Parasha Eikev 5783

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Me

This week we read Parasha Eikev, Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25, which is more or less one giant cry of the heart of God for Israel to remain faithful to Him and His covenant. The parasha opens up with the reminder that that B’nei Yisrael should Shama (Listen, take to heart, and respond) and Shamar (to guard, protect, keep) the Covenant and Loving Kindness of Adonai, along with the blessings that will go along with faithfulness.

Chapter 8 is a reminder of all the seemingly mundane miracles Israel experienced throughout their wilderness journey that could have been overlooked or taken for granted, such as the daily provision of Man Hu (Manna) that was gathered six days a week, Israel’s clothing never wearing out, their sandals never falling apart, and the lack of physically being worn out while walking in the wilderness for forty years. We also see verse 10, from which we get the Jewish custom to bless our food after we eat and are satisfied (Birkat HaMazon). This is then closed out with a short version of the curses due with lack of faithfulness to Torah.

Chapter 9 opens with a reminder that Adonai will fight for Israel and will provide them with victory, but also that when they are settled in their land they should not to become arrogant at the provision of the Promised Land thinking it is because of our righteousness but rather because of the Canaanites wickedness that they have been driven out. This is followed by a reminder of the Egel HaZahav (Golden Calf) and Moses destroying the tablets—likely a reminder of how easy it is for Israel to become stiff-necked and turn their hearts from HaShem.

Chapter 10 continues with the recarving of the Tablets and Moses’ second 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain. Moses calls Israel to fear, love, and serve Adonai with all their heart and all their soul and to circumcise their hearts and be stiff-necked no longer.

Parasha Eikev closes out with the first half of Deuteronomy 11, which is once again a plea from the heart of Moses for Israel to remain faithful to Adonai and to Shama the Torah. And it contains what may be one of the most important verses in this Parasha, Deuteronomy 11:16

Deuteronomy 11:16 TLV

Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

In the siddur the traditional Shema comprised of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21 (which is in this week’s Parasha and where the previous verse comes from), as well as Numbers 15:37-41.

I came to faith in Yeshua as my Messiah when I was seven years old and have been in the Body of Messiah faithfully since then. I was raised in Messianic Judaism, I was raised as a rabbi’s kid, and being a Messianic Jew is about all I’ve ever known… But, I’m going to be honest with you, I was in my 20’s before I ever really put much effort into making time in the Word of God a priority in my life. I mean, I “knew” the Bible on some level, and I heard it every week in Synagogue on Shabbat or in Bible Studies or whatever else… But, I never really put the time and energy into intimately knowing the Bible…

But, when I was in New York in college I took a class which was taught by my rabbi at the time (who I served as rabbinic intern under for five years) and he spent a significant portion of time in this class discussing the necessity for a believer to be in the Word faithfully and daily. He shared with us this Bible reading plan called Word as a Way of Life that he had developed shortly after he became a believer, and he challenged us (and by challenged us I mean it was part of our grade) to implement Word as a Way of Life in our life for the semester.

So, probably more out of obligation to the class and to get a decent grade, I followed instructions and dug in. However, I didn’t realize how much intentional time daily in the Word of God would drastically change my walk and my faith. You know, it’s funny how I could believe in Messiah without discipleship practices and be perfectly comfortable (and most of the Body is), but when I began to invest time in the Word and prioritize it daily my walk with the Lord became so much more… So much more rich… So much more excited… So much more hungry… And now years later and I still use Word as a Way of Life daily and I am still desperately hungry for the Word of God. My Bible now looks like a color by numbers coloring book, I have notes and comments jotted in margins all over the place in my Bible, and my faith and walk with the Lord has become so much more rich. And even though the Word Made Flesh was already present in my heart and life, the catalyst for who I am today in my walk was the distinct and intentional choice to begin nourishing my heart and soul with the Word of God both spiritually and physically.

