This week's Scriptures

The reading for this week 14-20 July 2013 is called V'Et'chanan-"Supplicated":

TORAH: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

HAFTARAH: Isaiah 40:1-26

TORAH

 

This week's is a rich and powerful Reading. In addition to the "preparations and warnings for crossing-over and possessing inheritance" (3:27-28; 4:14, 21-22, 26-28; 6:1), it contains the 'Ten Commandments' (5:6-21); the Shema "Hear O Israel" (6:4); instructions regarding knowing and memorizing God's Word within the home, and other often touchingly earnest counsels and admonitions of Moses to the young generation preparing to enter Canaan.

*Deuteronomy 3:28. "And charge Yehoshua (Joshua), and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see." 
 
PLEASE PRAY: for God to raise up spiritual leaders in Israel-that these be noticed by alert and obedient elders who will charge, encourage and strengthen them in the power and direction of their calling-that the new godly generation will love and trust their God, fight the battles necessary and inherit the land.

*Deuteronomy 4:7. "For who is the great nation whose gods are near to it the way YHVH our God is to us in all the ways in which we call to Him?"

*Deuteronomy 4:29-31. "But from there [i.e. scattered throughout the world] you [the Hebrew people] will seek YHVH your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the last days, when you turn to YHVH your God and obey his voice, (For YHVH your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them." 
 
PLEASE PRAY: For awakening of a powerful longing in the hearts of Jews still in the nations, a longing after the God of their Fathers and faith in this word that He will hear when they turn to Him.

*Deuteronomy 4:43. "Betzer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites."

These are Cities of Refuge in land taken by Israel from the Amorites, running along the eastern side of the Jordan River to Mount Hermon, an area once known as the "Land of the Giants" (Deut. 2:20; 3:13), until Og the last and greatest was defeated by Israel before crossing over into Canaan (3:3-11). The location of the first two lies within land presently claimed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Which modern kingdom came officially into being in 1946); the last is the area of the Golan Heights, taken by Israel from Syria in the 1967 War. Zechariah 10:10 prophesies that someday Jews will return to Gilead and even portions of Lebanon.

PLEASE PRAY: That the Israeli government will sense and move in God's timetable regarding these lands. That they will not despise the land once taken by Moses and bequeathed to Manasseh (the present Golan), now again under the stewardship of His people in these last days. Pray that this strategic land will not be bartered for a false peace with our neighbors. That it will be protected from the forces of violence in Syria which have recently threatened to invade it. Pray that God's Kingdom come!-that in His way and timing the LORD of Hosts will bring all of the land promised to his Covenant people into the borders He has ordained.

*Deuteronomy 6:4-5. "HEAR! [Hebrew: Shma!] ISRAEL; YHVH OUR GOD, YHVH ONE!"
There are other "Hear, O Israel's" in Deuteronomy (4:1, 6:3, 9:1, 20:3, 33:7)-but this one has become the central cry of Jews throughout the world for centuries, and continues to be sung each week in Synagogues (including most Messianic ones). It takes revelation, removal of the 'veil', for this people to realize that Yeshua (Jesus) being the Son of God (Proverbs 30:4) as well as Son of Man does not violate this proclamation. It is a deep, eternal truth that He and His Father are ONE! (John 10:30). Satan hates this truth being voiced-when Yeshua proclaimed it, the religious Jews present took up stones to kill him. 
 
PLEASE PRAY for this revelation of the one-ness of the Father and the Son, and that the voice and false message of the Deceiver be silenced in the ears of the Jewish people.
*Deuteronomy 6:5. "You shall love YHVH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." 
 
Yeshua quoted this verse in the New Covenant, calling it the First and Greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38; Mark 12:29-30). "All your strength" is unique in the Hebrew. Rather than a usual expression for "strength", the word me'od is used. Elsewhere in both Biblical and Modern Hebrew me'od is an adverb meaning "very." Webster's describes the adverb "very" this way: "In a high degree; to a great extent; extremely; exceedingly; used as a qualifier before an adjective or another adverb." Yet here me'od or "very" is used as a noun! To love our God with all of our very "veriness"-in every way, "in a high degree"; "to a great extent"; "extremely"; "exceedingly".
Only once in the Hebrew Bible is this passage repeated-in reference to the Israelite leader, King Josiah (II Kings 23:25), "Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him." "With all our heart" implies a tender and humble heart. Significantly, 22:19 reveals that God heard and responded to Josiah "because his heart was tender, and he humbled himself before the LORD when he heard what he had spoken." .

Might we not pray for the current leader of Israel that he will have a softened heart like Josiah which might be pierced when he reads God's word, something which Prime Minister Netanyahu has on more than one occasion claimed that he does with regularity?

 

HAFTARAH

 

Shabbat Nachamu

 

*Isaiah 40:1-2, 9. "Comfort You (plural), Comfort You My people!' says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God!'" 
 
The Sabbath immediately following the 9^th of Av is sometimes called Shabbat Nachamu-"The Comfort You Sabbath"-after the first words of Isaiah 40 which are read that day. From this Sabbath until Rosh Hashanah (5 September this year), the seven readings from the Prophets will be taken from Isaiah, focusing like a balm upon the comfort and love which God has for His people.

  PLEASE PRAY that Israel's ears will be opened to the Voice of Good News coming from her Father. Pray that the voice of the bearer of Good News to Zion (Meveseret Tzion) will be released strong and clear from high places around the Holy City!

*Isaiah 40:11. "He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young." 

PLEASE PRAY for revelation and dreams amongst Jews regarding the One who said, "I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep" (John 10:14-15).

*Isaiah 40:26. "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing."

  PLEASE PRAY that Israelis remember God's word to Abraham our father, how "He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'"( Gen. 15:5).that they realize WHO is the "Word" referred to in Psalm 33:4-6 who made all these, "For the Word of the LORD is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the Word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."