Torah Portion Re’eh – I will establish My Name and Dwell among You.

The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/mH7oH6pyjWk

Reading – Deuteronomy 12

 

By Dan and Brenda Cathcart

Our Torah Portion this week is called Re’eh which means “behold.”  The Children of Israel are on the cusp of entering the Promised Land that the LORD had promised to give them through their father Abraham. But first, before they were to take possession of it, Moses was to reiterate the commandments, statutes, and judgments. These included instructions that were to be carried out once they finally entered the Promised Land. One of these instructions was to seek out the place where God would put His name and dwell among them.

Deuteronomy 12:5 NKJV 5 "But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.

After the children of Israel took the Land, they set up the Tabernacle of Meeting at Shiloh where it remained for about three hundred years. Was the place that God would place His name wherever the Tabernacle was set up or was there a permanent place that God had in mind all along? What were they to do at this place?

Since the children of Israel were to permanently occupy the Promised Land and move no more, God’s dwelling place would also be established in a permanent place. But before this could happen, the kingdom of Israel had to be firmly established.

Many years later, God spoke to King David through the prophet Nathan confirming that, until the proper time came, God’s dwelling place would remain in the Tabernacle first constructed in the wilderness.

2 Samuel 7:5-7 NKJV 5 "Go and tell My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: "Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? 6 "For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7 "Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'

In all the years that Israel had been in the land, from Joshua through the judges, God had not commanded any of them to build Him a house. Now, the LORD told David that He would select a place where they would build a permanent house for him and that he would not move again.

2 Samuel 7:10-11 NKJV 10 "Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, 11 "since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that He will make you a house.

This permanent dwelling place was not only associated with Jerusalem, but it was also associated with David. God said He would plant the children of Israel and make a house, a permanent dwelling place, for David, God’s chosen king. God would establish His covenant with David forever.

Psalms 89:3-4 NKJV 3 "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 4 'Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah

After David’s son Solomon completed the temple, he spoke about this in his prayer of dedication, first reminding the people that God had chosen David to be king.

1 Kings 8:15-16 NKJV 15 And he said: "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying, 16 'Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel.'

Solomon goes on to say that God honored David’s desire to build a house for God.

1 Kings 8:17-18 MKJV 17 And it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 18 And the LORD said to my father David, Because it was in your heart to build a house to My name, you did well that it was in your heart.

Solomon carried out what was in David’s heart, fulfilling God’s instruction through Moses that they were to seek the place where God would place His name. When God appeared to Solomon after this prayer, God confirmed that this temple in Jerusalem was the place that He would place His name forever.

1 Kings 9:3 NKJV 3 And the LORD said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

The Temple that Solomon built, and the throne of the kingdom go hand in hand! It is a reciprocal arrangement. God built a house for David and the ensuing future kings that would rule over the children of Israel; and David, in turn, through his son Solomon, built a house for God. The temple in Jerusalem is the place in all their tribes that God told the children of Israel they were to seek out for His dwelling place.

What were they to do at this place? And how or why is the house of David connected to the place where God makes His name dwell?

Starting with what they were to do there, we need to back up a couple of verses in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and look at the preparations for the place, and the land of Israel in general.

Deuteronomy 12:2-4 MKJV 2 You shall completely destroy all the places in which the nations which you shall possess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars, and burn their pillars with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names out of that place. 4 You shall not do so to the LORD your God.

Moses’ instructions to the children of Israel were that they were to cleanse the land by removing all the pagan altars and idols of the current inhabitants. Everything used in the worship of other gods was to be destroyed. Nothing was to be salvaged or used in any way for any purpose. Even the names of their gods were to be destroyed, never to be remembered or spoken. Moses finishes by stating that they were not to do the same thing to the LORD; they were not to destroy God’s name or His altar. Instead, they were to seek the place where God would permanently place His name and dwell with them forever! Before they could build God’s house, the land had to be pure and holy.

Then, once they found and established this place, they were to worship at that place and only that place. They were to bring all their offerings, sacrifices, tithes, vowed offerings, firstfruits offerings, and freewill offerings. Everything and everyone were to go to the place where God caused His name to dwell. They were to go there and partake of a shared meal before the LORD.

Deuteronomy 12:7 MKJV 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

This was to be a place of fellowship with God, rejoicing in all that God had blessed them with. Even though they may have been tempted to conduct their offerings in a place more convenient to where they were living, they were not to do so.

