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Last week
the parsha was entitled Kee Taytasay (“When
you go out”). This week it’s Kee Tavo (“When
you come in”). Sometimes it really seems like
we don’t know whether we’re coming or going! Chapter
26 beings with a description of the tithe. We
were to bring the first fruits to the priest (to
the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish
His name [eventually Jerusalem]). Furthermore,
each worshiper was to make the following confession
(26:5-10a):
"My
father was a wandering Aramean and he went down
to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number;
but there he became a great, mighty and populous
nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly
and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on
us. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our
fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw
our affliction and our toil ... and brought
us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm... and He has brought us to this place,
and has given us this land, a land flowing with
milk and honey. And now behold, I have brought
the first of the produce of the ground which
Thou, O Lord hast given me."
And
the worshiper was to go on to say (vs. 13-15):
I have removed the sacred portion from my house,
and also have given it to the Levite and the alien,
the orphan and the widow, according to all Thy
commandments which Thou hast commanded me; I have
not transgressed or forgotten any of Thy commandments
(I wonder how many could honestly say that). I
have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have
I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered
any of it to the dead. I have listened to the
voice of the Lord my God; I have done according
to all that Thou hast commanded me. Look down
from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless
Thy people Israel, and the ground which Thou hast
given us, a land flowing with milk and honey,
as Thou didst swear to our fathers.
This particular
tithe was to be a rejoicing (an edible offering)
before the Lord, the worshiper together with the
Levite and the ger (resident alien). This
tithe was to take place every third year. Attitude
was everything! We were to be joyful and generous.
In fact, generosity tends to lead one to joyfulness.
Of course, the opposite is also true, or hadn’t
you noticed that the miserly are usually the most
miserable people around? Remember the poor widow’s
mite, and learn.
Chapter
26 includes a brief statement affirming the Covenant:
You have today declared the Lord to be your
God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep
His statutes ... And the Lord has today declared
you to be His people, a treasured possession,
as He promised you, ...
In chapters
27 and 28 Moses commands our people, once in the
Land, to assemble on Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim,
to pronounce, respectively, curses for disobedience,
and blessings for obedience). Chapter 27 then
lists 12 specific curses for the most serious
of offenses, including prohibited sexual activity
(incest, bestiality), the distortion of justice
(especially where the weak and vulnerable were
concerned), idolatry and dishonoring one’s parents
God must
have known that we would collectively fail to
abide by the Covenant, since the promised blessings
occupy 14 verses, whereas the promised consequences
for disobedience occupy 54 verses. The effect
of our disobedience would be horrifying. We would
forfeit God’s protection and thus be vulnerable
to invasion, to famine and starvation, to being
carried away into distant lands and to be in constant
torment and fear even when in exile. It is summed
up well in this statement in chapter 28: Because
you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and
a glad heart, for the abundance of all things;
therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the
Lord shall send against you ...
We now
know this to have been fulfilled historically.
Our ancestors broke faith with God, and as a result
went into long and bitter exiles: the Northern
Kingdom of Israel into Assyria in 722 BC and the
Southern Kingdom of Judah into Babylon, beginning
in 605 BC, and lasting 70 years! Our cities were
laid siege to, Jerusalem and the marvelous temple
Solomon commissioned were destroyed, and many
of our people died; all on account of violating
the covenant. I would argue that this last 2,000
years of world-wide Jewish exile is precisely
because we rejected God’s offer of the New Covenant.
Just days before His death, Yeshua entered Jerusalem
and said, “...the days shall come upon you
when your enemies will throw up a bank before
you, and surround you, and hem you in on every
side, and will level you to the ground and your
children within you, and they will not leave in
you one stone upon another, because you did not
recognize the time of your visitation.”
In the
first nine verses of chapter 29, Moses reminds
the people of the miraculous way that God provided
for us; He defeated the Egyptian army; He fed
us and provided water in the harsh wilderness
for forty years; He preserved even our clothes
and sandals from wearing out; And finally, He
defeated Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings who tried
to destroy us. For these and a myriad of other
reasons, our people were to abide by the Covenant,
so as to fare exceedingly well in the land.
It seems
to me that it all boils down to this: we too are
in a Covenant - the New Covenant; a better covenant
- with blessings heretofore unimaginable! And
you have today declared Yeshua to be your Messiah,
your sin-bearer, and that you would follow Him
(even if it means going ‘outside the camp’). And
He has declared you to be His sheep, His precious
charge. So ... what kind of worshiper are
you, and what kind of attitude are you bringing
as your first fruits?
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn |
