Nitzavim Devarim (Deuteronomy) 29:10 - 30:20

“You stand (nitzavim) this day, all of you before Yehovah your Elohim; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, Your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water: (Devarim / Deuteronomy 29:10-11)

All of You

Torah portion Nitzavim (Standing) begins with the injunction that all of you stand before Yehovah. So that none of you who are hungry for Torah has the excuse you didn’t know, or the claim that you didn’t take part in the covenant. None were left out, and in out Torah study today we will see that none were left with an excuse.

Even the ger, the stranger in the midst of the camp. These were not travelers who happened to be near the camp and 'just in the area' the day Moshe called the assembly. These ger are the ones who were not born into the house of Israel, but who decided to live within the camp and keep the Torah laws and instructions. Even these grafted in members are included in this covenant.

Take Part in the Covenant

Why are we all gathered and included?

So each of us can enter into a two-part oath and covenant – that Yehovah will be our El. And we will be His people – with all the ramifications that both of these covenants entail.

And not only to those who stand with Moshe physically on that long-ago day, but as he says, “...and also with him that is not here with us this day” (Devarim 29:15)

Those who were standing with Moshe knew first or second-hand about all of the things Elohim had done and continued to do for them. They saw His mighty acts, they ate of the manna*, and they experienced Yehovah’s protection against their enemies, human and animal.

But what about us?

Seeing is not Prerequisite to Believing

They saw, but we who were not standing there that day, have not seen.

Yeshua said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

That’s us.

We didn’t see Yehovah’s mighty works in Egypt or in the wilderness, all we have is the record of what happened but if we believe their account of the goodness and power of Elohim, we have faith, and choose to accept Him as our El, and agree to become one of His people, then we are among those who were not standing with Moshe that day, yet these are our promises – of blessing, and of chastising curses.

Choose Wisely

This covenant and oath belongs to us. As Moshe offered the children of Israel in his day, so the offer is made to us through his record – “I set before you good and life, and death and evil, choose life.” We can choose to accept and follow Yehovah our Elohim, or choose to turn away from Him.

If you choose Him, He chooses you.

You obligate yourself to keep His commandments, ordinances, judgments and statutes. You are no longer your own, you are bought with a price.

In Egypt, the price was the firstborn of Egypt for the firstborn of Israel. A shadow of the eventual firstborn of Elohim for His firstborn – Israel – all who accept His covenant and enter into His family.

When you accept the covenant to establish Yehovah – Creator of all things, author of the Torah, Savior, Redeemer, Sustainer of all – as your Elohim, and Yeshua as your Messiah, to follow Him, to obey Him and to love Him with all your heart, soul and strength, He accepts you as a member of His family. His firstborn. You are adopted (grafted) in to Israel.

Adopted as Children

You become one of the Children of Israel and can receive all the blessings and the chastisement promised to them.

Please don’t confuse this concept with the commonly taught replacement theology doctrine; That Christians somehow replace the natural-born children of Israel, or the Jewish people, as God’s chosen people. That’s not it.

As grafted in Israelites, we don’t replace anyone. We don’t dispossess anyone. We are grafted in to the ranks of Israel. We take our place within and alongside the natural born children of Israel. We flesh out their ranks and add to their numbers. That’s one of the methods Elohim is using to make Israel’s numbers as many as the sands of the sea.

Converting to Elohim’s Torah

In the past, we have discussed that the idea of converting Jewish people to Christianity is actually turning the process on its head. Yeshua said he came only for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The Jewish people have the Torah and they have the covenant.

At least in part, they keep the Torah, and don’t adopt or inculcate the religious practices of other gods. All they need to do is come home to their Torah, and accept their Torah teaching, Torah keeping, Torah fulfilling Messiah, Yeshua ben Joseph.

It is Christians overall who need to be converted. They need to turn their backs on their worship of other gods and get back to the Elohim of the Hebrew Scriptures. They need to stop the abominable practices descended from child sacrifices and nature worship, and convert to the Torah’s teachings and instructions and to the feasts of Yehovah.

Moshe warns about this very problem;

“If there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yehovah our Elohim, to go and serve the gods of these nations; in case there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; And it is when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart...’” (Deuteronomy 29:19)

Once we knowingly accept Yehovah as our El, He expects us to abandon all those Torah forbidden practices. How does a new believer go about the process of eliminating all the pagan practices and worship rites and cleanse his life of sin?

The New Testament disciples discussed this very issue;

First Step

“My decision is that we don’t trouble them, which are turned to God from among the Gentiles: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” (Acts 15:19-21)

The disciples decided that new believers should immediately stop certain practices that were so corrupt and disgusting that they wouldn’t even allow them to fellowship with other believers unless they stopped. If new believers weren’t willing to stop doing these few things, they wouldn’t even be allowed to go to synagogue and fellowship with other followers.

Were this list composed today, in the United States of America, it might be different. Most people living in the U.S. today aren’t involved in pollutions of idols. (Notice that two of the issues are food related.)

Now go and Learn

Notice also at the end of the Acts verse, “For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” This wasn’t an idle afterthought. It was an instruction. The new believer was to immediately stop doing a few degrading disgusting things, then he would be allowed to attend the synagogue. Each week he would hear the week’s Torah portion, just as we study here.

As the new convert learned the content of the week’s Torah portion, he could examine his life and begin, week by week to eliminate the things in his life that were sin according to Torah. He could start keeping the commandments, judgments and ordinances he learned about that Shabbat in synagogue. It would only take the new believer from one to three years to hear the Torah from beginning to end.

It is reasonable to conclude that as the convert heard the Torah instructions, he would obey them. That’s the key – Obey.

Why would a person who wants to be in covenant with Yehovah, and become one of His children, ignore Yehovah’s instructions and go after evil? Yet some do. I have talked with people who have a 20 year walk with god, but they are unwilling to keep His commandments, out of direct rebellion.

This Commandment is not too Difficult

I repeatedly hear refrains like, “Nobody can keep all those laws...” or “It’s too hard to keep all those commandments...” But Moshe disputes this concept.

“If you will listen and obey the voice of Yehovah your Elohim, keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the Torah, and if you turn unto Yehovah your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul.

“For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too difficult for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?" But the word is very near to thee, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” (Devarim 30:10-14)

Who will you Believe?

Who will you believe? Men, who claim the commandments are too hard to keep, or Yehovah and Moshe who say they’re not too difficult? “Let Elohim be true, but every man a liar.”

Following Moshe’s assurance that we can keep the commandments, that they are not too hard for us to keep come two of my favorite verses in all Scripture:

“See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command you this day to love Yehovah your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply: and Yehovah your Elohim shall bless you in the land you are going in to possess.” (Devarim 30:15-16)

“I call heaven and earth to witness this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you love Yehovah your Elohim, and obey his voice, and cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days.” (Devarim 30:19-20)

Join me next week to study portion Vayeilach, Devarim 31:1-30. Please share your comments with me. Let me know if you don’t want me to share your comments with our brothers and sisters who study with us.

Until then, Choose Life. Shalom.

*Manna in Hebrew is actually Mahn, What. The first time they saw the bread from heaven laying on the ground, they exclaimed “What - is it?” “Mahn - who?” Through transliteration the two words became man-nah, and in turn manna that we use today.