Deu. 7:12-8:10–Read Torah Daily and Obey
Commentary
Continuing my foray into Torah, I’ve come to this Torah portion, #46, day 1, entitled “Because.” For the newbies among us, every Torah portion takes from the first verses of that portion a descriptive word that summarizes the gist of the entire portion. Although the concept of Torah portions is not Biblically based (so to speak)–believed to have come on-line after the Babylonian captivity sometime around the 6th or 5th-century BCE and around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah–it is a concept that can be useful in keeping our heads, eyes and minds in Torah on a daily and weekly basis. I’ve not gone to the point of adhering to Torah portions in accordance with the Jewish-calendar; in fact I go out of my way to circumvent the association altogether choosing to read in accordance with the leading of the Rauch Kodesh and the amount of time it takes me to consume that which the Ruach wants me to learn and pass on; all before I move on to the next portion. Sometimes the amount of content that I’m led to consume from study of a single portion may take me a few days to complete. I’m not inclined to blow off the a leading of the Ruach just to stay in sync with a prescribed schedule of Torah reading. And that my friends is the gist of the challenge for us today–ensuring that we carve out of our busy schedules time to commune with Father and learn of Him and His ways and then apply those principles learned to our daily walk with Messiah.
This portion starts with what I prefer to describe as a “cause and effect” situation and that is why this portion is entitled “Because”: because you keep and obey Torah, Yahovah will keep the covenant and mercy that He swore to our forefathers (7:12). Yehovah will (1) love us; (2) bless us; (3) increase our numbers; (4) bless the fruit of our bodies and the fruit of our ground in the land that He promised to our ancestors; (5) He will remove all illnesses from us; (6) all the diseases inflicted upon Egypt will be instead placed upon those who hate us. Yehovah’s only requirement is for us to listen to and keep His “judgments” (also rendered as ordinances, rulings, regulations or laws). In doing so, He would remain with us as a nation, as a people, the covenant and love that He swore to Avraham, Yaachov and Yishak. For them, the agreement that Yehovah had was a two-way agreement like most contracts–they simply needed to keep the Father’s laws and in doing so, He (Yahovah) would maintain the promises given to them and extended back to our forefathers.
Assuming we kept His Laws and honored the covenant He made with us and our forefathers, then Yehovah would bless us more than all other peoples (7:13-14)–Yahovah swore to Avraham that his seed would be numerous as the stars in heaven and the sand specks of the dessert. In these 2-verses, Yahovah didn’t just promise to multiply us, but to also multiply our livestock and produce that would naturally go to sustain us as a people. All this simply by obedience to Yehovah’s Torah (Deu. 28). This same principle applies to us today. Are we realizing blessings in that which we do–be it our families, our relationships, our work and careers? Are we seeing these things manifested as a result of our obedience to Yah’s laws and precepts. If Yahovah is indeed true to His word and we are grafted onto the olive tree that is Israel, should we not realize the same blessings? Indeed, we in the Hebraic Roots community have cast a dim eye towards the prosperity movement that seemed to dominate traditional Christianity in the 90s and 2000s. But what if those “jack-leg” preachers were really onto something? What if they weren’t that far away from the truth. What if, instead of realizing blessings because we send that preacher $100 of our hard-earned money, we realized these stated blessings of Deuteronomy because we were obedient to Torah? Could this be the very thing that the traditionalist has missed? Indeed, something to ponder.
We were commanded to “devour” all the peoples that He would hand over to us. These would be shown no pity (7:16). How does this apply to us today? When we do not slay and devour the enemies in our lives, we tend to set ourselves up for future problems and eventual failure–just like our ancestors preparing to enter Canaan. I’m not talking about slaying the individuals in our lives that we deem to be physical, flesh and blood enemies. I’m talking about slaying the movies, the entertainment, the habits, the social circles, the music, the careers, the material objects, certain relationships; all the things that we find surrounding us and demanding our attention. When we fail to view these things as enemies and we fail to take action to eliminate them from our lives, then we are setting ourselves up to fall prey to them. We find ourselves bowing down to them and serving them as gods in our lives. We become consumed by them. We are influenced by them. We seek benefits from them that we shouldn’t. How many of us are constantly seeking greater and greater fortunes from our chosen careers? I certainly have. Do we not ultimately become consumed with seeking after promotions and increased wealth from our careers? Do we then not find ourselves bowing down to them–granted not physically bowing down. But we find ourselves compromising ourselves in order to gain favor with the power brokers, the decision makers, the movers and shakers. Before you know it, we find ourselves committing to work on the Sabbath because we have to get some project or another done by Monday. Before you know it, we’re attending social gatherings associated with these ambitions and we find ourselves drinking a little too much; we are getting into conversations that we shouldn’t be in; we are eating things that we shouldn’t; we are compromising our virtues and our morals; we are making promises and lying; and so on and so on. We are commanded to devour these things however! I was there and I found myself doing things that I shouldn’t have, all because I wanted to be looked upon as a team player or a company man. And this principle can certainly play out in many areas of our lives. How often have we kept relationships that we shouldn’t and before you know it, you are compromising yourself for the sake of the relationship? Why? Because we want to be accepted, we want the perceived “benefits” that come from being one of the “gang.” Yahovah tells us not to serve their gods and not to be intimidated by the size of their population. Sometimes we feel that we have no choice but to give in to the bigger group: if you can’t beat them, join them; that sort of thing.
