Torah Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8

Ki Tavo (‘When you enter’)

In the part of Moab that Israel had just conquered, immediately east of the River Jordan, Moses gave his final instructions to Israel. I have been drawn to the entire section of the Blessings and Curses that were consequential to following or rebelling against this covenant with God (Deut 27:9-28:69). I suggest to you that as I did this morning, you read these verses out loud.

Entering the Land with a Shout

Moses instructed that they be proclaimed loudly by the Levites to every man of Israel. In the words of the Jewish Study Bible: “Silence! Hear, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God” (Deut 27:9). The drama being played out is palpable.

This is nothing less than the ratification of God’s Sinai covenant with Israel. At the time God redeemed Israel and brought them out of Egypt, he had promised them: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” (Ex 6:7).

Then when Israel met God at Sinai, he set out for them the covenant with its terms: “Now if you will pay careful attention to what I say and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will a kingdom of priests for me, a nation set apart” (Ex 19:5-6).

Now imagine the scene as the Israelites entered the Promised Land. As they proceeded between the mountains of Eival (Ebal) and Gerizim, they would have heard the thundering sound of the tribe of Levi shouting the word of God across the valley. This would have been followed by the even greater volume of each ‘Amen’ from the other 11 tribes. The closest I have experienced is the adrenaline rush when attending a Premiere League football game, and hearing that mighty roar resound through the stadium when the home side clinches the winning goal! But this was no game. Israel had just got married to God! On the terms of such covenant the Israelites strove over the course of many centuries, until the first coming of Yeshua the Messiah.

Israel’s Special Position

Do not be like the Christians who say that Israel ‘mucked up’ and lost their entitlement to be God’s people. The story recounting their various battles is worthy of many ballads, as they endeavoured with both successes and failures to be the people of the Lord; a light to the nations, while also waiting in hope for the Messiah to come. Remember how Paul in Romans 3, verses 1-2, proclaims the Jews' special position with God, “entrusted with the very words of God.”

Nevertheless, Paul also quoted from this very parashah (weekly Torah portion) regarding his fellow Jews: “To this day Adonai has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear!” (Deut 29:3; Rom 11:8).

But Paul used this truth in his debate with the intention of setting the reader’s eyes on the time when Gentile believers, provoking Israel to jealousy, will be the instruments bringing the Jews into a full knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah, with all the fullness that he brings to Torah.

New Covenant

In the light of these thoughts, let us consider the final covenant between God and Israel:

Here, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my people…all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:30-33)

At the Last Supper, during Passover, Yeshua took the elements of the Seder and told his disciples that the bread and wine, representing his bloody sacrificial death, was the establishment of this new covenant. You and I now live in the certain hope of Yeshua’s return as king to ratify this covenant and lead all believers, Jew and Gentile, into the promised millennial age. This will start with something much greater than the Eival / Gerizim covenant ratification; rather it will be “the roar of a huge crowd in heaven [of which we’ll be part], shouting ‘Hallelujah!’” (Rev 19:1).

Author: John Quinlan