Peace In Prophecy

 Deuteronomy 32:1-34:12, Ha’azinu, Give Ear 

This week’s Torah portion starts off with Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to “give ear” and to “hear the words” of his mouth. 

What an interesting concept.  There are two directions I want to go with this.  The first is in the direct context of Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to take ear to what he is saying.  There is something very deep about understanding that the heavens and the earth were the very first things that God created and that, in the end, they will be the very last things to be destroyed.  In fact, according to Revelation 21:1, the new heaven and the new earth will be created as the first heaven and the first earth pass away.  It is very interesting to note that the last verses of Revelation chapter 20 present the final judgement.  In other words, the heaven and earth will remain up until the final culling of all humanity has occurred and then, and only then, will their use in God’s redemptive plan be complete so that they can be destroyed to make way for the new. 

How many times have we read in scripture a term consistent with the “heaven and earth standing witness” to what Moses is putting before the children of God?  How many times have we read about the heavens and earth as if they are alive and are capable of seeing, hearing, and speaking?  How many times have we discounted these scriptures and not really consider what is being said? 

Ultimately, according to the scriptures, the heaven and the earth have a personality, they do observe, the do see, they do hear, and they do stand witness.  They cry out and they sing.  They are capable of spitting a people out form their presence, and they are capable of becoming defiled.  

As I ponder the significance of this I could go in a lot of directions.  Instead I want to stick with the concept of the enduring aspect of what Moses is saying.  When we call heaven and earth as witnesses or when we make a vow toward heaven and earth, we are making the statement that what we are saying will surely pass.  I reckon this to something like what Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 21:33 where He says “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail”. 

In other words, what I hear Moses telling the people is that what he is about to say, will surely come to be.  I hear him basically saying, “I have told heaven and earth that these things will come to be, this is how sure I am that this is what will happen.  Because I have said it to the ultimate witnesses I must be confident that it is true.” 

If I am right in this, how is it that Moses can be so sure that what he is recording in the song is a true prophetic image and that there is nothing that anyone can do to change it?  The answer to that question is really very simple.  Because God said so.  Picking up in Deuteronomy 31:16 we read about God telling Moses that the people would not stay true to the covenant.  In verse 31:19 we read God telling Moses “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel.”  Skipping forward to verse 31:21 we hear God saying “Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants). 

What I am hearing God telling Moses is this; “Moses, I know that you have walked with these people.  I know that I have commanded you to walk with them, to teach them Torah, to share my Words with them, and to tell them about life and death.  I know that I have commissioned you to do all these things and I know that I am now calling you up to this mountain to die.  I know that this is hard.  I know that you know that just like these people have not been able to honor me in the desert, they will not honor me in the land.  I know that you know these things and I am setting you free from the pain of having to see it.  But what I want you to understand is that it’s all OK.  I am going to give you a song that I want you to teach them.  Once you teach them this song, I will make sure that they are incapable of forgetting it.  This song will live deep in their souls.  At some point in the future, a long time from now, I will quicken this song into the remembrance of their children’s children.  I will do this at the right time.  You can trust me on that.  And, when I do, it will stick.  They will see the error of their ways, they will fall to their knees in humility, and they will finally be broken.  When this takes place, they will be ready to be my people and I will finally be able to honor all that I have promised them.  This will not take place for a long time and after many troubles have come upon them.  But, it’s OK.  This is what it must be.  Trust me.  This is my plan, and it will work”. 

Another scripture that comes to mind when meditating on these verses is Isiah 66:7-9 “"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.  "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.  "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut [the womb?]" says your God. 

Isn’t God speaking the same basic concept through the prophet Isaiah?  The reality is, God has spent the last several thousand years creating a people.  This people He refers to as a “nation”.  A nation is not a physical presence but the people who establish the ideals, the beliefs, the way of life, and the atmosphere. The nation God is refereeing to is a very special nation and is one that stands apart from all the ways of the world and lives by heavenly principles.  A nation of this nature simply can not be created in a day, it can not be created without pain, and it can not be created without great struggle.  The way I read scripture; this will not occur through a physical re-establishment of the land but through the spiritual re-gathering that will occur when He comes to establish His 1,000-year kingdom here on earth.  Because of this I will not be troubled if and when Israel falls again.  I simply trust prophecy. 

The assurance comes in the end of these verses and is the same assurance that each of us must stand on each day.  As we look into a future that has great uncertainty there is one thing that we can trust.  “God will not bring to the point of birth and not give delivery.” 

For me this is the point and the assurance of Deuteronomy 31:16-21, the song of Moses, and Deuteronomy 30:1 where God tells Moses that “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call [them] to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you,”. 

