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The Jewish
people have been in the wilderness for 40 years.
The previous generation, the generation that left
Egypt, despite seeing so many signs and wonders,
were faithless. The Lord was angry with that wicked
generation, and would not allow them to enter
the Land of Israel. A new, faithful generation
was needed. We always want to remember the generation
that failed in the wilderness, so that we don't
repeat their mistakes, and fail to enter the New
Jerusalem.
We now
have a new generation. We have the successor of
Moses who has been appointed to replace him -
Joshua. We have a new High Priest - Eleazar. We
are about to enter the Land promised to us. Moses
knows that he is about to die, but before He does,
he wants to instruct the new generation about
what's really important - about God and the need
to obey Him and be faithful to Him. Let's finish
Moses' second discourse, starting in chapter 26:
When
we entered the Land of Israel, we were to take
the first of the fruits that we harvested, and
bring it to the Mishkan and give it to the Lord's
representative, the priest.
Why were
we to do this? Because God had been so good to
us! To remind us of God's grace and goodness,
as we were giving the first fruits of the very
first harvest, we were to recite the following
short history of our people: Our nation started
off with just one man - father Jacob, who was
a "wandering Aramean" - not that he literally
was a Syrian, but that he lived in Aram for a
time. Jacob's family went down to Egypt and multiplied
greatly. But then the Egyptians enslaved us, mistreated
us, and made life miserable for us. We prayed,
and the Lord brought us out of there, using great
miracles. Then, He brought us into our wonderful
land, flowing with milk and honey.
When God
blesses you so much, especially from such humble
beginnings, like He did for Israel, the appropriate
response is to acknowledge that your blessings
come from God. You are to be thankful, and show
your gratitude by returning the first fruits -
the beginning and the best of what God gives you,
to Him. Hasn't the Lord been good to you? Hasn't
He blessed you? Shouldn't you show your gratitude
by bringing Him the first and the best of your
time, your resources, your energy, your thoughts?
Not only
are we to show the Lord a tangible expression
of gratitude, but we must likewise give to the
Levites, who had limited property, and needed
to be supported by the rest of Israel. Also, the
most disadvantaged in society must be taken are
of - the strangers, orphans and widows. So every
third year, an additional ten percent of our harvest
must go to them as well.
If we
did this, we were allowed to ask the Lord to look
down from His Holy Dwelling Place in Heaven, and
bless His people Israel, along with the ground
that He gave us, as He swore to our fathers -
and He would hear this prayer and continue to
bless us and our land so that it would continue
to flow with milk and honey!
The conclusion
of Moses' second great discourse is found in verses
16-19: Since we had declared that the Lord was
our God, and since the Great King had commanded
us to do these laws, and that we would do what
He commanded us, we were to constantly guard them,
carefully keeping and doing them with the totality
of our being - with all our heart and soul.
In a similar
manner, since we have declared that God is our
Father, and that Yeshua is Lord, we should continually
be drawing near to the Lord, living in the Spirit,
thinking about His Word, and doing God's will.
And, we
were not the only one to make a declaration: the
Lord declared that the children of Israel would
be His special people - there were many peoples
on Earth, but He claimed our nation as His very
own; and He declared us to be a s'gulah - a treasure,
a treasured possession. Think about something
that you consider to be a treasured possession
of yours- money, stocks, jewels, a family heirloom
- you like it, you want it, you feel deeply attached
to it - that's how God feels about an obedient
and faithful Israel! And, if you are a child of
God because you have placed your faith in Messiah,
that's how God feels about you too!
And the
Lord declared more! He would set us higher than
the rest of the nations on Earth. We would become
famous. They would honor us. They would praise
us. - that the other nations would see the Chosen
Nation, this Holy People, and praise our wisdom,
our fine laws, our blessings, our accomplishments.
This fame, praise and honor of course, would reflect
on the God of Israel, who made all these good
things possible.
And when
the sons and daughters of the Almighty do His
will, and are close to Him, filled with His Spirit,
doing His Word, the people around us will see,
and know that we are different, and it will reflect
well on our God.
We have
come to the end of the second discourse, and with
chapter 27 begin the third (chapters 27-30). God's
divinely inspired words are so important for the
life of Israel (and for each one of our lives!),
that the very first thing we were to do, on the
day when we crossed the Jordan, was to set up
stones, cover them with plaster, and write all
the words of this Teaching on them. That would
make God's words accessible to everyone, and enduring.
The Jewish people would always remember that God
enabled us to enter the Land with the intention
that we are to keep His commands. And if we didn't
keep them? Then the opposite would happen - we
would exit the Land.
