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CHAPTER 1
1. These are the words [d’varim] that Moshe declared to all of Israel across the Yarden in the wilderness on the transitional land toward the Reed [Sea] between Pa'aran [beautifully adorned] and Tofel [veneer], Lavan [white], Khatzeroth [enclosure], and Di-Zahav [enough gold].
Words: The term “declared” is from the same root, which indicates that he is speaking very strongly, with an urgency in his voice. His words call for action, so the next generation will know who they are, where they came from, where they are going, and who they are supposed to be when they get there. Moshe is about to die, and what he is about to say is crucial to the nation’s survival. His intent is to ensure that the generation that is entering the Land forgets nothing that he has taught them for the past forty years as they were growing up. The Aramaic targum Onqelos says this is a "pep talk" to turn them from slackness to the serious task before them: battling to take the Land. It is a wake-up call: Who are we? Where are we? Are we ready for what is next? The time to re-enter the Land is approaching again today for the rest of Israel; are we ready? This time his words were not just for the leaders, or just the men, or just the adults, the obedient, or the wise and understanding. This is for the whole nation. He is preparing them to do what their parents never did: take the Land, and this is a serious task. Across the Yarden: Though he is still on the same side he has always been on, he speaks of this place from the perspective of being in the Land. Though he would never get there, he still knew he belonged west of the Yarden, as part of the Land. This is instructive to us while we are still in the “wilderness”. We should already be viewing everything as oriented from the perspective of the Land of Israel.
2. ([There are] eleven days' journey [from] Horev to Qadesh-Barnea by way of the Mountains of Seir.)
Horev is Mount Sinai (probably Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia), and Seir is in present-day Jordan around Petra, so this route is one of many things that cast doubt on the traditional location of Qadesh-Barnea on the present Egyptian-Israeli border. There was a later town there called Qadesh in King Shlomo's day, but the only archaeological remains found there are from that time. There would also be no reason to go through Seir if traveling from the traditional Sinai to the traditional Qadesh-Barnea. The latter was more likely on the western rim of the Aravah, no further west than the eastern end of the Ramon Crater, for Numbers 20:16 tells us it was on the border of Edom. The phrase could also read “on the road [to] the Mountains of Seir”. Another proposed location is Wadi Rum in Jordan. In light of how short a time the trip was supposed to have taken, consider the staggering ramifications of the next phrase:
3. Now at forty years, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moshe spoke to the descendants of Israel according to all that YHWH had made him responsible for concerning them,
Forty years: the period of transition, so we can sense that a change is coming. 40 years, by the ancient 360-day year, totals 14,400 days. This is about 1,300 times as long as it should have taken! They could have been there and back 650 times in the time it took them to get there once! We must not repeat this error. The beginning of the eleventh month is in mid-winter. This is the next to the last new moon before the period of punishment for doing things our own way will be over. Moshe does not wait until the last minute to say these things, because they do need to prepare, but almost, so that they do not have time to "screw up" the preparations for going into the Promised Land. But Moshe already knows he is not going in, so he knows that he has at most two months to live. He does not decide to go visit his father-in-law or spend his last days in peace and relaxation, but spends this time preparing his people to go in and do what he cannot. They had done their time; justice had been served, but now that they are at the end of their sentence, they are not just allowed to go home with a mad dash, though they can already see the Land in front of them. The price has been paid, but YHWH’s covenant promises are not just about living in the Land, but becoming a permanent part of it. It is about the generations to come remaining in the Land in YHWH’s presence. It is not just any land that we can casually live in for a while and then leave, for this Land will spit us out if we are not the kind of people He wants living in His Land. If we are not ready, we should not go in. We have to become the kind of people the Land can live with, and make sure our children remain so. If we are not mindful of the heritage that goes with it, we will only squander our inheritance. So before they run to claim their inheritance, He makes sure they remember their heritage.
4. after he had struck down Sikhon, king of the Emorites, who was living in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who was living at Ashtaroth in Edrei.
It was in itself somewhat of a miracle that YHWH allowed them to defeat these very powerful kings, so this should set the stage for them to recognize that they did not need to fear as they entered Kanaan, where they knew there would be more battles.
5. Across the Yarden, in the land of Moav, Moshe took it upon himself to make this instruction clear, saying,
Yarden means “the one that descends”. They had to get past it to continue ascending. Moav means “from the father”, but also “away from the Father”, for they were not yet as close as He wanted them to be. This instruction: The word for instruction is “torah”, but he does not just say “the Torah” in general, but “this instruction”, because this is the part needing to be clearly understood at this time. He does not retell the story of the exodus, which the children have surely heard. He speaks only about the period from Sinai onward. The application of the Torah to the Land will be different from what they have been experiencing in the wilderness all their lives, in tents, all dwelling together with YHWH’s cloud and fire to lead them. Now they will need to take responsibility for their property and make sure their children remain attached to the Land and YHWH’s instructions for living there and staying there. We are not prepared to enter the Land until we understand and commit to this part of the Torah. Make… clear: We can have many experiences, but until we stop, step back, and think about them, we are not exactly sure what we learned. The fool looks back and says it was just another day; he learns nothing. The wise ask what the experience has brought into focus. Most of those to whom he is speaking were either not yet born or too young to realize the implications of why the eleven-day journey took forty years. He wants to be sure they understand what took place so they will not repeat the same errors their parents had made by allowing themselves to be vulnerable to the same influences. But why should we care about things that took place over 3,000 years ago? Because they have to do with us too. These are our ancestors, and, like them, we are again preparing to return to our homeland. In the Land, some rules are different than in the wilderness. All of the Land is in some sense YHWH’s house, and there is a way we need to live in it to show Him the proper respect and make reparation for the bad report the spies gave. The term for “make clear” is from a root word meaning “to dig a well or cistern.” Yitzhaq spent much of his life re-opening wells his father had dug, and Moshe is doing the same for this new generation of Israelites to empower them to cross over and ascend. He is making water available not by striking a rock, but by digging the “well of the lawgivers”. (Num. 21:18) Christian shepherds have muddied the waters of the Torah (Y’hezq’el 34:19); Rabbinic rulings have dammed up the water so that it no longer flows as it should. The water is meant to be a miqvah (ritual bath) also, so that those who are defiled can become clean again, but to be that it must both flow and be clear.
6. "YHWH our Elohim spoke to us in Horev, saying, 'You have sat at this mountain long enough;
This mountain was an awesome place, full of spectacular history. Here we had heard YHWH’s voice for the first time. We had received the Torah and become engaged to YHWH. We had been through a lot with Him there. Why go anywhere else? Why not build our nation right there? After all, YHWH was here. This would be fine if He had only one thing to say to us, but He has more to say, and we have to be in the proper context to hear it. If we stayed here, we would never learn all He has to show us. We have to see Him in His “natural habitat”, which is ultimately the Promised Land. It is important to connect with Sinai, but there is a time to move on even from receiving the Torah so we can focus on walking in it. He skips what this generation should already know and talks about what they need to do with it. It is important to remember where we came from, but if we stay there it will become nothing more than a museum. YHWH would not necessarily speak here again, so there was no need to build a cathedral here and make it permanent. Yesterday’s miracles were for yesterday, and we should recount it, but for the sake of motivating us today. “Torah” is from a word meaning “to cast forth”, and this means it needs to flow rather than be frozen in the same halakhah forever. Our history of going home begins at Mt. Sinai, but the only way to receive what we have heard is to travel in it. It was said of the manna that we were to gather “a word a day”. Here are the words; seek them daily.
7. "'change direction: pick yourselves up and go into the hill country of the Emorites and onward to all its neighboring places--the Aravah, the mountains, the Sh'felah, the Negev, and the sea coast--the land of the Kanaanites, and Levanon as far as the Great River--the Ferath River.
Change direction: We have to turn our backs on many things, but for only the sake of what we are heading toward. We face toward wherever YHWH is going. Country of the Emorites: where there was war, for without being there for a time, they could not fully know the “Elohim of Armies”. Aravah: "transitional" area between arable land and desert, with some vegetation that flocks can feed on. Sh'felah: literally, "falling"; a particular region of foothills between the mountains of Israel and the coastal plain. Negev: the desert in the southern third of present-day Israel. Ferath: the Euphrates; this is the area that YHWH had promised to Avraham, but it is larger than the borders outlined in Numbers 34. We were meant to spread out that far! Apparently their unwillingness to possess it all (until, to some degree, the time of David and Shlomo) led YHWH to diminish their inheritance until the Nation was really ready to care for it in the way He desired. The name Ferath, like Efrayim, is derived from the word for "fruitfulness"; the Land will not come to its full fruition until Efrayim (the Northern Kingdom) returns to assist Yehudah, which is already there. Even Y’hezq’el 48 does not mention the river, but says the Land will extend to somewhere near Damaseq and Khamath, when the Land becomes too crowded. (Zkh. 10:10)
8. "'Look! I have made the Land in front of you available! Go in and take possession of the Land that YHWH promised your ancestors--Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov--[with an oath] to give to them and to their seed after them.'
Made available: or given, but they still had to do something to get it: go and take it. He set everything in place for the enemies to fall before them (see 3:22), but there was still a price to pay to get it. Take possession: includes the idea of expelling those already there. Unlike other lands that He would not let us take (Edom, Moav, and Ammon), He both gave permission for us to dispossess this Land and made the inhabitants fearful, so it is not beyond our ability. Today He has made a way back into His covenant, but we have to walk through the open door.
9. "And I told you at that time, 'I am not able to sustain you by myself.
I told you: Yet this was spoken to their parents, who have died since then. But anything that has ever been spoken to “all of Israel” (v. 1) is not limited by time. It still reverberates across the ages and is fresh and applicable today.
10. "'YHWH your Elohim has caused you to multiply, and here you are today like the stars of the sky for abundance!'
The first word in the book is “eleh” (these). Moshe rarely begins a phrase this way, but he does it to remind us of where this term first appears (Genesis 2:4), where it speaks of the generations or genealogies of heaven and earth--as if they were human! So even before Avraham, there are living beings connected to the heavenly hosts. (Iyov 38:7) By comparing Israel to the stars again, he is alluding to the truth that all of creation can be renewed when we truly hear these words and take hold of our heritage. Then we can again rejoice as His sons along with the morning stars. There can be an order based on YHWH’s words, “on earth as it is is in heaven”, if we do what these people did not fully do. But to continue it must be passed on to our children as well:
11. ("May YHWH the Elohim of your ancestors add onto you a thousand times more, and bless you, just as He has promised you!)
There were 600,000 warriors already! Though Moshe in some sense sees his flock as to some extent having fulfilled YHWH’s promise to Avraham, he expresses a hope that “He will add”. In Hebrew this is one word—yosef.
12. "'[But] how can I by myself bear your encumbrance, your burden, and your legal disputes?
If Yithro warned him he was about to have a nervous breakdown with this many, how would he handle a thousand times as many?
13. "Provide for yourselves learned, discerning, and reputable men to be your tribal leaders, and I will set them in place as your head [men].