One of the most beautiful things about prophecy is the hope that it can provide.  As we read Deuteronomy 27-30, and the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, we can rest assured that some day God’s people will be the people He has called us to be.  We can rest in the confidence of knowing that all of our pride, foolishness, and adultery have not surprised Him.  We can see that His redemptive plan has always taken all these things into consideration.  We can let people be who they are, teachers teach what they teach, and religious institutions be what those institutions are.  We can trust that when the time comes for Him to quicken this song into the minds of His people so that we can fulfill Deuteronomy 30 when we “call these things to mind” in the nations where He has banished us, that the timing will be perfect.  We can trust that He knows when this quickening needs to take place, and we can have faith that He is not delaying longer than He needs to. 

I believe this is the confidence that the New Testament authors had in these prophecies and why they were able to walk in the peace in which they walked.  In 1 Peter 2:10, Peter refers to the Song of Moses when He speaks of a people who are not a people”.  This is the same reference as Paul uses in Romans 10:19-11:12. The spiritual gathering of this “nation” is what is put forth in Deuteronomy 30:4 and is re-confirmed by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:27, and Mark 13:27.  This is the same event Paul discusses in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and John in Revelation 19-20. 

All of these prophetic scriptures give us the confidence to trust that God is in control.  As we look at Deuteronomy 27-30 and the Song of Moses, we can trace the journey of the Jewish people through time.  What has already taken place gives credibility to what is proposed for the future. 

As we read the New Testament, we are given what we need to know to see exactly where we are in this process and to know that this dispensation will end with all the promises finally coming into fruition.  These prophetic utterances give us the assurance that someday we will be the nation that He has called us to be, we will be the people He has intended us to be, and we will be the blessing that He chose us to be.  I can rest assured of these things regardless as to what I see taking place in the physical, if Israel remains in peace, or if it is overtaken in war.  None of these things change my view, they don’t rock my faith, and they don’t hinder me in my trust of what He said will be. 

For me there is something comforting in this and for that I think Him for providing these prophetic utterances, giving them to the prophets, and having them recorded in His Word.  Sometimes it is hard knowing what the future will hold.  But knowing what comes after the tough times surely sweetens the mix. 

I pray that this has been a blessing to you.  Amen Amen.

Party Time

As we move toward the end of the spiritual year and the start of a new, we come into some important holidays. 

Of these are Rosh Hashana, followed by Yom Kippur, then Sukkot.  Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is a time period called the 10 days of awe and a time of prayer and contemplation.  After Sukkot is Simchat Torah which is when the Torah scroll is wound back to the beginning.

These are the most widely recognized times of the “High Holy Days”.  Not included in this list is something very important and it is something that I have come to believe is a necessary aspect of really understanding what binds all these special times together and gives them continuity. 

Going back to Deuteronomy 26:1-15 we see the last of the commands Moses charges the people with prior to outlining the "blessing and the curse".  This particular set of commandments really caught my attention this year and I really didn’t understand why.  Now that we have entered into the High Holy Days, I am beginning to believe that I am starting to understand why I believe the Holy Spirit led me to so much prayer and meditation on this aspect of the law. 

What this section of scripture focuses on is the tithe.  Why is the tithe so important that Moses would save it for the very last thing to charge the people with before telling them about the blessing and curse?  Why would God want the tithe to be the last commandment that Moses would share with the people prior to having Moses tell them how He would interact if they did/did not honor what He was asking them to do? 

As we read Deuteronomy 26:1-15 there are a few things that stand out:

• The tithe is the first of the produce that comes from the ground and is to be carried in a basket,
• The tithe is given once a year,
• There is a 3-year cycle,
• Two years the tithe is to be taken to “the place where the Lord chooses” (Later God chose Jerusalem to establish the temple) and given to the priest,
• The third year the tithe is to be distributed in the town where the person lives,
• In each of the three years the person giving the tithe is to recite a particular prayer before God. 

To gain a full understanding of the tithe we have to go back and read Deuteronomy 14:22-29.  When we read this section of scripture, we gain a little bit of a different picture of the tithe than presented in Deuteronomy 26. 

In Deuteronomy 14 we see:

• That the tithe is to include a portion of what comes out of the field, grain, wine, oil, and the firstborn of the herd and flock,
• The tithe is to be used for a party that the person is to be a part of while not neglecting the Levites, the priest, the aliens who live amongst them, the orphans, or the widows.

