Joseph Shulam: Standing on the Promises of God [2022]

This Shabbat the reading is Parashat Eikev (“because”), Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25, and the haftarah is Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3. From the New Testament we will be reading from Luke 4:1-15.

We must remember the context of the book of Deuteronomy. According to the biblical report, Moses is standing on the edge of the Jordan River and speaking the words that are recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

So, after begging God to allow him to cross the Jordan River, and God refused, Moses now is beginning to review the circumstances that have brought him and the children of Israel to this point. Please remember that the nation of Israel that left Egypt as liberated slaves didn’t stop complaining about just about everything. They complained about not having good water to drink, and they complained about not having bread, and not having meat, and not having watermelons, cucumbers, onions, and more and more complaining!

Now Moses is giving the whole lot of those Israelites the following introduction:

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” — Deuteronomy 7:12-16

Please note that Moses is not condemning but encouraging. He is giving these Israelites who are about to enter the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as an everlasting inheritance.

God is going to be faithful to His promises and it is a covenant of mercy! Wow! How is it that so many denominational Christians have the wrong and false idea that the Torah has no mercy?

Now, you see that Moses says that God is going to keep the covenant and the mercy which He swore to our fathers. God will love and bless and multiply the people of Israel. God will bless your children and the fruit of your land, your grain, wine, oil, and increase the cattle, and your flock, and bless you above all people. Such wonderful promises that God promised Israel, including a deliverance from sickness and none of the diseases of Egypt will plague the people of Israel.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the Exodus story and show you God’s faithfulness in the promises of the blessings, and also when needed, in the promises of the judgments.

The children of Israel were in Egypt and they lived approximately 200 years in the land of Goshen, as it is said, they lived in the best part of Egypt and enjoyed wealth and numerical growth. The political situation in Egypt changed and a new line of Pharaohs that didn’t know Joseph’s contribution to Egypt came into power and feared the Israelites would turn against Egypt.

The reason for that fear of Pharaoh is not unreasonable. The Israelites are and were in the past history a nation set apart, not mixing with other nations. We see this throughout Israel’s history, from Egypt to the land of Canaan, to the book of Esther, and all the way to our own time.

They cried to God for deliverance and God organized Moses from birth to death to deliver Israel out of slavery in Egypt and bring them after 40 years of boot camp in the wilderness to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the land of Canaan! These 40 years of boot camp were a remodeling of the nation of slaves into a powerful militant organization that set out to conquer a land of fortified cities with high walls and military power.

We have the book of Joshua and the book of Judges that describe the battles and conquests of Israel against ancient and powerful people: the Philistines from Crete, and the Hittites from Anatolia (Turkey), and the Girgashites who are identified with Qaraqisha tribes that came to Canaan from the area of Armenia and Azerbaijan of today.

God is always keeping His promises to Israel and to the world, for the good and for the not-so-good. One of the best examples is the journey of the Exodus and the conquest of the land of Canaan.

Now we are living in another season of God keeping His promises to Israel. We are witnesses and experiencing the restoration of Zion, physically and spiritually. We are a part of the rebuilding of the waste places, the buried cities of the past are being filled with Jews from over 100 different countries, from almost every corner of the star called Earth.

The book of Deuteronomy is a book that starts with God’s faithfulness and ends with the horrible statement of God to Moses that says some of the hardest words in the Bible to a man who has dedicated 80 years of his life to take the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery into the promised land of milk and honey!

The lesson that we all must learn from God’s word is very simple and very true and very strict — for our good. And if we are disobedient, it is also faithful to deliver the horrifying and painful alienation from God and the consequences of which our national history is a living example of. Of a God who keeps His promises.

Let me concentrate on the prosperity and blessing and wonderful relationship between man and nation of Israel with the Creator of our universe. The privilege of all man to call God, the Creator of all things in our world, Abba (“Father”)! The very privilege and possibility for humans to have a relationship of Father and sons and daughters with the Creator who so loved us, the peoples of the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, Yeshua, to save us and forgive us from our sins.

We must remember that the same God who took Israel out of Egyptian slavery is the God who has promised to bring the diaspora of Israel back home. It is a shocking and outstanding news, good news, that we the nation of Israel are in the process of restoration, in the fields of medicine, science, agriculture, military equipment, and more.

Israel is the startup nation that is among the top 20 countries who have registered international patents in the 21st century. We are also the smallest nation among the great gigantic nations like China, and the United States, and India…

God is faithful and the story is not over, the process is active now and far from finished. This is why we must learn to have faith and trust God’s promises and keep His commandments, first and foremost, and only later honor human traditions and man-made precepts and commandments.

