Dr. Gary Hedrick
Dr. Gary Hedrick is president of CJF Ministries.
John Turner
John is a pastoral care minister at CJFM.
Brian Nowotny
Brian is the director of communications for CJF Ministries.
Rick Higbee
Rick produces our Messianic Perspectives program and is also a photographer and videographer at CJFM.
This week’s Torah reading (Deuteronomy 29:9–31:30) is exciting.
Moses gathered all of the children of Israel together and exhorted them concerning, what I believe to be, the most important topic that could ever be addressed: the reason for man’s existence.
As you read Deuteronomy 29:10–12, Moses tells the people, and I paraphrase, “You are alive today to enter into covenant with God.”
The big news this past week was the coming together in Washington DC of the Israelis and the Palestinians for peace talks. On Thursday, the major news networks carried the opening statements of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from the East Room of the White House while their aides looked on.
In today’s world, you hear a lot about “zero tolerance” policies. No longer is it “three strikes and you’re out.”
This concept is far from recent. A casual reading of the Torah reveals that the children of Israel were very familiar with it.
In verses like Deuteronomy 27:6, Deuteronomy 28:1, and Deuteronomy 28:15, the little word “all” has “zero tolerance” written all over it.
In today’s Torah selection (Deuteronomy 27:8–14), Moses gives specific instructions to the people as to what they are to do as soon as they cross over the Jordan river.
The elders are told to write the words of the Law “very plainly” (Deuteronomy 27:8). The Levites are told to read the Law “with a loud voice” (Deuteronomy 27:14).
Ignorance of the laws of God was not going to be an excuse. The people received it “loud and clear.”
In Moses’ rehearsal of the Torah, he reminds the children of Israel that obedience is not really obedience until it comes from the “inside out.” (Read Deuteronomy 26:16.)
True obedience is action that flows from the heart and soul.
Yeshua often spoke on this subject. In one incident, Yeshua exposed religious speak as coming from “honoring lips” moved by a “distant heart.” (See this in Matthew 15:1–8.)