We

And if we are honest there are probably way too many of us hearing this sermon today who have been in the exact same place, and maybe still are… We are perfectly comfortable with accepting that Yeshua died for our sins… We are perfectly comfortable with giving God a few hours a week in services or Bible studies at our congregations… But, we are perfectly comfortable with that being about it…

We haven’t necessarily been so keen on giving God much more of our time or life than that… We want a relationship with Him, but we don’t necessarily want to get into an intimate relationship with Him. We aren’t necessarily ready to drastically flip our lives upside down and become one of those “crazy Bible-thumping believers”… But, a deep and intimate relationship is exactly what God wants with us… And it is certainly what He is calling us through the Blood of Messiah to experience.

God

Now this Shabbat I want to focus on a specific aspect of Parasha Eikev that was absolutely vital to the success of Israel in the Promised Land, and still vital to the success of our walk in faithfulness to Adonai today. As we move forward I want us to keep this spiritual principle in mind…

Principle: If we are not faithfully devoted to the Word of G-d then we are not faithfully devoted in our walk with the L-rd.

(Repeat)

So let’s look at Parasha Eikev together today.

Deuteronomy 8:1–6 TLV

“You are to take care to do the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers. You are to remember all the way that Adonai your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness—in order to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvot or not. He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna—which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai. Neither did your clothing wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. Now you know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Adonai your God disciplines you. So you are to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God—to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

As you all know, I am a huge fan of context when studying Scripture, and the context of who exactly Moses is speaking to hear is extremely important to understanding what is being said. Remember, the entire book of Deuteronomy is at the tail end of Israel’s wilderness journey and the entire first generation out of Egypt has now died off with exception of Joshua, Caleb, and Moses—and Moses’ earthly life will be drawing to a close shortly. The first generation experienced the miraculous way in which HaShem brought them freedom from slavery in Egypt. They witnessed the might and power of God as He brought them victory and freedom from Egypt. They encountered the Shechinah and Bat Kol of HaShem at Mt. Sinai. But they also had substantial weakness that led to their demise, particularly that they never fully trusted in Adonai and feared the people of Canaan more than they feared and trusted Adonai.

But, there’s one major distinction between the 1st and 2nd generations of Israel that cannot be overlooked, and that establishes the context of this entire book of Torah. The first generation never fully trusted in HaShem. Remember, they barely got out of Egypt when they encountered the first hurdle in their faith journey—the Yam Suf—and they immediately lost faith in God and accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to die. Heck, In Exodus 4 Israel immediately believed in Moses’ report that God had remembered them and would bring them out of Egypt and they worshipped Adonai, then as soon as the process of freedom got difficult they lost all hope and told Moses he should have left well enough alone.

A moment ago we read in Deuteronomy 8:3 a reminder of the Man Hu miraculously provided by God that Israel ate throughout their wilderness journey, but if we remember in Exodus 16 Israel was hungry and instead of asking God for food they began to grumble and complain against him and (while conveniently forgetting all the trauma suffered in Egypt) they began to recall all the great foods the supposedly had to eat back in Egypt. So God miraculously provides Manna, which He continue to provide till they entered the Promised Land. And with that, in Numbers 11 we see Israel even complain about having to eat Manna and not having meat to eat (granted they had plenty of herds they could have slaughtered for meat).

So, the first generation of Israel out of Egypt had one major flaw they could never get over… No matter how much God showed up for them they could never fully trust and fear Him. And a big reason for this is because they were conditioned in Egypt to trust in Egypt for their provision. They were slaves in Egypt, they had no freedom, and everything they had was because of Egypt giving it to them. They only knew reliance on Egypt for their provision and sustenance, hence why they never could wrap their heads around how simple it could be to just ask God for something rather than grumble and complain about how much easier they had it in Egypt. No matter how much God came through for them, no matter how big the miracle, no matter how substantial the provision, the first generation could never get out of the enslaved mindset and fully trust in the Lord.