God keeps His promises and we in the land of Israel and in the Jewish nation are personally living and witnessing God’s faithfulness, and righteousness. And we the Jewish people and the disciples of Yeshua from among the nations must know and watch and pray and do right because we know that our labor is not in vain and all that God promised is going to be fulfilled. Yeshua is coming back to Zion, and on that day the world will confess and beg for mercy.

The words of this famous Christian Song are speaking the message that Moses is bringing to Israel on the banks of the Jordan River:

Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Thro’ eternal ages let his praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior; Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living word of God, I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior; Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s Sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior; Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot fall, List’ning ev’ry moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God.

Joseph Shulam: Brad TV Video Teaching – Eikev [2022]

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam and together with Brad TV we are following the order of the synagogue in the reading of the law of Moses. Every Sabbath the same thing that is read in the synagogues around the world. That’s what we are studying.

And this week, this next Sabbath, the portion that is going to be read it’s called in Hebrew Eikev. Eikev means because. Because. Because of what. And this portion is very interesting, like all the other Word of God, but it’s positive. It starts with a very positive note, not with a negative note.

We were in Leviticus few weeks back and it was very negative, great punishment because of our disobedience and because of our fall into idolatry and because of our disregard for God and for his Word. But this time chapter seven of Deuteronomy from verse 12 going on to chapter 11, verse 25 of Deuteronomy, that’s is this Sabbath’s portion.

Starts like this, “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers,” meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses himself.

Any time that we do what is right, God keeps his promises, his good promises, his blessings. And that’s how this portion starts. “And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; and He will also bless the fruit of your womb,” meaning your children, “and the fruit of your land, your grain, your new wine, your oil, your increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.”

This is the real doctrine of prosperity, dear brothers and sisters. It’s not the doctrine of prosperity for you to give to some pastor your money. The real prosperity comes to God’s children when they are wise, like the man who built his house on the rock.

He heard the Word of God and he obeyed the Word of God. He built his house on a rock. He was a wise man.

The not-so-wise man, the stupid man heard the Word of God and went on his way whistling “Dixie.” Maybe not “Dixie.” I don’t know. It’s not politically correct to talk about “Dixie” nowadays but whistling “Gone With the Wind.”

Yes, God’s promises to those people, to his children, to his disciples that hear his word and obey his word and do what he wants them to do, a promise of blessings, a promise of increasing their flocks, a promise of harvest that is plentiful, wine and oil. Well, when you say wine, you know, I hope none of our Baptist brothers are offended, but they were drinking wine. They didn’t have Coca-Cola.

And to get drunk is a sin, but you know, so much of our culture in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean in general is related to the grapes and to the fruit of the grapes, to the wine. You don’t have to get drunk. You don’t have to drink too much, but it’s a part of the culture and was a part of the culture, and the land of Israel was famous for its wine.

And it’s famous for its wine today, too. What a promise by God! “If you listen to me, if you listen to my precepts, to my judgements, to my rules, I will keep my side of the bargain. I will keep the covenant. I will keep my promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

It’s a wonderful deal, dear brothers and sisters. It was a wonderful deal in the days of Moses, in the days of the children of Israel, that the land of Canaan, and it was a wonderful deal anytime that God’s children obey his commandments. Now, yes, the commandments change.

We’re in the book of Deuteronomy, and in the book of Deuteronomy the commandments are quite different than they are in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. In many, many aspects, they’re not the same commandments, because these were given, or the book of Deuteronomy was found in the days of King Josiah way, hundreds of years after Moses.

The book was lost, and then the priest found it in the days of the King Josiah, and King Josiah reformed all of the land of Israel and all the practices, the biblical practices of the people, even the sizes of the altar were changed because of the book of Deuteronomy. And we have that evidence even in archeology.

Verse 14 of chapter seven, “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you nor among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you,” on your enemies.

Ah, that’s an interesting paradigm, dear brothers and sisters. And in history, I can say that, that most of our history, the history of Israel, the history of the children of Israel from the days that Moses gave these words on the eastern shore of the Jordan River until today, some of these things did not substantiate, did not happen for a long periods of time.

Why? Because we are human being. Because obedience to God’s commands, to anybody’s command is not something that comes to us naturally. We are naturally, I’m sad to say, we were naturally rebellious not only about the commandments of God, but about any commandments, about any laws.

If there is a way that we think that we can get by not keeping the laws or keeping the laws partially or deferring the laws to a different time, then naturally, as human beings, we do that. We have that garden of Eden rebelliousness built into us. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be that we are doing what we want. It doesn’t take away one bit of our freedom to be wise and do God’s will and keep his commandments.

And the wise thing to do is when you buy some electronic machine or tool, a washing machine or even a simple steam iron, the wise thing to do is to read the instruction. The wise thing to do is when you get new medication from your doctor to read the little leaflet that comes with the box. That’s the wise thing to do. And the wise thing to do, of course, is since our creator created us in his own image and in his own form, is to read the instructions.

