TorahBytes: Whenever (Nizzavim)

And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. (Devarim /  Deuteronomy 30:1-3; ESV)

One of the most wonderful things about God, the true God, as revealed in the Bible, is that he is always willing to receive those who humbly and sincerely turn to him. In the Hebrew Bible there were times when it appeared that the people had gotten to the point of no return as if they no longer had any hope of restoration. But even some of the vilest of characters found mercy with God when they repented.

As Moses was preparing to die, the prospects of success for the people of Israel looked dim. God knew that Israel's heart was not truly for him and that they would neglect his ways in the years ahead. Yet, as quoted above, he also foresaw a time when Israel would take his Word to heart and turn back to him. Then he would them restore them to himself and to the Land.

How this would all work out is not spelled out here. What is clear is that Israel's waywardness would not result in God's renouncing his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29; ESV). In that same passage, he agrees with Torah by asserting that Israel's eventual complete restoration before God is assured (see Romans 11:26, 27).

While we don't know exactly how and when this will occur, we do know that the only way for Israel to be restored to God is through the Messiah. Israel would discover through its history its inability to live up to God's standards due to the curse inherited from our first parents in the Garden of Eden - an inability shared by all people - but highlighted by the people of Israel through the receiving of the Torah. While the Torah reveals so much of what is good and holy, including providing an accurate understanding of the person and nature of God, it indicts those who seek to live by its standards, thus impressing upon its disciples their need of a deliverer. The message of the New Covenant Scriptures (New Testament) is that everything Israel needed and longed for in its difficult history is fulfilled in Yeshua of Nazareth.

Some postulate that certain circumstances need to be in place in order for Israel to be restored to God. Yet God's word through Moses sounds like this could happen whenever. Whenever Israel takes to heart all they have gone through and turns to the Lord, the Lord will restore them. Paul again agrees. Speaking of the Jewish people, he says, "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed" (2 Corinthians 3:16; ESV).

All over the world this is happening. Jewish and non-Jewish people alike are experiencing restoration with God upon turning to him in response to the good news of the coming of the Messiah. Let's not think that anyone, Jew or Gentile, is beyond God's reach today. The time of salvation is whenever.

TorahBytes: Stop and Listen (Ki Tavo)

Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the Lord your God." (Devarim /Deuteronomy 27:9; ESV)

One of the most basic principles of biblical spirituality is that instead of living life in such a way as to get right with God, we are called to live life in response to being right with God. The whole Bible, beginning with the Torah, the five books of Moses, clearly demonstrates that no one can ever achieve acceptance with God based on the quality of their life. Far from it! Anyone who is honest with themselves is keenly aware that our human frailty and failures demonstrate our lack of moral excellence and personal faithfulness to God or to anyone else for that matter.

The Bible pictures our spiritual state like that of Israel in oppressive bondage in Egypt. Unable to set themselves free, God sent Moses to rescue them - not that Moses was personally able to help them, but rather God used him to display his power through spectacular signs and wonders. By freeing Israel from slavery, God made them to be his very own people. It was as his people they were called to live godly lives.

Yet such is our nature that we are slow to understand the depths of relationship God has established. So Moses says, "Be quiet and listen: today you have become the people of God." Not, "if you do the following, you will become the people of God." It's "you are the people of God, so do the following."

God knew the people would continue to fail spiritually and morally, that's why he provided the sacrificial system, while also preparing the nation for the coming of the Messiah. God has always provided whatever has been necessary to not only establish right relationship with him, but also maintain it. Both of those must be done in the way God intended. True Torah spirituality demands personal humility and genuine dependence upon God, all the while accepting that right relationship with him can only be made real through his provision of forgiveness and acceptance, which at one time was through the sacrificial system; then eventually through the sacrifice of the Messiah (see Isaiah 53).

As in Moses' day, we who have been rescued by God through Yeshua the Messiah need to realize that we have become God's people because of what he has done for us. We cannot earn God's acceptance; we can only receive it by relying on Yeshua.