Deuteronomy 12:13-14 MKJV 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see. 14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

They were not to build altars and make sacrifices in any other place but the place God chose. They were allowed to slaughter animals for food, but not for sacrifice in other places. When slaughtering an animal for food, they were to pour out the blood from any animal slaughtered on the ground.

Deuteronomy 12:15-16 NKJV 15 "However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. 16 "Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

They were reminded that they were not to eat the blood of an animal. They had received previous instruction that the blood was set apart as an offering on the altar to make atonement for their souls.

Leviticus 17:10-12 MKJV 10 And any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that are staying among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. 12 Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that is staying among you eat blood.

life was in the blood, and it was set apart to God. So, the blood that was not from an offering or sacrifice, if an animal was simply slaughtered for food, the blood could not be poured out on the altar of God, or any other altar and, therefore, must be poured out on the ground.

But we still have an unanswered question. How or why is the house of David connected to the place where God makes His name to dwell?  We see that God’s selection of David is like His selection of Abraham. God told Abraham’s son Isaac that he would be the recipient of God’s promise to his father because God knew that Abraham would walk in His ways.

Genesis 26:4-5 MKJV 4 And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your seed all these lands. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

The prophet Samuel testified that God had chosen David to be king in place of Saul, because David was a man after God’s own heart, a man who walked in the ways of God.

1 Samuel 13:14b MKJV 14b The LORD has sought Him a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him to be leader over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.

Just as God told Isaac, God also told Solomon that if he would walk in the integrity of David, He would establish his throne forever like He established David’s throne forever.

1 Kings 9:4-5 NKJV 4 "Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 "then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

Abraham obeyed God’s voice when God asked him to take his son Isaac and offer him as a burnt sacrifice at the place God would show him on Mt. Moriah. Abraham knew full well that God’s promises to him regarding possession of the land and a multitude of descendants would be through Isaac! Abraham trusted God fully and knew that God would provide a way. Now it just so happens that Mt. Moriah is the place where Solomon would build the temple!

2 Chronicles 3:1 NKJV 1 Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

When David expressed the desire to build a house for God, God remarked about choosing David from out of the sheepfold to be the king of His people.

2 Samuel 7:7-8 MKJV 7 In all places in which I have walked with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the tribes of Israel, those I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, Why do you not build Me a house of cedars? 8 And now so shall you say to My servant David, So says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.

Ezekiel writes that when God brings Israel and Judah back to the Promised Land following their exile in Babylon, He will restore both the throne of David and the temple. Regarding the throne, He says that the one who sits on the throne of David shall feed His sheep.

Ezekiel 34:23-24 MKJV 23 And I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, My servant David. He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd. 24 And I the LORD will be their God, and My servant David a ruler among them. I the LORD have spoken.

David, or a descendant of David, will be their shepherd and their ruler forever, and the LORD will be their God forever. The proper hierarchy is achieved with God as the head of all, and a descendant of David reigning subordinate to God. At the time of David, this was the accepted order of authority. When this perfect order was in place, God said He would plant the people and they would no longer move about in tents.

Jeremiah says that when God returns Israel to their land, He will plant them and not pluck them up again.

Jeremiah 24:6 MKJV 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land. And I will build them and not pull them down; and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

Ezekiel continues to explain that when the children of Israel return to the Land they will walk in God’s statutes as Abraham did, and with integrity of heart as David did.

Ezekiel 37:24-25 MKJV 24 And David My servant shall be King over them. And there shall be one Shepherd to all of them. And they shall walk in My judgments, and obey My laws, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, the land in which your fathers have lived. And they shall dwell in it, even they and their sons, and the sons of their sons forever. And My servant David shall be their ruler forever.

Clearly David had died a long time before their Babylonian exile and return to the land. So, this ruler is obviously a descendant of David. Yeshua brings up this question when the scribes question Him as He taught in the temple.

Mark 12:35-36 MKJV 35 And answering, teaching in the temple, Jesus said, How do the scribes say that Christ is the Son of David? 36 For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: "The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I place Your enemies as Your footstool."

Messiah will come as the Son of David who will restore the kingdom making His enemies into His footstool. We can compare this to the children of Israel coming into the Promised Land and driving out all their enemies! After driving out their enemies, the children of Israel, under the kingship of David, sought and found the place where God would place His name! God said that He chose Jerusalem and will choose Jerusalem again.

