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(CHAPTER 7)
12. "And [this is what] will [follow on the] heel ['eqev] of your paying attention to these rules, guarding them, and carrying them out: YHWH your Elohim shall guard for you the covenant and the lovingkindness that He promised [with an oath] to your forefathers.
These promises are conditional, but YHWH's blessing will follow closely upon obedience. It even seems to be saying it will chase you down! But the heel is also the last part of a baby that is born. It is the completion of the birth, and the “baby” we are looking for in these first few verses is the Kingdom, i.e., the covenant’s coming into full effect. The “baby’s” head was birthed when YHWH “delivered” us from Egypt. But the last heel has not yet cleared the birth canal. For millennia, the baby has been stuck there. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 37:3) What will will bring about the completion? It depends on our keeping our side of the covenant. It begins with hearing, listening intelligently and recognizing His words. He has laid out a path for us to get there as directly as possible. Letting His words direct our lives and letting His will become ours is the route to being loved and blessed by YHWH in the fullest manner. But to reject the rules is to reject the Ruler. To see the Kingdom, one must get into the proper context, realizing that the covenant is with Israel, and return to the actual faith of Yeshua; he emphasized keeping the rules. The next step is guarding: building a fence around these rules for the sake of paying them very special attention, keeping our eyes on them and avoiding distractions. Guarding is inseparable from the next stage: doing, carrying out, accomplishing. With this “baby”, watching the birth is not enough. We must guide it out and support it so it is not injured. Put your hands to the delivery, because until the heel clears, the baby has still not arrived. (Gibor)
13. "And He will befriend you, bless you, and make you great; He will also bless the fruit of your womb as well as the fruit of Land: your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the offspring of your cattle and the sheep of your flocks in the Land which He promised your forefathers [that He would] give to you.
The name of Yaaqov, our physical ancestor, is “the one who catches the heel”. His spiritual/relational name is Israel, but we are not just spiritual beings. As his descendants, this job of physically bringing about the Kingdom falls to us, and this includes displacing Esau, the one who would try to take precedence without wholeheartedly embracing the covenant. If we do, YHWH will "safeguard" the covenant for us from His end. Befriend: or love. Bless: literally "bend the knee"; when speaking of YHWH, it would mean He will stoop down to our level and pay attention to us as a father does to a small child. Note the priority He gives to our offspring as compared to our produce and possessions. The first blessing is that we will have children to pass the covenant on to so that it can endure when we are gone. It is only perpetuated through what we establish in our progeny. It is shameful to avoid having children so that one’s grain, wine, and oil can increase. With these promises He precludes any perceived need to worship the fertility goddesses or their modern equivalents.
14. "From among all peoples, you shall be [the ones most] blessed; there shall not be anyone sterile among you--male or female--nor among your animals.
The “baby” has two heels: love YHWH with all of your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Both must clear the birth channel. If we do what He says above, we will be fruitful—in keeping with the first command He ever gave Adam. It may have been this verse that gave Hannah, Elisheva, and the wife of Manoakh confidence to keep praying for offspring though they had waited long without sons.
15. "And YHWH will take all sickness away from you, and place upon you none of the dreadful Egyptian diseases with which you are familiar, but will send them upon all the ones who hate you.
Sickness: illness, weakness, or grieving. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 53:4). Dreadful diseases: literally, "evil". Many Egyptian diseases resulted from the unsanitary “cures” that show up in their records. Many others can be directly prevented by obeying the Torah's regulations in regard to bathing, diet, circumcision, not eating blood, and refraining from sexual relations at certain times. Diseases on record in Egyptian records include malaria, bilharziasis (much like cholera, a disease difficult not to contract in a country flooded for months every year), epidemics thought to have been outbreaks of bubonic plague, occurrences of sixth digits due to inbreeding, lockjaw, and arthritis. We could add whatever communicable diseases were contracted from lice and those spread by people who mummified dead bodies, since they probably were not quarantined from the rest of society after touching dead bodies as the Torah stipulates.
16. "And you will devour every nation that YHWH your Elohim shall deliver up to you; your eye shall have no pity on them [so that you would spare them], nor shall you serve their gods, because that [would be] a trap for you.
In case we were beginning to be lulled to sleep by His promises, YHWH put the most difficult command right up front, rather than in the "fine print", so we would count the cost of what it will mean to be Israelites. Most of the time this command will need to be carried out only figuratively, i.e., through spiritual warfare, but when we go back into the Land, there may be a need to take it very literally once again, judging by the number of enemies who dig their heels in the Land once again, standing in the way of YHWH’s Torah being the rule in His Land. Your eye: We must not walk by sight. These people have children that look loveable, and it will be difficult to resist their cries (though they themselves use them as shields and train them to be martyrs), yet He tells us to keep our natural tendency to compassion at bay, because mercy here would leave intact a problem that would have disastrous results for the whole world. Pity must be our normal mode, but it is still only one tool in a box with many others, and He does not want us to use it improperly. He knows us well enough to point out what will be especially tempting to us. King Sha'ul disobeyed just here (1 Shmuel 15), resulting in the existence of Haman, who threatened all the Jews in the widespread Persian Empire. (Esther 3:1) There are some whom we dare not respect.
17. "Since you are going to say in your heart, ‘These nations are stronger than I am; how could I dispossess them?'
Today the strength may not be in the enemies themselves, but in the powerful nations whom they deceitfully persuade to take up their cause.
18. "Don't be afraid of them, but always keep in mind what YHWH your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt!
He recognizes that they are still afraid, and reminds us that the key to overcoming fear is to, literally, “remember remembering” what YHWH has done before. This is a big part of what the Passover celebration is about. Defeat the enemies in your own life and in our corporate history by remembering that YHWH knows how to take care of what is His. Being afraid here is not so much an emotion as a failure to act which results from assuming that any threat can be greater than YHWH.
19. "The magnificent evidences that were presented to your eyes, along with the distinguishing tokens and conspicuous signs, and the prevailing hand and outstretched arm by which YHWH your Elohim brought you out; YHWH your Elohim will do the same to all the people of whom you are afraid.
20. "In addition, YHWH will send the hornet among them until the ones remaining who [manage to] hide from your presence are done away with.
Hornet: related closely to the word for "leprosy", possibly because its sting leaves a similar mark on one's flesh. This can represent anything that brings to the surface whatever evil is left in us that is hiding away.
21. "Don't tremble at them, because YHWH your Elohim is among you--a great and awe-inspiring Elohim!
With YHWH dwelling at the center of our camp, who would be afraid of anything? But we do not see this in place again yet, but we can still start living like this now. Even before they went into the Land, Y’hoshua was told, “Don’t be afraid; don’t lie down before anybody.” Them: Possibly not the people who hid, but the hornets. They will reveal who the liars and pretenders are, and if you are walking in Torah, you need not fear, though many around you are being exposed. Of course, beforehand you must examine yourself to see if there is anything in you that would attract the pestilence.
22. "Also, YHWH will clear those nations away before you little by little; you won't be able to finish them off all at once, so the wild animals will not become too numerous for you.
He thought of everything! They needed to stay until one city was well-fortified before moving on to the next, or there would be no way to safeguard the gains. In the conquest of our own souls, YHWH leaves some of our less desirable traits intact long enough to make use of them and prevent us from having to fight too many battles at the same time. If we try to rid ourselves of our old ways too quickly, without thoroughly replacing them with the proper patterns, seven “demons” will come back to replace the one swept out. (Mat. 12:43-45) We need to reclaim and establish ourselves in one area where we had allowed foreign ideas to take root, then move on to the next, not becoming comfortable until it is all taken. Wild animals: literally, living things of the field (which Yeshua says represents the world). The wild beasts will devour what should be for our consumption. We must displace the terror of anything else with the fear of YHWH, replacing the unknown by demystifying religion, showing that it is simply about loving YHWH and our neighbors as ourselves, replacing men’s oratory with the true answers from Word of YHWH, replacing false humility with true groundedness about who we are and what belongs to us, not others, and replacing the proclamation of a “come one, come all” Gospel with the real message to be taken to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Mat. 10:6).
23. "But YHWH your Elohim shall disquiet them before your face with a great disturbance until they are annihilated.
24. "He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name disappear from under the heavens; not a man shall [be able to] stand before you until you have exterminated them.
To this day the whole Land has never been taken, even under David, because though he conquered and made others pay tribute, he did not drive out the inhabitants in the outlying areas. It is possible to return to the Land and yet not see the Kingdom; if we do not finish this job, what we allow to remain will be a snare to us once again:
25. "You shall burn the carved images of their elohim with fire, and you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor salvage it for yourself, so you will not be ensnared by it, because it is repulsive to YHWH.
Otherwise people might go looking for idols just to take the gold from them. This is part of keeping oneself “unstained by the world”. (Yaaqov 1:27) Even the things in pagan religions that seem harmless or salvageable still remind Him of their old associations, and this outweighs any value they might have. Archaeology has proven that Y’hoshua obeyed this command, for chronologically-correct strata in the tels (buried ancient cities) in Israel show clear evidence of burning, and the gold still remained there. But be careful not to worship gold even when it is not shaped into the form of a recognizable idol.
26. "Nor shall you bring [such] a disgusting thing into your house, so you will not become dedicated to destruction like it [is], but shall [count it] utterly detestable, because it is a thing proscribed.
Utterly detestable: or "filthy"; this is more than just not wanting to have anything to do with pagan practices. The moment we begin to let ourselves “understand how they feel”, we begin to become like them, making the same excuses for wrongdoing. He tells us how to feel. He is offering us a special place in His presence, and that is far weightier than anything they offer, but we have to prepare ourselves to receive it in the way He wants to give it, and that leaves room for nothing else in our hearts. A litmus test of how saturated you are in Torah would be to ask yourself, “If I found a big golden idol filled with diamonds, what would I do with it?” This tells us that we must loathe it. Do not try to make a profit from it.
CHAPTER 8
1. "The entire commandment that I give you today you must be careful to carry out, so that you may live and become great and go in and take possession of the Land that YHWH has promised to your forefathers.
“The” commandment, again, was identified in 6:1-9—to worship YHWH alone and love Him with all our resolve, passion, and resources. All the details of the Torah are aspects of this command; they all teach us how to love YHWH. The term for “be careful” means to be on guard, but it could be just as well translated “take inventory”. We must constantly examine ourselves: Are we loving YHWH with all of our heart? Our motivation? Our resources? A great rabbi said that if we can remember how to eat, we can remember what we study, for we remember what we perceive to be important. Again Moshe announced the responsibility before the potential benefits, because that is the order in which we must prioritize them if we are to be mature and properly motivated. As we grow in experience, we take on more responsibility for seemingly less benefit, but the individual must often diminish for the whole community to increase. The gratification might not be immediate; Moshe knew he would not personally benefit from Israel’s obedience to this command, and we do not know if his sons were in this multitude or not. He could not go into the Land, but he ended up being the “father” of millions who would. He fulfilled his responsibility to give Israel what it needed. The first benefit is “that you may live.” But were they not already alive? This begs the question, “What is living?” As Abraham Lincoln said, the numbers of years in our life do not matter as much as the life that is in our years. The word for “live” also means to revive or come back to life—and not just at the resurrection. We are part of the reviving of the people of Israel that has been scattered. Though He doesn’t want us to trust our numbers or our size to win the battles for us, He still wants us to become great. This can mean to become great in righteousness. It can also mean to increase or multiply, and no limits are set on it. The third benefit given here is that we can go in and possess the Land. These are two steps, for we can go in without taking possession.
