Parashat HaShavua Devarim / Words
This Week's Reading List:
Devarim / Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
Yeshayahu / Isaiah 1:1-27
Timoteos Alef / 1 Timothy 3:1-7
Devarim {1:20} I said to you, You are come to the hill-country of the Amorites, which HaShem our G-D gives to us. {1:21} Behold, HaShem your G-D has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as HaShem, the G-D of your avot (fathers), has spoken to you; do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. {1:22} You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come. {1:23} The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one ish (man) for every tribe:
This incident just sticks in my throat. What happened to Moshe’s faith? Did he not learn anything from the incident where he was supposed to speak to the rock instead of striking it? Obviously not! HaShem specifically told him that bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) would conquer the land and that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. So then why on earth would Moshe agree to a suggestion by the masses that he should send spies to confirm what HaShem had already told him? After all this was G-d’s land, it was a good land and they were going to possess it -- end of story!
Devarim {6:1} Do not put HaShem your G-d to the test, as you testedHim at Massah.
Moshe himself told bnei Yisrael not to put G-d to the test, yet here he was putting HaShem to the test. We recall when Zecharyah (Zechariah), Yochanan (John) the immerser’s father, put HaShem to the test. In the Brit Chadasha when Zecharyah was told that he was going to have a son he was also told that he was to call him Yochanan. Zecharyah asked the angel for a sign for confirmation. Zecharyah did not accept what he had been told, even though the word was coming from G-d. He too put HaShem to the test. This angered HaShem and He struck Zecharyah unable to speak, until after the birth of his son.
HaShem has told us many things in His Word. Much of it can be applied directly to our lives, yet many of us second guess Him. We want confirmations, signs and wonders instead of just believing and trusting in what HaShem has said.
Most commentators blame the ten spies for causing bnei Yisrael to be cursed with having to wander around, aimlessly, Bamidbar (in the wilderness) for forty years. In fact, Moshe also put the blame on the people, as we see from this verse:
Devarim {1:26} Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the Mitzvah (Command) of HaShem your G-D: {1:27} and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because HaShem hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt), to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
Notice the “you rebelled,” and the “you murmured.” It is very possible, even probable, that the people would have never rebelled or murmured if Moshe would have just taken bnei Yisrael to the boarder of the Promise Land, trusted HaShem, taken Him at His Word and leads the people into the land. Instead, Moshe put G-d to the test and left himself and the people open to sin. Yes it can be said that fault lies squarely with Moshe.
As a leader I take the lesson I have received from Parasha Devarim very seriously. I study HaShem’s Word, reading it from cover to cover, once each year. I familiarize myself with everything HaShem has said and everything He has promised and then, to the best of my ability, I stand on His Word -- even when prompted by others to put Him to the test.
There is no guarantee that bnei Yisrael would have accepted Moshe’s final word to believe HaShem and therefore follow him into the Land, a land that was theirs for the taking; they may have rebelled anyway. But we will never know now will we?
How much wandering have we all done because of our not trusting HaShem’s Word? How many times has this lack of trust / faith resulted in us putting HaShem to the test? Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different if I had totally, at all times, taken HaShem at His Word, but then again I will never know, will I!
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
