By Joseph Shulam.
The reading of this Shabbat is incredibly special to me for many years, but this year it is exceptional for me and my family.
Va’etchanan is translated in some of the English Bibles
“I pleaded with the LORD at that time”, saying: “O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?”
The context of the beginning of this Torah reading is Moses is pleading that God would allow him to cross the Jordan river and walk in the. Land of promise. The expectation that Moses had was that God would allow him to cross the Jordan River and enter the land of promise.
Our Torah reading is from Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11. It is an extended reading, but also one of great importance for us these days.
The reading from the prophets, the Haftarah, is also of great importance. It is taken from Isaiah 40:1-26.
From the New Testament, our reading is from Luke 3:2-15.
In the land of Israel, but not only in the land of Israel, there is such a thing that is called Vitamin “P” – it stands for protection. It is based on the paradigm that who you know and who your friends are is more important than what you know or what you do. Moses expected that God would take into consideration all the good things that he did for the people of Israel during the 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert. All of his achievements would give him some advantage, and God would take his actions during the 40 years of wandering and make a concession to allow Moses to cross the Jordan River into the land of promise – the land of Canaan. The pleading of Moses before God didn’t help him. God doesn’t comply with the request and begging of Moses to enter the land of promise.
The drama in our reading this week is precisely this – the great leader Moses is pleading with God to allow him to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. God says to Moses NO! Here is the text in the English translation of the King James Version:
“Then I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying: “O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’ “But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.” (Deuteronomy 3:23-27 NKJV)
There is a great lesson for us to learn from these texts from Deuteronomy 3:23-27.
God doesn’t allow Moses to cross the Jordan River even when Moses is begging God. God’s response to Moses is that He is angry with Moses for even daring to ask the question to cross the Jordan River!”
The implications of this drama between God and Moses are so significant that we must dig deep and work hard to understand God and Moses’s desire to cross the Jordan River. We would gain necessary knowledge and understanding of how God works with us humans and what desires and demands from us humans.
Here are some of the considerations that we must learn from this episode in Deuteronomy 3:23-27:
God knows what he is doing, and our presumption must be that all that God does with us and for us is not out of arbitrary, unreasonable motivation. God’s prohibitions are all for our good.
We presume that God is going to hear our requests and allow us to be an exception, and He will enable the forbidden, dangerous, and out of order. We think that because God knows all the good that we have done and the money that we have contributed, he should open up His heart and make a notable exception for us, his faithful and special servants.
God’s answer to Moses is a fat big “NO” – you are not going to change my mind even if you are Moses! God says to MOSES, NO! You are not going to enter the promised land. As a human being and as a Jew, I am not used to getting a BIG FAT NO! from man, and I don’t expect to get a BIG FAT NO! from the LORD.
We must learn to accept God’s answers to our prayers at least as a temporary absolute. In a few days, we can try like the old widow who kept knocking on the door of the judge, asking for bread. The judge didn’t answer, and she kept on and on, until the judge said: “ok,” and gave the old lady her request. This tactic didn’t work with Moses. The very same Moses who was floating in the basket on the Nile river and hit the Rock to get water and brought the 10 plagues on the Egyptians received a negative answer to his request to cross the Jordan river. God’s answer even to Moses was NO! We must always be ready to hear NO! from God and hope for the Yes! from God and rejoice with both answers and praise Him. His wisdom is eternal and always true and wise for our good!
This is an unusual amount of text that I am bringing into this Jerusalem Prayer List because it is one of the key programmatic texts in the whole Torah and it embeds in it the paradigm of success for all generations of Jews and disciples of Christ and the God fearing men and women in God’s world.
“Therefore, you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day; what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did.
“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, “a land flowing with milk and honey.’ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD’S anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:1-17 NKJV)
The points that this text brings are not so complicated.
1) The God of Israel has proven that when there is obedience to His command the people of Israel can see the hand of God bringing not only victory over the enemy but the seeds of the land which God will bless and turn the desert into a land of water and rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD’s hands are always blessing with the rain in it’s season and the harvest in season and the sun is shining in the same way on the righteous and the sinner.
2) Obedience to God’s commands is one sure way to receive the Lord’s blessings. The Lord’s blessing is not only spiritual but also physical. The harvest and the livestock that are in your possession will also benefit from a healthy relationship between you and your God.
3) Your relationship to your enemies will be blessed and even your livestock and your fields.
4) The source of your deception is your idolatry and rebellion against God and His Torah (keeping of His commandments).
5) It doesn’t pay to go against God and His commandments because God controls the heavens and the rain and the blessing over the land that will bring the food in it’s season and the you will be filled with new wine and blessings that will prove to you that the land that God has given you is a land of milk and honey.
