Vayelech “and he went”
It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.
As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.
Torah Portion Name and Readings-
The Vayelech Torah Portion is named after the Hebrew word for “and he went”, the weekly reading is found in Deuteronomy starting in chapter 31 verse 1 and going through verse 30.
Prophets and New Testament-
It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Hosea in chapter 14 verse 1 through verse 9 and Micah chapter 7 verse 18 through verse 20.
The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Matthew in chapter 18 with verses 21 through verse 35.
Torah Portion Overview-
In this Parashat we see the last days of Moses. He encourages Joshua, his protégé and disciple was to lead the Children of Israel. He encouraged him to be strong and courageous. Moses, of all the people, knew and understood the struggle that Joshua was to face leading the people. Not only this, but Joshua was going to be going into the land to conquer it. The pressure must have been immense. Looking to the people and remembering their disobedience, Moses commands that the law be read every seven years so that the people would not forget the Torah. They would read this at the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. The Lord then commands Joshua to come before Him. Moses and Joshua came to the Lord at the Tent of Meeting. The Lord then explained to Moses that he would die soon, and that the people sadly, would break the covenant they had made with God. They would turn to other gods and worship them. Because of this God would punish the people as He had promised. As a bullwork against this, the Lord commands that Moses write a song, as a witness against Israel and their disobedience. Then the Lord commissions Joshua as the next official leader. Moses completed his great work by writing the Book of the Law which was to be placed beside the ark. Then Moses sang his song to Israel.
Here, Moses is warned by God that for all he did, for all his work, the people would still turn away and fail. This must have been heartbreaking, for Moses’ “fruit” was the children of Israel. He had devoted his life to leading them and guiding them. Yet even after all this it was not enough, they would turn to idolatry and forsake the covenant.
“The LORD said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them. My anger will be kindled against them on that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them;’”
Deuteronomy 31:16–17a (NRSVue)
Imagine the brokenness of an unfaithful spouse. Now imagine that you always see it, it is always in front of your face. This is why God says “you shall have no gods in front of my face”. The sin is not hidden, it is before Him and He sees it. Thus must be heartbreaking! For God sees all our sins and unfaithfulness.
It is striking that because the Israelites would have a god before His face, that is, they would commit idolatry, He would turn His face away from them. Imagine, being an all-seeing God, seeing all things, including sin, unless you turn your face away from the sin, and thus, turn your face away from your people. There is more here, for I believe the turning of the face is more of a metaphor that speaks of coming disaster and destruction. It is the opposite of God’s face turned toward you in favor, it is almost like saying “instead of favor you will have destruction.”
It is easy to look at Israel and judge. How could they sin in such a way, how could they turn from God after having so many miracles?! Yet we must consider that when we sin we are doing so much more than they were! For we do not just have miracles, but we have the Holy Spirit and the cross of Christ! We have the Holy Spirit living within us encouraging us to walk in righteousness and to follow after Him with a whole heart. We have the law written on our hearts. Not only this but we are no longer slaves of sin, we are free from it as a master. Yet we still sin, we still fail. This is not to say that we can be perfect, for we are imperfect people living with a perfect God. However, we should let this warn us, that although we are not perfect, we must seek to be faithful to the covenant and abstain from insulting our Lord with other gods! Let us not bring anything before Him, but instead, turn our hearts away from sin and idolatry.
We are encouraged that we would not walk in sin and have an unbelieving heart, because this will cause us to turn from the Lord. This is a double sin, for not only are we bringing sins before His face, but we are turning our face away from Him! Instead of this we must walk in encouragement to stay faithful, hold fast to the covenant, and love the Lord.
“Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Hebrews 3:12-13 (NRSVue)
Yet we are warned that in the last days there will be a rebellion against the Most High. The antichrist is called the man of lawlessness, or the lawless one, because he will be opposed to the law of Christ that is written on our hearts.
“Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you? And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 (NRSVue)
We can see that the result of lawlessness is deception. The defense of this is a love for the truth and a rejection of the pleasure of unrighteousness. The world wants to offer us this pleasure, it surrounds us now. There is pornography everywhere, there is the pleasure of gluttony, and the pleasure of any sin you can imagine. Yet this is a trap, for it leads to destruction. Instead the Spirit encourages us to walk in righteousness. We combat sin not by judging the world around us by keeping our hearts pure and clean, and choosing to be faithful in obedience. Not only this, but we do not turn our hearts to any other gods, instead looking to God as the only true object of worship!
Yet there are those who will deny the Lord in other ways. It not just lawlessness that we are warned of, we are also warned not to seek self-righteousness in our own ideas by denying marriage and to forbit the eating of foods.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. They forbid marriage and abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
1 Timothy 4:1-3 (NRSVue)
There is some debate as to what this is talking about. Some of the Essenes practiced abstinence, but they did not have any specific abstinence from food (except kosher laws), so this does not seem to refer to them. There were later cults that forbade others to eat meat and I can think of others today that do not allow their priests to marry, or do not allow men to drink alcohol. Yet none of these seem to line up exactly. I’m not sure who the warning is addressing, but I am sure that the warning is for us! Indeed, the Bible’s first commandment was to be fruitful and multiply, and that is within the context of marriage. Marriage is a gift from God, given to us to help us show His glory and how He relates to us. It is a way to connect to another at the deepest levels. It is a way to produce Godly offspring and so bring greater glory to God here on earth.
What of eating food. This is not a command to eat all things, or to give into gluttony, but instead is a command to be careful what you command. Indeed, God made food to be eaten, but not to be abused. This is a fine line we must walk. But when we do have certain convictions, we must be careful not to impose our private convictions on others. For instance, I may believe it is harmful to drink a soda, but if I say that to drink a soda is sinful, I am taking my personal conviction too far. I believe these men we are warned of are doing this. However, I believe it is deeper than that. It is likely that they connection this refusal of marriage and food to salvation. There are cults which do this today, and I believe this is the context here. We must be careful not to take our personal convictions and make them salvational.
Either way, this torah portion warns us not to give into idolatry and sin. It encourages us to turn our face to God not to other gods. It foretells the danger of turning to such idolatry and sin. Let us hold fast to the covenant, let us seek Him, and love Him with a whole heart!
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Deuteronomy 31:1 Moses encouraged Joshua who would lead Israel after him to be strong and courageous.
Deuteronomy 31:9 Moses commanded that the law be read every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Deuteronomy 31:14 The Lord commanded Moses and Joshua to come before Him.
Deuteronomy 31:16 The Lord explained that Moses would die soon and the people would break the covenant and worship other gods and God would punish them.
Deuteronomy 31:19 The Lord commanded that Moses write a song to be a witness against Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:23 The Lord commissioned Joshua.
Deuteronomy 31:24 Moses finished writing the Book of the Law.
Deuteronomy 31:30 Moses sang the song before Israel.
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
Hosea 14:1 Hosea calls Israel to return to the Lord and not look to men.
Micah 7:18 God will forgive sin and cast it away because of His great love.
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Matthew 18:21 Jesus tells a parable that explains that God forgives us so we should forgive others.
References-
Stephen K. Sherwood, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 278.
Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006), 292–295.
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