Nitzavim ‘Standing’ – Devarim (Deut) 29:10 – 30:20; Isaiah 61:10 – 63:9; Romans 9:30 – 10:13
VaYelekh ‘And He Went’ – Devarim 31:1-30; Hosea 14:1-9; Joel 2:15-27; Micah 7:18-20; Romans 1:1-18
The world is sensing something big is about to happen. Many call it ‘The Great Reset.’ Somebody is about to come and make a lot of changes in this world to right a lot of wrongs. Who and for what is the world preparing for? Who are we getting ready for? How do we prepare for world-changing events?
Why do many in Hebrew Roots believe that our King is coming back on Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets? Nitzavim teaches us how we are to prepare – standing before our righteous King and Covenant-Maker, upright as benai Yeshurun (children of the Upright One). Consider the following thematic connections between the Feast of Trumpets and the double Torah portions for this time:
The Bride Standing Before Her Bridegroom
King Yeshua is coming back for a Bride that He finds faithful and true to His marriage covenant and to the vow that she made to Him on the mount. One day the Father will send His Son to go rapture and take the Bride who has made herself ready for Him.
The kings of Israel were all crowned on the day of Trumpets in ancient times.
When a king arrives to address his people, all rise and stand to give him full attention. Standing (Nitzavim) before Yah in a large gathering with Moses officiating is like a man and his bride standing before God and witnesses to exchange vows in a large wedding.
Moses made it clear that the covenant wasn’t being cut just for those standing there that day, but – also with him that is not here with us today. (Deuteronomy 29:15) That’s us, people! Moses had prophesied of the marriage covenant relationship of this generation that would be made with the Messiah of Israel.
Judgment Day
But alas, Moses also prophesied that Israel would break that covenant by committing spiritual adultery. They’d come under the jealous wrath of Elohim and His judgment. Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, is the day that the King returns to begin judgment and wrath against all those who rebel against Him. That day begins with what is called ‘The Ten Days of Awe’ until the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. That holiest of days is when final judgments are made according to what is written in the Book of the Law.
This holiest of days is also known as the day when YHWH Elohim finalizes the Book of Life. I understand it to be like the ultimate wedding register. Those who will be part of His Bride and bridal party and those who will be His guests will be registered on that day. What will it take to be permanently recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
Turning Back in Exile
Moses prophesied of a future time when Israel would be banished from the promised land and exiled among the nations – and so here we are today. In exile, by the power of the Gospel, she would do teshuvah – return to her first love with all her heart and with all her soul. Under the New Covenant, she will return to honor her ancient vow to the commands that Moses gave to Israel as a ketubah, a marriage covenant (Deuteronomy 30:1,2).
Blowing the shofar is a symbol of doing teshuvah, turning our breath, our spirit, and our cry, to YHWH in Heaven as the shofar is turned and curves upwards to Heaven, when we blow it on the Day of Trumpets. Here we are today in exile, returning with circumcised hearts back to the shema – hearing, believing, and obeying our Elohim and His Torah, His marriage covenant with our forefathers. Thank Yah for the Gospel!
Blowing the shofar awakens the soul to listen to His voice. Hearing the sound of the shofar prepares us for the day that the King returns with the great sound of a trumpet and the voice of an archangel.
The Regathering
Out of great compassion for His people, YHWH will regather the exiles of Israel back to Himself and back to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 30:3-5). Sha’ul (Paul) prophesied of the day of the sounding of the shout of an archangel and the trumpet of Elohim when we would be caught up together with the resurrected saints in the clouds to meet with Adonai (The Lord) in the air. With clear connections to the Day of Trumpets, the prophecy in I Thessalonians 4:15-17 are words to encourage one another at this appointed time. On the day that He returns, all who have fallen asleep in Messiah, and those who remain alive until that day, will forever be gathered together with Him for eternity in the Promised Land, never to be apart from our Bridegroom again!
Preparing for the Second Coming
So how should we prepare for such awesome holy convocations, rehearsing the second coming of the Messiah? The word for convocation, miqra, according to Strong’s means:
Something called out, that is, a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the place); also a rehearsal: – assembly, calling, convocation, reading.
