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The parsha
for this Shabbat is entitled Re’eh (“See!”)
and consists of commandments governing worship,
diet, finances and festivals. It also contains
a series of warnings, principally against imitating
the ways of the Canaanites.
Remember
that these words were spoken while Israel was
east of the Jordan, yet outside the land of promise.
There Moses names the location of Gerizim and
Ebal inside the land, describing them as toward
the direction of the sunset. Upon those two opposing
hills Israel was to reaffirm her commitment to
the Covenant with Adonai, with attendant consequences.
A choice is presented us: See, I am setting
before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing,
if you listen to the commandments of the Lord
your God … and the curse, if you do not listen
…
Included
in this section of the Torah is a repeat of the
prohibition against eating blood, reminding us
that blood is sacred, carrying with it the life
of each creature – things about which today we
know much, yet have so little regard.
As chapter
12 opens, we were commanded to utterly destroy
every vestige of Canaanite worship; their altars,
their idols, their sacred pillars; and warned
in the most serious of terms never to follow the
Canaanite false gods. Moses states, Beware
that you are not ensnared to follow them (nor)
inquire after their gods … You shall not behave
thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable
act which the Lord hates they have done for their
gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters
in the fire to their gods (12:30-31). Furthermore,
we were not to imitate their manner of building
altars wherever they felt like it – on every
high hill and under every green tree … but
rather in the one place of God’s designation.
For a time that would be Shiloh, but the place
which Adonai ultimately chose to establish His
name was Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).
The principle
is this: you may not worship the Living God any
old way you like. You can worship a rock or a
piece of wood any way you like, because they are
lifeless things; but God is real, and He is personal,
and He has standards for what is and what is not
acceptable. If we have perhaps lost something
in our emphasis in stressing a personal relationship
with God as opposed to mere religious formality,
it is the sense of the holy. God declares some
things sacred and other things profane. I suggest
we need both the awareness of God’s love and compassion,
and also His infinite holiness and majesty. Neglect
the one and you’re left with lifeless ritualism.
Neglect the other and you’re left with religion
governed by one’s own fickle emotions and the
pursuit of sensationalism.
We are
warned at the outset of chapter 13 not to follow
any so-called “prophet” or even a miracle-worker
if they entice us to follow other gods. Capital
punishment was prescribed for such instances,
even if it involved your best friend, your wife
or your family member. Say what you will, deterrent
works. Known consequences for certain wrong actions
are very effective in keeping us on the straight
and narrow. This also reminds us that God must
absolutely come first – even before friends or
family!
But there’s
another principle here: supernaturalism, in and
of itself, is absolutely not a barometer of truth.
Satan may not be divine, but he is supernatural,
and if our faith is not rooted in the Scriptures,
we are vulnerable to being deceived by displays
of power. For example, Revelation 13 says the
false prophet who serves antichrist will miraculously
call fire down out of heaven in public view, and
will deceive many people. Make sure you’re not
one of them!
In chapter
15 we are commanded to have a release of debts
at every seventh year. If someone was in debt
to you, any balance owed was to be cancelled on
the seventh year. The same was to be true of those
who were servants. A seven-year cycle was God's
timetable for the forgiveness of debts and setting
free of slaves. It might mean financial hardship
to forgive debts, but the accumulation of wealth
was not the purpose for which God placed us on
this earth. People are more important than money!
Speaking
of money, in chapter 16 we were commanded that
three times each year every Israelite man was
to appear before God: at Passover, at Shavuot
(the Feast of Weeks) and at Sukkot (the Feast
of Tabernacles); and we were not to show up empty-handed!
Tithing of our produce, our income, was never
a matter of our feelings. It was a commandment.
We are in a New Covenant economy (excuse the pun),
so while we may not be under the commandment,
are we to believe that the standard has been lowered?
I think not! If anything, we should give all the
more, and all the more cheerfully because we are
all the more grateful for His having marvelously
saved us in Yeshua!
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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