Devarim – Words, in paleo-Hebrew: words access the inside of the Exalted Head, the Messiah:
D’varim (Deut.) 1:1 – 3:22
YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 1:1-27
Acts 9:1-21; I Timothy 3:1-7
War, war – and more war. It’s all over the news. Prophecy watchers see a Gog and Magog war on the horizon.
Like Yeshua said it would be: wars and rumors of wars are on the rise in these end times.
We often divert our thinking to the Middle East, the Ukraine, or the streets of a large American city. Or, we could face a war much closer to home to each of us.
Entering the Promised Land Starts With – War
Why did Moses start his final address to the children of Israel with their failures and their successes in engaging the enemy? Why did the sons of Israel have to fight violently with so many foreigners on their journey to enter the Promised Land? Why not start just peaceably dealing with those more domestic commandments we are told to keep?
The fact is, whether we like it or not, we all have an adversary that is constantly trying to find a way to derail, demoralize, and utterly destroy us. So we had better learn from YHWH’s instructions how to overcome the war and how to walk in victory in this life.
If we were honest with ourselves, many of us just try to manage the attacks and the damages the best we can. We learn to cope or avoid. Is that Abba’s plan?
Yeshua promised us an abundant life (John 10:10), but He didn’t say it would come easy. All through the Scriptures, we see His people facing opposition on their journeys home.
It certainly was not an easy road carrying the cross beam on His bloody back up a hill called the Skull, Golgotha. Doing the will of the Father cost Him everything, even His life.
Moshe made it clear that we had better seek the Father’s will and His presence, or we don’t have a prayer against the giants we face. If YHWH is not for us and does not fight our battles, we don’t stand a chance against foes that are hell-bent on destroying us.
The giants that the sons of Israel faced in the physical are like the forces of darkness we all face day by day. Their names and their nations show us what we’re now up against.
But praise Yah – He has Good News for the embattled, the wounded, and the weary!
Having spoiled principalities and authorities, He (Yeshua) made a public display of them, having prevailed over them in it (the cross). Colossians 2:15
Try figuring that out with your intellect! How could suffering and dying on a cruel cross in abject humiliation spoil principalities and authorities? How did the Messiah prevail by dying, bound to a criminal’s cross? How could His death be the beginning of my life?
The rational mind dismisses the work of the Messiah on the cross as foolishness and not worthy of consideration. But spiritual things are appraised by the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14).
Victory through Defeat?
What at first glance looks like a colossal and abject failure, turns out to be just the opposite – the greatest victory and achievement man has ever experienced! In my humble opinion, the work of the cross was the most profound paradox of all time.
How could real peace be made out of the violent death of an innocent Man? No one explained the effective power of the paradoxical work of the cross of Christ as Paul did.
…in His flesh causing to cease the enmity, the Law of the commandments in decrees, that He might in Himself create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmity in Himself. Ephesians 2:15-16
When Yeshua cried out: “It is finished!” – the war was won! The Father’s will prevailed over the will of the flesh. Hatred and enmity were slain – stopped dead! The animosity that drives a soul to sin and rebel against Yah, hurting others for selfish gain – was done!
The old Adam sinful nature had made us vulnerable to the enemy; that’s the root of all hostility. Through the cross, Yeshua prevailed over our sin and slain the enmity of the heart, the deep-seated hatred, that generates conflicts in our lives and our world.
Never retaliating, never fighting back, our Adonai overcame enmity with His great mercy, forbearance, and love. He is our example. He is now our shalom. HalleluYah to Yeshua!
The Gospel message says that the victory over sin and enmity is through the work of Adonai Yeshua hanging on the cross. There is no other way to a truly victorious life.
By His resurrection, He brings us victory over our final and greatest enemy – death. No threat, nor thought of imminent death, can stress out a believer in Adonai Yeshua!
So if this is true, then why do so many of us walk around like we are being abused and under attack? Is it somebody else’s fault that I suffer so much from others? Why do we sometimes feel an undercurrent of enmity towards one another? Why do we think about deliverance from the powers of darkness, or healing from a debilitating disease or injury, like they’re something so distant and too hard to come by?
How about it’s because honestly – our faith in the Gospel message is weak? We have distanced ourselves from the cross by delving into religious belief systems and other writings that suit us. We Hebrews sometimes seek to understand the Torah to make us feel or look more righteous than others, or for what exposes the sin of somebody else.
Do we believe what Yeshua had already accomplished for whosoever would call upon His Name and put their faith in the Gospel? If we do believe that, then we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, loving not our lives unto the death (Revelation 12:11). With that kind of faith, we’d live a more victorious life.
