Nitzavim / Vayelech - 2023

You Are Standing-And He Went ~ נִצָּבִים־וַיֵּלֶךְ

Be as children

Root word of nitzavim is nasab. It means to stand, take one's stand, stand upright, be set (over), establish, to be stationed. It has almost a military feel to it. As if God is talking to His warriors.

Deuteronomy 29:10–15 LEB

10 “You are standing today, all of you, before Yahweh your God, your leaders, your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, 11 your little children, your women and your aliens who are in the midst of your camp, from the choppers of your wood to the drawers of your water, 12 in order for you to enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath that Yahweh your God is making with you today, 13 in order to establish you today to himself as a people and so that he may be for you as God, just as he promised to you and just as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 “Now I am not making this covenant and this oath with you alone. 15 But with whoever is standing here with us today before Yahweh our God, and with whoever is not standing here with us today.

One of the things that sticks out the most to me in this opening passage is verses 14-15. This covenant is both exclusive and not exclusive. It is exclusive because it applies to Israel. But it is not exclusive because everyone can become Israel. And it is also not exclusive because it applies to future generations. On one hand, Israel means “wrestled with God.” But it can also mean the upright of God. Those that follow His way of life. Like the name of the portion implies. Stand upright. Be stationed. Be annointed. And as such, carry the responsibility of ensuring that future generations can maintain that status of being “the upright of God”. And that is what we see happening throughout scripture between God and His children. Especially with this idea of the blessings and the curses. So the theme I’ll be focusing on today is this relationship between children and parents and how it is mirrored in our spiritual development.

Many people are turned off by God because of the idea that He brings hardships on His people. What kind of loving father would allow hardships and pain and discomfort to happen to his own children, or worse, cause them? I’ll bring up a principle from psychology. If you’re familiar with Jordan Peterson, you’ve probably heard this one.

If your children are doing dangerous things carefully, be ready but don’t interfere. Of course, as loving parents, we don’t want to see our kids getting hurt or getting in trouble. But we also know that they can’t grow without struggle. They can’t learn without failing. They can’t gain experience without getting into some trouble. They can’t live without doing dangerous things. That is the way they learn and grow and develop. And the fact of the matter is, there will always come a time in our lives, where we are put into a position where we must do something dangerous. And not being exposed to danger and overcoming it and not having an adequate understanding of the danger, will leave us full of fear and hesitation and a lack of proper caution. This is a recipe for disaster. If they’re climbing out of the crib and you see that they are exercising caution and going slow, feeling for foot holes, trying to maintain their balance, DON’T INTERFERE. They will learn and develop so much more from accomplishing the task on their own, even if it means they had to fall a few times. Of course if you see them just full sending it without any regard to safety, step in. Maybe bring them somewhere lower, like the couch, and let them fall off that and get a taste of that negative potential. That will sober them up a little to perils of reality. That is what our Heavenly Father does to us sometimes to cause us to sober up and snack back to reality. Sometimes we need to go through the school of hard knocks. When scripture tells us that He sends hardship our way and causes us to thirst and hunger, that is like a father looking at his child. The father already told the child everything he needs to know to grow and develop without harm. But the child doesn’t have a full understanding like the father does. And sometimes they’re just curious. And goes to experiment for themselves. The father is watchful but allows them to proceed in their disobedience. How many can agree, we believe the conclusions that we come to ourselves, more than we do those that are given to us by others. This is why our Heavenly Father allows us go through the school of hard knocks and sometimes even puts us in that position. It is so that we learn and grow and realize that He was right and return to Him. This is why children tend to hold to their parents’ conclusion if they haven’t come to own themselves. Because throughout their early development stage, they’re parents were always right. All of the conclusions that the child came to, were the same thing that their parents have been telling them. And so as we go through our lives and our spiritual journey, we continually keep coming to the understanding that our Heavenly Father is always right and is a good and loving father to whom our growth and development is incredibly important.

Hebrews 12:4–11 LEB

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood as you struggle against sin. 5 And have you completely forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons? “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or give up when you are corrected by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves, and punishes every son whom he accepts.” 7 Endure it for discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, in which all legitimate sons have become participants, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had our earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Will we not much rather subject ourselves to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a few days according to what seemed appropriate to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we can have a share in his holiness. 11 Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.

