Nitzavim נִצָּבִים - Standing (Witnessing)
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20
Reading #3 - Deuteronomy 29:15–28
My Thoughts:
What does Hashem say about those who turn away from Him? Read verse 20, “Hashem will not pardon him, but then Hashem’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Hashem will blot out his name from under the sky.” For those who choose not to follow Hashem -- not only will He impose the curses in the Law -- but he will be “blotted” out from heaven! Pretty clear, right? If we decide we don’t want Hashem in our life, our name (which is who we are) will be erased. Forever. It only makes sense that Hashem only wants those -- who want Him. Is that you?
Challenge:
Here it is. Abandon the covenant and you will be cursed and thrown out of the land. Hashem does not want ANYONE to abandon or leave His Law. So why do the followers of Jesus think that He would want us to abandon or cancel the Law? Are their translations of Scripture to supersede the voice of Hashem to Moses and the Israelites? Are the pastors greater than Hashem’s holy word? We truly live in an “upside-down” world and here is one of the obvious reasons. Yeshua never “cancelled” or told His disciples to abandon the Law, to do so would bring curses. Your challenge today is to really think about what you believe. Is Hashem’s Torah forever -- or have you been “excused” from following it? I would weigh your answer heavily and carefully. Your life may depend on it.
Reading #3 - Deuteronomy 29:15–28
29:15 ...but with those who stand here with us today before Hashem our Elohim, and also with those who are not here with us today 16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed; 17 and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them); 18 lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Hashem our Elohim to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison; 19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the moist with the dry. 20 Hashem will not pardon him, but then Hashem’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Hashem will blot out his name from under the sky. 21 Hashem will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
22 The generation to come—your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land—will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Hashem has made it sick, 23 that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Hashem overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. 24 Even all the nations will say, “Why has Hashem done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”
25 Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Hashem, the Elohim of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. 27 Therefore Hashem’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28 Hashem rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
