50 KEY TAVO (When you come); Deut. 26:1-29:8, Acts 16-18

[Bruce Bertram]

Deuteronomy 26 continues the instructions for what to do when Israel gets where they are going by commanding the giving of a basket of first fruits to the priest. A ceremony with specific things to say is included, part of which is a short personalized history of the Exodus and ending with rejoicing and thanksgiving for all that God has provided. The tithe in the third year given to the priests and the poor and orphan also has some liturgical-type wording and thanksgiving attached to it, like a prayer.

13“You shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. 14‘I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15‘Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’ (Deuteronomy 26:13-15 NASB95)

Here it is repeated, as it is so often throughout the Word, that God’s commandments are not to be forgotten but followed to the letter. It is also one of the places that God refers to His people as a ‘treasured possession’ set above the nations and consecrated.

When Israel crosses the Jordan, one of the first things to do is set up large stones on Mt. Ebal, coat them with lime, and then write all the words of this law on them. The are also to build an altar of uncut stones and offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Moses sets out which tribes are to stand on Mt. Gerizim for reciting the blessings and which ones on Mt. Ebal for the curse. Deuteronomy 27:15-26 lists 12 curses spoken by the Levites, which conform roughly to the 10 Words. Chapter 28 begins a list of blessings (1-14) for obedience to God’s Word, then in 15-48 describes curses. Verses 49 through 68 speak of a time when, if disobedience continues, God will bring a nation against them to scatter them. They will be hounded and persecuted and find no rest because they didn’t listen to God’s voice. At some point there will be such severe famine that they will eat their young and begrudge anyone sharing in the meal. It is a list of such frightening proportions, of heartache and disease and suffering, that they will be driven mad and left few in number. Moses reminds Israel in 28:1-8 of what they have seen, that clothing didn’t wear out while they wandered in the desert for the 40 years, and that God gave them victory over their enemies. Therefore they should listen to God and do everything He says without fail.

After the split between Paul and Barnabas at the end of chapter 15, Luke continues his narrative by following the activities of Paul as he re-visits Lystra and Derbe and picks up Timothy as a traveling companion. Lystra was the place near Iconium where Paul healed a man who couldn’t walk from birth and the people tried to proclaim him a god, and where Paul was stoned at the instigation of some unbelieving Jews who traveled there from Antioch and Iconium (Acts 14:8-19). Paul has Timothy circumcised because of the Jews they will be around, and they go through the areas of Phrygia and Galatia. They do not go to Asia or Bithynia because the Spirit tells them not to, but they hit Mysia and Troas. From Troas they head out to Macedonia by way of Samothrace, Neopolis and Philippi (a leading city in Macedonia of Roman origin). They go down to the river to pray in Philippi, where they meet a group of women and begin to teach them about the Christ. Lydia of Thyatira is one of this group, and she invites the travelers to her house after she and her husband are baptized. Later, Paul commands a demon of divination to come out of a girl who is following them and telling people to listen to them. But when her masters see that their opportunity for profit is gone, they bring Paul and the others before the government on false charges of proclaiming unlawful practices. The leaders tear their clothes and have them beaten with rods and thrown in jail. While there, Paul and Silas sing hymns while the prisoners listen, there is a severe earthquake, the doors are opened and their chains fall off. The jailer runs in and sees the doors opened and draws his sword thinking he was going to have to kill himself because the prisoners were gone. But Paul cries out that they are still there, and the jailer is so astonished he asks about salvation. Paul tells the jailer to believe in Jesus, and they are taken into the jailer’s house where their wounds are tended to and they teach the Word to the household after baptizing them. The next day the magistrates send the police to release Paul and the others, but Paul says they are not going to sneak away seeing as how they were Roman citizens and were so mistreated. So the elders come personally to see them off. They visit once more at the house of Lydia then continue on their travels to Thessalonica, passing through Amphipolis and Appollonia on the way.

