Violence in Eden: Whiplash

Although its connection to Yom HaKippurim (A Day like Purim) is more easily heard, the story of Purim in the scroll of Esther holds references to all the feasts. In fact, Purim holds a key to Passover that is very practical. It has to do with how the danger started: evil words. Chametz. Leaven. When Queen Esther calls the Jews to fast with her against the evil, it is during the days of matzah! The antidote to the violence of evil words is holy words, words spoken in prayer and fasting. By fasting and praying with unleavened tongues, the power of evil was broken.

In our “Benjamin Will Not Bow” newsletter, we searched back to Eden to find the source of slander, gossip, and separating brothers in conflict. Ezekiel describes the Edenic violation as a kind of violence. Indeed, today, when people profess hatred toward others, it often leads to actual violence. It “spreads out” two human beings made in the image of Elohim that were not created to be apart.

Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,“You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared.14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there.You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.16 By the abundance of your trade (rakal) you were internally filled with violence (malu chamas), and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.

It is rather odd that “trade” led to “violence,” or chamas. Perhaps there is more to the word than is translated. What is “trade” in Hebrew?

Rakhal- “…go about, from one to another”

There is much debate on the identity of the “King of Tyre.”

In this type of prophecy, the “villain” may be an archetype of a certain sinner. The tip-off is that it is anachronistic, completely out of the time period. Just as often it will work on the positive side, such as a later person coming “in the spirit of Elijah,” for instance.

This violent violator walked among ”fiery stones” until he was cast out because of his “trade,” rakhal. The same accusation is made against Babylon in Revelation. The Adversary, the serpent, goes back and forth between Adonai and His People to accuse.

The trafficker has two connotations: go about for spice trading and slandering. A High Priest is to go about with spices for atonement, not leverage to accuse Israel.

On the other hand, false witness was trafficked to convict Yeshua.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. (1 Co 5:6-13)

If only Adam and Eve hadn’t associated with an immoral “person,” the slanderer! Why are we so hesitant to confront a slanderer? We’re not supposed to even eat with one…it’s quite a sour fruit even though it looks juicy.

A “reviler” as Paul describes is G3060 ???????? loídoros

The KJV translates Strong’s G3060 in the following manner: railer (1x), reviler (1x).

Its Hebrew cognate is from din, judgment:

madon ??????

?????? H4066 from H1777; a contest or quarrel:—brawling, contention(-ous), discord, strife.

One who quarrels is one who is both arrogant and “leavened,” prone to distort the truth. The serpent in the Garden was a trafficker of falsely twisted information.

Slander is a reviling truth to separate humans from Elohim and one another. It’s probably not the whole story, just enough to deceive. We must remove these things before Passover. It is chametz!

During the search for leaven, and especially the seven days of Matzah, beware of slander, gossip, and lies. If you have to tape your mouth shut and wear noise-canceling headphones, do it!

Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil,

who spreads strife. H4066 (Pr 6:14)

?

A perverse man spreads ?????? strife, H4066

And a slanderer separates intimate friends. (Pr 16:28)

?

Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire,

So is a contentious H4066 man to kindle strife. (Pr 26:21)

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An arrogant man stirs up strife, H4066

But he who trusts in the LORD will prosper. (Pr 28:25)

Stirring up strife is evidence we don’t trust Adonai in the situation. It is “tongue-leaven”:

So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? (Ja 3:5-11)

It is so clear from James’ warning that pride is what sets the stage for the evil tongue and all the abominations that follow. Is Passover just about finding leavened products in our homes, or is it about finding the arrogance that leavens us?

15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
16 You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD.
17 ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor but shall not incur sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. (Le 19:15-18)

Are there any other commandments in Scripture that we so predictably apply to other people?

