Blessed are You, YHVH our Elohim, You have set us apart by Your commandments and have commanded us to actively study Your Torah. Please YHVH, our Elohim, sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of all Your people Israel. May You open our eyes to see marvellous truths from Your Torah. Thank You for calling us who were once gentiles excluded from the citizenship of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no expectation and without Elohim- but now through the blood of Messiah we have gained access into the covenant and have obtained citizenship into the commonwealth of Israel. Blessed are You, YHVH, Who teaches Torah to His people Israel. Amein
והיה עקב S6118 – this new Torah portion ‘’Ekev’’ or ‘’because of’’ or ‘’the
conclusion of the matter’’ is basically stating ‘’that because we have
seriously and sincerely pleaded (va etchanan) for His mercy/favour that enables
us to walk in His covenant and to love
Him with all our hearts beings and strength. The conclusion is that YHVH will do for us far exceedingly above what we can ask or think, according to
His power that is working in us- Eph 3:20’’
Rom 9:16 So, then, it is
not of him who is wishing, nor of him who is running, but of Elohim who shows
favour.
ב וְהָיָה עֵקֶב תִּשְׁמְעוּן,
אֵת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים הָאֵלֶּה, וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם וַעֲשִׂיתֶם, אֹתָם--וְשָׁמַר יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ, אֶת-הַבְּרִית וְאֶת-הַחֶסֶד, אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע, לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ.
And
it will come to be
because you truly heard, and you took these judgments into your heart to diligently
guard them to do them that YHVH your Elohim will guard and protect you in your
covenant with Him and He will keep you in the kindness that He swore to your fathers.
As
we midrash over this Torah portion we need to honestly ask ourselves the
question – ‘’why and when will we see more of these blessings of obedience in
our lives’’?
Deu
7:12
“And it shall be, because you hear these right-rulings, and shall guard and do
them, that יהוה your Elohim shall guard with you the
covenant and the loving-commitment which He swore to your fathers,
Deu
7:13 and shall love you and bless you and increase you, and shall bless
the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine
and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in
the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
Deu
7:14 “Blessed are you above all peoples – there is not going to be a
barren man or a barren woman among you or among your livestock.
Deu
7:15 “And יהוה shall turn away from you all sickness and
put on you none of the evil diseases of Mitsrayim which you have known, but He
shall put them on all those who hate you.
Deu
7:16 “And you shall consume all the peoples whom יהוה
your Elohim is delivering over to you – your eye shall not pardon them. And do
not serve their mighty ones, for that is a snare to you.
Deu
7:17 “When you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I, I am
unable to drive them out,’
Deu
7:18 do not be afraid of them. Remember well what יהוה
your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all Mitsrayim,
Deu
7:19 the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders,
the strong hand and the outstretched arm, by which יהוה
your Elohim brought you out. יהוה your Elohim does so to all the peoples of
whom you are afraid.
Deu
7:20 “And יהוה your Elohim also sends the hornet among
them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are
destroyed.
Deu
7:21 “Do not be afraid of them, for יהוה
your Elohim, the great and awesome Ěl, is in your midst.
Deu
7:22 “And יהוה your Elohim shall drive out those nations
before you, little by little. You are not allowed to destroy them at once, lest
the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
Deu
7:23 “But יהוה your Elohim shall deliver them over to you
and destroy them with a great destruction until they are consumed.
Deu
7:24 “And He shall give their sovereigns into your hand, and you shall
destroy their name from under the heavens. No one is going to be able to
stand against you until you have destroyed them.
Deu
7:25 “The carved images of their mighty ones you are to burn with fire.
Do not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves,
lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to יהוה
your Elohim.
Deu 7:26 “And do not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be accursed like it. Utterly loathe it and utterly hate it, for it is accursed.
Midrash:
This sounds so amazing. For all of us, this has not been our experience. We do however experience times of blessing, however contrary to popular opinion life is hard and we all face enormous challenges. These only appears to be getting worse.
Joh 16:33 “These words I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you have pressure,/tribulation but take courage, I have overcome the world.”
We are called to walk by faith and not by sight – 2Cor
5:7
1Co 2:14 But the
natural man does not receive the matters of the Spirit of Elohim, for
they are foolishness to him, and he is unable to know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
2Co 4:18 We are not looking on what is seen, but on what is not seen. For what is seen passes away, but what is not seen is everlasting.