A few weeks ago, when I read about the tithe in Deuteronomy 14, I was really moved by the commandment to use the tithe to throw a party that the tither would indulge in.  This is so far from our modern concept of tithing!!  The next thing that hit me was that the tithe is only to be given once a year.  WOW…this too is such a foreign concept to our traditional understanding of the tithe.  This is what led me to my prayer time and seeking heavenly understanding.

As I continued to read, pray, and open up to what I believe God was attempting to show me, I began to see the tithe as all about moving our hearts into a place of thankfulness, our minds into a place of faith, our walk into a place of growth, and our communities into a place of provision and outreach. 

My continued prayer and meditation through the next reading cycles helped the picture become more clear and more beautiful.  Ultimately the prayers the tither is to recite and the image of the High Holy Day festival brings everything into clarity.  The prayers can be found in Deuteronomy 26:5-10 for the two years in Jerusalem and 26:13-15 for the third year when remaining in the home town.

The prayer in verses 5-10, when the people return to Jerusalem, is all about re-confirming our personal connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is all about acknowledging that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves, and that God is with us.  It is all about acknowledging that He has chosen us, blessed us, and that there are promises that He has given us that are in the process of unfolding before us.  In short, it is a GIANT family reunion, in the land of promise, acknowledging that He is our God, that He is our provider, and that we are His people.  At the same time, a small portion of the tithe is to be taken to the priest (a basket full), and the excess from the party is to be shared with the less fortunate and those that have not joined themselves to the people of God through covenant.

The prayer in verses 13-15, when the people remain in their own home town, is all about the person’s personal commitment to remain true to God, true to His commandments, and true to the purpose for which He chose us.  The prayer takes into consideration that times will be hard and that we will not walk perfectly in His ways.  At the same time, the person is acknowledging before God that in spite of life’s circumstances, they have treated the tithe with the highest level of integrity and have again used what God has provided for the purposes He provided it.  This time the party will be in their own home town and the focus will be on taking care of the less fortunate, the ones who have not attached themselves to the people of God through covenant, and the Levites of that town.  In the end, this is a GIANT outreach party where the people of God share the provision He has provided, see the vastness of the land He has provided, and see the potential increase of His flock as they see the impact of the outreach within their own communities.

So, how does this all relate to the High Holy Days?  Well, as it is, Sukkot is the “once a year” referenced in the commandment over the tithe.  Because it is a time of living outside in booths it is a time of remembering the exodus from Egypt and the time when our ancestors spent 40 years in the desert with the presence of God never leaving them.  It is also a time for us to move out of the comfort of our luxurious lives to live outside.  Through the years I have always thought of this time of being outside as a time of thanking God for all that He has provided and a renewed appreciation for so many of the things I take for granted.  I have not dedicated myself to living outside during this time, but have tried to move my heart to comprehend the “spirit” of the holiday.

Over the past four years I have spent more and more time outside and this year will be my first year that I set up a make-shift sukkot on my patio.  I am inviting friends and family to join me for the 7-day festival and look forward to what God might do during this most special season.

As I am writing these words my heart is moving to something I have never before seen.  In addition to remaining thankful for all that He has provided, this year when I move outside, I will look around, see that there is no pillar of fire by night, and no God-cloud by day.  I will look around and take note that I am in a foreign land and that I am not in the land of promise.  This year I will consider my part in what has come, and what my part is in bringing about a shift in the heavens that will quicken the end of this dispensation and transition us into His return.  This year, I will remember that I am a part of a people and I will long for my GIANT family reunion.  I will long to be with them in the land that He promised us.  And I will long for that day when He will return to live with us.  I will long for my family to come into harmony with Him and His ways; to be His people His way, so He can be our God in the way in which He always intended.

This year I will remember that in all reality, this land of plenty is really a land of bondage.  It is my Egypt.  He has blessed me in this land, but it is not the land of promise.  I will remember that He has surrounded me with people I love and various congregations that I can attend and feel welcomed.  I will remember that He has blessed me with beautiful children, a loving mother and father, a brother who truly cares about me, extended family who love one another, and friends that I consider family.

But within all this thankfulness, as I come through Rosh Hashana this year, I will acknowledge that another year has passed.  I will acknowledge that we are living the last of the curses, and that we have not been who He has called us to be.  I will gather my tithe and start making plans for Sukkot and how I will honor the spirit of what God has called me to be.  Because I am looking at my tithe and considering the prayers that He gave us to pray, I am forced to look at how I have walked out the last year of my live.  Did I join God in His story or did I ask Him to join me I mine?  Did I focus on what I thought was important only to be aggravated with everything that seemed to hinder me in my pursuits of happiness?  Or did I see that maybe those very things, and those very people that were such an inconvenience and a delay were really the most important part of what my last year was all about? 

