These are my thoughts and reflections on Torah Reading 148. I’ve been led to entitle this discussion: When Torah Becomes a Witness Against Us.” Our reading this week is found in Deuteronomy/Devarim 31.14-30.

Key Themes and Concepts Found in our Parashah this Week

Yehovah Formally Commissions Yehoshua. Yah directs an official change in our human leadership (i.e. from Moshe to Yehoshua). Yah addresses Moshe and Yahoshua in the form of column of cloud at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting (aka “o’hel moedim“) (31.14-15). Why at the sanctuary’s entrance as opposed to any other place in the camp? Yah is consistent in all of His holy and righteous ways. Everything He does, He does in a purposeful and orderly fashion. Furthermore, by calling the two leaders out before the “o’hel moedim“, Yah was effecting this historic transfer of human leadership and power in view of the entire nation. I point you to this Torah passage for clarification: 9 ⌊And⌋ at the entering of Moses into the tent the column of cloud would descend and stand at the opening of the tent, and he would speak with Moses. 10 And all the people would see the column of cloud standing at the opening of the tent, and all the people would rise and bow in worship, each at the opening of his tent. 11 And Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his neighbor. And he would return to the camp, and his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the middle of the tent. W. Hall Harris III, Elliot Ritzema, et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Ex 33:9–11.Transparency is the name of the game when it comes to our God. He leaves no doubt where He stands in the minds of His people. Thus, there would be no backdoor deals conducted in the dark — shifts in leadership and power that could easily lead to non-stop conspiracy theories such as that which we recently witnessed here in our nation’s government.

The Future Apostacy of Yisra’el. Yah informs Moshe that after his impending death (i.e., “sokeb“– death in this case conceived as him lying down to sleep with his ancestors), we would “arise” (i.e., “qam'” — that is, we would rebel) against Yehovah. And our rebellion against Yehovah would take the form of our taking up the worship of the Canaanite gods. Yah described our impending apostacy as “playing the prostitute” (i.e., “‘am zanah“) after foreign gods (i.e., “‘elohim“) (31.16). Yah’s description of our impending apostacy being likened unto prostituting ourselves plays heavily upon the realities associated with our marital relationship with Him. And in every metaphorical sense, when we take up foreign god worship, we are committing [spiritual] adultery. No marriage can truly remain intact when one or both parties engage in infidelity. Yah views our engagement in idolatry as forsaking Him. And despite the fact that the vast majority of people of faith do not engage in idol worship today per se, we must ask ourselves what things have we given ourselves to that equates to our forsaking our Heavenly Father and the covenant relationship we are supposed to share with Him? Pornography; fornication and adultery; drugs and alcohol; entertainment; personal possessions and the pursuit of wealth; the pursuit of fame.

Yah described Himself to us as being a jealous God who will not tolerate our engaging in foreign god worship of any form or fashion (Exo 34.13-14). In fact, so high was the risk that we would fall prey to the lure of adopting the Canaanites’ gods that Yah commanded us to not cut covenants with the inhabitants of the Land so as a preventative move (Exo 34.15-17). Clearly, associating with pagans and inquiring about their worship practices comes with tremendous spiritual risks. The penalty for any who would engage in false god worship is to cause Yah’s face to be hidden from us (31.18) and to incur Yah’s wrath against them and to be cut off from among the congregation of Yisra’el (31.17; Lev 20.5). And certainly, we did not listen, and we played the prostitute as Yah warned and prophesied (Jug 21.17; 8.33; Hos 1.2). But despite our stiffnecked and adulterous ways, Yah promised to remain true to the covenant He cut with us in order to honor the promises He made with our patriarchs and to bring glory to His holy and righteous Name (Hos 3.1).

Yah’s Reactions to our Spiritual Prostitution. There are natural consequences that come with abandoning Yah’s instructions in righteousness. Yah declares curses will overtake us when we elect to go our own way and reject His commandments (Deu 28.15-68). But that’s not where our problems end, because at the end of the day, beloved, we who are in a covenant relationship with Yah must contend with Him as a consequence of transgressing His Torah.