If that is the case then why do so many people struggle over their sense of belonging to God? It is possible that they are not really relying on Yeshua, but are only pretending. On the other hand, there does seem to be those who have legitimate faith in him, yet wonder if they are really God's child. It is pretty clear to me that the biggest reason for insecurity with regard to our relationship to God is that we are not listening to what he is saying to us. We focus on voices that contradict, not reinforce God's word.

It's time to heed Moses' words: "Be quiet and hear; this day you have become the people of the Lord your God."

TorahBytes: God's Determined Love (Ki Teze)

"For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord, your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7, 8; ESV)

Whatever I heard about God growing up, I don't remember hearing about the kind of intensity expressed in this week's Haftarah. Desertion, compassion, anger, love - sounds more like a soap opera than religion. I was told we were the chosen people, but doesn't that have to do with centuries of persecution and rejection? Isaiah's words suggest that there is more to it than that.

This passage is one of several that pictures Israel's relationship to God as a marriage - a difficult marriage. Israel is depicted as a troubled and oft time wayward wife, longing after other lovers who never satisfy. God hasn't taken very well to being jilted by his beloved and has responded in all sorts of ways, driven by a holy jealousy.

The ambivalence towards God experienced by many Jewish people today is the result of this difficult-to-understand relationship. For some, this great God of power has been reduced to cold religious rituals, for others he is a myth. Some are so angry at him, they deny his existence. Others are committed to not being sure.

Isaiah tells us, however, that something else is going on. The sense of being abandoned by God is real, for he has hidden his face from us. He has been angry with us. But what has been difficult to comprehend is that the distance we have experienced is motivated by his deep desire for us to be fully reconciled with him.

No other nation on earth possesses a history of God's intense love like this. He so yearns for an intimacy with Israel he will spare nothing to see it fully established forever. Isaiah tells us in another passage that God himself has provided all that is necessary to restore us to right relationship with him. The interesting thing about this passage is that you may have never heard about it.

The verse I read at the beginning is part of this week's Haftarah. The Haftarah is a supplementary portion of Scripture taken from the Hebrew prophets that is read following the weekly Torah (Books of Moses) portion on Shabbat (English: the Sabbath). The Haftarah readings are the same each year and were chosen long ago based on some level of commonality with its respective Torah portion. Last week, as is done every year around this time, the Haftarah was Isaiah 51:12 - 52:12. This week it's Isaiah 54:1-10, in effect skipping over Isaiah 52:13-53:12. I am not suggesting that this passage is skipped over intentionally; it's just regrettable.

Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 reads like a play-by-play of what God has done to restore relationship with us by having the Messiah take on himself the consequences of our waywardness and making us right with God as a result. If you have never read this passage before, I encourage you to do so.

Thankfully, God's love for Israel is not for Israel alone. God's yearning after the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob demonstrates to the rest of the world its own waywardness and God's provision of restoration of all who put their trust in him through the Messiah. But that God's love is for all should in no way distract us from understanding that his first concern is for Israel.

TorahBytes: A Prophet Like Moses (Shofetim)

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers - it is to him you shall listen (Devarim / Deuteronomy18:15; ESV)

Moses has a most honored place in the history of Israel, and by all rights he should! He was chosen by God to lead our people out of oppressive bondage in Egypt. He failed miserably at first when his care and compassion for his people resulted in the murder of an Egyptian and his running away into the wilderness as a result. By the time God called him as his appointed deliverer, any ambition to lead that he may have had was gone to the point of his resisting God. Yet, in the end, God prevailed. It is hard to believe that the same man who said "No" to God at the burning bush, turned out to be the able leader he was. Obviously God knew he could count on Moses.

The Torah calls Moses the most humble man in the world (see Bemidbar / Numbers 12:3). His humility is evident through the way he faithfully delivered God's Word to Egyptians and Israelites alike. Moreover, every time he encountered a difficulty, of which there were many, he turned to God for help.

One cannot overstate Moses' valuable legacy. His five books are foundational to the entire Bible. The Hebrew Bible and the New Covenant writings cannot be properly understood without Moses' words.

While Moses is one of a kind, he himself makes it clear that his is not the only or final word. As we read at the start, God would send others like him to whom the people were to listen. While caution was called for with regard to who was to be regarded as a true prophet, Moses cleared the way for them.