Zechariah 1:16-17 NKJV 16 'Therefore thus says the LORD: "I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it," says the LORD of hosts, "And a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem."' 17 "Again proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; The LORD will again comfort Zion, And will again choose Jerusalem."'

Jerusalem was the place that God had in mind all along. It was the place that God chose to demonstrate to Abraham how God would sacrifice His only son to bring salvation to the world. It was the place where atonement was made for David’s sin of exalting himself and his force of arms over God. It was the place that Solomon built the temple for God and where the Shekinah glory entered and dwelt. When Yeshua returns, It is this place where He will reign forever as the King of Israel.

Study Questions:

Teaching Questions

 

1. Read Revelation 21:9-27. How are the temple of God and the city of Jerusalem forever linked together?

 

2. The temple is a bridge between heaven and earth. In what ways is that fulfilled through the temple in Jerusalem?

 

3. The children of Israel were to destroy the names of the gods that the Canaanites worshiped and not to destroy God’s name. In what ways did Israel destroy God’s name? Consider Jeremiah 23:26-27 and Psalm 44:20-26. How were they to establish God’s name?

 

General Portion Questions

 

4. One of the things that the children of Israel were to take to the place where God put His name were judgments that were to difficult for the judges to decide. See Deuteronomy 17:8-13. How is does this establish the LORD as the ultimate judge? How does this tie into the house of David and the coming reign of Yeshua?

 

5. Many scriptures link the house of David with the temple and worship of God including Psalm 122, Jeremiah 22:1-6, Jeremiah 33:14-18, and Zechariah 12:8-13:1. How do these reinforce that the place where God places His name is connected with the reign of David?

 

6. What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in this Torah Portion that point to Messiah Yeshua?

 

© 2023 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

Torah Portion Ekev – A Promise of Blessing

The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/ay8HccbGods

Reading – Deuteronomy 7:12-8:20

 

Dan and Brenda Cathcart

We all desire God’s blessings. We seek out His grace and salvation. We pray for blessings for ourselves and for others around us. But somehow, we have gotten the idea in this “name-it-and-claim-it” era of church doctrine that God would do anything that we ask of Him. In our modern world we have everything we need readily available. In many ways God becomes a secondary thought. We don’t need Him for food, we have the grocery store less than a mile away. Clean potable water comes out of the kitchen faucet rather than a rock out in the backyard. We become quite complacent with what we have and the life we live, forgetting that God created it all for our benefit.

Moses did not want the children of Israel to have this attitude of entitlement. So, he gathered together this new generation of the children of Israel to give them final instructions. He recited their history to them from the time God took them out of Egypt until they stood poised to enter the Promised Land. He wanted them to remember that it was God who brought them out and led them through their forty years in the wilderness.

Our Torah portion this week is called “ekev,” a word that simply means “because.” It’s not a very interesting word until you look a little deeper. A word with the same Hebrew spelling but pronounced differently is “akev,” number 6117 which means heel, or to seize by the heel. And, of course, it shares the same three letter root with the name Jacob, or Ya’akov, which means heel grabber. The portion Ekev speaks about the rewards that will come to the children of Israel because of, or on the heels of, following God’s commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:12 NKJV 12 "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.

Moses told the children of Israel about a bright and promising future in the Promised Land. But their success and prosperity in the land would be contingent on following God’s commandments, statutes, and ordinances. Moses promised them that if they did this, they would be blessed with much prosperity, miraculous fertility, and health in the land.

Deuteronomy 7:13-15 NKJV 13 "And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 "You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 "And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

But, before all this could happen, they needed to take possession of the Promised Land. Moses’s words turned to the promise that they would conquer their enemies and drive out the inhabitants of the land. They were not to be fearful of the “giants” as their fathers were. Moses reminds them of how God had defeated the Egyptians, and this same God would now defeat the Canaanites as they enter the land.

Deuteronomy 7:16-19 NKJV 16 "And you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17 "If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?' - 18 "you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19 "the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

Moses reminds them that the forty years spent in the wilderness were to humble and test them; to prepare them to enter the land.

Deuteronomy 8:1-2 NKJV 1 "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. 2 "And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

What leading of God were they to remember? They were to remember that God fed them in the desert when they ran out of food, and that their clothing and shoes did not wear out.

