SALT & LIGHT God’s Righteous People: God calls His people to turn away from wickedness and oppressing one another

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke? ISA 58:6

Rashi

Bonds—Heb. חַרְצֻבּוֹת, an expression of tying and binding.

Yoke—Heb. מוֹטָה, perversion of justice.

And to break every yoke—Jonathan renders: And to break every perversion of justice.

At the time this was written, God’s people were oppressing their workers and doing violence against each other. This is why God called his people to repentance—he did not just want them to avoid food, He wanted them to turn away from evil. So far, how have you obeyed the call of God to turn away from wickedness? How is this not about works leading to salvation, but an outflow of our faith in God?

2 you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin from off my people

and their flesh from off their bones,

Rashi

Who tear the skinI.e., the skin of the house of Israel, over whom they are heads and officers, as the prophet says: The heads of the house of Jacob and the officers of the house of Israel.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. JOH 7:7

John Gill

The world cannot hate you—Because they were of the world, belonged to it; they were like into it, and every like loves its like; and they were the world’s own, and therefore instead of being hated, were loved by it; and they walked according to the course of it; and wicked men not only take pleasure in sin, but in them that do it:

But it hates me—Though without a cause; that is, without a just cause, or reason; a cause there was, and it follows:

Because I testify about it that its works are evil—Even those works of it, which were reckoned good works; Christ bore his testimony of these, that they were evil; being done either not according to the command of God, but the traditions of the elders; or not from a right principle, as of faith and love, nor to a right end, as the glory of God; but only to be seen of men: and very severely did he inveigh against the pride, covetousness, hypocrisy, and uncleanness of the scribes and Pharisees: and so he continued to do, and this drew upon him their hatred and ill will.

3 who eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

Ketubot 47b:10

Rava said: This tanna, in the baraita cited below, maintains that the obligation of a husband to provide his wife’s sustenance applies by law, as it is taught with regard to the verse pertaining to a husband’s obligations toward his wife: “If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food [she’era], her clothing [kesuta], or her marital rights [onata]” (Exo 21:10). “She’era”; this is sustenance, and it likewise states: “Who eat the flesh [she’er] of my people” (Mic 3:3). “Kesuta” is understood in its literal sense as referring to clothing. “Onata”; this is her marital rights, which is stated in the law, and so it says: “If you oppress [te’aneh] my daughters” (Gen 31:50), which indicates that a husband may not deprive his wife of her marital rights.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers

who eat up my people as they eat bread

and do not call upon the Lord? PSA 14:4

Rashi

Have they no knowledge—Have they no knowledge at the end what had befallen them?

Who eat up my people—The seed of Nebuchadnezzar.

Eat bread—Heb. לחם, lit. bread. They made a feast (as in Dan 5:1) “made a huge feast (לחם).”

And do not call upon the Lord—They neither considered him nor remembered his wondrous and awesome deeds at their feast, and they used his vessels.

Sanhedrin 104b:12

With regard to the verse: “The eaters of my people ate bread, and do not call upon the Lord” (Psa 14:4), Rava says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Any Gentile thief who eats the bread of the Jewish people tastes the flavor of bread, and one who does not eat from the bread of the Jewish people does not taste the flavor of bread. Apparently they enjoy only what they steal from the Jewish people. With regard to the people referred to in the phrase “And do not call upon the Lord,” Rav says: These are the judges who are not God-fearing, and Shmuel says: These are schoolteachers who do not perform their job in the name of God.

4 Then they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil. MIC 3:2-4

Rashi

Then they will cry to the Lord—Then, when that time mentioned above, that “I will surely assemble Jacob,” comes, they will cry to the Lord to do good for them with the will of his people and with the joy of his nation, but he will not answer them.

On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” MAT 7:22

John Gill

On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord”—That is, in the last day, the day of judgment, the great and famous day, fixed by God, unknown to angels and men, which will be terrible to some, and joyful to others; the day in which the faithful ministers of the gospel shall be owned by Christ, and received into the kingdom of heaven: “many,” not of the common people only, but of the preachers of the word, who have filled up the highest station in the church below; not one, or two, or a few of them only, but many of them “will say to me”; to Christ, who will appear then as the judge of quick and dead, to which he is ordained by his Father,

Lord, Lord—Not “my Lord, my Lord,” as the Syriac version reads it; for they will not be able to claim any interest in him, though they will be obliged to own his dominion, power, and authority over them. The word is repeated to show their importunity, sense of danger, the confusion they will be in, the wretched disappointment they will have; and therefore speak as persons amazed and confounded, having expected they would have been the first persons that should be admitted into heaven. Their pleas follow;

Did we not prophesy in your name—This may be understood either of foretelling things to come; which gift wicked men may have, who have never had any experience of the grace of God, as Balaam, and Caiaphas, and others; or rather of preaching the word, which is sometimes called prophesying (Rom 12:6; 1Co 13:9; 14:1-5), and which may be done in the name of Christ, pretending mission and authority from him, and to be preachers of him, and yet be no better than “sounding brass,” or “a tinkling cymbal”; yea, nothing at all as to true grace, or spiritual experience.

