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CHAPTER 33
1. Now this is the blessing [V'zot haB'rakhah] with which Moshe, the man of Elohim, blessed the descendants of Israel before his death:
The man of Elohim: A title for prophets. (1 Kings 12:22; 13:1; 17:18; 20:28, etc.) This is the only time anyone is called this in the Torah. Moshe, being a very humble man (Num. 12:3), did not call himself this; Y’hoshua, who would soon become leader in his place, wrote this epilogue to Moshe’s writings. The one who spent his whole life as Moshe’s protégé and followed him even up Mt. Sinai, gave him the greatest compliment anyone could receive. Moshe had an extremely close relationship to YHWH compared to anyone else in his day. (Num. 12:6ff) YHWH spoke with him face to face, and even told other prophets to respect His choice of Moshe as leader, and never to speak against him. YHWH said he was “faithful over all His house”, thus naming him “father” of all Israel, who had the authority to bless his “children” like this. (Compare Gen. 48:20) Moshe was not sick, but he had been told he was going to die; actually, he was commanded to die! Impending death has a way of clarifying one’s thoughts. Rather than being bitter about being forbidden to enter the Land after all he had done for YHWH, Moshe blesses Israel instead. He is trying to tie up every loose end. He has appointed Y’hoshua his successor, since he knows how Moshe operates. With his last breaths, the man who has laid down his life for YHWH’s people expresses hope that they will return to his words after they go astray, as he knows they will do. He is giving them a “map” of the way back. He makes sure they know their history and what is expected of them because of the covenant they have with YHWH. “Bless” is a religious word, but in Hebrew it is not so mysterious. It means “to bend the knee”. Clearly we bend the knee to YHWH, but how, then, does He bless us? With the same joy and eagerness that a parent lowers himself to speak to his child on his level. One becomes a servant to the one he blesses, whether YHWH or one’s children. A blessing is not empty words. This is every bit as powerful as when he called down plagues or split the sea or brought water from the rock. Our blessing, too, can have genuine power if we walk in Torah. He gave us an example of how we can speak positive things like power and protection into the lives of others, especially our children, telling them, “You can do it! This is where you do well and where you can excel.” Even a word as commonplace as “shalom” is a blessing; it is a wish that the person we are addressing will be made complete and have total well-being. It is more than a mere greeting. Moshe, the man who heard YHWH’s own words and who 40 years earlier struggled to speak Hebrew, knows the importance of the right choice of words. In his lifetime he has heard words that changed history forever and gave Israel its covenant. The words that follow are those he chose to be his final words:
2. He said, "YHWH came from Sinai, and
broke out for them from Seir; He shone forth
from the mountains of Pa’aran, and He arrived
from [among] myriads of the set-apart. From
His right hand [came] a flaming decree for them.
Seir: the mountains in the land of Edom, near Petra in Jordan today. Pa’aran: west of the Aravah, south of the main inhabited area of Kanaan. Myriads: tens of thousands. In ancient thought, an elohim was limited to the boundaries of his territory (compare 32:8). We might expect Him to “come from” Mt. Tzion or Moryah. But He chose exile from the Land until He brought His own people back with Him. He came out from these mountains and into Egypt and brought us out of there and into another Land. He was not bound by someone else’s lines. Even when we did not know it, YHWH was already caring for us and protecting us with His hand, or there would have been much greater damage from our enemies or from our own actions. This decree will eventually cover the whole earth, but first He “tests it” on Israel. When we learn to follow it correctly, it will set the course for the entire world to do so too.
3. "Sure, He loves the peoples; all His set-apart ones are in your hand, but they are encamped at your feet. [Each] is carried by your words.”
Encamped: or assembled, settled down. The imagery in verse 2 is of flames shooting forth from His hand. Fire always has an effect—either purifying (separating off the slag or dross) or destroying, and sometimes both at the same time (killing off bacteria and sterilizing). A proper relationship with the fire can keep us warm, cook our food, or purify our water. The fire can either free us from the things that weigh us down, or it can bring us great discomfort, disfigure us, and even kill us if approached wrongly. The place of safety is at His feet (an idiom for His festivals, per Exodus 23:14), where we learn to use His fire properly, to expose the profitless things to it and burn them away. The fire gives us light with which to view ourselves in the mirror of His Torah. Are we loving Him and our neighbors as we should? Are we ready to appear before the Judge of the Universe? If we ask ourselves the questions that each festival brings, we can learn to judge ourselves so we will not be judged when He brings judgment, for fire cannot burn the same place twice. We are not just going to a confessional so we can be absolved and go back and sin again, but repent intensely during the season for it, so that we can continue to repent more readily all year long.
4. Moshe appointed instruction for us--[it is] the heritage of the congregation of Yaaqov,
The Hebrew word for “instruction” here is torah. This, more than other traditions, is what we must be sure is passed down to each generation. It is offered to the congregation as a whole. When we are all together, our theories about how to interpret it can be tested more fully, and we can rule out wrong ways of seeing it.
5. and he became king in Yeshurun when the heads of the nation, the branches of Israel, had gathered themselves in unity:
King: in context, it is Moshe that is being spoken of, though we seldom think of him as a king as such. But he was in charge, and in order for all the tribes to again be united, we must all submit to what Moshe wrote. YHWH was the truest King, but He had made Moshe the lawgiver. There was only one time we were gathered to this extent: in the wilderness; after that we spread out. Yeshurun means “the upright one”--a name by which YHWH called Israel only when all the tribes were united. All Israel will yet again “appoint for themselves one head”. (Hoshea 1:11) Verses 4 and 5 are an explanatory parenthesis by Y’hoshua; now Moshe’s words resume:
6. "Let Re’uven live and not die, and let his persons be counted.
The only blessing Moshe offers this tribe is survival, but that is a large one in light of the fact that a son who took his father's concubine must die (Lev. 18:8; 20:11), and Re’uven did this. (Gen. 35:22) This suggests that there were at least a vocal few who were as ambivalent toward Re’uven as Yaaqov was (Gen. 49:3ff), apparently arguing for that tribe’s exclusion from the congregation when Moshe had trouble from some of them (Num. 16:1). But Moshe takes back Yaaqov’s curse and grants a pardon for his descendants so that they would not be barred from inheriting along with the other tribes. There is hope if his sons repent. (Yeshayahu 56:3ff)
7. And the [same holds] for Yehudah: he said, "O YHWH, hearken to the voice of Yehudah, and bring him near to his people; his hands are strong for it, and You will be the One who helps [free] him from his oppressors."
