Deut. 16:18-21:9
Is. 51:12-52:12 or to 53:12 (Messianic adaptation)

Long ago, the Jewish sages created the parsha, a reading calendar to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every Sabbath. They are from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books or Nevi’im of the Old Testament or Ketuvim). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days.

This portion called Shof’tim (Judges), was read in synagogues on August 15, 2026. Using this portioned Scripture, I will discuss the Torah’s instructions for obedience to authorities, the king God chose, the prophet like Moses, and the priceless redemption of Israel (and the world). As always, I will tie all these things to Messiah. Please refer to the passages I listed above for this portion’s full Scripture.

Obedience to Authorities

¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel (Deut. 17:11-12).

Deut. 17:8-13 gives instructions about obeying spiritual and civil leaders in Israel. The people were supposed to obey. Some people think Jesus came as a revolutionary, or that He came with a different teaching than Judaism. That is not the case at all. If He did, then according to the Torah, He deserved to die. Do Jesus’ own words support the upheaval of the political and religious institutions?

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice (Mt. 23:1-3).

To the contrary, Jesus said to obey their words, just like the Torah commanded the people to obey the words of the priests and the judges of Israel. If anything, Jesus is saying the priests and judges are the ones being disobedient to their own words. Jesus was not a revolutionary, and He did not contradict Torah.

Even when it came to governing powers outside of the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees tried to catch Him saying something treasonous against the Roman Empire. But Jesus, outmaneuvering their trick, said, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt. 22:21).

The Apostle Paul corroborates this principle in his letter to the Roman church:

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Rom. 13:1-7).

This is how the Christian church, scattered all throughout the world, in the midst of all different governments, can apply the same principle of obedience to authority, as established in the Torah and affirmed by Jesus. Sorry, Henry David Thoreau. Jesus said pay taxes. Paul said pay taxes. They didn’t say pay taxes only when we agree with what they spend it on or how much they ask for. Tax evasion is a sin.

Remember this story about Jesus:

⁴¹ And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.^{[f] 43} And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mk. 12:41-44).

The context of this story is so important. This was the week before the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death. The widow’s penny went into the pot of money from which the Pharisees paid 30 pieces of silver to Judas for Jesus’ betrayal! And Jesus commended her gift.

However, the line of obedience gets drawn when the authorities demand disobedience to the Lord. When the Jewish authorities commanded Peter and John to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, they told them,

Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19b-20).

To stop preaching the gospel would have actually been a disobedience to Jesus’ command to preach the gospel in all the earth (Mt. 28:19-20), and it would have been a disobedience to the Torah, from which I have spent the last year presenting multiple arguments every week that the Scriptures attest that Jesus is the Messiah in every single portion.

And in a setting with Gentile authorities, three young Jews were faced with obeying the Torah by worshipping only the one true God or bowing to an idol and obeying the Babylonian king. When it was a matter of either-or, their resolve was clear:

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷ If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Dan 3:16b-18).

God blessed them for their obedience, but even if their lives were not delivered, they were ready and willing to make the sacrifice, knowing it was the right one.

Even much earlier than this in Biblical history, there were Gentile Egyptian midwives who were commanded by Pharaoh to disobey the basic laws of God, inherent in our hearts (Rom. 1:18-20), to murder innocent newborn baby Hebrew boys. However, they refused. Although the Torah was not written, and although they were Gentiles in a completely Gentile context, there are basic principles of morality that are universal, which God rewards when we uphold them over laws that violate the basic tenants of morality.

¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” ¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families (Ex. 1:15-20).

So whether it is Jewish-Jewish relations, Jewish-Gentile relations, or Gentile-Gentile relations, we obey the teachings and teachers of the Torah, as well as civil leaders, inasmuch as their words uphold values that do not force us to disobey God’s written and inherent moral law.

Jesus did this to the very end. Even as He was about to be executed by the Roman government, Jesus said to Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (Jn. 19:11a). Jesus acknowledged that in the context of His earthly ministry, Pilate had authority over Him, and He submitted to it, even unto death. Philppians 2:8 says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” No, Jesus was not a religious nor civil revolutionary. He obeyed Torah.

