Tag: eye

Re’eh (See or Behold) D’Varim (Deut.) 11:26-16:17

Torah Portion: Re’eh (See or Behold) D’Varim (Deut.) 11:26-16:17
Haftorah Reading: Isaiah 54:11-55:5
Messianic Scripture  I Cor. 5:9-13; I John 4:1-6
 
Today we look at our Torah portion and find it covering many different topics. It covers the food laws and the three holidays when Israel is to congregate in Jerusalem. We also find the setting up of a central place of worship once the people cross over the Jordan and conquer the land. All these topics point to one central fact, G-d’s people were to be different from those around them. The people were being called to see with spiritual eyes the benefits of being and living as the people of G-d. They were being challenged to see with spiritual eyes the world around them. We have that same challenge today.

Ekev (Following) D’Varim (Deut.) 7:12-11:25

Torah Portion Ekev (Following) D’Varim (Deut.) 7:12-11:25

Haftorah Reading: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 49:14-51:3

Tonight I want us to look at a couple of places in this Torah portion to find what we can hear that will help us in our daily walk with the Father. First, I want to draw your attention to my second question of the week. What is the prominent verb we read over and over in the Book of Devarim/Deut.? In verse 9:1 we hear the Shema in Hebrew. I believe we have talked of this word before but I want us to go over it in some depth today. This word appears over 90 times in this book of the Bible. It can be seen as the key to understanding what Moshe is communicating to the people in his last speech before his death. First, I want us to have a clear understanding of the word Shema. In Hebrew it is used to mean “to hear, to listen, to pay attention, to understand to internalize or to respond.” It is the closest word in biblical Hebrew to express the term, “to obey.” Sometimes for us, as part of the western culture, hearing is not something that we do naturally on a deep level. The sense we us most often is seeing. This is a hold over from the Greek influence in our lives. We see this in our language, I see, foresight, hindsight, insight, vision and phrases such as “it appears.” These are only a few of the ways sight dominates our thoughts and language. By contrast Hebrew the world of Moshe and Yeshua was immersed in hearing, really hearing. It was a culture of the ear more than the eye. We read this word “Shema” or one of its derivatives used to express proof of a certain point like, come and hear, hear from this, he could not hear it.