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Table fellowship indicates acceptance and inclusion in the Messiah’s Kingdom. While the Gentiles from east and west are not Jews, physical descendants of Abraham, they are a part of the fellowship of the Messiah. 

And that the unfaithful “sons of the Kingdom” are thrown out seems to say that full, continuing participation in the Kingdom is for those who follow the Messiah. Following on Matthew 7, it is for those who do the will and live the Word of God and His Messiah.

“I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of Egypt.” God has made His people holy, has saved them and set them apart. They belong to Him.

v. 13-14 – Enter by the narrow gate – the narrow gate for some in Jesus’ hearing was trusting in Him as Messiah and for others following His word. In both cases it is following in the way of the Messiah.

v. 21-23 – Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord”, who says that he believes will be saved, but only those who do the will of the Father. And what is the will of the Father? To believe in the one that He has sent, to follow the Messiah, to keep His word.

The first commandment (the “first word”)  in Judaism (and in Jesus’ day) is “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery”. This first commandment is a commandment to believe in God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). [Chumash - All of the sages and rabbis agree]. Obedience follows from faith then. If you believe, you will obey.

“Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” These people are without the law or Torah. They just “believe in Jesus”, “celebrate their freedom in Christ,” but have rejected or neglected the Torah, the instruction, of the Master. He is after all, the way, the truth, and the life. He gives us life through faith in Him, but He is also our way – our instruction in how to live.

This holiness includes sexual relationships, but also the way we treat our parents, keep the Sabbath, wear our hair, pick our clothes.

We have been saved by God for God.

15. The penalty for striking a parent is in contrast to striking anyone else. To rise up against a parent is to oppose God who established the parent as authority, who acts in place of God in one’s life. To curse a parent is also liable to death since it combines rebellion against parents with the use of God’s name. The 4th (5th) commandment commands honoring parents. Since there were two tablets of commandments and the commandment about parents is included on the same tablet with commandments about our relationship with God, this means that when we honor parents we honor God. The sages also say that there are three partners in a human being: God, father, and mother, so parents deserve honor and respect – even if they don’t “deserve” it as Deuteronomy 5:16 adds the phrase “as Hashem, your God, commanded you.” We must honor them not for their own sakes but for the sake of Hashem.

18-19. “If men quarrel”. One would think because the men quarrel that there should not be penalty for the argument escalating into violence. But this commandment underscores human responsibility over emotion. We are responsible for our actions even in the midst of a very emotional conflict. Killing in the heat of passion is not an accident (see 21:12-14). The penalty here is commensurate with the outcome. If the man dies, the perpetrator pays life for life. If the victim recovers, the penalty is for lost time and for medical treatment..

20-21. “for he is his property” indicates that this slave is a non-Jew. Note that the death of a non-Jewish slave is the same as the death of a free Jew; it requires the death penalty if the slave dies as the result of malice. If he lingers, the death penalty is not imposed because it is assumed the rod was required for discipline and was justly administered. Again, the commandments here do not comment on the rightness of corporal discipline or slave holding, but rather seek to protect the lives of slaves.

22-25. Whereas verse 18 spoke about the consequences of one man killing another man in direct conflict, this commandment concerns the death of innocent bystanders in a dispute between two people who are trying to kill each other. Here the death of innocent bystanders is the responsibility of the struggling parties. They cannot plead that the death of the innocent was not their fault, that it was an accident. It is punished with the same penalty as one person murdering or injuring another. Life for life, eye for eye, etc. Beware then of disputing with another that others are not harmed by your actions. This can mean physically harmed or extended to include emotionally harmed. What harm is done to children when parents fight. “For those who harm one of my little ones,” Jesus says, “it would be better if a millstone were hanged around their neck and they were drowned in the depth of the sea.” In Jesus’ context, little means not just young but innocent or disciples seeking to follow their Master.

This passage has also been cited in arguments about abortion. Literally, it says that if a woman is injured so that her children “come out” but there is no fatality, there will be payment made “an eye for eye” etc. But if there is a fatality you shall award life for life. Does the fatality refer to the child and/or the woman or just the woman. Does “come out” refer to birth or is it used always as a reference to miscarriage? This section seems to be making the point that the commandments protect the lives and well-being of not just free Jewish men but also slaves and women. Does this passage seek to extend that same protection to the unborn here? I need to examine the word for “come out” more, although the general direction of this section extending the protection of a compassionate God to categories of people undervalued by other societies would seem to open the possibility that an unborn child should receive the same protection.

It should be noted here, too, that in every discussion of the application of “an eye for an eye” etc. the Talmud establishes the penalty in monetary terms. Never was there a Jewish court that ever blinded or otherwise inflicted a physical injury in retribution; the only corporal punishments ever imposed are the death penalty and lashes, where provided by the Torah.

2 – Joseph cries aloud, a shout heard in all of Egypt and Pharaoh’s household. There will be no more delay. The hidden will be revealed.

3- “I am Joseph.” And his brothers could not answer him because they were left disconcerted before him.

! – Such will be our state when the shout shatters the universe and the hidden is revealed and we stand before Messiah. “I am your brother whom you betrayed and sold.” All will stand disconcerted, with nothing to say, before him, and the truth will sink in. As good as we think we might have been, as buddy-buddy as we might have been, as comfortable as our excuses that let us go on, we will stand silent before Him.

