Parashat Ekev: As A Consequence

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Deuteronomy 7 is a chapter where Moses instructs the Israelites on how to handle the nations they will encounter in the Promised Land. He emphasizes God's faithfulness, the need for Israel to be faithful, and the consequences of disobedience.

Introuction

Deuteronomy pictures the people of Israel standing before the promised land with Moses providing them instructions.
The call of Deuteronomy is Shema - which is not simply listen but ‘hear and obey’. Hear and obey the covenant God has made.
Parashat Ekev starts in verse 12.
The word Ekev in hebrew is translated as ‘Because’ in most of the translations ‘becuase you listen to these judgements’.
The name Yaakov is based on the same root - and Yaacov (Jacob) means heel.
Another way of translating the word ekev would be to say ‘as a consequence of’, hence the connection to the name Yaacov, ‘on the heels of’ something.
Here we have Moses telling the generation in the wilderness, about enter the land, ‘eikev’ or ’as a consequence of’ obeying the laws of God the result would be blessing and flourishing.

Remembering

the fist point i want to make relates to remembering
Deuteronomy 7:18 TLV
18 You are not to be afraid of them. You are to be sure to remember what Adonai your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
Here Israel are commanded to go into the land and destroy the 7 nations that are in the land.
God says that if Israel becomes afraid of carrying out that task, they should remember His mighty acts of the past.
I want to focus on this concept of remembering for a moment because it is central to the book of dueteronomy.
The hebrew word is zachar, and it comes up again and again - at least 15 times in the book of dueteronomy.
The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus but are repeated again in Deut.
The account in Exodus describes the reason for resting on Shabbat - anyone recall the reason? in relation to God’s rest on the seventh day of creation.
But the account in Deut gives an additional reason for why are to observe Shabbat. Anyone recall?
Read Dt 5.12
God wants us to remember that we used to be slaves, when we were oppressed, God brought us out of that and we are going to sit and remember that.
We are to be mindful of that and remember that God has done all of this for us - we were brought out of the fiery furnace.
We are mindful all the time of our history and how God has acted toward us.
The Shabbat acts as a reminder of what God has done. As we allow ourselves and our people and animals to rest, it is a reminder that we were not always able to rest.
There was a point in our history where the enslavement we found ourselves in forced labour at all times and every day - But God gave us rest.
Turn with me to Dt 7.5
Deuteronomy 7:5 TLV
5 Instead, you are to deal with them like this: tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images with fire.
First it is clear that God wants the worship of other gods to cease in the land. that can only happen when the people are removed from the land.
But removing the peopel from the land is only part of the task God sets before Israel.
They are to tear down, smash, cut down, burn. These are harsh words aimed at the remnants of the foreign worship.
What is a pillar? What is it used for?
the pillars were memorial stones and the reason they were erected is to remember the acts of the diety.
so what is God sayiing here? He is saying when you enter the land I do not even want the memory of the gods to remain in the land. remove their memory completely.
If these memories are allowed to remain it will pollute and distort history and truth - and lead the people away from God - they will begin to ascribe the blessings - the eikev - the consequences of blessing in the ‘good land’ to foreign gods and not to the only true God who has brought them out of the firey furnace of Egypt.
The Shema and V’ahavta tell us we are to have the word of God as the central part of our family life.
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (TLV)
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. 7 You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.
These are what we call merisms - the extremes - and by using the extremes it is meant to imply everything in between.
Duet puts a huge emphasis on us parents teaching our children the laws and commandments and statutes that He has given us.
Two things I want to mention:
This description doesn’t mean to simply a sit down and shove a bunch of facts into your children for an hour and then walk away as if you have fulfilled the intention that God has here.
No, this is a command to foster an environment of constant posture toward God by having his instructions form the daily language of our home life, and woven through every minute of the day.
But the second thing I want to mention is something I think our Western minds needs to come to terms with.
And that is we cannot effectively implement this command if we physically send our children to secular school. We cannot send our children to a secular system for 8 hours a day that is designed to be pluralistic and welcoming of things God does not welcome, where all the children from the surrounding nations and their gods gather to play, when the God who brought us out of slavery in Egypt has commanded us to teach our children in His ways.
This is a command for us as the parents and we need to take it very seriously. It is one of the heaviest commandments in the Torah, and I do not think we take it seriously enoguh,. and it is extremely distrubting. It should not be the normal pattern of believing families.
Now, I want to be careful here because I know some situations make this very difficult. For example, single parents without ability to homeschool or without the funds to send children to a Christian school my heart goes out to in these cases, and while there are single parents that have been able to accomplish this, it is rare. In these situations I would say God is a gracious and all knowing God.
But we are blessed today to even have online school away from the phsyical setting, i suppose when a certain age is reached, and even that is better if there is no other option.
But for the dual income households, we really need to check our movitivations and scratch to see if there be any idolatry in our land.
Are we leaving the asherah poles standing, are we not removing the sacred pillars?
I recognise that may not be a perfect comparison, but it is a comparison with some merit.
Indeed, the psalmist says Psalms 105.5
Psalm 105:5 TLV
5 Remember His wonders that He has done, His miracles and the judgments of His mouth,
Do we give our children the best chance at doing that?
Deuteronomy 6:8–9 TLV
8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Liminal places - these are places of transition - think of your front door - is it in the house or is it outside - it is in both but also belongs fully to niether.
These are the areas God wants us to mark so that we remember - in the home, outside of the home, in the community gates, outsdie fo the community gates.
We are markign to remember.
We are told to remember the past historical disobeidence.
We are told to remember the past historical blessings from God.
All so that you might shape your actions in the present.
So this is the question ebfore us as we stand on the east side of the promsied land, with Moses speaking to our generation about to enter the land - when you get into the land - will you set all aspects of your life in a position to remember?
Are you putting enough sign posts, transition places, pillars and stones, to remember your relationship with God?
Or are you leaving the memory of the foreign gods standing in the land?
have you torn down the Asherah poles of your past so that the name and memories of the past are gone?

