RSEA.D. Week 131

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Week 131

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

  • Torah (T): Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:4 – 7:26
  • Prophets (P): Zechariah 14:1-9
  • Apostolic (A): Mark 12:18-34
  • Additional (ADD): Baruch 3:9-28

Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

Deuteronomy 6

YHWH’s kingdom in context and in function, as Israel begins its campaign to seize the promised land, is defined by the application and execution of His Torah. Last week Pete did an excellent job making the case for the sovereign authority attributed to the Most High and the power of His rulership over all creation through the Torah. Embedded within those instructions are the mechanisms to walking carefully in obedience. It is also how the believer is transformed; by the work of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:16-17). The righteousness of the Torah reflects His character, intelligence, knowledge, and emotions. “Citizenship is a relationship between an individual and a state to its protection. It also implies the status of freedom with accompanying responsibilities” (Britannica, 2024). Citizenship in His kingdom functions much the same. A call to allegiance is required both internally and externally; by the spirit as well as the physical which work in tandem to shape the individual into His image (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:20). Chapter six presents several fundamental principles expected of the people pledged to His Reign. Here are a few that stand out.

  1. Love YHWH
    1. Deut. 6:5-6 – You will love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 These words, which I command you today, will be on your heart.
  2. Bind His Torah
    1. Deut. 6:8-9 – You will bind them for a sign on your hand, and they will be for frontlets between your eyes. You will write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
  3. Teach Your Sons
    1. Deut. 6:7, 20 – and you will teach them diligently to your sons, and will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments, which YHWH our Elohim has commanded you mean?”
  4. Be On Guard
    1. Deut. 6:12, 17 – be on guard lest you forget YHWH [your Elohim],(LXX)(SP) who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage
  5. Fear, Serve, & Cling to YHWH
    1. Deut. 6:13 – You will fear YHWH your Elohim; and you will serve him, [and you will cling to him,](LXX) and will swear by his name.

Deuteronomy 7

YHWH establishes His kingdom by removing the wicked nations inhabiting the land of promise. The warfare begins with the Canaanite nations and will end with Satan (Rev. 20:7-10). The to utter destruction of those 7 nations were unique to them for the wickedness they practiced both in retaining, and in occupying the land. This act of possession has been characterized as harsh by the Elohim of scripture, but many have overlooked the commandments exclusive distinction between these nations and others that are offered peaceful interactions.

  1. Utterly Destroy Them
    1. Jubilees 10:29-34; And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west that is to the sea, and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. 30. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim, his brothers, said unto him: “Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and be accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. 31. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. 32. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noaḥ̣, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the face of the holy judge, and in the face of Noaḥ̣ our father.” 33. But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons until this day. 34. And for this reason that land is named Canaan.
    2. Lev. 20:23 – You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these, I abhorred them.
    3. Deut. 7:1-2 – the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you; and when YHWH your Elohim delivers them up before you, and you strike them, then you will utterly destroy them. You will make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
  2. Offer of Peace
    1. Deut. 20:10-15 – When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

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

How can we become one with the Father, as Yeshua is?

As highlighted in chapter six: by loving Him, binding to His word, teaching our sons, being on guard to His Torah. I like what the Targum has included in its version of chapter six as an example;

[JERUSALEM. When the end had come to our father Jakob, that he should be taken up from the world, he called the twelve tribes, his sons, and gathered them round his couch. Then Jakob our father rose up, and said to them, Do you worship any idol that Terah the father of Abraham worshipped? do you worship any idol that Laban (the brother of his mother) worshipped? or worship you the Elohim of Jakob? The twelve tribes answered together, with fullness of heart, and said, Hear now, Israel our father: The Lord our Elohim is one Lord. Jakob responded and said, May His Great Name be blessed for ever!]

The twelve’s answer is telling. It states, they spoke with fullness of heart to declare Deut. 6:4 which Yeshua answered in kind when asked what was the greatest commandment in Mark 12:29-31.

  1. We become one by loving Him. Obeying His instructions leads to loving Him.
    1. John 15:9-10, 12-14 – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love…My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
  2. We become one by clinging to Him. Obeying His instructions leads to clinging to Him.
    1. Gen. 2:24 – Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Joining oneself to the Most High is described as that of a marriage. The consummation of a couples coming together for the first time binds them by the blood covenant of virginity is akin to us joining to Him.
      1. proskollaō; From G4314 and G2853; to glue to, that is, (figuratively) to adhere: – cleave, join (self).
        ii. Linking word from Deut. 6:13. G2853, kollaō; From κόλλα kolla (“glue”); to glue, that is, (passively or reflexively) to stick (figuratively): – cleave, join (self), keep company.
    2. Deut. 30:6 – The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
    3. Jer. 31:33 – “For this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra’ěl after those days, declares YHWH: I shall put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

The root of it all, as to how we become one with Yeshua and YHWH by the power of the Holy Spirit, is and will always be a matter of the heart. If we;

Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble. Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end. They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word; and they that love him will keep his ways. They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well, pleasing unto him; and they that love him shall be filled with the law. They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and humble their souls in his sight (Sirach 2:2-3, 15-17).

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?”

A change in behavior that does not stem from a change in heart is not commendable; it is condemnable. – (Ted Tripp)

  • Proverbs 4:23 – Keep your heart with the utmost care; for out of these are the issues of life.
  • Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil reasonings, adulteries, whorings, murders,
  • Luke 6:45 “The good man brings forth what is good out of the good treasure of his heart, and the wicked man brings forth what is wicked out of the wicked treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.

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

  1. Does our life reflect a love for one another that bears witness to the goodness of His Torah?
  2. How do we resist becoming comfortable in the good pleasure He provides and not forget the fear of the Lord?
  3. How can we become one with the Father and Yeshua?