Moshe confirms Yaaqov’s blessing on Yehudah. (Gen. 49:8ff) His brothers will bow down to him, but Moshe wants to be sure his heart is toward his brothers, so he will also act on their behalf. Yehudah indeed prays daily for the outcasts to be regathered, and this includes all the other tribes of Israel, too. Yehudah was already estranged from his brothers as early as Genesis 38—shortly after Yosef was taken to Egypt. Ever since then, his tribe has been inclined to shun or shy away from the rest of Israel (sometimes indeed for the sake of greater holiness), which is understandable since every major power has been its oppressor, but Moshe prays that this can be healed, and we pray it with him. May Moshe’s merit push it over the hump! One reason this tribe was given leadership over the others may have been to keep it together with the rest of Israel. This worked for a while, but the unity must again be restored. (Yesh. 11:13) Today Yehudah’s leaders feel pulled to be part of something bigger than themselves, but often it is the United Nations rather than the rest of Israel, for they are only beginning to be able to identify us. YHWH will help them through those human brothers who help them. (Psalm 118:7) Though Yehudah has the crown, Yosef has a birthright (1 Chron. 5:2), which is why Efrayim could hold a separate crown for some time, but we have to be willing to again trust a Jewish king with both crowns. (Y’hezq’el 37:22)
8. And for Levi, he said, "Your thummim and your urim are for your devout man whom you put to the test at Massah; against him you contended over the waters of Merivah--
Thummim...urim: perfections and lights, which comprise part of the high priest's equipment. Massah (“place of testing”) and Merivah (“strife”): where Moshe struck the rock and brought water the first time; the history is in Ex. 17:7.
9. "the one who tells his father and mother, ‘I have not considered them.' Neither did he acknowledge his brothers or recognize his [own] children, because they have preserved Your utterance and [faithfully] kept guard over Your covenant.
I have not considered them: This sounds negative, but refers to the fact that a high priest, and other priests to a lesser degree, could not even bury most members of his closest family (Lev. 21), because YHWH’s work comes first. Also, all the Levites stepped across the line Moshe drew in the sand, and dared to slay their fellows who rebelled (Ex. 32:26; Num. 25:7ff); YHWH recognized this with this special responsibility:
10. "They will teach Your [proper legal] customs to Yaaqov, and Your instruction to Israel. They will set incense before You, and a whole burnt offering upon Your altar.
They (the priests) will teach: This is the authoritative background for Malakhi 2:7. A rabbinic structure may have been helpful and even necessary for exile, when Yehudah was alone, but when it comes to final rulings on the Torah, the Levitical priesthood is the only leadership authorized by Moshe himself for the whole nation.
11. "Bless, O YHWH, his substance, and accept the things done by his hands. Shatter the loins of those who rise up against him, and keep those who hate him from rising up [again]!
Moshe’s own tribe gets the biggest blessing not because they are his but because YHWH chose them. Shatter the loins: Yaaqov was not proud of what Levi did. (Gen. 49:5) He said, “Make sure they do not get to use their hands; they are dangerous!” Moshe turned his curse of scattering to a positive usefulness. He said, “YHWH, honor their hands; they’re skillful!” He even wrote the account of that event (Gen. 34) in such a way as to give Levi and Shim’on the last word. Yaaqov did not respond, but Moshe did. Levi would indeed continue to shed blood for YHWH’s sake, but in a positive, fruitful way.
12. For Binyamin he said, "YHWH's beloved will dwell in confidence beside him, as a covering [shield] over him all day [long], and he shall dwell between His shoulders."
Beside: or "over". The threshing floor which David (whose name means “beloved”, and who is called a man after YHWH’s own heart) bought and on which the Temple was later built was located partly in Binyamin's tribal land. And the two tribes that have shouldered the burden best have been Yehudah and Yosef, between which Binyamin’s land lay. Binyamin has a strong connection to both: Yehudah promised to guarantee Binyamin’s safety. (Gen. 43:8; it is “Yehudah and his brothers” who come to Yosef’s house to eat) But Yosef is his only full-blooded brother. So he is the connection between the two, bringing the balance they need. Those who are bridging the gap between Jews and those returning from the Northern Kingdom may be Binyamites.
13. For Yosef he said, "His land is that which is blessed by YHWH from the excellencies of heaven, from the dew, and from the depth that stretches out beneath,
Depth: or floods; beneath: both of Yosef’s tribes have
well-watered territories with many aquifers,
including Mt. Hermon (pictured at right), with the
headwaters of the Yarden River.
14. "and from the best products yielded by the
sun, and for the precious things driven by the
lunar cycles,
Lunar cycles: or months. This might refer to the sea tides, but also and probably more importantly, to the new moons and the significance they have in determining the times of YHWH's holy appointments each year. It is the returning house of Yosef that is re-establishing the observance of new moons for this purpose, more so than the house of Yehudah, though there has always been a small remnant of the latter who marked them.
15. "and from the tops of the ancient mountains and the best of the everlasting hills,
16. "and from the excellencies of the earth and its fullness, and the delight of the One who resides in the bush--may it come upon the head of Yosef and on the top of the head of the one kept separate [from] his brothers.
Fullness: Yaaqov prophesied that Yosef's son Efrayim (whose own name means “doubly fruitful”) would become "the fullness of the nations" (Gen. 48:19). The bush: the burning bush in which YHWH met Moshe. Separate from his brothers: not only historically in the man Yosef himself, but also his descendants, who have been apart from Yehudah for so long, yet blessings have usually followed Yosef around; this is an agricultural blessing, and the places his two sons have largely inhabited (Britain and the United States) have been the bread-baskets of the world, the most agriculturally-productive lands in history. This phrase is a direct allusion to Yaaqov’s own blessing in Gen. 49, for the word for “separate” is nazir—an untrimmed or untended vine left to grow on its own, which Yaaqov said would grow over a wall.
17. "His majesty is like the firstborn of his ox, and his horns are like the horns of a re'em. With them he shall push the peoples together [from the] ends of the earth, and they are the myriads of Efrayim and the thousands of Menashe."
Why would being like the firstborn of his ox (or bull) be a blessing? A bull is the highest offering that can be brought to the Temple, and one can never keep the firstborn for oneself or redeem it; it belongs to YHWH alone, and Yosef was born for exactly that purpose. Even the credit they tried to give him for interpreting dreams he diverted to its rightful source. Re'em: some say it is a unicorn, but the horns are plural here, so it is probably an extinct species of wild ox. Yosef's "horns" are his two sons, sent out into all the world to bring together the nations or ethnic groupings. Those who have delved most deeply into the wanderings of the "lost" tribes (often all grouped under Efrayim in scripture) have deduced that Efrayim can largely be represented today by the British Empire, and Menashe by the United States--the two nations that have in the latter days sent more people to the "ends of the earth" (cf. Mark 13:27; Acts 1:8) for the purpose of placing all nations under one king, though only recently has it come back to light that the purpose is actually to regather all Israel to become a literal kingdom. Horns in particular connote military power, and these two nations are two of the strongest militarily to this day. Menashe was the larger tribe numerically, but Efrayim may be described as ten times more because Efrayim reigned over ten tribes.
18. To Z'vulun he said, "Be glad, O Z'vulun, in your going forth, and Issachar, in your tents.
These are military blessings. In Judges, we do not see these two tribes prove very strong militarily; it may be that they were given this blessing because they needed it the most. By calling them by a better name, they would be more likely to rise to the occasion.
19. "They will summon the people to the mountain; there they will slaughter offerings of justice, because they will suck bounty from oceans and treasures hidden [in] whirling sand."
Somehow their wealth will be used for the purpose of regathering Israel to worship YHWH on His holy Temple Mount. Whirling sand: or writhing dance. Oceans: See note on Gen. 49:13.
20. For Gad he said, "Blessed is the One who widens Gad; he settles down like a [roaring] lion, and tears in pieces an arm--no, [even] more: [the] top of a head.