The instructions come packaged from Genesis to Revelation. I’m not saying read it in one reading. 70 hours of reading. But I’m reading every day a little bit, every week at least the recommended portion that is read in all the synagogues in the world.

This is a command that the apostles gave to the believers, to the Gentile believers in Acts 15:19-21. They send the Gentile believers to the synagogue to hear the Word of God read; why? Because no many people had the Word of God privately in their home.

It was such a big thing, such an expensive thing. It had to be copied by professional scribes by hand, and only very wealthy people had a copy of the five books of Moses in their private possession.

The average people didn’t. They had to go to the public synagogue, where every Sabbath the Word of God was read. That’s the recommendation of Paul and Peter and James and the elders of the church in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Silas, all of them were there in that conference in Acts 15. And that’s why they recommended.

But, again, back to this opening statement of our reading. Doing right is always right. Doing good is always good. Being obedient to God’s command is always the wise thing to do. Because he designed us and he made us and he gives us life and breath now in this earth and eternally. That’s the real doctrine of prosperity, folks, is doing the will of God.

Now with Christians, non-Jews the question is always: What shall we do? Shall we keep the laws that God gave the children of Israel in the law of Moses? Or shall we keep other laws that are not necessarily from the law of Moses?

Well, the answer to this question is not so complicated. We should keep what Jesus and his apostles kept. We should keep what Jesus and his apostles commanded us to keep. We should do what God’s will is.

And even though sometimes God’s will changes according to circumstances and needs, we can read the Bible and we can discern what is relevant and what is not relevant. If you’re not a father, all the laws about fatherhood are not relevant. If you are a woman, the laws that are for men are not relevant for you.

You don’t have to be circumcised if you’re a Jewish woman or any woman, yeah. Each one has his set of laws given to him. Children have laws for children, fathers have laws for fathers, men who are not fathers have laws for people who are not fathers. Those that don’t have a family have different laws.

We need to learn that the paradigm that is being reported and taught by the Catholic church, by the historical churches is not necessarily the biblical paradigm. It is a paradigm that was done essentially by pagans who hated Jews, who hated the Old Testament, who hated Moses and his commandments, and invented a new religion that is not a part of the Word of God.

And then Luther, Calvin and Zwingli and men try to reform that church, it doesn’t work. We have to get back to the drawing board and rightly divide the Word of God as the apostle commanded his disciple, and see what applies to us personally, what applies to us collectively as a community, what applies to us from the New Testament that reflects what is commanded in the Old Testament.

Yes, these are the commands, but the blessing is in doing the will of God. That’s what I’m trying to say. The blessing is not in not doing the will of God, in disobeying God, that doesn’t bring a blessing, that doesn’t bring prosperity and peace and good family. That brings disaster.

And Christian history is so full of these disasters, not only against Jews against each other as well. The interesting thing is today, Israel is, the Jews have returned into the land a little more than 120 years ago.

That’s when the Aliyah started, the return of the Jewish people back to the land that God gave Abraham, Isaac and Jacob only started at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, recently. But we see that the promises that God gives in our portion in Deuteronomy, that God will give us victory of our enemies.

I’m reading verse 22, “And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And He will deliver their kings into your hands, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; and no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.”

Okay. Wonderful promise. I think, wonderful promise. It hasn’t happened. And I don’t know where it is going to happen and if it’s going to happen, but it hasn’t happened. Why hasn’t it happened?

The answer is in our hand. I remember that when I was a very, very young believer and reading some Christian material, and I used to use it when I traveled with the chorus of Georgia Christian school in from Valdosta, Georgia, and paradigm was the answer is in your hand.

It was a story from a Arab philosopher that wrote the book, Iraqi Arab philosopher that wrote a book about a very, very old and very, very wise old man. Some of the young men decided, “We’re gonna trick that blind old man with all of his wisdom. We are going to get in the boat with him on the Euphrates River. And we’re going to tell him, ‘Old, man, we have a bird in our hand. What do you think, is the bird alive or dead?’”

The old man thought and said, “Young people, the answer is in your hand. If I say the bird is alive, you’ll press your thumb and the bird will be dead. If I say the bird is dead, you’ll open your hand and the bird will fly away. The answer is in your hands.”

And when I read the Torah, especially this portion of Eikev, I say, yes, the answer is my hand and in your hand, and in everybody who reads the Bible, the answer is in your hand. You have to decide, not the pastor, not your leaders, not your politicians, not the Pope in Rome or the Greek patriarch in Constantinople.

No, the answer is in your hand. You decide your destiny and your relationship with the almighty God, not your pastor, not your church, not your denomination. You decide. The answer is in your hand. If you do God’s will and you do right, you will reap right, and good and blessing.