So, we might not be seeing all these things now, but soon we will and in the meantime we don’t just sit and wait for them to happen – we are called by YHVH to prepare our hearts to receive and walk in all the blessings His kingdom.
Isa 54:10 “For though the mountains be removed
and the hills be shaken, My loving-commitment is not removed from you, nor is
My covenant of peace shaken,” said יהוה, who has compassion on you.
Isa 54:11 “O you afflicted one, tossed with
storm, and not comforted, see, I am setting your stones in antimony, and shall
lay your foundations with sapphires,
Isa 54:12 and shall make your battlements of
rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones,
Isa 54:13 and all your children taught by יהוה, and the peace of your children great.
So, perhaps Yahshua had this Torah portion in mind when He taught the parable of the Sower.
The Parable of the Sower
Mat 13:1 And on
that day יהושע went out
of the house and sat by the sea.
Mat 13:2 And large crowds were gathered
together to Him, so that He went into a boat and sat down. And all the crowd
stood on the beach.
Mat 13:3 And He spoke to them much in parables,
saying, “See, the Sower went out to sow.
Mat 13:4 “And as he sowed, some indeed fell by
the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.
Mat 13:5 “And others fell on rocky places,
where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they
had no depth of soil.
Mat 13:6 “But when the sun was up they were
scorched, and because they had no root they withered.
Mat 13:7 “And others fell among thorns, and the
thorns came up and choked them.
Mat 13:8 “And others fell on good soil and
yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Mat 13:9 “He who has ears to hear, let him
hear!”
The Parable of the Sower Explained
Mat 13:18 “You, then, hear the parable of the Sower:
Mat 13:19 “When anyone hears the word of the
reign, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away
what was sown in his heart. This is that sown by the wayside.
Mat 13:20 “And that sown on rocky places, this
is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
Mat 13:21 yet he has no root in himself, but is
short-lived, and when pressure or persecution arises because of the word,
immediately he stumbles.
Mat 13:22 “And that sown among the thorns is he
who hears the word, and the worry of this age and the deceit of riches choke
the word, and it becomes fruitless.[d] Footnote: d Luk_21:34, 2Ti_3:4.
Mat 13:23 “And that sown on the good soil is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields – some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Sometimes there will be weeds – false teachers
The Parable of the Weeds
Mat 13:24 Another parable He put before them,
saying, “The reign of the heavens has become like a man who sowed good seed in
his field,
Mat 13:25 but while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed darnel[e] among the wheat and went away. Footnote: eDarnel looks like
wheat but is poisonous to man and beast.
Mat 13:26 “And when the blade sprouted and bore
fruit, then the darnel also appeared.
Mat 13:27 “And the servants of the master of
the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your
field? From where then does it have the darnel?’
Mat 13:28 “And he said to them, ‘A man, an
enemy did this.’ And the servants said to him, ‘Do you wish then, that we go
and gather them up?’
Mat 13:29 “But he said, ‘No, lest while you
gather up the darnel you also uproot the wheat with them.
Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I shall say to the reapers, “First gather the darnel and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my granary.” ’ ”
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Mat 13:36 Then,
having sent the crowds away, יהושע went into
the house. And His taught ones came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable
of the darnel of the field.”
Mat 13:37 And He answering, said to them, “He
who is sowing the good seed is the Son of Aḏam,
Mat 13:38 and the field is the world. And the
good seed, these are the sons of the reign, but the darnel are the sons of the
wicked one,
Mat 13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the
devil. And the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the
messengers.
Mat 13:40 “As the darnel, then, is gathered and
burned in the fire, so it shall be at the end of this age.
Mat 13:41 “The Son of Aḏam shall send out His
messengers, and they shall gather out of His reign all the stumbling-blocks,[f]
and those doing lawlessness,g Zep_1:3. Footnotes: fOr all the
causes of sinning/offence. gThe Darnel of Mat_13:25.
Mat 13:42 and shall throw them into the furnace
of fire – there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 “Then the righteous[h] shall shine forth as the sun Dan_12:3 in the reign of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Footnote: h Psa_37:29, Psa_72:7, Psa_75:10, Psa_118:19-20, Psa_146:8, Mal_3:18, Rev_22:11.
Remember YHVH Your ELOHIM
Deu 8:1 “Guard to do every command
which I command you today, that you might live, and shall increase, and go in,
and shall possess the land of which יהוה swore to
your fathers.
Deu 8:2 “And you shall remember that יהוה your
Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you,
prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you guard His commands or
not.
