Pekudei / Rot – Congregation Bat-Tzion

By Tim Johnson Mar. 29, 2025

This week’s parashah is Pekudei. It’s the final chapters in the book of Exodus (or Shemot). It’s where the Tabernacle is finally finished and put up. Once they do everything the way God said to do, His glory fills the Tabernacle.

The title for this teaching today it called Pekudei / Rot. Yes, rot. The rot is referring to the corruption that so easily comes on us when we don’t deliberately and faithfully stay close to God. So I will get to that eventually.

First, we’ll read the end of our Torah portion.

Scripture quotations are from the NJV Bible (New Jerusalem Version).

Exodus 40

30 He set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water therein, with which to wash. 31 Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet there. 32 When they went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came near to the altar, they washed, as YHVH commanded Moses. 33 He raised up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of YHVH filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and the glory of YHVH filled the tabernacle.

36 When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys; 37 but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not travel until the day that it was taken up.

38 For the cloud of YHVH was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

If a person thinks that there is only drudgery and judgment in the Old Testament, or Tanach, they must not have read this. The glory of God is appearing to the Children of Israel over and over again, and this is only one of the places in the Torah. The magnificence of God and His blessings are abundant and very visible, if you but look. A person with his mind open to seeing the wonderfulness of God will see it, one who is veiled will not.

I’m going to go in a similar direction to what I did last time I taught. Instead of focusing directly on the building of the Tabernacle here in Exodus, I thought it might be nice to bring in even another re-building story in the Bible.

This one takes place during the reign of Joash, King of Judah. I’ll read it from II Chron. 24. But before I get there, maybe we should remember the circumstances that led up to this. Joash is the king that began to reign when he was seven years old. I’ll go back and review what happened leading up to this.

Beginning with King Asa of Judah. Asa did a great job, stayed with God in almost all he did, and reigned for forty-one years. His son Jehoshaphat reigned after him for thirty-five years, and also did well. After that, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat comes along. These are all kings of Judah.

Asa … Jehoshaphat… Jehoram

II Chron. 21

4 Now when Jehoram had risen up over the kingdom of his father, and had strengthened himself, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel. 5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he had Ahab’s daughter as his wife. He did that which was evil in the sight of YHVH.

(Killed all his brothers, because they were a potential threat to him, and because he’s evil like the kings of Israel at the time.)

Continuing II Chron. 21

11 Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem play the prostitute, and led Judah astray. 12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “This is what YHVH, the God of David your father, says, ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute like Ahab’s house did, and also have slain your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than yourself, 14 behold, YHVH will strike your people with a great plague, including your children, your wives and all your possessions; 35 and you will have great sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day.’”

So Jehoram died, just the way God said he would.

II Chron. 22

1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, because the band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the oldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

Okay, just a couple of details here. First of all, this Ahaziah is not the same person as Ahaziah son of Ahab, king of Israel. (Same name, different king.) That other Ahaziah reigned about sixteen years earlier, and was evil as well. So, there are two kings, one of Israel, one of Judah, both named Ahaziah, and both related to Ahab.

Next we have the issue of Athaliah. We just read that Jehoram had married the daughter of Ahab. Now we have the name of the mother of Ahaziah being Athaliah the daughter of Omri. Omri, king of Israel, was Ahab’s father. It seems like this is the same woman who married Jehoram, but in the Bible, whenever she is named, she is not called the daughter of Ahab, but the daughter of Omri. It’s one of those things I don’t fully understand.

II Chron. 22 (cont.)

3 He also walked in the ways of Ahab’s house, because his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly. 4 And he did that which was evil in the sight of YHVH, as did Ahab’s house, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.

Now, this Ahaziah does not last long:

II Chron. 22 (cont.)

7 Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went to Joram; (king of Israel) for when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom YHVH had anointed to cut off Ahab’s house.

This verse is interesting in that it has both names of the king of Israel: Joram and Jehoram. They are both him.

So Ahaziah dies, and his evil mother Athalia seizes the throne over the kingdom of Judah.

II Chron. 22 (cont.)

10 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stealthily rescued him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the kohen (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not kill him. 12 He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athalia reigned.

