The journey continues! Picking up right where we left off, we’ll start with number 22, if you did not read Part 1, I highly suggest you do.
22. Rambam has, “Learn Elohim's Commandments.”
“And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart, and you shall impress them upon your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up,” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
The literal commandment here is to teach the Torah (The Father’s instructions) to our children. However, we cannot teach our young ones if we do not know the commandments ourselves, so I see where Rambam is coming from. This falls under love Elohim and can be fulfilled today, I titled it in my notes as, “Learn/ teach the Torah to your children.”
23. Rambam has, “Honor those who teach and know the Law.”
“Rise up before the grey-headed. And you shall favor the face of an old man, and shall fear your Elohim. I am יהוה.” (Leviticus 19:32)
The literal commandment here is to honor the aged, but I can understand why Rambam wrote what he did. This commandment was given to Israel and in the ideal world someone who grow up and was grey headed in the nation would have a learned knowledge of the Torah. Even so, this falls under love your neighbor and can be fulfilled today. In my notes I wrote, “Honor the aged.”
24. Rambam has, “Do not inquire into idolatry.”
“Do not turn to idols, and do not make for yourselves molded mighty ones. I am יהוה your Elohim.” (Leviticus 19:4)
The commandment is clearly stated, do not turn to idols (false gods). This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and in my notes I wrote, “Do not turn to idols.”
25. Rambam has, “Do not follow the whims of your heart or what your eyes see.”
“Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl (Israel), and you shall say to them to make tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue cord in the tzitzit of the corners. And it shall be to you for a tzitzit, and you shall see it, and shall remember all the commands of יהוה and shall do them, and not search after your own heart and your own eyes after which you went whoring, so that you remember, and shall do all My commands, and be set-apart unto your Elohim.” (Numbers 15:38-40)
The piece to pull from this one is that we are not to follow the ways of the heart and the eyes, obviously in relation to sinful desires. The other portion of this set of scripture is the wearing of Tzitzits and will be covered later as its own commandment. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it the same in my notes.
26. Rambam has, “Do not curse Elohim”
“You shall not curse Elohim, nor curse a ruler of your people.” (Exodus 22:28)
Pretty cut and dry, we are not to curse Elohim. The second part of the verse will be mentioned again later as its own commandment. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it the same in my notes.
27. Rambam has, “Do not worship idols in the manner they are worshiped.”
“you do not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, יהוה your Elohim am a jealous Ěl, visiting the crookedness of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,” ( Exodus 20:5)
The literal commandment is that we are not to serve idols or gods. There is the portion that states we do not bow down, worship, idols but Rambam has that referenced for his number 28. For 27 he highlighted the serving portion of the text. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and in my notes I titled it, “Do not serve idols.”
28. Rambam has, “Do not worship idols in the four ways we worship Elohim.”
“you do not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, יהוה your Elohim am a jealous Ěl, visiting the crookedness of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,” (Exodus 20:5)
The literal commandment is that we do not worship idols. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and in my notes I titled it, “Do not worship idols.”
29. Rambam has, “Do not make an idol for yourself.”
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4)
For this one I agree with Rambam, the scripture plainly tells us not to make idols for ourselves. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it the same in my notes.
30. Rambam has, “Do not make an idol for others.”
“Do not turn to idols, and do not make for yourselves molded mighty ones. I am יהוה your Elohim.” (Leviticus 19:4)
I’m not entirely sure how Rambam got that from this verse but looking at Leviticus 19:4 and Exodus 20:4 it is evident that we should not make idols. And if we do not make them for ourselves, it would be a logical conclusion that we shouldn’t make them for other people as well. You could add this to your notes as number 30 or perhaps write this as an add on for number 29. If you are in agreement that we should not make idols for others, then this would fall under love Elohim, and could be fulfilled today. For my notes I wrote it down but highlighted it to show that for number 30 the verse does not specifically say what Rambam said.
31. Rambam has, “Do not make human forms even for decorative purposes.”
“You do not make besides Me mighty ones of silver, and you do not make mighty ones of gold for yourselves.” (Exodus 20:23)
The literal commandment is that we should not make idols (false gods), I’m not sure why Rambam wrote what he did. Numbers 29-31 all say the same thing, “Do not make idols.” One could argue that 29-31 should really only be one commandment, but I will let you decide on how you want to organize your list.
32. Rambam has, “Do not turn a city to idolatry.”
“When you hear someone in one of your cities, which יהוה your Elohim gives you to dwell in, saying, Some men, sons of Beliya‛al, have gone out of your midst and led the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, Let us go and serve other mighty ones” ’ – mighty ones whom you have not known - ” then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And see if the matter is true and established that this abomination was done in your midst, you shall certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, putting it under the ban, and all that is in it and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.” (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)
Although it does not state we shouldn’t turn a city to idolatry, all one has to do is read Deuteronomy 13:12-15 to know that turning a city to idolatry is not a good idea. This set of scriptures has a lot to it and will be in the next commandment, so I will go further into detail there. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it the same in my notes.
