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In the Book of Deuteronomy, God, through Moses, asks His people to give Him their unwavering devotion and praise. Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) teaches us to do the same.
“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (Hebrews 13:15 NASB)
As Yeshua told the Samaritan woman:
“Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”” (John 4:21–24 NAS95)
Whether you live in the shadow of Jerusalem, London, Seoul, New York or San Francisco, we are called to worship God from our entire being from our own free will.
In this study of the Torah reading רְאֵה Re’eh (“see,” Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17), the LORD wants us to see what’s intended by the Second, Third and Fourth of the Ten Commandments.
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26–28 NASB)
The Jewish Study Bible says:
“Loyalty to the covenant provides the condition for life in Canaan. The punishments and rewards in this section are predominantly addressed to a plural ‘you,’ stressing communal rather than individual responsibility.”
Everything in God’s eyes is either a blessing or a curse. Either you do it or you don’t, but it’s your choice. There’s no middle of the road.
“It shall come about, when the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” (Deuteronomy 11:29 NASB)
The book of Joshua discusses this in much greater detail.
“You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.” (Deuteronomy 12:3 NASB)
You obliterate a name by never mentioning it again. There’s a difference between obliterating the name of an evil deity or person and teaching a moral lesson. We obliterate a name when we are no longer interested in following in the footsteps of the one with the evil name.
Thinking about syncretism
In this section we see that God is concentrating the sacred sacrifice in one place, that place isn’t specifically named here but we know from history that this place will eventually be in Jerusalem. Worshipping God is primarily a communal, not an individual exercise.
We are not to bring the rituals of false religions into worship of God.
God commands us to dance. Dancing is dancing. Dancing is not inherently pagan just because pagans do it. Just as kosher slaughter is not bad just because Islamic slaughter is somewhat similar to kosher slaughter doesn’t make kosher slaughter bad either.
Moses is also teaching us about the difference between the ritual sacrifice of animals at an altar and the secular slaughter of domestic animals for food. However, regardless of the reason for the animal slaughter, the blood of the animal must be treated with respect.
You do not sacrifice sin offerings on your own altar, that offering must be offered on God’s altar, but certain free will offerings can be offered on family altars and since most towns would have Levites there to serve the community, they could make sure that any animal slaughtered either for food or as a thanksgiving offering to God were performed appropriately.
Deuteronomy 13 tells us that any prophet who tries to draw us away from God is to be put on trial and if found guilty is to be executed without mercy. We can show mercy to any other criminal but to a false prophet, if a court of law finds him or her guilty, there is no mercy. We are not to become vigilantes and kill preachers or “prophets” we personally believe are drawing people away from God. We are stealing from God if we try to enforce His rules outside the law He provided.
Clean vs. unclean foods
“the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.” (Deuteronomy 14:5 NASB)
The wild goat could either be what we call a “mountain goat” or it can also apply to the animal we call a giraffe (appo, Strong’s H689). In many Jewish bibles, they leave the original Hebrew word rather than trying to translate this animal’s name into English because of this ambiguity.
The reason for the designation of clean vs. unclean foods are based on the God made physical characteristics of the animals themselves rather than on hygiene or health.
The Jewish Study Bible explains the question of the kid boiled in its mother’s milk this way:
“This law is repeated three times in the Torah (here; Ex. 23:19; 34:26). The rabbinic assumption that no law in the Bible is redundant led to the postbiblical generalization that prohibited the consumption of meat and milk products together. On its own terms, the law seems to have had a more restricted application. It originally applied specifically to the pilgrimage festival offerings (Exod. 23:19; 34:26). Deuteronomy now reinterprets it as a general law of food preparation. Philo viewed it as directing the mind away from the body; Maimonides viewed it as directed against idolatry. Some moderns have viewed the prohibition as directed against Canaanite religious rituals; others view it as concerned to prevent the abuse of animals.”
Keeping it local: ‘Every third year’
“At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town.” (Deuteronomy 14:28 NASB)
The Hebrew word that is translated as “at the end of every third year” is actually year three of the seven-year cycle, not every three years. In the third year of the seven year cycle is a local celebration of the main feasts.
The local celebration of the feasts in Year 3 gives the poor a taste of what a pilgrimage feast feels like because those who went to the feasts in Jerusalem would tell the stories of the prior feasts in Jerusalem. These stories might provoke jealousy in those who can’t afford to go to the feasts in the other festival gatherings, which is a good thing because if they become a little jealous, that means they have enough of a desire to attend the festivals in Jerusalem themselves that they will work harder so they can afford to go in other years.
There’s no reason for God to bless you if you don’t ask Him for blessing. God also doesn’t have a reason to bless you if your desires are wrong.
‘Forgive us our debts as we …’
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts.” (Deuteronomy 15:1 NASB)
Jewish philosophy says that if it’s a loan based on collateral such as a mortgage, it isn’t to be released but it is not collateral based, such as a credit card, it is released.
Banner Photo: God wants to see our praise and He wants us to see Him. (Photo by Freeimages.com/Gabriel Pico)
Summary: Tammy.