Parashah #47 Re’eh (See) D’varim 11:26-16:17

See and know what you are and believe it, this is covered in chapters 8-11 of D’varim/Dt. This is only the beginning. Then worship Him in truth in chapters 12-13; 18:9-22 of D’varim. Believers are advised to worship in Spirit and Truth Yochanan/Jn 4:24; 2 Cor 3:17. Honour and obey God so that it may go well with you …

11:29 Gerizim = “cuttings off”. A mountain in northern Israel in Ephraim near Shechem from which the blessings were read to the Israelites on entering Canaan; site of the Samaritan temple built after the captivity.

11:29 Ebal = “stone” or “bare mountain”, north of Shechem and opposite Mount Gerizim.

11:30 Canaanites = see Cana “zealous”.

11:30 Gilgal= “a wheel, rolling”. the first site of an Israelite camp west of the Jordan, east of Jericho, here Samuel was judge, and Saul was made king; later used for illicit worship. A dwelling place of prophets in northern Israel about four miles (7 km) from Shiloh and Bethel. A region conquered by Joshua, site unsure.

11:30 Moreh = “teacher”. The oak tree at Shechem where Abram stopped when he first entered Canaan; close to the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim. The hill in the valley of Jezreel at which the Midianites were camped when Gideon attacked them.

11:31 Jordan = “descender”. The river running from the roots of Anti-Lebanon to the Dead Sea a distance of approx 200 miles (320 km).

11:32 statutes חק choq pronounced khoke. An enactment, decree, ordinance, prescribed limit, boundary.

11:32 judgments משׁפט mishpat pronounced mish-pawt. An act of deciding a case. A process, procedure, litigation (before judges), rectitude (attributes of God or man), An act of deciding a case.

14:22 seed = זרע zera prounounced zeh’-rah.

Note: A bit of background and numerals in brackets are endnotes.

In 54:4-8 God promises to make the New Jerusalem his Bride. Her predecessor’s flirtation with the great prostitute Babylon caused him to turn his back on her, but now he promises no longer to treat her like a jilted newlywed or a lonely widow.

He will act as her husband again and, in so doing, he will give her back the full benefit of bearing his name. He spells this name out for her in five different ways in 54:5. He is her “Maker”, “the Lord Almighty”, “the Holy One of Israel” her “Redeemer” and “the God of all the earth”. Given that her husband has these five title names, it’s not hard to see why Zion needed to increase the size of her tent in 54:1-3 in anticipation of a massive family of children. God’s judgment has been brief and his grace will spring eternal. (1)

In 54:9-10 the renewal of his covenant with Zion will last forever. The people of Judah could not understand the scope and scale of his forgiveness before they heard him sing his final Servant Song, but now they realize that the ink with which he writes his New Covenant is the righteous blood of his Messiah. Suddenly it all makes sense. If a rainbow in the sky proclaimed the permanence of the covenant achieved by righteous Noah and a wooden ark, how much more permanent is the covenant which has been achieved by the righteous Messiah and a cross. (2)

In 54:11-12 the Lord sings about the new walls and gates of Zion. She will not be rebuilt with stones quarried from a hillside, but with living stones – people quarried from the world and declared, righteous through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Messiah. (3) The ancient high priests of Israel engraved the names of the twelve tribes of Israel onto twelve small jewels on the front of their, clothing, but the Lord will turn every believer into a jewel as large as one of the massive building blocks which ancient city-dwellers quarried to construct their mighty walls. (4)

If Paul tells us in Gal 4:27 that not every Jew is truly part of Zion, it shouldn’t surprise us that not everyone who claims to be a believer is one either. (5) Yeshua meant it when he told people in Matt 9:29, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”

He knows more about the weaknesses of believers, which is why this promise comes as part of his pledge to make weak people strong. “I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise… I will make your battlements, of rubies,” a promise, putting the burden for this makeover on His own shoulders.

We can read a longer description of the Bride, the New Jerusalem, in Rev 21. Yosef’s brothers form its gates. The twelve disciples form foundation stones.

In 54:13 God promises that even the weakest believer will experience transformation, (paraphrasing). Yeshua quotes from this verse in Jn 6:45 when people doubt his authority because he is humble. He is transforming ordinary lives. Any believer who reads the scriptures, who worships, who prays and who pursues the place God has for them in Zion will find that they know God as their closest friend. They will discover that he is able to transform them into a very beautiful brick in the wall. (6)

In 54:14-17 The scripture ends with a promise that can never be undone. God points out that even Satan is one of his creatures, so he can ensure every one of Satans attacks on Zion’s walls ends in failure. Like Sennacherib breaking the teeth of his army on the walls of Old Jerusalem, any time Satan tries to reverse God’s plans it always backfires.

