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This week’s parasha is entitled, Nitzavim, meaning “standing.” It covers Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20.
In Chapter 29, all the people have gathered before the Lord in order to enter into the covenant with Him. In verse 15, we find that not only does this covenant involve those present at that time, but that this covenant extends beyond their generation, to the generations of descendants of the nation of Israel who are yet unborn. Each generation is responsible for renewing this covenant. Taking this to its natural conclusion, this covenant extends to our day and beyond. To summarize this covenant in its simplest terms, it is a covenant for the people to love and obey God.
Is there going to be something inherently difficult in doing what God is asking? Is this going to involve some incredible effort? The answer to that is in Chapter 30, verses 11 and 14: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it.”
However, what follows almost immediately is a very strict warning about those who turn away from following the Lord. The one who turns away will have his name blotted out from under heaven (v. 20), he will be singled out for disaster (v. 21). And, as we read on, we seem to be given a prophetic indication that, unfortunately, this falling away will happen to many of the Israelis, enough so that the land where they live will be unsown and unproductive, desolate, like Sodom and Gomorrah were after the Lord overthrew them. The people will be uprooted from their land and thrust into another land (v. 28). This will be an example to other nations of what happens when people turn away from God.
This amazing prophecy continues in Chapter 30. Once all these events come to pass, the falling away of the people, the land becoming desolate and people being cast into another land, there will be restoration and people will return to the Lord and obey Him. The people will be restored from captivity and God will again gather the people from the lands where He scattered them.
Some have taken this passage to refer to the re-gathering of the exiles after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, but not only was that a more clearly defined period of captivity (70 years), but it did not have the extensive scattering of the Jewish people around the world since the captives were taken to Babylon. In contrast, in 30:4, we read, “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.” Looking at the prophecy regarding what will happen to the land and the scattering of the people, at the end of Chapter 29, combined with the restorative return and the locations from which people will be gathered, this time period is more accurately fulfilled by the events of the Diaspora and the re-gathering of Israel, which started in the 1880s and was brought to fruition by the birth of the nation of Israel, in 1948 and continuing return to Israel by Jewish people even today.
However, the prophecy has not been completed yet and it is important to understand that this restoration process takes place in two steps as we see in Chapter 30.
The people return to the land after being scattered and then the breath of life, the turning to God happens. In Deuteronomy 30:6, we read: “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all of your soul, and live.” After the Jewish people have been scattered and the land has become uninhabitable and desolate, per Deuteronomy chapter 29, there will come a point in time when God will reestablish the people back in the land and both they and the land will become fruitful. After that time, their hearts will be circumcised and they will turn back to God as also referenced in Ezekiel, Chapter 36:26-27: “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” We live in a time when the first two major events, the scattered and then re-gathering of the people have taken place and now we are in the stage of waiting for the miracle for many More Jews to come to believe in the Messiah. Although the number of Jewish believers in Yeshua is growing, we have yet to see the large, en masse coming to faith prophesied about here and in other areas of the Bible.
Earlier, I mentioned that the example of Israel’s turning away is an example to other nations about what happens when we do not follow the Lord. Tomorrow evening, we will begin the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. A major theme of this holiday is Repentance, getting right with God and our fellow man. I pray that we would especially be reminded about the events in Deuteronomy chapters 29 and 30 to help us to draw closer to God at this time, and also for this to be a catalyst to speak about these great events with others who have not yet accepted Messiah Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. Messiah, Himself reminded us of how important this is in John, Chapter 14:23 and 24: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”