The True Judge

I find that a recurring underlying theme in Deuteronmy is that the Lord is prictured as the true judge of all.
Deut 7.1-2 that God decreed that the 7 nations that lived in the land would be cleared and defeated by Israel. We are told in Deut 9.4-5 that it was the wickendess of the nations in the land that has evoked this judgement.
Deut 7.8 we are reminded that God judged Pharaoh and redeemed Israel from slavery.
Deut 7.9-10 we are told that God is a kind and faithful judge to the generations that are faithful to Him up to a thousand generations, showing them chesed ‘loving kindness’, but will swiftly judge the nation that treats His covenant with disdain.
What we have in Ekev is a call to remain faithful to the covenant so that Israel would meet a kind and favourable judge that brings flourishing, as opposed to the fearful judge that brings ruin and discipline.
But as a good God who loves His people, He provides them with the instructions that would allow them to prosper. God showed immense Grace in giving us these laws.
The Apostle John notices this and therefore says John 1.16-17
John 1:16–17 NIV
16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
I have chosen the NIV here because I think it does a good job of the translation.
Through Moses we were able to receive the law and reveleation of our God. And more accutely than that, through Yeshua, we are able to touch and talk to the glory of God as the very Word of God came in the form of a living human.
So God is a gracious judge.
But He is also a judge who is impartial -
Romans 2:11–12 TLV
11 For there is no partiality with God. 12 For all who have sinned outside of Torah will also perish outside of Torah, and all who have sinned according to Torah will be judged by Torah.
In other words everyone, regardless of background, from the nations or from Israel, will be judged by the true judge.
So we might ask why the fixation on Israel? What makes them so special that these 7 nations need be to removed from the land and given to Israel?
First, there is nothing special about Israel in themselves. In fact, the text says: Dt 7.7
Deuteronomy 7:7 TLV
7 “It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that Adonai set His love on you and chose you—for you are the least of all peoples.
And it goes on further in Dt 9.5
Deuteronomy 9:5–6 (TLV)
5 It is not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations, Adonai your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to keep the word Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6
So you should understand that it is not because of your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess—for you are a stiff-necked people.
In fact, if you follow closely, starting from this verse here - you are a stiff necked people - you will notice that all the remainder of chapter 9 and most of chapter 10 is describing and recalling the history of their disobedience.
How the people provoked God in the wilderness, how Moses received the Ten Commandments and immediately Moses had to intercede because they broke them,
Moses is going through great lengths to remind the people of their disobedience. Why?
Becuase Moses wants to impress upon them the consequences of obey and consequences of disobeying.
This goes back to remembering the past and history that we spoke about, and the consequences of the past.
so there is nothign special about Israel of themselves.
nevertheless, Israel is special because God has determined to bless them and to love them on account of the promise that He made to their ancestors.
And so the true judge knows how to blaance two things
on one hand - the promise to the forefathers and on the other hand, the wickedness of the nations.
the nations in the land are very wicked.
The Canaanites for example practiced fertility worship - they viewed their gods as male and femaile and so the acts done by the people were done to ensure plentiful rain, growth, harvest and herds. This would include ritual prostitution to invoke the fertility.
Child sacrifice was also practiced as a means of fertility and gaining military victory. Some historical accounts have foudn that a child would be placed on a statute’s arms, the fire would engulf the child, and the child would roll off into the pit with a mouth that seemed to be smiling due to the way the body reacted to the fire.
And before you think this is so barbaric just know that these babies were 1-2 months old, and are not that far apart from the secular western practice of partial brith abortions where babies are drilled and cut in the womb. it is the same sacrifice, but to a different god - the god of self fulfllment and pleasure.
Gen 15
So the point is that God knows all things and is able to render the true judgmeents and justice that is so desparately needed in this world.
So God wants to warn Israel against such practices because the consequence of doing this wickedness would be explusion from the land just as is happening to these nations.