Bit by bit throughout His Torah (that must include the Prophets and the Writings), our Heavenly Father graciously reveals to us His steadfast and awesome nature and holy character. Here in our reading, Yah reveals to us what His reaction will be to our future idolatrous behavior:

1. Yah Has a Righteous Temper. If we rebel against Him and “play the prostitute after foreign gods” of the land which we dwell, Yah declares that His anger will flare up against us. We then effectively become the object of Yah’s wrath. His wrath would bring “great harm and distress” upon us (Merrill, Eugene H.; Deuteronomy-NACDt). And we most certainly saw this come to fruition throughout our history in response to our stiffnecked persona and our failure to properly keep covenant with our Elohim. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown describes such an eruption of Yah’s anger toward us when we forsake Him for foreign gods as a “withdrawal of the divine favor and protection” (Brown, David et al; Commentary; 1997). And it will be through such harsh divine intervention that the realities of our evil ways will sink into our thick skulls.

31. Yah Does Not Stay Where He’s Not Wanted. Part and parcel of Yah’s wrath against us will be that He forsakes us and Hides His face from us (31.17). As just mentioned, the natura; consequence of being on the receiving end of Yah’s holy and righteous wrath or anger is that His divine mercies are lifted or removed from us. In my commentary on the horrific October 7th invasion of Hamas terrorists against our Jewish cousins in the state of Israel, I mentioned I believed Yah had lifted His divine protection of her on that terrible day. Unfortunately, this concept seems to match up with what Yah has promised will happen when His people forsake the covenant He shares with them and they rebel and whore themselves after the ways of this world. And let us not be ignorant of the realities that the flaring of our Creator’s wrath and Him turning His face from us is not limited to the nation state of Yisra’el. Such calamity is certain to happen to each of us who abandons the covenant relationship He cut with us through Yahoshua and then pursue the ways of this world. We cannot afford to stand against the wiles of our archenemy without His presence. And to lose His presence because of our foolishness and our stubbornness is a total tragedy. So many in our faith community even today are currently enduring tremendous sufferings and trials and such and one who is on the outside looking in would have to wonder, why aren’t these individuals living the abundant life that Yahoshua Messiah promised them? But the answer to that question is quite simple to understand: Many of us who enter a true and substantive covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe through the Person and ministries of our glorious Master Yahoshua Messiah eventually play the prostitute against the Great I Am by abandoning or violating the terms of our covenant agreement with Him. And when we abandon or violate the terms of that covenant agreement we have with Yehovah, we stand to incur His wrath and His distancing from us. Of this the Jewish scribe Ibn Ezra notes that we become ready prey for the enemy” (Carasik, M.; Deuteronomy: Introduction and Commentary-TCB JPS Dt). Cassik notes what I find to be a fascinating perspective on this key issue and concept of Yah turning His face from us when we turn away from Him for foreign gods: “Out of love, like a man whose son has sinned. He tells the son’s master to whip him but cannot bear to watch” (Bekhor Shor). “My Providence will abandon them, leaving them ready for disaster.” This threat is worse than any of the previous ones (e.g., curses and wrathful anger), since all the previously threatened evils would come to them by way of reproach; this is simply abandonment (Gersonides)” (ibid.).

Indeed, some challenges that members of our Faith community go through are tests — trials — designed to mold, strengthen, correct us throughout the time of our sanctification. However, there are those hardships and challenges that many of us face because we’ve elected to take on the yoke of this world and abandon Yah and the covenant we share with Him. That’s why it is so important that we stay close to Yah and operate in His Set-Apart Spirit. When we do so, we mitigate any chance of our straying from the terms of the covenant we share with Yah and we are not so easily drawn to the ways of this world that if we grab hold them will lead to a loss of Yah’s presence in our lives and the tragic effects of His anger that is revealed against us.

References to all that we’ve just discussed may be found in Deuteronomy/Devarim 6.15; Judges 2.14; 6.13; Isaiah 8.17; 59.2; 64.7; Eze 39.23; etc.

Consider this defining passage:

Now Azariah the son of Oded—the Spirit of God came upon him. 2 And he went out before Asa and said to him, “Hear me, O Asa and all of Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you while you are with him. And if you will seek him he will be found by you. But if you forsake him he will forsake you. 3 Now Israel has been without the true God many days, and without a teaching priest, and without law, 4 but at its trouble he returned to Yahweh, the God of Israel. They sought him, and he was found by them. 5 And in those times there was no peace for the one going out and the one coming in, for great tumults were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 Nation was crushed by nation, and city was against city, for God threw them into confusion by all sorts of trouble. 7 But as for you, be strong and let not your hands be weak, for there is reward for your labor.” W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), 2 Ch 15:1–7.