2. "But remember the whole journey by which YHWH your Elohim led you these forty years in the wilderness, to bring you into [a place of] neediness and put you to the test, to know what was in your heart--whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Remember: literally, mark this. Even in our present wilderness, we need to find the ancient paths that our ancestors trod (Yirmeyahu 6:16). The wilderness means “place of the Word”, and that is where He tests us. He knows what is in our heart by what we do with His Words, not by what we say. The “you” in v. 1 is plural; in v. 2 it is singular. YHWH expects every member of Israel to remember what He did, but we can only properly recall (via His feasts, etc.) when we are together corporately as “one man”. He wants us in a place where we feel our neediness so that we will not relax and assume the supply will be available, but will keep our attention on Him, because our tendency, as seen in v. 10, is to forget when times of plenty come. Of course, it would be better if we did not need such reminders, but He knows our nature. Gershon Ferency haCohen said the weather in Israel still follows this pattern. Unlike Egypt, which has a flood season every year which keeps things somewhat predictable, Israel’s crops depend on a finely-tuned balance between north and south wind patterns to keep the rain coming. We strengthen it through our obedience or upset it by our lack thereof. Even the positions of the menorah and table of the bread of the presence in relation to the altar of incense relate to this need, for it is our prayers that have the critical effect on whether and how the rain comes. We have an integral part in the outcome. As Yaaqov says, “You do not have because you do not ask.” The floods in Egypt also caused some diseases, so there was a price to pay for that predictability. To know what was in your heart: not that He did not know, but so we might realize what kind of people we really were. Even His provision is a test: what will we do with it? Like the manna, He gave it to us so we could give it away, distributing it to all who need it. Everything in the Torah has to do with caring for our brothers. Or not: No other choices are given; no middle ground for lukewarmness. If we are not wholehearted, we are not truly guarding His commandments. There are only a few commands we cannot carry out unless we are in the Land, and even for those we need to build a foundation before we go in, rather than using the excuse that we will wait until conditions are right. This was a very long test--40 years--but those who are now hearing about it have proven to have passed the test.
3. "Indeed, He brought you into [a place of] neediness and allowed you to be famished, then fed you with [you didn't know] what--something neither you nor your forefathers were familiar with, to make known to you that [it is] not on the bread alone [that] humanity will stay alive, but [it is] on everything that comes forth from the mouth of YHWH [that] humanity will live.
Again, here is a test of whether we are being led by YHWH or not: Are we hungering for more? Are we being fed by things we had never heard of? Israel is not limited to the usual means of sustenance. He provides through a variety of sources and makes some of the wells dry up so that we will recognize that He is behind them all, and not start trusting the means rather than the provider. We don’t know how it will come to us, but what we need is always there. This keeps life an adventure. (See also 11:10-11) When He told Israel how to gather the manna, He said to do it, literally, “a word a day”. (Ex. 16:4) This, too, comes from His mouth and as the manna fills your mouth, YHWH’s words are what is to fill our mouths. The Torah is also likened to bread (Amos 8:11), and if we do not know His words, we are not armed for the tests. Like baby birds who do not know what their parents are bringing, we have to trust Him to feed us what will nourish us because it is coming from the right source. In the wilderness, Moshe was also the “mouth” of YHWH, and the Torah is still the test for all else that seems to be from His mouth. Again He has been feeding us with things we did not know before--like the Sabbath, His appointed times, the kosher laws, etc. Knowledge that we have not seen for thousands of years is now flowing from this book. This is what we are to live for, not just to gain a livelihood and fill our bellies.
4. "Your clothing did not wear out, nor did your foot become blistered during these forty years!
If He could do this, could He not have gotten us through without eating as well? But then we would not have keenly felt our direct dependence on Him for each new day. If we are focused on staying in His presence, He will take care of us. We still have to prepare the food He provides, but it is there for us, unless we sleep too long, and the sun rises high and it melts away, so we must gather it according to His timetable. Are we about His business the first thing in the morning? “Seek first the Kingdom.” (Mat. 6)
5. "Recognize in your heart that, just as a man corrects his son, YHWH corrects you,
Corrects: a strong term for disciplining with blows, chastening, chastising, but all for the purpose of instructing--i.e., turning him in the right direction. They had to pay in one sense for their parents’ shrinking back, but He did not make things as bad for them as they could have been, but showed them that they could avoid having the same problems recur if they stopped resisting the tests (by complaining, rebelling, or falling short in faith as their parents often did). His correcting was physical in some sense—He allowed them to go hungry so they would appreciate who was feeding them. Appreciating just how amazing a gift we have been given helps us stay committed to carrying it through to completion:
6. "So safeguard the commands of YHWH your Elohim, so you will walk in His ways and reverence Him,
Appreciation is not something we do just in our hearts and minds; it must be expressed by actions that preserve what we have been given.
7. "because YHWH your Elohim is bringing you into a pleasant Land--a land of rivers of water, of springs and subterranean waters that gush forth from valleys and hills,
Rivers of water: as opposed to dried-up arroyos (wadis), because that is what the term would mean if "water" was not attached to it. There are precious few flowing rivers there now. The water table has changed dramatically since then due to climatic shift, but it will be restored around the time the Kingdom begins. Two of those rivers will originate right beneath the Prince’s throne in the Temple, according to Y’hezq’El. But notice that the plenty in the Land is itself a cause for concern to Moshe, for he knows it tends to make us forget where it all comes from. (v. 10-14)
8. "a land of wheat and barley, of [the] vine, fig tree, and pomegranate, a land of [the] oil-bearing olive [tree] and honey,
These are the “seven species” identified with the Land, since most “honey” in the Land came from the date-palm (though evidence has also been found of ancient beekeeping there).
9. "a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity—in it, you will not be in need of anything! [It is] a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
The Land will have plenty of raw materials, so that you will not even need to acquire them from foreigners. Iron and copper were indeed later mined in the Land (1 Chron. 22:3) Iron is mixed with copper to make bronze, which allows it to become much sharper and to be shaped more precisely than either element, and the fire to smelt it need not be as hot as for pure iron. Both excellent weapons and plows can be made from this combination of metals, and the ability to farm the Land is a greater wealth than having silver or gold, by which one would have to buy the most basic necessities from others; having the real treasure—food—would make us more self-sufficient than the precious metals would. He provided for the unusual need of the Temple service with special abundance.
10. "When you have eaten and are satisfied, then you must bless YHWH your Elohim for the pleasant land He has given you.
Satisfied: enriched, filled to excess. Even now, when we eat our fill, we should consider it a down payment on the Land He has promised us, and thank Him for it just the same. It is traditional to bless YHWH (not “bless the food”!) before we eat to remind us of where it the food came from, but He says the thanks come after we have actually partaken of it.
11. "Take [special] care not to forget YHWH your Elohim by failing to guard His commandments His customs, and His prescribed limits which I am laying upon you today,
Don't forget Him; that is the worst insult you could give someone. It is saying that He does not exist in your mind. This we are to do to Amaleq and false deities: blot out their names. Everything else is just a gift given so we can know Him better. But we cannot say we are remembering Him, no matter how often we think of Him, if we are not doing what He told us to.
12. "lest you eat and become full, build lovely houses and settle down,
13. "and your flocks and herds multiply and your gold and silver become abundant, and all that you have becomes great,
14. "and then your thinking becomes puffed up and you let YHWH your Elohim fade from your memory--[He] Who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the slave quarters--
Our enemy is only too glad to give us prosperity, knowing our propensity to do just this. So we should be nervous at such times, knowing we are in danger of falling into this tendency if we are not watchful.
15. "[the One] Who led you through that huge, terrifying wilderness where there were poisonous snakes, scorpions, and thirsty ground where [there was] no water, and brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock,
There were always threats and dangers, but He provided where no one else would have found provision. And now they were looking back and able to say that though these things had been near their path, they had made it through and were still alive. When we trust in YHWH, He will direct our paths. (Prov. 3:5-6)
16. "Who fed you in the wilderness with you-knew-not-what, with which your forefathers were not familiar, so He might put you in a place of need, and test you, in order to benefit you at last,
Yeshua said he was the real "bread" from heaven (Yochanan 6:22ff), since to partake of him is to have eternal life. Part of what comes from the mouth of YHWH is His Word (Yoch. 1:1) and "in him was life". Their "fathers did not recognize" that this bread was actually what preserved them. Benefit you (make you glad) at last: Despite the path our stubbornness led us to take, He still left us hope that we would finally learn from our mistakes. He has to be harsh with our selfishness to put us in a position to be as kind to us as He wants to be.
17. "and you think in your heart, ‘My strength and the power of my hand have produced this wealth for me!'
This was exactly Nevukhadnetzar’s and Belsha’atzar’s problem. We are not self-made. The word here for "wealth" is literally "strength" or "capability". Even if we did work hard to get what we have, YHWH still made even that possible:
18. "So bring YHWH your Elohim to remembrance, because He is the One who gives you the strength to attain wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He made with your forefathers, just as [is the case] today.
So thank Him for both the provision and the neediness that highlights it so well.
19. "Now what will happen is, if you in any way forget YHWH your Elohim and go after other elohim, serve them, or prostrate yourselves to them--then I go on record [as a witness] against you today, that you will by all means be lost.
Other elohim: not just carved statues, but bank accounts, other “securities”, possessions, traditions, prevailing attitudes, or other authorities that we allow to set our priorities for us. Be lost: wander away, stray, perish, or be destroyed. He warned us!
20. "Just like the nations that YHWH your Elohim is exterminating before your face, you will indeed be lost, because you would not pay attention to the voice of YHWH your Elohim.
If we do not carry out the Word when we hear it, we will forget who we are, like one who forgets the "natural face" he saw in the mirror--the one that tells him about his ancestry and lineage. (Yqv. 1:23) 2,700 years ago this did take place for the Northern Kingdom. But when we did look back into "the perfect law of liberty" and return to the covenant, the converse came true--He let us know His true identity and got us back on the right path. He is calling us back, but the conditions are still the same. If we do not keep the entire commandment, the same thing could very easily transpire again. We must fight to regain our heritage, or we could end up no different from those nations. He chose us this time, but we could be cut off too. (Romans 11:18-21) So He warns us first, because He knows we are stiff-necked. (9:6)
CHAPTER 9
1. "Pay attention, Israel! Today you will cross over the Yarden to enter in and dispossess nations larger and stronger than yourself, cities of great size and [fortified] with walls [reaching] to the sky,
Pay attention: This is not mere information, but a command which they will be responsible to obey, with dire consequences if they do not. Today: not literally, for there still other things to discuss, not to mention the thirty days of mourning for Moshe, before they would cross. But it is for “this day” every time we read it. If we think we have “every day”, we will put things off that cannot wait until tomorrow. If we do not make our commitment new even in the small decisions of today, we are less likely to be in the right position when the “big” occasions we have been holding out for finally come--if they ever do. And there will never be a time when it is not “today”. YHWH’s commands are not out of reach, in “tomorrow”. What we are specifically to cross over is the Yarden. It might have been simpler to enter via the mountain range as the spies had, but there is a particular picture He wants us to see here, because there is a way we can cross the Yarden every day as well. How? It does not actually say “Yarden River” here, so, while that is literally what they did cross at that time, there is a deeper lesson. Yarden means “descender”. Though every river runs downhill, this one ends up at the lowest place on the earth’s surface. Every day we encounter many things that try to drag us down. It may be fatigue, illness, being broke financially, or simply laziness or misplaced priorities. We will not get closer to the Most High while we are descending. And after 2,700 years of descending, with only a short comeback under Yeshua, we are too close to the pit; we cannot afford to descend even one more day. To cross over, we need sure footing. So Moshe tells us “Listen! Learn where you stand and how you must walk if you are not to be washed downstream.” To cross over what descends is to begin to ascend. In Hebrew, to enter the Land of Israel is called “ascending”, and indeed, when coming either from the east or west, as soon as one gets into the Land of Israel, one very quickly begins to ascend. This is built right into the terrain. So we must do all we can to be in a constant state of ascension. Sometimes all it takes is to ask the question of which our current activity is leading us toward. If we are just “going with the flow”, the Yarden ends in the Dead Sea, where nothing can live. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end are the ways of death.” (Prov. 16:25) Remaining in our own ways of thinking is guaranteed to make us descend. It takes us farther from unity, because Israel all crosses over at the same spot. Whatever you are doing, apply it to the Kingdom. Even if you are just digging a hole, you can remember that Yitzhaq did this and bring back to mind what “well” means in Hebrew. If you have to carry a ladder, you can remember Yaaqov’s dream and all it points to. This will let you find eternal connections even in the most mundane tasks, and keep you from being swept away. Or you may realize that what you are doing has no Kingdom profit in it at all. If so, disconnect from it and go find a river to cross. But the purpose of crossing is not just to be on the other side, but to overcome the things that intimidate us. When we are outside and exposed to all the dangers, we very quickly come to depend on one another, and that strengthens our unity.
