SOCIAL NORMS AND REGULATIONS

POWER AND VOTING

1. Deut.17:14 When you come to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you and you possess it and live there, and then say, “We will set a king over us like all the nations that are about us”, you shall surely set as king over you him whom YHWH your Elohim will choose.    

2. Deut.17:15 You shall surely set as king over you him whom YHWH your Elohim will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You are forbidden to appoint a foreigner over you who is not your kinsman.

3. Deut.17:16 But he (King) shall not multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since YHWH said to you, “You shall never return that way.”

4. Deut.17:17 And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his mind and heart turn not away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

1Tim.3:2 A bishop (overseer, elder) then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence: for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the congregation of YHWH?

1Tim.3:12 A deacon (servant) must be the husband of one wife, and he must manage his children and household well.

Tit.1:6 A elder must be blameless, husband to one wife, with believing children who do not have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.

5. Deut.17:18 Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law (Torah) in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear YHWH his Elohim and be careful to observe all the words of this law (Torah) and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

CENSUS         

6. Ex.30:12 When you take the census of the Israelites, every man shall give a ransom for himself to YHWH when you number them, that no plague may fall upon them when you number them.

Lk.2:1 Around this time, Emperor Augustus issued an order for a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This registration, the first of its kind, took place when Quirinius was governing in Syria. Everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. So Yosef, because he was a descendant of David, went up from the town of Natzeret in the Galil to the town of David, called Beit-Lechem, in Y’hudah, to be registered, with Miryam, to whom he was engaged, and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

Act.5:37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed.

Lk.12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before YHWH. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore – you are of more value than many sparrows.

A census is an important part of life in a society and has both practical and spiritual meaning.

7. Ex.30:13 This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to YHWH.

8. Ex.30:14 Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to YHWH.

9. Ex.30:15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to YHWH, to make atonement for yourselves.

Eph.6:9 You and your servants are both under the same Master in heaven. He makes no distinction between you and them (He has no favorites).

Act.10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that YHWH shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”

Col.3:25 For YHWH has no favorites who can get away with evil.

Rom.2:11 For YHWH does not show favoritism.

YHWH is showing that all the members of society are equal in His eye. 

10. Ex.30:16 And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before YHWH, to make atonement for yourselves.

TRUMPET SOUNDS FOR CALLING THE CONGREGATION

11. Num.10:2 Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work. You shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. When you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall begin their journey. They shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations.

SOCIAL STANDARDS OF YHWH

12. Deut.23:1 A man with crushed or damaged private parts may not enter the assembly of YHWH.

A man carrying a seed or incapable of passing down his genus cannot enter the community of YHWH, or a true family, since the hereditary sign of being Jewish is transmitted through the seed of the men from the times of the Patriarchs.

13. Deut.23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of YHWH may not enter the assembly of YHWH, nor may his descendants down to the tenth generation enter the assembly of YHWH.

These regulations might also be applied to the genealogy of the twelve tribes of Israel since the purity of the family tree is a distinct trait of the nation of  YHWH. A son (man’s offspring) of ‘an unknown genealogy’ could not continue the genealogy of the 12 tribes of Israel. Therefore, the title and kinship that is associated with ‘Jewishness’ is passed on through the man’s seed (Gen.5; Gen.25:19; Mtt.1:2) and not through the woman’s, as some religious teachings have stated. According to the Scripture, marriage of the sons of Israel with women of other nations is allowed (except for seven nearby nations mentioned in Deut.7:3) since man was the one who carried the spiritual-genetic coding of his kin while woman carried only the physical-genetic content of her kin. 

14. Deut.23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of YHWH. Even to their tenth generation their descendants shall not enter into the assembly of YHWH Because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia against you to curse you.

Since Deut.23:3 mentions only the men of Ammonites and Moabites, the ban for marriages does not apply for the marriage between the men of Israel and women of the Ammonites or Moabites. These types of marriages were allowed to exist since the woman stood under the authority of her husband and this made her a representative of the nation of Israel. An example of this is Ruth, the Moabite who was grafted into the congregation of Israel as a prototype for believers of a pagan background (Rom.11:17).

The origin of these two nations is described in Gen.19:30–38 (daughters of Lot). It is interesting to note that the reason for their rejection lies not in their origin but in the sin committed by them. They refused to help their Israelite brothers during deliverance from the Egyptian slavery; on the contrary the Moabites used the curse of Balaam. Being an Ammonite, Moabite, Egyptian, Edomite or any other foreigner does not have to do with people’s origin but with the state of their heart. This is what YHWH said regarding the foreigners through the prophet of Isaiah: Is.56:1 Thus says  YHWH: ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to YHWH speak, saying, ‘ YHWH  has utterly separated me from His people’; nor let the eunuch say, ‘Here I am, a dry tree.’ For thus says YHWH: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and firm grip on My covenant, I will give them power and a name greater than sons and daughters; I will give him an everlasting name that will not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to YHWH to serve him, to love the name of  YHWH, and to be his workers, all who keep Sabbath and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant (by conscientious obedience), all these I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.’

Neh.13:1 On that day they read from the Book of Moses (Torah) in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of YHWH, because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our YHWH turned the curse into a blessing. So it was, when they had heard the law (Torah), that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

15. Deut.23:9 Their children (Edomite and Egyptian) may enter into the congregation of YHWH in their third generation.

Again, this verse refers to the sons (male children only) born to Edomites and Egyptians.

16. Deut.23:7 You shall not abhor an Edomite*, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a stranger and temporary resident in his land.

* ‘Edomite’ – Esau’s descendant: Gen.25:30; Gen.36:1.

Mk.3:7 Yeshua went off with His disciples to the lake, and great numbers followed him from the Galil and from Judea (Y’hudah), Yerushalayim, Idumea, the territory beyond the Yarden, and the Tzor-Tzidon area (Tyre and Sidon), a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.