As I move toward Sukkot, I can’t help but realize that I have come again to the end of our reading cycle.  After the party is over and everything is cleaned up it will be time to get back to business.  The Torah will be rewound and I will begin the annual study cycle again back at the beginning.  During the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur I will have the time to consider how I approached His Word and all that He has blessed me with.  I will consider if I made the most of the Word and if I dedicated the time to allow it to speak to me.  I will consider if I allowed it to bring me new understandings about who He is, who I am, and where I must grow so that He can use me for all that He has called me to be.  I will consider if I have used what He has given me for His glory or if I have used it for my own.  I will consider my outreach and how I have made the most of all of the blessings of my life.  I will consider that another year has gone by and "His people" are still spread out across the world awaiting the fullness of the promises made to our fathers.

I believe bringing the tithe into the High Holy Day cycle provides the foundation to remembering that all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our resources come from Him.  He has given them to us because He has chosen us for a purpose.  The purpose is about being a people He will use to lead the rest of the world to Him while remembering that someday He will gather us to Himself.  This is what the High Holy Days are really all about and the tithe, along with the prayers He has given us surrounding them, force us to acknowledge these truths.

I pray this has been a blessing to you.  Amen.

Ready For Redemption?

 Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30, “You Are Standing”, Nitzavim

This section of scripture picks up with Moses addressing the people.  He doesn’t leave anyone out.  He calls them out by groups; Chiefs, tribes, elders, officers, men, little ones, wives, the aliens who are living with the Israelites, even the workers (the one who chops wood and the one who draws the water).  In Deuteronomy 29:15 he even expands this list to include the unborn children of each of these groups.

What Moses is saying is that each of the people and all of their children and all of their children’s children throughout all of their generations are, by the hearing of the parents, binding themselves to the covenant conditions and promises as a single people.

As I read this, I can’t help of thinking about the first two chapters of Ephesians where Paul is talking about Christ “making in Himself…one new man”.  This entire section of Ephesians is circulating around the promises and the inheritance offered to the children of God as a people.

Going back to Deuteronomy and this week’s readings, from what I see, those promises, and the inheritance are summed up in 29:10-13 (NASB).

“You stand today…..that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The three things I pick up on here are:

• This is a cumulative journey,
• It is inclusive of men, women, teachers, students, natural Jews, gentiles who join Israel, elders, laborers, children, and all future generations, and
• The fulfillment of the covenant is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This re-establishes where we have been going with these blogs over the past few weeks.  This week we are going to take a final look at how this week’s writings confirm that the fulfillment of these specific promises:

• Have not passed from Israel to the gentile church,
• That the fulfillment of these promises is the hope of the New Testament church, and
• That none of what has transpired over the last 3,500 years has strayed from God’s plan of salvation.

As we progress through the scripture, we come to the beginning of chapter 30.  Notice in verse 30:1 the Word says “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you,…”

By this point, God is not just giving the people a list of what will happen IF they do or do not keep the covenant promises.  By this point in what Moses is sharing, the Word of the Lord has become a prophetic statement.  This WILL be the journey.  Some might argue that the last of the curses, being the exile, was fulfilled during the time that the Jewish people were captive in Babylon.  Based on scripture this simply is not possible.  This will become far to apparent as we address the three conclusions noted above.

In Deuteronomy 30:4-6 God tells us that after the exile (the last of the curses) He will gather us together to Himself.  The image of this regathering is very specific.  It will be in the land of our fathers which we will possess, He will multiply our family, He will circumcise our heart and the heart of our generations.  He will be our God and we will be His people.  This is a direct fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  No one could possibly argue that these promises are being made to the people of Israel and all the people Moses is specifically addressing.

For proper context it is important to look at exactly where God says He will be gathering the people from.  In Deuteronomy 30:4 (KJV) we read: “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee”.  Going back to 30:1 the timing of when this heavenly gathering takes place is established as “it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee”.

From these two verses, we can conclude that the re-gathering:

• Will take place at the end of the exile,
• Will include those living and those in the heavenly realms, and
• Will be the beginning of a time when the people God is talking to will be supernaturally gathered to Israel and the fulfillment of the covenant promises will be fulfilled.

Now let’s look at a few Testament scriptures:

Mark 13:27 (KJV) “And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.”

