Righteous Judges and True Prophets: Shoftim’s Call to a Spirit-Led Elul Generation

August 14, 2026 |  30^th Day of the 5^th Biblical Month 6026 |  Parashat Shoftim

“Righteous Judges and True Prophets: Shoftim’s Call to a 6^th Biblical Month Generation”

 

Parashat Shoftim  |  Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9  |  Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12–52:12  |  Shabbat August 15, 2026 

 

Opening Monologue

 

“Appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates.” (Deuteronomy 16.18)

That is how this Sabbath’s Torah Reading Shoftim (aka Judges) begins.

Here we have Moshe/Moses speaking to the second-generation Exodus Israelis who were gathered on the edge of the Promised Land. These were about to enter a Land already occupied by some of the most pagan-ridden souls of that day.

But before these would enter and take possession of the Land, Father recognized the nation would need to create courts to enforce Torah and appoint men authorized to rightly govern the nation. This was an essential move by Yah to install one of the key pillars of the government of Yehovah upon the earth. Torah governance.

Beloved, there are essentially three pillars to Yah’s Torah government: The King who leads the nation; the priesthood that intercedes on behalf the people; and the prophet who hears from Yah and informs the nation as to “thus saith the LORD.”

The judges the nation appoints would fall within the leadership pillar of this Torah Government.

Now, within our same Shoftim Reading, Moshe addresses something equally important to the development and implementation of His Torah Government over Israel:

¹⁵ The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; ¹⁶ According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not. ¹⁷ And the Lord said unto me, they have well-spoken that which they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. ¹⁹ And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. ²¹ And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? ²² When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.^[1]

So, Torah government stands upon the offices of Judges and prophets; which are the Courts and voices. Both make up the authority that governs what we do and authority that shapes our belief.

This Shabbat of 8/15/2026 we are reading Shoftim, which falls on the first (conceivably second) day of the 6^th month that the Rabbis named Elul (of Babylonian origin). But it is the very first Sabbath of the forty-day season of teshuvah that runs from the Rosh Chodesh of the 6^th Month all the way to Yom HaKippurim or the Day of Atonements.

So, permit me to ask: “Who is governing our inner world?”

 

Why These Two Angles Belong Together

Before we open the text, I want to tell you where we are going in our studies today, as I am going to weave two threads together throughout this teaching episode, and I want you to be able to follow what I’m saying to you.

Thread One is from Deuteronomy 16.18 and it instructs us to appoint judges and officers in all our gates. And it is with this instruction that Shoftim opens. I am going to put forth the position that this command, despite it being literally about civil courts and the legal system throughout the cities of Israel, also contains a powerful personal and spiritual dimension that is linked to this traditional season of Teshuvah that our Jewish cousin have now entered.

Thread Two is from Deuteronomy 18.15-22, which instructs us about the office of the prophet and how we are to tell a true prophet from a false one, and what to do when voices within our living sphere are claiming to speak for God.

Now, these two threads belong together, and here’s why.

In the Hebraic-world, judges and prophets serve a complementary function. The judge tells us what Torah requires of us. The prophet tells us what Yah is saying to us and speaking into our lives at that moment in time. Thus, this Torah-government governed our legal system as well as it governed our behavior and worldview.

And in this Jewish month of Elul, when the tradition tells our cousins that the King is in the field, that He has come down from His palace and is now walking among them, what they need more than anything right now is internal righteous governance. They need judges at their inner gates and true prophetic discernment in their hearts. And though this is all Jewish tradition, the principle of this tradition certainly apply to us who are the elect and chosen of Yah in these perilous times.

And so, that is what we are going to discuss today.

 

Thread One — Judges in Your Gates

 

Let us begin in Deuteronomy 16:18.

“Judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself in all your gates.”

In its Peshat, or rote reading and understanding, this instruction is civic. We were in the final preparations for taking possession of the Land of Promise. Yah recognized that once we took possession of the Land, we would need a justice system, or courts in every city, with officials to enforce the rulings of the justices, and a judicial system of accountability.

But I want to draw your attention to something in the wording of this verse that is spiritually relevant to us as Messianics/Netsarim/Hebrew Israelites.

The word for “gates” or “towns” in the Hebrew is sh’are means gate, gatehouse, location, place, or places. The same word is used in the Shema: “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates“ (Deuteronomy 6:9). In the Shema, the gates are the entry points to your home or your property. It is the point or place where the outside world comes onto or into our “inner world,” so to speak, as well as the point where we go out.