And He said to them, “I saw Satan falling out of Heaven as lightning! Behold, I have given you the authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and on all the power of the hostile one, and nothing shall hurt you, no, never!” Luke 10:18-19
Do we believe Adonai cast Satan down? That in Him – nothing shall by any means harm us? No power of hostility or hell has any authority over the believer in Yeshua! The Messiah declared that we are to be the abuser, not to become the abused. Of course, we are not to abuse people, but we are to abuse the forces of darkness and overcome them. That can only come by living the crucified life of the Messiah Yeshua.
A strategy of the adversary is to wage war through those closest to us, through those to whom we are most vulnerable. But if we would walk in the authority He offers us, then no abusive parent or spouse, rebellious teenager or screaming two-year-old, adversarial coworker or authoritative tyrant/oppressor, or any other hostile opponent coming against us could hurt or abuse us – no never! Sure our flesh may suffer, but the spirit within us is safe in the sanctuary of the soul where the devil touches us not (1 John 5:18).
One of the arch-enemies of Israel was the Amorites, whose name means ‘sayers or boasters.’ (Deut 1:44; 3:2) One of the adversary’s greatest weapons used to hurt and abuse humans are the proud words of those closest to us, even as close as the words from one’s mouth. What people say to us can hurt us more than any other weapon.
Daily abiding in the cross is how we overcome adversarial words spoken against us and our mishpocha (family) in attempts to hurt or abuse us. The cross is where the enmity behind the hurtful words is slain. How do we abide in the cross every day?
And He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. And let him follow Me.” Luke 9:23
That’s what the Gospel message says is our path to victory. You can’t abuse, hurt, nor offend the heart of a dead man, someone who is dead to self and alive in the Holy Spirit. Sure, they may hurt our flesh, our finances, or material possessions, but no one, no authority can hurt nor take away the treasure we hold in earthen vessels – the Holy Spirit.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves. We are hard pressed in every way, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not in despair; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may also be revealed in our mortal body. For we who live are always being handed over to death for Yeshua’s sake, so that the life of Yeshua may be revealed in our mortal body. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 TLV
But of course, you can’t pretend the hurt and the abuse isn’t real. Somebody has to deal with it! We know that only our God, Who came in the flesh, took on all abuse.
He (the Messiah) was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, One from Whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our grief and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions and crushed by our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed.
We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to his way. So YHWH has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. Because of oppression and judgment, He was taken away.
As for His generation, who considered? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of My people – the stroke was theirs…
Isaiah 53:3-8
Praise Yah, Yeshua has carried all our sins, hurts, pain, griefs, and sorrows! He has taken on all the oppression, hurt, and abuse caused by sin when we were open to the attacks of the enemy. In Him are the wounded and abused healed and made whole. He is our Healer and the Great Overcomer! The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation!
Let’s focus on the Messiah, and not be among the people who hide their faces from Him.
The Victory is Our Faith
It’s really up to us to believe the Good News report. John later gave us the key to winning the war for our souls – our faith in Yeshua. It’s how we can live a victorious life.
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. And the victory that has overcome the world is this – our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, if not the one who believes that Yeshua is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5
So could our lack of faith in the Gospel message be why we lose life’s battles? However, we can learn from the mistakes of our forefathers, do teshuvah (repent) and not end up perishing with hearts of unbelief in Kadesh-Barnea. This name means ‘a set-apart camp in the burning desert.’ It’s where the children of Israel of the first generation in the wilderness were buried. It’s where the second generation was raised for war.
For us to not die in a desert place like that, but rather enjoy a destiny in the Land of milk and honey, we need the wholehearted spirit of Caleb and the courage of Joshua to follow our Commander Yeshua – Yah Who saves and delivers us from our enemies.
We must ‘fight the good fight of faith.’ (I Tim 6:12) Faith comes by hearing the Word. We must contend for the faith in our common salvation with grit and determination.
Having made all haste to write to you about the common salvation, beloved, I needed to write to you to exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Jude 1:3
Adonai Yeshua is the Commander-in-Chief; He is the Good Shepherd. He has proven over and over again that He keeps His promises, defeats our enemies, and will bring His people into the Promised Land. Adonai Yeshua knows no defeat! “The cross is the proof we have won! Forever, Your power overcomes.” (Aaron Shust, It Is Finished!)
On His way to the cross, the Master gave us these comforting and encouraging words:
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have shalom. In the world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!” John 16:33
May Abba build up our faith in the victorious Messiah. By faith in Him, let’s overcome the adversary and all the giants we face in life!
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Jude 1:20
The victory that overcomes this world is this.
B’rakhot BaShem Adonai Yeshua,
Blessings in the Name of the Lord Yeshua,
David Klug