Matthew 24:31 (KJV) “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Luke 21:28 (KJV) “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Let’s start with the basics and then I will let you go back and do your own research for the deeper points and understandings.  At the most basic level I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that Jesus was not specifically referring to same event as outlined in Deuteronomy 30:1-4 when He was telling His disciples about what would happen in these future events.  The terminology and imagery is just too specific and is just too perfect of a match.  As you go back and research each of these sections of scripture you will see that Jesus is specifically talking about when He will return to set up His rule and reign on earth.  He is telling His disciples about these things in the context of telling them that He will be betrayed, turned over to the authorities, and put to death.  He is telling them that the time of gentiles is beginning and as such, this is the transition into the last of the curses.  He is assuring them that after a time of great tribulation, He will return and all the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will finally be fulfilled.  He is assuring them that Deuteronomy 30 still stands, it is still true, and that they can remain in hope knowing that God is not done with them.  The Luke scripture connects what will be taking place to the "redemption" that is clearly defined throughout scripture as this final ingathering from the heavenly and earthly realms with the establishment of His earthly kingdom.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul shares what he sees transpiring on that day.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NASB) “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Finally, in Revelation 20:4 we see John sharing what Jesus showed him about end times as he specifically references this same re-gathering from the heavens and the earth and the redemption.  The context of Revelation 19-20 perfectly parallel everything that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us Jesus taught on His return, the setting up of His Kingdom, and the re-gathering of His people.  Revelation perfectly parallels Deuteronomy 30 in that it is a promise of a 1,000-year physical reign where the “people” who Moses was speaking to will finally live in the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The scripture is simply overwhelming.  I could quote from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and several other prophets.  I could add quotes from the Old Testament, and I could add additional quotes from the New Testament.  The amount of scripture that supports this understanding is simply overwhelming.

Understanding that Jesus and the New Testament authors all continued to see the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30 as a future event leaves us no choice but to accept that God is not done with the Jewish people.  It forces us to understand that the rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees, the crucifixion, the time of Gentiles, and the exile are all a part of God's plan of salvation.  The New Testament writings force us to look into the future and understand our destiny so that we can start thinking about what we have believed, what we have rejected, and what it really looks like to make "Jesus Lord".

In summary, from beginning to end, the hope of the bible is the restoration of the “people” to the land of Israel, to live in harmony with God, to have Him here on earth with us, to walk with us, and to talk with us, to teach us, and to help us see and understand Him in the way in which He as always wanted to be seen and understood.  In this, we will be His people, and He will be our God.  It will be a time when He is able to fulfill all the physical promises of the covenant, when we will fulfill our side of the covenant,  and when we, “His people”, will finally be a blessing to the nations.

This is the promise that was given to Abraham, it is the faith that the saints of Hebrews 11 believed in, it is the future that Jesus spoke of, it is the understanding and inheritance that Paul wrote about, and it is the vision that John was given.  From beginning to end this is the image of things to come, it is the end of our journey here on this earth, and the conclusion of what must take place before the creation of the New Heaven and the New Earth.  It is the image of our spiritual journey before the books of life are opened and the conclusion of all things is established.  It is our destiny.  It is our future.  It has been promised.  And it will take place.  Do you believe?

I pray that this has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Amen amen.

 

What's THE Promise?

 Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8, Ki Tavo, “When Youi Come”

Over the last few weeks, I have been feeling led to spending a lot of time in Hebrews 11-13, Romans 8-10, Galatians, and Ephesians.  My journey has been one of contemplating the “promises” of God and what the New Testament authors are talking about when they discuss the “inheritance” and the fulfillment of those “promises”.  My seeking has been to understand what the fulfillment of those things looks like to both the Jewish people and the gentiles who have been grafted into the family of Abraham.

In last week’s blog I shared the concept of the promises being about a return to the land.  This week I will continue down that path a bit further and hopefully tie together some important concepts.

This week’s Torah Portion is entitled “When you come” and focuses on the prophetic image of what will take place over the next 3,500+ years relative to the people of God, the land, and the journey of the people during that time period beginning with their entry into the “promised” land.  The prophetic picture shared in this parsha begins with their entering the land and ends with the last of the curses (the exile during the time of the gentiles which we are currently in).  Next week’s reading picks up on what will take place when Jesus returns at the end of this dispensation.

At the beginning of this week’s parsha is a bit of scripture that at first glance may appear out of context with the balance of what God is calling Moses to share.  However, on closer examination, it is incredibly relevant to not only what God is telling the people of Israel about their future, but just as important is what He is revealing to us in the prophetic insights of today.

This week’s parsha opens with 15 verses on the first tithe.  What jumped out to me was the prayer that all the people of Israel and the aliens and foreigners who were amongst them were to say when they brought their tithe before the priests.  The prayer begins with a several verse summary of how the person bringing the tithe acknowledges their relationship to Abraham, the people of Israel, the provisions God has provided, and the promises He has made.