In this instruction, Yah tells Moshe to instruct us to appoint judges in all your gates.

Despite the negative press they’ve received over the centuries, the rabbis have not missed this connection, and neither should we.

At the risk of building too much of an allegory about this verse, I think it is important that we glean from this instruction any available spiritual application we can. I am going to stay close to the text, however.

If the gates of Deuteronomy 6 are the thresholds of our home and our lives, then Yah’s instruction to appoint judges in all our gates carries a personal dimension that is impossible to miss in this Jewish season of teshuvah.

What is governing the gates of our lives right now?

 

What or Who is the judge at the gate of our mouths? Consider the words we speak, the things we say about others, the way we speak about our Israeli/Jewish cousins, about the brethren in our fellowships and congregations, or about people who hold different theological positions than we do?

What or Who is the judge at the gate of our eyes? Consider what we allow in through the various screens in our homes, the media, the visual and emotional world that technology pumps into our homes 24/7?

For that matter, what or Who is the judge at the gate of minds and hearts? Let us ask ourselves what voices we are letting form and influence our opinions; our prophetic worldview; or our spiritual understanding and practices?

These are the gates that this Jewish traditional season is calling us to examine. And Shoftim is the reading that informs this counsel.

 

The Famous Double: Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof

 

Now we come to the most-quoted line in all of Parashat Shoftim: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof.” (Deuteronomy 16:20) “Justice, justice you shall pursue.”

Why does Moshe say “justice” twice?

The simple reading (i.e. the Peshat reading) is to emphasize the critical concept of righteous justice. As a Hebrew literary device, Yah repeats the concept He is communicating to us to stress that concept’s importance. And this is certainly true.

But the Rabbinic tradition goes much deeper. Consider the following:

R’ Simchah Bunim of Pshischa (Hasidic sage of the late 18th and early 19th century) wrote this on Deuteronomy 16:20:

 

“With justice, you shall pursue justice. Even the pursuit of justice must employ only just means — and not falsehood.”

 

Even the pursuit of justice must be just in its employment, or when it is carried out. In other words, we cannot use unjust means to reach a supposed just outcome. You see, the process is just as important as the verdict.

And the Derashot El Ami (a late 19th-century Torah commentary) takes this one step further:

 

“Justice alone is not enough, because there are many types of justice, just as there are many kinds of truth. Every regime has its own justice. The Torah, therefore, stresses ‘Justice, justice you shall pursue’ — namely the ethic of justice, where both the means AND the end are just.”

 

(Both citations may be found on Sefaria.org. Search: “Shoftim and Tzedek Mussar Torah Commentary.)

So, these two thinkers assert that when pursuing righteous justice, both the means and the end must be just. Both the process and the outcome must be righteous and just.

And here is where this becomes convicting during this Jewish season of Elul.

Because Elul is the season when YHVH examines not just what we have done, but how we have done that which we’ve done. Not just whether we reached the right conclusion on a matter, but whether we got to the finish-line with integrity. Not just whether we spoke truth in the process of pursuing the matter, but whether we spoke that truth with love, humility, and with the same grace we would want extended to ourselves.

Tzedek, tzedek. Justice in the outcome and justice in the process.

That is a personal and communal mandate, beloved. And if we are honest with ourselves, we will find places in and throughout our lives where we pursued the right outcome to a matter through questionable means. Where we defended truth with a tone that dishonored the truth we were seeking to defend. Where we were right in what we said, yet wrong in how we said it.

This season is the time to bring those gates—those “sh’are” — before our King Yeshua our Mashiyach.

Yes, bring our mouths, eyes, tone, and the wrongful processes we engaged in.

Tzedek, tzedek in the outcome and in the path we walked to get there.

 

The King in the Field: This Month’s Traditional Governing Invitation

 

Now let me bring the Elul tradition’s central image into our discussion today because it makes everything we have just said more urgent and loving at the same time.

The Baal Shem Tov (founder of Hasidism ~1600-1760) penned one of the most beautiful images of this season in all of Judaica. He said:

 

“A king normally dwells in his capital city. He holds court in his palace. To approach him requires protocol, permission, appointment, ceremony. Ordinary people do not simply walk up to the king. But when the king travels through the countryside — when he leaves the palace and walks among the fields and the villages — he becomes accessible. He greets the farmers. He listens to the petitions of the common people. He smiles at the children. He is the same king — but he is near.”

