|
Ekev - Because
Moses
knows that he is about to die, but before he does,
he wants to instruct the new generation about
what’s really important. Let’s continue with Moses’
second great speech, starting in chapter 7 verse
12:
Then
it shall come about, because (ekev) you listen
to these judgments and keep and do them,
that the Lord your God will keep with you His
covenant and His love which He swore to your forefathers
.
One of
the most basic principles of the Word of God is
that the Maker of all things will surely reward
obedience, and He will assuredly punish disobedience.
Therefore it’s not enough to merely listen to
God’s commands, and then ignore them or do them
half-heartedly. That’s disobedience. Moses tells
us that we must listen, and then keep and do.
If we
will listen, keep and do, then the Lord will keep
and do. The Almighty Creator will be pleased with
us; He will continue upholding the Sinai covenant
He made with us; He will love us; He will bless
us by doing all kinds of good things to us; He
will increase our population, adding many beautiful
children to us; He will diminish the amount of
illness among us; He will enable us to be prosperous
- more than any other people on Earth; He will
grant us victory over our enemies in battle.
For believers
today, if we listen, keep and do those things
that the Lord has commanded us and apply to us
- which are not necessarily all the same commands
that the Lord was commanding Israel under the
Sinai covenant - He will likewise bless us - not
necessarily with the outward blessings of wealth,
like He promised to bless Israel under the Sinai
Covenant - but He will reward us with spiritual
prosperity. We will be blessed with the closeness
of His presence, the fullness of His Spirit, an
ability to reject sin, the grace to do the right
things, the empowerment to be a faithful witness,
followed by eternal life and an eternal and incorruptible
inheritance.
Are you
listening, keeping and doing the things that you
know He wants you to do? That is the way to go!
That is the way to be blessed!
It doesn’t
matter if the nations that we are to drive out
are stronger than we are. We are not to consider
that a factor! We aren’t to be afraid of them.
We are to understand that the Creator of the universe
prefers to save by the few, rather than by the
many, so that He is glorified and not puny, weak
human beings.
He doesn’t
want those who are prone to pride, and who have
a deluded and self-destructive independent attitude
toward the One who is the Source of Life and Blessing
and Meaning; mortal and sinful creatures who tend
toward delusion about their self-importance, to
think that they are the source of saving power.
Instead
of looking at the outward circumstances and being
afraid, we were to remember what the Lord did
to the Egyptians, who were far stronger than the
nations we were about to face. We were to remember
God’s great power that was displayed - His signs
and wonders, His mighty hand and outstretched
arm - the powerful, miraculous things the Almighty
God did to save us. We were to remember those
things, and consider that the same power of that
same great and awesome God who is with us, who
is awesomely present in our midst, is still available
to help us overcome the corrupt Canaanites.
We only
need to keep this great and awesome God, who is
right here among us, at the forefront of our thinking,
our plans, our considerations, and stay close
to Him. Then, we have His promise that He will
surely defeat our enemies - not all at once, since
that would cause another problem - the increase
of wild animals, but little by little, until the
corrupted enemy nations are completely destroyed.
Just
like Israel about to face the Canaanites needed
to remember the saving power of God, we too should
remember how God powerfully intervened in our
lives to save us. God the Father sent His Son,
who left His place of honor at the right hand
of the Father in Heaven. King Messiah came into
this world and became a human being - frail, weak,
and subject to suffering and death. He allowed
Himself to be arrested, judged, humiliated, beaten,
spit upon, and nailed naked onto two pieces of
wood.
Then,
because the Righteous One was so good, so sinless,
so perfect, so flawless, so willing to give His
life in atonement for ours, so perfectly pleasing
to His God and Father, His God and Father raised
the Sinless Messiah back to life, thereby making
salvation, and reconciliation to the God from
whom the whole world of human beings is alienated,
possible. Being taken out of the demonic kingdom
of darkness and transferred into Messiah’s kingdom
of light, experiencing perfect atonement, peace
with God, a right relationship with God, the receiving
and indwelling of the spirit, transformation into
the image of Messiah, everlasting righteousness,
even for those who were sinners, and hostile to
God, and enemies of God, and the gaining of eternal
life have been given to those who have been saved!
The Lord
has already saved Christians and Messianic Jews
with a very great salvation! Never forget that!
Take that into consideration when facing all of
your challenges. Don’t be afraid of life’s challenges
because the power of God, who already saved, you
is still at your disposal!
