Joy in the Messiah

רְאֵה 
Re’eh / See
Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
Isaiah 54:11-55:5
1 John 4:1-6

       Re’eh opens with: ‘Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.’   Deuteronomy 11:26-28. 
     In Deuteronomy 11:26, the Hebrew states: ‘I give to your face…’ The English has translated the Hebrew words לְ · פָּנֶה · אַתֶּם  paneh (pnh) face/to turn towards and atem you, into ‘set before you’. But the Hebrew is much more powerful.  To set before you is like a menu. ‘Here are your options, set before you so now choose what you agree with or like.’  Which we all did.  But the Hebrew puts it much more bluntly: “I am setting My way in your face, now choose.’ 
    God has given us a choice, a major life altering choice.  He plants before us life or death, which contain the life blessings or the life curses.  His people were living in the wilderness, knowing only The True God. They were soon to live among the nations, which would seduce His people to worship the ‘other gods’. That never changed. How many Christmas trees are erected into Christian homes with the presumption that they are ‘worshiping the birth of Jesus’.  Jesus is the reason for the season.
      Chapter 12 continues with a prescribed place for worship, with a  stark warning in Deuteronomy 12:8-9 ‘You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— ⁹ for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.’
     God wanted unity, a set apart nation walking as one under His right rulings and a set order for His worship, ‘Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴ but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.’ Deuteronomy 12:13-14.
     This command from God goes with the statement in Deuteronomy 12:32 (in the Tanakh, Deuteronomy 13:1). ‘Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.’
     The sages teach ‘that one may not improve on the Torah by adding new commandments; what human intelligence considers an honor to God just may be an abomination in His eyes.’
     Right before this command, God exposes the nations for who they are, which is not who we are to be, Deuteronomy 12:29-31. 
     Proverbs 14:12 ‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.’
     Proverbs 12:15 ‘The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.’
     Proverbs 21:2 ‘Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.’
     Judges 21:25 ‘In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’
     Isaiah 5:21 ‘Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!’     
     Deuteronomy 13 starts with ‘the dreamer of dreams’. What an amazing analogy for a false prophet. Again, God speaks about His people going after ‘other gods that they did not know…’
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’
    God was very clear and transparent that He was ‘testing’ His people.  He is still testing His people to see if we are falling for the ‘dreamer of dream’ or if we stand stead fast for who we are in Him. Not our ideology of what we think we are, but actually who we are in Him.
     Who were and who are the ‘dreamer of dreams’? In Biblical context it was the nations that surrounded the Israelites. Every religion – except what is real in the Torah, was started by a person that had their idea and ideology. There is no definitive answer to how many religions exist in the world, but estimates range from 4,000 to 10,000 or more, according to research. 
          Also included in Re’eh are the principles regarding improper mourning, clean and unclean food, tithing, debts canceled and contributions to the poor, the firstborn of every animal and instructions concerning bond-servants. 
     Re’eh closes in chapter 16 with the Torah of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Shalosh Regalim  שלוש רגלים. Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.  The first time that we see the three festivals as a unit is in Exodus. Shalosh Regalim is referred to as ‘The Three Legs’. Shalosh means three or rather, three of something and regalim is the plural of regal meaning foot. So literally, it means "three feet." Some translate these three festivals into ‘The Three Legs’. 
     Withing these instructions regarding these particular times of God, He states: ‘…in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name, (Passover Deuteronomy 16:6). ‘…at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, (Shavuot Deuteronomy 16:11) and Sukkot in Deuteronomy 16: 15 ‘…in the place which the Lord chooses…’
     The Tabernacle is believed to have been destroyed by the Philistines around 1050 BC, according to historical accounts. Later, the place that God chose would be the city of Jerusalem, when the Temple stood. All males had to appear before the Lord for the three festivals; Exodus 23:14-17, 34:23-24, and Deuteronomy 16:16.  
     Today, living in the Diaspora, we appear before God for His appointed times, whether we are isolated at home, involved in a synagogue or fellowship, the importance is honor God His way, not adding to or taking away from. 
 

