Blessed are You, YHVH our Elohim, King of the universe, who has made us set apart through His commandments and commanded us to actively study Torah. Please YHVH, our Elohim, sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of all Your people Israel. May we and our offspring, and the offspring of Your people, the House of Israel, may we all, together, know Your Name and study Your Torah for the sake of fulfilling Your desire. Blessed are You, YHVH, Who teaches Torah to His people Israel. Blessed are You, YHVH our Elohim, King of the universe, Who chose us from all the nations and gave us the Torah. Blessed are You, YHVH, Giver of the Torah.
Septenial
cycle portion 155 – Deut. 12:20–13:12 = 24v. כִּי-יַרְחִיב Heshvan 10 5882
Due to the length of this portion in the Triennial Torah cycle (3years) I have chosen to follow the Septennial cycle (three and a half years)/
This Torah portion focuses on the very essence of our relationship with YHVH, His Anointed One Messiah, the Covenant-community and the nations. Sadly, history shows that the instructions were seldom obeyed. The one thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.
However, the reality of Covenant life in the Kingdom remains a prophetic promise to a small end-time remnant who receive favour to walk in His Covenant truth:
Presently, we are relatively ‘’barren’’ regarding His Covenant life.
Isa 54:1 “Sing, O barren one, you who did not bear!
Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not been in labour! For
the children of the deserted one are more than the children of the married
woman,” said יהוה.
Isa 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let
them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not. Lengthen your
cords, and strengthen your stakes.
Isa 54:3 “For you shall break forth to the right
and to the left, and your seed inherit the nations, and make the deserted
cities inhabited.
Isa 54:4 “Do not fear, for you shall not be put to
shame, nor hurt, you shall not be humiliated. For the shame of your youth you
shall forget, and not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
Isa 54:5 “For your Maker is your husband, יהוה
of hosts is His Name, and the Set-apart One of Yisra’ěl is your Redeemer. He is
called the Elohim of all the earth.
Isa 54:6 “For יהוה has called you like a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when you were
refused,” declares your Elohim.
Isa 54:7 “For a little while I have forsaken you,
but with great compassion I shall gather you.
Isa 54:8 “In an overflow of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving-commitment I shall have compassion on you,” said יהוה, your Redeemer.
Col 3:6 Because of these the wrath of Elohim is coming upon the sons of disobedience,a Footnote: a Eph_2:2, Eph_5:6.
The
Greek word for ‘’disobedience’’ is ‘’apatheias’’- its root implies ‘’unpersuadable,
refusing to apologise, stubborn’’
This same word is used in - Heb 4:6 “Since then it remains for some to enter into it, and those who formerly received the Good News did not enter in because of disobedience….”.
Once
again this week’s Portion calls Yisrael to see ‘’re eh’’ all that Covenant life is and
as we embrace and guard the Words of the Torah – His Covenant with Yisrael- it
will become a blessed legacy for all nations - Deu 12:28
“Guard, and obey all these words which I command you, that it might be well
with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good
and right in the eyes of יהוה your Elohim.”
Deu 12:20
“When(not if) יהוה your Elohim
enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’
because you long to eat meat, you eat as much meat as your being desires.
Yisrael will not only return
to the land but after they have returned to the land the borders will be
enlarged.
Even in their increase and
prosperity Yisrael is given strict instruction – This teaches us that in our
abundance and prosperity we must especially be on our guard-to-guard YHVH’s
Words – His Covenant.
Deu 12:21 “When (not if)the place where יהוה your Elohim chooses to put His Name is too
far from you, then you shall slaughter from your herd and from your flock which
יהוה has given you, as I have commanded you,
and you shall eat within your gates as much as your being desires.
Deu 12:22 “Only, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten,
so you are to eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike eat of it. (refers to
a person’s state of ritual cleanness or uncleanness regarding the Temple altar)
Deu 12:23 “Only, be firm not to eat the blood, for the
blood is the life, do not eat the life with the meat.
Deu 12:24 “Do not eat it, you pour it on the earth like
water.
Deu 12:25 “Do not eat it, that it might be well with
you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the eyes of יהוה.
Deu 12:26 “Only, the set-apart gifts which you
have, and your vowed offerings, you are to take up and go to the place which יהוה chooses. (Yerushalayim)
Deu 12:27 “And you shall make your burnt offerings, the
meat and the blood, on the altar of יהוה your Elohim.
And the blood of your offerings is poured out on the altar of יהוה your Elohim, and you eat the meat.
Deu 12:28 “Guard, and obey all these words which I
command you, that it might be well with you and your children after you forever,
when you do what is good and right in the eyes of יהוה your Elohim.
Deu 12:29 “When יהוה your Elohim
does cut off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you
dispossess them and dwell in their land,
Deu 12:30 guard yourself that you are not ensnared to
follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not
inquire about their mighty ones, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their
mighty ones? And let me do so too.’1 Footnote: 1See also
18:9, Lev. 18:3, Jer.10:2, Ezek. 11:12 & 20:32, Eph. 4:17, and 1 Peter 4:3
Deu 12:31 “Do not do so to יהוה your Elohim, for every abomination which יהוה hates they have done to their mighty ones,
for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty ones. (abortion)
Deu 12:32 “All the words I am commanding you, guard to
do it – do not add to it nor take away from it.1 Footnote: 1See
also 4:2, Prov. 30:6, Rev. 22:18-19.
Deu 13:1 “When there arises among you a prophet or a
dreamer of dreams, and he shall give you a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2
and the sign or the wonder shall come true, of which he has spoken to
you, saying, ‘Let us go after other mighty ones – which you have not known –
and serve them,’
Deu 13:3
do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams,
for יהוה your Elohim is
trying you to know whether you love יהוה your Elohim
with all your heart and with all your being.
Deu 13:4 “Walk after יהוה your Elohim and fear Him, and guard His commands and obey His voice, and serve Him and cling to Him.