2. "a people tall and lofty, the descendants of the Anaqim, with whom you are familiar and [about whom] you have heard [it said], ‘Who is able to stand before the face of the descendants of Anaq?'
He is simply repeating the words the ten spies brought back, which he himself had labeled an “evil report”. So he was probably speaking with mocking tones here. The report was not evil because it was untrue; there really were big people and high walls there. Ruins of several cities from that period have been found with walls still reaching to 12 or 13 feet, indicating that at one time they were much higher. Hatzor’s wall, at points, began on a hill 40 feet above the surrounding ground, adding all the more to the height. Yes, there was some exaggeration, but if the spies, who were fresh out of Egypt with its great monuments, considered them high, they must not have been unimpressive, though only a few were much more than 10 acres in size. What was evil about the report was that it discouraged the people. It was not the size and numbers of the enemy that kept Israel from conquering them; it was these words that took away their courage! Moshe puts the facts on the table (yes, it is not an easy place to conquer), but immediately gives them the antidote to fear:
3. "But understand today that YHWH your Elohim is the One Who crosses over ahead of you; a consuming fire, He will annihilate them or bring them into subjection before your face, so you can dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as YHWH has told you.
The hallmark of Israel is that we do what we cannot do because YHWH is with us. What is not beyond our capacity is merely natural. If the enemies were not beyond our ability to defeat, there would be no honor for YHWH in the victory. Operating at normal capacity will not lead to progress. As long as we stay where we are comfortable, we will not get anywhere. As we get closer, the water may get deeper—to the point where we have to breathe through straws to get across, but keep heading for what seems impossible, because it is only beyond you if you tie yourself up with doctrines or fears or priorities that keep you stuck. Many say they want to be part of what is on the other side, yet refuse to learn to swim. The Jews have a very noble concept of "beautifying the commandment"--doing more than is required, obeying because His commands deserve to be carried out, not because we "have to". Yes, count the cost, but remember that YHWH is in this equation. Compare these walls to Him and they appear smaller by the minute. These people had grown up eating the miraculous manna, wearing clothes that did not wear out, and seeing the pillar of fire lead them. But we have seen YHWH work too, so when we see the big walls and big people, we should not consider them such a big deal.
4. "After YHWH has expelled them before you, do not think in your heart, ‘[It is] because of my deserving [it that] YHWH has brought me in to take possession of this land'; rather, [it is] because of the wickedness of these nations [that] YHWH dispossess them before you.
To what extent can we look at other conquests in history as more examples of people reaching the limit of what YHWH will tolerate? But we must not think even being righteous is always to our credit; YHWH opens the door to make it possible to those whom He chooses. What He has said will be, but while the blueprint says one thing, others may place obstacles in its way—evils that never should have been there. So while there are precedents, He leaves many of the details up to men’s whims, unless we invite Him into them. The math in the prophecies worked out perfectly when Yeshua was born, but his generation did not fully repent and those who came after him corrupted the work of his disciples. There will be a Kingdom, but it is what we do that helps determine when.
5. "You are not going in to take possession of their land because of your merit or the uprightness of your heart, but because of the wickedness of these nations YHWH is dispossessing them from before you, so He can fulfill the word which He promised [with an oath] to your forefathers, Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov.
Moshe is taking them for an emotional roller-coaster ride: “You are facing a frightful enemy, but it will be okay—but don’t let it go to your head! While YHWH will make your victory possible, do not think you deserved such a great blessing!” They might have been doing what they were told, but possibly for the wrong reasons rather than because they truly loved YHWH. But He made a promise, and they were the tools He was using. It was not as if YHWH had no choice but to use them; it was only that the other nations were worse than they. It is a gift, but with a gift come expectations of how we will treat it. He delights in a repentant heart. But we should remind ourselves that it is not because we are any better than foregoing generations that YHWH is revealing to us that we are Israel. We, too, have also failed at every point. It is only that the time is right, and He allows us to put ourselves in a position to receive it. Don’t be haughty; be thankful.
6. "So [let's] be clear [about this], that YHWH is not giving you this pleasant Land to possess because of your righteousness, because you yourselves are a stiff-necked people.
He is not saying He does not want us to be righteous, but the first step to that is to admit we are still stiff-necked, unwilling to try a new adventure without complaining because it requires us to change our routine! Righteousness is not something we naturally possess, but once we get in His Land we must walk in it nonetheless. The Anaqim (v. 2) might have had long necks, but we had stiff necks! Moshe knew these people’s parents. The Israelites are not quite as repulsive as the Kanaanites, whom the land can no longer tolerate, but all things considered, we are not far behind. This does not mean He does not love us. He does. But to enter His Land and remain on it, we must recognize this tendency that still resides in the children of Israel. The only way we know He has granted us repentance is if we are actually walking in the opposite direction from what we were doing before. When we have a stiff neck, all we can see is what is straight ahead of us, and are not paying attention to how our own actions will affect anyone else. We cannot see the big picture, so we need leaders like Moshe who do. A stiff neck will not bend or bow. It only thinks of self. If we act this way when we enter the Land, guess who will be the next to be expelled? So we need to conquer this tendency now. If we do better than they, we can enter in.
7. "Remember--Do not forget!--how you were making YHWH your Elohim furious in the wilderness; from the day you left Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against YHWH!"
It is not just remember or just do not forget, but both: recall the particulars of what went wrong so we will not repeat the same mistakes. We would rather let bygones be bygones and forget that YHWH ever had anything but pleasant feelings toward us--or blame it on somebody else. But then we will not be motivated to do better next time. If we did not learn the first time that if we put our finger in a flame, we will get burnt, we are doomed to repeat history! We cannot forget the sin that lies latent in us. The remembering is not meant to make us lose hope of ever escaping our tendency to fail, but to keep us in touch with reality so we can cross over and ascend rather than continuing to descend. Remember your failures, but do not let them define you. True failure will motivate us to succeed next time, rather than just saying, “Oh well, I tried that once already.” What we should forget are our excuses. Our natural bent is to rebel, and even the smallest rebellion will burn us. We are still these people. By remembering this, we can avoid repeating their errors.
8. "Even at Horev you provoked YHWH to anger, and YHWH became furious enough to have annihilated you.
Horev: another name for Mount Sinai. Even at the place where they saw and were terrified by the flames and thunder and promised to obey whatever He said, they ended up making an idol; this is part of our latent genetic makeup that we especially have to guard against.
9. "When I had gone up into the mountain to receive the slabs of stone--the slabs of the covenant that YHWH was cutting with you--I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, neither eating bread nor drinking water.
Stone: the word comes from a root meaning "to build", so this was not just "rock", but something meant for a nation to be built upon. Forty days and forty nights…neither eating nor drinking: He thus emphasizes the faithlessness of their having complained when they had no water for a day or two, when he, in contrast, had to go so long without it twice (v. 18)—and because of their sin. While he was starving for your sake, you were having a party! Is there no sense of solidarity here?
10. "Then YHWH gave me two slabs of stone inscribed with the finger of Elohim--upon them [was] the likeness of all the words that YHWH had spoken to you from among the flames on the day of the convocation.
Likeness of all the words: Aramaic, "the exact words". Finger of Elohim: an allusion to what Pharaoh’s magicians said when they realized the plagues were His judgment. Both names, YHWH (the One who will be all that we need Him to be) and Elohim (His judging side), are used here, reminding us that while He offered us this invaluable gift, we could still choose to approach it wrongly, in which case it will bring judgment on us.
11. "It was at the cut-off of forty days and forty nights when YHWH gave me the two stone slabs--the covenant slabs.
12. "Then YHWH told me, ‘Get up! Quickly, go down from this [place], because your people, whom you brought out from Egypt, have brought about a perversion! They have turned away so soon from the way [in] which I directed them! They have made themselves a cast-metal image!'
Your people: Like two parents who say, “Look what YOUR children did this time”, Moshe and YHWH keep pinning the responsibility for them back on each other. (Compare vv. 26, 29.) They gave him 40 days—fair enough—but no longer. It is almost as if they were eager to go back to being unholy, and found it stifling to be a set-apart people.
13. "YHWH even told me, ‘I have observed this nation, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
YHWH seems to have chosen Avraham because he was strong and persuasive (Gen. 18:17-19). As Jeb Bush, son of one U.S. President, brother of another, and a state governor himself, once said, “There is a fine line between stubbornness and the positive side of this--doggone determination.” Avraham’s descendants have often been stubborn about the right things, refusing to compromise even to save their lives. But there is a down-side to it too. If we refuse to turn our heads (see also 10:16), we cannot see from another’s perspective where we might find a better way to ge things done. If our stubbornness is for selfish reasons and affects our neighbors negatively, as it did here, it is a problem. And He does not say, “You used to be a stiff-necked people”; they still are, and we still are. Because we keep turning back to our own ways rather than listening and doing it the way YHWH says, we are still in exile.
14. "‘Leave me alone, so I may cause them to be annihilated, and obliterate their name from under the heavens, and I will make you into a nation more numerous and greater than they!'
15. "So I turned [my] face and came down from the mountain, the mountain being ablaze with fire, with the two slabs of the covenant in both of my hands.
16. "And I looked, and sure enough, you had sinned against YHWH your Elohim, and made a cast-metal bull-calf for yourselves; so soon you had turned off the path [in] which YHWH had directed you.
This was even more disappointing than Y’shua’s finding his disciples asleep while he prayed in his most lonely and difficult hour. Moshe probably thought he was just imagining things when YHWH told him what they were doing, thinking he was “hearing things” after not having eaten for 40 days. Sinned: literally, "missed the mark", the least offensive wrongdoing, because it usually implies no malicious intent and even an attempt to hit a target, which failed. These people were intending to create a focal point for their worship of YHWH, and had not yet received the instruction through Moshe. They did not get the point, but could still be corrected, although at a price:
17. "So I seized the two slabs and hurled them from upon my two hands, and shattered them before your eyes.