Then,
after we wrote them down, we were to place these
stones on Mount Ay-val, about 20 miles north of
Jerusalem. In addition, we were to build an altar
there, and offer korbanot - sacrifices that enabled
us to get closer to God. Specifically, burnt offerings
that symbolized our dedication, and peace offerings,
symbolizing our friendship with God, that there
was peace between God and Israel, that we actually
had fellowship with the Mighty Creator of the
universe! This would give us joy, since knowing
that we are right with God is the ultimate happiness!
So, we
have God and Israel, the Torah and the sacrifices.
For Israel to draw near to God, and be accepted
by Him, Israel must have His Word, and the God-ordained
sacrifices. Israel's relationship to God must
be base on His Teaching and on His sacrifices.
Under the New Covenant, the same principles apply:
for any human being, Jew or Gentile, man or woman,
to draw near to God, we must have His Word, and
the knowledge of God and Messiah that it gives
us, especially about the Final Sacrifice made
by the Son of God. Is your life based on the Word
of God and the great sacrifice of the Messiah?
To reinforce
these lessons, when we crossed the Jordan, entered
Israel, wrote down God's commands and set them
up on Mount Ay-val, and drew near to Him by means
of the sacrifices, six of the tribes were to stand
on Mount Gerazim, which was close to Mount Ay-val,
to receive the blessing - the idea being that
the blessing of God comes from obeying His Word.
Six other
tribes were stand on Mount Ay-val, where the stones
with God's Law had been set up, to receive the
curse, if Israel dared violate God's Law. Standing
in the valley in between them were God's representatives,
the Levites, who pronounced 12 curses, and the
blessing, which may have been 12 fold as well
- perhaps the opposites of the curses.
Jewish
tradition says that the Levites would first turn
toward Mount Gerazim, and pronounce a blessing,
and the people there would respond with "amayn"
- which means it's true, it's sure, so be it!
Then the Levites would turn to Mount Ay-val and
pronounce a curse, and the people there would
respond with "amayn" - which means it's true,
it's sure, so be it! This dramatic scene was meant
to powerfully impress all the people, which I'm
sure it did, as picturing it in my mind impresses
me!
Let's
take a brief look at the Twelve Curses. The curse
of God comes to the one who:
-
Makes an idol or worships
other gods, thereby attempting to reduce and
contain the invisible, infinite God.
-
Dishonors his parents,
whom God has used to give him life, and sustain
him while he was young and unable to help
himself, and teach him how to live in this
world.
-
Moves a boundary maker,
thereby stealing what rightfully belongs to
his neighbor.
-
Misleads a blind person,
not showing compassion for the disadvantaged,
who are still precious to God, and made in
His image.
-
Withholds fair treatment
from the weakest of society, taking advantage
of the alien, orphan and widow.
-
Has sexual relations with
his father's wife, which is a sexual perversion.
-
Has sexual relations with
a non-human species, engaging in bestiality,
which is a terrible perversion of our sexuality.
-
Has sexual relations with
his sister, committing incest.
-
Has sexual relations with
his mother-in-law, committing incest.
-
Secretly attacks his neighbor,
and doing bodily injury to him, while obviously
knowing that this wrong, since he assaulted
him in secret.
-
Accepts a bribe, corrupting
the judicial system, so that an innocent person
is not treated fairly.
-
And the 12th one, which
is all-encompassing, and covers all the rest
of the laws of the Torah: "Cursed is he who
does not uphold the words of this Teaching
by doing them" - all of them. You think that
by doing the laws of the Torah, that you will
make yourself acceptable to God? Not if you
have broken even one of God's commands written
in the Torah! The Torah, by itself, can not
make anyone righteous, since all of us have
violated its commands. What the Torah does
is pronounce a curse on those who have broken
the least aspect of the Law. But it also points
us to the way of blessing - by approaching
God, by placing your faith in Him, and drawing
near to Him by the God-ordained sacrifices,
and humbly walking before Him and submitting
to His Word.
The Lord
is so great. He is so wonderful. He has done so
much for the Jewish people. He had given us such
wise and good laws, and commanded us to observe
them. Just as Moses had warned the earlier generation,
that blessings will come from loving, diligently
obeying and serving our great God, and cursings
will come from disobedience and faithlessness
(see Leviticus 26), so now Moses repeats the blessings
and the cursings to the new generation.
In the
first 14 verses Moses details the blessings. They
include Israel's physical and material blessings,
the blessing of having many children, victory
over our enemies, preeminence among the nations,
being famous among the peoples; the ability to
lend to other nations, and no need to borrow from
them, establishment in the Holy Land.