Widens: implicitly, to make more room for him. Gad’s territory could extend further east into the desert, if it can be made habitable. We are told that the scepter will somehow be hidden in Gad. Collins thinks Gad is found in modern-day Germany: Is this describing the German quest for “lebensraum” (living space)? But the Germans are a conglomeration of peoples; those who descend from Israel are most likely to be those who have emphasized community, like the Amish, Mennonites, and followers of Bonhoeffer.
21. "He also eyes the choice part for himself, because there a portion of one who enacts decrees is hidden, and he arrived [as] heads of the nation; he carried out YHWH's justice and His rulings with Israel."
Eyes the choice [first, best] part--again, like a lion. A portion: or a slippery parcel of ground. A portion of [a lawgiver] is hidden: Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky links this "one who enacts decrees" with the "hidden scepter” in Gen. 49:10, noting that the scepter is in Yehudah's hands "until the one to whom it belongs comes”. Torah specifies that it is the Levites who are to enact decrees as, Moshe, a Levite, did. Yehudah (and often Levi with it) being hidden in Gad may even be a prophecy of Yiddish (a form of German) being the chief language spoken by Jews for centuries, preserving much of the Torah lifestyle until Hebrew was revived as its native tongue.
22. For Dan he said, "Dan is a lion's cub; he will leap from the Bashan."
Bashan: today called the Golan Heights, and this is where the tribe of Dan later captured and inhabited a city (Laish, in photo at left), though it was not their original tribal territory. (Judges 18)
23. To Nafthali he said, "O Nafthali, abounding in favor and filled with the blessing of YHWH, take possession of the west and the south."
Take possession of: or occupy. West and south: or "the sea and southward". The tribal land of Nafthali stretched along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (Kinnereth). Could its later manifestation have been Spain (and its kin Portugal), which conquered much of the West, especially the southern part?
24. For Asher he said, "Asher is blessed with children; may he be pleasing to his brothers, and dip his foot into oil.
Asher's tribal land is shaped like a shoe facing south, with the Karmel/Haifa Peninsula being the tongue and its bay the opening. Dip: or plunge. American oilman "Hayseed" Stephens has discovered oil reserves deep beneath the area which forms the "toe" of this shoe! And by another interpretation of the tribe’s borders, John M. Brown of the Zion Oil and Gas Company) has been exploring the Haifa area, and found vast reserves, which also have not yet been exploited.
25. "Your shoe-latches shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so your affluence [will be].
Again the imagery of the shoe shows up! Affluence: as in English, the term is from a root meaning "to flow" and related to a verb meaning "to glide over". A shoe dipped in oil would certainly do that! What follows is now to all of Israel again:
26. "There is none like the El of Yeshurun, who mounts and rides the sky to [become] your help, and the clouds in His majesty.
What about Shim’on? Where is he in this blessing? He would be included with Yehudah, having been scattered in the same way as Levi but without the special task Levi was given.
27. "The ancient Elohim is your refuge, and underneath is the eternal shoulder. And He will drive out the enemy from before your face, and say, ‘Annihilate!'
Despite how poetic the description of these blessings is, what YHWH Himself is to us is the greatest blessing. Refuge: or dwelling place; connotes a place where one feels safe and at home. No matter what political know-how, military might, or natural resources we may have, YHWH is our deliverer. That He wants to help us is the greatest advantage of all. He sets up the ambush and lets us finish the job. Shoulder: or arm, a symbol of strength. More than a mere safety net, He is a support so we will be strong and not fall to begin with.
28. "Then Israel can settle down in safety, separately. Yaaqov's fountain shall be on a land of grain and freshly-pressed wine; moreover, his skies will drop down dew.
When we make YHWH, not the U.S. or U.N., our refuge, we will not have to live side-by-side with enemies who do not keep their promises.
29. "O Israel, you are blessed! Who is like you, O people being liberated by YHWH? [He is] the defense shield surrounding you with help and the one who is the sword of your majesty! Those who treat you with hostility will cringe in feigned obedience to you, and you will march on their high ridges."
Blessed: the word is much richer in Hebrew than the English “happy”, which is related to mere "happenstance". This kind of blessing is based on advancing in a straight line, making progress, and being set right, not just material prosperity. The final blessing is that we will overcome our foes, both those who keep us out of the Land and the things inside us that keep us from getting there, like bad habits, ignorance, apathy, or wrong traditions. This indicates that Israel will become so powerful that even those who oppose us will have to pretend they agree with us in order to save their own reputation. March on their high ridges: or "tread down their cultic worship platforms" (i.e., in desecration of their false elohim). Pay no honor to what they worship. There may be some reference here to the enemies to which Yehudah wants to hand over the high ground, based on the unlikely faithfulness to a promise to remain demilitarized. But our enemies are whatever tells us to worship anything but YHWH. Moshe’s final summation of all of his teaching is that we can overcome what opposes us, but YHWH will only do so when we set our hands to it. Once we cross the Yarden, we will be held accountable for much more; Moshe is trying to prepare us for this. All religions speak of a “judgment day” at the end of the age, but only the Torah gives us one each year, so that we do not need to wait until we are dead to have our rough edges removed. Then we can get even closer to Him.
CHAPTER 34
1. Then Moshe climbed from the desert-plains of Moav to the
mountains of N’vo, to the head of the summit which faces
Y’rikho, and YHWH let him see all the land--Gil'ad as far as
Dan,
How did Y’hoshua know what Moshe saw? When Moshe is said to have ascended Mount Sinai “alone”, Y’hoshua still turns out to have been there. Such an understudy seems inseparable from Moshe, so it is more than likely that he went at least part of the way with Moshe again. Desert-plains: Heb., aravot (literally the places of mixture), the plural of the special term for the Rift Valley through which the Yarden River flows, so he appears to have left the rest of the people already down near the river, poised to cross over. Gil'ad: directly north of Mt. N’vo. Dan is at the extreme north of Israel, though originally its tribal land was on the coast near present-day Tel Aviv. Linking it with Gil’ad indicates that Dan had already moved partially to the northern location before Y’hoshua wrote this epilogue. N’vo: meaning “His prophet”—an appropriate memorial to Moshe. Moshe climbed: willingly, even though he knew that is where he would die. There is another play on words here in Hebrew: right after "Y'rikho", the next word is yar'ehu ("He let him see").
2. and all Nafthali, the land of Efrayim and Menashe, the whole land of Yehudah to the sea beyond it [to the west],
3. and the Negev, and the district of the Y’rikho rift, the city of palm trees, to Tsoar.
Negev: Israel’s southern desert. City of palm trees: it still is that today. Rift: literally, a place torn or split open, which is exactly how the valley in which Y’rikho sits, was formed during the S’dom and ‘Amorrah catastrophe. Tsoar: the small town at the southern end of the Dead Sea to which Lot asked permission to flee temporarily after the destruction of S'dom. But the numeric value of its name is 360, suggesting that Moshe’s life (let alone his panoramic view of the Land) had come “full circle”. He only mentions the territories he would be able to see the face of from his vantage point. He had already seen Re’uven’s land, and he was in Gad’s at the time. Asher, Z’vulun, and Yissakhar’s would be hidden behind the mountain range and the Galil; Nafthali’s peaks would be visible on the far side of the Kinnereth. Binyamin’s land would include Y’rikho, which is mentioned here, just not by his name. And of course, Shim’on was “hidden” within Yehudah. Across the Dead Sea he could see the beginning of the Negev, which is just beyond Matsada. Of course, it must have been much less hazy then to be able to see to the Mediterranean! But his eye was not dim. (v. 7) Moshe may have even identified for Y’hoshua where some of the tribes should be placed.