They were allowed to nominate their own leaders as long as they fit the prescribed categories, and Moshe had to approve them. They had to be skillful, recognized by the tribe, well-known, and well-spoken of. They had to come from inside, not be hired from outside, and be endorsed by Moshe (who represents the Torah). Leaders today in Israel must be those proven by their adherence to and love for the Torah. We have had experience with predatory leaders, but we must keep seeking faithful leaders, because that is the pattern of our heritage. They are few and far between, so we must build them through Torah and community.
14. "Then you responded by telling me, 'The thing which you have proposed to do is appropriate.'
15. "So I accepted the leaders of your tribes, learned and noteworthy men, and appointed them as heads over you--captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains over fifty, and captains over ten, as well as overseers for your tribes.
Learned and noteworthy: but he had also specified "discerning". (v. 13) Their earlier leaders were missing this quality, and thus they allowed their natural, fearful wisdom to rule, letting the ten spies overrule the two. Those who cannot distinguish YHWH's will from natural wisdom should not be in leadership. There are many wise and of spotless reputation in the Church, but, being without Torah, they fail to distinguish clean from unclean. (Lev. 11:46-47) Today we only have rulers of tens re-established, but it is a start that can be the foundation for the rest. It is those whom Moshe (the Torah) appoints who will end up as rulers in Israel. I.e., the foremost criterion is, “Who follows the Torah most closely?”
16. "And I gave orders to your judges at that time, saying, 'Listen to your brothers with discernment, and decide cases justly between a man and his brother or the newcomer [who is staying] with him.
Moshe set up an order because the main problem in the wilderness had been individuals rising up from below and rebelling against authority, trying to do things their own way. Newcomer: There must always be someone to advocate in court for the strangers among us--those who turn aside to learn from us, even if they have not yet fully committed to follow. But everyone who wants to be part of Israel has to be willing to submit to the right rulings of its courts rather than make all our own decisions. We must have such order if we want to receive the covenant again.
17. "You must not show partiality in legal procedings; you must hear [the cases] of people of little [consequence] in the same way [you hear those of] the mighty. You must not stand in awe of men's faces, because the decision is YHWH's. Now the case that is [too] difficult for you, you may present to me, and I will hear it.
Show partiality: literally, "cause faces to be distinguished". I.e., whether a king or the lowest of servants was being tried, the judge should not take notice, but treat them on the merit only of the facts of the case rather than on emotion, which clouds judgment. We must pay attention to the details of each and rule accordingly. Rabbi Y’hoshua Kutner recognized that a poor widow’s tears could be a form of bribe, even though she did not intend to manipulate, and called in another judge to assist him so that this would not bias him. Only the judge can appeal to a higher court to seek added wisdom; the one being judged cannot. He must abide by the ruling of the one who is already in authority over him. If this “father of the household” is able and willing to rule, that is where the process stops. Moshe’s position has in most cases passed to the priesthood for such rulings.
18. "And I gave you orders at that time concerning all the things that you should do.
At that time: see Exodus 18:20 for more detail.
19. "Then we pulled up stakes from Horev and walked that whole vast and dreadful wilderness which you have seen, by way of the hill country of the Emorites, as YHWH our Elohim had ordered us. When we had come as far as Qadesh-Barnea,
20. "I told you, 'You have reached the hill country of the Emorites, which YHWH our Elohim is entrusting to us.
YHWH has set the Land before them, but they cannot see it because of the mountains that are in the way. But we are not to look at them or even at the Emorites. We need to see the Land instead. No matter how big the mountains are, as soon as we get over them, we will be there. They are much easier to climb if we know that just beyond them lies our Home. If we walk in His way, the mountain will either move out of the way, or we will get over it!
21. "'Look! YHWH has made the Land before you available; Go up and take possession of it, as YHWH the Elohim of your ancestors, has told you! Do not lose resolve or be afraid!'
Because they did lose resolve, the Land was never fully taken. But we will have another opening to finish the job. Courage is a key to going home. With heaven on our side, why should any leader be a coward?
22. "Then all of you approached me and said, 'Let's send men ahead of us, and they can explore the Land and bring us back word [about] which road we should go up by and the cities into which we should enter.'
They were only supposed to do reconnaissance for the purpose of mapping out a strategy for which order to take the Land, not to decide whether or not to enter!
23. "And the thing seemed appropriate to me, so I selected twelve men--one for each tribe--
24. "and they made preparations and went up into the hill country, and came as far as the Valley of Eshkol, and went [through it] on foot.
On foot: so they would know where they could march the whole congregation, since they too would have to come by foot.
25. "And they took some of the fruit of the Land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us back a report, saying, 'The Land that YHWH our Elohim is giving us is suitable!'
Only two said this, but these are the only witnesses he admitted. He considered only the fruit. It told him whether what they were saying was true or not. Moshe left out everything the other ten spies said at this point. This was enough information; the rest was irrelevant. He would not pass the evil report on to the next generation as plausible. No matter what is on it or in the way, the Land itself is beneficial! Anything that rises up against us is just one more thing to cut down. It is never meant to inspire fear. Moshe knows when to tell them what, and how much to say.
26. "But you were not willing to go up, and rebelled against the mouth of YHWH your Elohim,
They did not want what He was offering if they had to fight for it. YHWH’s “mouth” in this case was the fruit of the Land, which spoke for itself. Rebellion is being unwilling to ascend when YHWH says to do so.
27. "and sulked in your tents, and said, '[It is] because YHWH hates us [that] He has brought us out from the land of Egypt--to give us over into the hand of the Emorites and exterminate us!
In your tents: as if they thought YHWH could not hear them if Moshe could not. Such illogic! Why would He go to all that trouble for someone He hated?
28. "'To where should we ascend? Our brothers have made our resolve melt, saying, "A people mightier and taller than we", "large cities, fortified up to the sky", and, "We even saw the sons of Anaqim there!"'
Resolve: literally, "heart". They had allowed their enemies to become bigger in their minds than they actually were. “Life and death are in the power of the tongue": The right words can calm and soothe a frightened child, but their words--the report they chose to give--empowered these obstacles against them, and the situation indeed became worse—a self-fulfilling prophecy. (See v. 42) They now thought they had a reason to believe the odds were against them, for some had given them the excuse they were looking for. They were counted as guilty as the latter, because we choose to do the right thing or not, no matter what anyone else says. But this is the first time Moshe mentions the ten who gave the bad report—when he can show it for what it really was. He is a skilled speaker indeed. Anaqim: A race of giants. But once we grab hold of a challenge, we often find that it is not nearly as intimidating as we had imagined.
29. "But I had told you, ‘Do not tremble, and do not be afraid of them!
30. “‘YHWH your Elohim is the One going ahead of you; He will fight for you, in all the same ways He did for you in Egypt, [which you witnessed] with your own eyes,
Fight for you: the LXX adds "effectually". Same ways: Bringing heaven and earth to our aid with a series of natural catastrophes that give us the advantage.
31. “‘as well as in the wilderness, as you have seen how YHWH your Elohim has carried you as a man carries his son on the whole route you have walked until you arrived at this place.
He carried us on His shoulders. There are times to look back--to recall the last time we thought we were defeated, but YHWH overcame, to realize that if He did it then, He can do it again, to see how far we have come--but never to complain about what we have left behind. The fact that we are here means YHWH is true, for without Him we would never have made it this far. What they are seeing is impossible, just as today a people who ceased to be a people over 2,700 years ago have awakened and realized who we are! But thius verse is an anomaly. The rest of the uses of “you” in this passage are plural, but in this verse they are all singular, meaning He is either speaking to the nation as a whole—as one man—and/or He is speaking to each individual to remind us that He paid personal attention to the welfare of each of us as if each was the only one!
32. “‘Yet in this matter is there no one among you who trusts YHWH your Elohim,
We cannot pick and choose what we want to trust Him with. Trying to ensure our security in places we have not seen Him work before only drains the faith out of our souls.
33. “‘who went ahead of you to search out a place to camp, in fire by night to enable you to see the way by which you should walk, and in a cloud in the daytime?’
He treated you like children, even telling you where to set up your tents; how much more personal could He get? The cloud and fire were meant to inspire fear in the Egyptians, not in Israel; to us it is the witness to reassure us that He can do again what He has done before.
34. "And YHWH heard the tone of your words, and He burst out in anger and swore an oath, saying,
Tone: He distinguished between an honest question and rebellion. He has to listen to their words because there is no other fruit to judge by.
35. "'If any of these men of this evil generation shall see the great Land that I promised to give to your ancestors…
He did not want to be around people like this, who would only be a negative example to those around them.
36. "'except Kalev the son of Y'funeh; he will see it, and I will give the Land which he has traversed to him and to his children, because he has fulfilled [his duty to follow] after YHWH.'
Kalev: One way to translate his name is “like-hearted”. Indeed he was a man after YHWH’s own heart. And this shows that he was whole-hearted as well. . The Land he has traversed: the land assigned to Yehudah is what he must have been assigned to search out, for he specifically asked for the area around Hevron. (Y'hoshua 14)
37. "YHWH was also displeased with me on account of you, saying, 'You will not go in there either.
Was displeased: literally, "breathed hard", with an exasperated sigh. Moshe reverted to what had worked before when he allowed his anger to try to work out YHWH’s righteousness (Yaaqov/James 1:20) But here we hear it from a different angle. He blames their words (d’varim) for his own words, which kept him out of the Land also. Was even sending scouts already catering to their fears? Yet in Numbers 13 it says YHWH told them to send the spies. If we do what He told us to and we fail miserably, is it His fault? What if He said to send them, but really wanted Moshe to ask, “Are you sure?” Do your words line up with Moshe’s rather than trying to make his line up with yours?
38. "'Y'hoshua the son of Nun, who remains in your presence--he [is the one who] will go in there. You must embolden him, because he will cause Israel to inherit it.
Remains: one of only two in his generation who would see the Promised Land because they gave a favorable report and upheld Moshe. When Moshe had first encountered YHWH, he was the one who needed emboldening; he did not even speak Hebrew well enough to lead, and needed Aharon’s help. But now he is verbally preparing them to go into the Land, because he has seen what YHWH can do. They are words of love, because he is committed to YHWH and to His people, though at this time this must take the form of rebuke and strong warning. But because he did so, over 3,400 years later, we have words that are just as appropriate for us right now. The sins of our ancestors are latent in us-- things we do not realize are present in us: fear, cowardice, rebellion, and complaining. YHWH wants to give us a wonderful inheritance, but we are inclined to be stiff-necked, so we must be made aware of it or we will be unable to do something about it. We must see ourselves in this book of life, so we had better listen carefully: What is inside us that is holding us back from the Promised Land?
39. "'And your little ones, whom you said would be taken as plunder, and your children, who as of today have not yet come to know right from wrong--they are the ones who will go there, and to them I have given it, and they will take possession of it!
These children (now grown) are the very ones he is speaking to. YHWH would specifically demonstrate that their fears had been unfounded, but it was too late for the parents to repent. What poetic justice! In a united Israel, YHWH considers those under age 20 to have some degree of innocence, answering the long debate about the “age of accountability”; they do not count as having eaten of the tree of knowledge of right and wrong; they only followed what their parents did. But returning to the Garden of Eden is the real point of the Promised Land; Y’shua said the Kingdom is made up of those who are like little children.