Our God Always Sees the End From the Beginning But He Still Cares. Knowing that after we take possession of the Land of Promise, we will quickly turn our backs to Yehovah in our pursuit of the gods of Canaan, He reaches out to us and gives us a tool that is intended to help mitigate our transgression of His Torah and the covenant we share with Him. He dictates to Moshe a song (a “si-rah”), and depending on which English translation you’re using, a hymn or poem, that He intended to be sung or recited by us “as a witness against us” when we would eventually stray from Him and His ways (31.19). This song or poem that Moshe and Yehoshua were to teach us (i.e., to put it this song in their mouths means to have us memorize it) (Tigay, Jeffrey; The JPS Torah Commentary on Deuteronomy) and it would become for us “an explanation of our betrayal of Yehovah our Elohim” (Faithlife Study Bible; John Barry et. al.). Now, we won’t get into this song or poem in this Torah Reading because it is reserved for Torah Reading 149.

This Torah concept of something being used as a “witness against us” forces us to appreciate the heaviness of the Prophetic Words of Yehovah. Because we did not always have at our ready disposal Yah’s Torah, such inventions as poems or songs served as perpetual memorials to us. According to Jeffrey Tigay in his JPS Torah Commentary on Deuteronomy, this song or poem would serve as proof “that events were foretold prevents their misinterpretation. The poem will testify that God had treated Israel with justice and kindness, but that Israel betrayed Him (see 32:1–18, esp. vv. 4–5). If the people’s words in verse 17 represent a complaint that God had violated His promise to remain with them, the poem will rebut their charge, showing that God abandoned them for just cause.” According to the Jewish sage Obadiah ben Ya’achov Sforno: “When the disaster comes, the poem will prevent them from thinking that it was an accident; when they realize that it was caused by their behavior, they will repent.”

When national songs are taken to heart by the people of a nation, they “stir up deep feelings” within the nation’s people (JFB et al.). And this is indeed what Yah desperately wanted from us in the inevitable event that we rebelled against Him and went prostituting ourselves after the Canaanite gods. When such times came, He wanted us to stop, take assessment of our transgressions against Him and His Torah, and return to Him.

Today, we don’t necessarily have to learn this and other poems and songs verbatim as a tool to help wake us up when we forsake Yah and His ways and the dire necessity for us to turn back to Him before tragedy strikes (31.21). We are blessed to have in our possession the whole of Yah’s Words of Life and Yah’s precious Ruach HaKodesh (aka His Set-Apart Spirit) to bring such things to our memory and to lead us back into Yah’s good graces when we stray.

Indeed, Yah knows the end from the beginning. He told us: “For I know their inclination that they are having ⌊today⌋ before I have brought them into the land that I swore.”W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 31:21. It is only human nature to erroneously think that we are immune to erring in our walk (aka our halachah). But Yah knows how we are and He knows what we are capable of doing. And so, in giving us a reason for the song or poem He was about to give Moshe and Yehoshua, He prophesied: “For when I bring them into the land that I swore to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey, ⌊they will eat their fill⌋, and they will become fat, and then they will turn to other gods, and they will serve them, and they will spurn me, and they will break my covenant” W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 31:20.

Why is it that when we are find ourselves abundantly blessed of Yah that we are the most prone to sinning? I guess it comes down to an erroneous belief that we’ve somehow arrived and that we have nothing to worry about. Then there’s the relative boredom that comes with affluence and contentment. Many of us, when we are doing well in life, develop what I like to refer to as an “itchy ear syndrome” whereby we become prone to search out the latest and greatest teachings and practices that catch our attention and appeals to our flesh. And I say that it is during these well-to-do times in our lives and in our halachah (aka walk) that we stay ever so buried in the Word and ensure that our ears, minds, and hearts are in tune to the still-small-voice of our glorious Elohim.

Be Strong and Courageous. Yah turns His attention to Moshe’s protégé and speaks to him the admonishment that we read in last week’s Torah Portion: “Be strong and be courageous, for you shall bring the ⌊Israelites⌋ into the land that I swore to them, and I will be with you” W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Dt 31:23.

