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Devarim
(Deuteronomy) nitzavim 29:9(10)*-30:20 |
Meaning
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Day Two
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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 29:16-29 (NASB)1
16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; 17 moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); 18 so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. 19 "It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, 'I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.' 20 "The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 "Then the LORD will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law. 22 "Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it, will say, 23 'All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.' 24 "All the nations will say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?' 25 "Then men will say, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 'They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. 27 'Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; 28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.' 29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; 15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day… Deuteronomy 29:14-15. Here we have what is the strongest “covenant language” between God and Israel. Those not standing that day would be the descendants of those who did stand (the remnant that we know of as Jews today), and it also takes in the spiritual descendants of Abraham. (Galatians 3:29) That would be us here today, sitting in front of our computer monitors, wherever we are. In all the days I spent in the organized denominational church setting, I never recall us speaking about the “covenant.” I’m thinking this morning about why that would be. From the perspective of the enemy, this might have been the strategy:
Can you see how, at every turn, the plan of God was challenged and rerouted? It is more important than ever in these troublesome days to get back to and integrate “the covenant” as closely as we’re able, considering that there is no temple and neither can the contemporary remnant of Israel practice a sacrificial system. We’re all on the same level now without that temple because Messiah became the sin offering.
As we look at the Torah, we see that the entire theme of the text today concerns those who deliberately turn from the God of Israel to any other small ‘g’ god of the rest of the nations. I found verse nineteen problematic.
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst… Deuteronomy 29:18-19.
When I looked at the “I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart to destroy the watered land with the dry.” as rendered by the NASB, I was doubly confused. And then checking in the American Standard Version, it said:
19 and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry. Deuteronomy 29:19. (ASV)
The moist with the dry? In the NASB text today, it was, “to destroy the watered land with the dry”. In the Jewish Study Bible, it commented that most likely those paired antonyms might indicate totality, but ‘the exact meaning' has been lost. Commentator Albert Barnes stated:
“To add drunkenness to thirst - The sense is probably: "Himself, drinking iniquity like water, Job 15:16, he corrupts and destroys others who are thirsting for it or prone to it."
One could agree with that interpretation. Adam Clarke submits this:
“To add drunkenness to thirst - A proverbial expression denoting the utmost indulgence in all sensual gratifications.”
John Gill offered this:
“to add drunkenness to thirst; as a thirsty man to quench his thirst drinks, and adds to that, or drinks yet more and more until he is drunken; so a man inclined to idolatry, that has a secret desire after it, thirsts after such stolen or forbidden waters, and drinks of them, adds thereunto, drinks again and again until he is drunk with the wine of fornication, or idolatry, as it is called Re 17:2; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan understand the words of adding sin to sin, particularly of adding sins of ignorance to pride, or to presumptuous ones. Wicked men, deceivers and deceived, always grow worse and worse, increasing to more ungodliness, and yet promise themselves peace and impunity, 1Th 5:3.”
Oh my! We could take this apart for days, couldn’t we? But we might best use our time to come to terms with this theme. A man might divert his allegiance and loyalty to another god (even secretly) other than Yah, and STILL walk in sin and rebellion, and STILL believe that he is walking in righteousness! And don’t we know folks like that even now? They might say something like, “I’m not a sinner—I’m a good person!” They might fall into the universalist lie that no matter what, everybody goes to heaven, no matter what kind of life they led. Will their end be any different than that which was outlined in verse twenty?
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. Deuteronomy 29:20.
Our God is a God of love, but He is also a God of righteousness. Would He be so righteous if He gave everybody a free pass? Add to that, if everybody got a free pass, then we would not need a Savior! But we know that mankind NEEDED a Savior!
- Get their focus OFF the covenant.
- Frame up the stronghold that Israel failed, so God saved “the church” instead.
- Move their focus away from the Old Testament by setting up the stronghold that the commandments are passé, and that God set up a system of Grace through Messiah only, no works allowed. The removal of all graphic reliefs of the Commandments from all public buildings, including courthouses, is not the end goal but a nice perk to keep their focus OFF the commandments—(What occurs in the “natural” reflects the “spiritual”).