But if you do wrong, you will reap the tears, not the wheat, the tears that were planted in the field by the devil. That’s what you will reap. And so don’t blame anybody else. Don’t blame anybody else. Remember, the answer is in your hand.

I want to go on this portion of the week, because it has a lot of very important things. And I urge you to read it from chapter seven of Deuteronomy verse 12 to chapter 11, verse 25 of Deuteronomy, and read Isaiah 49:14 to 51:3, very, very important text for understanding the messianic promises in the book of Isaiah.

But let me just for a summary, go a little bit further into the next chapter and read to you from verse two. No, I’m gonna start from verse one of chapter eight.

“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

This is in this week’s Torah portion, folks, chapter eight of the book of Deuteronomy. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Look, dear brothers, I know a lot of wealthy people that have bred and caviar and goose liver anytime they want.

Their tables are full of all the goodies of the earth, but they’re not happy. They’re miserable. They’re more miserable than the poor people that I knew in my life that didn’t have whatever they wanted to eat. That had only what there was to eat.

And they were happy with it and satisfied with it and gladly praising and worshiping and being grateful to God, the creator for giving them life and breath and substance to live by every day. Yes. Remember this. This comes from Deuteronomy.

This text comes from Deuteronomy: man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Hallelujah, praise God. Keep reading.

Read from the Torah. Again, the portion that is called Eikev, because, from Deuteronomy 7:12 to 11:25, from Isaiah 49:14 to 51:3, and from the gospel of Luke 4:1 to 15. All of these readings dovetail together.

And when you read them together, you will be enriched and blessed and learn the heart of God from his Word. Praise God, and bless you each and every one of you with his Holy Spirit and with the guidance that comes from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Amen.

Joseph Shulam: The World is Not My Home [2021]

The readings for this Shabbat are from Parashat Eikev: Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25. From the prophets, the Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3. From the New Testament we will be reading Hebrews 11:8-13, and Romans 8:31-39.

The Torah portion for this week is the third portion. We have passed the repetition that Moses gives of the Ten Commandments and his complaint that God doesn’t let him cross the Jordan River. Now in Deuteronomy chapter 7 Moses is beginning to prepare the people of Israel for their new experience of entering the land of Canaan, the land of promise.

Moses understands that all that these people will now see, in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, will be totally new for them. They might be surprised and shocked and challenged and must fight their way into their allotted territories given to each tribe by lots cast in the name of the Lord. In chapter 7:7-8, we find the following verses:

“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” – Deuteronomy7:7,8 [NKJV]

These verses are the foundation for Yeshua’s parables and stories that contain the mustard seed. The words of Yeshua “The least of all peoples” (Matthew 13:31) is not talking of the mustard seed at all.

Because the mustard seed is far from being the smallest seed among the garden plants. The seed of the parsley, dill, Thyme, oregano, are all much smaller than the seed of the mustard. However, in the Bible the word “seed” is used more for people, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David…

So, Moses says that Israel as a nation is the smallest of all the nations. The text of Deuteronomy 7:11-16 is the ultimate encouragement for this band of second-generation slaves that was born and raised in the wilderness of Sinai and have never lived in normal cities and villages and in stone homes.

They are going to face an enemy that is a trained army with fortresses. This will be a hard and new experience and Moses has to encourage them and give them strength by assuring them that the Lord is with them and will bless them and protect them and heal them if they will be obedient and keep the covenant given to them at Mount Sinai.

The surprising part of these instructions that Moses gives them is in verse 16:

“Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” – Deuteronomy 7:16 [NKJV]

For us in the 21st Century, this command of God through Moses to destroy all the peoples and have no pity on them seems too harsh. But, when you consider that these pagan tribes and nations that have gathered in the land of Canaan have no Torah and have no idea of treating the stranger and the weak civilly – the only realistic way to possess the land and minimize troubles is to be obedient and do what God commanded Israel, that is to have no pity on your enemy.

Every great warrior like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, or Genghis Khan understood well these principles, and this is the reason why they were successful to win their battles. Please open your bible and read Deuteronomy chapters 7:12 – 11:25. Reading this text you will come out encouraged and full of questions and informed of how the Lord works and what he demands from us even unto this very day.

I don’t mean to kill our enemies, but to neutralize them by making them our friends if that is possible, or to keep them at bay by being much stronger and better equipped. Or if there is no choice, to stop our enemies with the best war machines available to us.

The reading from the prophet Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3 is also a very interesting text. Isaiah 49:1-14 is a very important text in which God switches His servant from being the whole nation that failed miserably to do the mission of being the light for the nations (gentiles).

