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The Torah
portion for this Shabbat is called D’varim
, as is this fifth book of Moses. Again, it
is customary to apply the key word in the first
sentence of the passage as the title. D’varim
means “words”. The book begins, “These are thewords
which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan
in the wilderness...”. The name “Deuteronomy”
is from the Greek deuteros meaning “a second”
and nomos meaning “law” and is based on
a misunderstanding of 17:18, which reads, “Now
it shall come about when he (each of Israel’s
kings) sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall
write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll...”
Somehow it was rendered “a second law” rather
than “a copy of this law” and so the book itself
received that name. In fairness, the book of Deuteronomy
does recap much of the content of Exodus and Numbers,
so it is not altogether inaccurate to think of
it as “the Law, a second time”.
Deuteronomy
re-caps the events from our initial approach to
Canaan to our disobedience there, and having to
turn around and head back into the wilderness,
to our return a generation later to claim the
land, as well as our wars with Sihon and Og, (respectively)
kings of Heshbon and Bashan, and the beginning
of the conquest of the land.
Most significantly,
D’varim, Deuteronomy, opens with a dire warning
in the form of recalling our disobedience and
failure. Verse two says, “It is eleven days’
journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir
to Kadesh Barnea...” (Kadesh Barnea representing
the threshold to Canaan). Yet verse three goes
on to say, “And it came about in the fortieth
year...” Why such a delay?
On
the danger of reinterpreting directives:
God commanded
us, saying, “See, I have placed the land before
you; go in and possess it.” We decided instead
to send an advance party to check out the situation
first. The result: 10 out of the 12 spies brought
back a bad report. Oh, to be sure, the land was
lovely! But the 10 spies did not believe that
the battle belongs to the Lord, and their discouraging
report frightened the people into giving up before
they’d even started. They complained yet again
to Moses, accusing he and God of evil intent,
and rightfully incurred the Lord’s anger.
God commanded
us, saying, “As for you, turn around and set out
for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
We decided instead to go into Canaan and fight,
as had been our original instructions. God warned
our people through Moses not to attempt it, for
He would not be with us on account of our previous
refusal. But, no, we decided to fight anyway.
The result: our people were driven back and chased
out of the land, and many of our people were needlessly
killed in the pursuit. And so when we finally
decided to obey God, we turned to go back to the
wilderness, defeated and despairing, and our numbers
tragically diminished.
We
too are guilty of reinterpreting God’s directives:
Yeshua
said, “You shall be My witnesses...” Yeshua said,
“Go into all the world and make disciples...”
We decide instead that we have to win people’s
friendship first, so we don’t say anything about
Yeshua, telling ourselves that we’re “witnessing
with our lives” (what a bunch of hooey! I call
that ‘spiritualized cowardice’ Rabbi Paul said,
“...how shall they hear unless someone tells them?”,
not, “...how shall they hear unless someone witnesses
with their life?”).
The result:
time goes by and the friendship develops, and
we wait even longer, and the friendship grows
closer, and then we’re afraid to jeopardize the
friendship by talking about Yeshua, and ultimately
we either never do tell them the Good News, or
else we try dropping little hints, hoping they’ll
“take the bait” and figure it out. And if and
when we eventually do get up the courage, we have
so worked ourselves into a nervous wreck that
we blurt things out, and our friend wonders what
on earth happened to us, or else is suspicious
that we had a hidden agenda all this time. And
would they not be justified in their suspicion?
Just as the 11-day journey wound up being a miserable
40 years of wandering on account of our disobedience,
so we should take the direct route and not fearfully
and needlessly delay to tell people the Gospel,
which alone is able to save them.
What are
we to do? Simple. Do as you’re told! Tell people
about Yeshua, and tell them right up front, from
the ‘git-go’. If they become upset, so be it.
They would have become upset when you eventually
got around to telling them. And don’t worry about
their reaction. Do you really think you’re the
only person God intends to use in their life?
Do you really think that if you don’t succeed
no one will? That’s arrogant! People are not saved
through your powers of persuasion. They are saved
by means of the Holy Spirit’s intervention. He
can do it quite well with or without your help!
The last time I checked, God is the one who saves
people, not you. When are we going to learn to
trust in the sovereign power of God?
Here’s
the up-side. If you tell your friend or neighbor
or co-worker about the Lord right up front, and
they’re still interested in being your friend,
you will have made a true friend, and without
all the subterfuge and without all the unnecessary
mental anguish that comes with disobedience. Guard
yourself against the fear of man. If you’re more
concerned with rejection than with being honest
and forthright about being one of Jesus’ people;
if you’re hiding what you believe under the proverbial
peck-measure, then it’s time to check yourself
in at the humility clinic.
A warning
to unbelievers:
You and
I are expected to learn from Israel’s failure.
The Scriptures have been wondrously preserved,
in large part so that we might not repeat Israel’s
disobedience and suffer similarly. The author
of the letter to the Messianic Jews (Hebrews),
quoting from Psalm 95 wrote, TODAY IF YOU HEAR
HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY
PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED ME BY TESTING ME, AND
SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. THEREFORE I WAS
ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION ...... He went
on to write, Take care, brethren, lest there
should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving
heart, in falling away from the living God.
What struck
me in this passage is the need to own our sin,
to acknowledge it, confess it and turn from it.
For our God is a gracious, compassionate God,
forgiving iniquity and restoring the repentant
one back to Himself. But how can you be forgiven
of what you’ve not admitted to? Let’s not be guilty
of rationalizing away our sin, but instead acknowledging
and then forsaking it. As the haftarah reading
in Isaiah declares, “‘Come now, and let us reason
together’, says the Lord, ‘though your sins are
as scarlet, they will be as white as snow’...”
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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