Sin is
very bad, my friends, and destructive, and extremely
distasteful to the Lord, and must be rejected
by our holy God, along with those who continue
to practice sin. We see that in the Lord’s attitude
toward the Canaanites. Over the four centuries
since the time of Abraham, the Canaanites had
become so corrupt in body, soul and spirit; so
far from God; so removed from truth and from doing
what was right, that the Lord wanted them utterly
destroyed. Their cup of iniquity was now full,
and their judgment was at hand.
The only
true and living God particularly wanted their
false religion, and their false gods and their
idols destroyed, since that was the source of
their corruption. Even the precious gold and the
silver that covered their idols - gold in particular
being almost impossible to corrupt, was not to
be used by us. It was not even to be melted down
and purified so it could be reused. It was to
be completely abandoned, because the sin it was
part of was utterly repulsive to the Lord - and
therefore should be repulsive to us as well.
False
ideas about God will eventually corrupt a whole
society so that it must be rejected and judged!
Sadly, our once great society is following this
same pattern of religious corruption. While I
was in New York, I saw so much evidence of religious
and societal decay - atheism, blasphemy (the new
hit song from Legally Blond is “O my god”) tattoos
everywhere, horrible body piercings, sexual immorality
and perversion, and other signs of a new paganism.
The most
important thing for our society today is to be
restored to the true knowledge of God. And we
have that knowledge! Let’s make sure we know the
Three-In-One God ourselves, live good lives, and
purpose to share the knowledge of God and Messiah
and salvation and holiness with those around us,
and help them come out of their corruption.
Rejecting
the gold and the silver that covered the idols
also teaches us that there are things that are
more important than gold and silver. Who gets
rid of precious gold and silver? We did. Why?
Forsaking false religion, and knowing the truth
about God, and standing firm for that truth, and
putting Him first is more important than money.
Are you facing a situation where you have to choose
between money and comfort or truth and God? This
tells us how we are to choose.
Chapter
8 starts off with the advice to “teesh-m’roon
la-ah-soht - be careful to do” all of the Lord’s
commandments. Moses tells us that they will enable
us to live well, to live right, to live close
to God in this world, and live forever with God
in the World to Come! Isn’t that extremely important?
Isn’t that truly valuable to us? Being careful
to know and do the Lord’s teachings enable us
to be successful and prosperous and blessed by
God.
What
are people careful about? What do they take extra
care to know and then do? They are careful about
those things that are important to them. They
are careful about those things that they think
will bring them an advantage. What are you careful
about? Sports? Music? Food? Movies? The lives
of people who are important to the popular culture?
The Word of God? Isn’t that of utmost value? Therefore
I ask you, “teesh-m’roon la-ah-soht? Are you being
careful to do?
Not only
are we to be careful to do these important, valuable,
advantageous commands, but we are to constantly
remember our history. In this great and terrible
wilderness, full of poisonous snakes and scorpions,
God tested the Jewish people, to find out those
who would stay close to Him, and keep His commandments,
and those who wouldn’t.
And so,
the Source of all good things allowed us to experience
trials, and go hungry at times - but then He fed
us with manna. There wasn’t material in the wilderness
to make new clothes, but behold - the Lord extended
the life of our clothing, so that our clothes
didn’t wear out all the time we were in the wilderness!
There were times when there was a shortage of
water, and we were thirsty, but Hallelu-Yah -
the Lord brought water out of a rock! El Shaddai,
God, the Great Provider, took care of His people
and met all of their needs.
Why did
God make us undergo these trials, these hardships,
these difficulties? Couldn’t He have prevented
us from going through them? Yes - He could have;
but the good Lord was using these trials to humble
us, to tear down our pride, so that He could build
us up the right way. He used these difficulties
to purify us, to teach us like a good father trains
his children.
Don’t
you think that the same Lord will allow each one
of us to be tested in our generation, so that
it will be revealed those who are genuine, and
those who aren’t, and that through their trials,
those who truly belong to the Lord will be purified,
and improved, and become ever more valuable and
precious?
Therefore
expect all kinds of trials to happen to you throughout
your life - long ones and short ones, intense
ones and less intense ones, trials affecting your
material life and trials affecting your spiritual
life. And, unless the Lord comes and transforms
us, expect the final trial of death.
Expect
testings, expect difficult circumstances, but
understand that they are all given by a loving
Father who is disciplining you, and with every
trial there is a way to make it successfully through
to the end, and through those trials God will
purify you and your most precious and valuable
faith.
