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This week our parasha is Eikev, which means “consequence”, and covers Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25. In this parasha we will see the importance of making choices and the consequences that it brings depending on how we choose.
Our parasha begins in chapter 7 with Moses continuing his instruction to our people on the border of the Promised Land. If we keep the Lord’s commandments, we are promised wonderful blessings for us and for the Land. We are also assured that despite the supposed greatness of the Canaanites, the Lord will be with us, and we will destroy them. However, we are told to not take any of their silver or gold, because it was used for disgusting pagan practices. Their riches are to be destroyed and if we decide to keep their treasures, we will be destroyed along with them.
The rest of the parasha has Moses recounting the history of our people in the wilderness. He reminds this new generation what happened to their fathers and mothers. The incident of the golden calf is remembered in detail along with Moses smashing the first set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments. Other incidents where we provoked the Lord’s wrath are mentioned such as at Massah. We are told repeatedly to not make the same sinful choices and instead remember how the Lord saved us from Egypt and has continued to preserve us through the wilderness.
We are also reminded that it is not because of our supposed righteousness we are inheriting this land. Rather, we are receiving it because of the Lord’s faithfulness to our ancestors. It is also because of how wicked the Canaanites are that they are being destroyed. The Lord is accomplishing everything for us because of His faithfulness and because of their wickedness, we did not earn the land of Israel from our supposed good deeds.
Towards the end of chapter 10 we have one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Torah. In it we are told that what the Lord requires from all of us is to walk in His ways. We are to love Him, and serve Him with all our heart and soul, following His commands. The Lord is good and to Him alone belongs all power and glory. In His great love He has chosen us from all peoples yet still loves all those who fear Him. For this reason we are commanded to love the foreigner who stays with us, because Adonai also loves them, and we too were foreigners in Egypt.
Our parasha ends with the second part of the Shema commanding us to diligently teach all the Lord’s commandments to our children. We are to bind them on our hands, foreheads, doorposts, and gates. They are to be on our lips all the time and we should immerse ourselves constantly in the teaching of our God.
One of the most striking things I find about this parasha, and really Deuteronomy in general is the amount of repetition it contains. The name itself means “second law” in Greek. Why does Moses, through the Lord’s spirit, find the need to constantly repeat how we need to follow Adonai’s teaching, and do the right things when we enter Israel?
The answer is painfully obvious if we are honest with ourselves. The reason for the repetition throughout God’s Word is because as fallen human beings we want to do things our way and not the Lord’s. Left to our own desires, everyone does what is right in their own eyes, as Judges tells us. We see this tragically play out in our people’s history as we failed to listen to the instructions in this parasha and experienced the curses of God and not the blessings. We see this also occur in our own lives as we experience the consequences for our disobedience in this life and after.
But there is another lesson I believe we can learn from parasha Eikev and that is we can change. We have the capacity, through the Lord’s help, to change in a positive way. Our wilderness journey is presented in Eikev as a lesson to persuade the new generation to make different choices than the previous. Our past is something to learn from, but we are not bound to constantly repeat it. That generation, and us today as well, are not helpless. We all can make positive changes and to live out the commandments of serving the Lord with all our hearts.
We are commanded in Deuteronomy 10 to circumcise our hearts, to remove that which mentally and emotionally causes us to be stubborn. We must choose whether we will serve the Lord or serve our own desires. It is a choice that shows what priority the Lord will have in our lives and whether things like money, power, and the love of others will be our focus or not. Just as our people struggled and were tempted so we all are as well, but with the Lord’s help we can have victory over the battles we face.
Eikev encourages us that through the Lord’s help we can make the right choices each day, to have our hearts tender towards Adonai through His spirit. That who we were is not who we have to be now. That real change is possible today, right now. Repeatedly God’s Word reminds us that is not how we start but how we end.
Today we experience the circumcision of the heart through the New Covenant made through Messiah Yeshua. In the sinless Son of God there is real freedom to make the choices the Lord wants and not our own. We can find freedom for our pasts, from our family’s history, and experience an ending in the eternal promised land, the New Jerusalem filled with blessings beyond our comprehension.
May the Lord enable each of us to make the right choices each day, to serve Him above our jobs, our sinful desires, and the pressures of our culture. May each of us experience the circumcision of the heart found in this parasha. Finding freedom from our pasts, as we eventually enter the eternal promised land of the New Jerusalem and see our wonderful Messiah.