See!

The LORD had a message for a specific group of people among the Israelites. The message was this: "Therefore you shall love (ahab - "to desire, to breathe after, to love, to delight in") the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always (yom - "day/daily, ever, lifetime; today, yesterday, tomorrow")." (Deut. 11:1). The LORD's message was about a day to day lifestyle of loving God and obeying His commandments, for the group of people to which the LORD was speaking. He described this group: "Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm - His signs and His acts which He did..." (v. 2). The LORD was speaking to those who had experienced Him, who were witnesses to all of the things He had done in the deliverance of His people from slavery, and His continued acts as He guided them in their journey to the Promised Land. The LORD had expectations of this group, because they had seen Him, and His acts. The reason for the LORD's expectation for this group is because everything the LORD will command them in these chapters will prophetically point them, and later us, to the Messiah, the Savior. This week's Sabbath portion is titled Re'eh, which means "See", and comes from Deuteronomy Chapters 13-16, but it begins with the command in Deut. 11: "Behold (See), I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known." (v. 26-27). There is either the blessing, or the curse. There is no middle ground to walk between the two. The LORD made clear His opinion of the middle ground as Moses said: "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes - for as yet you have not come into the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you." (Deut. 12:8-9). There was a rest and an inheritance to be obtained, but they weren't going to get there by going your own way, and doing whatever they wanted. There was a prophetic pattern being established, to be followed carefully, to bring them to a desired end. One of the first commands given to this group of people who had experienced the LORD involved a place: "...you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go." (Deut. 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26). This place, which would later be Jerusalem from within the territory of the tribe of Judah, was the place designated for the people to bring their worship, sacrifices, and offerings to God. However, it was a place to come to rejoicing. The people who inhabited the land before the Israelites had worshipped their idols on mountains, hills, at trees, and many varied places (Deut. 12:2-3), and committed acts of abomination to those gods, even the burning of their own children (v. 31). It was prophetically necessary to bring Israel to Jerusalem in worship as we will see. The LORD warned this group that they could not venture away from His worship, even if a prophet with proven accuracy was to instruct them to do so. These people, who were witnesses to the LORD's acts, and hearers of the LORD's commands, were to hold fast, and not allow themselves to be enticed away from Him (Deut. 13:1-11, see also Lam. 2:13-14). Jesus, and the apostles of the New Testament had the same word of warning for these lst days for the believers in Christ - beware of false prophets, and hold fast to what you know is the truth according to the word of God (Mt. 7:15, 24:11, 24, 2 Pet. 2:1, 1 Jn. 4:1, 2 Tim. 1:13, Heb. 3:6, 10:23, Rev. 2:25, Rev. 3:3). The LORD went on to command this eye-witness group of His people in this week's Sabbath reading portion from Deuteronomy that they should not eat any unclean thing saying: "You are the children of the LORD your God...For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." (Deut. 14:1-21). Not only does this command of the LORD pertain to clean and unclean animals as food for His people, but, spiritually, I believe, the unclean animals mentioned also represent unclean practices, and the people who do them. I say this because prophetically speaking, the LORD will later reveal, through this commandment of unclean foods, the miraculous and sovereign cleansing that He would accomplish through His Son, incuding the acceptance of Gentiles into the faith (Acts 10:9-16). Peter would say, based upon the events that occurred after his vision of unclean animals, "...In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." (v. 34-35). Continuing in Deut. 14, the LORD commanded the tithe to be given to the Levite and to the poor, widow and fatherless as part of the way of blessing, "...that the LORD may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." (v. 29). This blessing continued to be fulfilled in the New Testament, as two Gentiles received a miracle of God because of their giving to the synagogue (Lk. 7), and the poor (Acts 10:1-4). Alms, the merciful giving to the poor, is from the Greek root word whose meaning includes the quality of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ: Jn. 3:16), which makes God's command to give alms within the tithe a prophetic foreshadowing of salvation. To further connect the law given to these people, who are expected to "see", with