It was in Jesus’ sentencing that the Pharisees exhibited exactly what Jesus had said of them in His earlier teachings: “They preach, but do not practice.” Deuteronomy 19:15-19 says

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. ¹⁶ If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Yet the chief priests, instead of diligently holding to this rule, went out of their way to use false witnesses to condemn Jesus. Instead of condemning the false witnesses as the Torah commanded, they used them to condemn the innocent.

⁵⁹ Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, ⁶⁰ but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward (Mt. 26:59-60a).

⁵⁵ Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. ⁵⁶ For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. ⁵⁷ And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, ⁵⁸ “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” ⁵⁹ Yet even about this their testimony did not agree (Mk. 14:55-59).

Their hypocrisy was made evident by their actions, but Jesus still kept Torah by obeying them to the point of death. He would not compromise His identity as Lord when they questioned Him (Mt. 26:63-66), thus they condemned Him, and believers should not compromise His identity when we are pressed by society to detract from it. When the Pharisees told Jesus to silence His disciples’ praise as He entered Jerusalem before Passover, He basically said no (Lk. 19:37-40). We respect authority, but we don’t compromise the proclamation of the gospel or God’s praise.

Even in Western culture, the ability to obey government gets harder and harder for the believer, but unless we are being compelled to violate God’s law ourselves, we must submit like Jesus did.

The King God Would Choose

I have to give credit to my friend at the local messianic fellowship who gave a message on this topic. I’ve borrowed a lot of his notes. God made it clear that He would choose a king for Israel, yet He was King of Israel. Isn’t that interesting? Why would He give them something lesser when they had Him? Or would He be giving them something lesser? He would, unless the King God chose would be His equal, that is, Himself incarnate, His “Son”.

When Israel asked for a king, instead of waiting for God to choose a king, it was an evil thing (1 Sam. 12:19-20). They didn’t ask for a king because of what God said about it. They asked for a king because they wanted to be like the other nations (1 Sam. 8:5). The qualifications for the king God required were not the standard for worldly kings, and they are not tenants that Israel’s kings followed.

1. “you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose” (Deut. 17:15).
2. “One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you” (vs. 15).
3. “he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses” (vs. 16)
4. “he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away” (vs. 15)
5. “nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold” (vs. 17)
6. “when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests” (vs. 18)
7. “it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left” (vs. 19-20)
8. “that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel” (vs. 20)

None of the kings from the united kingdom or divided kingdoms kept this list. They could check of maybe a few at best, but none of them checked off all of them. I don’t have time to run through all of them, but I’ll do a case example on Solomon. The wisest man and wealthiest Jewish king who ever lived missed a lot of boxes.

Solomon, son of David, did not keep away from Egypt’s horses:

And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price (1 Kings 10:28).

Solomon acquired many wives and concubines, and they did to him exactly what the Lord warned of in the Torah:

He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart (1 Kings 11:3).

The king was not supposed to acquire much wealth. As for Solomon, the epitome of the dynasty,

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, ¹⁵ besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. ¹⁶ King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷ And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁸ The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, ²⁰ while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. ²¹ All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.

I don’t think Solmon can check that box, either. Sorry.

But Jesus is the King God chose. He followed the qualifications and He was not like the other nations nor kings of Israel and Judah.

1. Jesus is the one God chose: “And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Lk. 9:35).
2. Jesus came from among the people of Israel: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11).
3. He did not acquire horses from Egypt. He had no army. When His disciples drew their swords to defend Him, He told them to stop, and said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt. 26:53). Not relying on human power, He relied on God’s power, and even then He didn’t employ it.
4. He didn’t acquire many wives because He did not marry.
5. He did not acquire excessive silver and gold. He told those who would follow Him to sell all they had, give it to the poor, and then follow Him (Mt. 19:21). He also said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt. 8:20).
6. Jesus fulfilled the point about writing a copy of the Torah approved by the Levitical priests too, but to explain that, I’m going to have to take a little more time here. To do this, we have to go to Revelation, where we see Jesus at the heavenly throne after His work on earth.
   
   Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. ² And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, ⁴ and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵ And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
   
   ⁶ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:1-9).
   
   From this passage, in the hand of God on the heavenly throne, is a scroll written on both sides and completely sealed with seven seals. That’s interesting. Where else in the Bible do we see a two-sided written document? It is the first set of Ten Commandments given by God:
   
   “Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written” (Ex. 32:15).
   