Now God moves that mission to one person who will accomplish all that the nation of Israel was supposed and destined to accomplish. In chapter 49:6 the mission to be a light to the nations is moved from the nation of Israel to one individual person who will accomplish being that light to the nations and bring the gentiles to the full fellowship and knowledge of God through that one person who represents all of Israel, the Messiah. This Messiah will be revealed more in chapter 52:13 and chapter 53.

Hebrews 11:8-13 and Romans 8:31-39 bring us the catalogue of the faithful and that specific verse reminds us of our Father Abraham who is called “The father of the faithful.” This is a reminder that Abraham, who was promised the land of Canaan as his and his seed’s eternal inheritance, didn’t get to inherit the land but was a stranger and a tourist in the land that was given to him.

This reading is important for us to remember that we are living a nomadic life in this world at best, and that we don’t have a permanent home in this world. We are all like the children of Israel entering the land of Canaan to possess it, but like Abraham, regardless of where we build our home, and whatever materials we use, we are still going to be pilgrims and strangers on God’s good earth.

In the whole universe, our galaxy is also a transient place, it has a beginning, and it also has an end. Even Steven Hawking, the writer of the book “A Brief History of Time,” wrote that there was a time that our world (galaxy) didn’t exist and then came into existence, and that there will be a time that it will no longer exist. For this very reason the writer of the book of Hebrews is stressing the fact that Abraham the Father of faith was a stranger in the land and didn’t have a permanent home.

For me this is a very important truth that we often forget and we try to be attached to all these non-permanent things. I suppose that this is one of the most important lessons that I received from the Torah, the prophets, and the New Testament readings.

Everyone in our transient world must remember Rabbi Nachman’s short poem:

“The whole World complete is a narrow bridge and our task is to cross this bridge without fear!”

There is also an old Christian hymn that I have not heard for a long time in any church or Messianic fellowship. It is a hymn that still reverberates in my mind, and I need to remember it:

Joseph Shulam: Not by Bread Alone [2019]

We are approaching the end of the Jewish year of 5779, and now we are reading from Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:45. This portion starts with the word “Eikev”. Translated into English, it means “because.”

The Hebrew root of this word is also the root of the name “Jacob”. It literally means “at the heel of / what follows/ this is what will happen / the cause of the following events”. If history is defined as a chain of events, then this word or concept stands in the middle of this chain of events.

It is so important to me to always ask the following question, “How and why did this happen to me?” I am not talking here about good things or bad things that happen, I am just asking the question about what happened.

Maybe I would like to repeat the success or avoid the repetition of unpleasant or unfruitful chapters of my life. So, this week, after the 9th of Av, the date that will be remembered in infamy through all of Jewish history, Jews read from Deuteronomy 7:12, and start with his word “Eikev.”

It all starts with the good, the blessed, the fruitful:

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.” – Deuteronomy 7:12–15 [NKJV]

Who would not want these wonderful blessings from God? Who would say to himself, “I am not interested to have anyone bless me?” Who would say, “I am not interested to increase and multiply the amount of money in my bank account?” Who would not be willing to pay for high medical insurance that guarantees that all sickness and affliction and terrible diseases will be taken away from himself and from his family?

There are church leaders who have become multi-millionaires by teaching fake prosperity doctrines. These preachers did prosper, at least for a season, by the fake news and the fake doctrines that say if people come to church and give money to the “church” (i.e. the pastor), God will prosper them and they will be lenders and not taking loans.

Here in the Torah there is God’s promise of prosperity, and even under this very clear word from God there is the small print that is not written and visible to the normal eye. The obedience and performance of God’s commands is not a mechanical performance of a robot, but a sincere obedience with the right motives and intentions out of the true relationship based on, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your might and with all your being!”

The right action with the wrong motives (remember that God looks into our hearts and know our motives and thoughts) is hypocrisy, and no one, not even our wives, nor our God, appreciates hypocrisy. On the contrary, hypocrisy always brings the opposite results to what we have hoped for.

The second major idea in next week’s reading is from Deuteronomy 8:1-4:

“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” – Deuteronomy 8:1-4 [NKJV]

The Lord is giving us a kind of a hidden revelation of why He does some things with us, and for us, and to us! It is true that at times, even when we are so-called “being good” and “trying our best” and “doing things right and from pure motives of really trying to obey and do right from all our heart”, suddenly “boom” we get something horrible and difficult and threatening our very existence.

Well here we are! The Lord reveals to us that the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, with all the difficulties of hunger and thirst and attacks of the enemy, were a test. As simple as that. A test to see if we would remain faithful and keep our faith in God, and keep His commandments.

The words here actually make me a little upset:

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna… that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” – Deuteronomy 8:3 [NKJV]

My first reaction was, “Who does He thinks He is?” “Who gave Him the permission to make us hunger? Who wants to be humbled? For sure it is not me!”