I believe what God wants us to take from this is that we are a people.  We are not individuals.  The tithe is for the priest but it is also for the poor, the widow, and the orphan.  It is for the alien and the foreigner.  It is for the Israelite and for the gentiles.  It is for all these people groups and at the same time it is also called as from each of these groups as well.  Even the priest was to tithe on the tithe. 

In other words, there is a spiritual image that “we are all in this together” for and with each other.  At the same time, there is an image that “we are all in this together” in that since we are all spiritual children of Abraham, we are all “together” in the promises made to Abraham.  We are all children of promise and co-heirs.  Taking it a step further, we are all “in this together” through thick and through thin, through blessings and through curses, and through the journey and into the destiny.  Can we let God make the point?  He wants us to see that “we are all in this together”.  He wants us to understand that this is a cumulative experience, a cumulative refinement, and that He is leading us to a cumulative promise.

As I read in Hebrews 11 and work my way through the “hall of faith”, I see the word “promise” come up several times.  What is the author of Hebrews talking about?  For most of my life as a believer I have been under the impression that the “promise” is heaven and eternal life.  However, this isn’t what I read in these verses and I do not believe that this is what the author of Hebrews is getting at.  Once I get into Hebrews 12-13 the image becomes even more clear.

In short, the image I see being painted out is this:  In Hebrews 11 we are given a summary of some of the people who believed the promises that God made to Abraham extended to them.  This summary of people includes both Jews and Gentiles.  The promises that are mentioned are the promise of a great family, of a land of plenty, of being a blessing to the rest of the world, being a joy to God, and being established as His people for His own possession. 

Sadly, by the time Jesus came these promises had not yet been fulfilled because the Jewish people have never been able to hold onto the land.  The reason we have not been able to hold onto the land goes right back to what we are reading in this week’s parsha.  In Galatians 3:15-19 Paul explains to us that the promises made to Abraham were not made contingent upon the Law that was given 430 years later.  However, if the people of God are living in “transgression” they will be at odds with the land, and the land will spit them out.  This is where last week’s blog ended. 

This is also the state of Israel when Jesus came and why the temple was destroyed and why the people of God were sent into exile.  This is what Deuteronomy 29 tells us.  The exile has nothing to do with the Pharisees rejecting Jesus.  It has everything to do with the people of God not living according to God’s ways, living in transgression, defiling the land, and either the land spitting them out, and/or God removing them from the land to protect it (and mature the people of God into His people).

Going back to Hebrews 11-13 we see that at the end of 11 we are told that the saints were not able to see the fulfillment of the promises, but in “us” they may be made perfect.  The next two chapters of Hebrews is a strong word on what it looks like to walk in the fullness of God and the calling that He has upon our lives.  I believe what the author is saying is this:  All these saints had the faith that God would honor the promises, but, as a people, they were never able to walk in a way that would allow them to stay at peace with the land.  However, we, in Christ Jesus, do have the ability to walk in a way that we will not defile the land.  As we come together and live in harmony with each other, honoring God, honoring His ways, and living in accordance with all that He has commanded us, the promises will come to be.  He will make us a great nation, He will allow us to stay in the land, He will allow us to be a blessing to all the people of the world, and we will become His people, and He will be our God.  As such, the fullness of the promises will come to be during our lifetime and as such, the saints and all that they believed in will be perfected through us.”  As predicted by the prophetic insights of Deuteronomy 29, this was not the destiny and the exile came and to this day we are still in this dispensation awaiting what comes next.

This leads me back into this week’s parsha where a few things really hit me.  I have come to realize that, as followers of Christ, our belief should be in the same promises that all the saints of the Old and New Testaments have had.  With this in mind, the next realization is that all believers in Christ are experiencing the same exile as all of Israel and none of us are living in harmony with the fullness of all the promises.  As I share, I ponder how many of us would even want to be a part of the promises that all the saints of the faith have put their faith into for the last 4,000 years?

I ask this question for several reasons.  Even though I hear followers of Christ sharing that they embrace being the bride of Christ, I don’t hear too many sharing the excitement of living with Him during the millennial kingdom.  I don’t hear too many seeking to know what it will be like to visit Him and His priesthood at the temple.  I don’t hear too many talking about what it will be like to honor His Laws, represent Him to the people, and to be a blessing to the nations.  Finally, I don’t hear too many people seeking to understand what they will understand then that they don’t understand now and how they might start coming into those understandings in this lifetime.  