The Danger of Compromise

In all aspecst these specific nations would lead Israel astray in every facet of life, political, social and economic.
Israel aleady has a covenant relationship with God, and by entering into formal agreements with the nations occupying the land it would be at odds with the covenant they already have.
If Israel were to remain in the land, and the other nations in the land as well, who would be able to say which God has blessed the people and the land thereafter?
Some could say it was the Asherah poles or Canaanite rituals that provided the blessing of fertility to the land?
We also read that Israel was not to intermarry with these nations because it would soften the heart toward the other gods of the nations.
the deep ties formed through marital covenant relationships would lead to dismissal of the national covenant relationship with God.
Israel was to understand that all covenant relationships they desired to enter should be seen as subordinate to the ultimate covenant the nation had with her God.
This helps to explain the perspective of the drastic reactions and actions that Ezra and Nehemiah had.
Ezra 9:1–3 (TLV)
1 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me to say: “The people of Israel, the kohanim and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands who practice detestable things just like the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites.
2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront in this unfaithful act.”
3 When I heard this report, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out some of the hair from my head and from my beard. Then I sat down devastated.
Nehemiah 13:25 TLV
25 So I rebuked them. I cursed them, beat some of their men and pulled their beards. I made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons—or for yourselves.
This is Parashat Eikev which means because - as a consequenc of.
Ezra and Nehmiah were living the realities of what Moses is putting before the people of Israel.
Moses is saying - eikev - as a consequence of obeying you will be blessed and fruitful.
But Ezra and Nehemiah are returning exiles. Returning from captivity in Babylon back to Judah. They were exiles from a people that were suffering the consequences before their God. It their day it was Israel that was removed from the land.
They understood the conesquences of - they understood Eikev - and so they read these words in our Parasha 700 years after Moses - and wept.
Ezra 9:10–13 (TLV)
10 “So now, our God, what should we say after this? For we have forsaken Your mitzvot 11 that You commanded through Your servants the prophets saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the peoples of the lands. Through their abominations, they have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness.
12 Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek their shalom or their welfare, so that you may be strong, eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.’
13 “After everything that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt—for You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and given us a remnant such as this—
They wept because they were living the Eikev - they were living the consequences of -
Deuteronomy 8:20 TLV
20 Like the nations Adonai makes perish before you, so you will perish, since you would not listen to the voice of Adonai your God.
Like the nations that will perish, so will Israel Perish, Eikev - as a consequence of - not listening.
But they now had an opporutnity to - just as Moses is speaking to the generation preparing to enter the land and saying to them not to make political, social and economic ties with the nations there, so now Ezra and Neh see themselves as the generation that Moses is speaking to.
They see the grace of God that has left a remnant and returned that remnant to the feet of Moses to rehear the parashat Eikev, and to decide if they will understand the consequences of their actions.
But how did Ezra’s generation respond as they stood before the promised land?
Ezra 10:1–3 (TLV)
1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and prostrating himself before the House of God, a very large assembly of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. The people also wept very bitterly.
2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.
3 So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Torah.

Conclusion

what I would liek us to take away from our portion in Eikev is that we all have choices to make and we all have to decide if we will truly serve the living God or if we will allow the practices of the nations to be our guide.
the consequece of obedience is flourishing - fertility, grain, rain, healthy, victory, fruit of the womb and fruit of the earth. A prosperous community with our God.
but the consequences of disobeidence is removal from the good land that God has promised.
the curses that land on the wicked nations will be the same curses that land on us, God is the true judge and shows no partiality.
the call is to set your life up with the markers and memorials of God so that the memory of God will be remain.
Some of you may know that God wants you to face somethign difficult but you are nervous, fearful about the consquences. But what are the consequences if you dont act? Do you prefer to wander in the desert for 40 years so that you have no abundnce of bread in order that you migth learn it is not the bread that sustains you aloen but the very decisiion of the living God to grant you prosperity?
Don’t be afraid - think back to what God has done - do you really beleive it? Then don’t be afraid to act. Go in. Take the land.
And maybe you don’t have to take it over all at once - maybe you can make a decision to move forward in that area of your life that needs ot be conquered - but do it little by little.
Trust that God will drive out those difficulties and challenges that you face - but jsut know that God does not suscribe to a ‘I’ll just sit here holy spirit you take charge’ mentality. Not sure where that was invented but it isn’t biblical. God expects you to work, action, to engage in the difficult battles of life - you have to make the effort.
But He is there with you, he is sending the hornet to clear the land, to prepare the way, the difficulty in front of you has been pre-pared by God to result in your vicotry if you would only make the effort.
And when you get inot the land - ensure you follow the comamndments.
What are the idols of your life? What takes the priority of God - finish this sentence for yoruself: “I know God wants me to but…” The rest of taht sentence is your indicaiton of the idol that God wants you to tear down.
And when you do,
Deuteronomy 7:12 TLV
12 “Then it will happen, as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them, that Adonai your God will keep with you the covenant kindness that He swore to your fathers.
And he will prosper you.
Close in Prayer.
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