18. "Then I threw myself down in YHWH's presence; as before, [for] forty days and forty nights I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the guilt you had [incurred by] going off track and doing evil in YHWH's sight to make Him angry,
We do not know whether he had any food between these forty-day stints, but there are no other examples of anyone else in Scripture going longer than 40 days without food, for the body then naturally begins to devour itself. Moshe’s is definitely a case of living not by bread but by what came from YHWH’s mouth! (8:3)
19. "because I was terrified in the face of the exasperation and fury by which YHWH was upset with you [and ready] to annihilate you, but YHWH listened to me this time also.
Listened to me: They were doing nothing right because no one was watching out for them. If it weren’t for Moshe’s prayers, they would have been destroyed. Though YHWH does the miracles for us, we must not discount all that His servants do for us. Because of them, Moshe could not enter the Land, though he deserved it more than they. He did not need any of them; they were slaves and he never was. They needed him, and he only came back from his idyllic life to help them because YHWH told him to. He persuaded YHWH to spare them, yet this was the kind of thanks he received. He is reminding them that if they do not treat Y’hoshua differently, they are doomed.
20. "YHWH was so exasperated [as] to [almost] cause Aharon to be destroyed, but I pleaded for Aharon at that time also.
He had to decide whether YHWH really wanted to be left alone about this (v. 14) or if He was hinting that He wanted Moshe to step up and stand in the gap for them. He decided it was the latter, and, as an outstanding example of a true leader, sacrificed this much just to keep them alive. A true leader takes responsibility rather than passing the buck as Adam did (Gen. 3). Avraham gave us another great example of having the courage to do whatever it took to rescue those associated with him when threatened (Gen. 14). Yaaqov was slow to anger and avoided a fight whenever he could, but when pushed into a corner did confront the one who was threatening his children. (Gen. 31:36) Yosef learned to rise above pettiness about personal affronts, even when in prison, and was able to see the big picture, and this allowed him to become a leader over the whole civilized world of that time. And Moshe learned from Yithro how to delegate responsibility to worthy under-leaders. (Exodus 18) What kind of men did he choose as leaders? Those who stood in awe of Elohim, loved truth (even when it would make others resentful), knew how to distinguish between a true gift and a bribe, and hated dishonest gain. YHWH, the ultimate leader, is also said to be slow to anger, full of compassion, mercy, and forgiveness—but with conditions (Ex. 34:6; Deut. 5:10; 7:9), for a leader who does not meet with obedience from those he leads has an undue burden placed on him, for as Aharon learned, he has a price to pay if those who are under him cause him to fail in his duty. That He was angry at Aharon was not mentioned in Exodus. Did Moshe ever tell Aharon this? Would he have had confidence to take up his role as highest in Israel if he knew YHWH was this angry with him? Or did Moshe think his own anger at Aharon was harsh enough to not need to mention YHWH’s wrath on top of it? He never told the people about it until now, chiefly because though others are to be publicly rebuked as a deterrent to others (1 Tim. 5:20), the rebuke of a leader is to be done in private (5:1) so the people will not lose respect for his position as they might if they saw YHWH discipline him. But he did tell the people about this after Aharon had died, chiefly because Aharon’s son El’azar, who was now in his position, was in this audience, being indirectly warned that he was susceptible to the same influence.
21. "And I took your sin which you fashioned--the calf--and burned it with fire, then beat it into pieces and ground it thoroughly until it was as powdery as dust. Then I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
They had to drink this water. (Ex. 32:20) They had "made their bed", and now had to "lie in it". Our ancestors allowed bits of pagan idolatry to creep into the church, and we have had to drink from a mixed cup for many centuries. But the more living water (YHWH's word) that is put in to displace the mixed water, the purer it can become again.
22. "Then at Tab'erah, Massah, and Qibroth-haTa'avah, you were beginning to make YHWH angry.
There is no guarantee that just because we know we are Israel and have been freed from bondage to pagan ways, we will make it to the Land. At each of these places of complaining and rebellion, many Israelites died. How it behooves us to watch our step all the more carefully as the narrow way grows still narrower and the bar is raised higher and higher the closer we get to our goal. Though we have not only Moshe but Y’shua standing up on our behalf, we will fall if we do not learn both the words of Torah and the patterns behind them, and obey not only in intent but in actions as well.
23. "But when YHWH sent you from Qadesh-Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the Land which I have designated for you', then you balked at the mouth of YHWH your Elohim, and did not trust Him or listen into [the tone of] His voice.
One of our biggest problems is that we continue to trust ourselves despite our record, which has not been decent, much less stellar. “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes” (Prov. 21:2), but Prov. 12:15 clarifies that this is the way of the fool, for the closer He brings us to great blessing, the more we seem to rebel. We should have been able to go Home after only 2 years in the wilderness, but when He told us to go, it appeared to us that He was trying to harm us. Why do we think it would please Him to send His people out to be slaughtered? He is about life, not death, so why do we not trust Him?
24. "You have been rebellious with YHWH since the day I came to know you!
25. "And I [remained] prostrate before YHWH for the forty days and forty nights when I had thrown myself down, because YHWH had talked about annihilating you.
26. "So I intervened toward YHWH, and said, ‘O Adonai YHWH! Do not destroy Your people and Your acquired possession, which You have brought out from Egypt with a firm hand!
Comparing this with verse 12, we see that, like the parents of a disobedient child, neither YHWH nor Moshe wants to claim Israel as his.
27. "‘Remember Your servants Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov! Do not [turn and] look toward the stubbornness of this nation, nor toward its wickedness, nor its sin,
28. "‘or else the land from which you brought us out might say, ‘[It was] due to YHWH's lack of ability to bring them into the Land that He promised them, and because He hated them, that He brought them to their death in the undeveloped territory.
29. "‘Moreover, they are Your people, and Your acquired possession, whom You have brought out by Your intense force and Your outstretched arm.'
Israel never seems to really learn; we just adjust for awhile, but then we go back to our old habits, though the Torah is much more valuable than diamonds. We need to learn not just its words, but its patterns, the new way it sets things in order, for it will cost us too much if we do not.
CHAPTER 10
1. "At that time, YHWH told me, ‘Carve out for yourself two slabs of stone like the first, come up to Me on the mountain, and prepare for yourself a wooden chest,
That time: When he begged for mercy for all of Israel. (ch. 9) Since Moshe interceded for Israel, using every bit of favor he had earned, and daring to tell YHWH to His face that He needed to spare them, risking his own life and more, YHWH will bring the remedy and give them another try, but this is how. They had bantered back and forth about which of them would take responsibility for this wayward people, and in the end, both do, for both of them were responsible for delivering Israel from Egypt. There is no contradiction in this; YHWH moves through His people. He chose Moshe as His vessel for deliverance, yet still Moshe must take responsibility. They are still his people, and here YHWH says so in a different way.
2. "‘and I will write on the slabs the words that were on the original slabs which you shattered, and you shall place them inside the chest.'
I will write: Yet this time Moshe had to provide and prepare the materials himself. (Compare 5:22) Moshe could have them back again, but it required much more work. This way he was less likely to be careless break them again, after putting all that “blood, sweat, and tears” into making them. When we break the commands after already having embraced them, we must prepare a place for them to be re-engraved into us, on both an individual and national level. We do this by taking responsibility for His people, not just our own walk with Him. He is your Elohim only as you are a part of Israel. If we are doing our own thing, we lose our value to YHWH. It is often a “pain” to put up with one another, but it is worth every bit of it, because this is the heart of YHWH’s will. We do not actually have the covenant yet; if we did, we would be in our Land. It is ours in a prophetic sort of way, but it is in a vault—in “hibernation”—until we bring it back out and sign onto it again. YHWH will actually renew it when we come up with the “stones” to write it on, and they consist of a heart big enough to carve it on. (The heart of an individual never will be; it must be the heart of a unified people.) When we have become as committed to each and every member of YHWH’s flock as we are to ourselves, YHWH finally has something to work with. So what are we carving? “Living stones”, designed to be joined to other stones in the House of YHWH (1 Kefa/Peter 2:5). Even the amazing stones that we can still touch, which were set in place by King King Shlomoh himself, are still nothing but pieces of rock if not joined to other stones; none of them alone is a foundation. If we choose self over one another, we will actually be carving out an idol, for we will be worshipping self.
3. "So I prepared a chest from acacia boards, and carved out two slabs of stone like the original [ones], and went up into the mountain with both slabs in my hand.
The chest: apparently not the Ark of the Covenant, for that was to be built when the Tabernacle was built, after he had brought the instructions back (Ex. 24:16-25:16), but it may have been placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. Or this may have had components added to turn it into that ark. If he could carry them both in one hand and they were made of stone, they must not have been very large. These must not have been as grand as those YHWH had made, which took two hands to carry. (Ex. 32:19) Moshe built the ark first because if a heart is readied but there is no people within which one can take his place, he will not be able to keep the Torah properly, and his righteousness is, in a sense, wasted.
4. "And He wrote on the slabs just what had been written before--the Ten Declarations that YHWH had spoken to you on the mountain from within the fire on the Day of the Assembly, and YHWH gave them to me.
Declarations: from the word for arrangements. They set things in order, and remind us that YHWH comes first. Within these ten commands are contained all the others, which only present them in greater detail. Why are there two slabs? There are two categories of commandments—the first three about loving YHWH with all our heart, soul, and strength, and the latter six about loving our neighbor as ourselves. The fourth applies to both, and acts as the hinge between the two tablets. Z’kharyah 7:9-12 tells what should be written on our hearts (justice, mercy, and compassion), but says YHWH considers those who shrug off His messages to have made their hearts like flint—a stone that shatters into very sharp shards when struck, making it impossible to engrave anything on. YHWH wants to arrange our hearts in order, and He even says He will place a new heart within us that is not of stone (Y’hezq’el 36:26). But this does not take place magically. There has to be a context conducive to its preservation, or it will not endure within us. He had already said He would put one heart in His entire people. We do not each get a new heart; we get one new heart as a corporate people. Those who follow their own hearts instead of His one new heart get to keep their old hearts. Only those who have put for the some effort to incline themselves to it through “carving out the stones” and “hiding His Word in our hearts” will find themselves with a renewed heart one day. If we have the motivation, He will enable us to follow through. He will give us one heart—inclined toward unity with one another as well. Then together we can be placed into the chest. Take care of the Israel that YHWH has given you on a small scale now, and this microcosm will set a prototype that can be used for all of Israel later. But it must be established on a firm foundation before any of the grand prophecies can be fulfilled.
5. "Then I turned [My face] and came down from the mountain, and put both slabs into the chest that I had made, and there they will remain, as has YHWH directed me.
Compare 31:26.
6. "Then the descendants of Israel traveled from the Wells of the Son of Yaaqan to Moserah, where Aharon died and was buried, and his son El'azar became a priest in his place.
Moserah is thus very near Mt. Hor, or possibly a region that includes it.
7. "From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, then from Gudgodah to Yotvathah, a land of streams of water.
Gudgodah: "place of slashing or cutting, penetration, attack, or invasion"; Yotvathah: "a pleasing place". Compare this order to 1 Kefa [Peter] 5:6-11. In Numbers 33:31-32, these places (there called Moseroth and Hor haGidgad) are listed in the opposite order. The rabbinic explanation is that when they chose to appoint men to lead them back to Egypt (Num. 14:4), the congregation actually had to backtrack eight stations. This may correlate to the circling of Mt. Hor in 2:1-2.