- Convince all believers that the Old Testament (notice the removal of the word covenant?) is just a nice set of stories of God’s heroes for the Sunday School flannel-graph crowd and never urge new believers to study it systematically as they would the New Testament (Referring to the two major parts of Bible as Testaments, again, takes their minds off the aspect of the covenant relationship with God), because we simply don’t want them referring to these books as one continuous entity—cause as much division as possible—even between ‘old’ and ‘new’. Divide and conquer! Splinter the ONE church/ecclesia/movement that rose under Messiah into as many factions as possible, starting with the Jews, of which Messiah was one (making sure to wipe that out of their memories), being ostracized and dismissed as heretics. Then work on down through the centuries to split and divide on doctrines, personalities, and opinions. Divide them on virtually anything possible, even something as ridiculous as the notion that no pastor should ever wear a red tie in the pulpit. Keep on dividing and splitting these groups of believers until they are so “dumbed-down” and complacent that they will accept the notion that it is “grace, not works”. Then, having said that, they’ll continue to “work the works” they call “church programs” until they’re burned out mentally, physically, and emotionally. That goal being met, then they’ll have virtually no energy to try to work “out their salvation” spiritually, and the goal of taking the focus completely and entirely OFF the aspect of covenant has been met. Any souls trying to keep up with the “programs” that become so disillusioned that they quit and become prey for deception are bonuses for the enemy.
Can you see how, at every turn, the plan of God was challenged and rerouted? It is more important than ever in these troublesome days to get back to and integrate “the covenant” as closely as we’re able, considering that there is no temple and neither can the contemporary remnant of Israel practice a sacrificial system. We’re all on the same level now without that temple because Messiah became the sin offering.
As we look at the Torah, we see that the entire theme of the text today concerns those who deliberately turn from the God of Israel to any other small ‘g’ god of the rest of the nations. I found verse nineteen problematic.
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst… Deuteronomy 29:18-19.
When I looked at the “I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart to destroy the watered land with the dry.” as rendered by the NASB, I was doubly confused. And then checking in the American Standard Version, it said:
19 and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry. Deuteronomy 29:19. (ASV)
The moist with the dry? In the NASB text today, it was, “to destroy the watered land with the dry”. In the Jewish Study Bible, it commented that most likely those paired antonyms might indicate totality, but ‘the exact meaning' has been lost. Commentator Albert Barnes stated:
“To add drunkenness to thirst - The sense is probably: "Himself, drinking iniquity like water, Job 15:16, he corrupts and destroys others who are thirsting for it or prone to it."
One could agree with that interpretation. Adam Clarke submits this:
“To add drunkenness to thirst - A proverbial expression denoting the utmost indulgence in all sensual gratifications.”
John Gill offered this:
“to add drunkenness to thirst; as a thirsty man to quench his thirst drinks, and adds to that, or drinks yet more and more until he is drunken; so a man inclined to idolatry, that has a secret desire after it, thirsts after such stolen or forbidden waters, and drinks of them, adds thereunto, drinks again and again until he is drunk with the wine of fornication, or idolatry, as it is called Re 17:2; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan understand the words of adding sin to sin, particularly of adding sins of ignorance to pride, or to presumptuous ones. Wicked men, deceivers and deceived, always grow worse and worse, increasing to more ungodliness, and yet promise themselves peace and impunity, 1Th 5:3.”
Oh my! We could take this apart for days, couldn’t we? But we might best use our time to come to terms with this theme. A man might divert his allegiance and loyalty to another god (even secretly) other than Yah, and STILL walk in sin and rebellion, and STILL believe that he is walking in righteousness! And don’t we know folks like that even now? They might say something like, “I’m not a sinner—I’m a good person!” They might fall into the universalist lie that no matter what, everybody goes to heaven, no matter what kind of life they led. Will their end be any different than that which was outlined in verse twenty?
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. Deuteronomy 29:20.
Our God is a God of love, but He is also a God of righteousness. Would He be so righteous if He gave everybody a free pass? Add to that, if everybody got a free pass, then we would not need a Savior! But we know that mankind NEEDED a Savior!
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29.
1 Scripture reading from the NASB www.lockman.org and KJV unless otherwise stated.
*The Torah and Haftara chapter/verse numbering taken from the Hebrew Bible (Christian-published chapter/verse numbering indicated within parenthesis)
*The Torah and Haftara chapter/verse numbering taken from the Hebrew Bible (Christian-published chapter/verse numbering indicated within parenthesis)
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