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The Torah section וַיֵּלֶךְ Vayelech (“he went,” Deuteronomy 31) discusses Moses giving the mantle of leadership to Yehoshua ben Nun (Joshua son of Nun).
It’s a good reminder that human leaders come and go. There are some who were really good, some who were really bad and some in between. No matter what administration is in charge of things where you live, it is the Rock of Israel, who is the most dependable king.
We see that in people such as the patriarch Joseph, who was Pharaoh’s right hand. Joseph was dependable and Pharaoh knew it. The same was true for the Prophet Daniel. He was a rock-solid, dependable man. Both Nebuchadnezzar and Darius sought out and followed his counsel. Both men had been slaves, they were captive and subjugated. Yet, because of their noteworthy character and God’s hand upon them, they were elevated into positions of great responsibility, and also great favor.
Yeshua (Jesus) told a parable about building one’s house on the sand compared to building one’s house on the rock (Matt. 7:21–27; Luke 6:46–49). If you want to be a real leader of men (and women), building your life upon an opinion poll is not how to do it. You can put your finger and make decisions based on which way the winds blowing and then going in that direction. That’s not the way to live your life.
So many in our country have allowed their moral judgements to be unmoored from reality. What many in America thought was dependable has proven unreliable. Ecclesiastes warns us about chasing after things that are vain and not lasting.
This brings us back to looking at what is dependable. If we spend our time cultivating friends online, for example, when hard times come to us, either by our mistakes or by life challenges, these “friends” turn out to be quite unreal and unreliable. Those connections we thought were real are often fake and vacuous.
Often, it’s only when we have run out of luck, when we are at the bottom, that we are ready to remember and practice every words that proceeds from the mouth of God. We ponder, guard and protect them.
Think about it as “spiritual gravity.” One of the laws of thermodynamics is that things will tend to go from order to chaos; they’ll go from heat to cold. For example, if you leave your dinner out on the table, and it was cold, it just doesn’t suddenly get hot. However if the dinner starts out hot, then you set it on the table, it will get cold.
Likewise, with our spiritual lives, we can start out hot and go cold. Yeshua, in one of His admonitions to the seven congregations in Revelation, warns about the spiritual dangers of being lukewarm. He says, “I wish you were either hot or cold” (Rev. 3:14–22). What is in between hot and cold is what we call lukewarm and Yeshua warns strongly against this.
It’s very clear where you are this lukewarm thing where you’re neither hot nor cold, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself, but also to other people. Being lukewarm means that you’ve reached an equilibrium, where the heat has flown towards the cold and struck a balance that is not good for spiritual growth.
What happens if you are lukewarm but those around you are hot? You will warm up but to do so you pull the heat from those around you. So likewise, if you are lukewarm in your belief toward God, you’re neither an atheist nor a total true believer and totally dependent and totally trusting upon God. What then happens over time, if those believers don’t watch themselves, then their fervent passion and trust, their cleaving to God will get sucked out of them, they don’t watch themselves.
Some think then can toggle between fellowship with believers and non-believes and it won’t hurt their walk with God, like a chameleon changes the color of his skin but this is not true. If one is wishy-washy, than one’s witness isn’t of value to those who are starving to know God.
But one of the last little things here is that when you get knocked down, get up again. And when you get up again, realize why you got knocked down the first time and learn those lessons well and don’t repeat them. And especially when you’re talking about getting back up again on the road for toward the kingdom of God, realize the great mercy that’s been shown in the Lord putting you back on the right and narrow path. And then to move on, but a part of the mercy of God is that we have an Advocate who speaks on our behalf (1John 1:8–10), Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ).
In this time between Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), this time in between is the time to turn back, to re-calibrate ourselves. This time of calling out is an action of God’s mercy. Yes, it’s also talking about judgment. But just as what we read about represented in the Gospel of John, is that we are to focus our attention on Yeshua, the Light coming into the world, who has come into the world to overcome the darkness.
No one can snuff out the Light of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The light of the world has come into the world and His light will continue shining brighter and brighter till there are no shadows, no more dark corners anymore. When the City of God comes down to earth, as we are told in Revelations, there will be no night there because God is there.
Hope amid seeming hopelessness (Hosea 14)
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity And receive us graciously, That we may present the fruit of our lips.
“Assyria will not save us, We will not ride on horses; Nor will we say again, ‘Our god,’ To the work of our hands; For in You the orphan finds mercy.”
Hosea 14:1–3 NASB
The relationship between Hosea and his wife, Gomer, was a symbol of God’s relationship with His “adulterous” people. Ezekiel also told a similar parable of the relationship between God and two sister wives. Hosea was speaking to the northern kingdom while Ezekiel was speaking to the southern kingdom but the message was the same for both and the way back to God was the same for both.
“I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them.
“I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
“His shoots will sprout, And his beauty will be like the olive tree And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
“Those who live in his shadow Will again raise grain, And they will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.”
Hosea 14:4–7 NASB
2 steps to repentance: turn away, turn toward
There are two steps to repentance. The first step is to reject and turn away from sin. The second step is to go in the right direction and turn to God. Yeshua told a parable in Luke 11:14–26 about what happens when one only repents half heartedly by giving an example of a person who had been released from demon possession. If the released man does not fill himself with God’s spirit, then the demon that was cast out will return with more demons worse than himself and the person ends up worse off than before.