The cursings
are three to four times longer. If we would not
obey the Lord's commands, and respect this honorable
and awesome Supreme Being, God's curses would
come. They include the removal of physical and
material prosperity; lack of rain; hunger and
famine; sickness and diseases; the lack of children;
being oppressed and robbed; going into poverty,
so that we had to borrow from foreigners, but
couldn't lend to them; mental and emotional confusion;
defeat before our enemies; children taken into
captivity; fiances being violated by foreigners;
being infamous among the peoples - an negative
example not to be followed - a horror, a taunt,
and proverb, a sign, a wonder not to be emulated;
things would get so bad when we were invaded by
our enemies, that during the siege people would
resort to cannibalism; the population would be
decimated, and greatly reduced in number; we would
be torn from this beautiful, good Land, scattered
among the nations, forced to serve pagans, who
served other gods.
In the
diaspora, life would be exceedingly difficult.
They would be no permanent peace for us living
among the nations - rather, these anti-Semitic
peoples would hate us, make our lives miserable,
oppress us, and attack us. The final curse is
that we would be brought back to Egypt, the place
of slavery and oppression, offered to them as
slaves, but we would fall so low that they wouldn't
even want to buy us as slaves - which I understand
happened after the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 AD.
Looking
back over the 3,500 years since these prophetic
words were written, isn't it obvious that we have
experienced the curses? Didn't Israel disobey
the Lord, worship false gods, set up a false religious
system, sacrifice their children, become greedy
and corrupt, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel
was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BC, carrying
much of Israel away into exile? And didn't the
Southern Kingdom of Judah oppose God, become disobedient,
immoral, defile the Temple, persecute the prophets,
and the Lord allowed the Babylonians to conquer
us in 586 BC, destroying our cities, destroying
Jerusalem, destroying the Temple, killing many,
and exiling thousands?
The Lord
was merciful to us, and remembered us in our exile,
and allowed us to return to Israel, rebuild the
Temple, bring the sacrifices that enabled us to
draw near to Him, rebuild Jerusalem and the cities.
But then, 500 years later, the Romans once again
destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, killed hundreds
of thousands, sold many into a life of slavery,
so that we have been without a Temple, without
the sacrifices that help us draw near to God,
not for 70 years, but for 1933 years, more than
27 times as long as the Babylonian Captivity?
Haven't the Jewish people been scattered to the
nations, where for the most part, life has been
very difficult, full of anti-Semitism and persecution,
and exile from nation to nation?
Think
about it: the Babylonian Exile lasted for 70 years
- which is a long time. Why has this Second Captivity
lasted for 27 times longer? Could we have done
something even worse, sinned sins greater than
the ones that led to the Babylonian Captivity?
Must not
have Israel sinned an even greater sin, when God
sent us His Son, the greatest of the prophets,
who came bringing good news that the Kingdom of
God was at hand, and offering us salvation? Didn't
we turn from our good Rabbi Yeshua, and get involved
in a legalistic form of Judaism that cannot save
us, and reject the long-awaited Messiah, our Rabbi,
King, Lord, and mankind's only Savior? Didn't
we break our Covenant with God? Hasn't the past
2,000 years of life in the Diaspora, without the
Temple, without the Sacrifices, proven it?
A week
before Messiah died, knowing that He would be
rejected by Israel's leaders, and a majority of
the people, Yeshua approached Jerusalem, He saw
the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had
known in this day, even you, the things which
make for peace! If you only knew who I am - the
eternal Son of God, the Savior, the Prince of
Peace, the only One who can bring genuine peace
and well-being to men and women, Jews and Gentiles,
peace between God and men. But now they have been
hidden from your eyes. You don't see Me or know
Me. You don't understand who I am, and the good
things I want to do for you.
And sadly,
there are terrible consequences for the Chosen
People who reject the Prince of Peace and the
New Covenant that He brings. Yeshua went on to
predict, For the days will come upon you when
your enemies will throw up a barricade against
you, and surround you and hem you in on every
side, and they 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" (Luke
19:41-44).
Why would
Jerusalem be destroyed? Why would we and our children
be killed? The answer is that we didn't recognize
that the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God,
the Savior, the One who is rightly called Immanuel,
was with us. And we rejected Him, and broke our
Covenant with God.
A short
time later, speaking to the Jewish leaders who
rejected Him, and were about to kill Him, Yeshua
said (see Matthew 23:34-39) to Israel's corrupt
leaders: I am sending you prophets and wise men
and scribes - Yeshua is talking about His disciples
- the apostles and prophets of the New Covenant
that followed Him, who witnessed to the Jewish
people for 40 years, the number of judgment and
testing, until 70 AD. Even though we rejected
the Messiah, Messiah would, in His great love
and mercy, give us a time of additional opportunities
before judgment came.
Would
we, during this 40 year period, realize that we
had made a mistake, and acknowledge that Yeshua
was the Messiah, when we saw His disciples doing
signs and wonders and miracles, and preaching
the Word of God with power?
