Devarim (Deuteronomy)
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Meaning
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Day Six
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Haftara
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B'rit Hadashah
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1 Our Father, we receive Your Words and hide Your commandments with us; 2 we incline our ear unto wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding; 3 We cry after knowledge and lift up our voices for understanding; 4 we seek it as silver; and search for it as for hidden treasures; 5 We declare that we shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Declaration of Proverbs 2:1-5.
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 (NASB)1
1 Now Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day. 7 Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. 8 So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. 9 Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 for all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
I must have sat at the keyboard here for more than fifteen minutes, ruminating. The little child in me was acting out.
Okay, Anne. Last day. Let's get going here.
I don't wanna.
Come on. You can do this. And the sooner you start, the better it will be.
No. Don't wanna do it.
You had it planned out what you were going to do today. What happened?
Don't know. Just don't wanna.
It's pretty bad when the seventy-year-old adult in me has to threaten a spanking to the little child. We share the same body and mind. What could I do? Well, now I'm going to do it. I'm sure it makes no sense to anyone else how I feel this way, but there you are. I went through the copies of past editions of Torah Bites and found the one from 2009. As I read, I see that one was a bit of a milestone for both me and Gaylen. We both waxed a bit sentimental, but it does help me to remember how 'young' we both were in the Torah Bites Project. In the fall, Gaylen occasionally commented that “The snow makes Anne a little squirrelly.” Lots of times, it wasn't even snowing yet, but I had to admit he was right. You will note that Gaylen refers to rebuilding the Anchor Church. That was because Hurricane Ike tore through southeast Texas on September 13, 2008. Among his many accomplishments, the new structure was indeed built above sea level. So, here we were in 2009.
We now draw to a close our last reading for this year of 2009 in Deuteronomy. When I think of the things that have passed since we embarked on Genesis last fall, it amazes me how the Lord could have brought this writer thus far. He provided layers of respite and the support of my spiritual parents, Len and Eva, and my spiritual family in Brazoria County, and the support of my nearest and dearest family here. I have been truly blessed. Interspersed between the worst moments of my whole life were some of the balm of Gilead and the sweet prayer support of those who allowed me to vent and carry on in those times when I fully expected to be insane by morning if I didn’t quit that job and find some other line of work other than staff nurse in a nursing home. I wonder if Moshe had the same frustration many times. I can imagine Moses uttering in abject frustration, "Enough already! I should be insane by morning if these stiff-necked thistle heads push me any farther!" And yet, time and time again, Moses came to the defense of those same stiff-necked thistle heads. He was ready to not only defend them but have his own name blotted out of the book of life for their sake.
31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Exodus 32:31-32.
Indeed, "Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom the Lord singled out, face to face, for the various signs and portents that the Lord sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country, and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel." And never indeed, did the ones who penned these words that would span centuries and ages not see another like Moses. They died. But after came our precious Messiah, one of us. He was human, and yet the glorious and precious Son of God who became our ultimate high priest, who was willing to suffer and die on the cross.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16
Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land. Do you think that it was enough for Moses that He saw the land, even though he knew that he was not to actually live there after all his labors? Perhaps by then, after the heat of that day when he lost it and struck the rock and screamed at the people because they wanted water, he was well aware that he was way out of line. Perhaps, just perhaps, Moses realized fully that he’d been disrespectful and was ready to submit to the discipline of his Father? I’m guessing yes. For if a man like Moses was unwilling to take discipline, then he would be missing one of the prime qualities of a good teacher. A teacher must always bear in mind that they are a student also! A teacher who cannot be taught, who resists education of their own frame of reference and their own ways of looking at things, is of no use to God. And Moses was of immense use to God!
I’ve learned many lessons this past Torah year. I have a feeling that Moses could have been saying the same things as he climbed the mountain, knowing that it was his last climb before the perfect peace of death. I’m guessing that he might have been thinking that he’d learned many things in his years and that even though it didn’t turn out as he thought in the beginning, he was content. I think I can relate to that as I close out this year of Torah. I once received encouragement in an email from our Lena May in Surfside. She included a quote that I include here for its sheer appropriateness.