   I think this gives us a clue as to what this scroll contained. The text is implying that this was a heavenly copy of the Torah or the Word of God. Now Israel broke the Ten Commandments right off the bat, and consequently, those tablets were shattered. But in Revelation, you see Jesus, after He descended to earth and then ascended to the Father, go forward and take the scroll. He can do this now because He obeyed the Torah on earth in human form (he is described as a lamb that had been slain), and He is the only One “worthy” to open it. I don’t think anyone, Jew or Christian, would say they are worthy to open the Word of God and read it. If they do, they probably need to have a chat with a rabbi or pastor. But by grace, we can. There is only one Who is “worthy” to open it. That’s Jesus.
7. Jesus feared God the Father, did not lift up His heart above the people, and never swerved to the left or right from the Torah. All that the Father showed Him, He did (Jn. 5:19). He humbled Himself even unto death (Phil. 2:8). He did not break any commandment (Jn. 10:31-33).
8. Jesus’ reign is long. It’s forever: “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13).

Jesus checks all the boxes, and He’s the only One Who could. Jesus is King. And He is coming to claim on His kingdom one day. The haftarah of this portion reading speaks to that time:

⁵ Now therefore what have I here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the Lord, “and continually all the day my name is despised. ⁶ Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
    who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
⁸ The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
    together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God (Is. 52:7-10).

Why do I say this speaks of Jesus’ second coming? In Zechariah 14, God plants His feet on the mount of Olives (v. 4), and all the nations of the earth will know the Lord is God by one Name (v. 9). That is the day He will save Israel from all its enemies, and I believe this will be the beginning of the Messianic era, His millennial reign on earth.

I believe Isaiah is partially talking about the same event in Zechariah where Jesus plants His feet on the Mount of Olives. In Jewish theology, there can be more than one understanding or application of a text. That does not mean those interpretations contradict one another. But here can be more than one take-away and more than one application to a text. The JPS commentary says,

For nearly two millennia and a half, the exposition of Scripture has been the subject of intense preoccupation on the part of Jewish scholars. In fact, Jewish intellectual and spiritual history may be said to be essentially the record of the variegated attempts to unfold the sense, meanings, purposes, intents, and applications of the biblical texts. The multiple sense of Scripture has ever been a cardinal principle of rabbinic Judaism: “Just as a hammer shatters rock and generates numerous splinters, so may a single verse yield a multiplicity of meanings.” Put otherwise, the Hebrew Bible is a prism that refracts varieties of truth. Characteristically, Jewish tradition has always refused to absolutize any single approach or stance (Sarna, xv).

I believe Isaiah 52 and Zechariah 14 are talking about the same event. In both, the Lord puts His feet on the mountains. In both, the Lord comes down to Zion/Israel, and in both He demonstrates His great redeeming power for Israel and judgement on the enemy nations in such a way that is obviously visible to the people at large, making His identity both obvious and specifically undeniable. This is the King of Israel. I argue that this is Jesus. He said He would come back as a king from the sky in an obvious way to all people, believers and non-believers, and that His salvation and judgment come with Him (Mt. 24:27, 23:39, Rev. 11:18). And Moses said a king would be chosen among Israel by God. Jesus is that King. God is King. Jesus is God!

The Prophet Like Moses

Prophet like Moses

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him (Deut. 18:15-19).

I laid out my explanation extensively about how Jesus is the prophet like Moses in my previous post, “Names: Their Importance and Their Power.” I would encourage you to go check it out if you’re curious.

Jesus also passed the test of a prophet. Moses wrote,

²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ²² when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him (Deut. 18:21-22).

Jesus taught many things that came true, but perhaps the most extant, material, undeniable fulfilled prophecy available to all people to see today is that of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Concerning the temple, he said,

² But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mt. 24:2).

Concerning the city as a whole, He said,

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Mt. 23:37-39).

The event of AD 70 is undeniable. And to this day, you go the Temple Mount and see the stones about which Jesus prophesied, and not a single one is standing in its place anymore–huge, Herodian stones. This prophecy of Jesus is undeniably proven true. Why then should we not lend credence to His words by that alone?

God’s Plan for Israel

As always, I have to add my little section about God’s relationship with Israel. From this portion alone, we continue to see that God did not abandon Israel for their faithlessness and rejection, and He never will. Concerning the Levites, God said,

⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time (Deut. 18:5).