You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people…[Sefer HaChinnuch to Le 19:16]

The Jewish sages explain:

“This means that if we hear a person telling something bad about his fellow, we should not go and tell him, ‘So and so is saying this-and-this about you’ unless it is our intention to remove or avoid injury or to stop a quarrel. Our Sages of blessed memory said of the word rakkil (talebearer, slanderer): rakh, soft (kind), to one, and harsh to another. Another meaning: do not be as a Rokhel (peddler), loading up with words and going to peddle them…evil gossip and its partner, slander…bring death to the one who says it, the one who receives it, and the one about whom it is told-but most of all to the one who receives it…he is as one who violates a royal command…”

This explains the violence done by the serpent. He “peddled” words to Eve. To this day, he “peddles” words back and forth from human beings to the Throne, most regrettably, even back and forth from the people of Adonai to His Throne. He accuses us because we continue to load up his peddler’s cart with our word-poisons against one another.

The same tongues that could make peace instead create distance, killing relationships. Just as Adam and Even were separated from the Presence in the Garden, so we continually hide our faces from one another. One day, the Adversary will have no more words from our lips to peddle, and he will be cast down to earth.

This is our goal in preparing for Passover. Make peace. It will not make itself, for peace must be made. Peace is not a spontaneous miracle, but humility in two parties who build it together. Adonai makes peace in the Heavens; it is our job to make peace on earth.

What is the Torah’s punishment for a slanderer? It requires no whiplashes from the beit din, but instead, Adonai Himself is thought to send agents of judgment with “whiplashes.”

Whiplashes are frequently the punishment for violations of the mishpatim, mostly for violation of a negative commandment. Whiplashes can be both literal by human hands or through Divine judgment:

If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes. (Dt 25:1-3)

In the case above, the dispute has a clear innocent person and guilty person. Righteous and innocent. Even the punishment must not be degrading, a mercy the wicked did not extend to the righteous. Slander, however, incurs Divine whiplashes. Consider this slander committed by the ten evil spies concerning the Land itself. By using the truth about the Land of Israel, they turned the hearts of the people against it!

According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. (Nu 13:4)

Moses didn’t give anyone a whipping over the slander and the peddling of malicious talk. Yet, just as in Eden, the sentence was death. The slanderers would die off in forty years, a year for a day. These were Divine “whiplashes.” It is as if Adonai knew the degree of malice each man arrogantly kindled with his tongue, and He set the forty-year death time-table accordingly. Some were executed sooner, some later in the journey. In the graphic below, you can see that whiplashes are sometimes seen in Scripture as the words of a malicious tongue, yet also the judgment of Adonai Himself.

Yeshua describes it this way:

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. (Lk 12:42-48)

When is it okay to be a tattletale? Mordechai demonstrates: When the truth will save a life. By telling of the plot to assassinate the king, he saved his life. Queen Esther does it more boldly: she accuses wicked Haman in his very presence and saves the lives of all the Jews in Persia!

The assassins and wicked Haman both set out to do the same thing with their tongues: kill. Given time, they would have completed the killing task that their tongues began. They arrogantly decided who had a right to live. So it is with slander. We arrogantly decide who has a right to live and begin to flog our enemies with gossip and slander to kill their reputations.

In Vayigash, Judah atoned for Benjamin, not knowing he was innocent of the charge. In Esther, Benjamin (Mordechai and Esther are Benjaminites) atones for Judah. Atonement can be a painful thing because peacemaking carries a risk of personal loss.

So when we see a peddler’s cartful of words rolling our way, we know what to do. Even though the king was an unwitting receiver of the slander against the Jews, he did receive some lashes. The trouble it started resulted in a number of deaths when he granted the Jews the authority to defend themselves against attackers. The king is supposed to protect his people, not set them up for harm. He received the words, and death happened.

How much more will those suffer who know better than to receive the words, yet they purchase the juicy fruit of slanderous lips. Like Yeshua said, it’s violence, beating up fellow-servants. And they thought it cost them nothing. Free fruit juice.

Whiplash is coming when that cart skids to a stop before the King and Judge of all the earth. May we unload any apples of our own in that cart before Passover.

Preparing for Purim This is Pt 3.