Joy in the Messiah

 נִצָּבִים
Nitzavim/ You Are Standing
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20
HafTorah Portion Isaiah 61:10-63:9
Brit Chadasha Romans 7:7-12   

     Nitzavim opens with the people standing before Adonai and entering into His covenant in order that He may establish them as a people to Himself, not us to establish ourselves. Nitzavim is about choosing life and the consequences of choosing God or defying Him. We choose the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, The God of Israel, or make an unwise choice by choosing to live outside the covenants. 
     In Deuteronomy 29:12 there is a Hebrew word brit v’alah, meaning a covenant guarded by imprecations (a spoken curse). This is not a curse towards those in Torah, but rather those who turn away from the teachings and instructions of Adonai.
     Deuteronomy 29:14-15 ‘I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, ¹⁵ but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today…’    
    This verse is collective, it is ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, from leaders to the workers, from the young to old, men and women, the entire camp – will stand before the LORD in covenant. This gives us a broad sense of community and how we behave within that community. 
     This applies to us today for a time is coming when we stand before God to give an account of our lives. Romans 14:12, ‘So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”
     Da lifnei mi atah omeid, know before whom you stand. Too often, we function in the world as though the world is all about us, all about our own families, about our circle of friends, our work, our finances, our choices, our wants and needs.  We are not mini lords of the universe nor even the master of our own destiny.  Our life is not our own property but a possession of God. And it is this divine ownership that makes life a sacred thing.  How differently would we live our lives if we lived them with an awareness that they belong to God, that everything we possess belongs to God.
     Chapter 29 continues with a warning about bitterness. Bitterness is a heart turning away from God. Deuteronomy 29:18 ‘…so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood…’
      The definition regarding bitter food is equal to bitterness in our life: ‘sharpness of taste, lack of sweetness, sourness.’ Bitterness can be defined as a chronic and pervasive state of smoldering resentment and is regarded as one of the most destructive and toxic of human emotions. Bitterness creates ‘‘the victim’ with all the implications of helplessness and offensiveness embedded in the defeatist label.  But why is bitterness the end result of serving other gods, and who in Deuteronomy 29:18 starts the sickness of bitterness? The sages teach that this verse refers to someone who produces and increases evil.
      Hebrews 12:14-17 ‘Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; ¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.’
     Isaiah 5:12 ‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!’
     Job 21:25 tell us that we die without any sweetness; ‘While another dies with a bitter soul, never even tasting anything good.’
      Deuteronomy 29:29 speaks of mysteries and secrets. ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.’
      What are the secrets or mysteries of God? Proverbs 25:2 ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.’ Amos 3:7 ‘Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.  Romans 16:25-27 ‘Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Yeshua Messiah according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began ²⁶ but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— ²⁷ to God, alone wise, be glory through Yeshua Messiah forever. Amen.’
      The prophet Jeremiah states in Jeremiah 33:1-3 ‘Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, ² “Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name): ³ ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
     Daniel 2:22 ‘“It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.’ He said in Daniel 12:9, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.’
      Revelation 5:3 ‘And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.’
     In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 Rabbi Shaul quotes the Torah when he speaks of the wisdom of God being a mystery, the hidden wisdom of God, and what is revealed to man. ‘But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” ¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.’
      Revelation 5:3 ‘And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.’
     Ephesians 1:9 ‘He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.’
    Rabbi Shaul speaks of mysteries in Ephesians 3: the mystery revealed, the purpose of the mystery and the mystery appreciated in Colossians 1:26 ‘ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory...’ Mark 13:32 ‘But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.’ 
    Nitzavim ends in Deuteronomy 30 with the choice of life or death as God tells His people that His commandments are not far off, nor unattainable and that His word is very near, that it is, in fact, in our speech and in our hearts. Life and good, death and evil are before us. If we choose to love Him and walk in His ways, we will live and be blessed, but if we turn away so that we no longer hear him, we will perish. 
      In Deuteronomy 30:11-14 God again speaks of the mysteries and it is not unattainable. In Deuteronomy 30:16 He sets before us life and death and yet commands us to love Him and walk in His ways, 
     God reveals that heaven (spirit) and earth (flesh) are His witnesses, in Deuteronomy 30:19. These two witnesses represent what He is, His creation – earth and who He is – the heavens.
1 Timothy 6:16 recalls this glory: ‘that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Messiah’s appearing, ¹⁵ which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.’
    Deuteronomy 30:19-20 sets life and death, blessing and cursing before us; therefore, choose life. We are to obey and told again to hear His voice and cling to Him, so that we will dwell in the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.     
   

נִצָּבִים
Nitzavim/ You Are Standing
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20
HafTorah Portion Isaiah 61:10-63:9
Brit Chadasha Romans 7:7-12
וַיֵּלֶךְ
VaYelech / And He Went
Deuteronomy 31:1-30
Isaiah 55:6-56:8
Romans 7:7-1

     This week there is a double parsha, Nitzavim/You are Standing and VaYelech/And He Went.  The first parsha, connects standing with keeping the Words of Adonai: ‘Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Deuteronomy 29:10-13.
       The important words are; therefore, keep and do them. What does it mean to stand before God? What does this parsha relate to?
     His statutes stand firm, Psalm 93:5.
     His word is eternal and stands firm, Psalm 119:89-91
     We must stand firm, Philippians 4:1-2.
     The dead, small, and great stand firm, Revelation 20:11-12.
     One of the most profound verses regarding standing is when Elijah proclaims, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.’ 1 Kings 15:1.
     Standing before God is a humbling way to live. Each day, we stand before Him, each day we stand on His Word, His truth. How can we say we stand for God if we deny His Covenants and His Torah?
       In the second Torah portion for this week, VaYelech, there is a prophecy of great comfort: Deuteronomy 31:3-6 ‘The Lord your God Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the Lord has said.  And the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them.  The Lord will give them over to you, that you may do to them according to every commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
     God will set the stage for victory, and it is His role that is the decisive factor in conquering of the land -IF they go with God in faith and obedience. Verse 6 states to be strong and of good courage. It does not state to ‘be weak and afraid’.
     In Deuteronomy 20:4 we read, ‘For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
     1 Corinthians 15:57 ‘But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua.’
     Romans 8:37 ‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.’
     2 Corinthians 2:14 ‘But thanks be to God, who in Yeshua always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.’
     There are over 50 verses in Scripture telling us to be strong and courageous.
     Isaiah 41:10 ‘Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’
     James 1:12 ‘Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.’
    Ephesians 6:10 ‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.’
   Isaiah 35:4 ‘Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.'