I AM With You — Yah’s Abiding Presence. Here Yah doesn’t just admonish Yehoshua/Joshua to be strong and courageous as he takes on the leadership over the nation, He pledges to Joshua that He will be with him (31.23). Let us not forget the consistency of Yah here. We find back in Exodus/Shemote 3.12 where Abba Yah promised this same supportive relationship as He promised Moshe: 10“And now, come, I am sending you to Pharaoh, to bring My people, the children of Yisra’ěl, out of Mitsrayim.” 11And Mosheh said to Elohim, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Yisra’ěl out of Mitsrayim?” 12And He said, “Because I am with you. And this is to you the sign that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Mitsrayim, you are to serve Elohim on this mountain.” The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ex 3:10–12.

The same One True God/Elohim giving His two leaders the same assurance of His abiding presence throughout the course of their leadership journeys. Yah’s abiding presence with Yehoshua was an obvious guarantee of success in His mission to lead us as a nation to the Land of Promise. And for any leader who has been tapped to do Yah’s work and to lead Yah’s people, there is no better situation to be in. So, when we extend this scenario of Yah’s abiding presence over to those of us who are in the service of Yah and of His Kingdom, especially when we factor in the coming persecutions that many of us will endure as we await our Master’s appearing, we have Yehoshua’s promise of “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mat 28.20; KJV).

Preserving Yah’s Torah. Finally, Moshe gets to the place in his leadership role where he finishes writing or recording Yah’s Word in a book or on a scroll (31.24). The reference to Moshe completing his writing assignment seems to refer specifically to the content that is contained in the Book of Deuteronomy or Devarim. Eugene H. Merrill, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, writes that the phrase or “expression the words of this law…is technical language referring specifically to” chapters 5 to 28 (Deuteronomy — NAC Dt). He further states that chapters 1-4 of Deuteronomy make up the book’s prologue while chapters 29-34 constitute the book’s epilogue.

Such speculation is okay in my opinion, but I do not believe we should be too dogmatic about such things. And the reason I say this is that I recall just a few years ago, there was a segment of our Faith Community who were promoting dogma as it related to what made up Torah and what did not make up Torah; specifically what laws we kept and what laws we weren’t responsible for keeping, and so forth. So the term Torah became somewhat of a divisive term within a faith community that was supposed to promote Torah-living. I do not care to split hairs on such things or, as Merrill suggests, get technical. For the bottom line is that Moshe finished recording that which Abba Yah directed him to record. And when he finished his writing assignment, he commended those documents to the Levites for safekeeping and posterity, to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant (31.24-25).

Why did Moshe command the Levites to store his record of Yah’s Word in the Ark of the Covenant? Why did Moshe command the Levites to store his record of Yah’s Word, along with the 10-Commandments and Aharon’s Rod, in the Ark of the Covenant? Thus, besides being the central implement of the Tent of Meeting where the presence of Yah would take place, the Ark of the Covenant served as a lockbox for the Torah — for Yah’s instructions in Righteousness (31.26). And Yah went further to explain that the storing of His Word in the Ark would serve as a witness against us. Apart from those things we discussed earlier in verse 19, where Yah instructed Moshe to jot down the song/poem that He gives him to serve as a witness against us when we enter the Land of Promise and take up pursuing Canaanite gods. The preservation of the Torah in the Ark of the Covenant by Moshe and the Levites was more of a lesson-reminder to future generations to not repeat the errors of our fathers and forefathers than simply an indictment against us, more than a “see I told you that you would mess us.” What many modern denominationalists cannot recognize in this and countless other such passages that address the witness that the Torah served against us is that the provision of preserving the Torah the way Yah commanded Moshe and the Levites to do was a manifestation of Yah’s grace and provision. Of this provision of grace, Shaul wrote: 4For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, that through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have the expectation. The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Ro 15:4.

11And all these came upon them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come, 12so that he who thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall. The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), 1 Co 10:11–12.

And yet our denominationalist cousins are steadfast in their rejection of living a Torah-honoring/obedient life. Therefore, in great part, that the Church Triumphant is enduring such chaos and hardships and apostacy. They have been indoctrinated to adhere to a replacement doctrine and the modern day grace perversion that throws the very Words of our Father into the trash bin of religious history. It’s a horrific tragedy that has and continues to lead generations down a road to destruction. This very Torah that Moshe was instructed of Yah to have safely stored in the Ark of the Covenant, along with the example and teachings of our Master Yehoshua haMashiyach, as the keys to the Malchut Elohim — that is, the Kingdom of God. We, who have entered a covenant relationship with the Great I Am through His Messiah Yeshua, are exceptionally blessed to recognize the very things about Yah’s Torah that Shaul wrote about to his Roman and Corinthian readers. For the rest of the world, however, spiritual scales continue to obscure the eyes of the denominationalists and even some of our Jewish brethren of this crucial reality. For Torah teaches us how to walk in righteousness and how to love our God and love one another as Yah has instructed.