For all of time means for all of time. At no point in time will the Levites no longer be chosen ministers under the Mosaic covenant. As far as I can tell, we are still inside time. God chose the Levitical priests forever. The Church did not replace the Levites at some point. The Church is a sort of priesthood too (1 Pet. 2:9), but they do not replace the Levitical priesthood God established in the Torah. There was never a divine bait-and-switch move God made after Jesus’ earthly ministry. No verse in the Bible says that. The sacrificial system pointed forward to the sacrifice Jesus made that would actually atone for sin. The sacrificial system after Jesus’ death and resurrection pointed back to the sacrifice Jesus made that has atoned for sin once and for all. While the temple still stood, the author of Hebrews wrote, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). Animal sacrifices have never removed sin. They were and are just a referrer to the One Who does. Concerning the role of the sacrificial system and the Levites, nothing then has changed.

Secondly, God’s promise of the land was never revoked to Israel, either. God promised the land unconditionally, at first to Abraham, but He promised to expand their land, given their obedience.

⁸ And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways (Deut. 19:8-9a).

But they did not hold up to their end of the covenant, and so Israel has never fully actualized God’s promised boundaries (Gen. 15:18, Deut. 11:24). However, at no point in Old Testament history would a Christian say Israel illegitimately held to the sliver of land they did inhabit.

Thirdly, if God has recorded Israel’s boundaries in the Bible, then it is not peoples’ place to deny or remove those boundaries. Concerning the moving of boundaries, God said,

¹⁴ “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess (Deut. 19:14).

Though Israel never fully received the boundaries God promised to Abraham or promised through Moses, they did have extant boundaries in history, and the Bible never said they should be removed from them. Israel today is inhabiting those ancient lands they once did. The world says they should not be there in certain places or not be there at all (even though they legally bought the land and then the UN put their stamp of approval on their sovereignty in 1948). There are coalitions forming even this day that seek to eradicate Israel from the map and take over Jerusalem, most obviously Iran and Turkey right now (and they are mentioned in a coalition against Israel in Ezekiel, interestingly enough). One day such plans will come to fruition, and this is what God has already said about that trepidatious time:

I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land (Joel 3:2).

God will judge the earth for moving the boundary markers of Israel that He established. The haftarah for this portion has something to say about this too:

Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
    your God who pleads the cause of his people:
“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
²³ and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
    who have said to you,
    ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;
and you have made your back like the ground
    and like the street for them to pass over” (Is. 51:22-23).

This is what God says, not people. God will be the one to exact vengeance, not people. This is not political. This is Biblical. This was written long before any extant nation had a political posture toward Israel. Governments who did mess with Israel don’t exist anymore, not because of Israel’s power to overcome, but God’s sovereignty. That’s a sign in itself.

Invaluable Worth

³ For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money” (Is. 52:3).

This verse from the haftarah for this portion is about Israel, not because they were worthless, but because they were priceless. When God gave them over to their enemies and sent them into exile, He didn’t get anything out of it, but when He saved them from their sins (Mt. 1:21), He receives all the glory. What did He save them with? Not with money. The Apostle Peter says this concerning the believing Jewish diaspora of the 1 century AD:

¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you..(1 Pet. 1:17-20a).

Peter makes explicit the exchange Isaiah introduces. Both ancient Israel and the first century Jewish diaspora were in exile. Both were redeemed without money (which would include precious metals and stones). Peter makes it clear the great exchange is made with the blood of Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb. What was foreknown by God when Isaiah wrote (foreknown before the world, actually) was made manifest when Peter wrote.

Now this truth did not just apply to Jewish exiles in the first century, but it applies to all who believe and all who will believe. And because Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:14-15), that means you are priceless. Your value is so high that it cannot be bought with gold, silver, or precious stones, or any amount of money. Not even Bitcoin. God redeemed you with the life of Messiah. If that isn’t a mark of self-worth, I don’t know what is.

You may have already trusted in this for your redemption, but maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t, I pray that you continue to consider these things, to follow the King God chose, listen to the Prophet like Moses, and believe in the redeeming blood of the Lamb. Until next time, from the Valley Princess, may God be with you–may God bless.

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 27 Sept. 2026.

The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989.