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Being “Torah observant” is not supposed to be a “holier than thou” pursuit of perfection. The Torah section הַאֲזִינוּ Ha’azinu (“listen,” Deuteronomy 32) is Moshe’s warning for Israel to be aware of the high calling of the nation to save the world and not to bec9me in snared by its distractions.
We see a lot of the foibles of God’s people recorded in the Bible. The reason they are recorded is so we can learn when we are heading in a wrong direction. When you head down a bad path and end up in a place that you don’t want to be, learn from those things and move on.
That is why sometimes bad things happen to good people. Even “good people” sometimes go off track and need some fine tuning and adjustments.
Righteous people accept correction and are grateful for it, while unrighteous people ignore correction and blame others, including God for the problems they caused to themselves (Prov. 9:8; 14:16).
The Jewish people call those gentiles who helped rescue Jews in Europe from the Holocaust the “Righteous Among the Nations.”
Many of these holocaust rescuers have been asked how they were able to stand up for what was right as most of their neighbors succumb to evil. The answer a number of them have given is simple. They just didn’t go off the edge like everybody else did. That was the only thing. They went up to the edge, saw where the edge was, and they didn’t go over it with everybody else and all of society. And that was enough. They saw Europe going in a bad direction and simply refused to follow.
We see what’s happening right now with this coronavirus pandemic, what it’s doing to other countries. Not only is it creating a divide, but it is also creating people who are turning in their neighbors, turning in their family members. And they are smug and self-righteous about it.
Certain states in Australia are reverting back to their penal colony roots right before our eyes, with parole-like daily check-ins to make citizens are adhering to the lockdown orders.
We have not seen anything like this in Western countries since the times of the ghettos, and it’s horrifying. We can see how quickly people can switch from being kind, good “civilized” people into being people who will turn other people into the authorities, chase other people down, drag them into prison, do horrifically bad things for the sake “of the greater good.”
Remember that Germany right before World War II was one of the most educated, sophisticated cultures in the world. Their schools of higher learning — economics, philosophy, science — had a lot of brain power. Yet when you read some of the writings that came out from that time, you read all kinds of incredibly educated justifications for the most barbaric things you’ve ever seen in your life.
When the apostle Paul was before Festus, giving a defense of his faith in Yeshua, Festus told Paul, “Your great learning has driven you mad” (Acts 26:24).
That could be said of a lot of people, whether you’re looking at pre-World War 2 Germany or today. It’s a serious warning to be sure that your great learning doesn’t drive you into absolute insanity.
And don’t be so arrogant to assume that such a warning applies to other people, but not yourself.
This walk is about listening to the Creator, observing where are lifestyles diverge from Heaven’s instructions and seeking return to the LORD’s ways, a restoration made possible by the perfect Atonement Offering, the Mashiakh (Messiah, Christ).
The apostle Ya’akov (James) discusses this in his epistle. He points out that when we are being corrected, we need the wisdom to learn the right lessons. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and seeing the Lord (and understanding that the Lord sees you) is the beginning of wisdom.
Wisdom is about listening to the Creator, observing where our lifestyles diverge from Heaven’s instructions and seeking return to the Lord’s ways, a restoration made by the perfect Atonement Offering in the Messiah Yeshua.
When God established His relationship with Abraham, one of the main reasons God selecting Abraham because He knew that Abraham would teach his children everything God taught him. God knew that Abraham would faithfully transmit God’s identity and His lessons to the next generation.
This is why God made a covenant with Abraham and why He also made covenants with Isaac and Jacob.
When we read the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we see why God plucked the children of Israel out of Egypt. They were in real danger of losing the identity that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had worked so hard to instill in them as an independent people with a unique mission to the world. This is the legacy that God has given Israel, this is their role in the world. And when they didn’t want to go down this road, God had to correct them, not only for their ultimate redemption but for the redemption of the gentiles. Too.
God warned the children of Israel through the prophet Hosea that if they forgot the Law of God, God would forget their children (Hosea 4:6).
This seems like pettiness coming from the Creator of heaven, but rather than pettiness, it is actually essential to understanding what the Lord is actually trying to do.
Song of Moses and Song of the Lamb
Some see “The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) and think the two are opposed to each other.
“Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”” (Revelation 15:1–4 NASB)
Rather than there being tension between Moses (and the Torah he communicated) and the Lamb (and the full atonement He brought), they are motifs of the same composition:
- “Great and marvelous are Your works”
- Establishing and redeeming Israel, and the nations through her.
- Giving of the Torah of the Testimony to Israel.
- Sending of not just any Mashiakh, but the Son of God.
- “Righteous and true are Your ways”
- Yeshua said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:5–7 NASB).
The entire Bible is about the favor of God (grace) versus the wrath of God. We see God’s great and marvelous work in his redemption of the children of Israel and the redemption of the gentiles through them. Solomon called the Temple a “house of prayer” for all nations (1Kings 8).
