Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 28:13: Blessings (Hab’rakoth)

30 Blessings (Hab’rakoth)

Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail; and you will be only above, never below — if you will listen to, observe and obey the mitzvot of Yahweh your God.

(D’varim 28:13)

He woke to the skittering noises of the satan.  It was so disconcerting to wake to and such a disappointment after some days of relief from his presence.  He did not address him but saw to his daily needs, feeling a bit more strength than yesterday.

He opened his scroll in expectation of reading the second part of the ceremony Moshe conducted in preparation for invading Canaan, the reading of the blessings for obedience before all the people.  All the things that people yearned for would be given to Yisrael if she remained in covenant with Yahweh.

“Your Yahweh cannot even allow for a simple presentation of blessings but has to follow up with an even more detailed and gruesome description of the curses again.  Is that always going to be his method, striking fear in the hearts of the people to keep them in line?  What a petty god!”

Yeshua had to admit to himself that this passage from Moshe bothered him too.  Why so much detail about how horrible Yahweh would make it if Yisrael rebelled against Him?  What was true, however, was that Yisrael did not seem to be that afraid when it came to abandoning Yahweh.  Hearing these curses in such gory detail may have chafed their souls initially, but in the end it did not keep them from iniquity.

So why did Yahweh feel it so necessary to rehearse them?  Is this something a loved one would say to those he loves?  Especially poignant in that regard was Yahweh’s statement, “just as once Yahweh took joy in seeking to do you good and increase your numbers, so now Yahweh will take joy in causing you to perish and be destroyed.”  How could His feelings take such an extreme reversal?

He knew that despite these harsh words Yahweh would not stop loving Yisrael.  But if you love someone enough the stakes of having your love rejected were high, had to be high, and those you loved had to know how high they were.  You had to know what you would be missing.  Was this actually God’s loving way of warning His people?  They needed to know how absolutely alone they would be and feel if they followed their rejection of Yahweh to the end.  They needed to know how utterly He would discipline them, all the way to destruction.  They could not count on a last minute reprieve.

He didn’t like thinking about these issues but knew he needed to.  Though he hated the way satan brought it up, and that there was nothing he could say that would make sense to satan, it was important for him to understand his Father in every aspect of His character.  The very fact that he was Yesha‘yahu’s “servant” who would take the place of Yisrael and bear her iniquity showed to what extent Yahweh’s love was reaching to rescue her.  There could be no compromise with justice.  The penalty had to be paid and he had to pay it for his people and for the whole world.  He would have to feel the removal of the joy Yahweh took in seeing him do good.  This would be the greatest pain of all.

“What do you think, son of God, is this all really worth it?  Is He really worth it?”

It had to be!  What other option was there?  Father would not be just if He simply overlooked Yisrael’s sin.  And her sin was so great it demanded a wrathful warning.  But all the warnings in the world would never enable the people to repent nor to cover the guilt they had already accumulated.  They had no ability in themselves to keep God’s mitzvot.  The law only highlighted how rebellious they were.  It did not empower them.  It killed them.  The curses would come.  The blessings would never be realized if it was left up to them.

There had to be a sacrifice that was sufficient to cover all their transgression, and he had to be that sacrifice.  But the weight of that felt unbearable.  Oh, the joy, though, of those thus redeemed, so incapable in themselves of finding the narrow path but so delivered by the Father’s magnanimous grace!  That alone seemed to lighten the load.  That alone made it bearable.  Avraham, Moshe, David, his own mother and all whose belief had been credited to them as righteousness, would have their guilt assuaged as no animal sacrifice could do.

What other plan was there?  No other answer was possible.  His Father would not send him to do this if there were.

“Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.  I have come to do Your will.  If there is any other way, then show me.  Dread of what is coming has bruised my soul.”

“Very commendable, son of God.  You are playing the role well.  You do well, however, to dread what is coming.  You have never known anything like it.  We will see what you are made of then.” And with that he left.