Again, whenever we see in scripture that God has caused a hardship or a curse to come upon us, or even “forsakes” us, it is his disciplinary action on us and for us to bring about correction and atonement. At-one-ment. To be reunited. Just like a father leading his child through the school of hard knocks, the father has to “remove himself” from the child when the child decides to do things their own way and allow the child to suffer the consequences of not following instructions. Or in biblical words, He removes Himself when we abandon Torah and choose to suffer the curses. Of course when the child suffers the consequences of their actions, the immediate reaction is tears, regret, they immediately look for their parent and run to them, and cry and repent and want to be held and loved. This is an exact mirror of our relationship with the Heavenly Father. Except children are a bit smarter than we are. They tend to not repeat the same mistakes that caused them separation and pain. Whereas on the other hand, we stiff-necked and hard-headed adults tend to take a little longer to learn lessons. Maybe it’s because our heads are so hard that we need an extra knocking? This brings to mind Matthew 18:3 “3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you turn around and become like young children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven!” Aside from what was already discussed, what is so significant about being like children? They are born pure. All that they want is love, peace, comfort, and happiness. And they only express those characteristics. I have 2 children and that is all I’ve ever experienced from them. Whatever bad behavior that I observe now is behavior that has been taught. Either from external sources or by my own negligence. But even when they do express bad behavior, they know it. I can tell by their body language at the very least. This brings us to:

Deuteronomy 30:11–14 LEB

11 “For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too wonderful for you, and it is not too far from you. 12 It is not in the heavens so that you might say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 13 And it is not beyond the sea, so that you might say, ‘Who will cross for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.

Let’s break this down. “This commandment is not too wonderful/difficult.” Does anyone disagree? I’d say that this statement is accurate. If babies can do it, why can’t we? Aren’t we supposed to be bigger, smarter, faster, stronger than a baby? External/internal factors get in the way. Things such as pride and ambition. The right thing to do would “postpone” my goals by another 2-3 years. I’ll just violate this commandment and that commandment now and repent later. How often do people think like this, even on a subcontious level? All the time. But does that make the commandment too difficult? Or are we the ones being difficult?

Next, “It is not in the heavens or beyond the sea. Who will go get it for us?” As I like to keep saying, God and Yeshua never taught religion. They taught a way of life. A returning to being at one with the creator. Like Yeshua says in the NT part of this portion. John 12:44-46

John 12:44–46 LEB

44 But Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, 45 and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, in order that everyone who believes in me will not remain in the darkness.

Following Yeshua is ultimately being reunited with our Heavenly Father. A hurt child running back into the loving embrace of their parent. Separation from the Father is darkness, as Yeshua tells us here. Let’s backtrack this scripture to the ones that came right before Yeshua made this profound statement. John 12:41-43

John 12:41–43 LEB

41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory, and he spoke about him. 42 Yet despite that, even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be expelled from the synagogue. 43 For they loved the praise of men more than praise from God.

Claiming the God of Abraham is not the same thing as following Him. Just as chopping off your genitals and saying that you are the other gender doesn’t make it so. As stated previously, God taught a way of life, not a religion. Adding to and taking away from what God has established is darkness. Treating God’s word and principles as a checklist, or worse, a magical tome for personal gain is darkness. Conforming to other’s opinions and being fearful of offending someone for His sake, is darkness. Allowing your own pride and ambitions to make keeping his simple commandments difficult is darkness.

Matthew 18:4–6 LEB

4 Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child, this person is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, 5 and whoever welcomes one child such as this in my name welcomes me. 6 But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him that a large millstone be hung on his neck and he be drowned in the depths of the sea.

We are told in Isaiah 63 of the Prophets part of this portion what will happen to those that are dwelling in darkness when the year of His blood-vengeance has come. Unless we return to the Creator, by living the Torah lifestyle that He prescibed, we will continue to dwell in darkness. Being as children, we mustn’t be influenced by the world. After all, as Deuteronomy 30:14 “14 But the word is very near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.” Our default programming is Torah. Even our DNA sequence is witness to this. Our genetic code literally spells out YHVH YHVH YHVH, repeating endlessly. And we must rid our lives of the distractions and influences that lead to darkness so that when the our Heavenly Father looks at us, He can say, “Surely my people are children; they will not break faith.” as it is written in Isaiah 63:8, and He can become a Savior to us.