4. And YHWH told him, "This is the land which I swore to Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants'. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over to there."
Moshe’s obedience, even agreeing to YHWH’s punishment, is amazing. But seeing the Land of promise is no small thing either. This is his reward for putting up with Israel’s constant griping and moaning for 40 years. He saw the territory of Efrayim and M’nasheh, who for 2,700 years did not see our connection to the Land, but are now looking toward it again. We can now go beyond what Moshe was able to do, so let us make the most of this privilege.
5. Then Moshe the servant of YHWH died there in the land of Moav, according to YHWH's word.
He died, but we are not told how. If we did know how such an illustrious leader died, we would probably somehow build a doctrine around it, saying that the most spiritual would have to die in the same way, etc. It is noteworthy that the “word” that immediately preceded his death was, “You won’t be going there”--as if these last words of YHWH to him were what killed him. He died upon command; that is how obedient he was! With no argument, he died because YHWH told him to. As many couples who have been married for many decades end up dying around the same time, Israel in the wilderness in YHWH’s presence was Moshe’s “mate” of a different kind. This stage of Israel’s history is about to end, and he knows it. When that relationship is no longer possible, his job is done; it was time to die, so Moshe remained in season. It is a very wise man who knows when it is time to get out of the way. He has already seen their mouths watering for land and prosperity. YHWH did him a favor by not letting him see them scattered, even within the Promised Land; Moshe was just not made for that. This phase of our history is dying, so Moshe dies with it. He goes on directly to the Kingdom, the more mature version of Israel after all the blessings and curses have done their work, and where he can be more at home. Realizing that this was really a reward for him helps us deal with the sadness we feel about his death after leading us for 40 years. It is as if we are losing a father, for he invested so much of himself, from which we still benefit.
6. Then He buried him in a steep gorge in the land of Moav, toward Beyth-Pe'or [place of the cleft], but until this day no one knows the site of his burial.
He buried him: Since he did not die of natural causes (v. 7), did YHWH cause an earthquake that made him fall into the gorge and then an avalanche to cover him up—and in the process lower the mountain so that we can no longer see as far as one used to be able to see from there? Or does the “he” refer to Y’hoshua instead? No one knows: If Y’hoshua did bury him, he was not telling anyone where. He knew better. Yehudah (Jude) verse 9 upholds a tradition that the archangel Mikha’el disputed with haSatan about Moshe's body. Considering how the brass serpent he made became an object of idolization later, how much more would the body of Moshe be idolized? (See note on 3:26) And people would keep coming back out of the Land to pay him homage. He was buried in a valley so he would not be set too high. Yeshua was also buried in a borrowed tomb, and no one knows for sure where it was, but just as he was resurrected, Moshe is also already alive in the Kingdom, for Yeshua spoke to him (Mark 9:4), and it is against Torah to speak with the dead. So we should not seek the living among the dead, as the messengers said.
7. So Moshe was 120 years old when he died; his eye had not grown dim, nor had his vigor departed.
Vigor: or freshness; literally, moisture. He was without the ravages of time, possibly because of the encounters with YHWH that had made his face glow. When he approached, his presence was still strongly felt. He was old, but not worn out or shriveled up. He died not due to frailty or sickness, but because it was time to die. It was time for Y’hoshua to take Israel into the Land. In Scripture, 40 years symbolizes a complete era, after which it is time for a transition. Moshe had lived through three different “lives”, so now it was time for a new cycle to begin. An eye that is not dim is also a Hebrew idiom for selfless generosity (as Y’shua alluded to in Mat. 6:22). He was not thinking of himself, but of YHWH’s will. A different kind of leader is needed for the next task, but he delivered YHWH’s sheep right to the doorstep, to the border, as far as he could go. Then he rested, moving on to his reward. It took far longer than he had imagined, for such a journey should not have taken more than three months, if they were lollygagging and buying souvenirs! But he stuck with it and finished his task—a great accomplishment, considering that Y’hoshua and the rest of Israel have still not finished the next stage! There has never yet been a time when all the enemies were removed from the Land, or all the promised territory claimed. David came close, but not all the way. But Moshe got his job done.
8. Then the descendants of Israel bewailed Moshe on the plains of Moav for thirty days, then the days of weeping and the period of mourning for Moshe were completed.
Traditionally, this 30 days was from Adar 1 through Aviv 1. This seems short compared to the 70 days for Yaaqov (Genesis 50), though the 70 who entered Egypt came from him. But maybe by having 30-day mourning periods for both Moshe and Aharon (Num. 20:29), YHWH was correcting the excesses of the mourning for Yaaqov, which was, after all, done by an entourage from Egypt, which was obsessed with death. The typical minimal period of mourning is seven days, though a lesser degree of mourning is carried on for a year in Jewish tradition today. Of course, they did not have his body to anoint and prepare for burial. Since by tradition Moshe died on the new moon, they may have reasoned that with the next renewal, we should move on from death. There is a time to mourn, and a time to put mourning behind us. Y’hoshua brought them out of it and said, “Don’t fail Moshe! Do what he said to do!” They delayed their journey for 30 days. But the next renewal was the Aviv, which meant there were other issues pressing as well. We were now approaching Passover, so it was time to cross over, by the very definition of the day and its history. It would take at least a day for everyone to break camp and walk to the Yarden. This left less than two weeks to move, to cross over, and to be circumcised, which they would want to do at least three days before Passover because they would essentially be immobilized. Before they crossed over, Y’hoshua also sent the spies to Y’rikho, which took at least four days. So during these two weeks, they were quite busy. Moshe had continued to walk when things looked hopeless and most would have given up. There are times to rest, but even the season to “stand still and see YHWH’s deliverance” only lasted a few minutes. (Ex. 14:10ff) Again, now, Y’hoshua told them to walk on. It was time to leave behind the other things they had invested themselves into, and not get stuck in their circumstances. We do not want to stay still when YHWH has kept moving. Neither hard times nor easy times constitute a reason to stop moving when the journey is only half-done. Sometimes we cannot slow down, no matter how we feel. Moshe had appointed another shepherd to succeed him. There was another adventure waiting ahead. So, not satisfied to merely be doing better than most people, they now turned to Y’hoshua and said, in essence, “Okay, boss, what now?” Moshe would be proud of them. They obeyed Y’hoshua, at least for Moshe’s sake:
9. But Y'hoshua the son of Nun became filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moshe had leaned his hands on him, and the descendants of Israel listened to him, and did as YHWH had commanded Moshe.
Now Y'hoshua uses the name Moshe gave him, but still mentions his father in order to honor him. Moshe would be a hard act for anyone to follow. But Y'hoshua does not give any hint of competing for a "legacy". He simply uses well the authority he was given. He is realistic about the wisdom that he now possesses, but gives credit where it is due--the balance of true humility. He was not trying to start something new, just like the one who later bore his name. He was turning a page, but still kept walking in Moshe's words, as Y’shua did. We, too, can credit Moshe for our wisdom. (Deut. 4:6) Moshe put his weight (an idiom for authority) on him so he could carry the weight of the Torah--though that burden is light when we divest ourselves of the dead weight of selfishness. The details of this event are found in Lev. 27:18ff. He was not filled with wisdom by magic, but by his experience and Moshe's instruction. Even a fool who keeps the Torah can become wise.