Then, with a flash of freezing ice cold sweat across my forehead, I realized the importance of the lesson. It is that the Lord God Creator of the Universe was and is attempting to teach us, that man (me) does not live by bread alone! Bread here is not only pita bread with falafel, not even a good juicy beef steak, bread here is money and assets and bank accounts and savings, and every false security that we want to lean on.

To learn this important lesson, God sent our forefathers 40 years through the university of hard knocks. Many have entered and gone through this university of hard knocks for many years, and have even have the impression that they have graduated summa cum laude, but in reality, few have learned the lesson that “man does not live by bread alone.”

Those that did learn this lesson have become humble and passionate lovers of God and humanity, or shall I reverse the order and say lovers of humanity and God. Those who have successfully learned this lesson have given up their selfish desires and work for the good of many, and not just the few in their family.

I better end here this diatribe and just wish for myself to learn these important lessons that God has given us all through His word, both in print and especially through His word that materialized in the form of one great teacher, Yeshua our Messiah, Savior, and King.

Because I don’t see into my fellow man’s heart, at first glance it would seem that both the Father and the Son did not do such a good job as our teachers. It would seem that most of their students did not pass the exam.

But, then I remember school is not finished yet, and the bell has not rung yet, and the classes are not dismissed yet, and we are all waiting for the graduation ceremony to receive our report cards from the Man dressed in white, seated on the throne, calling those sheep to go to the right and the goats to the left. Graduation is coming for all of us! Let us see how much we can get done before the final bell and the shofar sounds. Shofar so good!

Joseph Shulam: What is the Motive Behind Your Giving? [2018]

The Torah reading this Shabbat is called “Eikev”, which in English is translated “because”. These two words, one in Hebrew and the other in English, are words that carry forward the logic of the sentence in the broader context of the text.

I really believe that this Torah portion is probably the most important Torah text for the Western church today. Why?

Before I answer this question, I must state a clear disclaimer: I believe in God’s blessings and I believe in living a good life and a prosperous life in the world and eternally spent with God and with Yeshua and with all the saints of history. I don’t believe in misery or suffering to be virtues that men ought to aspire for, but I also don’t believe that a believer a disciple of Yeshua will always be rich and happy and prosperous in this world.

Lack of prosperity is not a sign of sin and punishment. It can be boot camp for the men of God, like Elijah the prophet, to train for bigger tasks and missions from God.

Now that I have said this clearly let me share with you the first message of this text from Deuteronomy. Here are the opening verses from Deuteronomy 7:12-16:

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also, you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” – Deuteronomy 7:12-16 [NKJV]

If you check the rest of the word of God, always when there is a promise of blessings from God, there is also a demand for obedience. Let me share a few of these texts:

“Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” – Deuteronomy 29:9 [NKJV]

To “keep the words of this covenant” means to do the words of the covenant. One more example from a later text:

“Then you will prosper, if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.” – 1 Chronicles 22:13 [NKJV]

There is a reward for doing in every camp where human beings are a community. There is never in the bible a promise for prosperity for human beings who are not obedient or not preforming their duties. There is also never a promise of prosperity for receiving grace or forgiveness for sinning or doing something wrong or bad.

There is a strange teaching or marketing or manipulation that some churches and pastors use to encourage their parishioners to give money to the church or the pastor with a promise that they will prosper and be rewarded, and their wealth will be multiplied and increased by 100%. The texts that these preachers use is taken from the Gospel of Luke. Let me bring this text here and analyze it a bit:

“Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” – Luke 6:36–38 [NKJV]

This text from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Luke has the right words, “give and it will be given to you!” The way this text is used today is that if you give money to the church you will prosper financially, and it will be given to you “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over…”

The context of this text in Luke is not giving money at all. Start with verse 36, “be merciful” – your Father also is merciful. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And here it comes: “Give and it will be given to you…” abundantly running over, and it will be put into your bosom. This last phrase means that you will not have to work for it, it will be actually brought to you personally.  So, when you see the context all the formula follows through.

I understand it like this: whatever you sow that is what you will harvest, with God’s blessing for your doing the right thing. What does this text not say? It does not say what you give! It does not say to whom you give!

It does say that things like forgiveness, mercy, and not judging your fellow man are the things that you give and the things that God our Father will multiply to you. It could include charity of money, it could include even giving money to the church, but what it does not include or teach is that your motivation for giving in any of the above cases is to receive – good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.

The giving of good things or money with the motivation of selfish gain is exactly what this text does not teach. How do I know that to be truth? Look at the conclusion of this text in Luke 6:38:

“For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” – Luke 6:38 [NKJV]

In other words, if you give with the wrong motivation of selfish desire, what you are going to get from others will be their insincerity, in double measure, shaken together, right into your bosom. I don’t think anyone will enjoy receiving any measure of hypocrisy and insincerity.