Marvel at what the Lord has made out of the smouldering ruins of Zion. Marvel that this encore is a song that the Lord sings right now over you.’ (7)

Endnotes for this section:

1. God is not downplaying the horrors of the Babylonian exile by calling it “a brief moment” in 54:7. He is simply contrasting it with his “everlasting kindness” In 54:8. Paul does the same in 2 Cor 4:17.
2. See B’resheet/Gen 6:9; 8:21-22; 9:8-17. Zion therefore needs to go forth, increase and multiply (9:7).
3. 1 Pet 2:4-10 describes believers as God’s new Temple rather than as God’s new city, but the Renewed Testament deliberately mixes its metaphors. Peter states that we have become the New Mount Zion.
4. Sh’mot/Ex 28:9-21 The historian Josephus tells us in his Antiquities of the Jews (15.11.3) that some of the stones that were used for rebuilding Jerusalem were 11 metres long, 5.5 metres wide and 3.6 metres high.
5. Paul warns us in Rom 15:7 that a proper response to the Gospel means viewing other believers as God views them and not as the lens of our own self-centredness perceives them to be.
6. Verse 13 has profound implications for how we disciple people. The Lord takes the primary responsibility for discipling believers. We merely need to work alongside what he is doing.
7. In the fourth Servant Song. The Messiah was the Lord’s servant. In 54:17, you are now his servant too.

Commands: verses 9-11, 13.

5:10 fornicators πόρνος pornos pronounced por’-nos. A man who prostitutes his body to another’s lust for hire.

5:10 covetous πλεονέκτης pleonektes pronounced pleh-on-ek’-tace. One eager to have more, esp., what belongs to others, greedy of gain.

5:10 extortioners ἅρπαξ harpax pronounced har’-pax. Rapacious, ravenous, a robber.

5:10 idolaters εἰδωλολάτρης eidololatres pronounced i-do-lol-at’-race. A worshipper of false gods. Used of any one even a believer, participant in any way in the worship of the heathen, esp. one who attends their sacrificial feasts and eats of the remains of offered victims. A covetous man as a worshipper of Mammon.

5:11 railer λοίδορος loidoros pronounced loy’-dor-os. From loidos (mischief); Reviler, insurgents.

5:11 drunkard μέθυσος methusos pronounced meth’-oo-sos. Besides the obvious, it also is a metaphor of one who has shed blood or murdered profusely.

5:13 wicked person πονηρός poneros pronounced pon-ay-ros. A person bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to a person of faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble.

In this section, it is emphsised the importance of separation from the world, at the same time not be isolated. We don’t avoid contact but contamination.

This section is not discussing how to remove evil spirits. A general outline is set out below in how to have protection in God’s love as we are commanded to test all spirits (1 Cor 12:3) as in verse 1. How to test the spirits verses 2, 3. How to overcome demons verse 4. Marks of demon inspired false teachers (1 Tim 6:3; 2 Tim 3:2; 2 Pet 2:10-22) in verse 5. Marks of true believers verse 6.

4:1 The word spirit (Gk) pneuma is used 385 times in the renewed covenant. 1 Jn 4:4 is important advice, “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world”. This indwelling of believers is also quoted in 1 Jn 4:13; 3:24. It is a reassurance we are not alone.

7 ways to test false prophets (Gk) pseudoprophetes. Read 2 Pet 2:1; which is the 3rd prophecy in 2 Pet 2:1-3 being fulfilled. Read also Mt 7:15-16, note verse 15 is a command of Yeshua; 24:11, 24; Mk 13:22; Lk 6:26; Acts 13:6; Rev 16:13; 19:20; 20:10.

1. Their confession of Yeshua (v 2-3)
2. Their relationship with the world (v 5; 2:15-17; James 4:4)
3. How they receive in what they believe (v 6)
4. Their attitude towards the commandments of God (v 6; 3:20-24; Jn 14:15)
5. Love of the believers/brethren (4:7-21; 3:11-16; Jn 13:34-35; 15:12-15)
6. Indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh (v 4-6)
7. The word of God (v 6; 5:10; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Cor 4:4)

The Ruach HaKodesh is the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13) and the spirit of error is Satan (2 Cor 4:4; 11:14-15; Mt 13:19; 1 Tim 4:1-2).