There appears to be two ways to understand this passage. The first is that it is speaking of the many prophets who were to come. These men and women of God would remind the people of God's ways, warning them of the consequences of disobedience and encouraging them to stay faithful to him. At times they would speak of near or distant future events. The Hebrew Bible records the words of many of these.

The second way this passage was understood was that it looked forward to a particular great Prophet to come - who would be the culmination of Israel's prophetic heritage and would have a place similar to Moses in the life of the people.

The New Covenant writings state that the great Prophet to come was the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth (see Acts 3:22, 23). Yeshua's fulfillment of this special role is enacted through such things as his Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5-7), where he provides definitive interpretations of Moses' words. When Moses and Elijah appeared alongside Yeshua on the mountain, God confirmed this role by echoing the words "Listen to him" taken from our portion (See Matthew 17:1-8).

Lost from most expressions of Judaism today is the prophetic anticipation of Moses. God never intended for Moses to be a religious relic to which our religion does nothing but look back. Rather, through him we are meant to discover the great unfolding of God's plan, living with eager expectation of all he was yet to reveal through the prophets and the Great Prophet, the Messiah.

TorahBytes: Situational Absolutes (Re'eh)

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. (Devarim / Deuteronomy 12:8, 9; ESV)

People who believe in absolutes tend to resist the concept of situational ethics. Situational ethics is a concept whereby the basis of ethics is determined by their context. Therefore what is determined to be right in one situation might be wrong in another. Those who maintain that truth is absolute claim that right is right and wrong is wrong regardless of the situation.

An extreme absolutism with no regard to context is nonsense and harmful, however. In practice even the most ardent adherent of absolute truth must accept that certain things are right in certain situations and wrong in others. For example "cutting someone with a knife" is right and good when the context is surgery and wrong if the context is robbery. I expect that even most extreme moralists would agree that nakedness is appropriate in some situations and not in others. Therefore, however one determines what constitutes absolute truth, the situations of life we find ourselves in influences those truths.

This is not to say that absolutes do not exist. The existence of absolutes in the universe is self-evident. No sane person lives as if there are no set principles in life. Just as there are set physical principles in the universe, so there are moral laws that work in every culture, every place, and every time period. Murder, stealing, and adultery are understood as wrong, while love, faithfulness, and honesty are valued as good by every decent society in history.

According to the Bible the greatest absolute is God himself. He is self-existing, self-defining, and unchanging. And because it is he who establishes right and wrong, we can embrace a concept of absolutes and resist any attempt to manipulate his Word.

Yet God's specific directives for people are not the same for everyone in every place at every time. We see that in this week's Torah portion as God prepares the people of Israel to enter the Promised Land. Many of his regulations given to Moses were specific to the Land of Israel and were not relevant during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness or when they lived in Egypt. But once they possessed the Land, there were all sorts of new things they were obliged to do. Even though there were aspects of right and wrong that applied to them all along, other aspects were different.

Just as Israel went through a major transition when they entered the Promised Land, so they did again upon the establishment of the New Covenant. Not because God himself changes or his truth is relative, but rather due to the coming of the Messiah the new situation was radically different from what was before. The removal of the Temple and the sacrificial system made the rules of the Levitical priesthood obsolete. The forgiveness of sins and the inclusion of believers from all nations necessitated new ways of living never before experienced between peoples and between people and God.

The absolute nature of God's truth requires us to take his Word seriously and obey him regardless of our personal preferences. The existence of absolutes does not imply a cold, arbitrary application of ancient life principles into each and every life situation. Rather, we need to carefully discern God's will for the various situations in which we find ourselves.

TorahBytes: Those Who Can, Teach (Ekev)

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. (Isaiah 50:4; ESV)

Have you ever heard the adage, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach"? The idea behind this saying is that the reason why teachers teach is because they have no legitimate practical skills, leaving teaching as their only life option. This also implies that when it comes right down to it, teachers don't really know what they are talking about, since they can't really do anything truly worthwhile.

