Tag: Jesus

Kindle the Legacy

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, InspirationLeave a comment

The section of Deuteronomy called וָאֶתְחַנַּן/Va’etchanan (3:23-7:11) is precious to my heart, as it is my youngest sons bar mitzvah portion. As I mentioned in my previous devotional on Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the next generation as well as those following. At the heart of Va’etchanan, “And I pleaded,” is the legacy of the covenant family. Earlier this year, family legacy became even more real to me when I witnessed the above-mentioned son stand under the Chuppah, the marriage canopy, with his bride. Incidentally, her grandfather performed the ceremony.

We parents sat and watched. While I cannot speak for them, I considered all the twists and turns, those ordained steps of the Lord (Ps. 37:23), that brought these two together. It seems improbable, yet it is. When I gave my short word of exhortation at the reception to the new couple, I told to my daughter in law that from the time my son was an infant I had been praying for his future bride. Twenty-six years of prayer realized in a single moment; and in that moment, what seemed improbable proved to be ordained of the Lord.

It would be easy to focus solely on the theological matter of Va’etchanan. After all, it warns of the dangers of idolatry, reminds them of the continuing battle with “Ba’al Peor” who represents the broad way, records the ten commandments, and has the foundational proclamation of biblical faith: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” But in all this, Moses is speaking to the generations: “that you may live,” “Make them known to your children and your children’s children,” and “When your son asks you in time to come.” It is during those monumental life moments that we pray, “Lord, I hope I testified enough.”

In Deuteronomy 4:9-10 we read, “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children. The day that you stood before your God in Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.”

The older you get the more meaningful time with family, and friends, becomes. Inevitably, gatherings become a time of stories and memories, while creating new ones. The laughter, smiles, and recollections of departed family members at our gatherings keep the family connections meaningful and strong and keeps the memories alive. I have personally told the same stories so many times at family gatherings that my siblings and sons can tell them in the same vivid detail, as if they themselves had lived them.

In our text above, it is this living memory that Moses is warning the children of Israel to kindle, remember, honor, and guard. The language that Moses uses is striking, “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely…do not forget…lest they slip from your heart all the days of your life.” Moses is warning the community of Israel to continually refresh, not only their collective memory, but also the memory of what their eyes have seen: their testimony.

Their testimony, and the communal testimony collected in the Torah, is entrusted to future generations, but it must be living. Testimony without living memory becomes history, something preserved only in books. The Lord desires Israel to remember her experience before Mt. Sinai as a living memory, not solely preserved memory.

This requires us to personally share our memory, our experience and the wisdom received from our textual history and faith tradition (1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Thess. 2:15, 3:6). This sharing is called “discipleship” in the Apostolic Scriptures, as Messiah said, “Go out and make disciples…teaching them to observe all I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19-20). Messiah Yeshua/Jesus is commanding us to not only teach, but to build relationships and pass to these precious people the collective memory/testimony to which they have been born-again. Moses is telling us to disciple our children, our grandchildren (Deut. 4:9), and all those coming behind us.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is passing to the next generation, not only a book of laws as some might imagine, but covenant legacy, as if to say: “Israel, this is your history, even you who did not see the Sinai revelation, you were there in promise, and this legacy is yours.” Excuse the poetic license, but this personalization of a history that we did not directly experience, but in which we were included, personalizes the totality of the testimony that we now share.

This testimony is the living chain of redemptive history from creation to eternity. It is the working of our Father in Heaven. It is a work that neither depends on us nor is it completed in us, as it is finished in Messiah. Nonetheless, it is a work, that by his grace, we are included in (Eph. 2:8-10). Pirkei Avot explains, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it (2:21).”

Moses and Yeshua/Jesus are admonishing us to “watch over our soul closely” to ensure that what really matters in this life is not lost in the busyness of this life. They are instructing us to take time, sit, share, and pass on to the next generation just what the Lord has done for us, for our forefathers, and what he will do in their lives as well. By this we share with them the legacy they are now included in, the legacy of covenant secured by the Blood of the Lamb, Yeshua.

Of course the theology of Va’etchanan matters, but when we rightly kindle the legacy of faith, the theology will be caught up in the living, and exampled for the next generations. 

Maranatha. Shalom.

Devarim: Torah 44

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn podcast, Torah AudioLeave a comment
Tap pic for link!