Deuteronomy 8:3-4 NKJV 3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 "Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

Does this passage sound familiar?  When Satan tempted Yeshua in the wilderness, Yeshua quoted from this passage about the manna.

Luke 4:1-4 NKJV 1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." 4 But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

Yeshua could have trusted in Himself and provided the bread himself. The temptation Yeshua faced was to rely on what His flesh said that He needed instead of relying on God to provide it.

God humbled the children of Israel while in the wilderness, seeking to teach them that their nourishment comes from the word of God. Moses said this was accomplished by giving them manna which their fathers did not know. When they hungered, they asked for the food that they were familiar with.

Exodus 16:3 NKJV 3 And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

They did not have the pots of meat and abundance of bread in the wilderness that they had in Egypt. God provided for their hunger, but He didn’t give them the foods they were used to. God gave them quail in the evening to satisfy their hunger for meat, but then He gave them something new and unfamiliar.

Exodus 16:13-15 NKJV 13 So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

God gave them a food that they didn’t know, provided directly from God’s words that He spoke to Moses.

Exodus 16:4 NKJV 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.

Not only was this “bread from heaven” unfamiliar, but they would only receive it once every day.

Exodus 16:16 NKJV 16 "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: 'Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.'"

Each day, for the entire forty years, they had to trust God that the manna would be there! Those who tried to store it up received a big surprise when it rotted overnight.

The children of Israel were allowed to become hungry so they would learn to go to God, not in anger or desperation, but in confidence and gratitude for God’s provision. Through this provision of the manna, God was instructing His people how to rely on and trust Him. When they depart from that trust, God corrects them.

Deuteronomy 8:5 NKJV 5 "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.

Some translations use the word discipline or training instead of chastening. The Hebrew word for “chasten” is number 3256, “yasar,” meaning to chasten, instruct, or correct. Isaiah uses this same Hebrew word to compare God’s words and instructions with the knowledge of a farmer on how and when to plant.

Isaiah 28:23-26 NKJV 23 Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech. 24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? 25 When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow the black cummin And scatter the cummin, Plant the wheat in rows, The barley in the appointed place, And the spelt in its place? 26 For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him.

Just like a farmer knows from years of practice how, when, and where to plant, Isaiah says that they are to know how to live rightly from years of practice in following God’s instructions. God giving the children of Israel manna in the wilderness is God’s way of instructing them to rely on and trust Him daily; to believe that God would do what He said He would do.

As a warning so they would not make the same mistake that their fathers made, Moses related what God had promised to their fathers and how their father’s didn’t believe that God could and would take them into the Land.

Deuteronomy 1:30-32 NKJV 30 'The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 'and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.' 32 "Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

Even though God had taken them out of Egypt, caused them to cross the Red Sea on dry land, appeared to them in the fire on Mt. Sinai, and gave them manna to eat and water to drink; they did not believe God would do what He said He would do when it came to actually entering the Promised Land! Why was it they did not believe that God had the power to defeat the Canaanites? The children of Israel had totally failed to learn what God intended for them to learn through their trials!

God said that the reason He humbled and tested His people was to know what was in their hearts. They were supposed to have God’s Torah written on their hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:6 NKJV 6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

God wanted to know if the children of Israel believed God enough to follow what He said to do; to live according to His ways.

Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV 29 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

David asked God to examine him to find out what was inside of him.

Psalms 26:1-3 NKJV 1 <<A Psalm of David.>> Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip. 2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. 3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.

David’s proof of what was in his heart was that he had trusted in the LORD! He goes on to say that he hadn’t worshiped idols or walked in the ways of the wicked. Instead, he constantly spoke and sang about God and worshipped only God. In another words, he kept God’s commandments.

Through the trials that David faced, he learned to believe in and trust God with all his heart. This is the heart that God wants all of His people to have! This is the kind of belief that leads to salvation. This is the belief and faith in God demonstrated by the Ethiopian that Philip spoke to.

Acts 8:35-37 NKJV 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" 37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

Yeshua says that salvation comes when people accept that God has the power and commitment to do what He says He will do. While in the wilderness, time after time the children of Israel doubted God’s ability to provide and care for them, and, in their doubt, they proclaimed that God brought them out to kill them! But God didn’t bring them out of Egypt to kill them, He brought them out because He loved them.