Instead of seeking this future wisdom now, most of those that I talk to are looking more toward the time after the millennial kingdom.  Our Christian theology has left us anticipating the time when things will be returned to a more spirit state, and when the perishable things of this world will give way to the imperishable.  I am beginning to see that our teachings have left out a very important dispensation.  The time period between the end of the exile and the creation of the new heaven and earth are for the most part ignored.  Interestingly, it is this time period that has been the most anticipated by the Jewish people since God first entered into covenant with Abraham and is the fullness of the promises and inheritances spoken of throughout both the Old and New Testament scriptures.

Personally, I think the balance is the fullness of both.  The time period of the millennial kingdom is referred to as the “redemption”.  For thousands of years, the Jewish people have anticipated this time.  Who can blame us for looking forward to a time when the rest of the world will finally see us for who we really are?  After all, we have been the most misunderstood and persecuted people who have ever lived.  At the same time, the millennial kingdom is not about us.  It is a time in which the promises of God will finally be fulfilled.  

From how I see it, of all the promises, the most important is that we will be a blessing to the nations.  Sure, we will be a mighty nation.  Sure, the land will be productive beyond anything we can imagine.  Sure, the persecution will end.  Sure, we will live in harmony with each other and peace for us will abound.  Sure, the riches of the world will flow to us as the people of the world come to bring tithes and to honor Christ.  But all these things are simply a means to an end and not the end unto itself.  This is simply the fulfillment of what we had been called to do from the beginning so that God could use us to bless the nations.  In the end, the millennial kingdom is simply another dispensation that God will use to bring His plan of salvation into full fruition.  It is all about the time that most of my Christian friends talk about.  That time when the perishable gives way to the imperishable and everything is filled with the knowledge of God. 

I agree that this should be a time that we all look toward because this is the ultimate and the eternity.  It is the fulfillment of what everything has been leading up to.  But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and miss what we have been called to.  How about we come together and start looking forward to both dispensations and looking forward to who we will be in each?  How about those that are looking forward to the redemption to look beyond that to a time when ALL things will be redeemed?  And, how about those that are looking forward to that utopic time to slow down a little and get excited about the time when God will fulfill the promises that the entire Word of God focuses on?  The time when all the world will be blessed through Abraham and his seed?  The time when we are all living together in Jerusalem, serving that “seed”, and being a blessing to the nations who do not yet know Him?

I pray that this blog has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Amen Amen

Nothing To Be Afraid Of

 

Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

Ki Tete “When You Go”

This week’s Torah portion contains a very different feel than last weeks.  As we review the laws that Moses outlines in this week’s portion, we see another pattern being established.  As believers in Jesus, the pinnacle of this week’s Torah portion just might be Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”

As soon as I read this my mind went to Galatians 3:13 where Paul tells us that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—”

The concept of what I believe I am seeing here spans across a multitude of scripture.  To help you see how I got to where I am with this, I will share the highlights of the journey.  In Romans 8 Paul shares that in a faith-based relationship with Christ there is no condemnation and that now we do not need to fear death as did our ancestors.  This reminded me of the giving of the Torah and how the people of God were scared to let God tell them the entire law but stopped Him after the first ten commandments.  I pondered why I had been led to these sections of scripture during the time of this Torah portion.  The general flow of the commandments in this section of the Torah portion all deal with the difference between humility and disgrace.  The pinnacle of this is the man hung on the tree.

To understand this, we need a little background.  If you notice, the man is put to death then hung on the tree.  In other words, the hanging on the tree was not for the purpose of killing the man physically.  By this point the man would already be physically dead.  The point for the hanging on the tree is twofold.  To hand on the tree for a short time is to instill a sense of understanding into the people to purge the evil from amongst Israel.  However, leaving the man hanging on the tree overnight and beyond leads to the stripping down of the man’s integrity and reputation utterly destroying any positive aspects of his memory.  This would be like killing him twice.  Once to kill him physically, then to kill him spiritually.  If we stop and think about it in this light, the command not to do this now carries the same general principle as the other laws outlined in this section of scripture.  Even in the situation of war, the men of Israel were not to rape the women they found beautiful. They were to treat them with respect, give them a time of mourning, and properly marry them.  This image of respect and grace weaves its way throughout this week’s parsha.

The interesting thing about this scripture is how God outlines that leaving a man hanging on a tree overnight “defiles the land”.  Over and over in scripture we read about how the actions of the people bring defilement upon the land.  This section of scripture brings that to a head where we see that the foundation of Torah is love.  When we step away from love and start treating other people like the rest of the world treats people we step away from Torah and fall away from our calling in Him.