The Book of Deuteronomy opens with the first discourse of Moses. In these opening chapters, Moses reminds the children of Israel where they have come from, their failures, victories, and then encourages them for the days ahead. How does this opening discourse speak to us today? There may be countless starts in the heavens, but they are all set and named by the Lord, Who also redeemed, set and named you. From Deuteronomy and Genesis, to the Psalms, to Isaiah and the Gospels, we follow the pattern of encouragement and direction from the Lord for us today. 

The Giants Bed

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, Inspiration2 Comments

Scholars tell us that David wrote Psalm 144, and Psalm 8 for that matter, after he slayed Goliath (גָּלְיַת/gālyaṯ, from a root meaning: to uncover or remove). Psalm 144 opens, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Ps. 144:1). Goliath was the champion of the Philistines. He was a giant of a man; some suggest nearly ten feet tall; giant indeed. Yet, by faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David faced the giant while others hid (1 Sam. 17:48-51). The Lord had prepared David’s hands for war.

As giant as Goliath was, in this week’s opening Torah portion of Devarim (Deuteronomy), Moses, in his first discourse, reminds his people of their history and trials. Trials including the fear of giants. In the Torah, we find three words that are sometimes translated as “giant”: Anakim, Rephaim and Nephilim. In Deuteronomy 3:11, the Torah references a giant larger than Goliath: Og, King of Bashan.

In Deuteronomy 3:11 we read, “For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.” Og was the sole survivor of a remnant of giants called רְפָאִים/Rephaim. Rephaim comes from a root meaning to “heal” but in this usage, vigorous or invigorated is probably meant.

As I studied this portion, the detail about Og’s bed struck me. I mean, 3500 years later, why do I care about the size of Og’s bed and that it was made of Iron? The Torah suggests that Og’s bed was around 14 ½ feet long. Some rabbinic commentators suggest that Og was at least ten feet tall, making him taller than Goliath. Yet, by Deuteronomy 3:11 Moses has already told Israel that Og was defeated, as the Lord delivered him into their hand (3:3). Why this later reminder?

The children of Israel wrestled with the idea of giants. In Numbers 13, Moses sends twelve spies into the Promised Land to “spy out the land” (Num. 13:21). They reported that the land was as the Lord promised, but the people are Nephilim, descendants of Anak, a giant (Num. 13:33/Deut. 1:28). Their cities are big and fortified, the land is hard, and the fruit is proportional to the size of the giants, as it is carried between two men (Num. 13:23). To ten of the spies, in sight of this large landscape, they looked as grasshoppers (Num 13:33) in their eyes. As we know, this report led to a rebellion, and a judgment leading to the death of the exodus generation in the wilderness.

With all that Israel had seen and experienced in the wilderness, the provision, the victories and the grace of the covenant Lord, deep down, somewhere in their hearts, the bed of Og was still occupied. The giants were still out there, but where?

Og is long deceased, but giants yet remain. At least from our perspective. The giants that we face in life today speak to our feeling of insignificance, but more precisely, smallness. Smallness, especially in light of what we cannot name or control. The giants we face in life have many names, and yes, in most cases they are very serious. Nevertheless, in order to defeat the giants of today we must know who we are in Messiah Yeshua/Jesus. We must rely on how we are described in God’s unchanging Word to rely, as David did, on those skilled hands that sent the stone into Goliath’s head, killing him. David slew his giant, and so can we.

Dear readers, many of you have giants out there, just beyond your sight, your grasp, bumping around in the forest that have either been named or they possess a potential name that brings dread into your heart. In Psalm 8, the other psalm penned by David after facing Goliath, he writes, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” (Ps. 8:1). The name of the giant “out there” is not above the name of the King of glory. Goliath was not greater than David, and neither were greater than the Lord.

The apostle Paul encourages us, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). Where can our giants hide?

In His name, through Messiah, what have we become? Again, to Paul, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Ro. 8:37). Beloved, more than conquerors. David praised the Lord for the skill to face Goliath, again meaning uncover or remove. David took the stone and skillfully used it. But dear friends, our Stone has taken us and He now skillfully uses us to stand against the darkness of this age, including our own giants (Eph. 6:10-20).   

Where are you giants sleeping? Where has your giant rested? In Messiah those giants are uncovered (Goliath), and they are slain. They are no more. As we have died in Messiah, those giants are now dead, we are raised in His life now to live in Him as the promise (1 Cor. 1:20). He has brought you out of the darkness of the giants and into His marvelous light. No matter how strong Og’s bed might be, even as iron, it cannot overcome the One Who has slain the giant called “death,” as Christ is the King of all kings.

Maranatha. Shalom.