Not that I am saying this to call attention to any need of mine; since, as far as I am concerned, I have learned to be content regardless of circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in want, and I know what it is to have more than enough - in everything and in every way I have learned the secret of being full and being hungry, of having abundance and being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who gives me power. Philippians 4:11-13 (Complete Jewish Bible)2
Now, can you picture Moshe making that last climb to his retirement on Mt. Nebo and pretty much thinking the same thing? I think I can. The things I am dead sure of in the spiritual? Well, perhaps Philippians chapter four is a good start. I don’t know the trials and the tragedies that await me in this new year, but I know who with whom I face them, and He is the ultimate parent. After all, He sent the ultimate Son, didn’t He?
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
Gaylen’s Journal: 2009
Well we are closing out year number seven of past Torah Bites. I can count on my two hands, the number of times when Anne has not sent out from different parts of Canada and even here in Texas, the daily Torah study. We have both in seven years gone form the milk of the Word to some pretty healthy meat portions. I want to thank the Lord, for his leading in all this which started in the year of 1997, when I was looking at retirement from Dow Chemical and after about five years as interim at the Anchor, trying to know how to approach the spiritual gifts because it was really a controversial thing back then that I for some strange reason, I decided to contact the Jews For Jesus on the web and I asked them what the Messianic Jews believed in connection with the gifts, I was in a chat room, one of the few times I have ever been in one; so I asked. To my shock I received an answer that really took me back. "Oh we are split down the middle on that subject. My heart fell to my feet.
Then someone entered the chat room and asked me if I was interested in the Jewish Roots of Christianity? I had no real idea what was going on but I said, I guess and he returned with, well go get you a tape by Paul Wilbur as a start. That was like a alcoholic getting a drink, I was hooked! The man’s name was Steve and he was from England. We corresponded, for awhile and then one day he asked me where I ministered and I told him and I told him I had signed up to go to a Revival in Pensacola Florida to be held in a few months and low and behold, Steve said to me, I am going there too to the Pastors Conference. Well we did and it then began to expand to another friend of Steve’s that he corresponded with in connection with this new thing in my life in connection with the Jewish Roots of Christianity. Her residence was in would you believe it, Canada. I have often wondered why the Lord took me this route. As I look back now, there were many from this area and across the United States that went to the Brownsville Outpouring and came back with the idea that the source or way to get God’s presence was through Praise and worship. There were praise teams popping up all over the place, intercessors came from all over the county and much of the music got wilder and wilder (not all). But I met and sat and listened to a Jewish man by the name of Dick Reuben, teach on the Passover meal, the shofar, the garments of the High Priest in their relevance to the gospel.
I came home, and immediately lost most of my previous friends in the ministry and accused of teaching legalism. So I began the daily Torah Bites and it went good that is for a Babe In Christ. So when I got to Leviticus, I hit a wall and I asked Anne if she would lead us through the Torah study for the rest of the year. That was as we said seven years ago.
This year, a new year, I feel the Lord is moving in a new direction, than we have gone in the past. Same people just new horizons. So this being the last Torah Bite for this year, We in some ways will start all over again on the 17th day of October with Genesis 1:1
But I want to close out this day with the following. The blessings Moses spoke to these people on the eastern side of Jordan, are still relevant today. Yom Kippur is this Monday and is observed by a fast involving Isaiah 58.
Some of the things I want to look at and research are:
Gentile
GEN'TILE, n. [L. gentilis; from L. gens, nation, race; applied to pagans.]
In the scriptures, a pagan; a worshipper of false gods; any person not a Jew or a christian; a heathen. The Hebrews included in the term goim or nations, all the tribes of men who had not received the true faith,and were not circumcised. The christians translated goim by the L. gentes, and imitated the Jews in giving the name gentiles to all nations who were not Jews nor christians. In civil affairs, the denomination was given to all nations who were not Romans.
GEN'TILE, a. Pertaining to pagans or heathens.
Might want to take a look at that word before you tell someone you are a gentile Christian.
Shalom,
Gaylen
Pastor of the Anchor Church of Surfside Beach
Okay, Anne. Last day. Let's get going here.
I don't wanna.
Come on. You can do this. And the sooner you start, the better it will be.
No. Don't wanna do it.
You had it planned out what you were going to do today. What happened?
Don't know. Just don't wanna.