My guess is that most people disagree with this sentiment, at least superficially. Yet, I wonder how much we value teachers. Do we recognize teaching as productive in the same way we do other jobs or activities? Or do we think of teachers as people who, if they had the chance, would most certainly do something else? It's similar to coaching in sports. Wouldn't they be competing instead of coaching if they could?

The legitimacy of the teaching role has to do with the way God designed the human community. Whether it is parents, guardians, school teachers, religious teachers, trainers, or coaches, we have a need to learn from others. We need the information, training, and correction that only people gifted in teaching can give. After all, God himself is the Master Teacher and we his students. He has chosen to use human instruments to instruct us in life.

Now, just because someone is in the role of teacher doesn't make them a good teacher. There may be those who after suffering various difficulties in certain activities find themselves being teachers as a last resort. This is regrettable, because it takes a particular type of skill set to be a true teacher. Actually, a good teacher is someone who not only possesses real teaching ability, but is also experienced in the things they teach. While being an expert in something doesn't make someone a teacher, the best teachers are usually gifted teachers who are experts in something.

One reason why we might have difficulty in fully appreciating teachers is that they are more like a bridge than a destination. No matter how impressive a bridge might be, we tend to value destinations more than the bridges that helped get us there. Yet without well-designed bridges we would not be able to reach our desired destination. So too teachers help us get to where we need to go when we otherwise would not be able to get there. What then is more valuable, the destination or the bridge that helps get us there? The answer is both in their own way. So let's not devalue teachers. We would be stuck without them.

TorahBytes: When To Stop Praying (Va-Ethannan)

And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, "O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon." But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, "Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again." (Deuteronomy 3:23-26; ESV)

Prayer is amazing! On one hand it is straightforward in that it is simply talking to God. On the other hand, there are aspects of prayer that are not that straightforward. Not that it need be too complicated; it's that some people turn it into some sort of formula that they guarantee will work as expected as long as you follow the directions. Others make prayer a spiritual exercise designed to nurture our souls, with no real communication aspect, which is really the only aspect of prayer to which the Bible refers.

The complexity of prayer has nothing to do with its mechanics, it's that it is a truly relational activity and as a relational activity, it is not predictable. God as God is both free and able to respond to prayer however he wishes. While he is kind and compassionate, he will not be manipulated by anyone. Whatever he does, he does what is in his best interests. It's not that he is selfish; it's that since he is perfectly good, his best interests are best for everyone - something many are slow to accept. Also, because he is God, he is able to deal with everyone perfectly at the same time. As finite humans, we cannot comprehend how God could legitimately interact with billions of people simultaneously while ensuring his righteous aims will be met. But he is God, and he is good at what he does.

Our hesitancy to accept how relational prayer really is can prevent us from freely and confidently addressing God as we can and should. False notions of spirituality may tell us that if we pray at all, then we should simply state our purpose and leave it at that. The problem with this kind of piety is that it doesn't reflect the Bible's understanding of God and prayer. Yeshua's encouragement to pray and not give up (see Luke 18:1-8) is a wonderful way to describe the kind of earnestness in prayer that we see throughout the Bible. The picture of prayer painted for us in the Bible is far more like that of a child's expectancy of a loving parent than the false humility of adults who rarely ask for anything from anyone.

That brings us to the question then, how do we know when to stop praying about something. Of course you are free to stop whenever you wish. Perhaps God has answered your prayer or your take on the situation has changed, which also might be due to God answering your prayer. But when a request that you have laid before God over and over again is still an issue for you, is there a time when you should stop praying? Yes there is. When God says so. As we saw last week, Moses had a really hard time with God's decision not to let him enter the Promised Land. Yet that did not stop him from pleading with God to change his mind. Moses experienced firsthand how God could take a stand on something, yet change course due to prayer (see Shemot /Exodus 32:11-14). Why not in this case?

Yet in this case, God not only said "No," but also that Moses should not speak to him at all regarding this matter ever again. Centuries later, Paul would experience something similar. He had been earnestly asking God to remove some sort of problem he was having. Like Moses, but in different words, God said, "No," and made clear to him what he needed to do (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

So how do we know when to stop praying? When God says so. Until then, don't stop.