And what
in particular did the Lord want Israel to learn
through all these trials? That man does not live
by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds
out of the mouth of the Lord - that we are not
to make our decisions by our circumstance in the
world around us; that we should not conduct ourselves
by the priority of material considerations; that
we do not want to be guided by putting personal
comfort first - which is what most people do.
We are to make God and His Word our highest priority!
This
is the right way to live: stay close to God; find
out and understand what God has said - His supremely
wise principles for living; be careful to know
and do everything He says, and make all of your
decisions based on His Word, and not other considerations.
Those
who were in the wilderness and were careful to
live by everything that proceeds from the mouth
of the God, the One who is able to speak to mankind,
were blessed. Those who weren’t careful to live
by the words of God ruined their lives. And, you
will find out, if you haven’t already, that the
very same principle applies to each one of us
as, and we will experience the same results!
Now,
there’s a danger to being blessed: Someone observed
that sunrise ends in sunset. Stability creates
instability. Birth end in death. Booms create
busts. Success contains within it the seeds of
failure! Here’s the danger: if we stayed close
to the Lord, and loved Him and followed Him fully,
and listened to Him and did what He said and lived
by His words, He promised to bring us into a very
good land, with plentiful water, a land of the
seven species: honey, wheat and barley, grape
vines, fig, pomegranate and olive trees; a land
with abundant metals like iron and copper. But
too much success can be an nation’s or and individual’s
undoing! If we are not careful success creates
pride which then results in failure. Adonai didn’t
want that to happen to Israel, and He doesn’t
want that to happen to us.
When
we are blessed by God, and successful, and feeling
good about things, the danger is that we can too
easily become proud, and develop an attitude of
independence from God, and start drifting away
from Him, and forget Him more and more, and stop
being diligent to do the things He’s commanded
us to do. We start thinking that it’s our efforts
that have gained us our success, forgetting that
it was our obedience to God, and His blessing,
and His unmerited grace, that brought us success.
But when pride comes - that attitude of independence
from God, and that distance from God - then inevitably
comes a fall. So, be on guard when you feel good
about things!
In chapter
9 Moses encourages us by telling us not to be
afraid of crossing the Jordan, and entering the
land of Canaan, regardless of the nations already
living there. It doesn’t matter if they are stronger
than we are, and live in great, fortified cities.
It doesn’t matter if there are giants living there!
We have
an Ally who is far greater - the Almighty, All-Present
God, who will be with us and fight for us. He
is an Aish Ochlah - a Fire That Consumes. He will
utterly destroy our enemies, just as a fire eats
up kindling. We merely need to draw near to Him,
and trust and obey Him, and not worry about the
circumstances, and His power and salvation will
be revealed.
When
the Lord has driven them out those powerful and
corrupt nations, and given us amazing victories,
we are not to think the reason for our success
is because we Chosen People are so good and righteous.
We’re not! We are stubborn. We are rebellious.
We provoked the Lord many times, especially at
Mount Sinai, with the golden calf. The Lord was
so angry about that, that if it wasn’t for the
prayers and intercession of Moses, He would have
destroyed us!
We provoked
Him again at Taverah, when we grumbled and complained
and the Lord got angry, and burned up some of
the people; again at Massah, when we were thirsty,
and grumbled and complained and fought against
God and Moses; again at Kee-brot Ha-ta-ah-vah,
the Graves of Craving, when we grumbled and complained
and cried about the manna, and wanted meat instead,
and the Lord sent many quail, but also stuck the
ungrateful people with a severe plague; and at
Kadesh-Barnea, when we rebelled against the Lord,
and refused to enter the promised land and fight,
and were condemned to 40 years in the wilderness.
Over and over again we didn’t trust the Faithful
God or do what He wanted.
We are
a people who are stubborn and prone to rebel and
inclined to sin. And, can I be perfectly honest?
Our Jewish people are the same 3,500 years later!
The Jewish
people were not to take the credit for the coming
conquest of the Land of Israel. Our great future
victories over the other nations are due to the
fact that they were corrupt and God wanted them
gone. It was the judgment of God that should be
given the credit for these victories - not us.
Also,
the Lord swore an oath to our Fathers, and the
Faithful God keeps His promises and never violates
an oath. It is the faithfulness of God that should
be given the credit for these victories - not
us.
The Lord
listened to Moses’ prayers to spare us from the
destruction we deserved. So, it is the grace of
God - His unmerited, unearned favor, that should
be given the credit for these victories - not
us.