What about relationships in our families that cause us to compromise our convictions and Faith? Do we maintain them in order to make our lives better or to avoid problems? Parents, siblings, in-laws, cousins, etc. What about those relationships that are hazardous to our Faith? How do we deal with them? Well, if the Torah is being our school-master, it is a life-exemplar by which we should follow. We must, then, take action against such relationships, right? We may not have to completely sever these relationships, but we will have to probably drastically alter them to such a state that they will have no future influence over us as Yah’s elect. We then are not to be concerned about not having these things, these relationships, and feel that we are going to be left out in the cold without the things that we need for life. We are to remember that Yahovah has performed great exploits on behalf of the Children of Promise and He will do the same for us today if we stay true to His Torah.
Additional Highlights of the Portion
- We are not to serve their gods–be they established false gods or materialistic and relational gods
- The size of the nations we were to chase out of the land should not be of any concern to us as we were once again reminded of the many exploits done by Yehovah against the Egyptians. Indeed, sometimes the enemies in our lives–again, be they physical or spiritual, may at times seem daunting and overwhelming. But we must always remember that “nothing is impossible for Yahovah.” (reference Mat. 17:20 & Luk. 1:37)
- We’ve witnessed great ordeals, signs, wonders, and with a strong hand and outstretched arm Yahovah brought us out of Egypt. Have we witnessed such wonders in our lives? Most of have not. But if we are able to step back and really ponder this thing, we might find that indeed, we have witnessed great wonders that we can only attribute to the the strong and mighty hand of Yahovah our Elohim. I’ve not seen a whole-lot of miracles and wonders in my life per se, but looking back, I’ve certainly been the recipient of a great deal of favor and mercy that could only have come through the intervention of the Father into my life. I should have died many times over simply because of the foolishness of my youth. Yet time and time again, looking back, I can see the providence of the Almighty all over my young life and how He has brought me to where I am today. I’m certain you can equally attest to this.
Yehovah will send hornets against our enemies so they perish ahead of our onslaught (7:20)–Holladay Lexicon describes the hornet as “depression, discouragement.” However, there are some who believe these “hornets” to be actual hornets or wasps that were sent ahead of the Israeli juggernaut. One commentary says: “Let them not be disheartened by the weakness and deficiency of their own forces; for God will send them in auxiliary troops of hornets, or wasps, as some read it in verse 20, probably larger than ordinary, which would so terrify and molest their enemies ( and perhaps be the death of many to them) that their most numerous armies would become an easy prey to Israel. God plagued the Egyptians with flies, but the Canaanites with hornets. Those who take not warning by less judgments on others may expect greator on themselves. But the great encouragement of Israel was that they had God among them…” (Matthew Henry Commentary) When we think about the future, one can only imagine what Yehovah will send in advance of those of us who are coming out of Babylon for the land of promise in the last days. Our Father loves to imitate or repeat exploits that He has performed in the past. Certainly, He seems also enjoy outdoing the exploits of the past. If we live to see the last days, the exploits that Yahovah will perform on behalf of His chosen will certainly exceed those of the past.
More Highlights
- Yehovah will be there with us when we invade and occupy the enemy’s territory. He is great and fearsome.
- Yehovah will expel the nations ahead of Israel little by little. Yehovah knew that destroying the enemies all at once would result in the land being overrun by wild animals. He always has a plan that leaves nothing to chance.
- Yehovah will send one disaster after another on the nations until they are destroyed. How many of us have been in a pickle and Father has taken care of it without so much as the slightest input from us? It can and it does happen, whereby Father takes care of our problems for us without so much as a thought from us.
- Each king was to be wiped out and their names forgotten
- The statues (specially all idols) are to be burned up. what does that say to us today? Anything of negative influence that Father has taken out of lives must be completely and utterly destroyed. How many of us have remnants of things that held us in bondage in the past; yet we still hold on to those things? Do we not realize that those hanging chads will serve to ensnare us and take us right back to where we were before? Many drug addicts who have been delivered from their drug addicted life will often maintain a stash of drugs just in case…in case of what? Or they will hold onto their suppliers’ contact information and connections. Why? Because??? What in our lives have we held on to from our past that can have no possible benefit or purpose apart from providing a portal back to the life we’ve been delivered from. We must eliminate these statues in our lives.
- We were not to be desirous of the gold and silver on these statues as they are traps.
- These idols are abhorrent to Adonai our Elohim. Thus we are to not bring anything abhorrent into our homes, otherwise we will share in the curse that is on it. We are to detest these things as Yehovah does. It’s not until we have the mind of Yahovah through the Spirit of Yahoshua, then we are able to reject the things around us that are anti-Torah. Once we see these things as Yahovah does, then we will act accordingly and live blessed lives.
Yehovah took us 40-years through the desert to humble and test us for purposes of knowing where our hearts are–observing to see if we’d obey His mitzvot or not (8:2) But why? Yehovah is all about what is in our hearts. He has never wanted simple robots to become His children. Thus, He gives us rules and precepts to live by and then He tries/tests (Heb. nasah) us. The traditionalist pompously contends that he/she need not follow the commandments or the Torah and by one following Torah, he or she has fallen from grace. But everything must always go back to its natural start. Yehovah never changes. Thus, if we are only concerned with grace and nothing else, how does Yehovah know what’s in our heart, our inner being, our constitution apart from it being evil and contrary to Him and His ways? If we are unwilling to follow His commands and trust in Him to provide for us and to do as He leads, are we worthy to be considered by Him as His child? 2 Chron 32:31 records: “Howebit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” You see, I believe that most of us reject Torah because we feel incapable of keeping and obeying it. We want to do things our way and in the end, the Father is really not the central focus of our lives. Oh, we believe He exists, but He is not the most important thing in our lives. We place Him in the back of the buses in our lives. But as Yehovah did with Israel, He is looking for a people who will place Him first in their lives. And when we indicate to Him that indeed He is central in our lives, He then tries us and tests us to see where our hearts are.
Thus we have been challenged dear saint, to read and obey His Torah and so by doing, we will be most blessed among the nations of people who do not know Him. Shalom.