But the second generation… They really never knew slavery in Egypt, they never really knew reliance on Egypt for everything. All they really ever knew was the miraculous Hand of God providing for all their needs. They only knew and experienced complete and total reliance on God. They grew up experiencing the Manna just being there six days a week without fail. They grew up experiencing the miraculous provision of water. They grew up only knowing the miraculous reality that their clothes and shoes never wore out. The first generation could never fully trust in God because they couldn’t get out of the enslaved mindset, but this second generation, who in Deuteronomy are preparing to step into the Promises of God, had never experienced slavery or reliance on man for anything… All they knew and all they had ever experienced was the miraculous and complete and total reliance on God.

So here in Deuteronomy 8 Moses reminds the second generation to remain in this mindset of reliance on God. To remember that it has been Adonai who, for forty years, has miraculously provided food and maintained their clothing for them, Adonai not man, Adonai not Egypt… And as they are preparing to step into the fullness of the promises of God in Eretz Yisrael reliance solely on God for their provision, protection, and victory is an absolute must. Not so much in order to have victory and take the land, but more so so they do not turn their backs on God and become like the nations around them. Which is exactly what their predecessors did throughout their journey in the wilderness… They constantly turned from God and chased after the ways of the nations.

Now, with that said, one of the most common themes we see throughout Parasha Eikev, and really throughout Sefer Deuteronomy as a whole, is a reminder to be faithful to the Word of God. A reminder to Shama and Shamar the Word of God in our hearts and lives. This is the crux of the Blessings and Curses later in Deuteronomy, this is the crux of all of what we read in last week’s Parasha, and thematic is mentioned numerous times throughout this week’s Parasha. So, Deuteronomy 8:3 is very important verse that should not be overlooked.

Deuteronomy 8:3 TLV

He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna—which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai.

Israel had unleavened bread that they had prepared before leaving Egypt with the dough they had because of Egypt. But as they begin their journey to the Promised Land this unleavened bread is quickly depleted and they are getting hungry. How easy would it have been to simply say, “You know what, God caused the Yam Suf to split and dry up so we could get through to safety, He caused the waters to crash back down over Egypt’s army and eliminate our enemy, He did some pretty cool stuff in Egypt to bring us out here, and He just provided drinking water miraculously for us when there was no potable water in sight… Maybe we could just ask Him for food and He’d miraculously provide for us...”

But, obviously that would be way too easy… Instead we disregarded everything God had done for us to this point and this is what went down…

Exodus 16:1–3 TLV

They journeyed on from Elim, and the entire community of Bnei-Yisrael came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving the land of Egypt. But the whole congregation of Bnei-Yisrael murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Bnei-Yisrael said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of Adonai in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread until we were full. But you have brought us into the wilderness, to kill this entire congregation with hunger.”

When we are moving forward in God’s plan and things get a little tough, have you ever notice just how enticing the past really looks? When things are going splendidly the past is trash… All the pain and anguish we suffered… All the hurt and trauma, all the abuse, all the difficulties… All of that was terrible… But the moment our faith walk gets rocked a little bit suddenly we begin to only remember how “glorious” things were back then… And we begin to fall into old, destructive habits, and completely disregard all that God has brought us through and all He has done for us. Like Israel we begin to cry out, “Remember how easy we had things back in the day, remember how easy things were before we put our trust in Adonai…?”

Obviously, Israel is conveniently ignoring that they were slaves, that they were beaten and abused, that they were treated like trash…

But here in Deuteronomy 8 the Lord reminds us that whiles yes, the Manna is great, and getting to eat daily without worries is great… We cannot live on bread alone… We cannot survive spiritually on physical nourishment. We can’t solely rely on God for the the physical, we must press into God in the Spiritual as well. We must not rely on bread alone, but on every Word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. And throughout most of the rest of this Parasha we see Moses reminding Israel not only to trust in Adonai, but to remain faithful to His Word—to Shama (hear and respond), to Shamar (guard and protect), to watch our hearts that we don’t become enamored with the ways of the people of the Land and become disenfranchised with HaShem.

Principle: If we are not faithfully devoted to the Word of G-d then we are not faithfully devoted in our walk with the L-rd.