Shouldn’t
we have the same attitude? We don’t take credit
for our successes, our wealth, our victories,
our accomplishments. Everything we are, everything
we have, every talent, every gift, every ability,
every circumstance that enables us to be at the
right place at the right time to get in on a good
opportunity, should be understood as coming to
us from God.
Do you
think that you could get that job, that career,
that house, that money, that husband, that wife,
if the Lord hadn’t providentially worked out all
the right circumstances? If the Creator hadn’t
given you the right parents, the right mind, the
right educational opportunities, the right breaks
along the way?
We should
not take the credit for any of the good things
that happen to us. The battle is the Lord’s! All
good gifts come from Him. Adonai gets the credit
- not us!
When
Someone is so much greater than you are; who owns
Heaven and the Highest Heavens and the Earth and
everything in it; who is the God of gods and the
Lord of lords; the One who has ultimate power
and authority; the great, the mighty, the awesome
God who is capable of doing incomprehensible miracles,
and acts of virtually infinite power; and this
great God, who has been so faithful to you over
many years, and has shown you so much mercy, and
has extended such great amounts of love to you,
and chosen you above all other peoples, and multiplied
you from 70 persons to several million, and has
showered you with His grace, and saved you and
provided for you and taught you and forgiven you
repeatedly - what should you do in return for
Him? What should your attitude toward Him be?
Moses asks the same questions in chapter 10, verse
12:
Now,
Israel, what does the Lord your God require from
you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in
all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and
His statutes which I am commanding you today for
your good?
The Lord
asks us to fear Him - to show Him the reverence
and respect that He so rightfully deserves. Do
you?
To walk
in His ways - living our lives the good way He
has instructed us, thinking about His commands
and how to constantly apply them to our lives.
Do you?
To love
Him - reserving our devotion, affection, adoration,
gratitude, thanksgiving, confidence and submission
for Him alone. Do you?
To serve
Him with all our heart, soul and strength, with
the totality of our being, with all our time,
our energies, thoughts, our resources. Do you?
To keep
all of His commands, which are designed to help
us live in the best way, and which will result
in our benefit. Do you?
To cling
to Him, drawing near to Him by purposely turning
our thoughts toward Him, talking to Him throughout
the day, thinking about Him during the day; giving
thanks to Him for all the good things He constantly
does for us; praising Him as we consider who He
is and the amazing things He has done. Do you?
To circumcise
our heart, and stop stiffening our neck. We make
a conscious and deliberate effort to do things
God’s ways, and stop doing the things which are
wrong, which displease Him. Do you?
To treat
our fellow human beings, especially the weakest
in society, with love and fairness. Do you?
Continuing
in chapter 11, Moses repeats again that we are
to love the Lord, giving our devotion, our enthusiasm,
our passion, our affections to Him alone; and
we must make sure that we do the very important
and beneficial things He’s told us to do. Look
at the various words used to express the things
He wants us to do:
Charge:
(mishmar) the things that the Lord has told us
to do are valuable. They are important to keep,
to watch over, to guard, to protect.
Statute:
(chukah): the things that the Lord has told us
to do are laws the great Lawgiver has given us.
They are not suggestions.
Judgment:
(mishpat): the things that the Lord has told us
are things the Supreme Judge has decreed, and
you do not want to violate His judgments and be
found in contempt of His court!
Commandment:
(mitzvah): the things that the Lord has told us
are come from the One who has the right to give
commands and expect them to be obeyed.
Moses
reminds this new generation that many of them
had been children back in Egypt, and saw the great
power that the Lord displayed, and all the miracles
that He did to bring us out of Egypt. Many of
them were alive when Datan and Aviram rebelled,
and the Earth opened up and swallowed them alive,
ending their rebellion.
The point
Moses is making? God surely punished the disobedient
but rewarded the obedient and those who are faithful.
Therefore this new generation should be faithful,
and do everything that God requires. That will
make them strong and victorious, unconquerable
in the coming battles. And that is true for us
in our generation too! If we are faithful to the
Lord and His Word, we will be more than conquerors!
The life
of the new generation will be long and successful
in the beautiful Land they are about to enter,
a Land not like Egypt, that has little rain, and
needs to be irrigated to produce food. No, God
sends abundant rains to this Special, Holy Land.
His eyes are constantly on it, watching over it,
caring for this Land in a unique way.
And,
if the Jewish people are faithful and obedient,
He will continue to send abundant rain, so that
there will be abundant crops and prosperity.
