Sermon Tone Analysis

A New Covenant

The name of our Parasha is Netzavim and it means standing, stemming from the fact that the people of Israel are said to be standing together.

But where are they standing?

They are standing before the Lord.

This is significant because it speaks to an official meeting between the nation and her God.

In fact, verse 1 of chapter 29 tells us that the nation was standing in the land of Moab across from the promised land and they were making another covenant with Adonai.

slide

Your translation may say that these are the words of the covenant which Adonai commanded Moses to make with the people, which is true, but to be specific, the Hebrew says these are the words of the covenant that Adonai commanded Moses to cut with the people of Israel.

slide

I prefer to keep the sense of cut because first of all it forces us to investigate from our modern lens what does it mean to cut a covenant.

Does anyone know what it means to cut a covenant?

To cut a covenant is a graphic description of the ceremony that often accompanied these forms of oaths taken between parties in which an animal was physically cut in two to make an agreement legally binding.

It was as a representation of what would happen to the parties should they decide not to abide by the terms of the agreement they were making and was common in the Ancient world.

This language - cutting a covenant - I think is valuable in understanding the formality of what was happenin in our Parasha.

This is a formal and important moment in time for the nation as they are about to enter the land.

In fact, we the text says this was a covenant separate from the covenant made at Horeb aka Mt Sinai.

This was a new generation entering the land.

A generation that needed their own oath, their own visual, enacted and formal entrance into an agreement with the living God who was about to prepare the land before them.

It was a new covenant or a second covenant hence the name deuteronomy - second law.

slide

A Covenant Community

slide

So in cutting this covenant what I’d like us to see is who is present.

Who are the ones said to be standing?

And what significance might that have?

The text says that heads of tribes, elders, officials, men, women, chidlren, and foreigners were all standing and gathered.

In other words, all the people, from the most esteemed to the least esteemed were cutting this covenant.

So what is the Torah teaching us here?

All were equally responsible to uphold their part.

Covenant responsibility is up to each of us.

If they wanted to avoid the curses as a nation, as a redeemed community, as a new covenant community, they needed to uphold both personal and collective obedience to the terms of the covenant.

I believe this is what the text is emphasizing in this Parasha.

Communal and individual responsibility to the covenant.

In your translation it may say “you are standing here today” but in the Hebrew it says אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים “y’all are standing”.

Or if you have the KJV it will say “Ye”, which is not a reference to Kanye West but the old English way of rendering the second person plural.

But without the Hebrew this point is still obvious because it says “all of you” and “each of you”, so the collective responsibility is evidently being emphasized here.

What’s more, the second person plural “y’all”, shifts into a second person singular “you and your” very subtly and seamlessly as the verses continue which you would not see in the English.

This switches happens from the plural ‘y’all’ to the singular collective ‘you’ in the middle of verse 11 where it says “your stranger who is in your camp”.

What comes before is second person plural and what comes after down to verse 14 are collective second person singulars.

In other “you” as a singular collective group”.

So, What’s the point of all of this?

The point is what I made before.

This covenant is one in which all for one and one for all really means something.

Do you think there were some righteous people that went into exile when Babylon invaded?

Of cousre, even Ezekiel was sent into exile with the people.

The communal nature of the covenant is why the entire nation suffered for Achan’s smuggling of the idols in Joshua 7. One man smuggled all men suffered.

By one man we die and through one man Yeshua many live.

What we have here is a Torah cantered Biblical view of the community and this understanding should inform our communities.

Of coures Israel was a nation not just a religious commiunity, but there are principles we can glean, no just from this parasha, but from all Scripture as to what our Torah communities should look like today.

Consider this:

What is a healthy Torah community?

A group of people who agree on the essentials

Core beliefs (Doctrine) - Authority of Scripture, Yeshua’s work and person.

Core Halachah - Word of God governs all final decisions with oral Torah/traditions as secondary.

A group of people who are willing to disagree and to continue to dialog on issues that are not clear, value dialog realising that dialog is essential for pursuing the truth.

A group of people committed to sharing life with one another.

spending significant time together

helping and loving each other in order to conform to Yeshua together.

A group of people that recognize living the Torah alone is impossible - you can’t love your neighbour if you have no neighbours

What is the primary reason for meeting together?

Primary Goal: ‘to create a community in which God’s righteous ways are consistently encouraged so that they may be lived out by the community and passed on to the next generation’.

community meetings are primarily for the building up of each other in the ways of God

the community meetings are not primarily for evangelism.

the community meetings are not primarily to attract visitors.

What are anti community traditions?

separting women, men

seeker friendly services

quiet reverence and children should be silient and removed

treating gatherings as spectator events

treating growth in numbers and finacnes as most imporant

How should a community be structured?

plurality of leaders - overseers and deacons - not a one man show.

Leaders gain authority from congregation, major decisions are communal.

Indigenous - not a pastor flown in from the outside to fill a job description, it is not to be viewed as an occupation, must know the sheep, will know the price paid to form and maintain

leaders must be qualified in character not credentials.

How do we measure the success of a community?

size of our online ministry?

No! Strength of families and growth in children = key

How are we doing with respect to love for each other?

Division, backbiting, gossip or patience, kindness, forgiveness, compassion?

slide

The Bitter Root

As we continue to read we get to verse 17 the community is warned when there is an individual or group whose hearts turn away from Adonai to serve other gods that this can produce among the wider community a root producing poinson and bitter fruit as the TLV puts it.

slide

What’s interesting here if you note carefully, very similar to what Ben described last week, we see a progression in the text.

We see the poinsonous root starting first with the head of the house being the man, then extending to his immediate dependents represented by the woman, then extending to an entire extended family, then extending to an entire tribe.

What is the picture we are getting here?

We are to see that a bad rosh hashanna apple spoils the whole bunch!

There is another point here that I want to highlight.

Note that it says root.

Have you ever tried to pull up a root?

I get these weeds in the backyard that grow these large elephant leaves and I hate them.

They have these roots that go way deep so that when you pull off the leaves, even if you pull off att the stem, the root is way deeper and the stems simply break off leaving the root.

What do you think happens to that weed in a few weeks?

It grows right back and then three more sprout up right next to it!

The only way for me to get that root out was to take a drill with a 12 inch long drill bit and bore a hole through and through that root until it was destroyed.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we go around as apple or plant inspectors trying to find somethign to cut out of the community, but it does mean that when a root has taken hold it needs to be dealt with being viewed as a serious matter that threatens the entire community.

In fact, it is often the case that you can’t see the root!

I find it interesting that the text says ‘whose heart turns away’.

Just as others can’t see the root we cannot see the heart.