After three Sabbaths at Thessalonica teaching in the synagogue, unbelieving Jews incite a riot and look for Paul and Silas. When they can’t find him, they get a hold of a guy named Jason and some other believers and drag them before the city leaders, alleging unlawful practices such as proclaiming a king other than the Caesar. They extract a pledge from the believers then let them go. The brethren immediately send Paul and Silas away to the synagogue in Berea. These Jews are nobler in character than the Thessalonians, and search the Scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas teach is accurate. Many of them believe, as well as many prominent Greeks both men and women. But the spoilsport Jews from Thessalonica come down and stir things up again, so that the believers send Paul away to Athens while Silas and Timothy stay in Berea for a while. In Athens Paul can’t sit still because the city is full of idols, so he teaches at synagogues or in the marketplace, wherever he can find people who will listen. He even gets into discussions with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and they are intrigued enough to bring him to the Areopagus to speak of Jesus and the resurrection. Paul begins his teaching there by pointing out the statue of an unknown god, which Paul proceeds to introduce them to. At one point he mentions that God has overlooked idolatry in the past, but no longer.

30“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 NASB95)

As he gets to the part about the resurrection it seems to break up the meeting, but some of them believe.

Paul leaves Athens and travels to Corinth, where he gets together with Priscilla and Aquila who had to leave Rome because Claudius kicked out all the Jews. For a while they work together and Paul speaks in synagogues each Sabbath, but finally Timothy and Silas arrive so Paul devotes himself to preaching. But the Jews resist, so Paul tells them he will go to the Gentiles, which in this case happen to be right next door to the synagogue at the house of Titius Justus. The leader of the synagogue is baptized, as well as many other Corinthians. The Lord tells Paul in a night vision not to be afraid but to keep on teaching because He has many people in the city. So Paul continues for a year and a half to preach and teach. The unbelieving Jews make a try at another frame-up when Gallio is proconsul of Achaia, again alleging sedition against Caesar, but Gallio throws them out. They take out their frustrations on the synagogue leader named Sosthenes by beating him. After many days more, Paul sets out for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila, getting his hair cut in Cenchrea to fulfill a vow. They arrive in Ephesus and Paul teaches a little in a synagogue and they want him to stay, but he keeps moving promising to return later if God wills. He leaves Priscilla and Aquila there. Going on from there, Paul stops in Caeserea to greet the faithful there then goes back to Antioch. After a while there, he returns to the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Meanwhile, back at Ephesus, a Jewish man name Apollos arrives and begins teaching as well. He is a powerful and excellent speaker and exactly knowledgeable about the Scriptures, but knows only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila find him and instruct him, then he goes to Achaia and powerfully refutes the Jews there in public, greatly encouraging all who believe through grace.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Moses here goes over the blessings for obedience to God's instructions, and the curses for disobedience. It is interesting that if you trace the meaning of the words for blessing and curse in the Scriptures, you find that blessing essentially means the presence of God (drawing near), and a curse is the absence of God (or God drawing away). The drawing away always happens over time, reluctantly, as if God were hanging back and waiting for His people to change their minds and want Him to stay. Curses are also bad things happening, but when you think about it as God withdraws then of course bad things will happen. This is because God is light and life and love, so when He isn't around, neither are those things.

In the NT section of this parasha, notice that Paul circumcises Timothy. Perhaps Paul was just 'going along' with the requirement in order to keep down hostilities, but if he was teaching that the Law had been done away with then he is a hypocrite. We know, however, that Paul was not a hypocrite, and that he thought of the Law as 'holy, just, and good' (Romans 7:12) so it is more likely that he was doing something he thought was good in order to remove hindrances for preaching the gospel.

We also see the ongoing split between believing Jews and unbelieving Jews, with the unbelievers working real hard at stirring up trouble for Paul (Acts 17:5). But the Gentiles are in on the trouble willingly, especially if it hits their pagan pocket books (Acts 16:19). It just goes to show that the Way is indeed narrow, and few there are that walk it.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Ki Tavo; Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8; Isaiah 60:1-22; Acts 16-18

1“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1 NASB95)

In our Deuteronomy section this week we read of an extensive list of blessings that God wants to bestow on His people. He obviously intends for the ‘apple of His eye’ to experience a host of good things such as fruitful land and bodies, rest from enemies, and prosperity so great that they will lend to other nations but will not borrow. Most of these blessings were only temporarily given, in part, to Israel. Instead, much of what Israel has endured has been on the curse side. Many of those curses are horrible to contemplate, or even just read about. Imagine being in a situation so dire that people are eating their children and refusing to let spouses eat also. To be so fixated on your own survival and completely uncaring about family members to the point of this horror is unthinkable for a lot of people, at least until the horror arrives on your doorstep.