But,
if the new generation dared turn away from God,
and worship other gods, the Lord will prevent
the rain from coming, and there will be famine
and poverty and death in the Special Land. So,
the water situation for the Land of Israel is
a barometer for Israel’s spiritual condition.
If the Jewish people are spiritually dry, far
from God, ignoring Him and His commands, then
there will be little rain or water. If we are
close to God, obedient, there will be plenty of
rain. As you read the Bible, notice when there
is drought and famine, and it lets you know that
things are seriously wrong within Israel, and
need to be changed.
Can God
withhold rain from other lands, as a sign that
things are wrong, and that nation needs to change
their ways? I believe that when there is drought,
it might be a sign of God’s displeasure, and that
nation should seek God, and find out if there
are things in that nation that the Lord wants
changed.
The conclusion
of this Sedra is found in verses 18-25: These
truths are so important, so beneficial if put
into practice, so much able to help bring blessing,
victory and success; so destructive if ignored,
that it would be foolish to hear them and then
forget them, which we have a tendency to do. Instead,
we are to make a special effort to fix these truths
deep within us - to anchor them to the core of
who we are - to our hearts and souls.
So, we
were to surround ourselves with God’s Word and
commands as if they were bound on our hand - not
necessarily literally bound on our hands - but
as if they were, so that whatever we do will be
done according to God’s ways; we are to surround
ourselves with God’s commands - not necessarily
literally bound on our foreheads - but as if they
were, so that whatever we think and decide will
reflect the mind and thoughts of God.
We are
to surround ourselves with God’s Word as if they
were written on our doorposts and gates - not
necessarily literally - but as if they were, so
that when we are leaving home, and going out into
the world, or returning home from the world -
no matter whether if we are at home or out in
the world, our thoughts and actions will be done
according to God’s words, commands, and ways.
Is this you? Are you surrounding yourself with
the Word of God?
[Note:
I don’t believe that the original intent of this
passage means to lay tefillin for the following
reasons: the whole Law couldn’t literally be written
on our hands or heads or gates which is what this
passage literally teaches; the custom of laying
tefillin was no doubt a much later invention.
Nowhere in the Tenach does it mention anyone ever
laying tefillin.]
Of course
you will want to teach the Lord’s teachings to
the most precious things in your life - your children,
talking to your sons and daughters about God,
about His word and commands, constantly - when
you are sitting at home, and when you are walking
around outside, and the last thing you do, before
you go to sleep at night, and the first thing
when you get up in the morning.
If Israel
would live like this, the Lord would empower us
to have victory over all the nations of Canaan,
who were larger and stronger than us. We would
expand to the full inheritance of the Land promised
to us. And, our lives would be long and successful
and prosperous within the Land of Israel. And,
if we will live like this in our generation, loving
the Lord and showing it by doing the things He
wants us to do in this age, we too will be blessed,
prosperous and successful in God’s sight!
But if
Israel drifted away from the Lord, and did not
keep Him and His Word in the forefront of our
thoughts, and began to compromise with the world
around us, and dared to worship other gods, which
would corrupt everything else, God would rightfully
be angry, and bring judgment and punishment. And,
the same holds true for us. The more we drift
away from God and Messiah and the Scriptures,
everything else will not work as well.
So, what
kind of life will you chose to live? One of spiritual
carelessness, with all the problems that will
create? Or one of careful listening, keeping and
doing, focusing on God and His Word. If you choose
the way of obedience and faithfulness, know that
blessedness will be yours - along with trials
that purify along the way!
* Two notes
of interest in chapter 8:
First,
it is good that man is not designed to eat by
bread alone, because if I am right about the direction
of our economy, there is going to be less and
less bread to eat!
Second,
verse 10 says: When you have eaten and are
satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for
the good land which He has given you. Based
on this verse non-Messianic religious Jews give
thanks to the Lord for their food - not only before
the meal, but after they eat. It is a one of the
more important prayers in Judaism. It is called
the “birkat ha-mazon”, the blessing of the food.
grace after meals. Reciting birkat ha-mazon is
commonly referred to as bentsching, from the Yiddish
word meaning "to bless." Although the
word "bentsch" can refer to the recitation
of any berakhah, it is almost always used to refer
to reciting birkat ha-mazon. But, this verse is
not commanding individuals to ritually give things
after eating their meal. It is telling our nation
to express gratitude to God for our successes
in the Land of Israel. Therefore, it is sufficient
to give things before one eats - although one
can give thanks to God for their meal after they
eat.
|