Deuteronomy 10:15 NKJV 15 "The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

The gospel of John tells us God loves us so much, that He sent His Son to die for us.

John 3:16-18 NKJV 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

God did not bring the children of Israel into the wilderness to kill them. Similarly, God did not send Yeshua into the world to bring death. Although, like death came to those who didn’t believe in the wilderness, death comes to those who don’t believe that God sent His Son. Those in the wilderness thought they believed in God; they did follow Him out of Egypt. However, when trials came, they fell away, and God became angry with their disobedience.

Hebrews 3:17-19 NKJV 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Belief is not a passive or weak thing. When it is in our hearts—when His commandments, statutes, and ordinances are written on our hearts, we can do anything that God wants us to do. This is why Paul tells us to glory in the trials we face.

Romans 5:3-5 NKJV 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Yeshua told His disciples a parable of four types of soil into which the farmer planted seed. The seed that fell on the stony ground immediately sprouted and grew, but when the sun shined on it, it quickly withered and died.

Matthew 13:20-21 NKJV 20 "But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

He has no root that reaches deep into the soil to reach the life-giving water. The person who hears and receives it with joy but doesn’t have the word deeply embedded in his heart is at risk of withering away.

Paul compares Moses instructing the children of Israel that the word is near to them and in their hearts with the type of belief that leads to righteousness and salvation.

Romans 10:8-10 NKJV 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

God wants us to recognize that the good things that come into our lives are not because of our own efforts or righteousness, but that they come to us because of our faith. God allowed the adversity and challenges to come upon the children of Israel in the wilderness to test them and humble them. He allows trials to come into our lives to test us. He wants us to have such a strong belief in Him that nothing can shake our faith. No adversity, no lack of food, water, or any other need will shake us from our devotion to Him. He wants to know what is in our hearts. He will test us to see if we will walk in His ways or not. With His words written on our hearts, we can pass the test.

Study Questions:

Teaching Questions

 

1.         Yeshua quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 when He was tempted by Satan in Matthew 4:3-4. What was the danger in turning the stone to bread? How does this refute the “name it, claim it” doctrine? Reconcile it with Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24 that says if we ask in prayer and believe, we will receive it. Consider John 14:13-14, Luke 11:9; John 15:7,16; 16:23-24; James 1:5; 1 John 3:22; 5:14 in your answer.

 

2.         Providing manna to eat instead of familiar foods took the children of Israel out of their comfort zone. How does taking us out of the familiar, out of our comfort zone, provide a test of our faith?

 

3.         Paul says in Romans 10:10 that with the heart, one believes unto righteousness. How is this related to writing the Torah on one’s heart?

 

General Portion Questions

 

4.         Yeshua says that God is the one who provided the manna in the wilderness and sent Yeshua the true manna, the bread from heaven in John 6:30-35. How does this fulfill Deuteronomy 8:3 that man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD?

 

5.         With all their complaining and disobedience during the 40 years in the wilderness, how did the children of Israel merit the gift of the Promised Land?

 

6.         What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in this Torah Portion that point to Messiah Yeshua?

 

© 2023 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

Torah Portion Va’etchanan – Listen to the Statutes and Ordinances

The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/PumWvlasEko

Reading – Deuteronomy chapter 4

 

By Dan and Brenda Cathcart

Sometimes we are not granted our heart’s desires. No matter how much we pray for something or someone, our requests are not always answered in the way we want. Or think we want. Such was the case with Moses’ desire to enter the Promised Land along with the people that he had led throughout the 40 years since leaving Egypt.

Deuteronomy 3:23-25 NKJV 23 "Then I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying: 24 'O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? 25 'I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.'

Moses was surely heartbroken that the LORD would not let him enter the land; only allowing him to view the land at a distance. Even with Moses’ disappointment, he did not turn his back on God and the people that God had put in his charge. Moses entreated them to listen to God’s statutes and ordinances.

Our portion this week is Va’etchanan, which means “and I besought”, or in the case of the NKJV translation, “Then I pleaded.” Even though Moses didn’t get to go into the Promised Land as he desired, He none the less continued in the mission that the LORD had set before him.

Moses had a special relationship with God and spoke to him face to face continually. Moses argued or pleaded with God on several previous occasions including talking God out of destroying the children of Israel and making a great nation from Moses’ descendants. But Moses was not successful in his plea to be granted permission enter the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 3:26 NKJV 26 "But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: 'Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter.

