This is the final part of my three-part posting of my Torah commentary on Va Yelekh. Or listen to it! Those who are looking for unique baby gifts can click that link, but those who want the final part of this message can read on.
Thanks for your interest, please leave comments if you wish, and also, I’ll soon be revealing what my next Torah portion will be, so stay tuned!
Let’s look at what Paul says about this:
Romans 3:9 (CJB)
“So are we Jews better off? Not entirely; for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are controlled by sin.”
John agrees.
1 John 1:8 (CJB)
“If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Even Yeshua himself does not exempt anyone and makes clear that the source of this is ourselves … sin in us.
Mark 7:20-23 (CJB)
“It is what comes out of a person,” he [Yeshua] went on, “that makes him unclean. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness… All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”
So, coming back to Moshe at the end of his life, I now realize that there is no cruelty in what Adonai is telling Moshe here. He is merely confirming something Moshe already knows: The people will go astray. It’s nothing new. As it is written in:
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (CJB)
“What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
Near the end of the chapter, Moshe admits himself that he understands this. As it is written:
Deuteronomy 31:27 (CJB)
“For I know how rebellious and stiffnecked you are! Here, even while I am still alive with you today, you have rebelled against ADONAI; so how much more will you do so after my death?”
Many people regard the end of Moshe’s life as one marked by tragedy and disappointment. Not me. Moshe had faults and sin, but his life was one Adonai used to bring us the Torah. The Torah, in turn, exposed our need for Messiah Yeshua. As humble a man as Moshe was, as great as the L-RD’s accomplishments through him were, he was not a Messiah himself.
I think the people needed to cross over into the Promised Land without Moshe as a reminder that it was Adonai, not Moshe, who had brought them there. Moshe’s mortality needed to be made clear, so that God could be God.
Moshe, however, served the same purpose all true prophets of the L-RD serve: he pointed us toward our need for Adonai, and for the atoning sacrifice of Adonai’s messiah, Yeshua. At the end of his life, Moshe had to let go and realize the results were not in his hands: the rest is between us and the L-RD.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: Moshe, unique baby gifts, Va Yelekh