Reflection for V’et’chanan
“The Blessed Faithful”
Matthew 4:1-11; 22:33-40;
Mark 12:28-34; Luke 4:1-13; 10:25-37;
Acts 13:13-43; Romans 3:27-31;
1 Timothy 2:4-6; James 2:14-26
excerpted from TorahScope Apostolic Scriptures Reflections
The “home stretch” of the annual Torah cycle picks up pace this week, as the fast on the Ninth of Av has just passed, and we focus on V’et’chanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11). The alacrity and intensity of what we encounter in V’et’chanan, especially penetrate the heart. In our Torah reading, one is reminded how Moses’ desire to enter into the Promised Land was still an urging of his heart.[1] Yet, his pleas to the Holy One had fallen on deaf ears, as he was sternly told, “That is enough! Speak no more to me of this matter” (Deuteronomy 3:26, WMB). Moses might not be allowed to enter into Canaan, so instead he would make sure that the Ancient Israelites heard at least one more time what the Lord required of them. Two notable features of this week’s parashah, include a reiteration of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-18), and an elaboration on what is commonly known as the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), detailing Israel’s loyalty to God. Steadfast obedience to His statutes and judgments, will allow Israel to not only be blessed, but it will be imbued with a tangible wisdom able to be demonstrated to the nations at large:
“Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the LORD our God is whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today? Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:5-9, WMB).
In explaining to the Israelites that they were to be a set-apart people, especially chosen to be God’s representatives on Earth, Moses exclaimed the great faithfulness which He demonstrated toward them. Ancient Israel may have been rather small and seemingly insignificant to the world, but because of His love and promises, the Lord delivered Israel from the Pharaoh and Egypt. All He asked in return was their love and obedience. Surely, for a people who had been shown deliverance from slavery, and who were promised great prosperity, following this should not have been too difficult—especially with severe consequences issued to the unfaithful:
“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments, and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them. It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. The LORD will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you” (Deuteronomy 7:6-16, WMB).
When many of today’s Believers read these kinds of passages from the Torah, they often do not know what to do. It is rightfully acknowledged that disobedience to God is a bad thing, but beyond this, does obedience to God really merit His blessings? Could obeying God to receive His blessings actually be like trying to “work” for God’s favor? Unfortunately, some Believers have mixed up the fact that faith or trust in God—and now His Messiah—is what has always reckoned a person righteous or justified before Him, starting with Abraham (Genesis 15:6). Yet, what kind of faith in the Creator only manifests itself in some kind of a “thought life,” which only “thinks about” God? A genuine trusting in the Heavenly Father is to be evidenced by good works (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10), most particularly those of service toward others. If the Lord has been so good to us in giving us salvation in His Son, then we should naturally want to service the needs of other people—most especially those who have also recognized Him.
One of the most significant ways which other people will ever hear of Yeshua the Messiah, is by the positive actions of His followers. Just as Ancient Israel’s obedience to Moses’ Teaching was to influence the nations, so is the proper conduct of Messiah followers today to demonstrate the Father’s intention to see all people reconciled to Him:
“He wants all humanity to be delivered and come to full knowledge of the truth. For God is one; and there is but one Mediator between God and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of all, thus providing testimony to God’s purpose at just the right time” (1 Timothy 2:4-6, CJSB).
Perhaps one of the most significant expressions, of how faith in the Messiah Yeshua and the works/actions required of His followers, is found in the Epistle of James. Here, the half-brother of the Lord detailed how faith without works is dead:
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, ‘Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;’ yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, a man will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder. But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness’ [Genesis 15:6], and he was called the friend of God. You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:14-26, WMB).
In our family’s Messianic experience over the years, we have probably seen too many people take James’ words and use them to unfairly criticize our Christian brothers and sisters who do not keep the seventh-day Sabbath, honor the appointed times, or eat kosher. While we think that these aspects of the Torah are surely important, the primary works James had in mind to be manifested by Believers, were those of goodness and kindness.
