Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) taught that the life choices that are truly profitable long-term aren’t obvious to those with the worldview of the now (John 12:25).
That teaching parallels the main theme of the Torah reading נִצָּבִים Nitzavim (“standing,”Deut. 29:9-30:20): “choose life.” One would think that choosing life over death would be a no-brainer, but we learn that this command is simultaneously easy and extremely difficult.
There’s an old saying, “Good fences make good neighbors.” And the Torah reading תבוא Ki Tavo (“when you come in,” Deut. 26:1–29:8) emphasizes that blessings flow from God to people who establish and enforce proper boundaries.
Those include not only fences around property but also fences that clearly establish economic, spiritual and moral boundaries. But there can be no “wealth of nations” without “moral sentiments.”
This is an often overlooked lesson from Messiah Yeshua’s parable of the prodigal son.
The Torah reading רְאֵה Re’eh (“see,” Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17) focuses on explaining the Second, Third and Fourth Commandments. Because of all the talk these days about misinformation, we’re going to focus on Heaven’s instructions for discerning truth from error and falsehood. And that’s drawn from Moshe’s elucidation on the Third Commandment, found in Deuteronomy 13:1–14:21.
And from that command we learn why it is so important to know Who the LORD is and why Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) came to “show us the Father.”
https://hallel.info/reeh-2022/
When we think about living in a tumultuous time, when things seem to be coming apart at the seams, nationally or personally, take heart in the comfort that God has carried His people through all sorts of challenges and terrible things. That’s the message we can glean from Isaiah 40, a special parallel reading for the Torah reading ואתחנן Va’etchanan (“and I pleaded,” Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) about mourning what has been lost and hoping in what lies ahead.
No matter what we are facing personally or how bad we think the situation of the country or world, we must remember that there are many who have gone before us who have faced and endures far worse than this. For those who believed in God, they made it through by depending on God, regardless of whether they would make it through or succumb. They learned — and we must too — that there is something worse than death.
Many in the United States and elsewhere have forgotten that there are things worse than death. They have willingly given up basic freedoms — of speech, worship and assembly — for the false hope that they might extend their lives on Earth by doing so.
The Torah reading דְּבָרִים Devarim (“words,” Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22) contains a recounting of the roller-coaster ride of Israel from deliverance to defiance between the House of Bondage (Egypt), the Mountain of the Testimony (Sinai) and the Land of Freedom-Rest (Promised Land). There was no way for Moses to soft-pedal the fact that the first generation chose to believe the 10 spies bad report about the impossibility to occupy the Promised Land, rather than the good report of the two spies, which was affirmed by Moses and God Himself.
Just as the first generation of the Exodus believed the “bad report” of the spies, rather than believing the faithful witness of Caleb and Joshua, the majority of the generation that Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) came to in the flesh believed in the lies of their faithless shepherds rather than the simple faithful witness of the Torah.
The roller-coaster ride of ancient Israel fluctuated between of periods of trust in the LORD, apathy and rebellion mirrors the turmoil that swirls around our daily lives today.
Paul, an apostle of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ), wrote in Romans 9–11 that it was necessary for believers from the nations (“gentiles”) to be “grafted in” to Israel so “all Israel will be saved.” The dual Torah reading מטות Matot (“tribes”) and מסעי Massei (“journeys of”) (Numbers 30–36) goes through great detail on how the 12 tribes (plus Levi) must be kept together yet distinct. From this and Paul’s writings we learn the key Bible lesson of strength in the whole — Israel — when it is made of up parts defined by their integrity of mission and morals.
Passion to safeguard the ways of the LORD for future generation links the Torah reading פינחס Pinchas (Numbers 25:10–30:1) with its parallel passages about the final days of the First Temple (Jeremiah 1:1–2:3) and the anger from Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) about the turning of the Second Temple into a “den of robbers” (John 2:13–22). Those accounts underscore that God has a passionate love for His people and doesn’t want them to succumb to the disastrous ends of their passions.