Moving back to where I felt the Spirit was leading me with this, I ended up reading Galatians over and over again.  Then it hit me.  Disgrace…..dis-grace.  Going back to what we were discussing in Romans and how the people of Israel were under fear, it hit me that the ultimate “curse of the law” is the fear of being rejected by God and coming under His condemnation and falling from His “grace”.  In this, there is a fear of death that paralyzes us in our ability to have a relationship with Him, to hear His voice, and to allow the Spirit to grow us deeper in our freedom and ability to serve Him.  This fear of dis-grace is very closely associated with the concept of disgrace, condemnation, and humility.  This reminds me of the servant in Luke 19 who was scared of the master and saw him as an exacting man and did not invest what the master had given in because of fear.  In return, the master treated him in the exact way he expected to be treated. (Luke 19:20-27)

As God’s people we are called to represent Him.  There is really no other way that we represent Him more than when we are extending grace to others.  This is love.  In this section of scripture God lays down a pattern of how He is expecting His people to live but more importantly, how we relate to others is the greatest indication of how we believe how He relates to us.  It is here in this understanding where we can see how disgracing others brings a defilement to the land.

The point is, when we are in a right relationship with God, we understand that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  This sets us free to open up our ears, open up our hearts, and to open up our eyes to step into a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit.  In this position we are free to hear the truth and know that no matter what we hear, we have not been dis-graced.  We are simply being told the truth because it is the truth that sets us free.  In this we live lives of peace, joy, repentance, and growth.  This transforms us from the inside where the foundation of the transformation is brokenness and humility.

When we allow ourselves to see TRUTH, be broken, and fall into lives of humility we pass God’s love onto others.  We do not dis-grace them but treat them with the same love we have received.  When God’s people can learn to live like this then the blessings of God are free to follow them where ever they go.

On the other hand, when the people of God fall into religion things become very different.  Instead of feeling safe with our relationship with Him we become fearful.  Just like Adam and Eve, we hid from the truth and just like the children of Israel, we tell God that we don’t believe we are capable of hearing anything beyond a few basic rules.  Without the truth we never become free from Satan and his works.  In this position we miss the opportunities for brokenness and humility and fall into self-loathing and condemnation.  In this place of woundedness we deal with others in a way that is intended to not only kill the sin but, kill the spirit of the sinner.

We must always remember that the end destination of the law is love and that living within the law is not the end unto itself.  I believe this is what Paul was getting at in Galatians chapter 3.  What I hear Paul saying is that the greatest curse of the law is when we become “of” the law.  Paul goes through great pains to help us understand that the Law was not given as a condition of grace but that it was given because of transgressions.  He outlines that God made particular promises to Abraham and that those promises, that were made through covenant, cannot be added to.  As such, the promises to Abraham could not be tied to the law at some later date.  When we start believing that honoring the law is a requirement of God fulfilling His promises to Abraham we become “of” the law.  In this place we move from faith to works where we believe the promises are the result of our godly living.

The point of living in such a way that the land becomes defiled cannot be skipped.  Paul is very clear in addressing that the law was given because of transgressions.  In other words, God is not placing the honoring of the law as a condition of the fulfillment of the promises.  However, living ungodly lives does defile the land, and when the land becomes defiled it protects itself and expels the people from occupying it.  Because the land is a major part of the “inheritance”, this stops the process of the fulfillment of the promises and keeps the promises from coming into fruition. 

So, what I believe Paul is saying is this: “God did not require the children of Israel to honor the law as a condition of His honoring the promise He made to Abraham and his seed regarding becoming a great nation.  However, He saw that the way Abraham’s descendants were living was so unholy that they had no ability to live in peace with the land and as such hold onto it.  Because of this, He gave them the Law to teach them a way of life that would allow them to live in peace with the land so that the land would not become defiled and kick them out.  This is a critical part of God honoring His promises.  However, God’s people made themselves “of” the law and made religion out of what was intended to be relationship.  Through what Jesus did on the cross He nailed the threat of dis-grace to the cross and as such set us free to live lives that are free to see the truth and grow in humility and fulfill Torah as He fulfilled Torah.  As such, it is only in and through Jesus that we are capable of living in such a way that we do not defile the land and as such, the fullness of the inheritance can only come through Abraham and his seed.”

As believer’s in Jesus Christ, we are descendants of Abraham and as such given the same promise of the same inheritance.  One day the Children of Abraham and his seed will live together in unity, in the holy land, be a great nation, be His bride, and be the sparkle in His eye.  This is the image of the one new man that Jesus came to create.  This is the promise that we all await and as such we should all mourn for.  Maybe next year in Israel, in unity, in Him.  Amen, Amen.