Deu 8:3 “And He humbled you, and let you suffer
hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers
know, to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word
that comes from the mouth of יהוה.[a]
Footnote: aSee also Mat_4:4 and in Luk_4:4.
Deu 8:4 “Your garments did not wear out on you,
nor did your foot swell these forty years.
Deu 8:5 “Thus you shall know in your heart that
as a man disciplines his son, so יהוה your
Elohim disciplines you,
Deu 8:6 therefore you shall guard the commands
of יהוה your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to
fear Him.
Deu 8:7 “For יהוה your
Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of
fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills,
Deu 8:8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines
and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey,
Deu 8:9 a land in which you eat bread without
scarcity, in which you do not lack at all, a land whose stones are iron and out
of whose hills you dig copper.
Deu 8:10 “And you shall eat and be satisfied,
and shall bless יהוה your Elohim for the good land which He has
given you.
Deu 8:11 “Be on guard, lest you forget יהוה your
Elohim by not guarding His commands, and His right-rulings, and His laws which
I command you today,
Deu 8:12 lest you eat and shall be satisfied,
and build lovely houses and shall dwell in them,
Deu 8:13 and your herds and your flocks
increase, and your silver and your gold are increased, and all that you have is
increased,
Deu 8:14 that your heart then becomes lifted
up, and you forget יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the
land of Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage,
Deu 8:15 who led you through that great and
awesome wilderness – fiery serpents and scorpions and thirst – where there was
no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock,
Deu 8:16 who fed you in the wilderness with
manna, which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and to try you,
to do you good in the end,
Deu 8:17 you then shall say in your heart, ‘My
power and the strength of my hand have made for me this wealth!’
Deu 8:18 “But you shall remember יהוה your
Elohim, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, in order to establish
His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today.
Deu 8:19 “And it shall be, if you by any means
forget יהוה your Elohim, and follow other mighty ones,
and serve them and bow yourself to them, I have warned you this day that you
shall certainly perish.
Deu 8:20 “Like the nations which יהוה is
destroying before you, so you are to perish, because you did not obey the voice
of יהוה your Elohim.
2Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but
even if our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by
day.
2Co 4:17 For this slight momentary pressure is
working for us a far more exceeding and everlasting weight of esteem.
2Co 4:18 We are not looking on what is seen,
but on what is not seen. For what is seen passes away, but what is not seen is
everlasting.[c] Footnote: cSee 2Co_5:7, Rom_8:24, Heb_11:1
and Heb_11:13. (the tension between the ‘’already and not yet’’ )
Heb 3:7 Therefore, as the Set-apart Spirit
says, “Today, if you hear His voice,
Heb 3:8 do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Heb 3:9 where your fathers tried Me, proved
Me, and saw My works forty years.
Heb 3:10 “Therefore I was grieved with that
generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not
known My ways.’
Heb 3:11 “As I swore in My wrath, ‘If they
shall enter into My rest...’ ” Psa_95:7-11.
Heb 4:1 Therefore, since a promise
remains of entering into His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have
come short of it.
Heb 4:2 For indeed the Good News was brought to
us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not
having been mixed with belief in those who heard it.
Heb 4:3 For we who have believed do enter into
that rest, as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, if they shall enter into
My rest...” Psa_95:11 And yet His works have come into being from
the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4 For somewhere He has said thus about
the seventh day, “And Elohim rested on the seventh day from all His works,”
Gen_2:2.
Heb 4:5 and in this again, “If they shall
enter into My rest...” Psa_95:11.
Heb 4:9 So there remains a
Sabbath-keeping[a] for the people of Elohim. Footnote: aThe Greek word is
sabattismos, which means Sabbath-keeping.
Heb 4:10 For the one, having entered into His
rest, has himself also rested from his works, as Elohim rested from His
own.
Heb 4:11 Let us therefore do our utmost to
enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of
disobedience.
Heb 11:13 In belief all these died, not having received the promises,[a] but seeing them from a distance, welcomed and embraced them, and confessed that they were aliens and strangers on the earth. Footnote: aSee Heb_11:39. Rom 14:17
The Coming of the Kingdom
Luk 17:20 And having been asked by the
Pharisees when the reign of Elohim would come, He answered them and said, “The
reign of Elohim does not come with intent watching,
Luk 17:21 nor shall they say, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ For look, the reign of Elohim is in your midst!”
Blessed are you YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given
us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst.
Blessed are you, YHVH giver of the Torah – Amein