Torah Portion: Yitro (Jethro) Torah Reading: Exodus 18:1-20:23 Prophetic Reading: Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6

“Believers Need to Establish Justice and Righteousness”

In this week’s Torah reading the Children of Israel receive the Ten Commandments. In the reading from the prophets one learns of the identity of Messiah. These two topics are inherently related. The Ten Commandments represent the Torah and one of the primary purposes of the Torah is to reveal the character of Messiah.

In the final section of the Haftarah one reads the famous Messianic prophecy,

“For a Child is born for us, a Son is given to us, and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty G-d, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.’ For the multiplication of His government and peace shall have no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, with the purpose to establish it and to sustain it with justice and righteousness from now and forevermore, the zeal of the L-rd of Hosts shall accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:5-6

In this prophecy the Hebrew name for the Messiah (actually there are several names for the Messiah in this passage as Wonderful Counselor…Prince of Peace) contains eight Hebrew words. According to Biblical numerology the number eight reflects the ideas “newness”, “kingdom”, and “redemption”. These ideas are clearly reflected in the Person and work of Messiah Yeshua. He came to give us new life, He is the only way into the Kingdom and these two gifts are only achieved through His work of redemption.

It is important to see that this prophecy of Messiah comes within the context of a victory over the enemies of Israel. This also reflects what Yeshua will do when He returns to establish His Kingdom. He will wage war with those who stand against His Kingdom. Today it is very easy to see that the world is changing and moving further and further against the two principles that this prophecy states will characterize His Kingdom—justice and righteousness.

We, as Messiah’s disciples, are called to be Kingdom builders; that is, to serve the Messiah by working to establish justice and righteousness in the places we live and work. In other words, one needs to open his eyes and look for situations where there is injustice taking place and work to change these situations by establishing justice and righteousness. It demands one getting involved. Most of the time, we tend to prefer to simply ignore or criticize these things from a distance. However, as the Messiah is coming to deal with injustice and ungodliness in the world, He wants us to be doing this same work now. It is easy to say, “This is not my business or people will think I am meddling” but we need to remember that we are the sons of the King who will inherit the world. It is our business to stand against those things which infringe on the principles of the Kingdom. Not getting involved and just ignoring these things is actually what the enemy wants.

Allow the zeal of the L-rd to work in your life and lead you to get involved and be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.