Dr Clifford Denton.
Re’eh: Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17.
31st August 2024/27 Av.
But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwellingplace; and there you shall go. (Deuteronomy 12:5)
Picture by Helen McNeill. (Emphasising Yeshua at the centre of our worship, here featuring the pouring of water during the Feast of Sukkot)
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses ensured that the Children of Israel were reminded of all that God had instructed them over their journey from Egypt. We have a complete record in our Bible to consider together, in terms of both the Old and New Covenants.
By tradition, the Jews read the books of Torah over and over, year by year, never ceasing to ask how to apply Moses’ teaching to everyday life now. Christians should do the same, cross-referencing always to the teaching of the New Testament. In doing so we will find hidden treasures and new depths of understanding that do not appear through superficial reading. We will find that there are clear dos and don’ts but really, we are considering only the essence of the Torah through these dos and don’ts. Through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we find the heart of the Torah, and applications to life in harmony with Yeshua’s exposition of Torah in the Sermon on the Mount, and in Paul’s teaching from his letters.
Yeshua reminded us that, as Moses also taught, the summary of all that God requires is that we love Him with all our heart, mind and strength and our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40, Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18). Moses begins this week’s portion with the instruction to love God, and also to keep His statutes, judgements and commandments (Deuteronomy 11:1). Love is not a passive emotion – it overflows into a life that pleases God. Indeed, Yeshua taught that the consequence of our love for Him and one another is that we would do what He commands us:
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. (John 15:11-14)
Moses was a forerunner of Yeshua, laying down the principles of God’s Kingdom on earth, in preparation for the greater fulfilment in Yeshua HaMashiach.
As we read our passage this week, we are reminded that God’s teaching encompasses every part of life. Instructions were given for everything that occurs day by day, including what to eat, what to wear, how to live justly and in harmony with others, how to appear before God and where, including the yearly Feast days and the delight of a family celebration eating a portion of one’s tithe in the presence of God.
If we consider the lives of Christians today, we should be challenged by the totality of the lifestyle described for the Children of Israel. This was no Sunday morning and Wednesday evening life of a believer – it was a 100% commitment that encompassed all of life, every day and night, every month and every year – a people set apart from the world.
Moses looked ahead to the tribes settling in the Land and to the prescribed place where they would meet together at appointed times with God (Deuteronomy 12:5-7):
You shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwellingplace; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
Jerusalem became the place where the Temple was built to fulfil this command.
What of today? Has the Church building or the Synagogue replaced the Temple in Jerusalem for the place to meet with God? Certainly, congregational meetings for worship, study and prayer have much benefit providing they do not limit our growth to maturity in obedience to God’s commandments.
Yeshua taught the woman of Samaria a deeper truth:
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21-24)
We return to the point that God’s teaching is for a life of faith that manifests itself in every moment. The place of worship to God is not geographically defined as it was in the days when Israel settled in the Land of Canaan. We are a body of believers who interact together with the various gifts and ministries given through the Holy Spirit, and as Paul taught Timothy:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We remember that parents are called of God to take responsibility for the education of their children as it was in Moses’ day:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
This requires the wisdom of God in searching out an education that is in line with His teaching, making enquires, gaining understanding of what is on offer and, sometimes, making sacrifices to enable what is most appropriate. Every child of God is required to live out his love for God and his neighbour in all the ways that God has taught, every day and in every aspect of life. It is our responsibility prayerfully to search out what pleases God and brings blessing to ourselves and others. The home is as much a place for this as it was in Moses’ day, and even more so now that there is no prescribed central place for worship as it was for the Temple in Jerusalem.