40. "'But you, turn back and set out into the wilderness on the way to the Sea of Reeds.'
41. "But you responded by telling me, 'We have sinned against YHWH; we will go up and fight, just as YHWH our Elohim commanded us!' And each of you strapped on his battle gear and were ready to go up into the hill country [just like that]!
The word for "ready" implies the sense of taking something too lightly, thinking it an easier matter than reality warrants. But indeed it was too much for them alone:
42. "But YHWH said to me, 'Tell them, "Neither go up nor fight, so you will not be struck down by your enemies, because I am not in your midst.'
We cannot act when we want to, but when He says to. If we are fighting our own battles, not His, He will not have our backs. If it is not His battle, but only about someone’s advantage or pride, do not be lured into the trap of arguing with fools. Fight YHWH’s battles; do not try to get Him to fight yours.
43. "So I warned you, but you would not obey me, but [rather] rebelled against the mouth of YHWH, and went presumptuously up into the hill country.
44. "Then out came the Emorites who lived in those mountains. [They] met you unexpectedly, and chased you just like the bees do, and crushed you in Seir, all the way to Hormah.
45. "Then you came back and wept before YHWH, but YHWH neither listened your voice nor cupped His ear toward you,
Came back: returned to the starting point. They had had enough time to act. He had given them occasion to go in, as there was a certain level of weakness among the natives which would not again be available for another 40 years, so they could not just repent and say, "OK, this time I'll obey!" As with a tax bill, there were penalties for trying to pay late, and if one waits too long, the very thing being taxed is taken away. They were now out of season, and it could not work. We must follow His calendar carefully so that we will be able to discern when it is the right time to act.
46. "and you remained in Qadesh for many days--as [many] days as you lived there.
Qadesh means “set apart”. They had to wait as long as it took to learn how to be holy so they could enter the truly set-apart place and survive. Soul-ties to other things can be one of the greatest enemies of reaching this goal.
CHAPTER 2
1. "Then we turned and traveled the wilderness by the Way of the Sea of Reeds, as YHWH had told me, and we skirted the mountains of Seir for many days.
They had spent the majority of the time in the wilderness at Qadesh (1:46), for being a set-apart (qadosh) people was one of the biggest lessons we needed to learn. We must stay however long it takes to learn to be separate from whatever is not of the Kingdom, until the heaviness that comes through disobedience is gone; then we can turn and travel on together. Skirted: or encircled. From Qadesh, it was backtracking to return to the Mountains of Seir. (1:2) They were repeating a pattern they had followed at Mt. Sinai (1:6). They went from revolving around one mountain to revolving around another. At least at Sinai, they had sat (yashav)—an idiom for settling down to learn (as in a Yeshiva). It was appropriate to settle in and remove ourselves from other influences while we learned, but when we are no longer learning, we should not be sitting still. When we are not studying, we need to be gathering tools with which to continue mining the Torah, then enter it, not always looking for something in particular, but seeing what is actually there, for if we have an agenda, we will miss many treasures. But now we have moved on to the territory of our belly-driven brother Esau. There is not a word of Scripture that is not prophetic. If we stay close to something long enough, it begins to pull us in to its orbit, keeping us from where He really wants us to get. This becomes more immediate for us when we remember that the scepter of Edom passed to Rome, the hub of Catholicism. When the Northern Kingdom turned away from Mt. Sinai (where the Torah was given), it kept people’s attention on the Church itself rather than on YHWH. We went in circles because we had stopped learning. We forgot what we had heard, and listened to our own hearts instead. The Reformation protested some of Rome’s doctrines, but held onto most; if they are really not part of the Roman Church, why do they observe Sunday, Christmas, and Easter, which are? The root word for “church” is kirke, which is the root also for circle. So this traveling in circles is inevitable when we stop applying the Torah to our experience. Seir is part of the road home, but we stayed there too long. For many of us the Church was a stepping stone which YHWH used to our profit, but it is time to break free of its orbit and continue on to greater maturity in the place that is closest to YHWH’s heart. Going in circles too long,we became dizzy and could not see things properly. It is hard to make progress when walking in circles—unless they are upward spirals. YHWH gave us His calendar as a way to escape these other orbits. It looks like a circle too, but it is really a spiral staircase that is higher with each round. That is the right kind of “going in circles”, which allows us to escape the futile kind. This way we do retain what we learned in last year’s cycle of YHWH’s appointments, but also keep learning more, because we are higher—closer to YHWH. Thus the solution to going “round and round” is to go “round and up”. This way we end up somewhere different, not back at the same place. We must move beyond agreeing with the words on a page to actually becoming what it describes. We must work this out face-to-face in community. If the Torah could be done by oneself, Yeshua would have done so, because he preferred not to be among crowds. But even he needed twelve to work it out. The Torah itself began on a mountain, but we are meant to be moving toward a different mountain—Tzion or Moryah. Both the New Testament and the Talmud are based on the Torah, but both can get us sidetracked if we cannot tell where the commands end and the commentary begins. The key to stop going in circles is in the same phrase from another angle: go around it—that is, bypass it. Like rocket scientists, YHWH designed our bypass of Seir to ride its orbit only long enough to use it to sling us onto the trajectory toward the promised Land at an even higher speed, and many of us who did start out in the church have indeed been more zealous to hurtle toward Tzion than some who were born already in the festival pattern, since we could more clearly see the contrast.
2. "Then YHWH spoke to me, saying,
3. "'You have been circling this mountain range long enough; turn yourselves northward,
Traveling eastward from Makhtesh Ramon (if Qadesh-Barnea is near its east end), one would run straight into the thickest of the mountains of Seir, so they had to go around it. (v. 1) Edom would not let them pass the more direct way to the north of it (Num. 20:20), so they had to skirt it by turning south (through the wide and level Aravah, in the direction of the Reed Sea’s northeastern tip), then circling the range eastward, and finally turning northward once they had completely cleared the mountains. They then followed the more level valley up to the east of Edom and Moav. We left the long holding pattern at Sinai but got stuck again in the orbit of Mt. Seir because it was a discouragingly-long journey (Num. 21:4), when we should have been heading to yet another mountain—Moryah or Tzion. These are Kingdom places; Seir is not. The rabbis equate Seir with the Church because Edom did historically merge into Rome. It served a temporary purpose; we found grass for our cattle and water there, and it was better than pure desert. But it was meant to only be a rest stop to care for temporary needs, not a place to remain.
4. "'and to the people, give orders, saying, "You are about to cross the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you, so take extreme care
Cross: but do not stay there! So how do we stop orbiting Seir? The key is in another translation of this word “cross” (avar), which can also mean “bypass it”. It is there, but we keep moving. It does not matter what they think of what we believe or practice; we do not answer to them but to YHWH. Our agenda is clear in YHWH’s word, and that is all we need. Don’t worry if it offends them. The path of Esau is about self; ours is the path of making sure we have everyone together, and this leads to fruitfulness. Is our general trend one of spinning our wheels or making progress? Roman roads were the easiest to travel in ancient times, and they still are. But we who have become Hebrews cannot follow their paths. They all lead to Rome, and that is not where we are going. We cannot do things the way everyone else does. While this may be discouraging to children, it is something to celebrate when we are mature. They are our relatives, but YHWH has a different place for us. Like a military marching band, we must stay in step, keep doing our job, and not even wave at those we are passing by. It is not our job to persuade them to come with us; that is the Holy Spirit’s job, and if they want to follow, they can come and learn with us at the right mountain. Their very name is based on fear: Seir means a hairy goat, but is based on the word for dread (literally the kind that makes your hair stand on end). And indeed it is the fear of hell that gives the Church its power, as they claim to have a handle on it. But this is still about self. Christianity lets us escape responsibility for our actions; all we have to do is say, “I’m sorry”, and our guilt is magically gone! That is all that small children can do, but this is not maturity, so we cannot remain there. The Church’s version of morality also gives us an excuse to ignore YHWH’s actual commands. But it is fearful of us when we live truly as Israel, for we can back up our teachings with Scripture and they hold water.
5. "'"not to get into a skirmish with them, because I will not give you any of their land--not even a footprint's width, because I have assigned the mountains of Seir to Esau as inherited property.
We are to leave alone what actually belongs to Edom—the peripherals added to the truth, the holidays not based on paganism, the historical “saints” who did noteworthy things, even some right to survive into the kingdom when put in its true perspective. But Edom has laid claim to much that is in reality ours. It may appear to be part of Edom, but whatever originated directly from the Torah we must reclaim as rightfully Israel’s. Not until the Kingdom do we possess the “remnant of Edom”. We only need to teach what Yeshua actually taught—love for our neighbors, and that He came to restore the lost sheep of Israel and make us one community again. YHWH gave them a place and He will decide who lives there. Do not argue with them; it is only YHWH’s Spirit that convinces anyone. If He wants them to stay in Seir, that is His business, not ours. Answer honest questions, but do not let it become an arguing match. We have nothing to prove to anyone except YHWH. He gave them their “scary mountain”, and He decides who will remain there. If they follow when we pass through, it is His doing. If they want to be taught, they are probably some of the lost sheep of Israel who are yielding to the Shepherd’s call.
6. "'"For food you may deal with them with money for grain so that you may eat, and trade silver with them for water so that you may drink,
As with Moav below, YHWH had Israel treat the nations of their relatives with more respect than the other nations around them. (Compare 1 Tim. 6:2; Philemon 1:16) Many of those in the Church that revolves around Rome are related to us, using the same Scriptures, but they view them through a different grid and therefore draw very different conclusions about them. Thus we can sometimes receive valuable things from them, but this does not mean we have to live there too. We must not make ourselves indebted to them. We pay with silver, not with our labor, which should be reserved for Israel. We should not be building anything for what is not Israel. What is theirs is theirs, and we do not need it. Getting into a skirmish with them would only be wasting precious time.
7. "'"because YHWH your Elohim has blessed you in all the workmanship of your hands; He has been familiar with your walking this vast wilderness. This is forty years [that] YHWH your Elohim [has been] with you, and you have not lacked a thing."'
They did not really need the Edomites' food yet, because they still had manna until they crossed the Yarden. (Y'hoshua 5:12) Even if Esau is our brother, we do not need his help to get where we need to go. They were essentially offering a "toll" to a people whom he thought would be content to give them no trouble if only they got something out of it. He gave them no leverage to say, "Your cattle ate some of our grass as you passed through; you owe us for that!" He has been familiar with your walking: The same holds true for our wilderness. YHWH says of Ephraim, “My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face…” (Yirm. 16:17) YHWH is all we need to inherit the Land of the covenant, and these words are given to help us prepare to go there and find the treasure over and over again. We can do it without the support of what is not the Kingdom. So just pass by and get to the other side. Stop circling a god-man and follow the kinsman-redeemer. Turn and face the truth that Israel is the elect who will be gathered from the four corners of the earth; no one will ever replace it, or we are calling YHWH a liar and inadequate. Esau’s path is about self; ours is the path of making sure we have everyone together, and this leads to fruitfulness.