8. "At that time, YHWH separated [out] the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of YHWH's Covenant, to stand before YHWH, to minister to Him and bless His name--[as it is] until today.
El’azar, son of Aharon, had been appointed to oversee them, but now he had become the high priest, and we see no one appointed to succeed him in his earlier role. Now that he was not there to hold them accountable, would they still do things the way he had taught them to? They had to take responsibility for themselves now.
9. "For this reason Levi has no inherited territory or property along with his brothers; YHWH is his inheritance, just as YHWH your Elohim told him.
What an inheritance! What could compare with this, even the best and richest land?
10. "So I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had the first time, and this time YHWH listened [and yielded] to me and consented to not destroy you.
He went back up the mountain to finish being trained. This seems to be his third period of fasting for 40 days, but it seems that there has been a gap of some length between these periods. Tradition says that the ten commandments were first given on Shavuoth, and that this time he ascended on the first of the month of Elul, which is 40 days before Yom Kippur, the culmination of the time of intense repentance when YHWH brings a covering for His people if they have repented. So even if this does resume the context of verse 5, there would be several months between these events—enough time for him to carve out these stones, which would be a time-consuming task.
11. "Then YHWH told me, ‘Get up and proceed to break camp in front of the people so that they will go in and take possession of the Land that I promised their forefathers [with an oath] to give them.
This time when he came down, they were not involved in idolatry, so it was time to keep moving toward Home.
12. "So now, Israel, what does YHWH ask from you, except to reverence YHWH your Elohim, and walk in all His ways, and serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and all your soul--
13. "to guard YHWH's commandments and prescribed limits which I am laying on you this day for your [own] benefit?
This is all He wants—but make no mistake; it will require our all. He does not leave us in the dark about what He wants from us as the pagan gods did. Yeshua and Hillel also simplified the commandments down to two (compare Mikha 6:8). For your own benefit: These commands and limits are the shortcuts to wisdom and success that the world must find by trial and error.
14. "Look! The heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to YHWH your Elohim, along with the earth and everything in it,
15. "[but] only to your ancestors did He become attached [in order] to befriend them, and He selected their descendants to follow them—you of all peoples--just as [is the case] today.
While He chooses to work through other peoples at various times, out of the whole world, Israel is the only nation He promised to make His perpetual treasure.
16. "So circumcise [off] the excess fleshiness that hangs over your heart, and don't be stiff-necked any longer!
With every word we cut into it, the stone that encrusts our hearts is weakened and eventually this second set of “slabs” will be broken as well when our hearts are “circumcised”, so that their raw sensitivity is exposed and He can carve His commandments into it, and it will scar so that we never forget them. As we cut away the fat that renders our hearts lethargic, the stiff neck will loosen up as well. We then need to exercise it to keep it loose!
17. "Because YHWH your Elohim is an Elohim among elohim, a superior over masters, the great El, the champion who inspires awe, and neither plays favorites nor takes a bribe,
Plays favorites: literally, regards faces--as other elohim do; just ask the Greeks! A bribe: we cannot buy our way out of actually doing things His way. We cannot offer anything other than all our heart, all our motivation, and all our resources. If you cast off His yoke, you will never be able to appease Him.
18. "[but] carries out justice for the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the outsider, providing him with food and clothing.
Carries out justice for: Aram., "takes up the case of". Again, what other elohim does this? If we read the mythologies, they are all capricious. Outsider: our ancestor Avraham did well at this type of hospitality. He does not consider His grandeur to be a contradiction with being with the lowly; neither should we. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 57:15). Food and clothing: Exactly what Yaaqov asked YHWH to provide for him in Gen. 28:20. It is the Gentiles who worry about what they will eat or wear (Mat. 6), but YHWH loves outsiders enough that while they are in His Land, He provides even these things for them!
19. "So befriend the outsider, because you yourselves were guests in the land of Egypt.
Be like Him. And if that is not enough, just be different from the Egyptians, who were only hospitable to you for a limited time. He gives two witnesses to why we should act this way.
20. "Revere YHWH your Elohim. He is the one you shall serve; He is the one you shall stick close to; He is the one in whose Name you shall make your oaths.
Doesn't this conflict with Yeshua's warning that it is better to take no oaths at all? The Hebrew version of Matithyahu 5:33-34 reads, “You shall not swear falsely (or in vain) at all.” This reconciles the seeming discrepancy.
21. "He is the one in whom you must make your boast; He is your Elohim! He has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen!
If we have trouble trusting Him, we need to simply open our eyes and look around at His record of never failing to keep His promises.
22. "Your ancestors went down to Egypt with 70 souls, but now YHWH your Elohim has made you like the stars of the sky in number.
Like the stars of the sky: to the naked eye, which is the frame of reference, for telescopes were assumedly not available then. This first promise to Avraham was already fulfilled in a sense, but they were not yet as numerous as the sand of the seashore—which may be more like the actual number of stars. If we can finish the preparation, He can finish what is to be built on the foundation, but only if we provide the raw material of stone chipped off our hardened hearts. It is worth the pain.
CHAPTER 11
1. "So be committed to YHWH your Elohim, and guard what He entrusts [to your watchcare]--His prescribed customs, His legal procedures, and His commandments--at all times!
So: because YHWH has proven to keep His promises. But we cannot just wait long enough and the Kingdom will be here. He has done His part. Now we must keep our side of the covenant, or His part can never come to fruition. Be committed to: befriend or love. The real meaning of “religion” is being reattached, and that is where the emphasis must be, both personally as well as nationally. A bride cannot have two husbands, so be true to Him, and many lesser offenses may be forgiven, because “love covers all [kinds of] transgressions.” (Prov. 10:12) Emotional love has its place in season, but romance is a modern (Roman) concept; when a people needs to survive, commitment is absolutely essential. The rest of the verse tells us how. When reading His “love letter” to us, we need to look for the things He tells us to look for. The phrase actually uses the same Hebrew word twice: something like “guard His guarding” or what is His that is “to be guarded”. Our guarding must be compatible with His. I.e., guard it the way He says to. We might think there would be more humane ways of carrying out our occupation of the Land, but that is what is being tried now, and look how it is working. Everything belongs to Him—all our heart, soul, and strength--and He tests this by giving us excess. Will we keep it all for ourselves, or will we pass it on to others who are in need? But when we give, we receive, for we also participate in what both we and others give, as the manna was collected and pooled, some having more and some having less, but no one came up short when it was distributed. We must love our neighbors AS ourselves. If I starve so that you can eat, you will have no one to help you next time. Being “selfless” does not mean forcing one’s own children to starve so that you can give to another family in need, but sharing yours with them--keeping less for self so there is more to share. Prescribed customs: or limits; these refer to repetitive actions or rituals, often associated with particular times or events, that are always described as pertaining to Israel “forever”. (Ex. 12:17, 43; 27:20-21; Lev. 3:17; 16:29; 23:14) “Legal procedures” do not follow a set schedule, and do not pertain to everyday occurrences, but are used when special situations arise within society that will affect the functioning of the community, and therefore require a ruling. (Ex. 21:1ff) Commandments: the term denotes “marching orders” from the “General” who has set us in order. At all times: not just on the Sabbath or festival or when someone else is watching.
2. "Now you have recognized today that [I am] not [speaking of] your children, who have neither experienced nor seen the discipline of YHWH your Elohim, His greatness [and majesty], His firm hand, His outstretched arm,
The Torah is not for the dead, but for the living. (5:3) It is for today, not tomorrow. We cannot leave it for when our children already live in the Land, thinking it will be easier for them to be righteous then, nor can we make the excuse that we still have too much of an Egyptian outlook and that YHWH therefore cannot expect much of us.
3. "or His distinguishing tokens, the things which He did within Egypt to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt and his whole country,
4. "And what He did to the army of Egypt and their horses and chariots--how He made the waters of the Reed Sea overwhelm their faces as they chased after you, and YHWH caused them intense loss [which still lasts] to this day--
To this day: forty years later, Egypt had still not recovered.
5. "or what He has done for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place,
6. "or what He did to Dathan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav, the son of Reuven--how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up along with their households, their tents, and all the paraphernalia that was standing at their feet [right] in the midst of all of Israel.
The incident with Dathan and Aviram is singled out because it was the most spectacular and therefore the most memorable of all the events since the Reed Sea crossing.
7. "Rather, your eyes are the ones seeing all the great accomplishments YHWH has carried out;
Your eyes: He is not speaking to those who are not yet accountable or who did not see these events, but to those who should know. Most of the hearers had not seen all of these things, being too young, but if they had seen any, they knew what YHWH could do, and were now mature enough to be responsible witnesses so that all of Israel will be encouraged. He is speaking to the people as a whole, not as individuals. If one has experienced it, we all have. And if the Torah bears witness to it, we have seen it too. So they are all held responsible, for the witness of two or three in Israel is enough. There has always been some connection to someone who saw or knew someone who did. We, too, were not literally there, but we have the whole history of Israel to witness to the fact that YHWH is trustworthy. We do not need to see everything for ourselves. Each of us adds a piece to the corporate witness. Even though you live thousands of years later, if you are part of Israel, He delivered you from Egypt. We are meant to see the deliverance as very directly our own, and the emphasis is on passing it on to our children—the true evangelism. He can bring it to your memory, for it is in our collective soul. At the very least, we were in our ancestors’ DNA when they participated, and YHWH counts that as our having been there.
8. "you must therefore guard all the commandments about which I am giving you orders today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the Land into which you are crossing to take it over,
These laws are not only for ancient times, but are always incumbent on all of Israel. Strong: firm and secure; with a tight grip so that no one can tear these things away from you; able to prevail.
9. "and so that you may extend the length of your days in the Land that YHWH promised your forefathers [with an oath] to give to them and their seed--a Land gushing with milk and honey!
Extend: If you wish to remain there long, you must continue to obey.
10. "Because the Land into which you are going is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden.
By foot: i.e., a garden on flat land (like Egypt) that you had to irrigate. We can no longer just go down to the Nile and depend on what our own backs can do:
11. "rather, the Land into which you are going to take possession is a Land of hills and valleys, that drinks water [directly] from the rain of the sky.
The rain goes to every part of the country, so you are not restricted to the river’s edge as you would be in Egypt. But if the rain does not come, you will not have any crops. There is no river in the middle as in Egypt that is always there for us and we can decide to draw from when we choose. How is this a blessing? Because YHWH Himself waters this Land; we have to seek Him directly for our provision and trust Him to do so. (Compare v. 17) Many ancient prayers and ceremonies, especially at Sukkoth, ask Him for rain. This allows us to have a part in the process. (Gershon Ferency) He stopped the bread from heaven, but we still depend on the heavens for our sustenance. Now the Land is not as lush as it was when they entered (8:7), partly as a result of their disobedience in the past. But walk by faith: it will be even greater one day. This Land is NOT one that devours its inhabitants, as their parents feared. It blesses those who live in it.
12. "A land that YHWH your Elohim seeks out; the eyes of YHWH your Elohim are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.
Seeks out: resorts to, frequents, or walks through. YHWH looked the world over to find the best location, and He is giving you this tremendous gift! Don’t squander it! He never takes His eye off of this place. This passage hints, as does Genesis 2:13 (among many others), that this Land is precisely where the Garden of Eden was. From the beginning ...until the end of the year: all through the festival cycle He set up. Even before the nation of Israel lived there, He had been looking after it and guarding it because He promised it to Avraham and Yaaqov. How we have ruined it, but it, too, is being restored.