Even to God, or especially to God, don’t give in order to gain for your selfish desires. Give to God from all your heart and with honest and faithful desire to be a blessing, without calculation of what you are going to gain for yourself. When you do this right, you will see how God will sincerely bless you in more ways than you can imagine.

Joseph Shulam: Focus on the Words [2017]

The Torah reading this Shabbat is called “Eikev”, which in English is translated “because”. These two words, one in Hebrew and the other in English, are words that carry forward the logic of the sentence in the broader context of the text.

I really believe that this Torah portion is probably the most important Torah text for the Western church today. Why?

Before I answer this question, I must state a clear disclaimer: I believe in God’s blessings and I believe in living a good life and a prosperous life in the world and eternally spent with God and with Yeshua and with all the saints of history. I don’t believe in misery or suffering to be virtues that men ought to aspire for, but I also don’t believe that a believer a disciple of Yeshua will always be rich and happy and prosperous in this world.

Lack of prosperity is not a sign of sin and punishment. It can be boot camp for the men of God, like Elijah the prophet, to train for bigger tasks and missions from God.

Now that I have said this clearly let me share with you the first message of this text from Deuteronomy. Here are the opening verses from Deuteronomy 7:12-16:

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also, you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” – Deuteronomy 7:12-16 [NKJV]

If you check the rest of the word of God, always when there is a promise of blessings from God, there is also a demand for obedience. Let me share a few of these texts:

“Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.” – Deuteronomy 29:9 [NKJV]

To “keep the words of this covenant” means to do the words of the covenant. One more example from a later text:

“Then you will prosper, if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.” – 1 Chronicles 22:13 [NKJV]

There is a reward for doing in every camp where human beings are a community. There is never in the bible a promise for prosperity for human beings who are not obedient or not performing their duties. There is also never a promise of prosperity for receiving grace or forgiveness for sinning or doing something wrong or bad.

There is a strange teaching or marketing or manipulation that some churches and pastors use to encourage their parishioners to give money to the church or the pastor with a promise that they will prosper and be rewarded, and their wealth will be multiplied and increased by 100%. The texts that these preachers use is taken from the Gospel of Luke. Let me bring this text here and analyze it a bit:

“Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” – Luke 6:36–38 [NKJV]

This text from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Luke has the right words, “give and it will be given to you!” The way this text is used today is that if you give money to the church you will prosper financially, and it will be given to you “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over…”

The context of this text in Luke is not giving money at all. Start with verse 36, “be merciful” – your Father also is merciful. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And here it comes: “Give and it will be given to you…” abundantly running over, and it will be put into your bosom. This last phrase means that you will not have to work for it, it will be actually brought to you personally.  So, when you see the context all the formula follows through.

I understand it like this: whatever you sow that is what you will harvest, with God’s blessing for your doing the right thing. What does this text not say? It does not say what you give! It does not say to whom you give!

It does say that things like forgiveness, mercy, and not judging your fellow man are the things that you give and the things that God our Father will multiply to you. It could include charity of money, it could include even giving money to the church, but what it does not include or teach is that your motivation for giving in any of the above cases is to receive – good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.

The giving of good things or money with the motivation of selfish gain is exactly what this text does not teach. How do I know that to be truth? Look at the conclusion of this text in Luke 6:38:

“For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” – Luke 6:38 [NKJV]

In other words, if you give with the wrong motivation of selfish desire, what you are going to get from others will be their insincerity, in double measure, shaken together, right into your bosom. I don’t think anyone will enjoy receiving any measure of hypocrisy and insincerity.

Even to God, or especially to God, don’t give in order to gain for your selfish desires. Give to God from all your heart and with honest and faithful desire to be a blessing, without calculation of what you are going to gain for yourself. When you do this right, you will see how God will sincerely bless you in more ways than you can imagine.

Yehuda Bachana: Love or Profit? The Torah Honors Both [2018]

Read the teaching below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

Shabbat Shalom. This Shabbat we read the weekly Torah portion, Parashat Eikev. The theme that repeats itself over and over throughout Deuteronomy is the request to keep the commandments of God.

Again and again Moses asks us not to turn away from the way of the Torah, not to the right or left, but to keep the Word of God with zeal.

The Book of Deuteronomy as a whole contains many reasons for which we should keep the Word of God and teach our children to keep and walk according to the Word of God forever.

An Overview of This Week’s Parasha

This week’s parasha quotes from Yeshua’s response to being tempted:

“…Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” – Matthew 4:4b [NIV] (see also Deuteronomy 8:3b)

The verse that Yeshua quotes was spoken by Moses, to the people, after 40 years in the desert, after 40 years in which the people saw the power of God in action.

