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Choosing life over death seems like an easy choice, but it can be hard for some people. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38).
In Moses’ third address to the second generation of Israel post-Egypt, recorded in Torah reading נִצָּבִים Nitzavim (“standing,” Deut. 29:9–30:20), he tells them (and us) they have a choice between life and death. He implores us to choose life.
We are also told that the Torah isn’t difficult, if it’s in your heart and in your mouth. Men make it difficult, but God doesn’t.
The last lesson in today’s lesson is that hidden sins will be revealed, so we are to live life with nothing to hide.
The great promise God has given us is that when He starts something, He completes it, including us. God did not deliver Israel just to let them atrophy and die. He did not start them to end them, He even makes a covenant with those not yet born. That is God’s long-suffering.
To understand God, we need to listen more than we speak (Eccl. 5:1–3).
In the garden, they were able to be naked and transparent before te Lord but when sin entered the relationship between man and God, they were not longer able to feel comfortable with being either figuratively or literally being naked before the LORD.
We have a choice to either be content or be restless. If we become restless, that can metastasize from desiring something to demanding it to presuming that the world owes us our desires. This train of thought can lead to actions such as envy and theft. Coveting is something that can crouch at our door, but God tells us we can overcome it.
The first generation chose death, and now the second generation is being given the option to make their own life and death decision. Moses is telling them not to be like that first generation, not to sit down or run away but to stand and move forward towards the promise and provision God has for them.
“So keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” (Deuteronomy 29:9 NASB)
Inertia will not help us keep Torah, it’s something we have to do actively. Let’s review the key Hebrew verbs in this text:
- keep = שָׁמַר shamar (H8104): verb: keep, watch, preserve (Brown Driver Briggs lexicon)
- do = עָשָׂה ’asah (H6213): verb: do, make (BDB)
- prosper = שָׂכַל sakhal (H 7919): verb: be prudent (BDB)
- give attention to, consider, ponder
- This sense of the word is expressed in one of the exasperations uttered in the Song of Moshe (Deut. 32:29).
We don’t keep the Torah just to hang on the wall and to show off our “cultural heritage.” It’s to actively practice and teach to others. When we are asked why we are going a different direction that the world takes. We don’t choose life because of a fear of death but our pursuit of life might bring about death but when we bring the light of the world to others, God will make sure it doesn’t go out. The Kingdom of God is not the easy route but it’s the best route for our eternal salvation. When God give us His Spirit, what the world says is hard is actually easy.
Character seems like an archaic word in our culture but character is who we are when our creature comforts have been stripped away and we are under stress.
If you are hearing the call from God to stand up and stop slouching, that is good news. We don’t have to slouch and let inertia carry us towards death.
“Would that they were wise [חָכַם khakham, H2449], that they understood [שָׂכַל sakhal] this, That they would discern [בִּין bin, H995] their future!” (Deut. 32:29 NASB)
One of Yeshua’s messages is that His message is easy and His yoke is light. If God’s words seem heavy, than the Torah becomes difficult and arduous. If the yoke is light, than Torah is a tool of liberation.
There are all sorts of things we can do on Shabbat yet we are here reading the Scriptures and studying them. The contract between HaShem and Israel would preserve Israel by the wisdom and prudence gained by following them.
Yeshua the Mashiakh taught through the “teachable moment” of healing a blind man and the parable of the Good Shepherd that the mission of Heaven has always been that mankind would have “abundant life.” (John 9:1–10:18).
“‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’” (John 10:10 NASB)
The healing of the blind man was not a random act of kindness but a valuable lesson to Yeshua’s disciples. They saw how Yeshua, the gentle shepherd guided people to Torah v. the Pharisees who ruled the religious community like tyrants with cruelty and condemnation, casting out anyone who did not accept their flimsy authority. They accused the blind man of being steeped in sin but they were the ones steeped in sin. The Pharisees saw God at work and refused to see it because it wasn’t working the way they wanted to see it.
God does not promise an easy life but He promises an abundant life. We have to learn to be content with where we are and what we have been given. That is how we experience a full life.
Do we keep Shabbat just to stop or do we stop for the purpose of pondering God’s word and considering our relationship with God and our fellow believers?
