Devarim
Words
“The Fighting Father’s Promised Plan Reiterated”
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
Isaiah 1:1-27
excerpted from TorahScope, Volume III
This week as the final book of the Torah commences, our parashah, Devarim, essentially begins a lengthy reiteration of the forty-year desert sojourn of the Israelites, with reminders of the Lord’s promises sprinkled in, among the testimony of a people challenged with trust in the Almighty. The aged prophet/leader, Moses, was fully aware of the stark reality that he would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, so in an attempt to set the record straight once again for the Israelites, he recalled much of the itinerary with positive and negative testimonies, of how various events transpired. However, what must have been a painful exercise in remembering the failures, Moses ultimately wanted the people to know how the Holy One would absolutely fulfill His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is also something which modern-day followers of Yeshua the Messiah should know, without a shadow of doubt:
“In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them, after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, ‘The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, “You have lived long enough at this mountain. Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near there: in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their offspring after them”’” (Deuteronomy 1:3-8, WMB).
During the course of this week’s reading, we find some sound principles regarding how Israel’s chosen leader handled the challenges of guiding the recalcitrant brood of Israelites, from bondage in Egypt to the precipice of entering the Promised Land. But, understand that because of the sovereign call on the life of Moses and the level of unique intimacy he had with the Lord, speaking to him face to face (Exodus 33:11), Moses had a genuine fear of Him and knew how His words were without equivocation. This created a problem, because those whom Moses was leading, did not have as much familiarity with the Lord, which inevitably manifested in not only challenges to his leadership—but also in how to spread the workload. Hence, one of the first things Moses did, as he communicated to the people of Israel, was that he reminded them that leadership responsibilities needed to be shared by wise, discerning, and experienced leaders and judges:
“I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear you myself alone. The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’ You answered me, and said, ‘The thing which you have spoken is good to do.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and respected men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do” (Deuteronomy 1:9-18, WMB).
Note in this description, of the way judges were to handle the disputes—which they were to judge righteously and equitably—including issues between fellow native Israelites, as well as the sojourners within the community. The emphasis witnessed, was not on fearing human people—but understanding the fear of the Lord, and that He is the ultimate judge of every person. This is a great reminder to anyone who is a part of today’s Body of Messiah, who either seeks, or is already recognized, as one with the responsibilities of leadership in the community of faith. We may also wish to consider some of the requirements articulated by the Apostle Paul to his young disciple Timothy, who had the responsibility to sort out the leadership positions in the vicinity of Ephesus:
“This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; (for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?) not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:1-7, WMB).
As members of the Body, it is imperative that people do not submit to leadership, which does not qualify according to the tenor of the various principles laid out in the Holy Scriptures (i.e., 1 Timothy 3:8-13; Titus 1:5-16). We should each be most concerned about the thrust of what Moses communicated in Exodus 18:19-22 and Deuteronomy 16:18-20:
“Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God. You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you” (Exodus 18:19-22, WMB).
“You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you” (Deuteronomy 16:18-20, WMB).
Note the emphasis in these two statements from Moses about the temptation of dishonest gain, and the perversion of monetary or compensatory “bribes” to judges. Clearly, this is a reminder of the Biblical axiom that the “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10a, WMB), and if greed or selfish ambition is detected in leadership, it should be an absolute warning that motivations are impure (Philippians 1:17; Romans 2:8). Be warned brothers and sisters! These temptations are rampant today, and such a cancerous infection in the Body of Messiah does much damage to the hearts and souls of sincere Believers! (Just read the Epistle of Jude for a sobering assessment.)
After recalling some aspects of leadership, our Torah reading turns to perhaps one of the most disappointing points in Israel’s desert sojourn, when the twelve spies returned from Canaan with contradictory reports. Lamentably, the lack of faith, exhibited by the ten spy majority, redirected the Israelites to nearly forty more years of wandering in the desert. The great emphasis placed by Moses, on this testimony, is that the people simply did not trust the Lord and the promises He had made to not only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—but directly to Moses himself:
“I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. We traveled from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God gives to us. Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.’ You came near to me, everyone of you, and said, ‘Let’s send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.’ The thing pleased me well. I took twelve of your men, one man for every tribe. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God gives to us.’ Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. You murmured in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!”’ Then I said to you, ‘Don’t be terrified. Don’t be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you have seen how that the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.’ Yet in this thing you didn’t believe the LORD your God, who went before you on the way, to seek out a place for you to pitch your tents in: in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day” (Deuteronomy 1:18-33, WMB).