In our previous Torah Portion teaching, we learned about the overall structure of the book of Deuteronomy and how it resembles an ancient form of a covenantal treaty known as a suzerain treaty. We looked at the portion of Deuteronomy that consists of the preamble and the historical prologue of the treaty found in chapter 1:6 through chapter 3:29. Now Moses is about to lay out, once again for the people, the stipulations of the covenant with God, first made at Mount Sinai.

Even though Moses was told in no uncertain terms that he would not enter the Promised Land, he continued with his mission and relayed God’s instructions to the people. Moses told them to put the words that he spoke into their hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:6 NKJV 6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

One of the words that Moses repeats over and over throughout his dissertation is the word hear or listen.

Deuteronomy 4:1 NKJV 1 "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.

The word “listen” is the Hebrew word Sh’ma, #8085 meaning to hear intelligently with the implication of attention and obedience. Sh’ma is not a passive word; it is active and requires action on the part of the listener. It requires a response to what is heard. The words are to be heard and followed, and those words that they are to follow are God’s words!

In the scriptures, it is unusual for God to speak His words to a group of people. God usually speaks through His emissaries, such as the prophets. At the time of Moses, God speaking directly to the people had never been done before. The people heard directly from God at Mount Sinai.

Deuteronomy 4:32-35 NKJV 32 "For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. 33 "Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 "Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 "To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.

This is the only time since creation that God had spoken to a group of people. But these were not just any people! God chose the children of Israel to be a special treasure for Him from out of all the people of the Earth.

Deuteronomy 7:6 NKJV 6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

This was not because of anything that they had done to deserve this special honor; they were in fact the least of the peoples of the Earth. God chose them because they were Abraham’s children and He loved them. And God had made a covenant and promise to Abraham and his descendants.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 NKJV 7 "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 "but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God went an extra step and bridged heaven and earth to speak to them directly. He spoke out of heaven at Mount Sinai, and it was manifested in the earth as fire on the mountain.

Deuteronomy 4:36 NKJV 36 "Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.

He spoke to instruct the people which He had deliberately chosen out of all peoples on the earth. God spoke out of the fire, but He did not appear as an image of any kind.

Deuteronomy 4:12 NKJV 12 "And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.

Likening God to any image of creation is an act of corruption. Idolatry is a sin so grievous that it is singled out in the ten words. Moses reminds the people that God took no form when He spoke from the fire.

Deuteronomy 4:15-18 NKJV 15 "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 "lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 17 "the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 "the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

The word “corrupt” is #7843 shaw-khath meaning to decay or to cause ruin or corruption. This is the same word that is used to describe Noah’s generation.

Genesis 6:11-12 NKJV 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Likening God to an image and then worshiping the image is to follow in the path of the corruption of the time of Noah! Man’s propensity for idolatry continually draws men away from God leading to the breaking of their covenant with God, so Moses emphasizes that when God spoke, they saw no image. God, also, says that He spoke to them face to face.

Deuteronomy 5:4 NKJV 4 "The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.

But this intimate face to face encounter frightened the children of Israel and they insisted that Moses mediate between them and God.

Deuteronomy 5:24-27 NKJV 24 "And you said: 'Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives. 25 'Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die. 26 'For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 'You go near and hear all that the LORD our God may say, and tell us all that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.'

This unusual action of God speaking to the children of Israel shows the importance that God places on His relationship with the children of Israel. Moses tells us that God spoke to the children of Israel so that they would know that He is the only God.

Deuteronomy 4:39 NKJV 39 "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

He spoke to give them instructions so that they would live long in the land that He was giving to them.

Deuteronomy 4:40 NKJV 40 "You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

At Mount Sinai God spoke the words of the covenant. He spoke words on how to live which were summarized in the ten words, what we call the Ten Commandments. The first four of these Words, or commandments, were instructions on how to maintain a relationship with God. He alone is to be their God; they are not to make images to worship in place of God. They are not to use God’s name incorrectly or casually, and they are to observe the Sabbath Day. The last six words are words on how to relate to each other, starting with the most important people, their fathers and mothers. Honoring their fathers and mothers will result in the blessing of prosperity in the Promised Land. They are not to murder, cheat on their spouses, steal, lie, or covet the possessions of others. These are simple rules that God expands on in statutes and judgments designed to bring the children of Israel closer to him and to each other.