It's pretty bad when the seventy-year-old adult in me has to threaten a spanking to the little child. We share the same body and mind. What could I do? Well, now I'm going to do it. I'm sure it makes no sense to anyone else how I feel this way, but there you are. I went through the copies of past editions of Torah Bites and found the one from 2009. As I read, I see that one was a bit of a milestone for both me and Gaylen. We both waxed a bit sentimental, but it does help me to remember how 'young' we both were in the Torah Bites Project. In the fall, Gaylen occasionally commented that “The snow makes Anne a little squirrelly.” Lots of times, it wasn't even snowing yet, but I had to admit he was right. You will note that Gaylen refers to rebuilding the Anchor Church. That was because Hurricane Ike tore through southeast Texas on September 13, 2008. Among his many accomplishments, the new structure was indeed built above sea level. So, here we were in 2009.
We now draw to a close our last reading for this year of 2009 in Deuteronomy. When I think of the things that have passed since we embarked on Genesis last fall, it amazes me how the Lord could have brought this writer thus far. He provided layers of respite and the support of my spiritual parents, Len and Eva, and my spiritual family in Brazoria County, and the support of my nearest and dearest family here. I have been truly blessed. Interspersed between the worst moments of my whole life were some of the balm of Gilead and the sweet prayer support of those who allowed me to vent and carry on in those times when I fully expected to be insane by morning if I didn’t quit that job and find some other line of work other than staff nurse in a nursing home. I wonder if Moshe had the same frustration many times. I can imagine Moses uttering in abject frustration, "Enough already! I should be insane by morning if these stiff-necked thistle heads push me any farther!" And yet, time and time again, Moses came to the defense of those same stiff-necked thistle heads. He was ready to not only defend them but have his own name blotted out of the book of life for their sake.
31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Exodus 32:31-32.
Indeed, "Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses—whom the Lord singled out, face to face, for the various signs and portents that the Lord sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country, and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel." And never indeed, did the ones who penned these words that would span centuries and ages not see another like Moses. They died. But after came our precious Messiah, one of us. He was human, and yet the glorious and precious Son of God who became our ultimate high priest, who was willing to suffer and die on the cross.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16
Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land. Do you think that it was enough for Moses that He saw the land, even though he knew that he was not to actually live there after all his labors? Perhaps by then, after the heat of that day when he lost it and struck the rock and screamed at the people because they wanted water, he was well aware that he was way out of line. Perhaps, just perhaps, Moses realized fully that he’d been disrespectful and was ready to submit to the discipline of his Father? I’m guessing yes. For if a man like Moses was unwilling to take discipline, then he would be missing one of the prime qualities of a good teacher. A teacher must always bear in mind that they are a student also! A teacher who cannot be taught, who resists education of their own frame of reference and their own ways of looking at things, is of no use to God. And Moses was of immense use to God!
I’ve learned many lessons this past Torah year. I have a feeling that Moses could have been saying the same things as he climbed the mountain, knowing that it was his last climb before the perfect peace of death. I’m guessing that he might have been thinking that he’d learned many things in his years and that even though it didn’t turn out as he thought in the beginning, he was content. I think I can relate to that as I close out this year of Torah. I once received encouragement in an email from our Lena May in Surfside. She included a quote that I include here for its sheer appropriateness.
Not that I am saying this to call attention to any need of mine; since, as far as I am concerned, I have learned to be content regardless of circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in want, and I know what it is to have more than enough - in everything and in every way I have learned the secret of being full and being hungry, of having abundance and being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who gives me power. Philippians 4:11-13 (Complete Jewish Bible)2
Now, can you picture Moshe making that last climb to his retirement on Mt. Nebo and pretty much thinking the same thing? I think I can. The things I am dead sure of in the spiritual? Well, perhaps Philippians chapter four is a good start. I don’t know the trials and the tragedies that await me in this new year, but I know who with whom I face them, and He is the ultimate parent. After all, He sent the ultimate Son, didn’t He?
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15.