Our parasha makes a comparison between Egypt, or the nations of the world, and the Land of Israel:

“The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” – Deuteronomy 11:11-12 [NIV]

In contrast to the countries of the world, water in the Land of Israel is not guaranteed. We depend on the providence of God to provide us with rain every year and to sustain us. We, as the people of Israel, depend daily on God.

“It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” – Deuteronomy 11:12 [NIV]

We Depend on God for Food and Water

There is an important element here in understanding that God is involved in our daily lives. In the Jewish prayer service, in the winter, when there is supposed to be rain, we, the entire nation of Israel, pray daily for rain, and in the Talmud there is a complete tractate called Ta’anit, which mainly deals with fasts and prayers for rain.

When you understand the context, you can understand the fullness of the intention of Yeshua, in saying that we live on the Word of God and not on bread.

We are assured that if we keep the Word of God, there will be bread, there will be rain, and there will be blessing!

Love or Profit?

The main question that arises repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy is: The reason for the observance of the commandments (mitzvot), do we observe the commandments in order to get a reward? Or out of fear of punishment? Or out of love to God?

I would like to use the Shema prayer as a model for understanding the reason for the observance of the commandments. The Shema prayer is composed of two parts: “Shema Yisrael” and “V’haya Im Shamoa”. Last week we learned the Shema Yisrael that appeared in Deuteronomy 6, and this week we learn the second part, “So if you faithfully obey…”, which appears in Deuteronomy 11:13.

These two important passages appear in every mezuzah, and in all tefillin. This is actually the center of Torah and the center of Jewish prayer. And it tells us that there is reward and there is punishment!

“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today… then I will send rain on your land in its season… so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied… so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors…” – Deuteronomy 11:13a,14,15,21a [NIV]

The words “so that” here say that the reward is not only the result of the observance of commandments, but also the reason for the observance of the commandments. It’s as if the Torah is saying to fulfill the commandments “so that” you will have a good and long life.

Our Reward in the World to Come

Yeshua teaches us, over and over, when we give charity, we must not take credit, why?

That our reward would not come as honor in this world, but as a reward in the World to Come.

Notice that Yeshua does not say there is no reward, but that there is reward. It’s just that it’s worth receiving in heaven.

Yeshua teaches us that when we fast, God forbid we will have the appearance of a person who is fasting. Again the matter of reward. And so even when we pray and actually do everything we do, we must be careful of our appearance, in order for our valuable reward to be kept in heaven.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” – Matthew 6:19a,20a [NIV]

This means there is a treasure, and there is a safe, there is reward and there is a prize, and there is a bank and there is a banker, and it is God.

It is worthwhile for a person to observe the commandments, and the great reward that a person will receive following the observance of the commandments is emphasized.

The Torah – a Means to an End?

But the Torah also warns us sternly that it is very dangerous to commit transgressions, and that whoever does so exposes himself to severe punishment.

One must ask – is this is a proper approach? That the decision to fulfill the Word of God would be based on profitability?

On the other hand, in the Shema prayer (Deuteronomy 6) there is no mention or question of profitability, but love for God:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.” – Deuteronomy 6:5,6 [NIV]

The tension between keeping God’s Word “so that” or not “so that” has always been around. Many see the observance of the commandments “so that” as a grave flaw, and claim that a person who fulfills commandments in anticipation of reward actually serves himself rather than God.

The Importance of Doing

If we stop for a moment and think about the subject, I think we will agree that there is a fundamental flaw in the fulfillment of a commandment in order to receive a reward.

Where is the intermediate line connecting these two opposites?

The Torah and the New Testament emphasize that the main thing is to do the Word of God. Yeshua teaches us the parable of the house on the rock and the sand (Matthew 7:24).

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21 [NIV]

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24 [NIV]

The emphasis of Yeshua is not on the believer who says, “Lord, Lord”, but on the believer who “does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.

From all this I learn that what is important is to do. And that the Scriptures give legitimacy to a person who upholds the Word of God, and avoids violating prohibitions solely because of the reward and punishment before him. Perhaps it is neither desired nor ideal, but it is acceptable.

Of course, there is a desire for an ideal, in which one disconnects oneself from the interests of profit, and acts from pure love to God and serves Him truly. As we pray every Shabbat in the congregation, the same prayer that the entire Jewish world prays in the Amidah prayer:

“…purify our hearts to serve You in truth.” – Koren Siddur, Amidah prayer

In closing

As in the laws of the state, it is important to uphold the law, such as the prohibition to steal, if the thief is afraid of punishment and therefore he does not steal, it is okay and acceptable, but there is the ideal of the citizen who does not steal because it is a question of morality, and not necessarily an avoidance of punishment.

It is the same with the Word of God. The main thing is that we do it, if we’re looking for a blessing, that’s fine too.

But the ideal is to act out of love.

“Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” – Matthew 22:37-40 [NIV]

Shabbat Shalom.