Ki Tavo – When you enter in
D’varim (Deuteronomy) 26:1 – 29:9
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 60:1-22
Matthew 4:13-24; Luke 21:1-4; Romans 11:1-15; Ephesians 1:3-6
One of the most satisfying jobs for a guy who works with wood is to restore something old and dilapidated, making it look new again. Working on home repairs, I’ve grown to appreciate renewing older houses built with old, but straight, tight-grained wood, largely free of knots and hardened with age. The new lumber in stores just doesn’t have the integrity and quality of the wood harvested decades ago from old-growth timber.
Treasures Old and New
As an avid student of the Torah, renewing an old house with new materials reminds me of my master carpenter’s words:
Then He (Yeshua) said to them, “Therefore every Torah scholar discipled for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure both new things and old.” Matthew 13:52, TLV
In my view as a student of the Word, Yeshua didn’t say to do away with the old things of the Torah, but to treasure them as you do the new things found in the ‘New Covenant.’
The Greatest Commandments: New or Renewed?
What old treasure can “every Torah scholar discipled for the Kingdom of Heaven” bring out from his treasure found in this Torah portion, Ki Tavo?
YHWH commanded the sons of Israel to bring out their tithe from home and to give it to the ones who needed help the most.
Then you are to say before YHWH your Elohim, ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house and also have given it to the Levite and the outsider, to the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandment that You have commanded me. I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments.’ Deuteronomy 26:13.
How does this ‘old’ commandment go along with Yeshua’s ‘new’ one?
In the Torah, Moshe often repeated the charge to keep the commandments and not forget them. What is the underlying principle, what’s the motivator behind this commandment? Has that charge changed for our ‘New Covenant brethren?
Listen to Yeshua’s ‘new commandment.’
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
Of course, the underlying and primary principle of the ‘new commandment’ is love, the same principle behind the command given through Moses. We are to love our neighbor, especially the needy among us by helping folks like widows and orphans.
Is this Torah commandment what Yeshua was talking about? Or was He coming up with something different and new? Was the commandment to love one another as He loves us new, or is it renewed from an old one? Was the love commanded under the ‘Old Covenant’ any different than the love commanded in the ‘New Covenant’?
As Yeshua demonstrated in His walk on earth, His love for others included the neediest people of the day, including outsiders. He was faithfully fulfilling the Torah so beautifully. We are to follow Him and do the same out of love for our neighbor as well.
The Messiah’s ‘new commandment’ was not any different from the one Moses gave to the people of Israel.
In Hebrew, the word for ‘new’ is ‘chodesh,’ which means ‘renewed’, just as the moon is renewed every new moon. Chodesh is also translated ‘new moon.’ The moon itself isn’t a new object every month; it is only renewed in the light.
One of the blessings for obeying the Torah has a common thread with this portion’s opening commandment to bring ‘in the first of the fruits of the ground.’ (Deuteronomy 26:10) Let’s take a look at Leviticus:
“And I turn My face toward you that you bear fruit and abound, and raise My covenant with you: and you eat old store and bring forth the old at the face of the new (chodesh).” Leviticus 26:9-10
Bringing forth the old at the face of the new has a common thread with bearing fruit and bringing forth treasures old and new as Yeshua said. Here, the old and the new are in context with His promise to ‘raise My covenant.’
‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them…Leviticus 26:3
How does He raise His covenant with us?
The New Covenant – New or Renewed?
Some scholars believe that the word ‘new’ found throughout the ‘New Testament’ implies a replacement of what was old, defunct, and done away with by something entirely new. Is that really true in the context of all the Scriptures and ‘all the counsel of God? (Acts 20:27)
Let’s start with studying what the ‘new’ covenant is as is often quoted out of Hebrews.
For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming,” says YHWH, “when I will inaugurate a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not remain in My covenant, and I did not care for them,” says YHWH.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says YHWH. “I will put My Torah into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Hebrews 8:8-10
What does Hebrews say the ‘New’ Covenant includes? Answer: The Torah – the same Torah of Moses! If the Torah was done away with and replaced by a ‘new covenant,’ why would YHWH say that He would put the Torah in their minds and hearts?
What’s the difference then? What ‘new covenant’ did our God inaugurate?
The covenant written on stone was inferior, and was found to be faulty, because the children of Israel didn’t allow it to be written upon their hearts. They went with the written word as given by Moses and the Levites. That killed their relationship with YHWH –
For the letter kills, but the Ruach gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6.
The children of Israel broke the covenant, but not YHWH. He is loyal, and faithful to His covenant and to all His Word.
The covenant given to us in the Torah was not replaced with something brand new, it was renewed by Yeshua’s work upon the cross and by the Spirit of Truth writing it upon our hearts and minds. The Holy Spirit renews His original covenant with His people by writing it on the inside of our hearts so we can actually keep the Mosaic Covenant without trying to do it in the flesh in vain and failing to do it right.
