What Yehovah Expects of His Children
This week’s Torah Reading (aka parshah), found in Deuteronomy 5:1-6:3, is a reiteration of the 10-Commandments by Moshe to the generation slated to enter the Land of Promise. And along with that iteration comes clarification as to what the Eternal expected of that generation, and by extension, what He expects of us today.
As Yah’s set-apart, covenant-keeping people, Father requires that we receive the statutes and judgments that He gave to Moshe and then (1) learn them and (2) keep them by actually doing them.
Statutes {choq} are enactments of codes or laws prescribed of Elohim.
Judgments (mishpat} are rulings within the framework of justice brought by Yah.
And this 1st verse of our focus passage is a reiteration of the 1st verse of chapter 4 of this Cepher of Deuteronomy. And the reason given for our hearing/receiving, learning and keeping these judgments and statutes is that in our doing them we would live and Yah would in return honor His promise of bringing us into the Land.
Covenant Expectations
Covenant enters into the discussion here also. Moshe points us back to Horeb in verse 2 where Yah made a covenant with us:
“…if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is mine” (Exo. 19:5).
The Mosaic Versus the Abrahamic Covenants
Now, verse 3 reminds us that the covenant Yah made with us in Horeb was not a repeat of the Avrahamic Covenant (cf. Heb. 8:9). Father’s covenant with the patriarchs was specific to Avraham’s posterity and that seed’s inheriting Cana’an or the Land of Promise. That was a unilateral covenant so to speak. Father would deliver on the promises He made with Avraham regardless what Avraham or his posterity did. The Mosaic Covenant on the other hand was a bilateral covenant whereby we break it, we forfeit the promises contained therein.
Yah here was fulfilling the promises He’d made with Avraham, but it was up to the generation receiving the Words of Yah to keep their end of the covenant bargain (i.e., agreement) or face problems entering and or dwelling in the Land.
The Mosaic Covenant
This parashah is a rehashing of that Mosaic Covenant that was esablished between YHVH and the generation of Yishra’elites preparing to enter the Land of Promise.
In verse 5 we come to a dreaded parenthetical statement that was inserted into the body of the text which the ASV, LXX and KJV clearly reveal. Nevertheless, beginning in verse 6 Moshe regales the giving of the 10-Words (popularly referred to as 10-Commandments) which Jewish tradition frames to have occurred on Shavu’ot (cf. Exo. 20).
Essentially, these were the same 10-Commandments Yehovah spoke down to us from Mount Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 20.
Keeping the Commandments of God
There have been some who, for whatever reason, abhor Torah. These are primarily of the Christian persuasion let’s say. And what I’ve found since being in this Faith, is that they are not necessarily opposed to anyone keeping the 10-commandments. They in fact, more cases than not, encourage the keeping of the 10-Words (with the exception of the Sabbath commandment #4 which they say is now S-nday). The rest of Torah, however, they reject and teach and hold that no Christian is to keep Torah–that it is only for the Jews.
What the Anti-Torah Crowd is Missing in Relation to Torah Living and Torah Keeping
What these are missing, unfortunately, is that Torah is an expansion of the 10-Words framework. Torah takes the 10-words and essentially “blows it up” so we are able to understand the nuances of each commandment.
Shaul wrote of Torah:
“Is the law sin? Yah forbid. Nay. I had not known sin, but by Torah: for I had not known lust, except Torah had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet'” (Rom. 7:7). He understood the relevance of Torah for every soul of Yah’s human creation. Yet the human creation is oblivious of its relevance.
The Shock and Awe of Sinai Revisited
Yah spoke these instructions to us out of the midst of the shock and awe that had taken place at Horeb (vs. 22; cf. Exo. 20). However, the shock and awe of that day frightened us to the point we thought we were going to die. So our tribal heads approached Moshe and expressed our fear to him. For there was a widely held belief among the ancient folks of that part of the world that anyone human who witnessed any manifestation of YHVH would die (vss. 23-26) .
Moses as our Intercessor
So we urged Moshe to be our go between; our intercessor for us with the Eternal, and anything He would require of us He would communicate those things to Moshe and Moshe in turn would deliver them unto us (vs. 24; cf. 20:19). And Yah agreed to this arrangement (vs. 28).