…

Deuteronomy 10:12–16 TLV

“So now, O Israel, what does Adonai your God require of you, but to fear Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes that I am commanding you today, for your own good? Behold, to Adonai your God belong the heavens and the highest of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Only on your fathers did Adonai set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them—you—from all the peoples, as is the case this day. “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore.

This is just one example of the Heart of God pleading with Israel in Parasha Eikev to maintain faithfulness with Him… To give Him their all—their hearts, soul, mind and strength… And at the end of Eikev we see Adonai’s promise that if we are faithful to Him and His ways He will be faithful to us…

Deuteronomy 11:22–25 TLV

“For if you will diligently keep all this mitzvah that I am commanding you to do—to love Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and to cling to Him— then Adonai will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours—from the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will be your border. No one will be able to stand against you—Adonai your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has promised you.

Now the reality is that as the first generation wandered the wilderness the greatest risk to their faithfulness to the Lord wasn’t the weight and burden of the Torah… Heck Moses says in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (and Paul reiterates this concept in Romans 10)

Deuteronomy 30:11–14 TLV

“For this mitzvah that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ No, the word is very near to you—in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

No, the weight and burden of the Torah isn’t difficult. The act of trusting in the faithfulness of God isn’t difficult either… All Israel had to do when they were worried or discouraged is think back to all the many miracles and victories Adonai had already provided for them. And the same is true for you and I today… It is so easy to hit a rough patch or a difficult moment in our walk with the Lord and get buried in the worry, doubt, and fear of uncertainty… But how much more rich would our experience be if when we hit these potholes in our journey we instead just reminisced on all He has done for us to date to find encouragement?

No, the difficulty for Israel was not in what God did or did not do for them… It was not in the difficulty of living out the Torah… It was in the shear overwhelming reality of temptation… The first generation gave into almost every single temptation that they encountered in the wilderness… Think about it: the Golden Calf… Grumbling and complaining against God over food and water… Rejecting the Promised Land over fear of the “what if” while the very spies spewing fear and doubt are holding the evidence that everything is exactly as God said it would be with the fruit of the Land they are holding… And even the Moabite prostitutes at Baal Peor… These only represent a few… They continually gave into the temptations of the world around them rather than fully relying on Adonai.

And this is exactly what Moses is trying to keep this second generation from falling prey to… They will still be entering the same Land with the same adversaries their fathers were afraid of, so they can’t give into the temptation of fear. They will still be coming against the same idolatrous people their fathers would have, so they can’t give into the temptation of idolatry. Shortly they will not be finding Manna outside their tents any long (as this miracle dries up when they enter the Promised Land in Joshua and begin to eat of the fruit of the Land) and as it does they must remember that the Manna was simply physical evidence of a spiritual reality… Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of the Lord.

Principle: If we are not faithfully devoted to the Word of G-d then we are not faithfully devoted in our walk with the L-rd.

But, what is one of the most powerful realities of Yeshua’s life and sacrifice for us as believers in Messiah? Well, let’s take a look at Matthew 4 for a moment and find out.

Matthew 4:1–11 TLV

Then Yeshua was led by the Ruach into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are Ben-Elohim, tell these stones to become bread.” But He replied, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took Him into the holy city and placed Him on the highest point of the Temple. “If You are Ben-Elohim,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written, ‘He shall command His angels concerning you,’ and ‘upon their hands they shall lift you up, so that you may not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Yeshua said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put Adonai your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Yeshua says to him, “Go away, satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship Adonai your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil leaves Him. And behold, angels came and began to take care of Him.

Yeshua may have been 100% God in flesh, but He was also 100% man… Which means He faced all the same temptations any other man would have… But, He set an example for us that we can overcome the temptation that our forefathers couldn’t overcome… But, again context is so important, this example in the Besorah is set before us immediately after Yeshua was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh… Why? To show us that the answer to overcoming temptation and remaining faithful and true to Adonai is through the power and presence of the Ruach HaKodesh in our lives.