Gaylen’s Journal: 2009
Well we are closing out year number seven of past Torah Bites. I can count on my two hands, the number of times when Anne has not sent out from different parts of Canada and even here in Texas, the daily Torah study. We have both in seven years gone form the milk of the Word to some pretty healthy meat portions. I want to thank the Lord, for his leading in all this which started in the year of 1997, when I was looking at retirement from Dow Chemical and after about five years as interim at the Anchor, trying to know how to approach the spiritual gifts because it was really a controversial thing back then that I for some strange reason, I decided to contact the Jews For Jesus on the web and I asked them what the Messianic Jews believed in connection with the gifts, I was in a chat room, one of the few times I have ever been in one; so I asked. To my shock I received an answer that really took me back. "Oh we are split down the middle on that subject. My heart fell to my feet.
Then someone entered the chat room and asked me if I was interested in the Jewish Roots of Christianity? I had no real idea what was going on but I said, I guess and he returned with, well go get you a tape by Paul Wilbur as a start. That was like a alcoholic getting a drink, I was hooked! The man’s name was Steve and he was from England. We corresponded, for awhile and then one day he asked me where I ministered and I told him and I told him I had signed up to go to a Revival in Pensacola Florida to be held in a few months and low and behold, Steve said to me, I am going there too to the Pastors Conference. Well we did and it then began to expand to another friend of Steve’s that he corresponded with in connection with this new thing in my life in connection with the Jewish Roots of Christianity. Her residence was in would you believe it, Canada. I have often wondered why the Lord took me this route. As I look back now, there were many from this area and across the United States that went to the Brownsville Outpouring and came back with the idea that the source or way to get God’s presence was through Praise and worship. There were praise teams popping up all over the place, intercessors came from all over the county and much of the music got wilder and wilder (not all). But I met and sat and listened to a Jewish man by the name of Dick Reuben, teach on the Passover meal, the shofar, the garments of the High Priest in their relevance to the gospel.
I came home, and immediately lost most of my previous friends in the ministry and accused of teaching legalism. So I began the daily Torah Bites and it went good that is for a Babe In Christ. So when I got to Leviticus, I hit a wall and I asked Anne if she would lead us through the Torah study for the rest of the year. That was as we said seven years ago.
This year, a new year, I feel the Lord is moving in a new direction, than we have gone in the past. Same people just new horizons. So this being the last Torah Bite for this year, We in some ways will start all over again on the 17th day of October with Genesis 1:1
But I want to close out this day with the following. The blessings Moses spoke to these people on the eastern side of Jordan, are still relevant today. Yom Kippur is this Monday and is observed by a fast involving Isaiah 58.
Some of the things I want to look at and research are:
- Who are Jews and who are not?
- Who are the Sephardic Jews and where are they located today?
- Where did the word Gentile come from because there is no Hebrew word translated Gentile in the JPS version of the Tanakh..
- There is no such word in Young’s Literal Translation.
- The word Gentile does not appear in the Complete Jewish Bible
- The word Gentiles only appears once in the Old Testament of the Complete Jewish Bible and that is in the Book Micah and I believe is a mistake and should be nations.
- The word Gentiles however does appear in the New Testament 51 times in which the Complete Jewish Bible and is translated 50 times as Gentiles. It is translated from the word ethnos meaning nations. (Note: I firmly believe that someone or a group of some-ones inserted this word Gentile into the New Testament as a tool in their plan of replacing the Jewish people, with a nation that really and truly hates the Jews and claims to be Gentile. See below.)
- Build a Internet school
- Build a training Center on Hebraic Roots of the church.
- See that the building the Anchor Church met in is re-built; this time twelve feet above sea level.
Gentile
GEN'TILE, n. [L. gentilis; from L. gens, nation, race; applied to pagans.]
In the scriptures, a pagan; a worshipper of false gods; any person not a Jew or a christian; a heathen. The Hebrews included in the term goim or nations, all the tribes of men who had not received the true faith,and were not circumcised. The christians translated goim by the L. gentes, and imitated the Jews in giving the name gentiles to all nations who were not Jews nor christians. In civil affairs, the denomination was given to all nations who were not Romans.
GEN'TILE, a. Pertaining to pagans or heathens.
Might want to take a look at that word before you tell someone you are a gentile Christian.
Shalom,
Gaylen
Pastor of the Anchor Church of Surfside Beach
Occupy and Give Yah Glory!
1 NASB www.lockman.org for daily reading and KJV in commentary unless otherwise specified.
2 Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern (Jewish New Testament Publications, Maryland) 1998
2 Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern (Jewish New Testament Publications, Maryland) 1998
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