13. "This is how it will be: if you pay close attention to my orders which I lay on you today, to love YHWH your Elohim and serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,
Pay close attention: literally, listen to hear. We are meant to not just know the literal words, but hear the deeper meaning behind them and learn from them. Then we will be as reliable as the rain He provides:
14. "then I will give the Land its rain at the proper time--the early rain and the latter rain [for the maturing of the harvest], so you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil.
At the proper time: So crucial to successful agriculture.
15. "And I will bestow upon your fields herbage for your cattle, so you may eat and become satisfied.
YHWH’s main intent in feeding your cattle is that you might be fed. Humans are still more important to Him than beasts. We don’t want to be cruel to animals just for sport, but they do not have the same standing we do. This (and a few commands regarding the festivals) also means that no one who is fully Torah-observant cannot be a complete vegetarian, except under special circumstances as Daniel had, where kosher slaughter could not be guaranteed.
16. "Be on guard for yourselves, so your hearts will not be gullible and you [will not] turn aside [from the way] and serve other elohim and prostrate yourselves to them,
Hearts: includes minds. Gullible: open-minded--the catchword of our generation, but it really means being naïve, simple-minded, easily persuaded, deceived, seduced, or allured. This is the inevitable result of “following your heart”. But this is not Disneyland. The solution is to set a watch over your heart: clear, definite boundaries (v. 18), so we will not be "swayed by every wind of doctrine". (Eph. 4:14) We are already inclined toward the wrong things, so we cannot trust our hearts. (Yirm. 17:9) If our motive is to avoid offending people when they are wrong, or fear of anything but YHWH, it is misplaced.
17. "and YHWH's anger burn against you, and He close up the sky so there will not be any rain and the land not yield its produce, and you vanish from the pleasant Land YHWH is giving you.
This is what to fear! Look anywhere but to Him for your provision (v. 11), and it will cease altogether. If you let your heart lead you into the wrong priorities, you will be on His bad side. If we do not want Him among us, He will leave. You are therefore responsible to guard your heart. Surrender it to the service of YHWH by serving those around you.
18. "So put these words of mine firmly in place [as a signpost] in your heart and in your soul, and tie them tightly as a warning on your hand, so they may be like something bound on between your eyes.
Warning: or standard. The hand is that with which we act; between our eyes are where the thoughts begin that move us to act. If we tie them onto our hands and heads literally, it is for the purpose of bringing every thought into captivity (2 Cor. 10:5), putting the meaning of His words in their proper place in our motives, determination, and inclination. They are not magic amulets, but memory aids. They remind us that everything we set our hands to must be a Kingdom pursuit. To apply His word to everything, we must learn it well. That is what it means to put it into our hearts. Otherwise we could feed the hungry and clothe the poor all day, but be doing it all wrongly; we perish for lack of knowledge. (Hos. 4:6)
19. "Then teach them to your children [to exercise them thereby], conversing about them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.
Again he emphasizes giving witness primarily to our children. Teach: literally, prod, because you want them to move into serving YHWH. Sharpened children (6:7) on the move is what will bring Israel home!
20. "And write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates,
Gates: since he already mentioned our own doors, this probably emphasizes the city gates, where legal procedures are carried out. "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3) Also, any time a door opens for us in whatever situation, we must ask if walking through it is still putting YHWH first.
21. "So that your days may become greater--along with the days of your children--on the Land YHWH promised their forefathers [with an oath] to give them, like the days of heaven on earth,
Like the days: our days are to be filled with quality, whether long or short, but then prolonged through the Messianic Kingdom after the resurrection for those who obeyed. But in the meantime, to extend our days on the Land, we must extend our children’s days there. (See Psalm 22:29-30.) And how do we do that? They will carry on whatever we instill in them. This is how we are preserved as a people so we can endure until the end. This is how we live there forever, not just for our own lifetimes. It is said that the true test of one’s walk is not whether one’s children continue in Torah, but one’s grandchildren as well. This is one form of eternal life for Israel. If our children intermarry or convert to other faiths, no seed remains for Israel. So do not consider your life over just because you have brought your children safely into the Land. Do everything you can to ensure that your children will find no attraction whatsoever in pagan ways, so the gains you have made will be preserved.
22. "Because if you diligently guard all these orders which I am laying on you, to carry them out --[which, in brief, are] to love YHWH your Elohim, walk in all His ways, and follow Him closely
23. "--then YHWH will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than yourselves.
24. "Every place where the soles of your foot tread shall be yours: your border shall extend from the desert to Levanon, from the River--the Euphrates River--to the Western Sea.
Western: or hindermost, that is, the Mediterranean (since facing east is true Hebraic “orientation”). If we do our part, He will do His. Every place you claim will be yours. But it is only yours if you are walking in it. So walk through it all! Fight to get your lost heritage back. If you are lacking in any part of the Torah it is because you do not walk in it. Step into it, and though it may seem foreign or foreboding, you will conquer it if you trust Him. Don’t overstep your borders; don’t eat of the forbidden fruit. But DO eat of the Tree of Life once it becomes available again. And it already is: “Wisdom…is a tree of life to all who grasp and…keep hold of her.” (Prov. 3:13, 18) That you have access to. Walk through all of that, and the way to the Land will become clear.
25, "No man shall be able to remain standing before you; YHWH your Elohim will put the terror of you and respect for you on the face of the whole Land over which you tread, just as He promised you.
And so it was: The whole city of Yericho was in dread of them, having lost all courage. (Y'hoshua 2:11)
TORAH PORTION
'Eqev
(Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25)
INTRODUCTION: “Hard on the heels” of our implementing these new directives, we will see a dramatic change from the life we knew in Egypt, or whatever equivalent thing has held us in bondage more recently. But not only will the principles involved naturally cause improvements in our lives; YHWH Himself will be directly involved with us. (Deut. 7:13-21) He showed us that even when natural supplies are exhausted, He can still sustain us. (8:2-4) Thinking anything different is a condition that needs to be corrected. (8:5-6)
Israel’s Torah is thus not just the path to the best possible existence this side of the forbidden fruit; it is also the first stage of the reversal of the curse we brought on ourselves in Eden by wanting to be able to make a life for ourselves without having to have Him around. But the perpetuation (and even increase and amelioration) of these blessings also depends on our continued engagement with Him. (11:8-17) So He instructs us to set up safeguards so that they will not be forgotten: write them down where you can’t miss them, make them the basis for your jurisprudence, and most of all, teach them to succeeding generations so they will maintain them when you no longer can.(11:18-21)
Moshe recognizes the genuine threats, but reminds us of what YHWH has already proven able to do, and adds the promises of still more techniques He will use that we have not yet seen. (7:17-24) Of course, with every privilege there is a responsibility, and for the blessings to remain operative depends on us carrying out these orders completely. (7:25-26) Otherwise, they won’t work. He is taking us into a radically-different environment than the one where we had been, which was full of dangers; now we would have no scarcity. But this brings with it a different kind of danger—that of forgetting how we got there and thinking we had accomplished this all by ourselves (8:7-20), or, worse, that we actually deserved this treatment (9:4-6) and could therefore take it for granted even if we acted the same way the people who had been there before us did. Moshe launches into a long and detailed reminder of how shamefully we had acted and how we—and even his priest of a brother—would not have made it this far if he had not intervened (9:7-26), reminding Him of better actions on the part of our forebears and how it might look if He let all these miracles go to waste by snuffing us out as we well deserved. (9:27-29) YHWH relented and not only let us have a copy of the laws He almost let perish along with the stones they were written on, but also let us continue the journey to this wonderful, one-of-a-kind place but that that we had proven sorely unworthy of (10:1-11), and offered His friendship and unique favor as an unheard-of bonus (10:12-15) if we would just turn from our wicked tendencies. (10:16) He stresses what an unimaginable privilege this is, and how it deserves not only our loyalty but that we treat other people who are in the same situation we were in with the same kindness He gave us. (10:17-11:1)
No later generation would be in the unique position of being able to actually remember seeing these wonders that He brought about, so we had the unique responsibility of safeguarding them from being lost under the sediments of history—or forfeited even sooner than that by simply continuing the lack of trust our parents had shown, to the point of not even going forward across the river. (11:2-9) All these gains would be lost forever if we did not act at this very juncture, for none of it was guaranteed to continue automatically if let anything slide at this very time and at any time to come. (11:10-17) Moshe closes his impassioned plea by reiterating both the obligation to defend this special treasure in a way that will ensure that it is still safe when we are gone (11:18-20) and the amazing results we will have as soon as we do. (11:21-25)
As we stand on the threshold of regaining this lost inheritance and heritage, we are faced with the very same challenge. Will we take it up—and experience all that he offered—or fumble it once again?
The Right Pace
Blessings will come “hard on our heels” (the meaning of ‘eqev) if we start down the road of obedience, YHWH says. The conditions sound ideal (Deut. 7:12-22) if we are doing things rightly. But still, too much blessing too quickly will have bad side effects (7:22); “life in the fast lane” is not usually healthy. “There is a joy in the journey”, in Michael Card’s terms, if we take the steps (there’s that "heel" again) in the right order. If we speed to the end we will miss the roses along the way, and that is not living.
Just don’t forget Who gave it to you! (Deut. 8:11-18) He brought us our supplies in very unexpected ways so we would not depend on the medium but remember where they really come from. (8:3) That helps us remember. But part of remembering the Provider is doing things the way He likes them done: if something disgusts Him, we have to learn to be disgusted by it too (7:25-26), if we are not already, because if what disgusts Him is attached to us, He will want to avoid us as well. That may be puzzling to understand if we don’t remember that it is not really about us, after all (9:4-6), though if we are riding the right wave, we will share in its benefits.
Over and over Moshe intervened to keep us alive (9:9, 18, 20, 21, 25, 26; 10:10), even offering his own soul in exchange for our survival. That was not to be; he had to leave that to another who had even more credit with YHWH than he did, hard as that is to imagine. But YHWH did give us a second try at proving trustworthy with the words He wrote with His own hand. (10:1-5) He designated guards for the precious treasure He was offering to us. (10:8) And He kept the path simple (10:12-13), though it is all-encompassing. We just have to clear the obstructions out of the way (10:16) and walk WITH Him--do things the way He does them (10:17-19) and stay loyal to the One who kept His promises. (10:20-11:1)
Don’t leave it for a generation to come; act on what you have seen. (11:2-7) Guard what you have been entrusted so the dream remains alive for those who do come after us—but also so we get to experience it for a long, long time ourselves. (11:8-9)
He lets us have an active, crucial part in determining how well it turns out, by cooperating with His plan through obedience (11:13-17). Loving Him includes conversing with Him about how these things work, and how He wants to keep them working. For those who are closest to Him, especially when they are living in the Land He is especially interested in, fond of, and attentive to (11:10-15), He doesn’t just let the rhythmic patterns keep going year after year (11:10) on auto-pilot; He lets things hang in the balance so we can deliberately sway them in the right direction by asking Him directly for the ingredients we need for it all to work together. (Thanks to Gershon Ferency for this insight.) That way we find ourselves back in the Garden, where our first ancestors did not have the idea that particular things were good or evil, but involved YHWH personally in each decision.
Are things out of place? It’s only so we will bring each need to Him, because otherwise we would not notice the particular, individual attention He has already put into each aspect of our lives.