Reading the text of this week from the book of Deuteronomy and the rest of the Word of God must not be ignored because what we are being shown in these texts is the simple and fundamental truth that exists in every context of servant and master. If you do your job well and satisfy your boss with exceptional performance as a worker and a servant, obviously you will be accepted and appreciated by your BOSS – God, and receive more responsibility, and you will be increasingly trusted and be credited for the good work and performance in your life and relationship with God. It is not so complicated.
Christian’s stress faith. Faith in the modern world Christianity is straightforward to identify:
1) You and your family go to church regularly.
2) You contribute financially and you make sure that the leadership of your fellowship is informed and aware of your generous giving to your church. ( I know that the opposite is instructed and commanded in God’s word, but O.K. Obedience to God and His commands in the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation: There is no division or categorization between the Old and the New Testaments — all of it is God’s word, and all of the Bible has the same value. You read the Gospels and the letters of the apostles and see from which books Yeshua and the Apostles are quoting the texts to prove their points.
In our text from the New Testament from the Gospel of Luke 3:2-15, you see that both Yeshua and John the Baptist authorize the validity of their teaching with the words of the prophets in the Old Testament.
“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise, the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not. (Luke 3:1-15 NKJV)
Here is a summary of the sources that Yeshua uses in the text of Luke 3:1-15 to demonstrate that Yeshua’s teaching and foundation for the Good News is all based, without exception, on the words of the Hebrew prophets of what is called by Christians “The Old Testament.”
Luke 3:4–6 Isaiah 40:3–5 Direct prophecy of the forerunner
Luke 3:7 Isaiah 59:5, Psalm 140:3 Viper imagery = corruption
Luke 3:8 Isaiah 51:1–2, Ezekiel 36:26 Challenge to reliance on ancestry
Luke 3:9 Isaiah 10:33–34 Judgment imagery (axe/tree)
Luke 3:15 Malachi 3:1; 4:5 Messianic and prophetic expectation
Please go back and read the Torah portion from Deuteronomy, from Isaiah, and from Luke 3.
God bless you and please pray for the Shulam family, who are now in 7 days mourning for the death of my dear wife, Marcia Shulam. My family and I already miss her, and although we praise the Lord for His mercy that endures forever.
We are not shaken, nor are we fearing death.
We have the full confidence in all of God’s promises, including the resurrection from the dead on that great day of the Lord.
We are fully assured of Marcia’s salvation because of the promises of God in the prophets and by Yeshua.
We miss Marcia greatly and so very much, but we are happy that she is no longer suffering pain and limitations from her illness.
Our faith in God and Yeshua is based on God’s word from Genesis to the book of Revelation.
Our faith is not from religion, our faith is from God’s word, and personal experience in our daily walk with our Lord.
In Loving Memory of Marcia Saunders Shulam
February 25, 1949 – August 5, 2025
Marcia Saunders Shulam has entered her eternal rest-released at last from the wearying
pain of a body long burdened by chronic illness. She has been released from what once she
was bound. What once brought sorrow has been exchanged for glory. She has gone to the
place where there are no more tears, and where her joy is full-in the presence of her
Redeemer, Yeshua HaMashiach, whom she loved with all her heart.
Born to Horace Edward Saunders, Jr. and Roberta June Cummins on February 25, 1949,
Marcia lived a life of quiet power and deep, enduring faith. She was kind, godly-but fierce in
her commitment to the Lord. She stood as a pillar behind her beloved husband, Joseph
Shulam, through more than 50 years of teaching, leading, and serving the Body of Messiah
with one of the most enduring Messianic ministries of our time-Netivyah. Together they
travelled worldwide to over 50 countries. She was beloved and respected around the world.Marcia’s strength was not only seen in leadership. It was woven into daily acts of love-the
countless baby clothes she knit by hand for newborns, the meals prepared, the prayers
whispered in the early hours, the counsel given with honesty and grace. She held fast to the
truth, and she held people close.
She was the beloved wife of Joseph Shulam, the devoted mother of Barry Shulam (Beth) and
Danah Shulam Sanders, and the proud, adoring grandmother of Joey Shulam and Noaam
Sanders. Her love for them was fierce, protective, and unshakable.
She is also remembered with deep affection by her brothers-Dr. Horace Saunders III
(Phyllis), Scott Saunders (Susan), and Nathan Saunders (Ruth)-as well as by a circle of nieces,
nephews, and extended family who were blessed by her presence, her strength, and her
fierce devotion.
Marcia lived in covenant-rooted in the Scriptures, walking out her faith with integrity and
passion. She embodied the words of Proverbs 31:
“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come… Many women
do noble things, but you surpass them all “
Her absence leaves a quiet ache, but her memory is a blessing that will not fade.
She has fought the good fight. She has finished her race. And now-she has found her peace
within the gates of the Holy City.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to Netivyah International who is establishing a
scholarship fund in honor of Marcia Shulam.