When Yeshua was asked by the Scribes and Pharisees what the greatest commandment was, He summarized all of these words in His answer.

Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV 37 Jesus said to him," 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

God told Moses to teach all of His commandments, statutes and judgments to this generation of the children of Israel that came out of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 4:14 NKJV 14 "And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Now, while they are gathered at the threshold of the Promised Land, Moses is repeating these words to this generation. These are the words that Moses told the children of Israel to put in their hearts. God longed for them to observe His words from their hearts!

Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV 29 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

How were the children of Israel supposed to put God’s word in their hearts? Moses tells them they were to observe them because God’s commandments would be their wisdom!

Deuteronomy 4:6 NKJV 6 "Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

Next, they were to teach them to the next generation.

Deuteronomy 6:7 NKJV 7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

They were to speak about the words of God all the time, when they first got up in the morning, when they went out the door and returned and when they went to bed each night. Finally, they were to place visual reminders of God’s words on places where they would see them. God’s words were to always be on their minds.

Deuteronomy 6:8-10 NKJV 8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 "So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,

King David exemplified this and took joy in meditating on God’s word.

Psalms 119:46-48 NKJV 46 I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. 47 And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love. 48 My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Paul tells us that Yeshua washes us in the water of the word. The result of which is a holy people.

Ephesians 5:26-27 NKJV 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

God desires of His people to be holy and without blemish. That is accomplished by placing His words on our hearts and minds.

Deuteronomy 7:6 NKJV 6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Moses stood there on the plains of Moab declaring God’s word to this new generation of the children of Israel. Those who actually heard the words spoken at Mt. Sinai, had rebelled and rejected the covenant. Unfortunately, rebellion would be repeated over and over again in future generations. Because of the abomination of the people, Israel and Judah would go into captivity. But despite this, God promised a new beginning for them. God would take them into a new covenant with the same commandments, statutes, and laws that they continually broke. Even with their multi-generational rebellion, God has never given up on His people. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God would write His words on their hearts in this new covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31-33 NKJV 31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- 32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

This is the new covenant. Even now, the Holy Spirit lives within each of God’s people who have entered into this covenant through the shed blood of Messiah Yeshua. The Holy Spirit helps us to know the word that God has written on our hearts. He helps us to follow God’s commandments, statutes, and judgments. Not because we must, but we follow them because we desire to draw near to God. Yeshua calls those who hold to God’s commandments, blessed.

Revelation 22:14 NKJV 14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

None of us is perfect in following God’s Words, but as long as we love Him and strive to keep His Words, we know that God will keep mercy with us. We know that we have forgiveness through Yeshua who died that we could enter into the new covenant and have new life. Listen to God’s statutes and ordinances that you may live!

Study Questions:

Teaching Questions

 

1.      Deuteronomy 4:1 connects obedience to God’s commandments with living in the Promised Land.  4:26, 4:40, and 5:23 all talk about how the children of Israel could prolong their days. What is the common element? If following the commandments is not for the purpose of salvation, then what is the purpose and how important are they? Yeshua spoke of an abundant life in John 10:10, how is that connected?

 

2.      Moses told the children of Israel that the covenant was made that day with those who were alive, who had held fast to the LORD. (Deuteronomy 4:4 and 5:3) The writer of Hebrew discusses this concept of those who hold fast in Hebrews 3 and 4. What are the rewards of holding fast?

 

3.      God spoke out of heaven, and it was manifested on Earth as they, “heard His word from the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:36). Discuss the significance of the fire. How is this related to Acts chapter 2 and the gospel accounts where God’s voice is heard from heaven: Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 9:28-36, and John 12:23-33. How are these events similar?

 

General Portion Questions

 

4.      The very first of the Ten Commandments or Ten Words that God spoke to the children of Israel dealt with making images and worshiping the images found in Deuteronomy 5:8-10.  Why does God connect his characteristic of mercy or chesed with the command not to make or worship images?

 

5.      What did Moses mean when he told the people of this generation that “The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with those of us alive here today?” (Deuteronomy 5:3)

 

6.      What other insights did you gain from this teaching? What indicators are there in this Torah Portion that point to Messiah Yeshua?

 

© 2023 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.