33. Rambam has, “Burn a city that has turned to idol worship.”
“When you hear someone in one of your cities, which יהוה your Elohim gives you to dwell in, saying, Some men, sons of Beliya‛al, have gone out of your midst and led the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, Let us go and serve other mighty ones” ’ – mighty ones whom you have not known - ” then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And see if the matter is true and established that this abomination was done in your midst, you shall certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, putting it under the ban, and all that is in it and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. And gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, before יהוה your Elohim. And it shall be a heap forever, never to be built again.” (Deuteronomy 13:12-16)
The literal commandment is that we should burn the city with its plunder. This has a limiting factor; it states at the beginning that this only pertains to the land which the Father has given Israel. This falls under love Elohim and cannot be fulfilled today because we are still in the dispersion and lack the judicial system that would allow for this to be carried out. It may come as a shocker but not even the political state of Israel keeps the Torah and there is idolatry worship going on in numerous cities there. They do not have the proper authority to fulfill this commandment. I personal see this commandment being done when Yeshua returns, and I suspect quite a few cities in Israel will be completely burned with fire. I titled it in my notes as, “Burn a city with it’s treasures that has turned to idolatry worship.”
34. Rambam has, “Do not rebuild an idolatrous city that has been burned.”
“And gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, before יהוה your Elohim. And it shall be a heap forever, never to be built again.” (Deuteronomy 13:16)
The commandment is clearly stated, when a city in the land of Israel has fallen to idolatry it is to be burned and never built again. This falls under love Elohim, cannot be fulfilled today for the same reasons given for number 33, and in my notes I titled the same.
35. Rambam has, “Do not derive benefit from an idolatrous city.”
“And gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder, before יהוה your Elohim. And it shall be a heap forever, never to be built again. And none of that which is put under the ban is to cling to your hand, so that יהוה turns from the fierceness of His displeasure and shall show you compassion, love you and increase you, as He swore to your fathers,” when you obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard all His commands which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of יהוה your Elohim.” (Deuteronomy 13:16-18)
When a city is going to be burned for its wicked ways, none of its treasures are to be saved from the coming destruction. This falls under love Elohim, cannot be fulfilled today for the same reasons mentioned above, and I titled it in my notes as, “Do not take the treasures of the idolatrous city.”
36. Rambam has, “Do not entice an individual to idol worship.”
“When you hear someone in one of your cities, which יהוה your Elohim gives you to dwell in, saying, Some men, sons of Beliya‛al, have gone out of your midst and led the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, Let us go and serve other mighty ones” ’ – mighty ones whom you have not known - ” then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And see if the matter is true and established that this abomination was done in your midst, you shall certainly strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, putting it under the ban, and all that is in it and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.” (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)
Although it does not necessarily state you shall not entice people into idolatry worship, given the context of the scriptures it is evident that we should not be doing such foolish things. Plus, all the commandments we’ve gone over thus far practically scream at us to stay far away from the worship of other gods. In saying that, I agree with what Rambam has wrote for number 36. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it the same in my notes.
37. Rambam has, “Do not love those who entice others into idolatry.”
“When your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own being, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other mighty ones’– which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the mighty ones of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth – do not agree with him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pardon him, nor spare him or conceal him,” (Deuteronomy 13:6-8)
The literal commandment is that we should not yield or agree with someone who is trying to convince us to worship other gods. This could range from full on agreeing to worship the false god, or something as innocent as, “I see your point”, or “I see where you’re coming from.” Are those not also forms of agreement? This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it in my notes as, “Do not yield/agree with someone who entices you into idolatry worship.”
38. Rambam has, “Do not cease hating an idolater.”
“When your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own being, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other mighty ones’– which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the mighty ones of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth – do not agree with him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pardon him, nor spare him or conceal him,” (Deuteronomy 13:6-8)
The literal commandment here is that we should not listen to the person trying to lead us into idolatry. If someone tries to lead into worshiping a false god or a false Messiah, do not even give them the time of day, just walk away. This falls under love Elohim, can be fulfilled today, and I titled it in my notes as, “Do not listen to one attempting to lead you into idolatry.”
It seems brothers and sisters that this will be as far as we get this time, I know it can be a bit repetitive but its good to read and re-read scripture. It helps to commit it to memory, and these are the instructions of our Father, so we should know them. I do not know if next month I will take a break and cover a different topic or continue onto part 3, I guess it will be a surprise! At any rate I hope you are learning a lot and are revisiting the commandments we’ve gone over to help make them a part of your lifestyle. Continue to test all things, including this, and I pray the Ruach leads you into all truth.
P.S.
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