 

(This quote may be found at chabad.org/holidays/elul/article_cdo/aid/4747003/jewish/The-King-in-the-Field.htm; and Chabad.org with search of “Ani LeDodi 5726)

The Jewish month of “Elul” is the season that the Baal Shem Tov says, “is when the King is in the field.”

For forty days, from Rosh Chodesh of the 6^th month through Yom HaKippurim, the Holy One comes near. The gates of heaven are open in a way they are not at any other season of the year. The formality is reduced, and the access is wonderful. Anyone, any person, believer, any struggling and stumbling soul, can approach the King in this season, lay their cares at His feet, and find rest for their weary souls.

When the King comes into the field, He comes as both Judge and Comforter. He comes to examine the gates of our lives. And He also comes to say what the Haftarah says this week in Isaiah 51:12:

“Anochi, anochi Hu m’nachamchem.” “I, I — it is I who comforts you.”

The repetition of “I” in this passage is Yah’s emphatic personal identification with the one He is comforting. He is saying: “I, with My hand and heart, am the one who comforts you.”

This is the balance of Shoftim in this Jewish traditional month of Elul.

The One who requires us to appoint judges in our gates is also the One who comforts us. He does not appoint judges in our gates to condemn us, but to righteously govern us so that we may be whole or shalom. Halleluyah!

 

The Test of the True Prophet

 

Now we move to the second thread of our reading for today, which is in Deuteronomy 18:15–22. And it is here that we are going to ask a question that is needed in the Messianic/Netsari/Nazarene Israel community now.

How do we know if a prophet is speaking for Yehovah?

Moshe gives Israel a framework.

He begins in verse 15 with a promise: “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken.” (KJV)

This is one of the most spiritually significant verses in all of Torah. It promises a future prophet, not unlike Moshe. This One will emerge from within Yisra’el/Yasharal and to whom the people are commanded to listen. We understand Yeshua to be the fulfillment of this promise. Acts 3.22 records Peter quoting Deuteronomy/Devarim 18.15 directly, while Acts 7.37 records Stephen also quoting this Torah prophecy directly. Indeed, beloved, Yeshua is that Prophet that Torah announces is like unto Moshe.

This, beloved, is the foundation of our Faith.

Now, we come to “the test” in verses 20 through 22 of Deuteronomy/Devarim 18:

²⁰ However, the prophet that behaves presumptuously by speaking a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say to yourself, ‘How can we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken it?’ ²² Whenever what the prophet spoke in the name of Yahweh, the thing does not take place and does not come about, that is the thing that Yahweh has not spoken it. Presumptuously the prophet spoke it; you shall not fear him.”

In verse 21, we ask the obvious question: “How may we know the word that YHVH has not spoken?” Verse 22: “When a prophet speaks in the name of YHVH, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that YHVH has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

And so, the fundamental test of a prophet when He declares that something will come to pass: Did it actually come to pass? Simple, right?

 

The Part Everyone Misses

 

Most people teach that the Deuteronomy/Devarim 18 prophet test stands alone. But it does not.

Read Deuteronomy 13:1–3 with Deuteronomy 18.20-22 as a backdrop in our minds. And when we do, we quickly see that Godly discernment forms the basis of the Torah of Prophets instruction.

Deuteronomy 13:1–3 reads: 1 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, _⌊saying_⌋, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’ ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self.^[2]

Moshe here is not describing a false prophet whose predictions fail. He is describing a false prophet whose predictions come to fruition.

And yet this prophet is deemed to be false. He is deemed to be false because he is using the accurate prediction to pull us away from covenant faithfulness to YHVH.

You see, beloved, the test of a true prophet is not in the accuracy of his prophecy, but in the direction He points towards.

So, we are always obligated to ask ourselves, where is this voice leading us? Is it leading us toward YHVH or away from YHVH? Is it leading us toward Covenant faithfulness or away from a right relationship with the Almighty?

So, these passages reveal to us that a voice can be accurate, and yet false at the same time. A teacher can alert us to impending danger but still pull us off the covenant path. A prophecy can come to fruition, but at the same time, be a deliberate test from YHVH to see whether we love Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.

 

Bringing This into 2026

 

Within and without our Faith Community today we come across many voices, teachers, podcasts, Telegram channels, and YouTube channels claiming to explain what issues such as the Iranian nuclear standoff is supposed to mean prophetically; what the Temple Mount tensions are supposed to mean from an eschatological perspective; what the Houthi strikes in the Bab el-Mandeb region are supposed to mean considering Revelation 18. And some of those voices are providing genuinely good ministry to the Body of Mashiyach. I have benefitted from such ministries. Praise Yah.