So use those heels, He says, and, like our ancestor Avraham, walk it out step by step, feeling each hill and tuft of grass, garnering each piece of the gift that He is offering to us. (11:24-25) Pay attention to each footfall in the journey, because that way, we can make the most of every piece of our inheritance, claiming each aspect of it individually and thoroughly, because He has planted each tree and flower and rock in its particular position along our path for a reason, and He wants to help us discover what that reason is. The Torah gives us the broad strokes, but the intimacy with Him lets us fill in each fascinating detail.
Guard His awe-inspiring gifts, so we won’t ever lose the sense of wonder that makes the difference between just amassing territory and really living on it, in it, and with it.
Study questions:
1. Blessing will come “hard on the heels” of what? (Deut. 7:12-14)
2. What types of disease (7:15) are excluded simply through physical obedience to Torah principles? Do you think there is also more to this promise than that? How might the “hard line” approach of 7:16 preclude additional disease, both physical and spiritual?
3. What is the best antidote to fear? (7:18)
4. How might the “little by little” approach in 7:22 apply to the “enemies” that still remain within us as individuals? How might YHWH use our shortcomings in the meantime, before we become completely holy?
5. How might the “gold and silver” attached to idols (7:15) apply to things we may have acquired from pagan sources? Is it enough to “sanctify” them or dedicate them to YHWH instead?
6. What is YHWH’s purpose in what we might call “privations” or “shortages”? (8:2-4) How does this give us confidence in case the “second and greater exodus” (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 23:7-8) might occur in our lifetimes?
7. What temptation tends to come along with having plenty? (8:11-18) How can we guard against this?
8. Why do you think YHWH sets up situations that are impossible for us to surmount? (9:1-3)
9. As he recalls YHWH’s great deeds of the past, so Moshe recalls Israel’s great failures. (9:6-26) Why? How will remembering our past errors help us now?
10. If YHWH chooses to use us, does it mean we are better than others? (9:4-6) Is this enough to justify pride on our part? What is the only redeeming factor in our heritage that Moshe feels he can appeal to in order to persuade YHWH to spare us? (9:27) What is the main reason Moshe begs YHWH not to act “rashly” in His anger? (9:28) Is there anything else to which we can point when appealing to Him for mercy?
11. After sparing us, what was YHWH’s next act of mercy toward Israel? (10:1-4) What would our history and our individual lives have been like without this?
12. When all is restored to the intended order, who will be the teachers in Israel? (10:8-9)
13. How is the simplified summary of the commandments in 10:12 still comprehensive in its scope? What is the key to being able to do this? (10:14)
14. How many examples of what justice is can you find in 10:17-19?
15. How is a land dependent on rain rather than irrigation (11:11-12) better? How does this allow us to participate in ensuring we have what we need? (11:13-14)
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
Moshe is reminding the people of Israel of YHWH’s promises to help us take the Land in spite of the giants and strong cities that are there, and that He will keep protecting us and providing for us and being friendly toward us--if we will only do what He tells us. What Moshe says about this is, “I’m not talking about your children, who haven’t seen any of what YHWH did to the Egyptians or for you. Your eyes saw them, so you have to be the ones to guard these instructions carefully.” (Deut. 11:2)
So why is this for us? We weren’t part of that generation. We didn’t cross the Reed Sea or eat the manna in the wilderness!
But Moshe also said each generation is supposed to pass them on to their children (11:19), and then the next is to do the same—and the baton is passed all the way down to us. So these words are for us now—whoever is alive today. We have seen YHWH do other wonders, and thus just adds to the long list of reasons we can trust Him and love Him.
So as long as it can be called “today”, it is the job of the Israelites who are alive to be the ones to guard and preserve this treasure that He gave us. Next it will be your turn, because that is how we keep guarding them. It’s up to you to keep it going.
But why is that so important nowadays? Is Israel’s way really so much better than the rest of the world? Haven’t other people caught up and become better than back when the people outside of Israel were barbarians? Isn’t the world a much nicer, kinder place than it used to be?
Well, yes, but how do you think it got that way? Do you think it was easy? Would it have been this way if many people through the ages hadn’t laid down their lives (some spending all their time and energy and some even being killed) so the Torah and the rest of the Scriptures could be guarded and preserved? Because other people stood up against evil and did their part, the chain has not been broken, and we still do have these words of Moshe. It’s only because Israel—both the Jews and then the followers of Yeshua—has been a light to the nations they have lived among.
But it only takes one generation dropping the ball for big parts of it to start getting forgotten. Yesterday’s guardians of the promises are getting older and aren’t as strong as they used to be; tomorrow’s have not yet gotten here. YHWH doesn’t have anybody else to do the job but you.
So do your part and keep these words alive for the people who come after you. This may seem very hard at your age, but the first step is to learn them well, and that is something you can do no matter how young you are. Just let YHWH know you are willing to do whatever you can, and He will make it clear to you what you can and should do next.
Just as YHWH said He wouldn’t chase the Kanaanites out of the Land all at once so there wouldn’t get to be too many wild animals too close by (Deut. 7:22), He will let us take on the responsibilities given to us in the Torah little by little, as we are ready for them, as Yeshua’s students told the people in other countries who were just being introduced to this wonderful way of life. (Acts 15:19-21) That way it doesn’t seem so hard.
And YHWH doesn’t just tell us to go do these things: He says He will go on ahead of us and clear the way, and then He will be right beside us as we do what we need to do. (Deut. 7:20-21, 23-24) There’s nothing impossible about it when He is there with us. We can do this!
The Renewal of 'EQEV
This is one of the most upbeat, encouraging portions in the Torah, and well it needs to be since the hearers are facing an epic challenge. A pep talk is just what they need. And how timely for us as we face things our generation has never had to deal with before—possibly even the times in which Yeshua said there would be more trouble than ever before seen in the history of the world (Mat. 24:21). But if so, it is the precursor to the greatest revolution in history (the coming of the long-awaited Kingdom), as was, in a more-primordial way, the context for the first recipients of these words:
"Since you are going to say in your heart, ‘These nations are stronger than I am; how could I dispossess them?' Don't be afraid of them, but always keep in mind what YHWH your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt! The magnificent evidences that were presented to your eyes… by which YHWH your Elohim brought you out; YHWH your Elohim will do the same to all the people of whom you are afraid. YHWH will even send the hornet among them until the ones remaining who [manage to] hide from your presence are done away with. Don't tremble at them, because YHWH your Elohim is among you--a great and awe-inspiring elohim!” (Deut. 7:17-21)
The parallels with whatever looks impossible to us are obvious. Let these words sink deep into your ear so they become a subconscious reflex. But when that was done, they had a very different kind of task:
“You must burn the carved images of their elohim with fire, and not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor salvage it for yourself, so you will not be ensnared by it, because it is repulsive to YHWH. Nor shall you bring [such] a disgusting thing into your house, so you will not become marked for destruction as it [is]; rather, you must [count it] utterly detestable, because it is a thing proscribed.” (Deut. 7:25-26)
That seems counter-intuitive. After all, weren’t they plundering these peoples’ possessions? But some things just hold too strong an association to be redeemable, even if they are melted down and re-cast. This matches Yeshua’s radical advice: “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off!” (Mat. 5:30) Better to forfeit something very valuable than to lose your integrity. A right hand (like the gold) isn’t what’s the abomination, but what we’ve done with it. If it gets to that point, we can do without it.
Do without a right hand? Come on; who are we kidding? But that is just the point: Israel (whose patriarchs were mostly miracles themselves, born after it was already physically impossible) is not a people that depends on normal contingencies. It’s something else that keeps us alive:
“Remember… YHWH your Elohim led you these forty years in the wilderness, to bring you into [a place of] neediness and put you to the test, to know what was in your heart--whether you would keep His commandments or not. Indeed, He brought you into [a place of] neediness and allowed you to be famished, then fed you with [you didn't know] what--something neither you nor your forefathers were familiar with, to let you recognize that [it is] not on the bread alone [that] humanity will stay alive, but on everything that comes forth from the mouth of YHWH... Your clothing did not wear out, nor did your foot become blistered during these forty years!” (Deut. 8:2-4)
That was no coincidence. It would never have occurred if YHWH was not the chief factor. But “don’t rejoice that the demons submit to you; rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20) Even less likely but far more consequential. In fact, YHWH was more concerned about how it would be when things got back to “normal” (to which we whose lives are unsettled do well to pay close attention):
“Beware…lest you eat and become full, build lovely houses and settle down, your…gold and silver multiply…then your heart swells up and you let YHWH your Elohim fade from your memory… thinking in your heart, ‘My strength and my hand’s power produced this wealth for me!' ” (Deut. 8:11-14, 17)
Yeshua explains: “It’s easier for a thick cable to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom.” (Mat. 19:24) That’s probably why YHWH built this nation out of downtrodden folks who had no reason for such pride. Yet though what we are given is clearly a gift “not based on [any] deeds [of our own], so no one could [dare to] brag” (Ephesians 2:8-9), we still manage to think we can:
“Do not think in your heart, ‘[It is] because of my deserving [it that] YHWH has brought me in to take possession of this land'; rather, [it is] because of the wickedness of these nations… Remember--Do not forget!--how you were making YHWH your Elohim furious.” (Deut. 9:4, 7) And not that long ago either.
So “Circumcise [off] the excess fleshiness that hangs over your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer!”
Quick: where is that verse from? The New Testament, since the circumcision of the flesh was all that they knew before that? Think again; it comes right out of this Torah portion. (Deut. 10:16) That’s because the (more-properly-called) Renewed Covenant was not something new, but the very same covenant—yes, with explanations of what lies beneath the surface a little more frequent, but this shows that the “spirit behind the letter” was sometimes overt even while we were still first learning the letter.
“Befriend the outsider, because you yourselves were guests in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19) Again, more fully-embodied in the Renewal, but always there at least in seed form, from the start. They could probably even understand better than those who came later, for whom the letter was more an analogy:
“[I am] not [speaking of] your children, who have neither experienced nor seen the discipline of YHWH your Elohim, His greatness, His firm hand, His outstretched arm… Rather, your eyes are the ones seeing all the great accomplishments YHWH has carried out; you must therefore guard all the commandments about which I am giving you orders today, so that you may be strong…“ (Deut. 11:2, 7, 8)
There’s Jefferson’s call for “eternal vigilance” again—the only way to conserve the awesome gains of ground taken from the enemy not just of freedom but of those very words of YHWH by which we live, who deliberately plants thorns to choke them out. (Mat. 13:22, 28) So stay several steps ahead of him:
“Every place on which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours… No man shall be able to remain standing before you; YHWH your Elohim will put the terror of you and respect for you on… the whole Land over which you tread, just as He promised you.” (Deut. 11:24-25)
The Renewed Covenant continues the appeal to the awesome things YHWH has done—this time not just sacrificing His Masterpiece (the only unblemished man made since Adam) so we could be reinstated into the real, original human race (itself unimaginable), but raising him from the dead, not only to give him the just recompense he’d earned (Isa. 49:6; 53:11), but also as proof He could do the same for us:
“What can we say in response to these things? If Elohim is on our side, who can succeed as our [legal] adversary? He who did not withhold His own Son, but let him be condemned in order to defend us all—how is it possible that He won’t also freely give us all that comes with him?” (Romans 8:31-32)
This, too, was written to people facing extremely trying situations—from the abrasiveness that comes with rapprochement between the tribes of Israel to outright martyrdom from an empire that mowed down anything in the way of its one-world goals. Could this timeless response be any more up-to-date?
