D'varim/Deuteronomy
CHAPTER 3
23. "And I begged YHWH to show pity [ethkhanan] at that time, saying,
Begged: This connotes that Moshe lowered himself and let go of every bit of his pride.
24. "‘Master, YHWH, You have [only just] begun to show your servant Your greatness, Your strong hand--who [else] is an El like [You] in the heavens or on earth, who can do the likes of Your works or Your power?
He had seen miracle after miracle, and spoken face to face with YHWH on numerous occasions. He had seen YHWH's afterglow--the most a human being could see and still survive. Yet it was only beginning. Now Israel was finally proving to be a people compliant with YHWH's wishes, and he wanted to see the fruition of this. He felt that YHWH had not finished what he started. He is saying, “You can do anything you want; surely You can figure out a way to do this for me:”
25. "‘Please let me cross over and see the pleasant Land that is beyond the Yarden--this pleasant mountain and the Levanon!'
This is still our prayer today. Pleasant mountain: by tradition, a reference to Mt. Moryah, where Yaaqov had foreseen YHWH’s messengers serving. Levanon: in the general sense, the snow-capped mountains north of the city of Dan, full at that time of the equivalent of redwood forests—truly a wonder to behold in itself. But the word means "the whitest", and the rabbinic writings say this really refers to the dazzlingly- white Temple to be built on Mt. Moryah and its connection to the heavenlies, for Yerushalayim’s palaces and the Temple would indeed be largely built from cedars of Levanon.
26. "But YHWH passed over me for your sake and would not listen to me, but YHWH told me, ‘[This is too] much [for] you; don't ever say another word to Me about this!'
Moshe did not have the temperament to lead a military campaign to take the Land, which is what was needed now. Israel needed a different kind of leader. Y’hoshua was a warrior more than he was a shepherd—and Israel needed this because there would be war for years to come. The season had changed. If Moshe went along, the people might not be able to fully shift their allegiance to Y’hoshua as leader. Y’hoshua might not even be able to learn to hear YHWH for himself, because Moshe was his teacher and he was used to deferring to him, and he might have a hard time taking charge if he were still alive. Or Moshe might end up being a “lame duck” leader when everyone could see that Y’hoshua was the one who was made for this job; Moshe might have proven too merciful, and no one could afford to continue to be whiners when there were wars to fight. YHWH had to “set him up” somehow, and there was only one event He could find that would disqualify Moshe. Yet this way he could die in honor instead of in disgrace. YHWH was actually having mercy on Moshe, and He had let him live a full life with no deterioration. He does not have to explain Himself to anyone, but with Moshe He did. He tells him to stop asking, because usually Moshe has been able to persuade Him to relent, and He loves Moshe so much that He knows He just might do so again if Moshe persists, and this would not be what was best for Israel at this time.
27. "‘Go up to the head of the summit and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and see [it] with your eyes, because you will not cross over this Yarden.'
YHWH does relent just a little. Moshe at least gets to see the Land he will not set foot in. Still, he must have felt like he was being kicked. He had been faithful for so long, and YHWH was not going to let him have this? And even harder to take was the fact that someone else would give the people all that he was looking at:
28. "‘But appoint Y'hoshua and strengthen him and make him courageous, because he shall cross over before this people and cause them to take possession of the land which you will see.'
Moshe could not do what he had obviously earned the right to do, but YHWH did want him to help someone else do it, like David with the Temple. An ordinary person might have quit at this point. As with so many corporations that find a reason to fire someone just before he qualifies for his pension, it was time for the payoff, and he would not get it, yet he was being told to make someone else ready to receive it. He has to hand off the baton just before he gets to the finish line, and someone else actually gets to carry it across. It is hard to see the justice in this, but who are we to judge YHWH? He loves us, but we do not have Him on a leash. This is fair warning for anyone who wishes to serve YHWH: If you cannot see yourself as part of a line that leads to something, even if you yourself might not get to see the reward, do not sign up to work for Him. No matter how close He is to Moshe, YHWH still has to look at the overall covenant and what will best fulfill the promises He made to the patriarchs. This covenant is about seed, not individual plants. Your seed may go to the next plant, but it may not necessarily be your own fruit on the King’s table. YHWH does not owe us anything personally; the covenant He made is with all of us, not just one particular seed of Avraham.
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CHAPTER 4
1. "So this time, Israel, listen to the prescribed boundaries and the proper legal procedures which I am teaching you to carry out, so that you may survive, enter in, and take possession of the Land which YHWH, the Elohim of your ancestors, is giving to you.
