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Imagine life’s journey as a cable car. We are trams, and what we ultimately depend on in life is the cable. Moshe (Moses) in the Torah reading ואתחנן Va’etchanan (“and I pleaded,” Deut. 3:23–7:11) appealed to the second generation post-Exodus to remember the One Who carried them patiently from their life in bondage to freedom. Moshe called born-again Israel to forsake all the pretender gods of the Promised Land, to learn the love the LORD has for them and to leave a legacy so their descendants will turn back from foolishness apart from God — even enslaved again in exile.
This same message of faith, grace and mercy communicated through the Torah is what Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) proclaim with power and bring to ultimate reality.
The inspiration for this modern parable of life’s journey into the Kingdom of Heaven for ancient Israel and us today is the Anberlin song “The Unwinding Cable Car,” with the cable as a metaphor for the stability of God and His Mashiakh (Christ) as Savior.
Big picture of Va’et’chanan
- As we saw through the travelogue of post-Mitzraim stops in Matot/Massei (Numbers 33):
- Remember where we came from and where we’re going.
- Remember why we left our way of life outside the Kingdom.
- Remember Who took us out of the house of bondage and Who takes us into the Kingdom of God.
- Cling to the LORD with all our hearts, lives and resources.
- Pass on the importance of this connection to the Creator (Deuteronomy 6).
- Remember what it means to be a holy people, how that happens and why (Deuteronomy 7:1–11).
Isaiah 40:1-26: Shabbat Nachamu
This is called Shabbat Nachamu, and the haftarah (parallel) reading for today is in Isaiah 40:1-26. In English, it is called the “Sabbath of comforting.” It is the first of seven parallel readings on comfort traditionally read leading up to Yom Teruah (Rosh haShanah).
Isaiah speaks these words of comfort to the children of Israel in a time of exile. Those who paid attention to the words of the Lord knew that such a thing was coming and were not caught off guard by the impending exile.
‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 40:2)
I like this because God is speaking to the לב lev (“heart”) of the people.
Imagine what these words would have felt like to a people
who thought they were forgotten and forsaken by God?
It goes on to say, “her warfare [צבא tzevah, or ‘hard service’] has ended” and the LORD’s discipline that resulted in exiles has ended and “her iniquity has been removed [רצה retzah, ‘propitiated’ (HALOT lexicon)].”
This is a foretaste of the work of the LORD’s ultimate Comforters (John 14:15–17). Helper (NASB) is translated from παράκλητος parakletos, a translation for מְנַחֲמִים Menakhamim in the Septuagint (LXX).
The Lord is not leaving the people of Israel high and dry. So just as you saw before the picture of people in exile, they aren’t going to be left without support.
‘Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness’ (Isaiah 40:3)
This is another prophecy of the coming Menakhem of Heaven, fulfilled in the Mashiakh’s herald, Yokhanan (Matt. 3:1–12), and this quote from Isaiah 40:3 is actually included in all four gospels, which is unusual. Very few stories are included in all four gospels.
Access to the Kingdom of Heaven is not given to us as an inheritance from our parents or grandparents but it is give to us by God Himself as we are in communion and fellowship with Him.
‘Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD’ (Isaiah 40:13–14)
We see another prophecy of the Messianic era in the role of the LORD’s Spirit as the conduit of understanding.
Who do you think you are? (Isaiah 40:12–26)
The last part of this passage is similar to the dressing down that the LORD gives to Yob in the closing chapters (Job 38:1–42:6).
Job’s “friends” presented their opinions about the causes of Job’s suffering. God then speaks and puts it all into perspective. Do we humans even understand a small little part of any of the things that go on around us? We think we know so much but most of what is in the universe is not even known. There is wisdom in admitting our ignorance.
Where do we go for any sort of wisdom and understanding?
Here’s what we can know:
“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him.” (Psalm 68:4 NASB)
Fortunately for us, the end of the haftarah reading is hopeful:
“And see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.” (Isaiah 40:26 NASB)
This is a great message of hope for a people whose legacy was forsaking the LORD and being forsaken for a time. Moses is speaking to the descendants of those who really blew it. They decided to forsake their rightful inheritance because they lived in fear rather than faith.
Today, we are here in the year 2019 and there is still no temple of God. So we are, in a sense, living in the legacy of that exile.
We know many who have basically forsaken two-thirds of God’s word, and not acknowledging that there is a lot they don’t know. Many Christians struggle with two-thirds of what God said, as being relevant to how we enter the kingdom.
So we say that’s our legacy as well. So do throw up our hands in despair? Or do we humble ourselves and admit that we don’t really know what’s happening and move forward because Lord has actually talked about the era that we’re in right now.
This is also a foretaste of the message of hope the Mashiakh (Messiah) brought to the lost sheep of Israel (John 10:27–30). John 10 is in the Temple celebrating Hanukkah, which is a time when the people of God were in turmoil and there was a pagan deity desecrating the Temple of God. The people of God in that generation had to decide whether to follow God or to follow the Greek Hellenists. There are stories in the book of Maccabees that show how difficult it was to follow God. But we can see that the Lord did not forget them.