For better than any other verb it [שׁוּב shuv, Strong’s H7725] combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: to turn from evil and to turn to the good.
Hamilton, Victor P. Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980.
- שִׁיבָה shivah (H7870): restoration
- שׁוּבָה shuvah (H7729): retirement, withdrawal, restoration
- מְשׁוּבָה meshuvah (H4878/4879): apostasy
- שׁוֹבָב shovav (H7726): backturning, recusant, apostate
This healing of Israel’s “wheel alignment” would take a Divine Mechanic (Deut. 30:6–10).
“All roads lead to Rome” unless you live on an island such as Iceland or Hawaii. You need to know where you are and where you are going. You don’t get to where you’re going by wandering around. The second generation could have gotten to the land very quickly if it hadn’t been for their parents and grandparents lack of faith.
““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. “The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. “And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. “Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.”
Deuteronomy 30:6–10 NASB
It’s very important that the spiritual fire of one generation is stoked in the next generation. If not, they will run out of fuel. If you don’t continue to instill in your children what is most important, they won’t have anything to pass on to your grandchildren and the spiritual line of your family will die out, even if the physical one doesn’t.
The Northern Tribes of Israel turned away from what is good and chased after what was evil. The correction inflicted on them was harsh but necessary and their path of repentance is also hard, but the Kingdom of God is a one lane road, not a multi-lane interstate freeway. If one is not paying close attention to the path, it’s easy to get distracted and veer off the path.
The Jewish Study Bible tends to lean towards the left so I was quite surprised to read this observation regarding Deut. 30:6.
The change in perspective suggests skepticism about the people’s ability to effect such a change of heart independently. Still more skepticism is evident in the prophetic vision of a divine “reprogramming” of the human heart by inscribing the Torah upon it (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 11:19–20; 36:26–27).
Berlin, Adele, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael A. Fishbane, eds., The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Previously, the LORD called Israel to “circumcise” their own hearts (Deut. 10:16), but that solid counsel was discarded.
- It would take a new desire for God’s ways: new heart.
- It would take a new motivation: new spirit.
- It would take a “new covenant” (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 11:19–20; 36:26–27).
- This would be a bond based on “knowing [God] fully just as [we] also have been fully known” (1Cor. 13:12).
Do you read the prophets and wonder “how did I get into this mess?” or “Why does God hate me?” or do you read them with wisdom that the trials we face are for our character development? Our trials and God’s correction often leave a permanent mark, which is how we remember the lessons they were meant to teach us.
When we celebrate Pesach, we aren’t just celebrating the released of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. We also celebrate our liberation from our own slavery to sin.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31–34 NASB
This is one of the great promises that God give His people. He will give us a new heart, a new spirit and a new way of seeing ourselves and those around us.
“O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; From Me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble in them.”
Hosea 14:8–9 NASB
This is the way Hosea 14 ends. The story of Hosea and his wife ended with teshuvah, with repentance. She turned away from her covenant and she turned back to her covenant with her husband. God prophesies the same for His people.
When you look at the entire book of Hosea, you can look it the same way as the Apostle James shows us. We have the choice to wallow in self pity when God corrects us or we can be grateful for the discipline and receive the wisdom God wants for us. Whether the snakes were sent in or allowed in (as seen in Numbers 21:6), the result was the same and the solution was the same. The wise man accepts correction, the fool refuses correction and runs headlong as fast as possible to his own destruction.
You can burn yourself out as quickly as you want, but what are you teaching the next generation? As long as you are willing to examine your life to the Scriptures, which are an objective benchmark, there’s always an opportunity for repentance.
During the 10 days of awe, we have to consider why Heaven is correcting us and testing our boundaries. Have we imposed our boundaries on our neighbors? Are our neighbors pushing our boundaries? This time is given to us for restoration of relationships and to return to God.
Is Tikkun Olam (renewal of the world) about recycling our glass, aluminum and plastics properly or about restoring relationships between families, cities, states and nations?
Faithful in compassion (Micah 7:18–20)
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love.
He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers From the days of old.
Micah 7:18–20 NASB
God pardons iniquity, passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His posession? The remnant were the survivors, the “less bad” of their wicked generation. But even that remnant needs to be refined, like silver or gold are refined in a fire.
The remnant do not necessarily have everything figured out. They had enough sense to not go over the cliff, but still need to be molded and corrected to improve their character. God delights in loyalty and lovingkindness.
The most hopeful words have been saved for the conclusion of the book. Readers of vv. 18–20 cannot fall into the common trap of envisioning the God of the prophets as a vindictive judge, contrasted with the God of Jesus as a forgiving peacemaker. This prophet’s God pardons sin and takes pleasure in showing compassion. The prophet reminds God of the ancient ancestors Abraham and Jacob, expecting the same loyal kindness that they experienced.
Harrelson, Walter J., ed., The New Interpreter’s Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
The most important of what was lost in correction will be restored in compassion (Joel 2:15–27)
As we saw in reading through Joel 2:15-27 on Yom Teruah, Joel is speaking of the soon and coming exile but he speaks of restoration. He speaks of how God’s message will one day again go out from Zion to all the earth.
As we should look to see how we have gone off the path and how to return. As we return, we get closer to the heart of God. The heart of God is towards our fellow man. Will we move away from the wrong path to the correct path with a change of heart and a change of spirit? We need to ask God to show us everything about us and how we can return to the path of life everlasting.
Summary: Tammy