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.

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