This week’s Torah parsha from the annual cycle is Yitro (Exodus 18:1 – 20:23) and begins with the name of Moses’s father-in-law, but it ends with one of the most important ‘recitations’ in all of Scripture, the ‘download’ of the Ten Debarimm (Words/Commandments/Sayings) on Mount Sinai.
The Erev Shabbat reading, from Yitro (aka Jethro) to ‘delegation of authority,’ to Sinai :
Yitro is described as “a priest of Midian,” in other words, a pagan, a worshiper of ‘other gods’ or elohim. Yet he is ‘teachable.’ He hears from Moshe the story of what YHVH did to SHOW that He Was Who He Is, and then said, “Now I KNOW that YHVH IS…” greater than all thosse ‘gods.’
So the contrast with what follows thereafter at Mt. Sinai is all the more dramatic. The people not only HEARD the Words of Yahuah Himself, they literally “saw” the message! And as Mark suggests, one way to understand it in modern terms is a miraculously high “data bandwidth” download, that evidently gave many of them information overload.
Which sets up the main thrust of the midrash related to the “Ten Commandments.” They are clearly important, vitally so. So why does so much of the Whore Church, which sometimes proclaims them as fundamental, then turn around and twist, redefine, and even ignore some of them?
In a time where there is so clearly a financial, emotional, psychological, and now physical WAR in progress against those who seek to “know Him,” and be “called by His Name,” to the point where we must recognize, as Shaul/Paul certainly did that is a spiritual battle above all…
…we need to be able to discern Who those who claim to be our allies really serve.
Yitro: Which of ‘Ten’ Commandments May Still Apply, and Pernicious Doctrine”
The combined two-part teaching is here, via Hebrew Nation Radio.