This week’s Torah Reading, contained in Deuteronomy 1.1-46, is the 126th portion of our 3-year Torah Portion reading cycle. I’ve entitled this teaching: “Deuteronomy – A Rehashing and Retelling of Torah to a New Generation.”

 

Deuteronomy is where we will be hanging our spiritual hats, so to speak, for the remainder of this biblical calendar year. So, buckle up and prepare for some intense forays into Yah’s eternal words of life.

 

Welcome to Deuteronomy

 

The title given to the 5^th book/cepher of the Torah is the Greek term Deuteronomy. It’s one of those Greek, composite words that is meant to convey a spiritual meaning. In this case, the title consists of “deuteros” which means second, and “nomos” which can mean either “word(s)” or “law”.

 

When we consider the meaning of Deuteronomy being that of the second law, we’re not talking about Moshe/Moses adding a second set of instructions to that which is contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Instead, the Cepher of Deuteronomy is a rehashing of the Torah contained in these preceding books/cepherim. This becomes clearly evidenced by even a casual read of our parshah today. We see herein that Moshe is led by the Holy Spirit/the Ruach Kodesh (such that all Scripture – all Torah – is given by the inspiration of Yehovah – 2 Tim 3.16) to instruct our 2^nd generation Exodus cousins in Yah’s Torah and in the covenant precepts we’d previously received at Horeb (aka Mount Sinai). This action of instructing our 2^nd generation was critical preparation for our imminent conquest of, and taking possession of, Canaan.

 

Why was Moshe led to provide us with a rehash of Torah? Isn’t it likely that we, the 2^nd-generation-Exodus children, would have received the teachings contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers as we were growing up? Well, let’s not overlook that significant portions of Torah had not been kept by either of our two Exodus generations since most of Yah’s instructions were applicable only when we finally settled in the Land.

 

Simply recall or reference the numerous passages where Yah prefaces certain commands with: “When ye come into the land,” or “when you appear before Yehovah,” or “when ye reap the harvest of your land,” and so forth. So, contrary to what may appear to us from casual read-throughs of Torah, while we sojourned in the wilderness, we primarily kept, with just a few exceptions, just the moral and purity laws, and of course, the ten-commandments. And what Deuteronomy/Devarim (in the Hebrew) captures for us is, essentially, Moshe rendering unto our second Exodus-generation cousins a “Torah Refresher Course” in preparation for our taking possession of the Land (Hegg, T., “Commentary on Deuteronomy,’ p. 15).

 

Tim Hegg (Torah teacher, scholar, and prolific writer, and president of torahresources.com) brilliantly points out in his commentary on our parshah that our steadfast studies of Torah, despite portions of it not being applicable to us today for various historic, logistical, and renewed covenant reasons, holds similarities to the situation facing our ancient Hebrew cousins. As these were being prepped to receive the Land of Promise, we are being prepared to receive the coming Malchut Elohim (aka the Kingdom of God) and the millennial reign of our Master Yahoshua Messiah (ibid., p. 15).

 

The point of our steadfast Torah studies each week is not to entertain some affinity for Jewish traditions and practices or to accumulate knowledge that may or may not be of spiritual use to our walk with Messiah. Instead, our studies should be for the purpose of expanding our knowledge of Yehovah and deepening our covenant relationship with Him.

 

We find in our reading that, Moshe, through his “Torah Refresher,” reaffirmed the covenant Yah cut with our first generation Exodus parents at the base of Mount Sinai.

 

“These are the words (“Eleh ha-d’varim) which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph (i.e. the Transjordan)… a journey of eleven days from Horeb… in the 40^th year (i.e., year 39 of our 40-year wilderness sojourn) in the 11^th month, on the 1^st day of the month.” (Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 189.)

 

The events as recorded in this 5^th cepher of Torah is an official legal enactment of divine instructions, as it contains the location (i.e. the Transjordan region to the east of the Jordan River), date (i.e. the 11^th month of our 40^th year in the wilderness), and individuals involved (i.e. Moshe and all of Yisra’el). This historic event prophetically points us to the ministries of our Master Yahoshua Messiah and John (aka Yochanan) the Immerser. How so? Think of our Master’s temptation by hasatan and John’s epic water immersions of the sons and daughters of Yehudah/Judah. Both historic events take place in the general location that the Cepher/Book of Deuteronomy was written and delivered to us (Mat 4.24; 19.1; Mar 3.8; 10.1; Luk 4.1). Both New Testament events parallel this D’varim/Deuteronomic event in that both are about preparing Yehovah’s people to receive – to enter – the Malchut Elohim. Rood’s Chronology places Yeshua’s temptation and John’s mass water immersions in the Transjordan in and around the 11^th month of Yah’s biblical calendar in the year 27 CE (Rood, Michael; The Chronological Gospels; p. 66-71).