10. And since then, there has not arisen a prophet like Moshe, whom YHWH recognized face to face,
For 40 years he probably received the best education anyone could have received in his day, but then he had the balancing experience of hard labor for his father-in-law for the next 40. Y’hoshua gives great tribute to his teacher, who groomed him well for his job. He sees the facts clearly, as any leader must. But he does not have the same relationship with YHWH that Moshe had; he does not hear from YHWH face to face as Moshe did. Aside from the times he received direction from YHWH through the priests in regard to war decisions, he heard from YHWH through Moshe. Like the judges, he was also a prophet, speaking into his current situations what YHWH had already spoken in the Torah—which is the test of any true prophet.
11. with respect to all the signs and outstanding miracles that YHWH sent him to do in the land of Egypt for Pharaoh and for all his servants and to all his land,
YHWH must have felt some nostalgia for Avraham’s day. There were not many Hebrew shepherds left anymore, after Israel had lived so long in a place where they were despised. But was a descendant of Yaaqov tending sheep! So the face-to-face meetings never stopped, for he did what YHWH needed done, even if hesitant at first. The more we obey, the more we hear, and the more clearly we hear, the less we are at arm’s length. When YHWH says, “Do this, and do this; I am YHWH”, it is not that He is saying, “Just do it because I am the boss.” He is not interested in us jumping through hoops; He tells us to do these things because by doing them we will see His heart, and get to know who He really is. He wants with us what He had with Adam—friendship. But none of us can give YHWH all He wants; we need each other. Moshe is one of very few people with whom we see YHWH having a personal relationship as such, and even in his case it was still really about Israel. Words certainly matter (so do not overuse them), but they are not enough. We cannot pray a starving person full, as Yaaqov (James) said; we must pray, but we must put even more time into action. Even on Yom haKippurim, we cannot merely fast, Yeshayahu 58 says; we must use that day to make sure that others are able to eat afterwards. What we do tells Him whether we are the kind of people He wants working for Him. How much we prove to care shows Him how much care He needs to put into us.
12. and with respect to all the hand of firm grip and with regard to all the great awe-inspiring acts which Moshe carried out in the eyes of all Israel.
YHWH gives Moshe credit at the last, and never even mentions the reason why He said he had to die. (v. 5) He is depicted as very cooperative. He ends on a positive note. But it is done before all Israel, so all of us could say, “I need to be like that.” Moshe said, “Look at me” not because he needed to be looked at (he did not want to be), but because he was what Israel needed to follow. “Emulate me” is a scary thing to say, for it entails much accountability, but we must be brave enough to say it when others need to know how it is done, and we know how to do it. YHWH redeems the people as a whole, but individuals must be redeemed by a kinsman. Moshe, like Yeshua after him, came to do just that. He gave us a map to follow so we can walk the same path. Again, we are telling the Church and any other false doctrines, "Let my people go!" The last word of the Torah is “Israel”. The This book is not about the Church, personal salvation, or even the salvation of the world. It is about Israel. The first word is b’reyshith. Creation was all for the purpose of men being in covenant with YHWH, which is what Israel is about. The Torah is not complete until Israel is functioning in its fullness. The last letter in the Torah is lamed; the first is beyth. Together they spell lev, the Hebrew word for “heart”. The Torah was written to reveal YHWH’s heart to us so our hearts could be changed. And there is more: Beyth means “house”, for the Torah is the blueprint of how to build YHWH’s house. Lamed is from the word lamad, which means “to learn”, and in another form, “teach” (cause others to learn). The final message Moshe leaves with us is a command to learn what YHWH’s heart is about, then show it to someone else who cares. Once we write YHWH’s instruction on our hearts and we do teach it to others, we will get back to the beginning and become the “House” of Israel again; then we can go back home. Let us not delay, but strengthen our grip and live it out properly as a unified people this time!
TORAH PORTION
V'Zot haB'rakhah
(Deuteronomy 33:1 - 34:12)
INTRODUCTION: The last portion in the Torah is much more optimistic than the last several have been, speaking only blessing on Israel, personalized to each tribe. Moshe even clears away the dark cloud Yaaqov left over the tribe of Re’uven for a wrong their ancestor had done to him. Already he sees a need for Yehudah to be reconciled with the rest of his brothers—a wish that Yeshua and his followers started to fulfill, but which is only resuming again in our own day as we, his brothers, realize who we are. Levi (rathan than unspecified rabbis) is established as the tribe that is to teach the Torah to the rest of Israel—another thing which needs to be restored. Gad seems to have a part in this as well. All of these benefits are undergirded by YHWH’s special protection and involvement with His people. If we do our part, He will make even our enemies leave us in peace.
Next we have a description of the parts of the promised land Moshe did see. Rather than being a supernatural vision, it is a geographically-accurate view describing only the areas that would be unobstructed by other landforms. Even with the more hazy conditions common today, all three bodies of water in Israel are visible from a single location not too distant from his vantage point, so it is not unimaginable that on a very clear day he could have indeed seen that far. Now one does very well to see as far as Yerushalayim from the top of Mount N’vo.
Y’hoshua probably appended the last section, as it described Moshe’s death but also his lack of agedness. He gives credit to his teacher for how he was filled with wisdom, but again ends the account with the record of Israel’s faithfulness and obedience rather than our shortcomings.
Interestingly, the last word in the Torah is “Israel”, for Israel is YHWH’s new creation, with which those new creations who are part of the new race of the only prophet who later did surpass Moshe are also included, for whether physically descended from Israel are not, we are brought near and no longer counted as Gentiles. (Ephesians 2:11ff) So Israel is where we are to focus if we want to understand who we are and what YHWH is doing in the world.
The view from Mt. N'vo in Jordan
An End and a Beginning
After all the warnings, Moshe heaps blessings on Israel, either in hopes that or as a prophecy that later Israel will turn to a better direction than he has seen them heading.
Each prophecy is tailored to its intended tribe. Reuven’s very existence, in doubt because of his estrangement from Yaaqov (Gen. ), is salvaged and restored. (Deut. 33:6) Fierce Levi is given a special relationship with the Kind One (33:8) and because of the true sacrifice he is making (33:9), is given authority to teach the Torah and rules of jurisprudence. (33:10) YHWH is asked to accept his work—would would include the offerings he helps Israel bring. (33:11) Who are the ones who rise against him? Possibly those who usurp his role—be they Roman priests or rabbinic scholars.
Yehudah is blessed with being brought back to his people, for ever since Yosef was sold into Egypt, he has been separate from the rest of Israel in one way or another. (Gen. 38 et al) For an ever-so-brief time the two were reunited, but the prophets make it clear that the real reunification is yet to come. (Yirmeyahu 3:18; Yeshayahu 11:13, etc.)