It is my opinion that this is the epitome of the theory propounded by Satan since the Garden – that we can all be ‘like God.’ In striving to be “like gods” we throw off anything God commands, which, since He and His Words are the source of light and life, forces us into a self-oriented downward spiral ending in darkness and blood and terrible death. Yet this is the situation that Israel worked toward on a number of occasions, and the situation anyone finds himself or herself in after rejecting God and what God has to say about living. Except Israel is not the only people that reject God and descend into idolatry. In our so-called modern age, many people have also descended into idolatry. How is that, you ask, since the ruins of ancient pagan temples are crumbling to dust and the names of most of the old gods are no longer spoken? The answer is that people have become their own idols, because while we may have discarded some of the names and places we still worship ourselves above all.

How do we do worship ourselves, when we don’t inhabit temples or demand animal sacrifices from others? We don’t have to puzzle on this very long, because God tells us exactly.

16“This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17“You have today declared the LORD to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. 18“The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; 19and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken.” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19 NASB95)

9Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the LORD your God. 10“You shall therefore obey the LORD your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.” (Deuteronomy 27:9-10 NASB95)

1“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2“All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: (Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NASB95)

9“The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10“So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. (Deuteronomy 28:9-10 NASB95)

The Scriptures tell us over and over that the way to God is to do what He says, explicitly and only. If we follow God’s ways; obey His commands; listen to Him and Him only, then we will be His treasured possession and He will set us high above all nations. Since this hasn’t happened, neither to Israel nor to any other nation, we can pretty much guess that we haven’t been doing what He says. Therefore, since we have departed from God, we are cursed, and all the specific aspects of cursing are being visited upon us. Look around. Do we look blessed to you? Outside of some material wealth here and there, haven’t we been laboring under a number of the facets of cursing? Diseases are running rampant, debt is out of control, justice is denied to those without money, innocent blood is shed on a daily basis. In short, the list of curses seems to be pretty familiar, doesn’t it? And it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re in the church or out, does it? If we depart from God, who is the source of life, it makes sense that we are headed towards death.

13“The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, 14and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. 15“But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: (Deuteronomy 28:13-15 NASB95)

45“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46“They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever. 47“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. (Deuteronomy 28:45-48 NASB95)

The curses have certainly been inflicted on those people calling themselves Christian and going to church, too. We look no different than the pagans, because we are doing the same things in worshipping other gods. We disparage God’s Word by saying that parts are ‘old’ and ‘fulfilled’ so we don’t have to be bothered with actually doing anything He said. We talk about how we ‘feel led’ to disobey, and exalt our feelings about things over the facts of God’s Word. We don’t read His Word, and we don’t do it. In this way we have become our own gods, worshipping what we think and feel instead of simply doing what the source of light and life and love commands.

In our Acts portion Paul and other disciples are offering the Word of God to anyone who will listen, but getting rejected by those people who think of themselves as God’s special people. The unbelievers, Jew and Gentile both, jealously hounded and killed the messengers, just as God’s messengers have been persecuted and killed since the beginning. It is no different today. Mention that God’s Word is to be obeyed by all of His people completely, all the time, and see what happens to you.

Isaiah speaks of a wonderful situation that must still be future in his time, and is still future in ours, because nothing of what he describes could be used to describe Israel (or any nation) at any time so far. Either God is not going to do what He said, or, it will still happen. My opinion is that it will still happen, because God does not promise then break it. He follows through in all things that He speaks.

God is commanding men everywhere to turn from the worship of false gods back to Him. We need to “arise, shine” because the light of Jesus has come and there is great darkness around us. We cannot continue ignoring His Words and worshiping our own opinions instead. If we do, then more terrible aspects of the cursing are coming, and will make the horrible cursing that has already been experienced look like a cake walk. Accept His Word and follow His ways in all the details so that blessings will flow to us instead of cursing.

It’s time to repent.

19“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. 20“Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over. (Isaiah 60:19-20 NASB95)

Shalom