Eve, God split the Word into separate bodies: one ink and parchment, one flesh and blood. Divided into two bodies, God assigned each a different task. Each He uniquely equipped to accomplish their role in the world. But remember, at the source, God’s Word is of one whole. 

With this in mind, let us perceive more deeply:

Before Jesus’ arrival, was the Torah complete? YES!

Before Jesus’ arrival, was the Torah, perfect? YES!

Like original Adam, the Torah was perfect and lacking in nothing. 

And yet, it was not good for the Torah to be alone.

God’s written Word needed a suitable helpmate. 
Where was this helpmate? Concealed within!

Note: when this Helper came to life, He came not to abolish but to fulfill. Jesus said of the Torah, "I came not to abolish but to fulfill..." To say that Jesus replaced the Torah is akin to saying Eve replaced Adam. This is not so. Eve, the upgrade, came not to abolish Adam, but to fulfill him.

Now recall that incredible moment when God brought the animals forth to be named. At that point in time, Adam and Eve had yet to be split apart. So at that moment, while naming the animals, they, together, acted as one body. 

And as the beginning, so too the end: 

The veil will draw back on Judgement Day, and at that glorious grand finale, God’s Word––the written and the living––will again act as one body! And there before His Presence will go a parade of humanity. You and I will be summoned before Him––and then, there, whatever name we’re given, that shall be our name for eternity! Of course, compared to the stature of His Word, we’re just a bunch of animals. But at a deeper level, something tremendous is taking place. The Son’s supernal Bride is about to be distinguished! His Counterpart is about to be identified!

The Marital Duality of God's Word: Supplemental Ideas

Masculinity and femininity are spiritual and eternal aspects of God’s Oneness. The Sh’ma hints at this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The word “one” is the word echad in Hebrew. Echad first appears in Genesis 1:5––“And there was evening and morning day one.”  Here we see one as two coming together: one day equals an evening and a morning together. In Genesis 2:24, a man leaves his parents and holds fast to his wife; he and his wife become basar echad––one flesh. Again, we see one as two coming together. Similarly, a case can be made that God is echad because He is the essence of masculinity and femininity together.

Connected to this, consider Exodus 25:22––“There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” So here notice: it is between two that God presents Himself to man. But these two cherubim were made of one piece (Exodus 25:20). So the two are actually echad.

___________________

The written Word is the Namer; the living Word is the Savior. Compare the two great animal parades in world history: the one that passes before Adam in Genesis 2 and the one that passes before Noah in Genesis 7. Regarding the first procession, man names the animals. Regarding the second procession, man saves the animals. In relation, God names His creatures via the written Word. Afterward, God saves His creatures via the living Word. The pattern is first naming, then saving.

The Number of New Beginnings

In the previous post, it was mentioned that 8 is the number of new beginnings. This idea spawns from Scripture, but it’s also expressed in music. 

In music, the eighth note is the octave. The octave is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the basic miracle of music (Source). The octave is at the same time the eighth note and a return to the first note. So for instance, the C Major scale is typically written C D E F G A B C. The initial C and final C are an octave apart. It’s the same note but beginning a new level. 

In Scripture, there are many examples where God uses the number 8 to represent new beginnings. There were eight people abroad Noah’s ark. Via these eight souls, mankind entered a new beginning after the flood. When God established His covenant with Abraham, He commanded that every male must be circumcised on the eighth day of life (Genesis 17:12). On the eighth day, the child enters a covenant relationship with God and is given his Hebrew name. 

In his book, In His Own Words, Grant Luton shares other notable examples of this number of new beginnings. He writes, “It is illustrated by the fact that God established a covenant with Abraham on eight occasions, thus establishing Abraham as the beginning of the Jewish nation. Also, David, the great king of Israel and a man after God’s own heart, was the eighth son of his father, Jesse (1 Samuel 17:12). When the temple was restored after the Babylonian exile, the outer area was consecrated for eight days, and another eight days were spent consecrating the inner area (2 Chronicles 29:17).” If you include the special “eighth day” at the end of the 7 day feast of Sukkot, then Sukkot is an 8 day celebration which anticipates the beginning of the Messianic Age. The eighth day is itself a day of new beginnings. Called Simchat Torah or Shemini Atzeret, it is the day on which the annual Torah reading finishes Deuteronomy and begins again in Genesis.

More examples of 8 as new beginnings: Aeneas was healed after eight years of paralysis (Acts 9:33-34). On the eighth day of preparation, Aaron was called by Moses to serve as high priest (Leviticus 9:1-8). The New Testament was penned by only eight men (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter, Jude, Paul). Luton writes, “The greatest beginning of all, however, was Jesus’ resurrection on the first day of the week. What does the first day of the week have to do with the number 8? Recall that 7 is a number which represents completeness by concluding a cycle of events. Thus 8 is the number of new beginnings since it represents the beginning of a new cycle. Jesus’ resurrection occurred on the first day of the week––a week of seven days. So, for all practical purposes, He arose on the first day of a new cycle––the eighth day.”

The eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the letter chet. It’s numeric value is 8. (Hebrew is alphanumeric, meaning each letter doubles as a number. This goes back to ancient times.) Pictured below is the letter chet, the number 8 in Hebrew:

Chet is the first letter of the word Hanukkah. Hanukkah goes back to 165BC, when the Jewish people liberated the Temple from the Greeks and rededicated it to God (a new beginning). However, “oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, as it was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. Thus, Hanukkah, an 8 day festival, was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory; Jews do not glorify war” (Source).