And if you pay attention closely, you’ll notice that the enemy is not simply going to tempt us brazenly with the ways and wares of the world… The enemy is perfectly comfortable with coming at us with the contortion of the Word of God to fit his temptation and goal to kill, steal, and destroy… He came at Yeshua with the Word of God… Sure, it was out of context and bastardized… but that’s exactly how the enemy works… He will take the Word completely out of context and contort it to make it say whatever he wants and if we are solely living by bread alone and not by the very Word of God then we will never be able to overcome it. Too many believers have no legitimate relationship with the Word of God, they invest absolutely no time or energy into an intimate relationship with the Word, and as such when temptation is thrown at them and it is backed by the “Word of God” out of context they’ll never know the difference. And the enemy is counting on it...

But the heart of Deuteronomy as a whole is not blind obedience to the Torah, but rather a deep, intimate relationship with the Word of God… A deep, intimate relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… A deep, intimate reliance on God through a deep, intimate faith with Him.

Yeshua is filled with the Ruach, crosses into the wilderness, and spends forty days there… While in the wilderness the enemy is trying to throw all he has at tempting Yeshua and Yeshua overcome and rejects his temptation. The Word Made Flesh overcomes the temptation of the Word taken out of context because He truly knows what the Word says.

But, and here’s the beauty of it, Yeshua didn’t overcome temptation for the fun of it… He didn’t overcome temptation to show how much more awesome He is than we are… He didn’t overcome temptation so Matthew and Luke could write a cool story… He overcame the enemy’s temptation as an example to you and I that we too can overcome whatever the enemy throws at us. When we fail and fall to temptation it isn’t because we don’t have the ability to overcome and have victory, it is because the enemy came at us when we weren’t fully devoted to the Lord. But, when we are fully devoted to the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh, when the Word Made Flesh resides in our hearts and lives, when we are walking in deep, intimate discipleship with the Lord then it doesn’t matter what the enemy throws at us, we can and will overcome and walk in victory.

But to do so, we must embody the words of Deuteronomy 8:3 (which Yeshua quotes in response to the enemy in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4):

Deuteronomy 8:3 TLV

…

Principle: If we are not faithfully devoted to the Word of G-d then we are not faithfully devoted in our walk with the L-rd.

You

(Call worship team back up and unmute)

When you look at where you are in your walk with the Lord today, are you relying on physical bread alone? Are you relying on your own knowledge, on your own strength, on your own emotions…? Or are you relying on every Word that comes forth from the mouth of God?

Do you make the Word of God a priority in your life? It is one thing to welcome the Word Made Flesh, Yeshua HaMashiach, into your heart and life, it’s a whole other thing to be intentional about an intimate relationship with Him, to foster a scenario in which you don’t just simply say you love and serve Him, but that you love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

We

This, Mishpacha, is what we are called to… Mankind was created to be in intimate relationship with the Lord of all Creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… But we chose to give into temptation, we chose to fall prey to sin… And in doing so we created a separation, a void between us and Avinu Shabashamayim (Our Heavenly Father). That void has only continued to grow as mankind has only continued to choose sin and death.

But Yeshua came and offered His Life as atonement for ours. He came to offer His life that we may be restored and renewed, made new in the image and likeness of our Creator. He offered His life that we could become part of the Bride of Messiah and He made way that we could have an intimate relationship with our Groom. But what kind of intimate relationship can succeed without communication, without devotion, without wholehearted love?

I want to challenge us today to take the words of Parasha Eikev to heart and to deepen our walk and relationship with the Lord, to deepen our discipleship and intimate devotion to the Lord. How are we going to share the hope we have found with the world around us if we aren’t truly walking in that hope ourselves? I want to challenge each of us to make His Word a priority in our lives daily. I want to challenge us to seek His face wholeheartedly. I want to encourage us to strive to live our lives in emulation of Messiah. I want to challenge us to go deeper in prayer, in fasting, in worship, in solitude before the Throne. I want to challenge each and everyone of us today to press deeper into intimacy in our discipleship.