A Poignant Statement From His People
In verse 29 we come upon a poignant statement Abba made regarding his people.
As we were expressing our desire that Yah would pass down to us everything He required of us and Moshe would in turn teach and instruct us on those things shown to him by Yah, we promised to “hear and do” those things (i.e., shema). This was back in verse 27. And Yah expressed to Moshe that He approved of this arrangement.
We Agree to “Shema” Our God–Our Hearts Were in the Right Place
Yah approved of the arrangement, in part no doubt, because we agreed to “shema” His Word. We were fearful of Him (which is what we were supposed to be), but most importantly, we expressed the will and desire to hear and obey. In other words, our hearts were at that time, the place they were supposed to be; at a place that Father saw that He could work with us (vs. 28).
We Had the Raw Makings to be God’s Peculiar People
We had the raw makings to fulfill the covenant He was proposing and become His peculiar people. And I personally see this as the crux of this entire chapter, especially when it is connected to verse 29. For here in verse 29 Abba frames for us where He truly wanted us to be as it related to our commitment to Him and His Ways.
The State of our Hearts Was Critically Important to God
To Father, it came down to the state of our hearts. And the state of our hearts was that of wanting and desiring to do the right thing and to abide in His Ways and to do that which He commanded. He says, hearkening back to that day:
“Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear (“yare'” or revere) Me, and “shamar,” that is “keep, gaurd, observe and give heed” to My commandments ALWAYS, so that it would go well with them and their children forever” (verse 29).
Moses Becomes God’s Intermediary–A Type of “Christ” (aka Messiah)
And so it was that YHVH passed on to Moshe all of the mitzvot, laws and rulings. And it then fell to Moshe to teach them to us. It then fell to us to obey those mitzvot, laws and rulings as we prepared to receive the Land (vs. 31; cf. Exo. 24:12). Yah’s requirement of us at this juncture was that we do as He orders without any deviation whatsoever (vs. 32; cf. 17:20; 28:14; Pro. 4:27). And Moshe asserted that we must walk in Yah’s commanded Ways so that we may live long and prosperous lives (vss. 33-6:3).
Torah and Covenant-Keeping Always Tied to our Receiving and Keeping the Land
Torah and covenant-keeping was always tied to our inheriting the Land.
Granted, some conflate these two concepts of covenant-keeping and Torah-keeping, and that’s certainly fine to do so. For if one fails, for whatever reason, to walk in Torah (i.e., Yah’s house rules for righteous living), there is no covenant relationship with the Eternal. This, which is inextricably linked and tied to an unwavering trusting Faith in YHVH, a pure heart that is responsive to the leading and direction of the Eternal and the workings of the Ruach Kodesh working within the soul of Yah’s beloved, serve as the fuel by by which we walk and live in Kingdom.
But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of the situation, Yah’s greatest desire was that we possess a heart that was conducive to obeying Him and walking in covenant with Him. I guess this essentially translates to our loving Yehovah with our whole being when you think about it.
Torah as the Frame Work Upon Which Our Covenant Relationship Rests
Torah is the framework upon which our covenant relationship rests and our walking in covenant relationship with Yah is the thing that ushered us into the Land of Promise and it was the thing that kept us well and flourishing in the Land. The Torah-framework was the buttress for our covenant relationship with the Almighty and these were in every sense of the word the “keys” receiving and dwelling in the Land. For without this blessed Way of Life in operation, our ancient cousins would not be privy to entering the Land, nor dwelling therein without much in the way of peace, comfort and security. Ultimately, it was the abandonment of this Way of Life that led to them being exiled and removed from the Land.
Qualifying to Entering and Dwell in the Land and the Kingdom of God
For us in the here and now, the covenant relationship that rests on the framework of Torah is the thing that will qualify us for entering the the Land of Promise–the Malchut Elohim. As with our ancient cousins in this parshah, these serve as the “keys” to the eternal “Malchut Elohim.” And contrary to orthodoxy and fundamentlist conventional wisdom, when His supposed people reject this Way of Life–that is they reject said “keys,” they will not even be given the opportunity to enter the Malchut Elohim.
And these are the eternal truths that much be conveyed to the world before our Master returns to rule and reign over this earth in the Olam Habah.