You can’t make this stuff up! What an amazing story! So this Jehoshabeath is not only the king’s daughter, but she’s also married to Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada is a very important figure here in this time in the Bible. He and his wife save the entire line of Messiah from extinction because of what they do. The enemy who was working in the evil Athaliah almost succeeded in destroying all the “seed royal” of the house of David. The enemy knew the prophecy given to David, and tried to thwart God’s plan for the king of Judah, and for the Messiah, but hallelu-Yah, he did not triumph. Instead God did.

Joash was a nursing baby when he was saved from Athaliah. And they hid him in God’s house. They knew that Athaliah had no interest in going there, so he was safe, but he was also heavily guarded. They waited six years for him to grow up a little.

After this, it is the kohen, Jehoiada, who gathers soldiers, makes Joash king, and has Athaliah killed.

The entire time that Jehoiada is alive, Joash is a wonderful king. We’ll see…

II Chron. 24

4 And it came to pass after this, that Joash intended to restore the house of YHVH. 5 He gathered together the kohanim and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites did not do it right away. 6 The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why have you not required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of YHVH, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?” 7 For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of the house of YHVH to the Baals.

8 So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of YHVH. 9 They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for YHVH the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10 All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it. 11 Now it came to pass at the time that the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, that the king’s scribe and the chief kohen’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. 12 The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of YHVH. They hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of YHVH, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair the house of YHVH. 13 So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up the house of God as it was designed, and strengthened it. 14 When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for the house of YHVH, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of YHVH continually all the days of Jehoiada.

15 But Jehoiada grew old, and was full of days, and he died. He was one hundred thirty years old when he died. 16 They buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

17 Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. 18 And they abandoned the house of YHVH, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. 19 Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again to YHVH, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.

20 Then the Ruach Elohim came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the kohen; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “This is what God says, ‘Why do you disobey the mitzvot of YHVH, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken YHVH, he has also forsaken you.’” 21 So they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of YHVH. 22 Thus Joash the king did not remember the chesed which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said, “May YHVH look at it, and repay it.”

This is certainly a heart-rending finish to the story of Joash. His own servants end up conspiring against him at the end. But this story certainly shows the “rot” that happens with humanity, does it not? With the influence of the wonderful priest Jehoiada, Joash is great, but left to his own devices, he seemed to lack the commitment to God he should have had. We (I) thought Joash had that commitment, but it turns out a lot of it was from Jehoiada the priest.

It’s important for us to remember the tremendous influence of godliness that Jehoiada provided for Joash.

We all influence each other as well. We all need each other. We can not fully succeed in this life in Messiah alone, or by ourselves. That’s one reason why we come together each Shabbat… because we need each other. We are supposed to be examples of godliness to each other. We are supposed to edify one another, and lift each other up. We are not to go through life’s troubles alone. Yes, God is with us, but we need each other. Let’s be our best godly self not only for our self and for God, but for our brothers and sisters. It’s important.

It’s also important for us to be deliberate in our faithfulness to God, and to not let that commitment fade away.

I’ve quoted a lot of scripture up to this point, so now, I’m going to ask you to just remember some of the things I’ll remind you of. These are examples of the rot, or corruption that we all have to fight.

First of all, remember when the Children of Israel were in the wilderness. How time after time, they forgot the greatness of God, and complained and grumbled. God got tired of it. Remember when God, through his miracles and wonderful presence in the cloud and in the fire brought them up to the very entrance to the promised land, but they freaked out, and refused to go.

Remember the entire book of Judges. The Children of Israel are in the land of milk and honey, but they continue to become corrupted because the inhabitants of the land that they neglected to remove become snares and traps to them. They continually move into idolatry and corruption. Then God sends a righteous Judge to help them and to rescue them. We start the book with the death of Joshua. But soon we have Deborah to save them from their troubles. Then there is Gideon. There was Tola the son of Puah. Then Jair the Gileadite. Then we have Jephthah the Gileadite. There is the whole story of Samson. Finally, at the end of the book, we read: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.” That was not really working out too well for them…

As you can see, what I have in mind as I’m talking about all of these things, is the ease with which we all seem to fall away from God. Sure, in the accounts of the kings, there are sometimes evil actors who influence the kings in corrupt ways. These are people, yes, but our spiritual enemy is the one who influences their thoughts and actions. This enemy of ours has been trying to stop or destroy the works and goals of our God since time immemorial. In the Garden, he influenced the woman, Eve, persuaded her to sin, and got Adam to sin as well. With that act, corruption came upon all mankind. It’s in our DNA. It has been there ever since, and when we understand our fleshly minds, we can see it there as well. We inherited this corruption, this propensity for evil, not only from our fathers, grand fathers, and great-grand fathers, but all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden.