Binyamin is given a special part in safeguarding YHWH’s sanctuary, which is on his land. (33:12) His brother Yosef is given not just the best of the land (which appears to be mountains on which terraced farms can be built), but the “yield of the months”. (33:14) Does this tie in with the Tree of Life which bears a different kind of fruit every month? (Rev. 22:2) Yosef is also said to be separated from his brothers, but this was not by his own choice. This was necessary for all Israel to be saved, but YHWH knew the pain it caused him, so his descendants are compensated in a special way for this loss. (33:16-17)
There is much more we could say. But with all the tribes assembled together, they are called Yeshurun—the ones who go straight or walk uprightly. (Deut. 33:5) They are only called this when in unity, because the Torah can only be wholly kept when all of Israel is involved—with each doing his part. What is the key to our reunification? “Moshe was king”—i.e., Torah rules. We have many ways of understanding Scripture, some Messianic, some not; some literal, some figurative, etc. But the Torah must be the basis for them all (Yeshayahu 8:20), tying them all together and binding us together as well.
His last recorded words remind us to never lose sight of how incomparable YHWH is, and what a special privilege it is to have a relationship with Him and to be able to have a share in the Land He considers the best place on earth. (33:26-29) The Sabbath liturgy now thanks YHWH that Israel’s share is not like those of the other nations’, so maybe some of the gratefulness that Moshe tried so hard to engrain into us did stick after all.
He has to be satisfied with seeing it afar off, for Moshe, a picture of the Torah, can only take us so far; one with the same name as his successor must take us the rest of the way. But he is given the clearest view one could imagine, in contrast to the hazy first tier which is all most get to see today from the same vantage point. But the description rings true, for the parts mentioned (34:1-3) are those which would be in the line of sight from Mt. Nevo, and the parts left out are those which would be hidden behind mountains that blocked the view of the other tribal inheritances.
The Dan he sees is not just the territory along the coast which Y’shoshua would give that tribe, but the Bashan to which and from which his cramped people would “leap” (33:22) in the days after Y’hoshua (Judges 18), so this epilogue must have been added even after Y’hoshua’s death, or at least annotated with the later names of the places being described. But this does not make the part not written by Moshe’s own hand any less true.
As a down-payment and precedent for the later manifestation(s) of the prophecy and command in 18:18, the people do indeed respond to the leader set in Moshe’s place by indeed listening to him (34:9), which term in Hebrew includes obedience as well. So there is a new beginning after Moshe’s end is given its well-deserved recognition. (34:8) This is probably why the non-Torah reading that accompanies this one is the first chapter of Joshua.
Moshe never experienced the loss of “freshness” in his skin that we so often see as people we love age. Was it because of the shining he experienced as he sat in YHWH’s presence? Since then there has only been one exception to the “to this day” statement that none had arisen who compared to this great one (34:10) who knew YHWH face to face, and who was given the highest description one could ever aspire to—the “man of Elohim”. (33:1) There has only been one recorded instance of someone experiencing this glowing skin that indicated the restoration of the fallen original Adam. (Matithyahu 17:2) Yet we are all given the hope of one day experiencing it because of what these two men succeeded in accomplishing. (2 Cor. 3:18) The second could not have done it without the part played by the first. (Luke 16:31) So let us carry on the work that both of them began.
Mt. Seir in present-day Jordan
Study Questions:
1. Knowing his death was imminent, what was Moshe’s mind on? (Deut. 33:1)
2. What does 33:3 reveal about YHWH’s relationship with other nations? What is different about what He did for Israel? (33:3-4)
3. “Yeshurun” means “they are upright/level/straight, not at all bent”. When is this true of Israel? (33:5)
4. What is 33:6 a response to? (Compare Genesis 49:3ff) How would this pardon help 33:5 to become more true?
5. What tendency in Yehudah does 33:7 indicate was already in operation again since the Exodus? (Compare Genesis 38:1.) What is Moshe saying must occur with this in order for 33:5 to come true?
6. Why would the Levites not see or know their own family members very well? (33:8-9) How does this compare with the standards Yeshua gave to those he trained? (Mat. 12:48-49; Luke 14:26)
7. Who is designated by YHWH to be the approved teachers of the Torah? (33:10) What does Yeshayahu/Isaiah 66:20-21 suggest about some from other tribes of Israel who might aspire to such a role? Is this the only way to interpret this verse?
8. What is the latter part of 33:11 likely an allusion to?
9. What “beloved of YHWH” that rested upon Binyamin’s territory may be referred to in 33:12? (A clue is in the word for rested or dwelt: shakan.)
10. What are some ways that “the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush” (33:16-17) has shown up in the history of Yosef’s descendants?
11. How did the prophecy in 33:22 come true, though Y’hoshua gave Dan an inheritance at the site of present-day Tel Aviv, which is far from Bashan, which is the Golan Heights? (See Judges chapter 18.) Might these words of Moshe have influenced where they looked to find more space to grow as a tribe?
12. Nafthali’s inheritance bordered on a lake, but not a full-scale sea, and was at the far north of Israel (contrary to 33:23); might these prophecies apply to a later time in the tribe’s history?
13. 33:26 has moved fully back to the entire nation; might the scope of v. 25 also be more than just Asher, transitioning back to Israel as a whole? If so, what does the promise in the latter part of v. 25 mean to you? How do verses 27-29, which is unquestionably for all Israel, bring you comfort and courage?
14. If his physical strength was not diminished (34:7), what was it that caused Moshe to die? What 34:5) What is it that keeps anything alive? (34:5)
15. Given the chapters immediately preceding this, what is pleasantly surprising about 34:9?
16. 34:10 was true when it was written, but does 18:18-19 suggest that something different would or will one day be the case?
The Renewal of
V'ZOT HA-B'RAKHAH
“This is the blessing.” That is how this end of the Torah begins.
Like Yaaqov, Moshe used his last energies to pour forth blessings on all the tribes of Israel. There were even some that Yaaqov came close to cursing, but Moshe set them back on their feet again by seeing the potential that still remained in them, even blessing through precisely what had initially been their weak points, because every fault is really a beneficial quality turned inward on itself, distorted from the shape it was supposed to take. But that means each can be re-molded and redirected, even if it takes a lot of work.
So though curses are real (one of the necessary tools in our repertoire for the few cases where they are truly called for), the Renewed Covenant still counsels us to put the emphasis in the other direction whenever possible--even, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” (Romans 12:14)
There is enough cursing already going on, with one of the most frequent wishes expressed to those who have crossed someone being (in fewer words), “May everything go wrong for you!” Our knee-jerk reaction is to wish him even more bad things back. But just how would that really improve anything?
So after his own tirade about how Israel had failed YHWH and was likely to fall away after he was gone, Moshe does all he can to pump life back into us while he still can. How does he do it? Through words.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Both. I challenge you in the coming year to read through the book of Proverbs and look at all the ways it says we can do damage or bring healing and uplift to the world simply through how we use our mouths. Words can build up just as much as, or more than, they can tear down.
Of Yeshua it was said, “All who witnessed him firsthand were amazed at the empowering words that came out of his mouth.” (Luke 4:22) But YHWH didn’t create Yeshua to be unique, but to be a prototype for more like him. (Romans 8:29; Heb. 12:2) When a crowd was hungry, he told his disciples, “You give them something to eat!”
Because he has shared his “credit” with us and is a conduit—vine to branches—for that same empowerment to flow through us, we need to make the most of this power.