However, some of these voices are building audiences through accuracy — through being right about certain headlines — while leading their listeners away from the critical things that our Reading is attempting to convey to us such as Covenant faithfulness, accountability to Yah and to one another, and our humble pursuit of Tzedek—righteous justice — in how we walk out this Faith that Yah has gifted us with.

So, as we navigate through each week’s news cycles and consume the content of countless talking heads and self-proclaimed teachers, preachers, and ministers of the Gospel, let us ask ourselves these simple questions:

Question 1: Does this voice encourage me to a stronger, more loving, and effective Covenant relationship with Yehovah; to His Torah, His Faith community, and His ways? Or does it give me information while leaving my actual relationship with Yah unchanged or even weakened?

Question 2: Does this voice hold itself accountable to Yah’s Torah and Covenant community for any needed correction? Or does it operate entirely on its own authority, immune from ecclesiastical accountability?

Question 3: Is this voice building me up to know my God and obey Him? Or is it building an audience that depends on that platform’s specific voice?

Question 4: Does this voice make me more fearful, anxious, obsessed with the news cycles or does it send me back to Yah’s Word of Truth; back to prayer and intercession; back to our beloved Faith community; back to Yah’s shalom?

Moshe tells us that “You need not be afraid of” the false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:22). This is because the true prophet does not invoke fear among His listeners and readers and followers. He instead calls us to Covenant faithfulness, and he anchors us in the Word of Yah Most High. He returns us, again and again, to our refuge, that is Yehovah.

And Deuteronomy 13 tells us that even if these voices are accurate in their prophetic utterances, if their voices lead us away from Covenant faithfulness, we must not listen to them.

This is the standard of our Faith’s halachah, and this traditional Elul season is the time to apply it.

 

The Fully Governed Soul

Now let’s bring these two threads together, beloved.

Shoftim or Judges — tzedek, tzedek tirdof — govern what we DO. The courts of the inner life ensure that our conduct, words, righteous endeavors, and our treatment of others, meet the standard of righteous justice.

Prophets — talking about the true prophetic voices versus the false lying voices — govern what we BELIEVE and what voices Yah has given us to follow. The discernment Torah requires of us ensures that the spiritual intelligence shaping our worldview comes from Yah and leads us toward Him and Him alone.

Together, these are two-pillars of Hebrew and Godly governance, and they describe what we can call the fully governed soul. This describes, in part, the person who has submitted both their lives AND their Faith commitment to righteous, accountable, Torah-Covenant anchored governance.

And that is exactly what this traditional Jewish season of Elul represents.

In forty days or so, on Yom HaKippurim (aka the Day of the Atonements), we stand before the Judge of all the earth in our tattered state. And as we stand before the Holy and Righteous Judge of all, we are compelled to answer the questions: What have we done and how did we go about doing what we’ve done. We must tell Him what we truly believe and how we have arrived at those beliefs. What voice or voices led us to the beliefs we hold? What voices influenced and altered our halachah and our Covenant relationship with Yehovah and His Mashiyach? Did we put in place at the gates of our lives, righteous shoftim? Or did we simply go with the dark flow of this world?

This is why Shoftim comes at the opening of this traditional month of Elul.

The portion that appoints judges in the gates and tests the prophets by their fruit is the portion that opens the traditional forty-day season of self-examination, teshuvah, and accountability before the King of kings.

Shabbat Shalom, Shavu’atov, and until next time, beloved, may you be most blessed, fellow saints in training.

A word of transparency is appropriate here: The Jewish traditions, such as the season of Elul, are just that: Jewish traditions. These traditions often invite us to consider aspects of Yah’s Word that may have eluded us or that we’ve never considered for various and sundry reasons.

This and other posts that spotlight Jewish traditional seasons and holidays are not meant in any way, shape, form, or fashion, to be a replacement or to equalize them to Yah’s moedim—His set apart, appointed times—His Feasts. I only present them here on this platform to enhance your walk in Mashiyach and expand your mind and encourage you to take your relationship with Yah to higher heights and deeper depths in Yeshua HaMashiyach. So, do not feel that you are obligated to keep or celebrate, or honor these traditions. But glean from them spiritual nuggets that will enhance your walk with Mashiyach. Amein.

 

^[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Dt 18:15–22.

^[2] W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 13.