the prophetic and the way of blessing, in Deut. 15:1-2, every seventh year is commanded by God for the forgiveness of debt of all kinds. This seventh year is to be called "the LORD's release" (samat - "let drop, loosen, detach, overthrow, fling down, let rest"). It is known as the Shemitah. By obediently observing this seventh year of the LORD's release, the nation will be greatly blessed: "For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you." (Deut. 15:6). Jesus would later speak a parable of the unforgiving debtor, and how our forgiveness of another's debt, or not, affects God's forgiveness of our "debts" (Mt. 18:21-35). Jesus would also teach for us to pray to our Father, "And forgive us our debts (opheilema - justly or legally due, something owed; a metaphor for offense, sin), as we forgive our debtors." (Mt. 6:12). Just before Jesus died while on the cross, He made the statement, "It is finished." (Jn. 19:30). Not only does the Greek word used here, teleo, mean the end of something, but it also means "paid; to discharge a debt". It is timely to note that the next seventh year of the LORD's release of debt, or Shemitah, begins next month, from 9/7/21 - 9/25/22. The obedient keeping of the Shemitah by the Israelites, prophetically made the way for the blessing of Christ's teaching and atonement many generations later, with the forgiveness of our debts, or sins. Finally, in Deut. 16, the LORD spoke to these people who were to "see" about three out of the six feasts of the LORD, which could not be obeserved at home, but would require a pilgrimage to "the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide" (v. 6). The LORD said, "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses..." (v. 16). Although all of the feasts of the LORD prophetically point to the Messiah, the three feasts spoken of in Deut. 16 have a special connection with both the Messiah and Jerusalem, "the place". It would be prophetically necessary that on one specific Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, all would be required to come to Jerusalem to "see" the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. All would have come to Jerusalem again seven weeks later to observe the Feast of Weeks as well, and would have "seen" the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the next day, Pentecost, to empower the church of believers in Christ (see Acts 2). The third feast that required the pilgrimage to Jerusalem is the Feast of Tabernacles, "...when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress." (v. 13). Prophetically, a Feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled in Jerusalem after a great battle (threshing floor and winepress). In this battle, the nations will come together against Jerusalem, but the LORD Himself, the Messiah, will come with all His saints and defeat them. The survivors from the defeated nations will be required to come to Jerusalem yearly "...to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." Those nations who do not come, will suffer under a curse of plague and drought. All who do come to Jerusalem for this feast as commanded by the LORD, will experience the blessing of an outpouring of holiness in Jerusalem and Judah (see Zech. 14). This group of people whom the LORD addressed in Deuteronomy, who were expected to "see", carried the prophetic commandments of God for our benefit, and for the benefit of all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12:1-3, 18:18, 22:18). The path of blessing being commanded by the LORD here, was the path to Messiah, Jesus. Jesus taught that He didn't come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt. 5:17-18). Jesus also taught that all of the scriptures testify of Him (Jn. 5:39). We can "see" that clearly in these passages from Deuteronomy. We, the believers in Christ who have experienced the Lord, to whom the arm of the LORD has been revealed (Isa. 53:1), are also called to be a people who are to "see" (Isa. 52:8, 15). We carry the ongoing blessing of the salvation of Christ to others, and we also carry the prophetic promise of the return of Jesus Christ, the Messiah (Rev. 22:12-13, 17/Isa. 40:10-11, Isa. 62:11-12), the creation of the new heavens and the new earth (2 Peter 3:10-14/Isa. 65:17-19), and the appearance of the New Jerusalem, where the tabernacle of God will be among men (Rev. 21:1-5/Isa. 52:1-2/Lev. 26:11-12). One of the ending verses written by John in Rev. 22:14 says, "Blessed are those who do His commandments...". The Lord is still commanding His people to "see" and follow the way of blessing. If you would like to be part of the people whom the Lord has called to "see", you can pray: "Heavenly Father, You have commanded us to love You, and You have given Jesus, Your Son, as a gift for my salvation. I believe that Jesus died to pay for and forgive my debt of sin, and that He rose again from the dead. Fill me with the Holy Spirit so I may "see", and experience You, and bring to others the prophetic promises, the blessings, found in Your commandments. I ask this in the name of Jesus, the Messiah. Amen."