Leave it to Moshe! What is his reaction to seemingly being let down by YHWH? He teaches. He was told to prepare Y’hoshua, and he does this indirectly, by preparing the people to follow Y’hoshua. Moshe knows that the only way he will get to go into the Land is if his teachings accompany the people there. His request was refused, so he just does what needs to be done for the sake of the covenant. He does not storm out and threaten to go worship Ba’al instead; he does increase his replacement’s strength by strengthening those Y’hoshua will lead. He gives the people a “formula”: If you do this, then, umlike me, you will live, and go in and possess the Land. He is also teaching us how to go Home, if we will listen. This time: Their parents had not listened (or taken heed--a term which includes hearing intelligently, consent, and obedience). Since Moshe will not be going with them to the Land, this is his last occasion to prod them to do better. “Listen” does not do justice to the meaning of the word used here: shema’. It implies obedience. Acting on what we see in the Torah is a crucial part of such listening. But we cannot obey if we are not careful to hear exactly what is being said. He does not wish to tell us a third or fourth time, after we screw up. We need to pay attention and let nothing distract us. This may be another reason Moshe repeated the commands when they were in a more ordinary place, rather than at Mt. Sinai with all of its “special effects”, which would seem surreal. It counts more this time as well, because we are about to take the Land. Do we want to stay there once we arrive? We have heard it before, but this time we must really hear it and put our hands to it. If Moshe was being kept out of the Land for one infraction, how much more strict would be the expectations once they got into the Land? These are the guard rails and the lines within which we must stay if we want life in Israel to work—whether in the Land itself or in the Israelite communities forming to get us there. We must learn them quickly. They must become second nature to us, because our life—and our children’s--depends on it. Prescribed boundaries: Limits, rulings, and enactments added to the initial commands He gave at Sinai (see vv. 13-14) for special purposes, when particular instances came up in the wilderness that needed further clarification (Ex. 18:16-23); e.g., the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-35) or gathering a double portion of manna the day before the Sabbath (Ex. 16:22ff). They set a precedent for later rulings where specifics are not given in the Torah but where unity is needed, but the underlying principles should be taught before the problems come up. Moshe could not rule on every situation; he recognizes the need to make sure the leaders who are under him know what is right and wrong, so that they can interpret the smaller matters, and so they can teach the people to govern themselves and judge according to the precedents he has already set. Past rulings are now the law. Some examples are in Exodus 22-24. Legal procedures: verdict between two or more ways of interpreting. He does not even include the Torah in this verse. He is identifying a problem are: we need to listen not just to the Torah but to the rulings made (in accordance with Torah) by our properly-constituted authorities, and Moshe counts this as just as important. One of our biggest obstacles is an inability to listen to what the people in charge say, for to those under their jurisdiction, they are “torah” just as much as Moshe’s own rulings are. Unless specified as “this time only”, they are no longer circumstantial; they are binding once the ruling has been made. The particulars may not turn out to be the same for everyone; what one judge rules will be binding on those under his jurisdiction, but not necessarily his neighbors, though every ruling must be “constitutional”—according to the broader principles of the Torah. Many of us had to rebel to break free from what held us captive, but now we need to learn to submit to the pain of being taught by proper Torah authorities, no matter how much danger there may be of abuse, because this is the only path home. If you think too much of yourself to be taught, you are a goat, not a sheep, for goats are scattered, seeking what interests them, while sheep stay together and are there for one another, as well as being teachable. The Hebrew word for “teach” means “to prod with a sharp stick”. If we submit, we will live. The prodding reveals our potential, and we move into the place we are meant to take. We have to be in a certain place to receive life; rebels never truly live. The way that seems right to a man ends in death. (Prov. 14:12) Every time we were arrogant and thought we knew better than Moshe, people ended up dead. Follow the rules, walk in the order established, or you will not even live to see the Land, let alone stay there, as Moshe learned after putting things in the wrong order only once. Do not imagine that going back to Israel will be like Disneyland; the return of the lost sheep is only the beginning. It is only one step, as important as it is. It is not just sitting there for the taking; it will not just be given to us. We have to take possession, and there are other people to dispossess—not Yehudah, but others who wish to hold onto the Land in the name of another elohim. Do not spiritualize this away by saying it is really about Yahshua, the later Y'hoshua, because it is not an abstract calling, but reality.
2. "Do not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor diminish it in any way, so that you can carefully guard the commandments of YHWH your Elohim that I am laying upon you.