And He will say to us as Joseph said to his brothers: “Come close to me, if you please… And now, be not distressed, nor reproach yourselves, for it was to be a provider that God sent me ahead of you.” Still no back-clapping, no presumptuous mounting of the steps. Just wonder, awe, mixed with holy fear, and tears upon necks bent all around.

7 – “God sent me ahead of you…” It was God’s plan that brought Joseph to Egypt to preserve the family in famine

The exile in Egypt and the Exodus was not just a remedy to an accident or a family’s brokenness. It demonstrated

• the universal authority of God
• the power and might of God over all others
• it forged the family into a people
• it paved the way for a deliverance that would shape the family’s soul forever.

That the brothers fought and betrayed Joseph was not necessarily God’s idea. But it would not stop His purposes from being accomplished. The promise He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would come to pass and so He worked through even the jealousy and meanness of a handful of brothers to provide for the family, and through the family to finally bless us all.

Joseph wants to know whether his brothers have changed. They had sold him into slavery and abandoned him to death because of their jealousy. After 20 years, have they changed? So they are brought down into affliction and tested. And they say in Genesis 44:16 “God has uncovered the guilt of your servants.” They recognize their sin and are repentant. They feel bad. But the test goes on. Will they produce fruit of that repentance? Will they stick with their brother, Benjamin, or will they abandon him like they abandoned Joseph? Feeling bad about our sin and saying “I’m sorry” is not enough. But then, neither is just doing what is right. It’s not either/or, either say I’m sorry or do good. It’s both/and, Martin Luther notwithstanding.

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells the parable of some tenants who are in charge of a vineyard while their master is gone. The master sends servants to collect what is due him and they chase some away and kill others. And then the master sends his son and the tenants kill him so they might keep the vineyard for themselves. Jesus says, as a result, the kingdom will be taken away from the tenants and given to a people (Gk: ethnos) who will produce the fruits of the kingdom.

This passage has often been used to say that the Kingdom was taken away from the Jews and given to the Gentiles and that it has passed from Torah/commandment-keepers (legalists) to believers.

Note though that there are two words for “People” in the Greek of Matthew 22:

1. ethnos = a multitude bound by the same manners, customs, or other distinctive features.
2. phule = people as a national unity of common descent.

Jesus is not differentiating here on the basis of national/common descent as in “taken from the Jews and given to the non-Jews”.

But rather the distinctive feature of the “ethnos” is that they will bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom as opposed to the Pharisees and Saducees who have not.

This ethnos includes Jewish tax collectors and prostitutes from earlier in the chapter who Jesus says go into the Kingdom of God before the Pharisees, as well as Gentiles who will produce the fruits of the Kingdom (and not just “believe”). As Jesus says in another place: “Who is my mother and my brothers? Those who do the will of my Father in heaven.”

The distinctive feature of God’s people, of Israel, is not exclusively national/common descent but doing the will of “my Father in heaven.” This fulfills God’s covenantal promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And what is that will and what are those fruit? To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our strength and to love our neighbor – which sums up the whole Law, Jesus says in Matthew 22.

But love which fulfills this word is not just some warm feeling about God. It is love expressed in action. It is the whole law which includes something as small as tithing mint and rue, which we ought to do, Jesus says, out of love for God, and something as big as showing justice and mercy out of love for God (Matthew 23:23). It also includes believing in/following the one He has sent (John 6:29).

If we love Him, we are going to do what He commands. (Jesus said that, not me – John 14:15)

The fruit is doing the commandments out of love for God. It’s the outer flowing from the inner and inner and outer never separated. It is actions enlivened by love for God.

Some of the Pharisees were doing the outer divorced from the inner, they were doing the commandments to be seen by men. Their deeds were dead.

Unfortunately, the church has the same problem as the Pharisees, with different symptoms. We divorce the outer and inner too, but unlike the Pharisees we neglect the outer and focus on the inner. All that matters is what we believe inside and so we neglect the Torah/commandments of God apart from lip-service to some evangelical feeling-based amorphous love for others or some Torah-less liberal drivel about justice. Whereas the Pharisees deeds were dead, our faith is dead (James 2:17).

God has told us what His will is. It is in the Torah. It is Sabbath, and festivals, and dietary directives, leaving the gleanings for the poor, justice, mercy, forgiving enemies, sexual purity, marital faithfulness, defending your brother and standing with the oppressed.

We do these things not to save ourselves or because we have to to be saved. That’s what some of the Pharisees were doing. We do them because we have been saved, because we have experienced the love and mercy of God and we love Him back.

Will Joseph’s brothers pass the test? Was their repentance sufficient that they would defend their brother Benjamin and stand with him? By their fruit we will know them in the next Portion.

By our fruit we will be known too. Will we love God so much that we will keep the Sabbath, forgive our enemies, protect and sanctify His name, help the poor around us, living simply, contentedly?

Has Jesus not returned yet because the test is still going on? Is He still waiting for us? Or maybe He has just given up and gone on to some other more receptive planet where the people will produce the fruit that He deserves.