People usually curse because they feel threatened. But Moshe ends his long blessing with, "O Israel, [you don’t know] how blessed you are! Who is like you, O people being saved by YHWH? [He is] the defense shield surrounding you with help…!” (Deut. 33:29)
Through Yeshua, He saves us even from who we used to be. Those who connect to YHWH through him are part of this Israel (Galatians 3:7), the resetting of fallen humanity. Even if we can’t prove a genealogy, we have his bloodline in us now, and he is the quintessence of Israel; we, too, are defended and thus safe. YHWH has positive thoughts toward us (expressed in words). So we are secure and have “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). We are in a position to, without interference, sense what the world really needs, and free to speak it into existence.
We, who have the power to exude life to a degree unknown before the New Birth (Yochanan 3:3; 1 Kefa 1:23) was possible, can use it to change things in the right direction instead of the same old wrong ones.
Israel back then itself was a new beginning. They had the open door to do things very differently than anyone else ever had. And we are also in such a place. A new cycle is about to begin, and the world is in a very different place than it was the last time we were at this starting point. But Torah, as old and seasoned as it is, always has new applications, because though YHWH is faithful—keeps His word—His "mercies are also new every morning". (Lam. 3:23) So gather the fresh manna and use it to feed the world. Yes, you!
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for kids
If you knew this was the last time ever that you were going to be able to talk to someone—maybe your great-grandparent or someone who is very sick—how would you speak to them? And what would you say? You would really want to make sure your words counted, wouldn’t you?
Now, Moshe spent a lot of time scolding and yelling at the Israelites, because, well, they were really acting badly. (These are my ancestors, too, so understand that I’m not putting someone else down.) They needed that.
But when he knew he was about to die, and these were going to be the last words he said to them, did he yell? Did he scold? Was he stern? No, he blessed them.
What does that mean? It means he spoke in hope that the best things that could possibly come to them really would come. But in Hebrew, the word “bless” means “bend the knees”. We can understand why we would bend our knees to YHWH—“bless” Him—but why would Moshe kneel to the people he was in charge of and whom he was over?
Well, when you were smaller, did your parents ever crouch down so they could hug you and look you right in the eye when they were talking to you? They were bending their knees then, weren’t they? That’s the kind of thing he might have been doing—in a figure of speech, because most of them were as grown up as he was, though he was still much older than any of them. And that is, I think, what it means when the Scriptures tell us that YHWH blesses us. He comes down to a level that His children can understand, even though He is much more than a rocket scientist, who knows all the mysteries of how everything works. But He speaks in a way that we will all understand.
So Moshe wished the best for each tribe of Israel individually. Even though some of them are leaders more than others, each of them is important to Moshe—and if Moshe said it, they were important to YHWH, because here in Deuteronomy 33:1 he is called “the man of Elohim”. That means he was speaking for YHWH and saying only what He would tell them, because remember? Their parents asked Moshe to speak to us what YHWH said, because when YHWH spoke, it scared them too much. And Moshe even died when YHWH told him to die (34:
He really does hope they will listen to his song that predicts that they will go wrong, and respond with, “No! That’s not how it’s going to be on my watch!” That’s called “reverse psychology.” He knows they can do better, and really, really hopes they will prove him wrong. And He reminds them that they aren’t just on their own; YHWH is there, too, with a “shoulder to stand on”, so we can reach higher and do the right thing even if we thought we couldn’t. (33:26-29)
And these particular people did! 34:9 tells us that the people did listen to Y’hoshua and do what he said. And we’re told in Y’hoshua 24:31 that for as long as Y’hoshua and the leaders who outlived Y’hoshua were still alive, they did serve YHWH! Later on their children and grandchildren would start to forget, but these people did remember what Moshe said, and did do it!
So even if it might not be the last time you’re going to see someone, you really never know. So talk to them as if it’s the last time they’re going to hear anything from you. Say only what you want people to remember you saying. Don’t say anything you will later wish you hadn’t said, or would have to ask forgiveness for—especially right at this season of confessing our sins and turning around. While YHWH does give us ways to fix things, it cost Him and us a lot to right the things we’ve messed up. It’s a whole lot better to not have to confess anything and not have to turn back to the right way, because you stayed on it the whole time. Moshe knew they could, and because his words encouraged them to do the right thing, they did.
So say the right thing to your friends. They just might listen!
Dan in the Bashan
The Last Word
After the pendulum between blessing and curse has swung back and forth so many times, the Torah finally ends with it pointing to the blessing. It almost seems to start out as only a hopeful prayer that YHWH will spare us in spite of ourselves and use us the way He meant to. (33:6,7, 11) Moshe gains a little more confidence as he goes on, giving particular predictions about each tribe, wonderful specialties each will have, but then comes back to the nation as a whole, making the transition at:
“As your days, so shall your strength be. The eternal Elohim is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms… Israel dwells in safety, alone… a people saved by YHWH, a Shield of your help…” (33:25-29)
Now those are the blessings behind the blessings, the ones that drive the others, for as many nations have experienced, having YHWH’s presence even without all the magnificent superlative earthly perks is often enough of a blessing. Yet ultimately, if YHWH says He wants us to have more, who are we to say, “Dayenu” (“It’s enough for us”), no matter how contented we may have learned to be? He wants the final outcome to be one in which no one doubts His generosity and lavish hospitality to those who welcome His presence in the world and, more importantly, right among us. We are His showcase.
The Torah ends with Israel doing what we were supposed to do. (34:9) And this is fitting (despite the fact that we know it did not last much longer than two generations after this), because in Torah, the last word is “Israel”. I think this is a microcosm of all history and a prophecy about its end. As outlined a few chapters earlier, our scattering as a consequence of our choices would finally have the effect of making us appreciate what we’d lost and rush back to it as soon as the door was reopened. (30:1-10) Though we’d lost touch with who we were, in the end there is still Israel again—and ultimately, maybe no one else, as the point of our separate existence is, paradoxically, to spread our influence to the point that everyone wants to be part of us.
We have to be separate to learn to keep that influence pure, but YHWH’s method of separating us was to put us right in the middle of everything, so our light could be centrifugal, moving out in every direction, strong enough to keep the other influences from coming in, though innumerable parties passed through on their way to and from the major cradles of civilization.
One thing, though. “There has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moshe since then” (34:10) means up to the point that was written by Y’hoshua or some later scribe who tacked it onto the end, for Moshe would not have written that. Moshe himself said YHWH told him He would raise up a prophet like him to whom we must listen or be called on the carpet by YHWH. (Deut. 18:17-19)
An argument could be made that this would be the case in every generation, but at the very least one prophet equaled him—the antitype of Y’hoshua, who himself was allowed to do something Moshe was not. But just because one as great as he has appeared, that does not diminish the significance of Moshe, and what that latter prophet used his name to symbolize—the whole Torah which Moshe wrote down. (cf. Luke 16:31; 24:27, etc.) That prophet endorsed everything Moshe said. (Mat. 5:17; 8:4; 23:2; Mark 10:3, etc.)
No contradiction; Moshe emphasizes outward holiness; Yeshua majors on inward holiness that has to power the outward for it to be genuine and effective. But Moshe is not without that factor; “Circumcise your heart”, he says, not just your flesh (Deut. 10:16; cf. 30:6--in the very context of that return after exile). We are to do so, but Moshe also says YHWH will do it, motivating the love that all of Torah’s outward commands exemplify. Like the ark of the covenant, make the inside and outside match. Listen to Moshe, and listen to the one “like him”, and you will be complete, with all bases covered.