Why Would You Ever Refuse This?
“Hard on the heels” of our enthusiastic obedience, we see YHWH’s even quicker response: as Isaiah says, “Gladness and joy will chase you down [and catch up to and overtake you]; grief and sighing will be put to flight!” (35:10) And He names about every top-level blessing you could imagine. (Deut. 7:12-15)
Why would anyone spurn such promises? Why would we, in the face of all He was doing for our good, just turn our backs? Because we have a “stupid” gene that wants to “do it myself and do it my way”.
Or is it because we thought His command to utterly destroy the Canaanites (7:16-25) was an immoral thing (genocide!), that if we only suspended judgment and “understood” their point of view we would see that they were no more evil than we were?
As if we could be more moral than YHWH! If He calls something an abomination that has to be eradicated (7:26), there is something wrong with it and it will indeed be a snare if we leave it a foothold. Our history is replete with examples of how. Yet many today lobby for equal recognition of other things He calls abominations (which is just an old-fashioned word for “disgusting”, “detestable”, “nauseating”, “sickening” things). That’s YHWH’s description of how such things make Him feel. (And yes, eating pork, catfish, or shrimp is on that list too! –Isaiah 66:17)
Yes, YHWH created all peoples, but when one threatens the well-being of others, He reluctantly has to take them out of the position of influence. He considered it a sacrifice to have to destroy Egypt (Isaiah 43:3), for they were the most advanced culture of their day, and whatever wisdom they had was put there by Him and reflected well on just what He could make a people to be. But when they oppressed those He loved, they had to be brought down several notches; the Canaanites had to be completely brought down, but still not before He gave them 70 times 7 years to repent. (His strategy in our age is to plunder the evil one’s domain and transfer as much of its population as possible into the Kingdom He’ll unveil when the world is back in the condition He intended; little else of it can be salvaged.)
Even when He let us taste neediness, it was to show us how He could provide for us even when the usual means of provision were lacking, and we came out none the worse for it. (Deut. 8:2-4) When He disciplined us, it was so we’d turn out better and reach more of our potential than if we’d been left to our own devices. (8:5-6)
But, proud people that we are, He has to remind us we didn’t end up there by luck (8:11-18); we experienced miracles without which we would never have gotten where we are. And, it should be needless to say, without Him there would have been no miracles. But sadly, it does need to be said, because we are stiff-necked and hard-hearted. (9:4-8, 24) He remembers that some of this is inherited from Adam and we can’t help it (Psalm 103:13-17), so He offers the help we need. We are fools not to accept a hand up. Bootstraps won’t lift us any farther than our short arms can reach.
People don’t like to hear this, because they don’t want to appear needy. They want to seem to have it all under control, because they don’t want to look bad. But the truth is, we are needy and we are bad. Yet the greater truth is, YHWH loves us still (10:15) and wants to give us a way out of it all, when He could have just destroyed us and started all over with Moshe as patriarch. (9:13-14) He gave us a second try (10:1), taught us (10:2), gave us full-time leaders to be examples (10:8-9), and on top of all this, He is just and good and compassionate to those most in need of compassion. (10:17-18) None of this is accidental; we will not have it unless we humble ourselves and ask for it directly, then accept it from His hand. (11:10-15)
The portion ends with even more unbelievable promises (11:22-25)—but believe them, because this time they are not too good to be true. And in Messiah, we have been given even more. “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great deliverance?” (Heb. 2:3)
Conquering Our “Land”
--One Step at a Time
YHWH told Israel something very hard to swallow: When conquering the inhabitants of Canaan, “your eye shall not pity them.” (Deut. 7:16) He had to be very clear about this because if our enemies are willing to surrender, any decent person would want to show some measure of mercy. But He warns us that in this case, to “live and let live” would be perilous: “They would be a snare to you.” (7:17)
We are guarding His treasure, which may not be allowed to be “cast before swine”. (Mat. 7:6) We cannot let it be stolen away, and that is exactly what He knew these people would do, as they spread their unholy influence to us and we let down our guard. Trust His judgment; He knows the wicked potential of the human heart in ways that we who are evil might not recognize.
This is real history, of course, but on another level, the conquest of Canaan is a picture of the salvation of our souls. I don’t mean that in the sense that the typical evangelists use this phrase, though there is most certainly a place for that. But the paradox is that “He has [past tense] forever perfected those who are [still] being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
One part of us—our spirit—is “saved” right away, whereas another part—the soul (mind, will, emotions, personality, conscious choices, thoughts, habits)—takes much longer to “bring into captivity to the obedience of the Messiah” (2 Corinthians 10:5), just as each citizen of a conquered nation needs to be notified of the new laws that are in effect because a new regime is in power, and as the apostles taught non-Israelites to take on the Torah’s responsibilities little by little, as they learned each part of it and under-stood its significance. (Acts 15:19-21)
We all have vestiges of Adam’s mannerisms in us which have to be trained out of us by the new spirit (Ez. 11:19) that is already in league with Him who redeemed us. (Ephesians 4:22-24; Rom. 8:29) It takes time—a whole lifetime—to change our habits and line them up with who we truly already are.
But this is no cause for despair. This Torah portion tells us that this is actually the way it is meant to be. He has a merciful reason for it: “YHWH your Elohim will cast out those nations before you little by little; you will not be able to finish them off all at once, so the wild animals will not become too numerous for you.” (7:22)
How does this apply now? The “inhabitants of the Land” that remain in us before we are made completely holy—the shortcomings of which we’re painfully aware every day—remain useful to YHWH at each stage of our growth. Our “selfish” defenses against this fallen world are needed for a while to keep us free to carry out the work of the Kingdom when politicians or criminals would want to co-opt our resources. Someone else may need to hear a harsher word from us to be convicted of a wrong direction he is headed, if gentler words won’t convince him how devastating it will be if he transgresses YHWH’s words. As we saw above, there is a time to not pull our punches.
“But YHWH will deliver them up before you…” (7:23) Have no doubt: “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion…” (Philippians 1:6)
How? “Not just by [natural means] but by every word… from YHWH’s mouth.” (8:3, 17-18) The Torah is the means and also the mirror by which we judge our progress; it shows us what we—our souls—look like now and what we’re supposed to look like—what our spirit already looks like:
“Anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out…is like one who observes his ancestral [Israelite!] face in a mirror…then… right away forgot what kind of man he is. [An Israelite!] But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and sticks to it closely—not being this forgetful hearer, but acts on [what he hears]…, will be blessed.” (James 1:23-25)
But what is that perfect (completely matured) Torah? It reaches its fullest exemplification in the face of Yeshua, our new “ancestor”, the culmination of Israel, the restored image of Elohim (Gen. 5:1, 3 ; Colossians 1:15) whose “spiritual genes” we now share, glimpses of which we can see as we look into the written Torah that he fleshed out (Yochanan 1:14):
“All of us…, having had our faces exposed, reflecting the glory of YHWH as if in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from [one degree of] glory into [another]...” (2 Cor. 3:18)
By this gradual conquest of the “Land”, we let each aspect of this transformation by the renewing our minds (Rom. 12:2) take deeper root (Mat. 13:19-23) through extensive scrutiny of what it means to be a true human freed from Adam’s rule and led by the king YHWH has installed on the throne. (Psalm 2:6) Bring every thought into captivity to him!
Taking Back
What Was Lost
—in Unexpected Ways
The quandaries we encounter are sent by YHWH to show what He can do that is outside the box of what we think possible. (Deut. 8:3-4) If we’re inclined to complain about inconveniences, He reveals how many other hazards could have affected us drastically, but never actually touched us. (8:15) As in Amy Grant’s classic song “Angels Watching Over Me”, “only [YHWH] knows the times my life was threatened just today.” Yet I came out unscathed. We have more reasons to be thankful than we will ever know—so be sure to offer Him thanks regularly and often! A modern Hebrew song says, “Praise Yah for what has taken place—and still more for what has not taken place!”
He sometimes calls us to “play with the big boys” (9:1-2)—to take on challenges that are “out of our league” and evils that are far beyond our natural ability to overcome, whether they be rampant societal trends or just our own formidable fleshly inclinations. Why? Because just as He took the land promised to our ancestors back from the usurping Canaanites, He is taking His world back from the one who tricked His caretakers into giving it up. (Gen. 3)
Not that that wasn’t our own fault. (9:4-7) But that enemy made it just too much of a cesspool, and YHWH did not intend His world to be a wasteland (Isa. 45:18), so He will reclaim it, but He wants to involve us in the process so we can again share in dominion. (Gen. 1:26) So don’t be afraid of them; the One who is with us is greater than them all. (7:17-18) He has shown us what He can do (7:19), so we can be confident He can handle all He calls us to join Him in.
He is going to turn it from a wasteland back into a garden, and He has started with the Land that has His constant attention (11:12), and it’s beginning to be, as the haftarah said, a place packed full of inhabitants (Isa. 49:17-21) instead of deserted as it was 150 years ago. But there are more to come. The descendants of the people who were taken away, some thought to be lost forever, will be back in the same place they were taken from, with a homing draw more amazing than a salmon’s or monarch butterfly’s. Did you ever write a note on your hand so you would not forget something important? Well, YHWH says He’s done that in regard to Tzion—on both hands! (Isa. 49:16)
It will then spread from there, because the pattern is for everything He does to start there in Jerusalem, then be sent out to everywhere else (Isa. 2:3; Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:16)—from which many nations will then be gathered back in just as Israel was first, bringing with them not just tribute but Israel’s lost sons and daughters. (Isa. 49:22-23)
Why does YHWH give us power to attain wealth? For our own sakes? No, Moshe says it’s so we will have the resources to establish YHWH’s covenant for others too. (8:18) “O Elohim, show us favor and bless us… SO THAT Your ways may be known on the earth, and Your salvation among all nations!” (Psalm 67:1-2, emphasis mine)
And what form will this greatness take? Not a show-offy grandeur, but the use of whatever extra resources we have to provide simple justice for the ones who suffer most from the effects of death—widows and orphans—or those most affected by the failure of resources, who have to move to other countries just to find sustenance. (Deut. 10:18) YHWH cares for them, so His people must treat them well too (10:19), for in His great generosity He wants to do all He can—again through us—to offset the ill effects of humanity’s fall for its most vulnerable victims.
His favored Land is not a predictable one like Egypt, with its ebbing and flowing Nile which makes irrigation easy. (11:10) It depends on rain (11:11ff), but we have a part in ensuring its continued fruitfulness: our obedience to YHWH’s commands! (11:13-14) This seems like a stretch, a leap—another of those outside-the-box phenomena—for there is no logical connection between obeying and the rain falling. We might think it was our prayers that brought it, and that’s undoubtedly a part, but He says that by our getting back in right relationship to Him, nature will get back in synch too (along with everything else, per 11:18-25).
That sounds like a return to the Garden of Eden—all creation back under the Son of Adam’s feet. (Psalm 8:4-6) And that is the goal indeed, with his Land (where it may very well have been; Genesis 2’s Gihon is right there at Jerusalem) in the forefront of the restoration force.
So align yourself with Him who designed nature, and the “tuning forks” will resonate and harmony will return, because He is the One from whom the sap of life flows, so everything and everyone who connects to Him will be in unity with everything else that has gotten back into line. That sounds a lot like “Seek first the Kingdom of YHWH and His righteousness, and all the rest will be added to you.” (Mat. 6:33) So our work is cut out for us!
