Crystal Writes A Blog

This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You

Our Great Niece, Elie, in Tombstone (AZ) Jail by Crystal A Murray, All Rights Reserved
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Did your parents ever tell you that whatever punishment they were about to give was going to hurt them more than it hurt you? I know mine did, and I never believed them until I had to play the parent role. Whether the punishment was to sit in the corner, or something bigger like taking away a favorite toy or object, having to dish out any kind of pain to someone we care about causes us immense sadness even when we know it’s for the good of the one receiving it. Even with the above photo showing my great niece in a fake jail, seeing the sadness on her face is painful even knowing she was doing as she was told and making a sad face for the picture. There’s just something inside of us that does not like to cause pain to others–especially when those others are people we love.

In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 3:23 through Deuteronomy 4:4, we begin a new week and a new Torah portion. Our week’s Parashah is number 45 titled Va’etchanan in Hebrew and meaning “I Pleaded” in English. We begin with Moses pleading with God about His decision to keep Moses out of The Promised Land. Moses begins with praise, telling God how he is just now learning how truly great He is and how mighty his works are. He asks God to please let him cross the Jordan River and see the wonderful country and Lebanon.

Moses then tells the people how angry God is with him because of them, and he says God will not listen to his pleas. Instead, God tells Moses to be quiet about it and not talk to Him anymore on the subject. He tells Moses to go up to Mount Pisgah and when he gets there, he will need to make sure he can see north, south, east and west. God promises Moses he can look with his eyes, but he absolutely will not be allowed to cross the Jordan.

God tells Moses to encourage Joshua as the new leader of Israel because he will lead them into the new land. Moses explains this and goes on to remind them to listen to all the laws and rulings he is teaching them because the laws will enable Israel to live long and to take possession of the land promised to their ancestors. He tells them not to add anything to what he is saying, and not to subtract anything from what he has told them, and then he reminds them of what God did at Ba’al Peor and how God destroyed all who followed the false god, Ba’al Peor. But God spared all those who chose to follow only Him, and Moses reminded them how every single one of them who followed The Lord was still alive and ready to enter the promise.

Somehow, without the Scripture actually saying it, it seems I could hear the pain in God’s words to Moses about no longer bringing up his desire to cross over. Even though it says God was angry, it was more like, “Enough, Moses. This is hurting me more than it is hurting you. I want you to cross over, but I must keep my word because I am The Lord and I change not. Now get up to the mountain where you can see everything, and don’t bring this up to me anymore because it hurts me too much to discuss it.” And the fact that Moses joined Yeshua and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration would appear to line up with the fact that Moses did go to Heaven even if he didn’t get to go into The Promised Land.

I imagine that even now, in order to show us mercy and keep us from being lost in our sins, when God has to send us some kind of painful “wake-up call,” it still hurts Him to do it. Because no sin can enter the Heavenly realm, He must push us toward a place of repentance where we will let go of our sins and willingly cast them under the blood of Yeshua. It’s not about how big or little the sins are, and it’s not about how many good deeds we do in this life to try and make up for any evil we have done, it’s about turning away from the ways of the flesh that seem right to a man and totally surrendering to the will of God. When we do that, we become dead to self and all things become new, so we can enter Heaven washed and clean. Then, God will say, “Well done, my true and faithful servant. It was worth the pain and suffering I had to bring to be able to spend eternity with you dwelling in the fullness of my presence and joy.”

July 26, 2014 - Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, heaven, hurting God, Israel, Moses, promised land, punishment, Scripture, Torah Portions