 

From a timing perspective – getting back to our reading – Moshe’s “refresher of Torah” to our 2^nd generation-Exodus cousins occurred over the course of one to two months since Joshua, chapter 5 records that we officially entered the Land in the month of the Aviv:

 

 8 And it happened, when all the nation had finished circumcising, they remained where they were in the camp until they recovered. 9 And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. 10 And the ⌊Israelites⌋ camped at Gilgal, and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, on the plains of Jericho. 11 On the next day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate from the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and roasted corn. 12 And the manna ceased the day after, when they started eating the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for the ⌊Israelites⌋. They ate from the crop of the land of Canaan in that year. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Jos 5:8–12.)

 

Of course, our buddies, the ever opinionated Jewish sages, contend that Moshe’s delivery of D’varim concluded on the 6^th day of the 12^th month, which translates to 36-days from its start (reference Seder Olam Rabba).

 

Moshe narrates the cepher of D’varim himself, unlike the previous four cepherim of Torah which I believe Yehovah and angels narrated to and Moshe wrote down what they narrated to him.

 

I detect a prophetic shadow picture in D’varim. Moshe foreshadowing Y’shua Messiah, rehashing/clarifying/retelling Torah to a new generation of souls poised to take possession of the Kingdom of Heaven—the Land of Promise.

 

Just as Moshe’s words were delivered to aid our second generation of Exodus Yisra’elites in getting to know the Person of Yehovah and understanding how to serve and worship Him, Y’shua also provided us, a new creation, the keys to the kingdom; understanding what it takes to become a citizen of Yah’s eternal Kingdom and to fulfill the promise He made to us at Horeb that we would become unto Him a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and a royal priesthood (Exo 19.6; 1 Pet 2.9). Additionally, D’varim is an exhortation to us to enter and receive the covenant promise of the Land. Moshe here reiterates that the blessings of the Promised Land were ripe for the taking, as the Land is “given before” us and “laid at” at our feet (1.21). This was our destiny. For this was all about a Land, a people [of Yah], and a covenant.

 

The clarion call is declared: “R’eh! … Aleh! Resh! — See! … Go up! Take possession!” What is this saying to us today, beloved?

 

D’varim is about the realities of the covenant and the covenant’s promises that Yah made initially to Avraham and on down to his descendants. It expresses Yehovah’s love for His covenant people and the love Yah’s covenant people must have for Him: Hearken O Israel: HaShem our God, HaShem is One! Now you are to love HaShem your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your substance!     (6:4–5; The Schocken Bible) (Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 190.) I.e. the Shema!

 

Moshe’s Historical Review of our Journey from Sinai to Where we Find Ourselves in Transjordan

 

One of the greatest reveals of our reading is found in 1.1-2:

 

These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel ⌊on the other side of⌋ the Jordan in the desert, in the desert plateau opposite Suph, between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 It is a journey of ⌊eleven days⌋ from Horeb ⌊by the way of Mount Seir⌋ up to Kadesh Barnea. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:1–2.)

 

Did you catch the reveal? Our trek through the wilderness should have taken just 11-days, leading up to our taking possession of the Land. But because we did not believe/trust Yah, we were sentenced by Yah to wander the wilderness as nomads/Bedouins for 40-years:

 

“Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry, and he swore, ⌊saying⌋, 35 ‘No one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, 36 except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he himself shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has trodden and to his sons because ⌊he followed Yahweh unreservedly⌋.’ 37 Even with me Yahweh was angry because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. 38 Joshua, the son of Nun, ⌊your assistant⌋, will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it. 40 But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the ⌊Red Sea⌋.’ (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:34–40.)