If we go back further in history, we encounter a time when God told the Jewish people to take the blood of a lamb and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of their houses (Exodus 12:7). When they did so, they actually wrote out the letter chet. Later, when the LORD went through the land of Egypt, He saw the blood on the tops and sides of the door frames, and He passed over that doorway without permitting the destroyer to enter the household (Exodus 12:23). This critical moment led to their new beginning as a sovereign people apart from Egypt, so it makes sense that the number of new beginnings would appear here.

If we go back even further in history, we come upon a baby boy named Isaac (pronounced Yitzchaq in Hebrew). יִצְחָק (Yitzchaq) means “he will laugh, he will rejoice.” It is derived from the word צָחַק (tzachaq) meaning “to laugh.” Of course, Isaac represents a new beginning not just for Abraham and Sarah but for the whole world, because in a way Isaac is the first Jew: the first person born a Jew, born into the covenant of promise, circumcised on the eighth day of life. Remembering that each Hebrew letter is also a number, let’s take a closer look at the word his parents were thinking of when they named him Isaac:

Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old when they produced a new beginning: Isaac, the baby boy who caused them to laugh. 

The Significance of the Number 70

Genesis 10 sets the significance for the number 70. In this chapter, the seventy grandsons of Noah are enumerated, each of whom becomes the ancestor of a nation (Reference). The number 70 therefore represents the nations. As far as a Jew is concerned, the number 70 is like a codeword for the Gentile world. And it all goes back  to Genesis 10 and the 70 grandsons of Noah. Several chapters later, we see that God calls Abraham away from his homeland among the nations. God promises to make him a new nation––the 71st nation. The digital root of 71 is 8 (because 7+1=8), and 8 is the number of new beginnings. But we’ll come back to that idea. For now, let’s keep looking at the number 70 to see how it relates to the nations of the world. 

During the 7 day festival of Sukkot, a number of bulls are sacrificed everyday. God commands an offering of 13 bulls on day one, 12 bulls on day two, 11 bulls on day three, 10 bulls on day four, 9 bulls on day five, 8 bulls on day six, and 7 bulls on day seven (all of this is found in Numbers 29). In total, 70 bulls are sacrificed. Knowing the significance of the number 70, we realize that this 7 day sacrifice is made on behalf of the nations. As one rabbi comments: “Thus our Sages taught, ‘You find that during the festival of Sukkot, Israel offers seventy bulls for the seventy nations. Israel says: Master of the Universe, behold we offer You seventy bulls in their behalf, and they should have loved us. Instead, they hate me’ (Psalms 109). Further, they remarked: ‘If the nations of the world would have known the value of the Temple for them, they would have surrounded it with a fortress in order to protect it. For it was of greater value to them than for Israel [instead, they destroyed it]’ (Bamidbar Rabba 1).”

Note: there is a special eighth day of Sukkot. It is special because Leviticus 23:34-36 is clear that Sukkot is 7 days long, yet an eighth day is included. On this eighth day, only 1 bull is sacrificed. If we include it into the mix, our total comes to 71 bulls––this to honor Israel, the 71st nation. Interestingly, the eighth day is also when Jews complete their annual reading of the Torah. The last section of Deuteronomy is read, and immediately following, the opening section of Genesis is read. This practice represents the cyclical nature of the Torah and a new beginning taking place on the eighth day. 

But again, Sukkot proper is 7 days long. And during those 7 days, 70 bulls are sacrificed on behalf of the nations. (Reference 1) (Reference 2) (Google for more references.) Speaking of a future time, Zechariah writes, “Then everyone of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Sukkot. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. . .There shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Sukkot. This shall be the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Sukkot” (Zechariah 14:16-19 ESV, condensed). I include this verse to highlight the connection between Sukkot and the nations, 70 bulls and 70 nations. 

In Luke 10, Jesus appoints a number of disciples to go out and preach the Gospel to every town and place where He Himself is about to go. Suffice to say, He is dispatching them into the nations of the world. According to Young’s Literal Translation, there are 70 of them. 70 disciples for the 70 nations. It makes sense. And note: they’re instructed to go in teams of two. Thus, there are 35 teams. The digital root of 35 is 8 (because 3+5=8), which again is the number of new beginnings.

Other noteworthy 70s in the Bible: 

After reading the covenant to the Israelites and to a great mixed multitude of Gentiles, Moses takes 70 elders up Mount Sinai to have a covenant meal with God Himself (hinting that all mankind is represented, like a table of nations so to speak). Since Moses joins the 70 elders at the table, there are 71 men in attendance––71 bringing us back to Israel the 71st nation. 

70 members of the house of Jacob went down to Egypt (according to Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5). This occurred at a time when famine was so widespread that “all of the surrounding nations came to Joseph to buy grain from Egypt, because the famine had become severe throughout the world” (Genesis 41:57 ISV). Of course Joseph was already in Egypt when the house of Jacob came down. So in a sense, Joseph could be considered the 71st person of the house of Jacob, the one who offered them a new beginning in Egypt. 

Israel spends a total of 70 years in Babylonian captivity, a time in which they meld back into the 70 nations of the world. We read in Jeremiah 29:10-14: “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you . . . I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” The 71st year is the year they would return to Israel and begin again. (Unfortunately in 70AD they would meld back into the nations again.) 

Terah, the father of Abraham, begins having children at the age of 70. Terah is an idol worshipper living among the nations, doing as the nations do (Joshua 24:2). But among his children is the individual who would father a new nation, a great nation––the 71st nation, Israel. And through Israel and Israel’s Messiah, the world would come to access a new beginning larger than the world itself.