8. "And when we had passed on from [being] with our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, [away] from the Aravah route [that comes] from Elath and Etzion-gever, we turned and traversed the route along the wilderness of Moav.
The Edomites acted the part of the goats in Yeshua’s parable who did not do for the least of Yeshua’s brothers what they needed (Mat. 25:32ff), and thus did not prove to be His sheep. They are distant brothers, not our true neighbors. Here it sounds like they had a friendlier relationship with Esau than is indicated elsewhere. He may be putting Kanaan in perspective: “You thought Esau was an enemy? No, that was just a family squabble. Focus your hatred where it really counts! Save your energy for the ones YHWH is ready to judge now; Edom will be dealt with later.”
9. "And YHWH told me, 'Do not treat Moav as an adversary, nor stir yourselves up against them in battle, because I will not give you any of their land, since I have assigned Ar to the descendants of Lot as inherited property.
Treat as an adversary: Aramaic, "oppress"; LXX, "quarrel with". They receive some benefits for the present just because they are descendants of the righteous Lot, Avraham’s nephew. During the time of the kings they would be subjugated by Israel, but they would still remain a separate nation.
10. "'(The Emim had their abode there in times past--a people mighty, numerous, and tall like the Anaqim.
11. "'They were even considered giants like the Anaqim, but the Moavites call them "Emim".
Giants: Heb., Refa'im, from a root meaning "healthy", "robust", or "vigorous". Emim is a shortened form of the word eymin, which means “dreadful ones” or "terrors”; the Aramaic renders it "fear-inspiring ones".
12. "'And the Chorites used to live in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed and exterminated them from before their faces, and settled [there] in their place, just as Israel has been doing to the Land of his inheritance, which YHWH has given to them.)
They won their land like Makhir did, so He would not take it from them—especially with all that Esau had already lost to Yaaqov (both birthright and blessing; this is all that was left to him when Yitzhaq had blessed Yaaqov already, so YHWH was not going to take that away too). This was to encourage Israel with the knowledge that though some things may be too big for us to deal with, they are not too big for YHWH. Esau was also left in place because he was supposed to be what Yaaqov ended up being, and thus YHWH had something to contrast with—an example of what Israel was not to be like. Chorites literally means “cave dwellers”. Esau killed off the cavemen! But since Esau (Edom) represents Rome, we also see a prophecy here of the fact that Catholicism, once it was made the state religion by Constantine, would usurp the sanctuaries that had been used by Mithraism, the religion of Roman soldiers, but which traced its roots all the way to Nimrod. One of its hallmarks is that they always worshipped in caves. They had an elohim called Gad (pronounced exactly like the modern term “God”), and had major festivals on December 24-25 and January 1. They had water baptism, and the form in which the priest holds the recipient as he goes underwater stems from them, not from the Hebrew form of immersion in which there is merely a witness that one goes completely under water. So the Church (Esau) actually still inhabits the “caves” of Mithraism by retaining these tenets.
13. "'Now rise up and go on across Wadi Zared.' So we crossed over Wadi Zared.
Wadi Zared: the border between Edom and Moav, feeding into the southernmost part of the Dead Sea. It has some very deep canyons at spots.
14. "And the period [from] when we started walking from Qadesh-Barnea until [the time] when we crossed over Wadi Zared [lasted] thirty-eight years, until the whole generation of men of war were gone from the midst of the camp, as YHWH had promised them [with an oath].
15. "And the hand of YHWH was also on them to push them out from the midst of the camp until they were finished off.
Now that the generation that had let fear rule their choices was gone, their children could go in. He waited for them to die. That is something to really be afraid of—that YHWH will give up on us. They were not even allowed to fight outside the Land. He did not want them to be the examples for His true warriors. Some had to have been as young as 60 years old when they died, so it appears that YHWH just left them to their own dangerous tendencies, and did not shield them from their own bad choices, and even did some things to lure them to the dangerous places outside the camp. Yet the children, for whom they feared, all survived. Again, YHWH is raising up a new guard, and we cannot let old fears influence our decisions now.
16. "Now when all the men of war had finished dying off from the midst of the nation, what took place is that
17. "YHWH spoke to me, saying,
18. "'Today you are crossing the border of Moav, that is, Ar,
19. "'and you will get very close to the forefront of the descendants of Ammon; do not treat them as an adversary, nor stir yourselves up against them, because I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon, since to the descendants of Lot I have assigned it as inherited property.'
Lot was also a righteous man, so YHWH had plans for his descendants as well. He did wonders for them too, just as Avraham gave gifts to his sons other than Yitzhaq. The lands Israel was to leave alone (Edom, Moav, and Ammon) are the same three whose lands the “king of the north” will not control. (Dan. 11:41)
20. "(It too was counted as a land of giants; giants had lived there in times past, and the Ammonites called them Zamzummim--
Zamzummim: "Devisers of plots"; Aramaic, "schemers", or simply, “those who make plans”—yet none of this got them anywhere; they lost their land as well.
21. "a people mighty, numerous, and as tall as the Anaqim. But YHWH annihilated them from before their faces, and they dispossessed them and settled [there] in their place,
As tall: Aram., "as powerful". YHWH even fought for them, and the comparison he is drawing to Israel's own situation should be obvious.
22. "as He had done for the descendants of Esau (the ones living in Seir--when He exterminated the Chorites from before their faces, and they dispossessed them and have lived [there] in their place to this day),
Moshe gives several examples of smaller nations successfully accomplishing what he is calling Israel—a much larger nation (1:10)—to do. This is yet another way his “pep talk” is meant to build courage in them.
23. "and the Awwim who lived in the villages up to 'Azzah--Kaftorites who left Kaftor exterminated them and lived there in their stead.)
'Azzah: "the strong place", now known as Gaza because of the Greek spelling of the guttural first sound. Kaftorites: from Crete—one of the sea peoples probably related to the Filistines (for they are listed along with them in Y’hoshua 13:3). He was showing Israel how other nations much smaller and far less righteous than they were allowed to keep their lands because they had dared to oust peoples greater than themselves, to show that their parents really had no excuse to doubt Him, even in natural terms, but also to give the new generation courage for the task that lay ahead:
24. "'Get up, set out, and cross the Arnon River. Look! I have delivered Sikhon the Emorite, king of Heshbon, into your hand, along with his land. Make an inroad, take possession of it, and stir yourselves up against them in battle!
Get up: or wake up; this is not just a history lesson! The Arnon was the border between Moav and the Emorites. (Judges 11:19-22) Crossing it was no small task, as it is very comparable to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. In fact, Arnon means “great overcomer”, possibly since it was able to carve out such a deep channel. It comes from a root meaning to give a ringing shout of joy (as in Psalm 95:1), and indeed such shouts would echo from the canyon walls. But we need to cross over (go beyond) mere praise to YHWH and actually carry out His purposes on earth. Make an inroad: begin, or literally, "puncture"; Aram., "start to expel". The Emorites were Kanaanites, who were under Noakh’s curse, but had been spared by YHWH until their perversity would reach its overflow point. (Gen. 15:16) Now it had.
25. "'This day I will begin to put the dread and terror of you upon the faces of the nations under the whole sky, who will hear the report [about] you and will tremble and writhe [in anguish] because of your faces.'
26. "Then I sent messengers from a wilderness of Q'demoth to Sikhon king of Heshbon, to speak words of peace:
Wilderness of Q'demoth means “place of speaking ancient things" or “from the word about progress”. Israel was now indeed about to move forward, but the first way to attempt is always to be a peaceful one, for Eden was connected with the word qedem, and when the Kingdom which will restore Eden-like conditions to earth comes, we will know true peace.
27. "'Let me cross through your land on the way; I will proceed along the road, and not turn off it to the right or the left.
28. "'You may sell me food for silver so I can eat, and give me water for money so I can drink; just let me cross by foot,
29. "'as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir and the descendants of Moav who live in Ar have done for me, until I have crossed the Yarden into the Land that YHWH our Elohim is giving to us.'
Esau: Yet we were told the Edomites did not do this for them (Num. 20:18ff). It may be that while the refusal was official, there were some on the periphery (only those in Seir) who allowed them to take a smaller shortcut across part of the Edomite territory. Or he may be just telling him the pattern--“as we asked them to do”--without telling what their response was, to get Sikhon to agree.
30. "But Sikhon king of Heshbon did not consent to let us pass by him, because YHWH your Elohim had hardened his spirit and made his heart bold, in order to deliver him into your hand, as [is the case] this day.
Moshe used the same formula for these that he had used with the other nations, but they responded very differently. It may be that Sikhon did not want us in the Land either because there were other Emorites across the river (Y’hoshua 5:1)—his distant relatives, and so he was guarding them. They were warned (v. 25), and when YHWH put the fear of Israel in their hearts, the playing field changed. As long as some of the earlier generation were still alive, they could pay their way through; now there was a new spirit in the earth. Things change when the fearful who discourage others are gone. Also, these were not relatives, so they did not receive the same measure of patience the others had. Bold: obstinate, self-assured, with a confidence that one is superior and secure. Heshbon means the best-woven-together, the most-reasoned-out or best-devised, i.e., a stronghold designed so well that nothing should be able to conquer it. Sikhon forced them to fight by saying “no”. The Heshbonites were not on YHWH’s initial list of people needing to be judged, but because they stood in the way of Israel’s obedience to YHWH, they needed to be taken out of the way. (YHWH promised to curse those who cursed Avraham’s descendants.) We are not out for spoils. The adage says, “Choose your battles wisely.” But “Let YHWH choose your battles” is even better. If He says “take it”, do so; the rest are not our problem. Avraham was a peace-loving man, but when his relatives were taken captive, he went to war. Do not waste time or energy on mere skirmishes so that you miss the truly strategic battles. The Torah prepares us, and the season informs us of what to fight. At Passover we fight against whatever leavens the community. At Sukkoth we fight against anything that would rob us of joy. On the Sabbath we battle against anything that would continue when YHWH has said, “Cease.” We do not contribute to the economy on its biggest market day. We move unseen things, even if there is no body count. Sometimes our weapons are physical, and at other times we pull down strongholds in the form of logical systems (reckonings or computations—exactly the meaning of Heshbon) that raise themselves against the knowledge of YHWH).
31. "Then YHWH told me, 'See? I have made an opening to yield Sikhon and his land before your faces. Make an inroad! Take possession, so that you may inherit his land!'
The opening came through the fact that Sikhon, like Goliath later, had challenged His will, because this always causes a breach in one’s integrity.
32. "Then Sikhon came out to encounter us in battle at Yahatz--he and his whole nation.
33. "But YHWH our Elohim gave him over before our faces, and we struck him down along with his sons and his whole nation.
We: Moshe did not lift a sword, but he took responsibility, and shared the rewards with all of Israel.
34. "And we captured all his cities at that time, and dedicated every city to destruction--men, women, and little ones; we did not leave a survivor.
