Dr Clifford Denton.
Devarim: Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22.
10th August 2024/6 Av.
On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law. (Deuteronomy 1:5)
Picture by Helen McNeill, including imagery linking to the Haftarah portion for this week, Isaiah 60:1-22.
Remembrance is a major theme in Scripture. It occurs in every book of Torah and is also in the majority of the other books of the Bible. God expects His people to remember what He has done in the past. There is not a neutral position. If we do not remember, then we forget.
Remembrance is a Hebraic concept. It is not a state of mind alone. If God remembers, then He acts on His remembrance. If He remembers His Covenant, then He acts on the promises He has made. God is not passive – if He were, what hope would we have?
Likewise, He expects us to live hebraically, so that when we recall His promises and the things that He has done in the past, then we go forward in our life with renewed confidence and trust in Him. Remembrance is dynamic.
The Feasts of the Lord are all times for remembrance. Each Sabbath Day is to be lived in peace and trustful rest. We remember that God created the universe and enjoy all that He has done and all He has provided. Passover brings forth remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. Shavuot recalls the giving of the Torah. Sukkot recalls provision in the wilderness years, when God’s people lived in tents, wandering from place to place. God built a weekly and yearly cycle for remembrance into the lives of His people. The times when Israel was in Egypt and in the wilderness on their way to Canaan continue to be reminders for all God’s people today, in their own right and also their fulfilment in Yeshua and His ministry, His sacrifice on the Cross, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the ongoing journey through the world as pilgrims, waiting for the future Kingdom of Heaven to fully come in.
Every good teacher knows the importance of revision so, in this way, Moses brought to mind once more the details of the deliverance from Egypt and the 40-year journey to Canaan. This was at the end of His ministry and before entry into the Land of Canaan under the command of Joshua. Moses was concerned that His people would recall and act upon all that God had done and taught them.
Despite the miracles of deliverance in Egypt a generation, now passed away, had not acted on their remembrance. They had failed to trust God for deliverance from the giants in the Land of Canaan. Despite it being so recent that Israel experienced God’s deliverance. The journey was only 11 days from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea (Chapter 1 Verse 2). The lack of faith, which began with ten of the spies, spread throughout the camp, ensuring that it would be 40 years before the next generation was permitted into the Promised Land. That is how easy it is to forget and to suffer the consequences which follow.
This lesson is not for Israel alone. The writer to the Hebrews brings the incident to remembrance as the foundational prompt for disciples of Yeshua to persevere in faith until the coming of Yeshua (read the entire Book and note in particular Chapter 12). The Lord’s Apostles as well as Moses knew how important the principle of remembrance is. Let’s take note: just as the Children of Israel could forget, so can we, especially when great challenges will come upon the earth in the Last Days.
The Apostle Paul warned the Thessalonians about a great falling away in the End Times:
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)
We have much to remember in addition to what we are reading week by week in our Torah Studies. We have all that is recorded in the rest of the Bible, concerning the Children of Israel, as the foundation for our understanding of the nature of both man and God. We have the wonderful clear account of Yeshua’s life, ministry, sacrifice and promises, accompanied by the teaching of those who walked the roads with Him. We have our own testimony of the Lord’s work in our lives, as well as of how God has worked through history among the nations. We have the account of past revivals and deliverances from world wars. Even so, we wake up each morning to a new challenge sufficient for our day and can easily become so preoccupied with each new day that we do not bring these great matters to remembrance. We might also be so preoccupied with our lives and pleasures that we do not find time to remember together what God both has done and promised. Such forgetfulness leads to fear of the future, just like it did for the Israelites.
Our study of the wilderness years and especially that sad moment when 10 spies showed fear and not faith might lead us to attributing blame to the leaders of Israel alone for the failure. However, importantly, it was not just the spies who were mentioned by Moses for their grumbling. This is what he said:
You complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 1:27-32)
The great leader Moses could not remove the fear of the giants even when he sought to remind the people what God had already done. Where did fear multiply among the Israelites? It was in their tents – among the families.
That is why we are emphasising the importance of family life in these studies. Challenges on this earth are already increasing. As Paul warned, there will be a great falling away from faith. Therefore, we must give time in our homes and in our families to constantly remember what God has done and what He has promised. This cannot simply be remembrance of historical facts, but engagement with the God of history through the power of His Spirit. Thereby, we will live hebraically where, as a family, we will be prepared to act in faith on our remembrances, each day, each week and each year, going forward into what otherwise will be a future that is a marked challenge to our faith.