Always and Never, Together At Last

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:7, Re’eh, BEHOLD

Moving into this week I am being challenged not to get up on my soap box and make this entire blog circulate around one VERY important scripture.  My spirit is calling me to another subject and that is where I will spend the majority of my writing.  However, as noted last week, I do believe that the primary messages I have been called to share are from God and as such a major calling on my life.  As such, it is important to mention this one scripture and point out the implications while allowing God to lead me to other areas of scripture that He is attempting to reveal.  The implications of this one scripture not only tie us to one of the messages that is so deeply embedded into my being, but it is also foundational to our understanding of the principals that I will share in the remainder of the text.

On first read, the following script may seem very simple and mater of fact.  However, there is something very important being stated.

[Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NASB] 1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 "You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk.

In the first half of this scripture the message is pretty easy to get.  If someone claiming to be a prophet is attempting to lead us toward other gods we are not to follow even if they are performing great signs and wonders.  The next part gets a little more challenging when God tells us that He will be giving/allowing this false prophet the ability to perform these signs and wonders as a test of our love of Him.  The third part of this verse becomes a bit more challenging again when it expands the definition of this false prophet’s teachings as those that would lead us away from His commandments and “seduce you away from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk”.

At this point I am going to ask you to take a second and ponder what is being said.  Now, let me paraphrase:  “Beware to follow the teachings of any prophet who teaches that the commandments of God are no longer applicable, have been replaced, are out dated, not necessary, are simply ritual, are a burden, or any other reason that may sound attractive, logical, and enticing for you to believe even if that prophet can perform signs and wonders.  If such a prophet comes along, they are to be put to death because they are a false prophet sent by God to test your love.” 

Now, take a second and consider what traditional theology teaches about Jesus and Paul.  In the context of traditional theology, what is someone who loves God to do?  If Jesus is who we know Him to be and if Paul and his writings are to be embraced, we MUST understand them in the context of a true prophet who would not teach against the commandments of God or the “way in which He commanded us to walk (as outlined in Deuteronomy where this scripture is found in context)”.  This forces us to look at Jesus and Paul and decide if we believe they are the true prophets that we believe them to be.  If they are, and we have held onto traditional theology, then our image of them and their teachings must change.  If we cannot see their teachings in a way that supports the Old Covenant laws, statutes, and ordinances, then our image of them as prophets must change.  Either way, this scripture boxes us into a corner and forces us to evaluate our walk with New Testament theology, Paul’s writings, and Jesus.

With that in mind, let’s look at two more scriptures from this week’s Torah portion.

[Deuteronomy 15:4-5 & 11 NASB] 4 "However, there will be no poor among you, since the LORD will surely bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, 5 if only you listen obediently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ……….. 11 "For the poor will never cease [to be] in the land; therefore, I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'

Every time I have read this in the past, I have seen it as a contradiction and kept on reading.  This time I stopped and meditated a bit on it and soon the answer came to me.  Between these two verses is a discussion of an aspect of the law that outlines the process of lending and debt forgiveness.  The commandment is that we are to lend to those who are needy.  The one who is needy is to do the best they can to repay the debt.  However, if the 7^th year of a debt forgiveness cycle comes along before that person can repay the debt, the debt is to be forgiven.  Torah even goes as far as to tell us to watch our hearts and not be perverted by fear of financial loss if that needy person comes to us in the 6^th year of a given cycle. 

What I finally saw that I had never before seen is this:  God was telling the Jewish people that there would be people who would come upon hard times from time to time and would be needy.  However, if the people would obey His commandments and lend and forgive, then there would never be anyone who would have to live in a state of need because their needs would have been met by others within the community.  The challenge in keeping the commandment is for the needy one to ask for the help and to allow the debt to be forgiven if the 7^th year came and they were not able to repay the debt.  At the same time, there had to be people willing to honor God’s ways and be willing to lend even when they knew “lending” was going to actually be “giving”.  There are many reasons that someone might find themselves in a position of need.  I tend to believe that this could be the result of some sin in their lives, the result of God seeing an area of pride or needed growth, or even to create the opportunity to test the hearts of others.  We are never to assume that someone is in need just because of their own poor choices or behaviors.  The point is, having some be in a position of need challenged the people of Israel to remain in faith and continue in their trust and belief in God.  Those who were in need would grow, and those who had plenty would grow.  Everyone would be tested, and if they did as they were instructed, no one would go without.  God would make sure of it.