 

Mr. Hegg describes our 1^st-generation-Exodus cousins, prior to our refusal to take possession of the Land:

 

“Everything was in place for the implementation of the Torah covenant that God had graciously given. Had the people submitted to the words of Torah, and acted upon them in faith, then they would have experienced the victory of possessing the Land without having to wander for 40-years in the wilderness” (ibid., p. 16-17).

 

The culprits of our 40-year death sentence of wilderness wandering: unbelief [leading to] rebelliousness:

 

26 But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the ⌊command⌋ of Yahweh your God. 27 And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:26–27.)

 

Our fear of being destroyed by the giants of Canaan was fully founded upon our unbelief – our absence of faith – despite Moshe’s, Caleb’s, and Joshua’s assurances that Yah had our backs, and that Canaan was ours for the taking:

 

But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God, 33 ⌊who goes⌋ ⌊before you⌋ on your way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that ⌊you should go⌋. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:32–33.)

 

And the excuse we gave for our faithlessness and rebelliousness was the hasatan inspired lie that Yehovah “hated us” such that He’d brought us from Egypt where we were content with our enslavement, to the gateway of the Promised Land, only to destroy us at the hands of the Amorites:

 

And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:27.)

 

Where have we heard that lie before? Well, throughout various times of our wilderness sojourning. It was part and parcel of our rebelliousness, which was often the main ingredient to our incessant complaining (1.27).

 

The sinful habit of complaining is inextricably linked to a rebellious heart, and a lack, if not complete absence of, trusting faith in Yehovah Elohim.

 

Nevertheless, so, as it was with our wilderness wandering cousins, Yehovah has only the best of intentions and plans for we who are His beloved:

 

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.(The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Je 29:10–14.)

 

The sinful act of complaining or grumbling, according to Mr. Hegg, “is the leaven that makes rebellion grow. Rather, in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Messiah Yeshua” (a reference to 1 The 5.18). (If you’ve not already done so and you are so led, I invite you to listen to or read my teaching entitled: Overcoming Obstacles to Belief Part 2: Murmuring and Complaining.)

 

 

Moshe Gives our Second Generation a History Lesson on Our Wilderness Trek Towards the Promised Land (A Retrospective on the 40-Year Sojourn in the Wilderness and the Lessons of that Period — 1.6-3.29)

 

Moshe rehashes some of the events after we departed Horeb. It was at the appointed time that Abba Yah said to us: “Rav Lachem” — Enough for you …of [you] staying at this mountain [i.e. Mount Sinai at Horeb]. (1.6; reference Num 10.11) And we were made to turn ourselves around and journey/trek to the hill country of the Amorites. The year we sojourned at Horeb, at the base of Mount Sinai, Yah set out to mentally, physically, and spiritually prepare us to receive the Land. Of this move from the Holy Mountain of Yah, Rashi wrote:

 

There is much eminence for you, and reward for your having dwelt at this mountain. You made the tabernacle, menorah, and holy implements, you received the Torah, and you appointed Sanhedrin courts for yourselves, of leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds. (Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 191.)

 

Some have questioned Yah’s command “Rav Lechem” to us at Sinai, seeing it as a rebuke: A rebuke in the sense that maybe we had become too lax and too comfortable there. Some of this thinking seems to have emerged from the Korach incident where Korach challenged Moshe and Aharon, Rav Lechem — Too much is yours. In other words, you’ve taken more authority unto yourselves than you. Who do you think you are. What makes you two so special? Yehovah has declared that the entirety of Yisra’el is holy. And Moshe returns Korach’s rebuke with a Rav Lechem, noting that he and his ilk had bitten off more than they could chew and that Yehovah would make the ultimate determination as to who was Yisra’el’s true leaders.

 

In that sense, yes, Rav Lechem was a rebuke. But when Yehovah mentioned that to us as the prompt to leave Mount Sinai, it was not a rebuke at all. Rav Lechem in that sense was the commencement command to take all that we’d learned at our time of encampment about His Holy Mountain, and go forth and fulfill our destiny. Indeed, our time for glory had arrived. We would take Mount Sinai with us in spirit and infuse it into our existence once we realized our destiny in the Land that flowed with milk and honey.