How much more positive dialogue and discussion, could be cultivated by today’s Messianics, if we lauded and praised those Christians who are active in helping others in need, perhaps summarized by James’ remark, “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27, WMB). Many of today’s evangelical Believers honestly do know that they need to keep God’s Law; they just need more specific discipleship and a loving environment in which to grow. This will only come if Messianic, “Torah observant” people follow the Torah with Yeshua at the epicenter, rather than some of their own personal issues or insecurities.
We know from the testimony of Biblical history, that after Ancient Israel entered into the Promised Land, that not everything the Lord asked of them was obeyed. There was disobedience, idolatry, rebellion, and even child sacrifice—resulting in the Assyrian Exile and Babylonian Exile. The Southern Kingdom exiles were allowed to return, but they did not have a huge degree of independence like before. Even with Yeshua coming onto the scene and being sacrificed for all human sin (not just those of Israel proper), and with the promise of His return to the Earth to establish His Kingdom, Messiah followers still often struggle with what it means to demonstrate proper “faith.”
Too frequently throughout either Jewish or Christian history, people have interjected themselves and have placed too high an emphasis on various man-made doings, or too little an emphasis on required adherence to God’s commandments. The promise of the New Covenant, though, which Yeshua inaugurated in His own blood (Luke 22:20), was that not only would permanent forgiveness for sins be provided—but there would be a supernatural compulsion to properly obey God’s Law delivered by Moses:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them” (Ezekiel 36:25-27, WMB).
As hard as it is for some Believers to recognize: the New Covenant really does involve obedience to the Law. Yet, this is an obedience guided by the Holy Spirit taking up residence inside a heart of flesh, a person who is not only sensitive to God’s will, but who really does want to do his or her best to obey and please Him. Being led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) and walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25), is indeed an exercise in faith. Walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), is the challenge many struggle with, because of all of the distractions amply provided by the world, the flesh, and the Devil (1 John 2:16). And, as strange as it may sound, “The law is not of faith” (Galatians 3:12), precisely because a strict, regimented Torah-keeping being the all of one’s life, is not what the Father ever intended.
The Torah functions as the guidelines for proper, upstanding behavior of God’s people, so that our faith or trust in Him—which often includes moment-by-moment relational decisions and spontaneous actions, not always regulated by the Torah—can flourish. The Apostle Paul described how Yeshua was sacrificed, “that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4, WMB).[2] A life in the Spirit does not contradict God’s Torah, but does require us to acknowledge that a faith relationship with Him is needed, because neither the Torah nor the rest of God’s written Word tells us everything.
For Messianic Believers who study the Torah for a variety of reasons, as a part of their Jewish heritage or in wanting to understand the foundations of one’s Messiah faith—challenges always are present. As we read about the Exodus generation, we can probably identify with the many life issues they dealt with. We have all, at one point in our lives, likely seen God deliver us from dire circumstances, teach and instruct us in His ways—but have then become impatient with Him in leading us to that next stage or chapter or material blessing we believe He has promised us. How many of us wrestle with overcoming the temptations of sin, even just on a few (small) issues? This is where faith comes into the picture. If you may have forgotten that studying and following the Torah will only take us so far sometimes, then let me remind you what faith actually is: “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, WMB).
If you have committed yourself to steadfast obedience to God’s commandments, then you will surely be blessed! But what about your faith? You have doubtless demonstrated your belief in God via appropriate actions as defined by His Word—but what about those things which His Word does not tell us about? The Ancient Israelites were told that they would enter into the Promised Land, and Moses told them how they would be blessed within it, but how much did they really not know? How much did the people of Israel, and by extension us today, lack the confidence or possess the confidence that what the Lord has said He would fulfill? As each of us considers the Holy Spirit resident inside of us, faith is not only to be demonstrated by good works—but is also to give us an assurance which only reading the Bible or following its instructions cannot bring. There are many unknown and unseen things in life requiring a close relationship with our Creator. As we approach the Fall appointed times: Make sure you have one!
NOTES
[1] Deuteronomy 3:23-29.
[2] Paraphrased by the Phillips New Testament as, “Therefore we are able to meet the Law’s requirements, for we are living no longer by the dictates or our sinful nature, but in obedience to the promptings of the Spirit.”