This is why Yeshua was so upset that the Jewish leaders had made the courthouse of the gentiles into a loud marketplace. That did not draw gentiles to God; it repelled them.
Just as magnets pointed in one direction pulls towards each other, those pointed in the opposite direction each other away. God has created the earth with a force field that protects us from radiation that emanates from the sun and the stars. We see evidence of this forcefield in the aurora borealis. However, if we leave this protective forcefield to visit the Moon or Mars, we are no longer under protection. Just as if we leave God, we are no longer under His protection.
David’s lesson in full salvation (2Samuel 22)
One of the key differences between 2Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 is the first verse of Psalm 18:
““I love You, O LORD, my strength.”” (Psalm 18:1 NASB)
God was taking them to a sure destination but the first generation did not trust who brought them out of Egypt.
- Do you have faith in the One who took you out of the house of bondage?
- Do you have faith in the One who took you through the sea?
- Do you have faith in the One who brings water from the rock?
- Do you have faith in the One who brings the food down from the sky?
- Do you have faith in the One who brings the pigeons in from the sea?
2nd Samuel 21 records how Sha’ul’s destiny played out. David’s resolution of a three-year drought in Israel by bringing judgment on Sha’ul’s attempted genocide of Gilead. Sha’ul’s legacy of refusing to seek and follow all the counsel of God, caused God to take the kingdom from Him and turned Saul into David’s enemy and God’s enemy.
King Sha’ul was a tall, impressive looking man, but we are warned to be careful of following people of charisma, who look impressive. Listen to their words, watch their actions, and not just be impressed by someone who’s tall and powerful. They may be leading you off in a different direction.
In his youth, as David was preparing to face Goliath, he had to remind the army of Israel that God was their leader and they didn’t have to fear the giants. When David arrived at the Israelite’s army camp, the Philistine army and their giants were even making the armies of Israel cower in front of them.
Goliath wasn’t the only Philistine giant. David’s and his mighty men had many victories over the giants of Philistia.
The young man, who was a man after God’s own heart, went astray for a time, as we know of the crimes he committed against Uriah and Bathsheva. The Rabbis have tried to excuse David’s sin, but David made no excuses for himself in Psalms 32 and 51.
We must beware of those who presume to help us make excuses for our sin, they are not looking in our best interests. Nathan was sent by God to confront David’s sin out of love for the one who loved Him.
God could have responded by having both David and Bathsheva stoned, yet God showed them kindness, grace and mercy instead. There was nothing David could do to fix what he had done, and David knew it. There are not enough goats and bulls to bring Uriah back and to restore his marital relationship with his wife. All David could do is repent.
The apostle Ya’akob (James) in his letter was addressing those who knew the Torah (James 1:1), or at least should have known it very well.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2–8 NASB)
This wisdom is about understanding what is to be learned from the trials and difficulties we face so we can be mature, unflappable in the face of adversity. We become people of character.
Is God a petty reactionary? (2Samuel 22:26–27)
“With the kind You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the perverted You show Yourself astute.” (2Samuel 22:26–27 NASB)
Are you loyal (חָסִיד khasid, H2623)? Heaven will be loyal to you.
Are you a mighty person of character (תָּמִים tamim, H8549)? Heaven will act with utmost integrity toward you.
How do we seek this wisdom? How do we become a “mighty person of character”?
- Fear the Lord
- Know the Lord
- Seek Heaven’s testing
Are you purified, purged of wrongdoing (בָּרַר barar, H1305)? The Holy One will purify and purge you of evil, if you ask Him. If you want to get rid of the sin in your life, God will do it, if you are asking seriously.
Are you crooked, perverted (עִקֵּשׁ iqqesh, H6141)? Get ready for Heaven’s ultimate smackdown (פָּתַל patal, H6617). God doesn’t smack down the crooked to make them suffer but to bring them to repentance and make them useful in the Kingdom.
The world is teaching people to build their character on sand. Israel is supposed to teach the world how to build their character on the Rock.
If we actively forget, or refusing to remember God and His ways, the natural result is that the next generation will not know the Lord. We can’t expect the Lord to bless the next generation if they have not been taught to bless God. God will move on to someone else who will remember Him and teach their children to do so. God says He will always have a remnant, and the point of the remnant is to attact people to God, the only hope.
In the Day of the Lord, all the false futures that don’t lead to anywhere good will be wiped away. The only future will be a future with God. This is our hope. The people who come out of Babylon will attract others who also want to leave Babylon.
The act of forgetting God and “forgetting” to teach Him to the next generation, will have consequences. If we don’t like those consequences, we can’t blame God. He can’t bless unrighteousness.
There is no such thing as righteousness by association. Just hanging around righteous people isn’t enough. We have to build our own connection to God.
Summary: Tammy