When Israel failed at keeping the commandments, they failed to love one another because they didn’t keep it from their hearts. Today many fail at keeping commandments, no matter how scholarly, by failing to love one another and our fellow man – our neighbor as ourselves.
Was the commandment to love at fault? Or was it the fault of the people who broke the covenant and failed to love their Elohim and one another? Isn’t that where the fault lies?
For finding fault with THEM, He says, “Behold, days are coming,” says YHWH… Hebrews 8:8
John talked about the renewal of the covenant in the heart in terms of loving one another, keeping His commandments, and abiding in Him. Abiding in Him is how we keep the Torah from the heart in relationship with Him, not by a dead letter, but by the Spirit.
And this is His commandment, that we should believe the Name of His Son, Yeshua HaMashiyach, and love one another, even as He gave command to us. And the one keeping His commandments abides in Him and He in him. And by this ,we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He gave to us. 1 John 3:23-24
What was Treated First as Being Old?
Let’s move on with what the writer of Hebrews had to say about the ‘new’ and the ‘old.’
In saying “new,” He has treated the first as old; but what is being made old and aging is close to vanishing. Hebrews 8:13
What exactly was the writer talking about as being ‘old and aging? Remember originally, there were no chapter and verse breaks in any Biblical text. So let’s continue to read:
Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared. Hebrews 9:1-2b, NASB
The word ‘covenant’ does not appear in the Greek text but inserted by the English translators’ assumption that the ‘old covenant’ was done away with. What is the context of this verse, the two chapters, and even the entire book of Hebrews? Was its context the ‘old’ and ‘new’ covenants?
Understanding and being true to context is critical when interpreting the Scriptures. Here’s the context: The ‘regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary’ pertained only to the priestly temple service, not to the other commandments in the Torah. The whole theme of the Book of Hebrews is related to the priesthood and temple service. It was the old priestly service of the Levites that was old and aging, close to vanishing in their day.
In the days of the writer of Hebrews, YHWH had written ‘Ichabod’ (the glory had departed) upon the Temple after the veil was rent in two upon the crucifixion of the Lamb of God. By 70 AD, the temple was destroyed and the priestly services have ceased even to this day.
The priesthood had transferred from the Levitical order to Yeshua, the Anointed One, in the Temple of Heaven. Was the transfer of the priestly service a ‘new thing’ as though it had never happened before? Or was the priesthood simply renewed by Yeshua to something better?
Transferring priesthood from an individual or group of individuals is nothing new to the Torah. The Levites didn’t become priests until after the golden calf incident at Mount Sinai. Before that, Moses and Aaron served in the Tabernacle. Before that Joseph was given the priestly garment called ‘the coat of many colors. Before that ,we find Melchizedek, the priest to Abraham. Other transfers go back to Abel offering acceptable sacrifices until he was murdered. So the transfer of old to new priesthoods is nothing new under the sun.
The Dwelling Place of priestly service also transferred throughout the Scriptures. The Dwelling Place of YHWH went from the Garden of Eden to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, to the Temple of Solomon and to the Temple of Yeshua’s day , and now to the Temple in Heaven.
The transfer of the Dwelling Place and their priestly services is unique to the commandments of YHWH. Where else do you find a transfer of commandments like that? This is a distinction that is critical in understanding the Renewed Covenant in Yeshua’s blood with discernment, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
The Character of YHWH Continues Without Change
Because of the mercies of YHWH we will not be consumed, for His compassions (rachamay) never fail. They are new (chadash) every morning! Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23)
YHWH passed by Moses in the cleft of the Rock to declare to him one of His chief attributes that never changes – compassion (rachum).
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7
His character has never changed, and His Word doesn’t fade away like an old priestly garment either.
It’s not in the character of YHWH Elohim to do away with His ‘old’ covenant and replace it with a new one. It is in His character to renew His covenant made with His people through Moses by upgrading it. He made the performance of the covenant better through the work of the Messiah on the cross, pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh and then writing His Torah upon circumcised hearts. Only then can we truly love our neighbor as ourselves?
We can trust that His covenantal relationship that He makes with each of us personally will not ever change either, no matter how much judgment rains down on this corrupt world.
Just as the created earth was recreated and renewed from being ‘formless and void’ (Genesis 1:2) in the six days of creation, so this old world will be recreated and renewed when the Messiah returns. It’s what all of creation is groaning for.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Romans 8:22-23
We know that the Renewed Covenant in Yeshua will never be old and done away with, even after Yeshua returns to bring Paradise back to this planet. The first angel flying in mid-heaven comes with ‘an eternal Gospel to preach to those who live on the earth.’ (Rev 14:6) Like the eternal commandments of the Torah, the Good News of the Renewed Covenant in Yeshua is eternal as well.
Praise be to Yeshua the Messiah, Maker of the Renewed Covenant!
David Klug