35. "Only the animals did we seize for ourselves, along with the plunder of the cities that we had captured.
Only the animals: they alone were innocent or did not carry the tainted seed of these inhospitable people.
36. "From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon and the city that is on the river as far as Gil'ad, there was not a town that was set too securely on high for us [to capture]; YHWH our Elohim gave them all over before us.
On the river: or "in the river-valley". Set securely on high: A common practice, as we see clearly with Yerushalayim, was to build a city atop a hill that was flat on top but steep on the sides, or build an artificial grassy slope called a glacis at the base of the walls, building the walls all the way out to the slope so there was no place for besiegers to stand in order to assault or undermine the wall. Glacis means “to make slippery”, and that was the exact purpose. They would have to stand at the bottom of the hill and at a distance to sling their stones or shoot their arrows to the top of the wall, thus making the wall all the higher. Beth-She’an’s glacis made the net height of the walls nine stories tall!
37. "Only on the land of the descendants of Ammon did you not encroach, nor on any part of the river Yabboq, nor any of the cities of the mountains or anything about which YHWH our Elohim had given us orders.
The Yabboq crosses right through what became Israel's territory closer to the Yarden River, but there is a branch forking into it that formed this border.
CHAPTER 3
1. "Then we turned and went up the road [to] Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle [at] Edrey--he and his whole nation.
Bashan is th land north of the Yabboq River as far as Mt. Hermon. Israel had conquered as far as the Yabboq. (Num. 21:24) Edrey (probably Dara’a in southern Syria) is between the Yabboq River and the Golan Heights. Much of its stone wall, 3 miles in circumference, still remains. That we were near Edrey probably means we had crossed the Yabboq, possibly to retrace Yaaqov’s footsteps. (Gen. 32) Og probably came out because we were getting too close to his land, but he was a slow learner. He had seen the destruction wrought on the Emorites by Israel, yet he decided to make the same mistake. Israel was not looking for trouble, but it sought us out. Bashan means “fruitful”. Whenever we set out to get closer to home and start approaching fruitfulness, we encounter new obstacles and make new enemies, for we have upset the balance. When we encounter opposition, it is a sign that we are on the right path; if nothing comes against us, we are not making many waves. But these problems are also YHWH’s, and He is very capable of overcoming them. This book shows us how. One way is to close the gates behind us when we go out to battle. Even if we have a great victory at one gate, the enemy will try to enter by another. YHWH tells us to “put” His words on our doors and gates as the way to guard them.
2. "But YHWH told me, 'Do not be afraid of him, because I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land; you shall do to him just what you have done to Sikhon, king of the Emorites, who lived at Heshbon.'
We can defeat our enemies if we do not surrender to fear. It is the fear that can beat us even before we go to battle. YHWH does not inhabit the fear of other things; He says He inhabits praise. (Psalm 22:3) It is difficult to praise YHWH and be fearful at the same time. A firm witness of what He has done in the past is the best way to remove fear from our minds. We are not meant to stand in awe of anything but YHWH. Fear is contagious. It steals our neighbors’ courage, and YHWH counts it as worship of some other elohim, for it means we do not really trust Him. Our trust is not in whether we can growl more loudly than those who threaten us. We need to deal with the cause. Having Avraham as our father is part of the foundation that gives us a platform to stand above the fear. We are the heirs to the promises YHWH made to him. 52 times in Scripture YHWH tells us not to fear—one for each week! In fact, it is actually a positive command: “Fear nothing”. It is not something we avoid, but something we actively engage by determining in our hearts that we will not partake of. Sikhon means “sweeping away”, and that is what he tried to do to all the gains we had made through his “contrived reason” and “plots invented” to discourage us (the meanings of the name Heshbon) with the “what-if’s” that convince us that we cannot win. Emorites: based on a word for “to say”. We defeat them by not taking their talk seriously and holding onto the truth YHWH has already revealed. He says “I have delivered… you will do…” I.e., He will underwrite it and ensure victory if we are not fearful to carry it out.
3. "And YHWH your Elohim also delivered Og king of Bashan into our hands along with his whole nation, and we struck him down until there was not one survivor left to him.
This time there is no negotiation. He postured himself against us, so we had to take him out. False fruitfulness tried to stop us, but we can defeat these enemies every time if we do not surrender to them or to fear. Their protection had already been taken away. (Num. 14:9) If we act at the time He tells us, the window will be wide open and victory sure. If we are afraid and hesitate, we may miss the open door, and not get to our home, because we will have left the usurper in place. YHWH goes before us, but lets us carry out the battle, because only then will we see what He can do. As with the manna, the provision is there, but we have to go gather it. We attacked Og when he came against us, not before.
4. "And we captured all his cities at that time; there was not a town which we did not take from them--sixty cities, the whole region of Argov, the dominion of Og in Bashan.
Argov means "heap of clods". The Aramaic targum identifies it by the later (Roman-era) name of Trachonitis. It covers 308 square miles in all. Bashan: now part of it is known as the Golan Heights.
5. "All of those cities were rendered inaccessible with very lofty walls, double-leaved gates, and bars, besides having a great many unwalled towns.
Why does he point this out? Because the spies had exaggerated and said the cities in the Land had walls reaching to heaven—as if even YHWH could not penetrate them! Nonsense. The only factors that matter are whether we are obedient and whether we act in the right season. He admitted the apparent obstacle their parents had feared (1:28), but then undermined their excuse with the now-historic fact that their argument did not hold water:
6. "Yet we completely destroyed them, just as we had done to Sikhon, the king of Heshbon, dedicating every city to destruction--men, women, and little ones.
They were inaccessible, but we accessed them! It doesn’t say how. Strategies are given in some accounts in Torah and in Y’hoshua, but not here. YHWH may have given us the strategy as well, as He did on some other occasions, but strategies will differ everywhere; what matters most is that we did it because YHWH was with us. Dedicating to destruction: based on the word from which we derive “harem” because of its connotation of being “off limits”. In this case it was set apart for destruction. So there are three categories in the Hebraic mindset between which we must learn from Torah to distinguish: what is holy to YHWH (one kind of set apart), what is marked off for destruction, and what is simply profane (i.e., ordinary, mundane). It is a horrific thing to kill women and children, and it has a profound effect on soldiers; the half-sheqel tax was given specifically to deal with this guilt with closure. (Ex. 30:13) It is true that “war is hell”, but there is a season for it. They were to take no captives this time, for this was not a people they could make a deal with. This brought about a clean cut, which precluded many evils that would come with having an enemy on our border.
7. "But we did seize for ourselves all the animals and the plunder of the cities.
Because they were outside the Land, nothing but the people were under the ban. They only took what was worth taking. They could not bring these people with them.
8. "And at that time we took the land on that side of the Yarden (from the River Arnon to Mount Chermon) out of the hand of the two kings of the Emorites.
9. (The Tzidonians call Hermon [by the name of] Siryon, and the Emorites call it Sh'nir.)
9,200 feet high, Hermon means “most set apart”, coming from the word from which we derive “harem”—that is, something prohibitive—for it is difficult to access, being surrounded by lower hills. This highest mountain in Israel is on the border between Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights. Siryon means "breastplate". Sh'nir: "mountain of snow". Though in the Middle East, it does have snow year-round.
10. "[That is], all the cities of the plateau, all of Gil'ad, and all of Bashan as far as Salchah and Edrei--cities of the dominion of Og in Bashan,
Plateau: or table-land—the precise topography east of the Great Rift Valley parallel to the Yarden River. Still, it is not easy terrain to traverse, for it has many rivulets cut into it; one city here in Roman times, Gamla, was so hard to get to that even tax collectors usually skipped it!
11. "because only Og king of Bashan was left of the [tribe] of giants who remained. Indeed, his bedstead was a bed of iron; is it not [on display] in the capital [city] of the sons of Ammon--nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the cubit of a man?
The spies 40 years earlier had seen evidence of giants, but this race was already dying out, and out of the one man (or possibly the few elderly others that were still there at that time), they built a “Heshbon”—a cleverly-crafted myth calculated to discourage the whole nation. If Og was in Bashan, there were no giants actually left in the Land of Israel proper! We read of only a few—the Anaqim--whom Y’hoshua and Kalev themselves would conquer (Y’hoshua 11:21-22; 14:12ff) when they finally got to the Land. The cubit of a man: measured from the elbow to the fingertips of an ordinary-sized man. This bed (or possibly the bier on which they carried him to be buried) measured 13.5 to 14 feet by about 6 feet. It was left as a “museum-piece” in the city that is again the capital of Jordan to remind us that there was no one left to sleep in it, because YHWH had already given the giants into our hand. There was no reason to be afraid!
12. "And we took possession of this land at that time: from Aroer, which is on the River Arnon, and half of the hill-country of Gil'ad, and I gave its cities to the Reuvenites and the Gadites.
13. "Then the rest of Gil'ad and all of Bashan, the realm of Og, I gave to half of the tribe of Menashe--the whole region of Argov, so [he would have] all of that [part of] Bashan [which is] called ‘the land of giants'.
Argov: the site of the present-day Leja, it had solid walls four feet thick, and doors and gates of stone a cubit thick. It holds some of the oldest intact houses in the world, they were so well-built. Menashe did not ask for this land, but the reason it was give to them lies in the name of Gil’ad. It comes from the Gal’ed that Yaaqov established here as a witness to a covenant he had made with Lavan. (Gen. 31:47)
14. "Ya'ir the son of Menashe took the whole land of Bashan as far as the border of the G'shurites and the Maachathites, and called them by his own name--'Bashan, the towns of Ya'ir' until this day.
15. "To Makhir, I gave Gil'ad,
16. "then to the Reuvenites and Gadites I assigned from Gil'ad to the River Arnon--the middle of the valley being a border--and up to the Yabboq River, the border of the descendants of Ammon,
17. "and the Aravah of the Yarden a border, from [Lake] Kinnereth all the way to the sea of the Aravah--the Salt Sea below the slope from the summit [that is] toward the sunrise [from it].
Kinnereth: so called because of its harp-like (kinnor) shape, it is more widely known as the Sea of Galilee. Salt Sea: also called the Dead Sea because only a few types of algae can live in it due to the high concentration of salt since the Yarden no longer empties it out. Summit: Heb., pisgah, sometimes a proper alternate name for Mt. Nevo, where Moshe would die.
18. "And I gave you orders at that time, saying, ‘YHWH has given you this Land to take possession of. All you able-bodied men shall cross over armed ahead of your relatives, the descendants of Israel.
Able-bodied men: This is still addressed to the sons of Reuven and Gad. They are the only ones who have had recent successful experience with defeating other nations, so they will be in the vanguard—another way he is giving the whole nation confidence that they will be able to accomplish this task.
19. "‘Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know you have many livestock!) may stay in your cities, which I have given you
The background for this sarcastic statement by Moshe is Ex. 12:38 and Numbers 32. In the latter passage this was the reason two tribes asked to settle east of the Yarden outside the Promised Land. They had put their cattle(i.e., their wealth) first, and he reminded them to prioritize care for the next generation over care for their possessions.
