1.Read D’Varim/Deut. 4:35. What is this verse saying – what were they shown? What connection can we see with this passage and John 20:30-31 in the Messianic Scriptures.
D’Varim 4:35 in English says, “To you it was shown, that you might know that the L-rd Himself is G-d there is none other besides Him.”
In Hebrew D’Varim 4:35 says, “Atah heriti lada’at ki YHVH who ha’elohim ain od melvado.” This sentence begins with the personal pronoun “you.” It is singular so Moshe was speaking to each person individually. The next word comes from the Hebrew word for “see.” Here it means, “Caused to see or you have been shown, that you might know without a doubt that HaShem, He is G-d.” Moshe is saying to the people, G-d showed you all these things (verses 33-34) so that you would know that He alone is G-d. There is no other.
All of the Jewish people before Moshe knew from first-hand knowledge that G-d was their all and that there was no other G-d. When we experience G-d through a personal revelation we know it is true, not just something someone else experienced and told us about. We know without a doubt because it happened to us. To you it was shown that you might know that the L-rd is G-d, there is no other.
Now how might this shed light on the Messianic writings found in John 20:30-31? John says, “Moreover, Yeshua worked many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. These, however, have been written in order that you may believe that Yeshua is the Anointed One, the Son of G-d, and that believing, you may have life through His name.”
If we have had a personal revelation of who the Messiah is we should be rock solid in our faith in Him. The question arises, do we really know who Yeshua is? What change has this revelation made in our lives? Did it change us and is it continuing to change us as we move through our life? Or was it just something we heard about that someone else experienced that sounded good. Has it changed how we live, what we do, how we see other people?
Sadly, there are some who hear the word and maybe even have an experience with Yeshua but they don’t go further than that experience. They are not discipled to go deeper with Him. So, after some time they begin to flounder and get discouraged. They forget the experience; they forget what they saw and what they heard.
Here in our reading in the Torah portion and in the Messianic writings we see that life is more than just getting by with the least effort we can muster. G-d expects what we have seen and what we have heard, our experience with Him, to fundamentally change us.
2.D’Varim 5:3 reads, “The L-rd did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us: those who are here today, all of us alive.” Moshe went over the details of what happened in Shemot 19:16-19 when G-d came down on the mountain in fire and smoke and how the people trembled. So why would he make this statement in verse 5:3? Surely some of the people to whom he was speaking had been at Sinai, or had heard of what G-d did there from their parents. So why now, say that G-d had not cut this covenant with their fathers?
I think this verse has a strong significance to each of us today as believers. I think Moshe was saying to the people present, at the bank of the Jordan, that G-d speaks to each one of us in our own generation. Sinai was not just a historical happening but it is an ongoing event. It is new in each generation. Later, in D’Varim 29:13-14 we read exactly that, “I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the L-rd our G-d and with those who are not with us here today.” Every year when Passover comes around a big part of the celebration is when we ask the question, “What does this day mean to you?” This is an effective way of assuring that the children and adults remember they are a part of the covenant G-d made those years long ago. The Torah was not given only to those at the mountain but to those who will be alive in each generation to come. The covenant was never meant to be seen as a historical event of the past.
Yeshua made the same point about His resurrection. In Matthew 22:31-32, “As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by G-d? I am the G-d of Avraham, and the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob, He is not G-d of the dead, but of the living.” Later, in Luke 22:20 he made the same point as Moshe in our reading today. G-d’s covenant is not an event, a claim or a relationship of the past. It is of the present, our present. We as G-d’s people should see ourselves as standing at the cross, being at the empty grave as if it were happening today. Yeshua’s death and resurrection was not only a historical event but an ongoing, life giving event. So often we celebrate the L-rd’s supper as another biblical event or as something that has little relevance to our world today. Yes, it happened but we fail to appreciate what it really means to be a part of this breathing living covenant. This covenant has certain demands on our lives today. These same demands will be relevant tomorrow, next year and until Yeshua returns. Psalms 98:9 says, “He is coming to judge the earth: He will judge the world with righteousness and the people with equity.” Live each day as if you were standing in Jerusalem at the crucifixion.
