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Moses said effectively, “Choose life, not death” (Deut. 30:19–20). It sounds like such an easy thing to do. But the truth is that it’s easier to walk the path of death than it is to walk the path of life. Our “flesh” drags us to follow our own inclinations, what we think is right rather than what God thinks and what He has taught us is right. In the Torah portion נִצָּבִים Nitzavim (“standing,” Deut. 29:9–30:20), Moses tells us that the Torah is not too hard for us, but it can be immensely difficult for us if we are not following through in letting the Spirit of God lead us.
The theme of the Torah portion נִצָּבִים Nitzavim (“standing,” Deut. 29:9–30:20) is that we should choose the “worldview,” the way to live that ultimately will last and will lift up the world long-term, rather than contribute to its downfall.
Choosing life that leads to death
That should be self-explanatory, but there are many who prefer destruction, chaos and death rather than creating, order and life. People covet power and use chaos, destruction and domination to do so. People easily get drunk on their own power over others. Power is very seductive.
However, life is also seductive. In times of panic and chaos, people have trampled others to preserve their lives at the expense of others’ lives. In choosing life over death, one has to ask, “At what cost?”
For example, Daniel’s friends chose life, even as they were facing martyrdom because they refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol (Daniel 6). They chose loyalty to God and eternal life over a few more hours or years of life on this earth. They didn’t know they were going to live to see another day.
The fiery furnace was very painful and uninviting. They had no idea God was going to miraculously save them, because to them, choosing life meant obeying God no matter what the king or anyone else said.
Look at what is happening with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Afghanistan. Several thousand have been rescued so far, and there are a number still on the run or in hiding. They have made their decision to follow Yeshua. They are walking in the way of the Messiah.
For us, following Yeshua may get us in trouble with our employer or with the local government, but in other parts of the world, harassment and persecution for the sake of Yeshua have been going on for decades and generations.
Yeshua said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NASB). Yeshua gave us the best example on how to lay one’s life down for their friends: He laid down His own life on the cross for the sake of the world.
You may have many “friends” on social media, but very few of them would be willing to inconvenience themselves or lay down themselves for you.
Why are the punishments against Israel’s disobedience so severe?
The curses that God places on Israel’s disobedience are severe because God set them up to be a lifeline to the world. When Israel’s decision to ignore the mission put the lives of others in danger, and that has to be severely reprimanded for the sake of the world.
The sign of circumcision is a sign to the parents that they are going to pass their mission to the next generation.
Our nation has been arguing for nearly 50 years about when life begins. Yet, here God is establishing the mission statement of the next generation even before they are born. When the apostle John refers to Yeshua as “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world,” in Rev. 13:8, we see how God doesn’t just live in the here and now but He lives in the past and the future, too.
Yeshua also had future generations in mind when He prayed for His apostles that not only would they be blessed by His word but every generation that learns from them and from their students in a continual chain to the end of the world.
““I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
John 17:20–24 NASB
God’s Law ‘is not too difficult’? Seriously?
The Torah is not difficult, but nuance and context are very important. Our heart and our mouth need to be calibrated and aligned in the correct direction. Our heart needs to beat in the correct rhythm. Our mouth needs to move the right way and speak the right way, too. The Torah is the measure by which we calibrate our heart and our words so they are aligned with God’s will.
God wants us to choose life, not death. He wants us to choose a life of blessing, not a life of adversity.
Why is this hard? Because of our flesh. Our flesh drags us to follow our own inclinations, what we think is right rather than what God thinks and what He has taught us is right.
“So keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.”
Deuteronomy 29:9 NASB
Moses is telling the second generation that God took they out of the house of bondage, not to subjgate them, but to prosper them.
The Torah’s instructions are there to protect and keep the people. But we see in the history of Israel, and we see in our own history, that yes, to choose life is seems like a very simple directive, a very simple choice, but we just adversity instead. We prefer to learn things the hard way, even though that doesn’t lead us anywhere good.
We want to say “the devil made me do it” as though doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong is totally beyond us.
Is the LORD’s vengeance being poured out in wildfires, floods and hurricanes?
