Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 10:15-21: Your Praise (T’hilat’ka)

12. Your Praise (T’hilat’ka)

Only Yahweh took enough pleasure in your ancestors to love them and choose their descendants after them — yourselves — above all peoples, as he still does today.  Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart; and don’t be stiffnecked any longer!  For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes.  He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.  Therefore you are to love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.  You are to fear Yahweh your God, serve him, cling to him and swear by his name.  He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which you have seen with your own eyes. 

(D’varim 10:15-21)

They embraced as he prepared to leave.  They had read the words of Moshe together and it just so happened that Moshe’s message that he read this day spoke of Yahweh’s love for the foreigner and challenged both him and Nabil to fear Yahweh only and serve Him, clutching on to Him as their only hope.

“I will tell what Yahweh has done for me wherever I go and especially to my family.  He will be my praise!  Please ask God to make a way for me and my father to find reconciliation.”

“I have been already and will continue so to pray.  The blessings of our great God go with you, Nabil.”

It started raining as he left.  This was a blessing in itself because it would cool the day for Nabil in his travels and would replenish his water supply.

Though he had only been up for a few hours he felt the need for some sleep and lay down on his pallet and fell asleep almost immediately.  He woke to find Nabil squatting to his right at the mouth of the cave.

“Nabil, was the storm too great?  Are you well?”

The body remained motionless but the head turned toward him in an unnatural way and the face he saw was not that of Nabil but one with eyes so sinister that it made his blood rush.

“So, you felt you had the right to banish my servant.”

“I felt I had the necessity.  You would imprison a man whom you promised great freedom and make him all the more a son of hell for your selfish ends.”

“We all have selfish ends.  You have yours and I have mine.  I am just more honest about mine.”

“You are not honest at all.  You are a liar from the beginning and do not believe anyone can be unselfish because you have never been unselfish yourself.  You measure everything by yourself and so your measurement is not true.”

He did not respond but merely sat there, staring with cold eyes as if shooting darts at him.  He rose from where he lay and walked out of the cave with those eyes following him but still saying nothing.

“Father, should I leave this cave and go somewhere else?  He would only follow me, wouldn’t he?  But this is why I am out here, to experience the temptation that the sons of Adam have experienced and to the full.  Father, give me strength.”

He walked and prayed and meditated for some time before returning.  He dreaded seeing him again and having to listen to his twisted thinking.  He was soaking wet from the rain and so he started a fire to dry off and warm up.

“You are a fool!  Do you really think that by spending your time out here in this barren place that you will be prepared to lead your people?  How many followed John?  Not many by comparison.  It will be the same for you.  Oh yes, you’ll get some other fools to follow you with the promise of a position in the kingdom and vengeance against their enemies.  Some of them will love you for what you can do for them but you will not convince my people.  They will be on to your tricks with the Scriptures and be able to persuade the populace that you are a fanatic.  Nations do not follow fanatics.”

He didn’t know whether to answer or not.  There was actually merit in his argument.  He anticipated opposition and in fact the Scriptures predicted it.  Just look at Moshe.  The people never really gave him his due as leader.  They resisted all the way.  Why would it be any different for him?

“There are better ways to get this job done.  I have advised many who have become successful.  I have seen much and I know how humans think.  Do I not deserve a listen?”

Yeshua rolled over on his side with his back to the wretch and tried to go back to sleep.  No more words were spoken but he could not sleep.  Arguments were rolling around in his mind, ways of responding, though it all seemed pointless.  He finally sat up and opened the scroll again.

He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which you have seen with your own eyes. 

As darkness fell and the night wore on he was becoming drowsy again.  Suddenly from the squatter came a rush of nonsense syllables, strange incantations that had no end.  What was this?  It went on and on and on, drowning out rational thought.

He lay down and closed his eyes but it seemed like eternity before he went to sleep with the droning continuing on.  He woke at least two more times to hear the barrage of words still going, only to fall asleep again in desperation.