20. "‘until YHWH gives your brothers rest as well as yourselves, and they have taken possession of the Land that YHWH is giving to them on the other side of the Yarden. Then each of you may return to his inherited property, which I have granted you.'
It may be granted, but could still tempt us to lose our focus, so beware. Until we have all arrived, we have not arrived. We cannot settle down if our battle is won but our brothers’ battle is not. If we have mastered something others have little of—be it faith, knowledge, intelligence, or just finances—we need to help our brothers achieve the same so we can all receive together.
21. "And I gave orders to Y'hoshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that YHWH the Elohim of you [all] has done to these two kings. YHWH will do the same to all the dominions to which you are crossing over.
See Numbers 27:18ff for details of this account.
22. "‘Do not be afraid of them, because YHWH your Elohim will Himself be fighting for you.'"
Fear basically means empowerment of whatever we offer it to. If we respect our enemy too much, this becomes a foothold for him instead of YHWH. Whichever you prepare a place for, you will reap the effects of. (Yirmeyahu 1:17)
TORAH PORTION
D'varim
(Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22)
INTRODUCTION: This book is sometimes called "Mishneh haTorah"--a repetition of the Torah, for in it Moshe reiterates much of what he has said in the rest of the Torah, to be sure the next generation learned what their apostate parents may have failed to teach and as informed consent for the choice he asks them to make in order to reaffirm it. To this purpose he addresses the present generation as if they had been the ones who made the bad choices their parents had made, for they were being offered the occasion to make a reparation for those errors, and we are again being offered the same kind of choice: Do we want to take up the challenge in which Moshe let us be included? (29:15) For he made it clear that anyone who was not physically present at that time could be added into the contract.
D'varim is the book most often quoted in the Renewed Covenant, possibly since it so often affirms what came before. It is arranged like a suzerainty document (ratifying a covenant), defining the relationship between a greater leader and a lesser nation, especially after the greater had done a special favor for the latter. Moshe recounts the events since Sinai, foretells what is ahead for Israel, and gives his farewell speech. It is a legal document similar to those of the proto-Hittites--one which can be enforced in court. Above all, it is a book of preparation for taking the lessons learned in the wilderness into the Land of promise. This book wraps up the wilderness generation (including, sadly, Moshe himself) but it shows the new one rising up with boldness their parents did not have. In contrast to Egyptian (and Christian) ways of preparing for the “afterlife”, Moshe demonstrates here the most fruitful way to prepare for death: he invests his full energy in making sure everyone else is ready to survive in his absence.
This first section is mainly a motivational speech designed to build trust in YHWH and courage for the task in front of them—immense, but, as he emphasizes, “do-able”. The walls they have to conquer are in fact high—but not all the way to the sky, as the fearful spies had reported. There are ways to overcome them. He cites one example after another of other nations that have displaced peoples bigger and stronger than they, and most importantly, the battles YHWH has already won for Israel, so that they have very immediate precedents to remember so they will not fear, but bear in mind what YHWH can do. For as he says several times, “YHWH is the One who is going ahead of you”—to clear the way, to strike fear in the hearts of the enemy, or to set things up for conditions to be just right for our victory. The lessons for us every day are obvious, but especially as we again begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel of our exile, for the tents of Yehudah have already gone up first and taken the Land. There may be more to take—or even re-take—when all the tribes are back together. So this book is as up-to-date as anything can be.
Renewing the Covenant
This is the preamble to the first renewal of the covenant, as an entire new generation now stands before Moshe, and he brings them as the bride again to YHWH, as he did with their parents at Sinai.
But already he is laying the groundwork for later renewals, saying, “You have stayed at Sinai long enough.” (Deuteronomy 1:6) Not that Sinai is no longer important; that was the foundation of our nation, where its constitution (the Torah) was established. But there was more ground to take. While we do not add to its commands or take away, Torah is the framework, but there are so many ways to flesh it out which may not look exactly like the context here, but which fulfill the same underlying principles of which it gave us quintessential examples.
And Moshe clearly states that he cannot do it all. He told us to choose wise and understanding men to bring the principles he taught down to the everyday decisions and rulings that have to be made. (1:12-13) They are to judge righteously (1:16-17)—a religious term that we seldom actually define clearly. In Hebrew the root word, tsaddaq (according to Reuven Prager and Gershon Ferency), can be broken down to tsad daq—a thin edge. To navigate a narrow surface like that, you have to have perfect balance. Hence one connection between justice and the pair of scales that have to be brought to that equilibrium.
He encouraged us to gain more ground, using all the resources we have been given, without fear or discouragement (1:21), because YHWH is able to supplement the utmost we can do and push us over that hump that we just can’t quite surmount ourselves. YHWH is bigger than the obstacles that stand in the way. (1:30) “But you would not.” (1:26) Those are some of the saddest words in the Torah. We refused the good things that YHWH provided, and which would have been better for us.
Moshe had led us as far as he could, and this book is his final charge. When you know this is your last time to see someone, you give them the most important information that you can. He wants to impress it deep on the hearts of his hearers so they will not forget after he is gone. He will not be able to go into the Land; YHWH will not change His mind on this, so Moshe does not waste any more time arguing or continuing to try to persuade YHWH to commute his sentence. He pours all of his remaining energy into the man who can take them the rest of the way. And that man’s name is none other than Y’hoshua, the name also of one who used “Moshe” as a shorthand for the Torah which he wrote.
So we can read, “What Moshe could not do, Y’hoshua could.” We hear an echo of this in Romans 8:3: “What the Torah could not do…YHWH [did] by sending [the other] Y’hoshua.” Is there something wrong with the Torah, then? Is it off the mark? No way! (Romans 7:7) It just has limitations because we took some things much too far, like those whose sin caused YHWH to be angry here at Moshe. (Deut. 3:26) A leader was needed who could bring them into line much more readily than Moshe might, and who was skilled in the type of leadership that was needed.
The Northern Kingdom (and even most of Yeshua’s own tribe) was too far gone to even be interested in the Torah until drawn back across the river by one with extraordinary compassion, into a context where we could again be acclimated to the point where it would even make sense to us, and though it took a very long time, seeing how many of his followers have now again taken on both “the testimony of Yeshua and a zeal for the Torah” (Acts 21:20; compare Revelation 12:17), it appears that he has been successful.
Study questions:
1. What seems jarringly strange about Deuteronomy 1:3 in light of 1:2? Why?
2. Horev is Mt. Sinai. What does it represent? Might Deut. 1:6-8 have a symbolic meaning in regard to where we “stay” and how we “walk”?
3. What wisdom can you derive from 1:9-15 for the areas in which you have jurisdiction? What additional guidance can you gain from 1:16-17?
4. What would it take for the promise in 1:21 to be enough to make you rise to the challenge without the need for the kind of additional input that ended up discouraging our ancestors (1:27-28)? Would the history of what YHWH had already done (1:30-31) be sufficient?
5. What do you think would cause the People not to trust YHWH after all they had seen Him do? Do you think they got used to what any newcomer would clearly see was a miracle? (1:32-33) What is there in your life that might latch onto such a tendency if you are not careful?
6. Did YHWH just take their careless words at face value? (1:34) Or was there a specific aspect of their words that He was really listening for? What was it that He was really satisfied with in Kalev (1:36) that was different from the rest?
7. What was Moshe to do with the information he received about who would go into the Land (1:38)?
8. How did YHWH turn their excuse around to the benefit of those who were innocent (1:39)?
9. Was what YHWH promised to do for Israel an easy thing if He was not on their side? (1:41) At what point does confidence become presumption? (1:42-43) Could they just change their mind after giving YHWH such a “slap in the face”, simply because they now saw how severe the sentence was—and that they were not permitted to go back to Egypt? (1:40) Are we guaranteed a second try? (1:45)
10. For 38 years they were basically going in circles. (Deut. 2:1) By the time they were again permitted to make progress, what had changed? (2:4)
11. What must a strong people be most careful not to do? (2:4-5, 9, 19) When we are well-provided for, what is our responsibility? (2:6-7)
12. What did Moshe skip in the story between 2:7 and 2:8? Why do you think he left it out of this telling? What was his focus here?
13. Why do you think YHWH gave the people examples of other nations that had displaced others? (2:10-12, 20-23)
14. Did the Emorites have any legitimate grounds to believe Israel wanted to harm them? (2:26-29) Why did YHWH have them bend over backward to give no offense? (2:30) What did this give Him fair warrant to do?
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
We all know that there is a lot in the Torah about our Israelite ancestors complaining and grumbling, and what YHWH’s attitude toward it was. But this Torah portion gives us a different detail of the story:
“And you grumbled in your tents…” (Deuteronomy 1:27)
Why do you think they did it there? Did they think that if Moshe didn’t hear them, YHWH wouldn’t either?
Yet Moshe knew what they were doing and gave them an answer. Maybe they just weren’t careful to speak quietly enough, but we read in Psalm 139:4,“Even before there is a [single] word on my tongue, you know all about it, O YHWH.”
And many years later when Israel was being attacked by her enemies, we read that “when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, ‘We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place.’ But immediately Elisha, the man of Elohim, would warn the king of Israel, ‘Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there.’ So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of Elohim. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he would be on the alert there. This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, ‘Tell me! Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?’ ‘It's not us, my lord the king,’ one of the officers replied. ‘Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!’" (2 Kings 6:8-12)
So maybe YHWH is the one who told Moshe what the people were saying in their tents. Maybe we think we can hide what we are doing, but Hebrews 4:13 tells us, “There is not a creature that is hidden from His sight.” Even when no one else sees what we are doing, He does, and we have to answer to Him for what we do. “Every one of us must give account of himself to Elohim.” (Romans 14:12; see also Matithyahu 12:36.) Do you really have a good enough reason for what you are doing or saying to be able to explain it to YHWH Himself without being ashamed?
Yeshua went still further: “What you have whispered in someone’s ear in a secret, hidden room will be proclaimed on the housetops!” (Luke 12:3)
The word for “proclaimed” there means “heralded or published”. It’s like the town criers in the old days saying, “Hear ye! Hear ye!” or newspaper boys who would sell their papers by saying, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Nowadays it would be like an e-mail or “tweet” that was supposed to only go to one person that instead "went viral" and got shared with billions of people. In other words, don’t think what you do in secret will stay a secret; what we do in the darkness will come to light. Or, as the Torah said in a recent week’s reading, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)
So are you sure you want the first thing that comes to your mind to actually come out of your mouth? You might argue, “Well, that’s just being honest!” But our first inclination is usually wrong in some way, partly because we inherited Adam and Chawwah’s blood that was affected by the fruit they weren’t supposed to eat, and partly because we often react before we know all the facts—from both sides of the story.
So YHWH gave us two lines of defense to stop our tongues from just spilling out whatever is in our minds: our teeth and our lips, which can just stop our tongues. But He also gave us minds to think twice, and consciences to put the brakes on the influence of our raw emotions, because usually what is raw is not fit for consumption—especially when it is flesh!
Just as we don’t go out in public before we get dressed, we can dress our words in ways that will actually help someone else if we think very carefully about what is really the best thing to say.