3.In Deut/D’Varim 3:23-28 Moshe was pleading with G-d to let him cross over the Jordan to see, walk in it and feel that Promised Land. What was G-d’s response? He told him to not ask again. Think on these verses. Look at all Moshe did in his life serving G-d. Is this the answer you might have expected? What does this tell us about G-d and our relationship with Him?
Moses spoke face to face with G-d, He prayed for the people on many occasions, and sometimes rescued them from G-d’s wrath. He spent 40 years of his life rescuing the people and leading them through the desert.
G-d’s answer might seem hard to all of us. I would imagine we would have thought G-d would allow him to cross over because of all Moshe had done through the years. But G-d is not a respecter of persons.
If G-d gave us everything we asked for in prayer, it would be the same as giving us the power of being G-d. Obviously G-d has the right to say no to our prayers. James says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3).
Even when we ask with the right motives, G-d still might have to say no. When we pray, we need to trust in G-d’s wisdom and kindness, knowing that He has our best interests in mind. Though we don’t always get an affirmative answer, we can be confident that our prayers are heard.
Our acts of sin and rebellion, no matter how small, have consequences. I am sure G-d forgave Moshe but there was still a price to pay. Our actions, our sins have an effect on our lives. This should be a reminder to us that we, as His people, are expected to live our lives differently than when we were ignorant of Him. Life is not a game. There are consequences to our actions. Our faith in the Messiah saves us for sure but it is not a get out of jail card. I fear many times we feel that the whole point of salvation is to get to heaven when we die. It is so much more than that. It should radically change us and sin should never be looked at as anything goes as long as it doesn’t keep me from going to heaven. We need to always remember the price that was paid for our salvation.
Moshe had to bear the consequences of his sin. That did not mean that G-d did not love him. In fact, it was because He loved him so much that he disciplined him. He does the same for us as his children.
4. When we commit ourself to a person, idea or thing we are committing an act of love. In D’Varim 6:4, the Shema, G-d is asking for a commitment of love. “You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might”. How did the children of Israel fulfill this commandment? How do we fulfill it in our own lives?
Many people in the West today are commitment-averse, reluctant to bind themselves unconditionally and open-endedly to something or someone. The market mindset that predominates today encourages us to try this, sample that, experiment and keep our options open for the latest version or the better deal. Pledges of loyalty are few and far between.
Nowadays freedom is usually understood as freedom-from, meaning the absence of restraint. We don’t like to be tied down. Many refrain from the commitment of marriage vows. They prefer to keep their options open. But the real freedom worth having, is freedom-to, meaning the ability to do something that’s difficult and requires effort.
Freedom in this sense does not mean the absence of restraint, but rather, choosing the right restraint. That involves commitment, which involves a choice to forego certain choices.
The book of D’Varim is a theological statement of laws and commandments. And it is built around an act of mutual commitment, by G-d to a people and by the people to G-d. The commitment itself is an act of love. At the heart of it is the Shema, “You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” Deut 6:4.
The Torah is the foundational narrative of the marriage between G-d and an often obstinate people. It is a story of love. Again and again we hear of love, in both directions, from the Israelites to G-d and from G-d to the Israelites. It is the latter that are particularly striking. Here are some examples:
The L-rd did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the L-rd loved you … Deut 7:7-8
To the L-rd your G-d belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the L-rd set His affection on your ancestors and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Deut 10:14-15
The L-rd your G-d would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the L-rd your G-d loves you. Deut. 23:5
The real question is how this love is connected to the legal type rules that make up much of Devarim. On the one hand we have this passionate declaration of love by G-d for a people; on the other we have a detailed code of law covering most aspects of life for individuals and the nation as a whole once they entered the land. Law and love are not two things that go obviously together. What has the one to do with the other?
Commitment is falling in love with something and then building a structure of behavior around it to sustain that love over time. The law is that structure of behavior. Love is a passion, an emotion, a heightened state, a peak experience. But an emotional state cannot be guaranteed forever. G-d has given us his Word as a pathway to show our love and devotion to Him.
Which is why we need laws, rituals, habits and deeds. Rituals are the framework that keeps love alive. They sustained the love between G-d and His people.
Could that love between G-d and man have remained strong through the years without the rituals that fill our days with reminders of G-d’s presence? I think not. Whenever we abandon the study of G-d’s word and our commitment to live by His commandments eventually that love will grow cold and fade.