Despite the literal presence of the Almighty depicted in a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, the rebellious Israelites not only struggled with trust, but actually provoked the Lord to anger, resulting in the judgment of the Exodus generation. But then to further incite Him, the smitten Israelites foolishly decided to take on the Amorites, without the guidance and protection of the Lord:
“The LORD heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him and to his children, because he has wholly followed the LORD.’ Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘You also shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there. I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Sea of Suf.’ Then you answered and said to me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, according to all that the LORD our God commanded us.’ Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country. The LORD said to me, ‘Tell them, “Don’t go up and don’t fight; for I am not among you, lest you be struck before your enemies.”’ So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country. The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you and chased you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. You returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you. So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained” (Deuteronomy 1:34-46, WMB).
Here, the great lesson to learn, is that when one disobeys the Lord by lacking in faith in His Word—then do not attempt to rashly rectify the disregard for His commands, by doing something in the flesh to make up for the transgression. It is better to simply confess the sin, seek forgiveness, and repent of the action—following this with praying and patiently waiting upon Him, so a period of disfavor would dissipate and restoration would be achieved. For as stated to Moses years earlier, the Almighty is a longsuffering Creator, who forgives the iniquities of His children:
“The LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, ‘The LORD! The LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation’” (Exodus 34:6-7, WMB).
In Deuteronomy ch. 2, Moses recalled the more recent episodes with the descendants of Esau (Edom), the descendants of Moab, and the descendants of Ammon. The various challenges with these people groups, in the final days of Israel’s sojourn, should remind the reader that the Holy One had made some promises to Esau regarding His descendants’ occupation of the Mount Seir region (Joshua 24:4), and even the incestuously-initiated offspring of Lot (Genesis 19:36-38). Apparently, according to further insight from the Apostle Peter, the Lord considered Lot righteous, despite his wine-induced indiscretions. Note once again the warning for modern-day Believers about the association of intemperate alcohol consumption, and the lustful indulgence of the flesh:
“and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord” (2 Peter 2:7-11, WMB).
Finally, as Devarim winds down to a conclusion, there is a strong statement for all to remember, how ultimately, followers of the Holy One of Israel are not to fear mere mortals, but to fear Him. After all, it is He who fights for His people, not only in the physical realm, but equally important, in the spiritual battles which take place between human vessels:
“I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you men of valor shall pass over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel. But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, until the LORD gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall each return to his own possession, which I have given you.’ I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So shall the LORD do to all the kingdoms where you go over. You shall not fear them; for the LORD your God himself fights for you’” (Deuteronomy 3:18-22, WMB).
Ultimately, as the reiteration of God’s promises to the children of Israel continue, for the balance of the final book of the Torah, everyone should be reminded, not only of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc. (and even a host of less-than-righteous people such as Ishmael, Esau, and others)—but how the Lord is the One fighting for His faithful followers. But it must be absolutely understood that the war with the holy ones or saints is not only on the terrestrial plane, but also taking place in the Heavenly realm. The Apostle Paul summarized what is recommended for all who engage in the warfare which is inevitable, until the Messiah returns:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist [Isaiah 11:5], and having put on the breastplate of righteousness [Isaiah 59:17], and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace [Isaiah 52:7], above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation [Isaiah 59:17], and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the holy ones. Pray for me, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News” (Ephesians 6:10-19, WMB).
Whether one was a part of the Joshua generation, preparing to possess the Promised Land millennia ago, or is among the modern-day followers of Messiah Yeshua—it is imperative that a fuller understanding of the Holy One and His ways, in order to fight the good fight of faith, is required. This is why it is highly recommended that people faithfully study through the Torah on a systematic basis (1 Corinthians 10:11), in order to learn the ways of the Lord—and most importantly—obey them. Without so doing, it would be comparable to unwisely entering into battle unarmed, unshielded, and with little if any hope of survival. The Apostle Paul reminded the Roman Believers about their true status as conquerors in Yeshua the Messiah, and how the redeemed will never be separated from the love of the Holy One:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39, WMB).
May one and all embrace a fuller understanding of our individual roles, in advancing His Kingdom on Earth, through a more profound knowledge of His Word. May we obey it, while depending upon Him to fight our adversaries. Let us proclaim His truths to the wicked in need of Yeshua’s salvation, that they might be transformed by His love, and receive eternal redemption!