Our ancestors reacted before they even thought about what YHWH had already shown us He can do. That is exactly how Moshe answered them when he found out what they were saying in their tents.
And he added, “YHWH was angry when He heard the tone of your words.” (1:34) Not just the words themselves, because, yes, we sometimes do have honest questions. If we had put it that way—“How should we do this? We don’t know how”—that would have been okay. But we jumped to the conclusion that we knew better and that there was just no way YHWH could win these battles for us. And He considered that to be rebellion.
The way we say things matters. Look what it cost our ancestors. So think before you speak—even in secret!
The Renewal of D'VARIM
This book starts with a very sad comparison: “It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the way of Mount Seir. Now in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month…” (Deut. 1:2-3)
Let the force of that hit you! This should have been the thirty-eighth year in the Land already, not the fortieth year of getting there. So that it was no longer time to dawdle was the ultimate understatement:
“You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and [continue to] travel… Look, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the Land which YHWH swore to your fathers--to Avraham, to Yitz’haq, and to Yaaqov--to give unto them and to their seed after them.” (Deut. 1:6-8)
The Renewed Covenant continues to chide those who have been slack about what they could have accomplished: “By this time you ought to be teachers, by virtue of your suffering and your skill [that has been exercised, yet] you need repetition and prodding and [we have] to start over with you from the beginning [in teaching you] words of Elohim! “ (Hebrews 5:12)
The writer to the Hebrews went on to say it was as if they were needing milk again when they should be ready for solid food. (5:14) It’s high time to move on from the basics, he says. (Heb. 6:1) What are the basics? Kefa uses the same analogy, speaking of “the sincere milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2), by which we grow. What is “the Word”? The Torah, which was given at “this mountain”. It is the foundation for sure. But there is more. There is a Land to possess. The Torah is full of pictures—“shadows of things to come” (Colossians 2:17), but there is a “substance” which casts the shadow and is more real and more important than that which gives a faithful outline of its shape, but is not the multi-dimensional thing itself. It’s the difference between looking at a blueprint and looking at the building derived from it—the house meant to be built on that foundation.
What characterizes those mature people who are ready for the solid food? “By virtue of extensive experience [they] have accustomed their senses and trained themselves to distinguish between reasoned judgment and bad [judgment].” (Heb. 5:14)
And what indeed does Moshe move on to next, here? Good judgment! “Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. You must not respect persons in judgment; you must hear the small and the great alike; you must not be afraid of the face of any man; for the judgment belongs to Elohim.” (Deut. 1:16-17)
But just after that was a colossal example of really bad judgment: “Why are we going up? our brothers have made our heart to melt…” (Deut. 1:28) Oh, they might have thought they were only being “responsible”: “Are we going to expose our children to THAT?!” But they were leaving out the biggest factor in wisdom—the fear of YHWH (Proverbs 1:7), which pre-empts the fear of anything lesser: “YHWH your Elohim, who goes before you--He shall fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how YHWH your Elohim carried you… Yet in this matter you do not trust [Him].” (Deut. 1:30-32)
So Hebrews goes on a long discourse about trusting Him, culminating with “‘the just shall live by faith’ [quoting Havaqquq 2:4]: but if any man shrinks back, my soul will have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38) He does follow this with an expectation of better things from us, but even Moshe experienced this displeasure, and YHWH chose another whom He thought better suited for this task:
“YHWH was angry with me [Moshe] for your sakes, saying, ‘You will not go in there either. Y’hoshua the son of Nun, who stands before you--he shall go in there; encourage him, because he will cause Israel to inherit it.’” (Deut. 1:37-38) And this in itself is a major prophecy explained in the Renewed Covenant:
“What the Torah [called “Moshe” in Luke 16:29, etc.] was unable to do…, YHWH [did] by sending His own Son” (Romans 8:3), also named Y’hoshua. That is no coincidence. Yeshua (the shortened version of Y’hoshua) was able to take us where Moshe could not.
“This is forty years [that] YHWH your Elohim [has been] with you, and you have not lacked a thing.” (Deut. 2:6-7) But now they were to buy provisions from Edom, who operated by natural laws alone.
Yeshua asked those 70 disciples he had sent out to proclaim that the coming of the Kingdom was now possible if people were to accept it: “Did you lack anything when I sent you without wallet or travelling bag or [extra] shoes?” “Nothing.” (Luke 22:35) But he told them to buy swords this time, for he had to look like someone it would be right to arrest—one “numbered with the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:12)
But they were not to use them. (Yochanan 18:11) And YHWH also withheld Israel from indiscriminate use of the sword: “'Do not treat Moav as an adversary, nor stir yourselves up against them in battle, because I will not give you any of their land…And you will get very close to the frontier of the sons of Ammon; do not treat them as an adversary… because I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon.” (Deut. 2:9, 19) These were our distant cousins. Only the descendants of Kanaan, who had wrongfully usurped some of Shem’s allotment (Jubilees 16:11) were to be destroyed.
Likewise, Yeshua held his disciples back from vilifying people who did not join directly in his work. They had a different job, which could also benefit us: “He who is not against us is for us.” (Luke 9:50)
This was Moshe’s last occasion to address the people he had led all their lives. So he doesn’t dwell on the fact that he himself cannot go along, but focuses on what they are going to need as they go in—encouragement and strong motivation, because though his battle is over, theirs are just beginning. So he cites many precedents of other nations that took over the lands of peoples who had held them previously, and reminds them, too, of the impossible things they themselves have seen YHWH do:
“Your own eyes have seen all that YHWH the Elohim of you [all] has done to these two kings. YHWH will do the same to all the dominions to which you are crossing over. Do not be afraid of them, because YHWH your Elohim will Himself be fighting for you.” (Deut. 3:21-22)
Yeshua, on his final night, knew he had finished the work YHWH had given him to do. (Yochanan 17:4) But his students still had a long road ahead of them. So, “knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand”, gave his students a vivid example of servant leadership (Yoch. 13:3-15), for that is the character of the Kingdom he was about to die for, and he wanted them to understand this clearly.
Paul realized, “I am already being poured out…The time of my release is right at hand.” He knew he had finished the job given him to do. But others were just beginning the long haul, so he strongly urged Timotheos:
“Proclaim the message; be ready in season [and] out of season. Rebuke, admonish, and encourage with all kinds of patience and teaching, because a time is coming when they will not tolerate sound instruction but will surround themselves with teachers that agree with their own desires… Indeed they will turn away from hearing the truth… But you, always keep your wits about you, endure hardship, carry out the work of a bearer of glad news; fully accomplish your sacred work.” (2 Timotheos 4:2-7)
Claiming More Territory
Leaders need to be not just knowledgeable but able to make good judgments (Deut. 1:13-17) It is all too common to know an awful lot but not be wise!
One of the ways YHWH says to flesh this out is to “not respect persons in judgment”. (v. 17) That is an idiom for not showing partiality. But the literal wording says, “Do not pay attention to (or notice) faces”, with an undercurrent of “don’t treat them as foreigners or aliens”. Another way to say it would be “You shall not discriminate according to what is on the surface.” Now we are getting some clarity. In modern terms, “You must not profile people by what they look like.”
Who says Scripture isn’t relevant today? How could it be any more timely?
When David was being chosen as king, YHWH went into more detail. He said He does not see things “as humans see them, because humans look on the outward appearance (literally “look to the eyes”), while YHWH looks to the heart.” (1 Shmu’el 16:7) The issue there was more about size or build, since all the candidates were from one family; there was something about David that even Shmu’el seemed to find at least unimpressive, despite his pleasant demeanor. (16:12) Now it tends to be about color, at least in the official narrative (which tends to patronize common people as being a lot shallower than we really are).
But though the Torah is especially protective of the disadvantaged, we are not to put too much emphasis on the fact that someone is poor, because that too can make us blind to who is or isn’t guilty in a particular case. (Exodus 23:2-3; Lev. 19:15) The same principle applies to this command, for there are many who claim to be non-discriminatory, but in fact are as racist as those they profile—because in trying to be “fair”, all they know to do is make just-as-sweeping accusations against the majority which don’t fit the particular cases! It’s the same old hamster-wheel of not being able to get past earthly categories to the spiritual ones of which YHWH is constantly giving us examples, so that, just maybe, we will begin to gain some insight.
“You have been dwelling at this mountain long enough.” (1:6-8) There comes a time to move on and take possession of more territory. That was spoken at Horeb, which is another name for Mt. Sinai. What does Sinai represent? Usually the “letter” of the Torah, for obvious reasons. But right here (1:22-36) there are some major differences from the account of the spies in Numbers 13. They can still fit together; it was a case of “all of the above”, one emphasizing this aspect, the other a different angle. They are not contradictions, but 38 years later, Moshe has had time to consider some nuances that we might not have noticed the first time around, and that is part of what “moving on from Sinai” signifies.
There are more ways of interpreting Torah’s intent than just the particular examples given in the legal text. Yeshua pointed out that while the commandment says not to commit adultery, there are deeper aspects of this sin than the actual deed, and they are precisely where the deed got started. (e.g., Mat. 5:27-28) That is looking at the heart. (See Mat. 15:17-20) We can do the same with any part of the Torah, and that’s how it does stay relevant every day of every year, no matter how different society gets from the surface culture in which the Torah was first given. It applies everywhere. And a cardinal Hebraic rule of interpretation is: one does not cancel out the other. The literal stays just as true, though we find ever so many analogies. So while we move physically away from the mountain, we stay grounded there nonetheless.
Another part of this was that it was the tone of their words that made YHWH decide not to let the first generation enter the Land, rather than the words themselves, which could have been honest questions if spoken differently. (1:34) No, their attitude was still one of skepticism, though He had given them every reason to trust Him.
But did we miss the tone of His words when He gave us guard rails outside of which He said we would find ourselves cursed? If we think of the Torah as harsh rules and the Gospel as loving grace, might we be doing the same thing again—missing the tone of mercy that underlies every one of His words? Maybe it’s time to take another look. He doesn’t change.
The Elder's Perspective(s)
Outgoing leader Moshe recaps the whole journey, reemphasizing the most important takeaways. (1:16-17) He gives a different angle on some things in retrospect (1:22-26) than the way he described them earlier, causing some to speculate that the Torah was written by multiple authors rather than all (but the last chapter or so) by Moshe. Jodell Onstott refuted this theory very well in her book, YHWH Exists. She draws from the annals of many other nations as well, and it seems YHWH intended to make it easier for us to cross-reference the history to show that it was not myth, by including the terms other nations used for the same landmarks. (2:11, 20; 3:9)
Qadesh-Barnea (Deut. 1:2), west of Edom, is where Moshe sent the 12 spies from (Num. 13:26), so it sounds like it could have been “Plan A” to enter the Land from there. 38 years later (1:3), they were again at Qadesh (Num. 20:14), but sent messengers to see if they could go through Edom. (Since YHWH had blessed us by providing food without money for so many years, we were not to withhold what He had saved us when it came time to ask for a favor from our distant relatives. Cf. 2:4-8)
They refused us passage; still, the nation did not enter the Land from Qadesh, but skirted Edom (2:8) and entered from the east, across the Yarden River from the Land. Would they have done the same 38 years earlier, had the “vote” of the 12 reconnaissance envoys (1:22-23) gone better? But if so, why, when they could have gone directly by the route of the spies? By crossing the Yarden, he could let the next generation get a taste of what their parents had experienced at the Red Sea. He didn’t want them to miss out on also being Hebrews (literally “those who cross over”).
