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?

 

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