Rehearsals are one of Yah’s ways for His people to prepare for the ultimate fulfillment, the great events of the second coming at their appointed times. I do not want to miss out on any of His rehearsals preparing for such awesome events, do you?
How do we get ready for His second coming when He ultimately fulfills Yom Teruah, the Ten Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement?
The Torah instructs us to choose life and to choose blessing by choosing to speak His Word and by choosing to do His commandments:
For the Word is very near to you, in your mouth and your heart, that you may do it. Deuteronomy 30:14
Do Hypocrites Pretend to Keep the Torah?
Recently a Christian friend of ours told his wife he wasn’t coming to our fellowship because he thinks our congregation’s a bunch of hypocrites. Also, a former attendee in our congregation claims we should not be keeping the festivals because ‘the truth’ is we can’t keep them right – so it’s better not to keep them at all. In other words, we’re just pretending to keep the holy days according to the Torah.
Upon praying about this and searching my heart for hypocrisy and pretense keeping the commandments and the festivals, the Spirit of Truth reminded me of these words of exhortation by Moses.
The Word He commands us is not so far away that I’ve got to go to the far corners of the internet to find teachings that prove they are impossible to keep here in exile. I don’t need theologians from seminaries to explain to me why I can’t keep the Torah –
For the Word is very near to you, in your mouth and your heart, that you may do it. Deuteronomy 30:14
The Word to do His commandments is as close to us as our mouths. When I get up in the morning, in prayer and talking to my wife or myself, I say what I’ll do before I do it. I’ve heard and believed my Father telling me to keep His festivals and to do my part in gathering His people. So I talk about them often so that we may do the festivals.
Leslie and I love our Elohim and we love to keep all the commandments we possibly can, including all the festivals. They’re not too hard to do.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3
Keeping His commandments by the Spirit brings us great joy in life!
The Choices to be Made
Behold, I have set before you today life and good and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes, and His judgments, and you shall live and multiply, and YHWH your Elohim shall bless you in the land where you are going in, to possess it. Deuteronomy 30:15-16
In these end times, the choices to be made in life are becoming more black and white -between life and good, death and evil. One can know what god a person serves by the commandments he keeps. Keeping commandments, statutes and judgments is an act of will and submission to a higher authority.
The word for ‘god’ – ‘el’ in Hebrew, spelled alef, lamed – means a mighty authority, a strong controller. What higher authority do we submit to and allow to control us? As for me and my house, we will serve YHWH Elohim!
Warnings Against Not Choosing His Way!
But if you turn away your heart, and you do not listen and are impelled to, even bow down to other gods, and serve them; I have declared to you today that you shall certainly perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to go in there to possess it. Deuteronomy 30:17-18
If we choose not to listen and obey, but stray away after other mighty ones, other mighty authorities (Elohim), we choose death and destruction. That is becoming increasingly apparent among the lawless and Torah-less children of the world today. If a government mandates choices that result in death and evil, we should refuse to make those choices. The devil knows if he can get people to choose his ways, he’s got their souls.
Making the Right Choices
I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose the life, that you and your seed may live…Deuteronomy 30:19
Life is the greatest blessing, so choose life for you and your children. Our choices benefit the lives of our offspring as well. It’s so obvious to me with the children in our congregation how blessed they are because of the good choices their parents make. Choose Life, choose blessing, choose Yeshua. That’s what the ultimate goal of the Torah is (Rom 10:4) – to choose the Messiah Who is our life, our greatest blessing.
… to love YHWH your Elohim, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. Deuteronomy 30:20a
How do we choose life? By loving Him and clinging fast to Him.
LIfe in Him
For He is your life, and the length of your days so that you may live in the land which YHWH has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them. Deuteronomy 30:20b
Choosing life is choosing Him, for He is our life. I love the Scriptures on His life in us:
Who of all these (living creatures) does not know that the hand of YHWH has done this, in Whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh, even of man? Job 12:9-10
And you have not glorified Elohim in Whose hand your life, breath, and all your ways are. Daniel 5:23c
“For ‘we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ Acts 17:28
For to me, to live is Messiah, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
I am crucified with the Messiah: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but the Messiah lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
In living and abiding, in breathing and moving, in loving and giving, in all our ways in our Messiah, let us prepare to be a part of His Bride rehearsing for His second coming.