Let us not be naïve to the reality that most of the civilized world today does not directly engage in idol worship. Notice that I said, “does not directly engage in idol worship.” Indeed, times have changed and we who are of the modern world have come to recognize carved/graven/molten images for what Yah described them to be over and over in His Word. They are nothing more than crafted expressions of either imagined gods of the elements or representations of the fallen ones who were demigods to the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia. Idols have no wherewithal to do anything for those that foolishly and blindly worshiped them through millennia. However, we today still engage in a form of idolatry which, when we engage in such worship, still incites His wrath against us and causes Him to turn His face from us. And what is this form of idolatry that I’m referring to? Most of which makes up life for us today.

Modern life offers us countless things and activities that have the potential of turning our hearts away from Yah and on to those things and activities. And as an article written by the United Church of God puts it, anything that we value more than we value god is idolatry (beta.ucg.org/learn/bible-study-tools/bible-questions-and-answers/what-idolatry.) For some, it’s food and for others it’s sex and entertainment. Material possessions, wealth, fame and fortune capture the hearts, minds, and souls of many others. Then there are inappropriate relationships that cause an unequal-yoke situation for Yah’s people. And let’s not forget the worship of people and nation and culture that causes so many of us to turn our eyes, hearts, and minds away from Yehovah our Elohim. All these and more make up the gods of this modern world. Sadly, most of us don’t even realize just how close we get to prostituting ourselves to the gods of this modern world.

But praise Yah from Whom all blessings flow. He has made for us a witness to such dangerous shenanigans. We have access to Yah’s instructions in righteousness, the example and teachings of Yehoshua Messiah, and the indwelling gift of His Set-Apart Spirit to aid us in not falling prey to the lure of modern-day idolatry. Thus, it behooves us to keep our noses buried in scripture, our ears keenly turned to “the still small voice” of Yehovah, and the leading of Yah’s Holy Spirit to keep us on the straight and narrow, neither erring to the right or left; neither taking away nor adding to His eternal Words of Truth. But rather, that we may walk upright and perfectly before Him so that we may glorify Him on the earth and advance His glorious Kingdom to come. Oh Father in Heaven, hallowed be your holy Name. Thy Kingdom come and Your glorious and perfect will be done, over and in our lives, as well as on this earth, as it is in heaven.

There is no better time than now, beloved, for us to straighten up and fly right in anticipation of our Creator’s glorious Kingdom being firmly and eternally established here on earth. As we progress through this 6th Month of Yah’s biblical calendar year, let us reflect on His goodness; His mercies; His grace; and His righteousness. Our Master testified and informed that His Father is looking for true worshipers who endeavor to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (Joh 4.23). In said worship, there is no room for idolatry of any form or fashion. The true worshiper that Yah seeks is one who has stripped off the veneer of paganism and worldliness from his/her soul and put on our Master’s righteous garments. This is about a profound inward change of heart, mind, and soul that obediently seeks the Creator’s kingdom and His righteousness. Our worship is guided by the Holy Spirit and our obedient faith, rather than being governed by sight — that is the things that we see, feel, and hear — that tickle our fancy — that give us warm and fuzzies. And we are guided by His eternal Words of Truth and Life.

Our religious Jewish cousins view and treat the 6th month of Yah’s calendar year as a time of “introspection and personal stock-taking in preparation of the High Holy Days starting with Yom Teruah and ending with Yom Kippur” (Tim Hegg of Torah Resource). That being said, let us not squander this new month despite it not containing any mandated feasts or moedim of Yah. Let us dedicate ourselves to engaging in an inventory of our day-to-day walk with and in Messiah. Are we doing everything we should and can to ensure the integrity of our covenant relationship with the Almighty? Do we possess righteous intentions towards one another and do we possess the mind of Messiah? If we discover we are not worshiping Yah in Spirit and in Truth, are we willing to make some really hard decisions on how we conduct our lives? Are we willing to turn our back on the idols that we have given license to govern our lives? We know what needs to be done. All that’s left is for us to give our all to He who loved us before we were ever born.

Shabbat Shalom — Shavu’tov — May you be most blessed fellow saints in Training. Take care.