 

Just as we experienced a similar period of learning and exponential growth when we came into a true and substantive covenant relationship with the Great I Am, through the Person and Ministry of Yeshua Messiah, there comes a time when we must move onward and upward to fulfill our mandates and duties as Yeshua’s trustworthy disciples. We are called to be a light and a salt to a corrupt and dying world, and to do our part in His Great Commission. Sadly, many of us find it difficult, if not impossible, to depart from the base of Mount Sinai. Consequently, many of us remain for the duration of our walk in Messiah as pew warmers, never producing any fruit; never growing and multiplying our talents; never realizing our destiny in Yeshua Messiah. Just sucking the nutrients out of the roots and trunk of our beloved spiritual commonwealth and faith community. Here’s a news flash: Our destiny is not just our making it into the Kingdom; our destiny also includes doing the will of the One Who sent us.

 

The lesson of Sinai is that divine revelation is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new journey. (Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 193.) As Hilary is ofttimes heard saying to her discipleship students: “It’s time to get going and do something!” Do something indeed. Too many of us aren’t doing anything. It’s time to work the fields “while it is still day, for the night cometh when no man can work” (Joh 9.4).

 

After Rav Shaul recovered from the “shock and awe” of his transformative experience meeting the glorified Yeshua on that dusty road to Damascus and he’d received the unparalleled revelations of the Person and Ministries of Yeshua Messiah, Luke records that the Master instructed Shaul: “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:5–6). “Rav lachem—Enough for you this supernatural encounter; now you must move on to the assignment for which I have called you.” (Russell Resnik, Gateways to Torah: Joining the Ancient Conversation on the Weekly Portion (Baltimore, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2000), 193.)

 

After we left Horeb and arrived at Kadesh Barnea, we were supposed to proceed forward with Yah’s original plan and promise, which was to go in and take possession of the Land (1.19-21). We were meant to fulfill our destiny at that point. Yehovah asserted to us:

 

Look, I have set the land ⌊before you⌋; go and take possession of the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them and to their offspring after them.’ (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 1:8.)

 

I can’t help but be reminded of the turmoil and tribulations that our Jewish cousins are experiencing today over in the Land. The horrific evil that the terrorist organization Hamas thrust upon the nation, forcing them to take up arms and defend themselves against their hateful, deadly assaults, has once again led the nation peoples of the world to reject Yehovah, His Torah, and His people. This world’s blinded people reject the notion that Yehovah gave the Land to the descendants of Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya’achov and that the Arab peoples who call themselves Palestinians actually have no rights to the Land. But when the nations of the world, many of whom were founded to some degree on Judeo-Christian principles, throw out the rule of Yehovah and of His Word over their lives, then the next logical step is to chant and level blasphemous words towards and take hateful actions against a people who are doing what their God requires of them. Yisra’el, contrary to the self-righteous convictions of most fools in this world, have no authority to hand over the Land that Yah gave to His people as a precept of the covenant agreement He’d cut with their forefathers. For the world’s self-righteous ones to insert themselves in the middle of something like this that they do not know of nor do they have any business opining about is to play with fire that will in the end turn around and burn them.

 

 

Getting back to our parshah, Moshe reminded us that we refused to obey Abba Yah out of fear of the inhabitants of the Land, despite Moshe’s promises that Yehovah would go before the nation and fight for them just as He’d done against the Mitsrim/Egyptians  (1.26-31). We’d lost all trust in Yehovah; the El who went before us along our way, manifesting Himself as fire at night and a cloud in the day (1. 33; Exo 13.21). Indeed, Yehovah became outraged at our failure to trust Him, which translated into our disobedience to not take possession of the Land as He’d commanded us to do (1.34). And it was our failure to trust/believe Yah, and our disobedience to Yah’s command that ultimately sealed the fate of our first Exodus generation, save Caleb and Joshua (1.35-36, 38).

 

Yah called us an evil generation (1.35). Our first generation cousins, because we did not trust/believe Yehovah and were rebellious to the point where we would not obey His commands, would not see for themselves the fulfillment of the covenant promise He cut with Avraham (1.35; Gen 15.5, 18). Not even Moshe, our illustrious leader, because he failed to give Yah the glory and honor due the Creator of the Universe, would enter and receive the promised Land (1.37; Num 20.12).

 

The irony in all this that Yah pointed out to us was that our second-generation children, who we saw as vulnerable to the “plunder” of the pagan nations, and who were innocent; ignorant of their situation would become the inheritors of the covenant promise (1.39). These beloved little ones of Yah would be protected and realize the destiny that their parents failed to achieve because of unbelief and rebelliousness.