This concept took on new meaning during my Torah Club preparation.  First Fruits of Zion pointed out that the word used to describe “what we give to the poor” is literally interpreted as “righteousness”.  As soon as I read this, I started seeing a parallel between the financially poor and those that are struggling in having any kind of righteousness in their lives.  From there my mind went to those who are needing forgiveness.  I began to see that this teaching on keeping God’s ways in the most literal sense would provide a society where there would never be people remaining in a state of financial need.  At the same time, I began to see that as the Jewish people would honor the ways of God in a physical sense while understanding the spiritual implications they could have a society where although there would be people who would temporarily find themselves in an unholy, unclean, or unrighteous stance, there would never be people living in a “state of unholiness, uncleanliness, or unrighteousness”.  From there, I realized that the third realm of the reality of these things is the moving fully into the Spirit.  In our inability to fully walk in all aspects of the righteousness of God there will be sin.  There will be people who bring hurt and pain into the lives of others.  It may be through not honoring the letter of the law, or it may be in not honoring the Spirit of the law.  Either way, people are people and we hurt each other.  When this happens, we become needy of forgiveness and it is in the spiritual understanding of the nature of God and our walk with Him that we come alongside Him and extend what He has given us.  FORGIVENESS!!

Re-phrasing what was outlined in Deuteronomy 15:4-5 & 11 we could say:

Even though there will always be people who come into short term financial need, as long as you honor the laws of lending, there will never be anyone who will have to live in a state of need amongst you.

Even though there will always be people who slip up from time to time, as long as you focus as much on the commandments of re-establishing each other into a righteous state with God as much as you do the commandments that lead to an unrighteous state, there will never be people living in a perpetual state of spiritual need amongst you.

Even though there will always be people who hurt others from time to time, as long as you all are willing to forgive each other as you have been forgiven, there will never be those living in a perpetual state of self-condemnation amongst you.

Going back to the scripture on the lending of money and the debt forgiveness I see paralleling principles that apply.

The person in financial need must be willing to go to others for financial help and allow those others to lend them money even if they know they will not be able to pay the money back by the end of the 7^th year in the lending cycle.  They must drop their pride, acknowledge they need help, and go to others for assistance.  At the same time, the person who has enough must be willing to lend the money even if they know the money will not be paid back.  They must let go of the love of money and their own pride.  They must allow God to use this opportunity to show them where they might be judging the one in need believing that if they would have been more _________, they wouldn’t be in that spot.  They must acknowledge that it is God’s money and not theirs.  It is His to do with as He pleases.  If He replenishes it, He does, if He doesn’t, then that’s OK too.

Similarly, the person who sins against the commandments of God must be willing to go to the priest.  They must drop their pride and acknowledge that they have moved into an unclean, unholy, or unrighteous stance and seek God’s chosen intercessor to reestablish them into a holy, clean, and righteous stance.  The priest must move beyond any sense of pride and judgement and appreciate that they too seek their righteousness from Yeshua our savior and redeemer and what they are extending is not coming from them, but from Him.  Today, we have direct access to Yeshua as He fulfills the role of High Priest in our lives and operates from this place of humility.

Finally, the person who hurts another must be willing to repent, acknowledge what they have done, and ask for forgiveness.  They must move beyond their pride of believing that they should have been better than they were and that they are somehow “above” what they did.  They must acknowledge that they will never be fully capable of repaying the "debt" of their sin and that it is only through Yeshua and His grace that their spiritual needs are satisfied.  At the same time, those who have been hurt must realize that maybe God is using their pain and suffering to lead another hurt and lost soul to their knees before Him.  They must acknowledge that a request for forgiveness may never come but extend the forgiveness anyway.  They must operate in a realm of intercession, love, and understanding regardless as to if that love and understanding will every be returned.  Again, He is the one who will carry us through these moments and what we are giving is only what we have been given.  It is His to use as He pleases and it is not ours to hold onto.

I pray that this has been a blessing to you and that through it you have come to see a new perspective; A perspective that will allow you to live more freely, in greater peace, and in greater love.