Some of
them you will kill and crucify, and some of them
you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute
from city to city - no - most wouldn't turn to
the Lord, and confess their sins, with the result
that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous
blood shed on Earth, from the blood of righteous
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah,
whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.
Truly I say to you, all these things will come
upon this generation. The majority's rejection
of Yeshua is in keeping with our rejection of
all the prophets, and so judgment would surely
fall.
He went
on to lament over the coming destruction of the
nation: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to her! How often
I wanted to gather your children together, the
way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is
being left to you desolate! Judgment is coming
on the nation, and the Jewish people will remain
in a state of spiritual desolation, which we still
are to this day.
But that
will change! Messiah added, For I say to you,
from now on you will not see Me until you say,
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
My friends, our house is still desolate. There
is no Temple, no sacrifices, no atonement. The
Mosaic Covenant is broken, and the New Covenant
rejected. Our Jewish people are far from God,
and in a state of desolation until we acknowledge
Yeshua as God's Messiah, and say, "Baruch HaBa
b'shem Adonai" - which we will say some day, and
may it be speedily and soon, and can we say, Amayn?
My friends,
Israel broke the Older Covenant. Listen to the
words of God: "Behold, days are coming," declares
the Lord, "when I will make a New Covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not like the Covenant which I made with their
fathers in the day I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt, My Covenant
which they broke, although I was a husband to
them," declares the Lord.
We broke
the Sinai Covenant - not the Lord. God was like
a good and faithful husband, but we were like
a bad, unfaithful, adulterous wife. So much of
the Mosaic Covenant deals with the Temple and
the Sacrifice and the priests and the laws for
Temple purity and worship. But the Temple and
the sacrifices have vanished, and the priests
no longer serve. Adolph Safir, a wonderful Messianic
Jew who live several generations ago, raises some
perceptive questions: Can you have the Mosaic
Covenant without the Temple and the Sacrifices
and the Priests? Where is the Older Covenant mediated
by Moses? Why have we been in exile since 70 AD?
Why has life been so difficult and painful for
most of the Jewish people for the past 2,000 years?
He answers:
"During all these centuries the rabbis have not
been able to adequately answer these questions
or account for this strange condition that the
Jewish are without Temple, Priest and Sacrifices,
and that we have been exiled from our Land. It
is absolutely impossible for non-Messianic Jews
today to keep all the laws and ordinances of Moses,
offer sacrifices, find atonement, or draw near
to God the way we need to. As a result, we can't
truly understand the dealings of God. And in this
spiritual darkness the rabbis have formed for
themselves a religion of their own traditions
and reasonings, based on man-made and unauthorized
rabbinic laws instead of the divinely-appointed
ordinances of the Mosaic Covenant."
But, our
breaking of the Sinai Covenant is one reason why
God established the New Covenant! In His great
grace and mercy God established the New Covenant,
based on the life and death of the Messiah, and
put His teachings deep within us, on our heart.
He promised to completely forgive all of our sins,
reconciling us to Himself, so that we would know
the Lord personally, intimately. He would truly
be our God, and we will be His people.
Instead
of what is called Traditional or Rabbinic Judaism,
which is based on a broken covenant, God wants
the Jewish people to enter into New Covenant Judaism,
and lead the Gentiles into the New Covenant too!
If God found fault with the Jewish people when
the Older Covenant mediated by Moses was still
in existence, how much more are we at fault when
that Older Covenant is no longer in existence,
and a Newer and Better Covenant has come, and
we refuse to enter it?
In chapter
29, Moses tells us that in spite of everything
that the new generation had seen the Lord do -
defeating the Egyptians, and delivering the Jewish
people from Egypt; the plagues, the miracles in
Egypt and the miracles in the wilderness, including
His miraculous provision for us, so that neither
our clothes nor our sandals wore out; victory
over Sihon, the king of Heshbon and his people,
and Og, the king of Bashan, and his people, we
still didn't have a heart to really know God the
way we should, eyes to see Him clearly the way
we should, ears to listen to Him fully the way
we should. We were surrounded by the miraculous,
and yet still not where we should be - not fully
awake, not completely alert, not walking in the
Spirit.
Nevertheless,
in spite of these inadequacies, Moses challenges
this generation to keep the words of this covenant,
so that we would prosper. And, I leave each one
of us today with that same challenge as well!
Stir yourself up from any spiritual slumber that
you may be experiencing! Wake yourself up from
any spiritual lethargy. Renew your zeal! Reawaken
your first love! Concentrate on the Lord God.
Discipline your mind to think about Him. Fix your
eyes on Yeshua. Do your best to read, study, and
then do what the Lord has spoken. Arise sleeper,
rise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on
you!
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