RSEA.D. Week 129

View PDF
Week 129

Read
Aloud together to hear the Word (Leviticus 23:1-3; Nehemiah 8:1-4; Luke 4:16-17)

  • Torah (T): Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:1-49
  • Prophets (P): Jeremiah 20:4-11
  • Apostolic (A): Romans 11:1-36
  • Additional (ADD): 2 Esdras 1:1-40

Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

In Deuteronomy 4:1-49, Moses teaches the statutes and judgements to the next generation of men 20 years old and above because their fathers and those men 20 and above have now died in the wilderness after 40 years as YHWH promised (cf. Numbers 14:33-34)

  1. 4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you [this day],(LXX)(Syr) to do them, that you may live and go in and possess the land which YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, gives you.
    1. Statutes (הַחֻקִּים chuqim H2706) means to inscribe (write down ) a decree or custom
      1. Genesis 47:26; Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn’t become Pharaoh’s.
      2. Exodus 12:24; You shall observe this word for a statute to you and to your sons forever.
    2. Judgments (מִּשְׁפָּטִים mishpatim H3925) means the judge or rightly rule over cases of dispute or wrong doing (Exodus 21:1 – 23:19 “Now these are the judgements which you shall set before them…”)
  2. 4:2 You will not add to the word which I command you, neither will you take away from it, that you may guard the commandments of YHWH your Elohim which I command you.
    1. Word (דָּבָר davar H1697) means “to order” in the sense of an arrangement or placement of something to create order. In Hebraic thought, “a word” is a completed thought, not babbling incoherence (cf. Sirach 7:14; Matthew 6:7)
      1. דָּבָר davar is equivalent to the Greek word λόγος logos which is a word, uttered by a living voice, that embodies a conception or idea.
        1. Prattle – to talk at length in a foolish or inconsequential way
        2. Babble – to talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way
    2. Commandments (מִצְוֺת mitsvot H4687) means to lay charge upon or give orders
  3. 4:3 Your eyes have seen what YHWH did because of Baal Peor; for YHWH your Elohim has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you.
  4. 4:4 But you who are clinging to YHWH your Elohim are all alive today.
    1. דָּבֵק daveq (H1695) means to adhere, join, or stick to someone or something as a fastener.
      1. Genesis 2:24; Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will cling with his wife, and [the two](LXX)(mss) will be one flesh.
        1. Join is דָּבַק davaq (H1692) is the modern Hebrew word for “adhesive”
  5. 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as YHWH my Elohim commanded me, that you should do so within the land where you go in to possess it. 6 You will guard and do; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 For what great nation is there that has Elohim so near to them as YHWH our Elohim is whenever we call on him? 8 What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah which I set before you today?
    1. Why, then, are we taught the Torah is a burden?
      1. Psalms 19:7-10; YHWH’s Torah is perfect, restoring the soul. YHWH’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. 8 YHWH’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. YHWH’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of YHWH is clean, enduring forever. YHWH’s judgments are true, and righteous altogether. 10 They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
      2. Psalm 119:97 How I love your Torah! It is my meditation all day.
      3. Psalm 119:113 I hate double-minded men, but I love your Torah.
      4. Psalm 119:163 I hate and abhor falsehood. I love your Torah.
      5. Psalm 119:165 Those who love your Torah have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble.
      6. Romans 7:12 Therefore the Torah indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
      7. Romans 7:14 For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
      8. Romans 7:22 For I delight in the Torah of God after the inward man
  6. 4:9 Only guard yourself, and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget the words which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your sons’ sons— 10 the day that you stood before YHWH your Elohim in Horeb, when YHWH said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the land, and that they may teach their sons.” 11 You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12 YHWH spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words. He wrote them on two stone tablets.
    1. עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים aseret hadevarim literally means “ten of the words”
      1. I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6)
      2. Other elohim will not exist for you before my face. 4 You will not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the land beneath, or that is in the water under the land: 5 you will not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, YHWH your Elohim, am El Qanna, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and guard my commandments. (Exodus 20:3-6; Deuteronomy 5:7-10)
      3. You will not misuse the name of YHWH your Elohim, for YHWH will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11)
      4. Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. 9 You will labor six days, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your Elohim. You will not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your maid, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; 11 for in six days YHWH made the heavens and land, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
      5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you. (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16)
      6. You will not murder. (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17)
      7. You will not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18)
      8. You will not steal. (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19)
      9. You will not give false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20)
      10. You will not covet your neighbor’s house. You will not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21)
  7. 4:14 YHWH commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might do them in the land where you go over [the Jordan](DSS) to possess it. (cf. Exodus 21:1 – 23:19 “Now these are the judgements which you shall set before them…”)
  8. 4:15 Diligently guard yourselves, for you saw no kind of form on the day that YHWH spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, 16 lest you corrupt, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the land, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, 18 the likeness of anything that [crawls ](LXX) on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the land; 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of the heavens, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which YHWH your Elohim has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens. 20 But [Elohim](LXX) has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today.
  9. 4:21 Furthermore YHWH was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance; 22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you will go over and possess that good land.
  10. 4:23 Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of YHWH your Elohim, which he cut with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which YHWH your Elohim has forbidden you. 24 For YHWH your Elohim is a devouring fire, he is El Qanna. 25 When you father sons and sons’ sons, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in YHWH your Elohim’s sight to provoke him to anger, 26 I call the heavens and the land to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27 YHWH will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where YHWH will lead you away. 28 There you will serve [other](LXX) elohim, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
  11. 4:29 But from there you will seek YHWH your Elohim, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in oppression, and all these words have come on you, in the latter days you will return to YHWH your Elohim and listen to his voice. 31 For YHWH your Elohim is a merciful Elohim. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
  12. 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that Elohim created man on the land, and from the one end of the heavens to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of [the living](LXX) Elohim speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or has Elohim tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that YHWH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 It was shown to you so that you might know that YHWH is Elohim. There is no one else besides him. 36 Out of the heavens he made you to hear his voice, that he might [correct](LXX)(MTT) you. On the land he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
  13. 4:37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose [their](LXX)(SP) seed after them, and brought you out with his face, with his great power, out of Egypt; 38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that YHWH himself is Elohim in the heavens above and on the land beneath. There is no one else.
  14. 4:40 You will guard his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your sons after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for all time.
  15. 4:41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, 42 that the murderer might flee there, who kills his neighbor without knowledge and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the ones of Reuben; and Ramoth in Gilead for the ones of Gad; and Golan in Bashan for the ones of Manasseh.
  16. 4:44 This is the Torah which Moses set before the sons of Israel. 45 These are the witnesses, and the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, to Mount Zion, also called Hermon, 49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