 

Consider the prophetic shadow picture depicted here! Matthew records a confrontation between Yeshua and the chief priests and elders amid our Master teaching and preaching somewhere within the temple complex (21:23-43). It appears these Jewish leaders were still hot under the collar over Yeshua’s overturning of the moneychangers’ tables on the previous day, on or around Aviv 11, in the year 28 CE. These demanded Yeshua tell them under whose authority he brought about such wanton chaos and violence on the Temple Mount. Because these religious leaders were incapable of answering Yeshua’s rebuttal to their question, our Master refused to reveal the authority under which He operated.

 

Toward the end of their rather contentious exchange, seeing that He was getting nowhere in HIs discussion with these religious leaders, Yeshua declared unto them:

 

For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls—it will crush him!” (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Mt 21:43–44.)

 

The arrogance, rebelliousness, and faithlessness of our religious leaders and any who find themselves in positions over us, will find themselves in forfeiture of Yah’s covenant promises and other followers and believers of the God of Avraham, Yitschaq, and Ya’achov instead receiving the blessings of those promises. This is the economy of the Malchut Elohim. Just because one may be in a prominent position of leadership over others in a faith community, doesn’t mean that they are a shoo-in for the Kingdom and to receive Yah’s covenant promises over the poor in spirit and the humble of the faith community.

 

 

Taking Matters into our Own Hands Offends God and Transgresses His Torah

 

Moshe reminded us that upon receiving our death sentence of 40-years of wilderness wandering, we elected to take matters into our own hands by attempting to render a partial take-over of the Land which resulted in our behinds being handed to us by the Amorites (1.43). This tragic, humiliating defeat came about because Yah was not with us when we sought to defy Him and take the Land on our own terms (1.42-46). We erroneously rationalized that we could fix the situation that we put ourselves in when we rebelled against Yah’s command to take possession of the Land.

 

To take matters in our own hands, as was the case in our going up against and being whipped by the Amorites, was a transgression against Yah and His Torah.

 

It is mandatory that we do things Yah’s Way: do them when, where, and how He directs. To do otherwise, as we did against the Amorites when Yah was not with us, is to face certain defeat and failure.

 

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The accompanying Haftorah for this week’ parshah is contained in Jeremiah 30.4-11.

 

Here the prophet, through the inspiration of Yehovah, addresses YIsra’el’s Assyrian and Babylonian captivity and exile being brought about because of her unbelief and rebelliousness. Ya’achov by necessity had to be punished. However, Ya’achov would not be destroyed. Yehovah reveals to us that there will be an end to our captivity and exile:

 

But you must not fear, my servant Jacob,’ ⌊declares⌋ Yahweh, and you must not be dismayed, Israel, for look, I am going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be at rest, and he will be at ease, and there will be no one who makes him afraid. 11 For I am with you,’ ⌊declares⌋ Yahweh, ‘to save you. For I will make a complete destruction of all the nations to which I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction. And I will chastise you to the measure, and I will not leave you entirely unpunished.’ (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Je 30:10–11. )

 

The accompanying Apostolic reading for this week’s parshah is contained in the Cepher of Hebrews 3.7-19.

 

Here the Hebraist reminds his readers to not have an evil, unbelieving heart which will inevitably lead to a fall similar to that of our first-generation Hebrew cousins (3.12). He warns us to not stray away from the living God (3.12). The writer encourages the readers to encourage each other to not become ensnared in the deception of sin through rebelliousness or the hardening of their hearts (3.13). The bottom line, according to the Hebraist is, that one cannot enter into Yah’s rest if they do not believe/trust Yah (3.19). (I would encourage you to listen to or read my teaching The Difference between Faith and Belief if you want a deeper understanding of these essential concepts.)

 

 

Beloved, let us not be fooled when it comes to our fear-induced rebelliousness – our faithlessness. When it comes to unresolved faithlessness and rebellion, scripture reveals that our prayers are severely hampered:

 

18 If I had considered evil in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. (W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Ps 66:18.; cf. Pro 28.9; 1.28; Isa 1.15; 59.2; Jas 4.3)

 

Only the prayers of those of us who possess contrite hearts and humble spirits will Abba Yah receive and respond to (Isa 57.15; 66.2; Psa 34.18; 51.17).