So this corruption is not only in us, it is all around us as well. Paul, in

II Corinthians, calls ha’satan “the god of this world”.

II Cor. 4

1 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not faint. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying. 4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

We have renounced the hidden things of shame, he says. And that’s what we have all done. The problem remains with our flesh, however, that the hidden things of shame don’t ever seem to fully go away. We have to continue to renounce them, and to replace them with holiness and godliness.

That’s why Paul so emphatically emphasizes the importance of walking by the spirit instead of walking by the flesh.

Rom. 8

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Ruach. 2 For the law of the Ruach of life in Messiah Yeshua made me free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Torah could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, he condemned sin in the flesh; 4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Ruach. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Ruach, the things of the Ruach. 6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Ruach is life and shalom; 7 Because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to the Torah of God, neither indeed can it be. 8 And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Gal. 5

13 For you, brothers, were called to freedom; only do not use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. 14 For the whole Torah is fulfilled in one word, in this: “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you do not consume one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Ruach, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Ruach, and the Ruach against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. 18 But if you are led by the Ruach, you are not under the law.

Eph. 2

1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. 3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah- by chesed you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua, 7 that in the olam haba he might show the exceeding riches of his chesed in goodness toward us in Messiah Yeshua; 8 for by chesed you have been saved through emunah, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, that no one would boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

I John 4

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Ruach Elohim: every spirit who confesses that Yeshua the Messiah has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit who does not confess that Yeshua the Messiah has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the anti-messiah, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world; therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the Ruach of truth, and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins.

James 2

5 Listen my beloved brothers: did not God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in emunah, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

We at Bat Tzion are those poor of this world. We are called to be rich in emunah, and to be heirs of the Kingdom. I know you all know this. But in order for us to fulfill our calling before God, in His kingdom, we must remain faithful. We must remain diligent. If we do not remain faithful and diligent, the rot will come and begin to degrade us into our lesser selves. This is a form of corruption. It’s like rust. Like Neil Young said, rust never sleeps. And this is what it is to live in this world. Evil is all around us, and evil is in us because of Adam.

When I was a Baptist, I was on fire for God, and wanted to continue. But I was not completely convinced that this whole “God thing” was surely real. So I fell away for a while. On the road, in Salt Lake City Utah, a man met me, and told me of the miraculous healing of his leg. That was the catalyst I needed to realize that God is real indeed, and it behooves me to follow Him and His ways. After I came back to Portland Oregon, I eventually began taking a Bible class. Once the word of God began to percolate in me again, and stir up the spirit of God in me, one of the first things I realized I needed to do was to break off the relationship with my girlfriend at the time. It was not holy. So the next day, I went to her and explained that in my new pursuit of the godly life, I must quit seeing her. She understood what I was saying, and could see that I was sincere. But one thing she said to me was to encourage me to never let myself just fall away from God. It was a little weird to hear her say this, but she was right. She knew that falling away from God could easily happen if you don’t pay attention. Perhaps it had happened to her. She understood that without deliberate commitment and faithfulness, it was easy to be pulled away from godliness. What she said helped me, and strengthened the commitment I had already made to God.

Gal. 6

6 But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Ruach will from the Ruach reap eternal life. 9 Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the emunah.

We occasionally have personal difficulties amongst ourselves. Let’s try to keep the bigger picture of the Body of Messiah in mind. Let’s try to see each other in the way that God does. Let’s also try to be the person that God wants us to be instead of the person we want to be. God knows the frailties and failings of each of us. Let’s all be strong in our commitment to God and to each other. Let’s not falter. Let’s not forget to be faithful. We need to get past our petty issues, and learn to truly love and accept each other. God called those who are poor in this world to be rich in emunah. That means we are not going to be surrounded by the “best and the brightest” of this world in the body of Messiah. We are surrounded by people who needed help from their savior to make it through this life. We are called to forgiveness… seventy times seven, remember? We are called to be long-suffering. In our weakness we can be strong in Yeshua, right? We are not a big, fancy, impressive bunch here. No. All of us need our Messiah, and we all need each other. Let’s be continuing in the work of Messiah as we edify each other, building each other up, forgiving each other, and spurring each other on to be the best we can be for our Almighty God.

Shabbat Shalom.