Exhortation
Counsel, comfort, and encouragement (Acts 13:14-15)

  1. Deuteronomy 18:15-19; YHWH your Elohim will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You will listen to him. 16 This is according to all that you desired of YHWH your Elohim in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again YHWH my Elohim’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.” 17 YHWH said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I will command him. 19 It will happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he will speak in my name, I will require it of him.
  2. Deuteronomy 4:32-36; For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that Elohim created man on the land, and from the one end of the heavens to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of [the living](LXX) Elohim speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34 Or has Elohim tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that YHWH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 It was shown to you so that you might know that YHWH is Elohim. There is no one else besides him. 36 Out of the heavens he made you to hear his voice, that he might [correct](LXX)(MTT) you. On the land he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
    1. Luke 3:21-22; Now when all the people were immersed, Yeshua also had been immersed and was praying. The heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the heavens, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
    2. Luke 9:28-36; 28 About eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter, John, and Jacob, and went up onto the mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became white and dazzling. 30 Behold, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him. 33 As they were parting from him, Peter said to Yeshua, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not knowing what he said. 34 While he said these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud. 35 A voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” 36 When the voice came, Yeshua was found alone. They were silent, and told no one in those days any of the things which they had seen.
    3. John 5:37-38; “The Father himself, who sent me, has witnessed about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. 38 You don’t have his word living in you, because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
    4. John 12:27-33; “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? But I came to this time for this cause. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came out of the heavens, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 29 Therefore the multitude who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Yeshua answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes. 31 Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.

Application
Living the Word and following Yeshua (Acts 2:37; Romans 2:13)

Romans 2:13 For it isn’t the hearers of the Torah who are righteous before Elohim, but the doers of the Torah will be justified.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

  1. What questions or comments came up during your family’s discussion of this week’s study?
  2. “What other related Scriptures did you find during your study of this week’s portion?”
  3. Have you ever experienced something from this study or something related to it?
  4. “What changes do you need to make in your life to align with what you learned during this week’s Torah Study?”

Discussion
Questions, input, and sharpening (Proverbs 27:17; Luke 2:46)