Journey of Discovery by Flickr User Land Rover MENA, CC License = Attribution
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
I think everyone goes through dry spells at one time or another. We may feel a bit dried up in our creativity, or we may experience a dryness in our emotions where we just sort of exist for a time without being deeply moved. People have dry spells in business where things just aren’t booming and growing quite the way they desire. What we really don’t want, though, is to end up in a total drought. It’s okay to have to cross the beach to get to the ocean now and then, but an ocean without any water at all is a desert, and it can be pretty hard to survive there.
And speaking of deserts, our reading today from Deuteronomy 29:15 through Deuteronomy 29:28 (in The Complete Jewish Bible; verses 16-29 in non CJB versions) is winding down Israel’s journey through the desert before they cross into The Promised Land. It begins with Moses reminding the people of their journey from Egypt and how the lands they passed through were filled with those who built idols to false gods. Moses tells them to not let there be among them–a man, woman, family or tribe–who heart turns away from Yahveh Almighty to serve the false gods of those other nations.
As Moses continues, he increases his passion against the false gods by saying there should not even be a root of that evil in Israel because it is bitter poison and wormwood. However, he also tells them that if there is such a root, the person who adheres to it has no truth in them. Instead of yielding to warnings of the curses in God’s Torah, that person will tell himself he is fine as he is, even though he will continue to stubbornly do things his own way instead of God’s way. The deluded person will go so far as to tell himself that, event though he is “dry” (sinful), he will be added to the “watered” (righteous).
Now Moses gets fierce. (I can imagine him becoming quite animated and getting his “preacher voice” going.) He tells Israel that God will not forgive that hypocritical person but will blaze against him in fury. He will rain every curse down on him and blot out his name from under Heaven. When the next generations, and foreigners from distant lands, come upon the scene of destruction, they will ask what brought about God’s frenzied and furious anger, and the people will answer, “It’s because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai, the God of their fathers.” They will also tell them, “They went and served other gods, prostrating themselves before them.”
The next part in the passage sounds as if it was written after Israel was removed from the new land and scattered. It says that The Lord, in His fury and anger, threw them out into another land, and it adds, “–as it is today.” I’m not sure when these writings were put in print, but I’m thinking this is long after Israel both entered and exited their place of inheritance. It’s not something to take lightly because we know how much God loved these people and only wanted to give good to them. In the last few verses, Moses reminds the people that there are hidden things that remain with God but revealed things that belong to God’s people and their children forever, so that they can keep the words of His Torah forever.
Like so many other passages in Israel’s history, I can see the development of Christians in their walk before God as well. Those hidden “things” in God are likely another word for understandings since there isn’t actually a Hebrew word for “things” or “stuff” or other words like them. God has a bundle of understanding that He longs to share with those who love Him, so they (we) can follow Him in obedience. As it is written in the 27th verse of the 10th chapter of John (Amplified Bible)…
The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.
If we are His sheep, we hear His voice, so we should be listening and following Him. Even though we may cross through deserts, He will lead us from stream to stream, so we can refresh ourselves in Him. We have promises that will help us through the dry places like…
- Ephesians 5:26 (CEV), He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water.
- Psalm 51:2 (AMP), Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
- 1 Corinthians 6:11 (CJB), Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.
And, above all else, we have daily mercy to help us through even the driest times and places. We may go through a dry spell, but we don’t have to go through a drought. I’ll end with this wonderful praise from Lamentations 3:22-23 from The Message Bible…
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
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September 8, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, dry spell, Israel, mercy, Moses, Scripture, sin, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, washed |
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Crystal Writes A Blog 
Dry Spell
Journey of Discovery by Flickr User Land Rover MENA, CC License = Attribution
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
I think everyone goes through dry spells at one time or another. We may feel a bit dried up in our creativity, or we may experience a dryness in our emotions where we just sort of exist for a time without being deeply moved. People have dry spells in business where things just aren’t booming and growing quite the way they desire. What we really don’t want, though, is to end up in a total drought. It’s okay to have to cross the beach to get to the ocean now and then, but an ocean without any water at all is a desert, and it can be pretty hard to survive there.
And speaking of deserts, our reading today from Deuteronomy 29:15 through Deuteronomy 29:28 (in The Complete Jewish Bible; verses 16-29 in non CJB versions) is winding down Israel’s journey through the desert before they cross into The Promised Land. It begins with Moses reminding the people of their journey from Egypt and how the lands they passed through were filled with those who built idols to false gods. Moses tells them to not let there be among them–a man, woman, family or tribe–who heart turns away from Yahveh Almighty to serve the false gods of those other nations.
As Moses continues, he increases his passion against the false gods by saying there should not even be a root of that evil in Israel because it is bitter poison and wormwood. However, he also tells them that if there is such a root, the person who adheres to it has no truth in them. Instead of yielding to warnings of the curses in God’s Torah, that person will tell himself he is fine as he is, even though he will continue to stubbornly do things his own way instead of God’s way. The deluded person will go so far as to tell himself that, event though he is “dry” (sinful), he will be added to the “watered” (righteous).
Now Moses gets fierce. (I can imagine him becoming quite animated and getting his “preacher voice” going.) He tells Israel that God will not forgive that hypocritical person but will blaze against him in fury. He will rain every curse down on him and blot out his name from under Heaven. When the next generations, and foreigners from distant lands, come upon the scene of destruction, they will ask what brought about God’s frenzied and furious anger, and the people will answer, “It’s because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai, the God of their fathers.” They will also tell them, “They went and served other gods, prostrating themselves before them.”
The next part in the passage sounds as if it was written after Israel was removed from the new land and scattered. It says that The Lord, in His fury and anger, threw them out into another land, and it adds, “–as it is today.” I’m not sure when these writings were put in print, but I’m thinking this is long after Israel both entered and exited their place of inheritance. It’s not something to take lightly because we know how much God loved these people and only wanted to give good to them. In the last few verses, Moses reminds the people that there are hidden things that remain with God but revealed things that belong to God’s people and their children forever, so that they can keep the words of His Torah forever.
Like so many other passages in Israel’s history, I can see the development of Christians in their walk before God as well. Those hidden “things” in God are likely another word for understandings since there isn’t actually a Hebrew word for “things” or “stuff” or other words like them. God has a bundle of understanding that He longs to share with those who love Him, so they (we) can follow Him in obedience. As it is written in the 27th verse of the 10th chapter of John (Amplified Bible)…
If we are His sheep, we hear His voice, so we should be listening and following Him. Even though we may cross through deserts, He will lead us from stream to stream, so we can refresh ourselves in Him. We have promises that will help us through the dry places like…
And, above all else, we have daily mercy to help us through even the driest times and places. We may go through a dry spell, but we don’t have to go through a drought. I’ll end with this wonderful praise from Lamentations 3:22-23 from The Message Bible…
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September 8, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, dry spell, Israel, mercy, Moses, Scripture, sin, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, washed | Leave a comment