To be a Part of This Nation
“O YHWH, hear Yehudah’s voice, and bring him to his people.” (Deut. 33:7) Moshe had extraordinary foresight when giving his blessing, for it fits the reality of Yehudah’s history so clearly.
All the way back at the time Yosef was sold into Egypt, we see Yehudah separating himself from his brothers. (Gen. 38) He came back before the famine sent them all there. (Gen. 43) But once the tribes settled back into the Land after the years of slavery, we already again see Yehudah often listed as a separate entity from the rest of the tribes:
“The men of Israel numbered 300,000 and the men of Yehudah numbered 30,000.” (1 Shmu’el 11:8; 15:4)
“The men of Israel and Yehudah… pursued the Philistines…” (1 Shm. 17:52)
“All Israel and Yehudah loved David…” (1 Shm. 18:6)
“Ish-bosheth began to reign over Israel…but the House of Yehudah followed David.” (2 Shm. 2:10)
We even see Judah juxtaposed with the House of Ephraim (Judges 10:9) well over a hundred years before the Kingdom split officially into two separate nations. (1 Kings 12:24)
Isn’t Yehudah a part of Israel? Then why is it so often listed separately? There seems a propensity to go a different way from the other tribes, and sometimes that has been good, but is no longer as necessary. Yehudah’s people (the rest of Israel), who have been re-tamed by a Messiah from Yehudah, are being drawn back to the things Yehudah has been given charge of for all these centuries, and feeling a love for him. But except in cases of assimilation, it has been rare for Yehudah to be drawn toward his brothers.
In a precedent that has to be a typological prophecy, when all except his own tribe had “You are my flesh and bones! Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house?” (2 Shmu’el 19:11, 12) This is important because it is also Yehudah that has jurisdiction over the “King’s House”.
The tide has been turning for the last 50 years; there are more Jews who follow Yeshua but maintain their connection to Torah and tribal tradition now than at any time since the first century C.E. And with so many of his “other sheep that are not of this flock” taking an interest in our Hebraic roots, there is definitely a growing hope that in our own day we will see this wish of Moshe’s that Yehudah be reunited with his brothers (which was probably first inspired within him as a wish of YHWH’s) fulfilled.
After giving specific blessings to all the individual tribes, Moshe gives precious promises to all of Israel:
“As your days, so shall your strength be.” (33:25) He knows how much we can bear and will not load on us more than His additional assistance can get us through:
“The eternal Elohim is a dwelling-place [for you], and underneath are the everlasting arms; He thrust out the enemy…” (33:27)
YHWH is a safety net for His people.
He wanted Israel to recognize just how extraordinarily blessed we are to have YHWH—the One who is over all the Elohim of the nations—directly over us and intimately connected with us. He can order any of those other lords of nations to stop harassing Israel any time we need this. (33:29)
Indeed, what a blessing to be part of this nation! May we never forsake it like our ancestors did!
When Can There be
a King in Israel?
“As your days, so shall your strength be.” (33:25) This has reassured many that YHWH would give them all they needed in a difficult time. But it is given after the prophecy about the tribe of Asher, with no obvious break in cadence. Is it only applicable to them?
I don’t think so, because the very next verse reverts to speaking about Yeshurun—the name YHWH uses when Israel is in unity—and then moves on to another similar and also familiar promise: “The eternal Elohim is an abode of refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (33:27); its corollary is that “Israel will dwell securely” (33:28), and the remainder of the chapter is about all of Israel. So these can indeed apply to the rest of the tribes.
“Israel, you are blessed, and who is like you—a people rescued by YHWH…?” (33:29)
“Who is like You?” is a phrase also spoken about YHWH. (Ex. 15:11) The archangel Micha’el’s name asks the question, “Who is like Elohim?” And the answer is given cryptically in Zecharyah 12:8: “Beyth David ka’elohim” (The house of David [will be] like Elohim). The full context is the final battle for Jerusalem, when its very survival is hanging in doubt: “In that day shall YHWH defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; even one among them who stumbles shall on that day be as David, and the house of David shall be as a godlike being, like the angel of YHWH before them.” But note that “YHWH also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah”. (12:7)
Israel has a king when we are upright (Yeshurun) and all the heads of our tribes are gathered together. (Deut. 33:5) One could argue that this unity (see Ps. 133:1) is the core of the blessing with which Moshe begins his final address. (33:1) Though having a human king was not YHWH’s ideal for us, since He Himself is meant to be our King (1 Sam. 8:7), over and over we find that the result when there is “no king in Israel” is that “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25), like “sheep without a shepherd” (Num. 27:17), and Moshe said that is not how Israel is supposed to live. (Deut. 12:8) He allows for a king, but says he must be one of us (no stranger to Torah) and one of His own choosing (Deut. 17:15), just as He clearly endorsed Y’hoshua when Moshe was dead. (Josh. 1:2; cf. Deut. 34:9; Num. 27:18)
There had not yet been a prophet like Moshe (34:10), yet Moshe himself said YHWH would send one. (Deut. 18:18) The quintessential prophet-king of Israel is Messiah, one “like Elohim” (yet under YHWH) from the House of David. He saw two flocks of sheep without a shepherd (Mat. 9:36) and stepped up to fill the gap. (John 10:16, based on Ezek. 34:23) In him, the offices of priest and king will also unite (Zech. 6:12-13) with no dissonance and without contradicting the Torah mandate for the Levitical priesthood. (There are hints that Yeshua has connections to Aharon’s line as well as Judah’s.)
Again in our day, just as when we moved into Goshen under Joseph, the “tents of Judah” have gone up to the Land first, and have been the first tribe to reinhabit our Land after our long exile. Yet as when Absalom—the unauthorized anointed one—was defeated (as his antetype, the counterfeit Messiah, the false “father of peace”, will again be), David asked Judah, “Why are you the last to bring the king back to his home, since all Israel has come around to return the king, and you are my own brothers, my bone and flesh…?” (2 Samuel 19:11-12), we can’t help but see the parallel with Judah today, which, though having been the last to leave and the first to come back home, still has not, as a whole, reinstated the king in David’s line to his rightful throne. The heads of our tribes are not yet in unity!
The answer is right in that context of Zecharyah: this part of Judah (the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem in particular, as opposed to many others among Judah in general) have not yet looked on the one they have pierced with the spirit of grace poured out on them, and mourned for him as for an only son. (12:10)
So who are these particular Jews? It appears they are the “elite” of Judah, the ones with the authority to define what “the Jewish stance” on a given topic will be, though others among Judah have already come to agreement with the rest of returning Israel about this all-important question of who is king in Israel. The common sentiment is “If you are a Jew, Yeshua is not for you!” But why be a stubborn holdout?
King Solomon, himself the last king of united Israel, said, “One who separates himself seeks his own appetite.” (Prov. 18:1) And Judah has had a pattern of separating himself from his brothers all the way back to the tribe’s namesake himself. (Gen. 38:1) But he finally came around and was the one Jacob chose to go on ahead of the family and scout out the right place for us to live. (Gen. 46:28) His tribe is already building the infrastructure of the Land, but this is also to facilitate the return of the rest of Israel’s tribes. The rest of us want the right king back on our nation’s throne so we can again be Yeshurun—fully upright in YHWH’s eyes. Judah, it’s your move.