And cast out demons in your name—Diabolical possessions were very frequent in the times of Christ; no doubt but they were suffered, that Jesus might have an opportunity of showing his power over Satan, by dispossessing him from the bodies, as well as the souls of men; and of giving proof of his deity, divine sonship and Messiahship: and this power of casting out demons was given to others, not only to the twelve apostles, among whom Judas was, who had the same power with the rest, and to the seventy disciples; but even to some who did not follow him, and his disciples (Mar 9:38), and some did this in the name of Jesus, who do not appear to have any true faith in him, and knowledge of him; as the vagabond Jews, exorcists, and the seven sons of Sceva (Act 19:13-14). An awful consideration it is, that men should be able to cast out demons, and at last be cast to the devil.

And do many mighty works in your name—That is, many miracles; not one, or a few only, but many; such as speaking with tongues, removing mountains, treading on serpents and scorpions, and drinking any deadly thing without hurt, and healing all manner of diseases and sicknesses. Judas, for one, was capable of pleading all these things; he had the gift of preaching, and a call from Christ to it, and yet a castaway; he had the power of casting out devils, and yet could not prevent the devil from entering into him; he could perform miracles, do wonders in Christ’s name, and yet, at last, was the betrayer of him. These pleas and arguments will be of no use to him, nor of any avail to any at the great day. It may be observed, that these men lay the whole stress of their salvation upon what they have done in Christ’s name; and not on Christ himself, in whom there is salvation, and in no other: they say not a syllable of what Christ has done and suffered, but only of what they have done. Indeed, the things they instance in, are the greatest done among men; the gifts they had were the most excellent, excepting the grace of God; the works they did were of an extraordinary nature; whence it follows, that there can be no salvation, nor is it to be expected from men’s works: for if preaching the word, which is attended with so much study, care, and labour, will not be a prevailing argument to admit men into the kingdom of heaven; how can it be thought that ever reading, or hearing, or any other external performance of religion, should bring persons there?

Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 1TI 6:1

7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

John Gill

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock—Not between the two masters, but between their servants, their upper servants, that had the care of their herds to feed them, and water them; and it is very probable their strife was about pasturage and watering places, the one endeavouring to get them from the other, or to get the best; which is much more likely than what Jarchi suggests, that the herdsmen of Lot were wicked men, and fed their cattle in the fields of others, and the herdsmen of Abram reproved them for their robbery; but they said, the land is given of Abram, and he has no heir, but Lot is his heir, and what robbery is this? And to this sense are the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem:

At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt then in the land—Which observation is made by Moses to point to a reason why they could not both of them have a sufficiency for their large flocks and herds, because the country was in the possession of others; and though there was to spare, yet not enough for them both. The Canaanites, though it was a general name for the people of the whole land, yet was given to a particular family in it, and was derived from their first founder Canaan, the son of Ham; the Perizzites were another family or tribe of the same nation, who had their name from “a village”; these being Pagans or villagers, living in huts, or houses, or tents scattered up and down in the fields, and were a rough, inhuman, and unsociable sort of people, and therefore it could not be expected that they would oblige them with much pasturage and water for their flocks: and besides, this may be remarked, partly to show the danger that Abram and Lot were in through the dissension of their herdmen, since those people that were so near might take the advantage of their quarrels among themselves, and fall upon them both, and destroy them, and therefore a reconciliation was necessary; and partly to observe the reproach that was like to come upon them, and upon the true religion, for their sakes, should they differ among themselves, which such sort of men would gladly catch at, and improve against them.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.” GEN 13:7-8

John Gill

Then Abram said to Lot—Being either an ear witness himself of the contentions of their servants, or having it reported to him by credible persons, he applied himself to Lot, in order to make peace, being a wise and good man; and though he was senior in years, and superior in substance, and higher in the class of relation, and upon all accounts the greatest man, yet he makes the proposal first, and lays a scheme before Lot for their future friendship, and to prevent quarrels, and the mischievous consequences of them:

Let there be no strife between you and me—There had been none yet, but it was very likely there would, if the dissension should go on between their servants; they could not well avoid interesting themselves in it, when it related to their respective properties; and there must be a right and wrong in such cases to be looked into and adjusted, which might occasion a difference between them; and this Abram was desirous of preventing, and therefore bespeaks his kinsman in this loving, affectionate, and condescending language:

And or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen—As he understood there was, and which, if not timely put an end to, might be of bad consequence to them both, especially as to their peace and comfort, giving this excellent reason to enforce his request:

For we are kinsmen—Or “men kinsmen we are”; we are men, let us act like such, the rational and humane part; they were kinsmen being men, so by nature all are kinsmen; by natural relation, Lot being the son of his brother Haran; kinsmen in religion, of the same faith in the one true and living God, and worshipers of him; and therefore on all accounts, by the ties of nature, relation, and religion, they were obliged to seek and cultivate peace and love.

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