In Isaiah 63, at the end of the parallel passage (haftarah) for Nitzavim, it talks about the LORD’s anger and vengeance. Compare that to what we see going on around us, and it seems that we are witnessing the wrath of the LORD with fires in the U.S. West plus floods and hurricanes in its East. All of this is on top of a raging, worldwide coronavirus pandemic. We may be “treading the grapes of wrath.”
But these things can also fit into Yeshua’s warning that earthquakes, plagues, pestilence, etc., are the beginning of the birth pangs of His return, too. Perhaps we’re into the full delivery, so to speak, of what is coming with the world to come in the day of the Lord, but maybe not.
Our task is to choose life. Yes, that is our role no matter whether we’re at the beginning of the birth pangs or the middle of the birth pangs, or approaching the end. Only God knows. It starts out talking about God’s wrath towards everything but then the prophet reminds his readers of God’s loving commitment to and compassion for the house of Israel. He says we are God’s children if we do not act falsely. We also know that in our distress, God sent His Messiah, the Minister of His Presence into the world.
Moses tells us that the Torah is not too hard for us, but it can be immensely difficult for us, if we are not following through and letting the Spirit of God lead us.
Isaiah was speaking to a generation that was not walking in sync with God. Their hearts weren’t in rhythm with heaven. Isaiah was speaking to an evil generation. Isaiah was speaking to a people who were decaying on the inside, but appeared healthy on the outside. They thought they could hide their interior rottenness from the vision of heaven.
The haftarah is a stern warning about the danger that our outside can look fine, but our inside can be completely rotten.
Lesson of the Flood and Sodom: ‘God and I have an understanding.’ ‘Oh, bless your heart!’ (Deut. 29:14–21)
“It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ “The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. “Then the LORD will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.”
Deuteronomy 29:18–21 NASB
Ouch! That’s harsh! What is going on here that is so bad that brings on a curse that God will never be willing to forgive and that God will single them out for adversity?
A clue is in the symbol of wormwood. Wormwood is seditious lawlessness. Wormwood represents the spiritually dangerous idea that we can be on good terms with God, even if we don’t keep His commandments or worship Him in the way He requires.
The Hebrew word here that is translated as boast basically means “I bless myself.” There are evil who purposefully live among the righteous and take advantage of their righteousness, not only to victimize them but to try protect themselves from the consequences of their actions. They presume a “righteousness by association.” (See these earlier studies on “wormwood” and this passage.)
But both Yokhanan (John the Baptist) and Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) warn that God can bring up children for Abraham out of the rocks (Matt 3:9; John 8:37), out of something that appears dead, can be made life and connected to the lifestream of Israel.
Yeshua also mentioned the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra together in a teaching about those oblivious of the way they live as the Day of the LORD approaches (Luke 17:26–37).
We have talked before about the vultures appearing on the Day of the Lord. Vultures do not appear for the living, they appear for the dead. They appear over those who chose the road that leads to death. They chose to live in the sins that lead to their death. They weren’t paying attention to the road they were on. They didn’t actively chose righteousness, and end up swept away with the wicked instead.
This parable has been a challenge for translators is that the same that is translated as swept away or taken also means to destroy. It’s the same word used to describe the destruction of Sodom.
The flood swept away everyone on earth except for eight people and the fires of Sodom purged the evil away by killing every person on those five cities. Noah’s family and Lot and his daughters were the ones who were “left behind” in God’s mercy. Everyone else was swept away.
When God prunes and replants, He chooses those who have actively chosen to live in righteousness, not those who are merely passively righteous. This is how He saved Noach and Lot. He pruned them.
They were not just selected at random. They were selected because they chose the way that leads to life, not just going along with things to stay alive, but they consciously walked along the path to eternal life or as Messiah put it, they longed for an abundant life, a life flowing over with God’s presence. They weren’t content to just exist. They wanted God’s loving presence flowing over in them.
God’s covenant was not made just with the people at the foot of Mt. Sinai or the generation preparing to enter the Land for the first time. It was also made to future generations.
God promises that the good work He started then will continue until the return of Messiah Yeshua (Phil. 1:6).
God’s words are the words of life. They guide us on the path that leads to eternal life. God lights the way and continues to call us home. We look forward to the restoration of all things. We look forward to the return of the Messiah and we look forward to the day that the dwelling place of God will truly and fully be among mankind.
Summary: Tammy