Deuteronomy 4:1-40: ‘listen to the statutes and judgments’
Moshe was given a look into the future. He gave them a legacy of hope but also a stern warning.
Moshe tells them one of the most important gifts God will give to His children.
“So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” (Deuteronomy 4:6 NASB)
Moshe tells this second generation that the Torah has been given to them as their legacy. But Moshe asked them if they wanted their legacy to be like of their parents who died in the wilderness or did they want to enter His land?
We see that the children of Israel did not have the gift of wisdom and discernment because they were such a great and powerful people but because God is such a great God. When the nation of Israel walked in Torah, they were a beacon to the world.
Yet, we read in the TaNaK (Torah, Prophets and Historical Writings) that the children of Israel did forget the Torah and its wise lessons. The Torah is not supposed to go in one ear and out the other but to permeate us and then go out into the world.
Moshe was given a vision of what would happen in the future, that we just read about in the Book of Isaiah.
Moshe’s call to the second generation post-Mitzraim is to make their connections with the LORD their own, not their parents. We need to understand God directly, not just latch onto our parents faith.
Similarly, we as multiple-generation believers in Yeshua as the Messiah need to build our own connections with the LORD.
And new believers should be careful when building their trust in the LORD upon the one who helped them find The Way. If you are teaching the faith to new believers, you need to make sure that you fully release them and let God take them. They have to stand on their own faith in God, not attach themselves to our fait.
Search out the LORD continually
All believers are called to search out the LORD with all our heart (emotions, understanding and wisdom) continually. We are supposed to seek the Lord and hunger and thirst for Him. Are we as spiritually thirsty as we are physically thirsty. There are so many passages that encourage us to seek, hunger, thirst and pursue the Lord with humility and repentance.
“Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face continually.” (Psalm 105:4)
“Seek the LORD that you may live.” (Amos 5:6)
“I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1 NASB)
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 NASB)
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)
Search out the LORD with humility and repentance
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD…” (Isaiah 51:1)
“Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)
God hasn’t lost any of His people, even those in exile in a foreign land.
Deuteronomy 4:2: ‘shall not add to the word … nor take away from it’
We see this warning again in Deuteronomy 12:32. Why is this important?
Deuteronomy 13:1–4 explains it. A “dreamer of dreams” is one who claims to have an instruction from God beyond what’s in the Torah.
A presenter of signs (אותות, like the bronze serpent on the pole) and wonders (מופתים, like the plagues of Egypt and Aaron’s serpent-rod). In a sense, Moshe is talking about himself as he was able to tell Pharaoh exactly when the plagues would come and exactly when they were cease. God systematically knocked down the “gods” of Mitzraim. Just because a called-for spectacle happens may mean that it is certification of judgment, rather than an affirmation of truth.
“Israel as a nation will become a ‘sign’ or ‘wonder,’ i.e. a spectacle or demonstration of the rewards of disobedience (Deut. 28:46). Psa. 71:7; Isa. 8:18; 20:3; Ezek. 12:6, 11; 24:24, 27; and Zech. 3:8 use the word [מופת] similarly. The psalmists or the prophets are themselves the object lesson.” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, s.v. “מופת,” paragraph 4.)
We can either be a sign or a wonder as an example or as a warning.
We are also warned against following anyone who would incite us to apostasy, which means turning away from the Source of Life — Whom Israel has witnessed bring her back from being as good as dead in Mitzraim — is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We also should not follow anyone who would encourage us to infidelity. Through the Exodus, the LORD has shown Israel the better path of clinging to the LORD with all the heart (emotions in action), soul (life) and strength (resources).
We should not follow the passions of the flesh, and fall victim to scheme of Bil’am (Balaam) and Ba’al-Pe’or with the help of Midian.
If we fear death from the giants of Canaan, more than we have faith in God’s provision, we can be left to die outside the Promised Land. We should only fear the one who can kill both body and soul in Gehenna.
We so can’t allow ourselves to crave the ample food and water of Mitzraim over the morning manna and water from a rock, and be given piles of quail that becomes a plague.
We see this warning again in Deuteronomy 12:32. Deuteronomy is not a jumbled grab-bag of teachings, but elaborations on the Ten Commandments. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), in particular, gives us a lot of insight into the book of Deuteronomy. Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) quoted from Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Torah.
Yeshua drew from the prophet Yeshiyahu (Isaiah 29:13) to make a similar point in Mark 7, with this punchline to His teaching on whether His students were required to wash their hands.
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” [Isaiah 29:13]. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.’ He was also saying to them, ‘You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.’ ” (Mark 7:6–9 NASB)
We hear a similar warning against adding and taking away from the the revelation of the Mashiakh (Rev. 22:18–19).
“I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18–19 NASB)
The question for the generation entering the land is, “Do you want to enter?” The question for those in exile is, “Do you want to return?” The ones who the Father calls will want to return to Him.
Summary: Tammy
Banner photo: View of a tram rising from the Alyeska Resort hotel to the lodge at the top of the ski mountain in Girdwood, Alaska, in May 2018. (photo by Jeff of Hallel Fellowship)