"ניצבים-וילך"
Connection
Another contribution from Rabbi Jack, thanks again, Bradley AviParashat HaShavua Nitzavim-VaYelech / You Are Standing-And He Went
This Week's Reading List:
Devarim / Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30
Yeshayahu / Isaiah 61:10-63:9
Romim / Romans 7:7-12
Devarim {29:10} You stand this day all of you before HaShem your G-D; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Yisrael, {29:11} your little ones, your wives, and your sojourner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water; {29:12} that you may enter into the brit (covenant) of HaShem your G-D, and into His oath, which HaShem your G-D makes with you this day; {29:13} that He may establish you this day to Himself for a people, and that He may be to you a G-D, as He spoke to you, and as He swore to your avot (fathers), to Avraham (Abraham), to Yitzchak (Isaac), and to Ya'akov (Jacob). {29:14} Neither with you only do I make this brit and this oath, {29:15} but with him who stands here with us this day before HaShem our G-D, and also with him who is not here with us this day {29:16} (for you know how we lived in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt), and how we came through the midst of the goyim through which you passed; {29:17} and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them) ; {29:18} lest there should be among youish (man), or ishah (woman), or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from HaShem our G-D, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
If you are a Born Again Believer in Yeshua HaMashiach then you are connected to the covenant made by HaShem to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’acov. Since you are connected to the covenant you are also connected to the people and the land of Yisrael (Israel). As Believers our home is in Heaven, but our homeland is Yisrael. Why is Yisrael our homeland? It is because Yeshua HaMashiach is going to rule and reign from Yisrael for one thousand years, and we are told that wherever He is we will be also.
Hitgalut (Revelation) {20:6} Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of G-d and of Mashiach and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
It does not matter what country in the world you are now living in. Every time you read the Torah (the first five books of Moshe) and apply it to yourself as applicable in your life today you are reminded of your connection with the covenant, people and land of Yisrael. Yisrael is your homeland! Today you may not be welcome to settle there if you are not Jewish or if you are a Jewish Believer in Yeshua HaMashiach, but that will all change when Mashiach Yeshua returns.
We are connected with the covenant because we were standing there with bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) when they received the divine covenant from G-d at Mount Sinai as described above. We are connected with the people because either you are Jewish and have a direct connection or as a non-Jew you will be able to one day pick which tribe we want to belong to and receive an inheritance in that tribe:
Yechekiel Ezekiel {47:23} "And it will come about that in the tribe with which the alien stays, there you shall give him his inheritance," declares the L-rd G-D.
Lastly, we are connected with the land because of the passage in Hitgalut 20:6 that states that we will be ruling and reigning with Him for a thousand years I Yerushalyim (Jerusalem).
Devarim {31:28} Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. {31:29} For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of HaShem, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands. {31:30} Moshe spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Yisrael the words of this shir (song), until they were finished.
I can just feel the pain in Moshe’s heart as he spoke and wrote these words. He was going to die and HaShem allowed him to know that bnei Yisrael (children of Israel) was going to become an apostate nation after his death. Moshe fought long and heard to keep bnei Yisrael on track and I am sure that he spent many sleepless night praying for them and interceding on their behalf with G-d. Now it was over and he was told that everything he did, all the prayers, all the teaching, and all the bargaining with G-d was going to end in bnei Yisrael apostatising. What a discouragement that must have been to him.
Yeshua, known to us as the second Moshe, experienced something very similar with those into whom He poured His life:
Mattityahu (Matthew) {26:31} Then Yeshua said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, 'I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. ' {26:32} "But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." {26:33} But Kefa (Peter) answered and said to Him, "Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away." {26:34} Yeshua said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times."
I suppose that this is true when any leader dies or leaves. There is never really a seamless transition of authority; however, Moshe did get to see the advent of Yeshua, the seed of the restoration of Yisrael.
Man fails, but G-d never fails!
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
