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Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is Ekev or “as a result” and covers Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 12 through chapter 11, verse 25. The element that stood out most to me in this week’s reading is the remarkable consistency of the L-RD, both here through Moses and later, through the words of Messiah Yeshua. Contrary to what is popularly believed, the messages of Moses and Messiah Yeshua have far more in common than most people believe.
Let me get specific about what I mean here. In this week’s reading, Moses is still addressing the people of Israel, and he is talking to them about the prospect of entering the Promised Land. His concern is that they should not allow this gift the L-RD is about to give them to cause them to grow arrogant and consider themselves better than they are. We read this in:
Deuteronomy 8:11-18
Be careful that you do not forget the L-RD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the L-RD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the L-RD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
This lays out the problem and the primary concern Moses has for the children of Israel as they are about to enter the land. Although they are about to face enemies who are bigger physically and greater in number than they are, notice that not for a moment does Moses doubt their victory; he trusts in the L-RD completely to make them victorious and so their success is not a concern for him.
Instead, he worries that once they have succeeded and begin to enjoy the land and forget all they endured to reach that victory, they will forget to honor the L-RD who did all the work for them, and their hearts will turn to other gods.
If nothing else, this shows that even at this late date, Moses was inspired by the L-RD in the words he was speaking. In the flesh, the battle to come would seem to be a bigger concern; in the flesh, the enemy would seem to be the shadows cast by their mighty opponents and not a slothfulness in the wake of victory that would lead them down the path to idol worship; in the flesh, even Moses’ own death would seem to be a bigger concern. But Moses was not operating in the flesh; he was seeing these Israelites through the eyes of the L-RD and, informed by his own experiences leading them for so long, familiar with their actual vulnerabilities, inspired by the Ruach haKodesh, the Holy Spirit, Moses recognizes the real weak point in these people. The chink in their armor is not in the physical battles ahead that the L-RD has already promised victories over, but in the spiritual battle to stay faithful in the wake of victory, in the temptation of comfort and success.
This point is underlined again as we read on in:
Deuteronomy 9:4-5
After the L-RD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The L-RD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the L-RD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the L-RD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Don’t let that slip by you. Israel is told very clearly here, it is not because of their righteousness that the L-RD is driving out their enemies from the land, but because of the wickedness of the people dwelling there. Had the people living in the land of Israel honored God, lived according to His commands and instructions, and followed him with their whole hearts, perhaps they could have dwelled in the Promised Land with the children of Israel. Yet they had not done this.
But the wickedness of the people dwelling in the land are not the primary focus of our discussion. Our focus is on the fact that the L-RD here tells Israel it is not because of their righteousness that the L-RD is driving out their enemies. Is the L-RD being especially condemning of the people of Israel here? No. He is being consistent. The L-RD is driving out those currently in the land because of their wickedness and He is telling the Israelites that if they, too, become wicked, they also will be driven from the land. That’s consistency.
They may be the chosen people, but as the L-RD warns them over and over again, there is to be one law for all the people; there is not to be a double-standard, where there is one set of laws for the Israelites and another for the servants and strangers living among them. Because they were strangers and servants in Egypt, the L-RD does not want them to do to others what was done to them; He is calling them to a higher standard, so that they might be an example to the nations and a testimony to who the L-RD is to all people.
However, we must be cautious in how we interpret passages like this. There is a great temptation these days, and many give in to it, to claim that through passages like this week’s reading, the God of the Torah is a mean, nasty, vengeful god who is not compatible with how God reveals Himself through the Messiah Yeshua. But is there any validity to this claim? Let’s compare this passage to the words of Messiah Yeshua.
We read this in:
John 15:1-2, 5-6
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Did you notice what is being said here? Yeshua is using the imagery of an olive tree and is saying that branches that do not bear fruit, whether natural or grafted in, are cut off, thrown away, wither, tossed into the fire and burned. Is there a significant difference between this message, and what the L-RD says through Moses to the people who are entering the Promised Land?
No. It is the same message of consistency, spoken by the same God. There can be no double standards in the kingdom of the L-RD. Those who follow God and obey his teachings are blessed; those who rebel and persist in their sin shall be cast out. This image of the kingdom of God as a plant is also reflected in this passage from the book of:
Romans 11:16b-22
If the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
Does this sound like a different God to you, or a remarkably consistent God? I know it sounds like the same God to me. But that’s often not what is taught. Too often, what is taught is that the God of the Torah is all judgment and rules and punishment, while the God of the New Covenant writings is a God of peace and love and universal acceptance.
So we have seen that Yeshua spoke as much about the consequences of disobedience as did Moses. But was the God of Moses lacking in love as some would charge? That is a hard argument to make in light of what we read in this week’s parashah in:
Deuteronomy 7:12-15a
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the L-RD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land–your grain, new wine and oil–the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The L-RD will keep you free from every disease.
So the idea that the L-RD in the Tenakh is somehow lacking in love simply finds little support when one actually reads the Tenakh. There is as much of the loving and graceful side of God in the Tenakh as is found in the New Covenant writings, and there is as much judgment and condemnation of sin in the New Covenant writings as is found in the Tenakh. Those who teach otherwise haven’t been reading closely enough.
You see, there’s nothing wrong with God; there’s something wrong with our understanding of Him. There’s nothing inconsistent about God; there’s something inconsistent in our willingness to obey Him fully. When we experience grace initially, we understand the cost, but over time, we can slip into the arrogance that says, “It doesn’t matter what we do. We are forgiven no matter what.” But that’s not the truth. That’s not God’s message. Obedience must follow trust. Or as James would say, faith without deeds is dead.
The truth for the Israelites in this week’s passage is that it is not for the sake of their own righteousness that the L-RD cast their enemies out of the Promised Land, but because of their own wickedness; the truth is that if the Israelites fell into wickedness, the L-RD promises to cast them from the land in the same way.
As believers in Messiah Yeshua, these passages should be a warning to us to avoid that sort of prideful arrogance; we are in Messiah, we are part of the promise, only if we bear fruit. Yes, we have an inheritance in Yeshua, but we also must never forget that it is the L-RD who brought us here, who grafted us in, and if we do not bear fruit, we also can be cut off. As Yeshua Himself said, after all, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” So let’s be fruitful.
Shabbat Shalom.