רְאֵה 
Re’eh / See
Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
Isaiah 54:11-55:5
1 John 4:1-6

    Re’eh begins with ‘Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse…Deuteronomy 11:26. He is setting before us the reality and options for life – pick one. The choice is ours, the option is ours, but the consequences were set forth by God Himself.  Life or death.  Re’eh reveals that God has given each of us with free will and the ability to make choices—for good or for evil, for blessing or for curse.  These are the two courses presented to Israel, and each Israelite is free to choose as it is for us today.
     In the first paragraph of Re’eh we have positions of the blessings and curses.  Mount Gerazin for blessings and Mount Ebal for curses. The crossing of the Jordan and possessing the land is also in this first section. 
     The crossing of the Jordan to possess the land is a remarkable thing. Deuteronomy 12:10 ‘But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and He will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.’
     In the Tanakh, the Jordan River / Nehar haYarden, is mentioned about 175 times as a source of fertility for Israel. It is also the scene of many biblical battles, is mentioned approximately 15 times in the Brit Chadasha and is the place of Yeshua’s mikveh: Matthew 3:13.      
      Yarden, which is the Hebrew word for Jordan translates as Descender. Most of its water originates 9,232 feet above sea level on Mount Hermon in the far north. The river then flows south into the Sea of Galilee continuing to exit at the southern tip of the Galilee descending south about 1,378 feet below sea level where it empties into the Dead Sea. A prophesy in Ezekiel describes a new river of life that will restore the Dead Sea which is fed by the Jordan. “When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. …Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets… Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river…Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:8-12.
      Revelation 22:1-2 describes the Jordan as a new river of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God. In Joshua chapter 3 as the people crossed over the Jordan, miraculously the river split open and the people crossed on dry riverbed.  In 2 Kings 5:14 Elisha sent Naaman to bathe in the Jordan where he was healed of leprosy, and in 2 Kings 6:6 Elisha reclaimed a borrowed axe head that had sunk in the waters by causing it to float to the surface.
    Joshua 24:2-15 recounts the historic act of Abraham and God’s people crossing over. At the end of the section, Joshua states: ‘Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
     Joshua clarifies that when one crosses over we leave, or should leave the pagan gods behind on the other side of the river. For Joshua the symbolism was clear: on one side of the river is idol worship that we have left that life behind when we crossed over to the other side. Now we will serve the Lord.  Joshua closes with a declaration that is to this day well known in Joshua 24:15. 
     In Deuteronomy 12:2-4 God gives His people orders to ‘…utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.  And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.  You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.’ 
    Rabbi Sha’ul repeats this command in 1 Corinthians 10:18-22, as does Yocannan in 1 John 5:21, 
    Deuteronomy 12:5 instructs us to ‘… seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. ‘  What a declaration of His sovereignty! 
     Moshe in Deuteronomy 12:8 again admonishes the people not to be independent of God and the covenants; ‘You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes…’
     1 Chronicles 16:11-13 ‘Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore! Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth, O seed of Israel His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones!’
     Proverbs 3:5-8 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.’
     Deuteronomy 12:23 and again in Deuteronomy 14:3 continues with reiterating the clean and unclean foods. ‘You shall not eat any abominable thing.’ In observing and choosing a holy lifestyle, one of the first aspects that God addresses in the lives of His holy people (am kadosh) is food! Biblical, not Rabbinical dietary laws, kashrut, serve to maintain the set apartness  of God’s people from the Gentile nations. The clean in Hebrew is tahor and the unclean; tamay. Deuteronomy 12:16 states:  ‘Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life…’ (from Leviticus 17:11  where we learn blood is the instrument of atonement, ‘the life of a creature is in the blood.’). This commandment is also a beginning stepping stone for the Gentiles entering in, Acts 15:19-20.
   Genesis 4:10 is the first verse of blood and life and the opposite of death, ‘And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.’
    Our life is in the blood of Yeshua. 
   Hebrews 12:22-24 ‘But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Yeshua the Mediator of the (re)newed covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.’ Hebrews 13:12 ‘So Yeshua also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.’
1 Peter 1:18-21 ‘Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,  but with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’
    Deuteronomy chapter 13 continues with warnings against false prophets, and serving other gods.  Chapter 14 reiterates instructions for improper mourning, ‘cutting for the dead’ and again repeats the order of clean and unclean meats and tithing. Deuteronomy 15 continues with the cancelation of debts every seven years, the bondservant and the firstborn. Re’eh ends with reviewing the three pilgrimage feasts, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. This again, God reveals His authority and sovereignty. 
    Who are we to appoint another time or place where we will meet God? His appointed times, His Sabbath, His foods, His blessings or curses.  We all have the choice – so choose blessings.