If we add to it, we will by necessity diminish some other part, because it already holds the perfect balance when we obey each part in season rather than exaggerating an emphasis on any one part, which leaves us no time or resources to keep some of the other parts. But Moshe is not being redundant or poetic; he is talking about two different things: not just the direct words of YHWH, but his explanation of how to keep it. If we want to effectively guard YHWH’s own words, we cannot add to or change anything Moshe himself has already ruled on. We have to do it his way, not just YHWH’s, for the former builds a fence around the latter, to protect it. We may not undermine anything that does not sit well with us, or we too will sit out in the wilderness until we have all died off—a terrifying thought. This is what will separate the sheep and the goats—those who will go home and those who want to keep going their own way (which sickens YHWH, Yeshayahu 65:1ff): we can only enter the Land if we are in order; otherwise we will defile it so quickly that it will vomit us right back out. (See Prov. 14:11-12; Lev. 18:28) If we try to find our own ways to live there, rather than waiting on the timing of those in authority, we are likely to become cannon fodder. We may not be comfortable with this, but it is better than our own way, so we have to at least learn to appreciate it. Moshe had to trust YHWH, and we have to trust him. Yahshua echoes this warning, reminding us that one who diminishes the Torah will receive a commensurately low position in His Kingdom. (Mat. 5:18-19; see also Rev. 22:18-19 and Prov. 30:5-6) Add: anything more that is said about them should only be to make the meaning clear, not to mandate new requirements. Minor rulings are to be applications of the root principle to a particular case; the "way of walking it out" is open to interpretation and may vary according to the community or tribe, but where a ruling is made, one under that authority is bound by it. So it is imperative that, as in Moshe’s day, people in positions of authority are chosen based on how well they know the Torah, for it sets the parameters for how to interpret any other Scripture.
3. "Your own eyes see what YHWH has done to Ba-al-Pe'or, because YHWH your Elohim has exterminated from your midst any man who walked after Ba'al-Pe'or.
Here is a concrete example Moshe uses of the types of rulings he is talking about. The reference is to Numbers 25:1-5, when the Midyanite women only invited us to dinner, but it turned out to be dedicated to their elohim, so YHWH saw them as having gotten married to them, and a Midyanite woman brought pagan religion right into the sanctuary. The rebellion that is only between our ears is even worse, because that is done “in the dark”. What became of these who tried to add or take away, or who tried to mold it to fit their own minds, was something recent that this whole generation had seen. The command to destroy the perpetrators did not come from Sinai, but was based on what did. He enacted a new rule that would keep us from even coming close to changing YHWH’s words, for if we mess with Moshe’s words, it will not be long before we mess with YHWH’s as well. The idea in submitting to the leaders He gave us is not that we stop thinking or being creative, but that we stop rebelling.
4. "But you who stuck close to YHWH your Elohim are alive today--all of you.
Stuck close: pursued hard, clung or adhered to—like a frightened child who runs to his parents and scrambles up into their arms, holding on as tightly as possible. The parallelism here tells us clearly that what constitutes sticking close to YHWH is obedience to these rules he is talking about. It is not just a stiff literal obedience, but seeking His face, trying hard to know Him, becoming comfortable with all of His commandments. Conversely, if we do things our own way, we are letting go of YHWH.
5. "Observe closely! I have taught you prescribed limits and principles of proper judgment, just as YHWH my Elohim has ordered me [to do], so you may carry them out inside the Land to which you are going in order to inherit it.
These prescribed customs were not just so our ancestors could make it through the wilderness or so they could pat themselves on the back for doing so well or have a nice story to tell, but so they would be strong enough to take possession of the Land. These were practice for the Land, so we could become skilled before arriving there and be ready to enter. They could not make new laws once they got into the Land, as Yehudah’s secular government has tried to do. We must uphold these rulings even more so when we get there, but we must start submitting to them now, or we will never be ready to go there, and He will not want us in His Land anyway. He does not want a land full of rebels. If our attitude is, “If YHWH wants me to do these things, He will tell me himself; I don’t need Moshe to tell me what to do!”, it is little wonder that He calls us stiff-necked. The soldiers who think they must hear everything from the general himself will be a losing army. The general does not even know most of the privates; why do you think you are so important? If you cannot follow instructions, you will not live through this. Do not put yourself in a position of needing to repent, for, as the ten spies learned, the door may not be open. The leaders are accountable too, but you must learn to follow as well. When we are in the right order, there is no longer a need for them to bark orders or fuss. When you are in the right rank, you can truly be yourself. See yourself as part of the big picture, as Moshe did, in which if one screws up, we all pay a price. So make sure every other soldiers is following the rules as well, for Moshe’s words are as true as ever, and our survival depends on them.
Commentary on
Parashat VaEthkhanan
How to Strengthen
Our Leaders
