Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 11:1-4: Discipline of Yahweh (Et-Musar Yahveh)

13. Discipline of Yahweh (Et-Musar Yahveh)

“Therefore, you are to love Yahweh your God and always obey his commission, regulations, rulings and mitzvot.  Today it is you I am addressing — not your children, who haven’t known or experienced the discipline of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his strong hand, his outstretched arm, his signs and his actions which he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to his entire country.  They didn’t experience what he did to Egypt’s army, horses and chariots — how Yahweh overwhelmed them with the water of the Sea of Suf as they were pursuing you, so that they remain destroyed to this day.

(D’varim 11:1-4)

He awoke to stillness.  He looked and his enemy was gone.  Relief filled his heart.  “Thank you, Father.”

He began his day as usual with the opening of the scroll of Moshe’s words to Yisrael.  When he read about how Yahweh had disciplined the Egyptians and how He opened up the ground under Datan and Aviram when they challenged Moshe’s authority, he wondered if his Father had done something like this to satan.  He knew that the final judgment for this adversary was only at the Day of Yahweh, but he harbored the hope that some intermediate action had been taken for this occasion.

His hope was short-lived and his disappointment palpable when satan returned and once more squatted at the entrance to the cave.

“I hope you slept well.”

How could he sleep well with that monotonous monologue into the late hours of the night watch?  He noticed what seemed to be blood on the hands and mouth of satan.  Why?  He didn’t need to eat.  Did he delight in ripping living things to pieces?  Was that how he rested?  Disgust rose in his belly.

“Why does your father love you, Yeshua?”

What an odd question.

“He loves me because I am His son.”

“So he loves you because you are like him.  It is hard to imagine anything more selfish than that.”

“He cannot help but love what is like Him because He is utterly good and perfect.  How can you not praise and love the steep face of this escarpment for its sheer beauty and grace?  If it could love itself you would not say it is selfish but rather that it is completely sane and aware of how perfect it is.”

“And are you perfect, O son of God?”

“I please my Father in all things.  I do not fall back from serving Him in any way.  I love what He loves and how He loves.”

“Is there no room for error in your life?  Would His love waver if you were to fail Him in some way?  How perfect is His love?”

“He loves you still though you are doomed to destruction.  He will not fail to love you with justice and treat you as genuinely responsible for your choices and actions.  Rebellion against all that is good and right cannot be allowed to remain uncondemned and unpunished.”

“He loves me?  Is that why he sends you to judge me?”

“I am come to destroy your works.  You would have men, women and children enslaved in hatred and violence.  You would use them for your own satisfaction, to feast on their fear and anger, to glory in their likeness to you and their enmity toward my Father.  Your way will not survive the Day of Yahweh and I hope to rescue many held captive to do your will.”

“You sound arrogant for someone trapped in your pitiful human body.  Have you relieved yourself today?  What a pathetic and filthy creature you are.  What was he thinking when he made this race?  It is the most disgusting thing on this earth.  That you would partake of it makes it all the more ridiculous that you will be able to counter my works.  I almost feel sorry for you.”

“The Son must be made like his brothers in order to rescue them from their own prison.  My victory will not be like your victory.  It is not by strength that one prevails.  My victory will come through weakness and not my own power.  You must be tired.  Will you not join me and trust His power to make things right?”

He began laughing low and soft and then gradually with greater intensity.  His laugh became too long and too hollow, as if he did not really know how to laugh and was trying to approximate a human response.  There was no joy in his laughter, only mocking.

The rest of the day passed in silence until, once again, as bedtime approached the unending incantations and mutterings began and a sense of darkness overwhelmed his spirit, making it difficult to sleep, though sleep he did.