Moshe had chided the doubting older generation, saying, “Your little ones, whom you said would be a prey, … who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.” (1:39)
But notice that phrase “knowledge of good and evil”. Where have we heard that before? Back in the Garden! (Gen. 2:17) This phrase thus represents the contrast with innocence, for by reaching for that Elohim-like knowledge no matter what the cost, we lost our innocence. But by not grasping for equality with Elohim, being content to instead remain in His image (Philippians 2:6; cf. Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15), the Second Adam graduated from innocent to righteous (2:9), having made the right choice where the first Adam did not, and he was therefore made the progenitor of a new spiritual race that would one day (also physically) restore that image that Adam had lost (Gen. 1:27; 5:3) so we, too, can be changed back into that likeness (Rom. 8:11, 29; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10) that we had forfeited along with our innocence.
So our nation’s physical experiences were a counter-history that began to reverse the curse.
But this came in stages. Just as Moshe could not lead the people all the way into the Land, but encouraged Y’hoshua, who would (1:37-38), so the Torah (“Moshe” in his shorthand) gave a later Y’hoshua courage and a firm basis to lead us all the way into both our physical inheritance and a more real Promised Land which it pictures: “Instruction (Torah) came by Moshe; the empowering and the actual accomplishment came through Y[‘ho]shua the Messiah.” (Yochanan 1:17)
To give us more courage and put this big challenge in perspective for those who would have to do the actual fighting, Moshe mentions four other nations (three of them our relatives) who each displaced another people just as we were being called to do. (2:9-23) YHWH gave us human precedents, though He didn’t need any props; He knew we did, weak as we are in the flesh. He even gave us “practice” enemies in addition to those He targeted for destruction, to give us advance training and take away our fear. (3:21-22) Modern Israel has experienced His giving it the upper hand in against-all-odds battles, just like in these ancient times. (2:30-35; 3:2-6, etc.) But just as Bilaam had been forbidden to curse Israel, Israel in turn was forbidden to include specific nations in its conquest, for YHWH wanted to bless them, undoubtedly also for the sake of Avraham (Lot’s descendants) and Yitzhaq (Esau’s descendants). (2:5, 9, 19, 37)
Another reason for the different perspective with which we began is that at the end of his life, Moshe wanted to emphasize certain aspects of the journey that might not have received as much “air time” the first time around, and he downplayed certain problems (compare 2:4-8 with Numbers 20:14-22) that turned out to be of less consequence in the long run than they seemed at first. Priorities always sharpen when you don’t have much time left. (See 2 Peter 1:12-15)
But though dealing with the heavy responsibility of setting Israel in order before his death, Moshe doesn’t lose his sense of humor. (3:19) He has grown to be balanced, less reactionary than when he first heard the request of the “east-settlers” with their “much cattle”! (Numbers 32) May we be allotted such grace even before we reach our final days.
Move on from Sinai??
“YHWH spoke to us at Horev, saying, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.’” (Deut. 1:6)
“Stayed” can just as well be translated “sat”, “settled”, or “dwelt”. Horev is Mt. Sinai—where He gave us the Torah. It is an extremely important place, and we could “dwell on it” perpetually. As we see from studying it year after year, its riches are never exhausted; there is always more to mine. And when we see the haftarah saying, “My people have not shown themselves to be able to distinguish” (Isa. 1:3), we might think we still need to, in Al Poirier’s words, “take another lap around Mount Sinai till you learn your lesson.” After all, the purpose of the Torah is to teach us to make distinctions. (Lev. 10:10-11) We certainly need more of that, don’t we?
But YHWH Himself said we need to move on: “I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land YHWH promised to your fathers.” (1:8) There’s more territory to conquer, and it won’t get done if we keep “sitting” at Sinai. Honor the history and preserve the gains made there, for sure. But most of the Torah is written for “when you have come into the Land that YHWH is giving you.” Some things—like the spirit behind the letter—can’t be learned without putting into practice what we hear (or read). That, not here, is where we are to “settle in”.
They had had to go around Mt. Seir. That name is related to fear—hair (sa’ar) standing up on end. We can’t stay in that kind of orbit either: again YHWH said, “You have gone far enough around this mountain; turn north. You have to pass through the territory of your brothers, the children of Esau.” (2:3-4)
The book of Yasher/Jasher details how Esau’s grandson Tzepho (Gen. 36:11) was adopted by Kittim because of his military prowess, and his descendants with theirs went on to found Rome. Edom is not just figuratively but literally connected with Rome. Does this mean the Roman Church was meant to be a step in getting YHWH’s people back home? Individual Catholics may be genuine brothers in Messiah, but we are estranged by radically-differing perspectives on the same message. Edom’s king—its official position—did not actually even let us pass through his space (Num. 20:18ff), so it may be traversable but is definitely not the safest path. And it’s instructive that we’re not to take any gifts from there. (2:6)
Further along the way we encounter “fortified cities, with high walls, gates, and bars.” (3:5) The parallels with the challenges we face along the way are familiar. But the portion ends with, again, “Don’t fear them, because YHWH your Elohim is the One who fights for you.” (3:22) That’s the key to the courage we need. He opened those gates!
But after these victories, Israel fell into horrific sin with one of the nations YHWH had told us to “let be”. (Deut. 2:9) The haftarah describes a similar situation later: “The whole head is diseased; the whole heart is unwell! From the sole of the foot all the way to the head, there is no soundness…” (Isa. 1:5-6) He even tells such an Israel to just stop bringing Him our offerings: “Even the festival assembly is a waste of breath… When you increase the number of prayers, there will be no listening from Me. Your hands are full of blood! Wash [it] off! Clean yourselves up! Take away the evil quality of your practices from… My eyes!” (Isa. 1:13-16)
That’s a sad way to move on from Torah! But such people are in no condition to do His work; a healing is needed first. But He holds out hope: “If your sins are like scarlet, they can become white as snow. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the Land.” (1:18-19) But how do we get there when we are so sick? Our own hearts are part of the territory to be conquered.
Moshe can take us no further; Y’hoshua has to pick up the baton: “He shall go in there; encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” (Deut. 1:38) He takes us through another “Hebrew moment”—crossing over—the Yarden River this time, just as the previous generation was “baptized” in the Red Sea. (1 Cor. 10:2) This was their children’s rebirth. Of course this is a foreshadowing of the later Y’hoshua: “The Torah (instruction) was given through Moshe; empowering favor and the actual accomplishment came into manifestation through Yeshua the Messiah.” (Yochanan/John 1:17) Only by a new birth and transformation by his power can we “wash the blood off our hands” and become the kind of people His land will not spit out as it did those before us. (Lev. 18:25-28)
In the end YHWH says, “I will…avenge Myself of My enemies. Then I will bring My hand back onto you, purge away your dross… and…restore your judges as at first and your advisors as at the beginning. After that you will indeed be declared `the city of righteousness', `the reliable town'. Tzion will be ransomed with due process, and her returnees with ethical vindication.” (Isa. 1:24-27)
The House of David’s debt (Zkh. 13:1), and ours too, has been justly settled, and true righteousness restored, if we accept His solution—the enabling to actually accomplish on the ground (“on earth as it is in heaven”) what Sinai could only envision. Only this way can we finally truly fulfill the Torah’s intent.
Time for a
Course Correction
“YHWH our Elohim told us at Horev, 'You have sat at this mountain long enough! Change direction! Get up and go… Look! I have made the Land… available! Go…possess what YHWH promised…” (Deut. 1:6-8) After giving us a framework for a judicial system that could succeed at bringing impartial justice for even the most disadvantaged (1:15-17), Moshe repeated this offer of a homeland (1:21), but after looking close and counting the cost, our ancestors refused His offer, and He called them rebels. (1:26)
So YHWH again told them to change direction—but this time it was to go back the way we’d already come (1:40), to lose all the progress we had made, and wander around what’s now Arabia for 38 years.
But 19 camps later, YHWH again says, “You’ve been here long enough, going in circles; turn” and go the direction you were meant to go the first time. After unavoidable detours, we finally did get to the Land.
Fast forward at least 700 years and the haftarah again tells us we’re spinning our wheels. The prophet says that, like our ancestors in the wilderness who refused the Land, He again sees us as rebelling against Him and forsaking Him. (Isaiah 1:2-4) Why? We are doing the kinds of things the Torah told us to—animal offerings and new moons and sabbaths and festivals! This time it should’ve been a “good report”, but He didn’t appreciate it as we thought He would. He says some rather shocking things:
“What use to Me is the abundance of your slaughterings?' says YHWH. ‘I am overstuffed with the offerings of rams and the fat of overfed beasts, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, sheep, or he-goats… Who has required this from your hands…? Do not bring any more empty tribute-offerings. And incense--it's disgusting to Me! [New] moon, Sabbath, [and] calling of assemblies, I cannot endure! Even the festival assembly is a waste of breath. My soul hates your [new] moons and appointed times. They are a burden to Me; I am tired of putting up with them. When you …increase the number of prayers, there will be no listening from Me.” (Isaiah 1:11-15)
But I thought these are what You told us to do! And indeed they were. Some people read this much and say, “See? He cancelled the sacrifices and festivals and sabbath; none of that matters anymore!”
But that wasn’t His point. He wouldn’t contradict Himself like that; He makes it a lot clearer when He says, “I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly…Your hands are full of blood!...Your rulers are rebellious, companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes…; they don’t defend the fatherless in court.” (1:13, 15, 23)
I.e., “You can’t mix good religion with bad attitudes toward people and expect Me to be pleased!” What He really wants is just what He told us through Moshe—“Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow!” (1:17) These can become good things again. “But if you refuse and rebel, you’ll be devoured by the sword.” (1:20) Just what He told our ancestors.
Another 700 years down the line, Israel was right there again—doing the things the Torah said, often in a very meticulous way. Yet Messiah, when he comes, does not commend their piety, but says, “Repent!” Again, that means “turn around! Go a different direction!” He went on to quote another part of Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!” (29:13, quoted in Mat. 15:8)
Again, Israel was just going through the motions, and had missed the point. They were using YHWH’s words to justify their actions, but in the process were actually doing great injustices to others for whose care they were responsible. (15:3-6) He said, “It’s good you are scrupulous about the details of the Torah, but you are missing the forest for the trees!” That’s a paraphrase. To actually quote him, “You are neglecting the weightier matters—justice and mercy and faithfulness.” (Mat. 23:23)
We’re not exempt either. Where are we nitpicky about His commands yet with attitudes that hurt our fellow believers? Where are we just going through the motions? Where are we using some of YHWH’s commands as an excuse not to obey more important ones? Find out quickly, and change direction!