“The secret things [סָתַר satar, H5641] belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed [גָּלָה galah, H1540] belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29 NASB)
Some have taken this to mean that there are mysteries of God that need to be uncovered, as though there’s some kind of special “lock box” of knowledge and that without the “lock box” it is impossible to walk in God’s law. This is the root of gnosticism.
Rather, this is speaking to the same problem as seen in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3): Do we trust that כל khol (“all”) the LORD has given us is טוב tov (“good”), that nothing tov is being held back for the seeker? Do we trust that God has really given us enough knowledge to be successful disciples of our Master Yeshua?
God sent many prophets, leaders, judges and finally His own Son, not to be the chief obfuscator but to teach us how to follow God. He is the one who is the direct representation of God. He is a perfect image, a perfect reflection of God. God revealed Himself to us, He hid nothing from us. To know who God is, we look at Yeshua. What does that tell us? It tells us that Yeshua is not an outlier, His revelation is not divergent from the revelation of Moses, Elijah, etc. Everything we see in the Torah and the Prophets is brought into complete focus in Yeshua.
God does not play games with His people. God isn’t making it difficult but we can make it difficult.
What was the first “secret” in the Bible? It was when Satan planted the seed of doubt in Eve’s heart. The source of knowledge was never embodied in that tree but in God Himself and Satan was telling Eve she could go behind God’s back and gain the knowledge she was seeking on her own.
If you want to know what God says and wants? Listen to Him. Listen to God more and speak less.
There are 12 deadly secret sins recorded in Deuteronomy 27:15–26. Several of them specifically are done in secret.
- Makes an idol in secret
- Dishonors father and mother
- Moves neighbor’s boundaries
- Misleads a blind person
- Distorts justice for non-Israel
- Engages in deviancy with his stepmother
- Gets perverted with an animal
- Seduces his sister or stepsister
- Knows his mother-in-law the wrong way
- Assaults his neighbor in secret
- Accepts a bribe to convict the innocent
- Doesn’t confirm the covenant by doing them
Our discontent can simmer inside us for a long time. We can even hide it with a smile for a very long time before it inevitably comes out in our comments and actions.
“Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” (Deut. 30:6 NASB)
To “live,” the LORD must cut off from your deepest desires the things that draw us to seek after another Ba’al (master, husband). In other words, we must say to HaShem about this, “Amen!” (Let it be done!). God circumcises the heart, not us. We just have to let Him.
This is a part of the New Covenant prophecy (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 36:25–26). The Yermiyahu passage is quoted repeatedly in the book of Hebrews (Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16–17), underscoring that it’s a very important prophecy of the transformation of a person via God’s Messiah and Spirit.
The Kingdom of God is not made known only to an exclusive clique. God calls all of humanity to Himself.
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” (Deut. 30:11–14 NASB)
We don’t read Torah so we can talk a good talk but so we can walk a good walk. Yeshua said that those who loved Him, devoted their hearts to His leading as the Good Shepherd, would keep His commandments. His commandments are easy to keep when we love God. When we try to keep them because it’s a duty, then keeping His commandments is a difficult burden we want to wrestle away from keeping.
Yeshua did not cook up a totally new religion. He said that what He spoke came from the Father. Therefore, His commandments reiterated the Torah, as Deuteronomy reiterates and reveals the Torah.
The Apostle Paul quoted from Deut. 30:11–14 in explaining the mission of the Body of Messiah to “all Israel” (Rom. 10:1–13).
We keep and latch onto Torah so we will prosper and have life, so that if we die right now, we will die content and ready to meet Him. That is an abundant life.
It was very difficult for the first generation to go into the land because they didn’t trust the One who was bring them there. They couldn’t cut themselves off from their old way of life. They refused to be a new creation.
The second generation are a new creation and they are ready to enter the land. Moses wants them to be prepared for that by reminding them of who they are and the One who is bringing them to a new home and a new place of rest.
Isaiah 61:1–63:9: Reverse the curse
The first part of this text is the same text that Yeshua read in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30). He proclaimed Himself as the One who would restore Israel and reverse the curse of sin.
God established Israel as a beachhead for the Kingdom to eventually fill the Earth (Revelation 21–22). They had a mission to proclaim God’s love and authority to the world, to call them away from their destructive path and towards the righteous path. I pray that I will be happy if I am imprisoned for the Kingdom of God, but to also be content with who God has made me and not want to live someone else’s life.
Summary: Tammy
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