Preparing by Fearing YHVH and Practicing Kindness
It’s time to allow the searchlight of the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts in these days before the fall festivals. What would disqualify someone from winning the prize and making the Book of Life? On the Day of Judgment, that Book will be finalized and sealed up forever. Would it be just Torahlessness that keeps us out? How about observing the pagan practices of Christianity? Or the rabbinical observances and traditions of Orthodox Jews? What do the Scriptures say could disqualify us?
The Torah instructs the people of Israel to fear YHWH, obey His voice, and keep His commandments. We do need to stay aware that we are blessed if we do and cursed if we don’t. In other words:
Behold, then, the kindness and severity of Elohim (the Mighty Authority): on those having fallen, severity… (Romans 11:22a)
Our Elohim is to be feared, for if we stumble and fall, the curses He warned us about are very severe. So how do we cleave to our Elohim as Moses commanded (Deuteronomy 30:20), where He shows us mercy, that we may be spared from His severe wrath? Read on:
On those having fallen, severity. But on your kindness, if you continue in the kindness. Otherwise, you will also be cut off. Romans 11:22
So if we continue in His kindness, wouldn’t that mean we should always be kind to one another? In its deeper levels, the Torah teaches us how to relate with one another with loving-kindness. According to this Scripture, the main issue of whether we stay grafted into the olive tree, or not, would be on whether we continue in the kindness – or not. Wouldn’t continually practicing kindness also keep us in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
We must always remember to continue to be kind when we try to prove to someone else that we are Scripturally right, or how to be Torah observant like we are. Therefore, let’s continue to be kind and merciful to one another and leave the severe consequences for others rejecting the Torah up to YHWH. The Truth is offensive enough on its own, we don’t have to make it any harder on the hearer. Please, people, be kind!
Elohim would have us ‘continue in kindness, because we love to take action always with His loving kindness:
O man, He has declared to you what is good. And what does YHWH require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy (chesed, loving-kindness), and to walk humbly with your Elohim? Micah 6:8
Running the Race
With all those inspiring lives, like Moses’, that can build an enduring faith in the believer, the Heavenly Father often reminds me and motivates me with this word to the Hebrews:
Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us, focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of Elohim.
Consider Him Who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
Moses knew the hostility of the children of Israel, that they would spurn Him and break His covenant, that they would end up rebellious and stiff-necked. Yet Moshe knew the power of the Word and of the Song of the Spirit, that in the last days, Israel would turn back and receive the Torah and the testimony in the latter days. Now here we are because of the Gospel for such a time as this! Moshe prophesied that Yah would bring all the exiles of Israel back to the Promised Land in the latter days. Praise Yeshua!
So with that sure Word of prophecy, let us run the race and press on:
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of the Messiah Yeshua (fully becoming His servant).
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Elohim in the Messiah Yeshua. Philippians 3:11-14
How we need to build one another up by loving one another, being merciful and kind, and praying for one another during the birth pangs of the Messiah on the earth in these last days! After being sifted, we need to strengthen the brethren so they can endure to the end with us. (Luke 22:31-32) It’s not just about the individual making it, it’s about serving others with compassion to help and equip the brethren to make it with us. Let’s help one another prepare to stand before Him on that ultimate Day of Atonements, Yom Kippur:
But you, beloved, building yourselves up by your most holy faith, praying in the Ruach Ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit), keep yourselves in the love of YHWH, eagerly awaiting the mercy of our Master Yeshua Messiah to everlasting life. And have compassion on some, making a distinction. But save others with fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment being stained from the flesh. Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy; to the only wise Elohim, our Savior, through Yeshua Messiah our Master, be glory and majesty and might and authority, even now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:20-25
You can make it to the finish line on the wedding day! You are His trophy! We are in this race together! You were born a winner and in Yeshua, you can live life as a winner!
Praising our victorious King; continuing in His loving-kindness; preparing for His second coming…
Yeshua Melekh Chai! King Yeshua lives!
David Klug