וָאֶתְחַנַּן
Va’etchanan / And I Pleaded
Deuteronomy 3:22-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-26
Mark 12:18-34 

     Va’etchanan (And I Pleaded) begins with Moshe retelling the account of him pleading to God to allow him to enter the promised land.  He continues the statement with his answer, blaming the people for God denying him entrance into the promised land. “But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter.” Deuteronomy 3:26.
     Was this justification reasonable? It seems so when reading Psalm 106, specifically Psalm 106:32-33 ‘They angered Him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses on account of them; 
33 Because they rebelled against His Spirit, so that he spoke rashly with his lips.’
        In Deuteronomy 4 Moshe gives clear instructions.
4:1 – to live go in and possess
4:2 – do not add to the Torah and keep the commandments
4:3 - to see
4:4 – to hold fast
4:5 – act according to His statutes
4:6 - observe them for wisdom
4:9 – take heed, guard and teach
4:10 – hear, listen and learn His Words and fear
4:13 – perform the Ten Words
4:14 – observe them in the land
4:16 – be careful lest we act corruptly
     Moshe ends this with a declaration that if we obey, it will go well with us and our children and our days will be prolonged. ‘Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.’
     In Deuteronomy 5:1-22 the Ten Words are repeated with some differences from the original Ten Words in Exodus 20. Unlike the first four books of the Torah, Deuteronomy is written from the language of Moshe. Five weeks before his death, Moses gives the people of Israel his parting speech, including the Ten Words. 
     In Exodus the 4th Commandment says to Remember the Sabbath. In Deuteronomy, we are told to keep the Sabbath and to remember we were once slaves in Egypt.  The 5th Commandment in Exodus tells us to honor our father and mother so that are days will be lengthened.  In Deuteronomy Moshe adds: ‘…and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.’ 
     The last Commandment in Exodus reads: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.’ Exodus 20:17. In Deuteronomy 5:21 Moshe states: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
   Why the differences? The sages teach that ‘…like the rest of the Torah, Moses communicated Deuteronomy as a prophet of God. It contains not his own ideas, but the faithful, prophetic transmission of God's message. But in this case, the message is expressed through the mind and words of Moses. Thus, the Exodus version is how God Himself said it, while Deuteronomy tells how Moses recounted it.’  
     The Shema is also in this parsha: Deuteronomy 6:4-9. There is a difference between listening and hearing. One can listen but not hear the words; one can also hear but not listen to the call. Shema in Hebrew means ‘hear.’ The Shema is considered to be a Divine call to the soul to perceive God’s oneness. When we recite the Shema, it is said to be an opportunity for us to connect with Adonai, building a stronger relationship with Him. We ‘hear’ and ‘listen’ to the Word.
     Isaiah 28:23 ‘Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my words.’
     Psalm 116:2 ‘Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.’
     Proverbs 8:33 ‘Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.’
     John 8:47 ‘He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.’
     Yeshua also teaches about listening and hearing.  Mark 4:9, Matthew 13:15-19, Revelation 2:7, 2:11 and Revelation 3:6.
   The Scriptures teach that there are also consequences for not listening and hearing the Word of God, as the prophet Jeremiah and Isaiah state.   Jeremiah 17:23, 25:4, 25:7, and Isaiah 30:9. 
     To hear and listen means to act to acknowledge and to do with intent to listen with intent.  If we are in a conversation and not listening, we will not hear the words spoken. Do we listen and hear the word of God? Or are we ready to intercede and reply with our own ideology? 
     “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Stephen Covey.
  Deuteronomy 7:1-11 ends with the beautiful concept of God’s chosen people. That we are His special treasure, which Peter repeats in 1 Peter 2:9


‎Va’etchanan / And I Pleaded
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-26
Mark 12:28:34

     Wisdom and Understanding…

     “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ Deuteronomy 4:5-6.
    
Wisdom and understanding - the two are inseparable.  In this passage, Moshe is reiterating that observing the statutes is the wisdom and the understanding for God’s people. He is not saying that the statutes are some type of wisdom, or a piece of wisdom, or some type of understanding/knowledge but rather that they are The Wisdom and The Understanding.  Therefore, if we aren’t walking in the statutes of God, then we lack wisdom and understanding.
     Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.’
      When did wisdom birth? Proverbs 8 is the history and countenance of what wisdom is all about.  It speaks of the voice of understanding, a and about the mouth of wisdom speaking truth. It is for us to receive instruction. Proverbs 8 continues with wisdom being strong, and our counsel. Wisdom is justice, and wisdom was there with God before time, before God made the heavens. Blessed is the man who hears and adheres to wisdom and understanding and blessed are those that keep the ways of wisdom.
     What would wisdom and understand of God be then?  It would be His word, the Torah. Wisdom would have to be of God, not of man’s interpretation of God.  Some might ask, how can we connect to wisdom now?
     John 1:1-4 speaks of wisdom, God’s wisdom, His word being His Son.  ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’
    Wisdom or The Word was before time.  The Word was and still is Yeshua. Yeshua was there before time. Yeshua is the Word, He is Wisdom and Understanding.  He is the Word in the flesh, the manifestation of the Torah.
     John 7:16 ‘Yeshua answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.’ (Torah)
    Truth is the Wisdom from God. Truth is Yeshua who is the Wisdom and the Torah of God.
    John 14:6 ‘Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ (Through the Torah)
    John 1:14 ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ (The Torah)
    John 17:17 ‘Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.’ (The Torah)
    John 8:32 ‘And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (The Torah)
    John 4:24 ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (The Torah)         Va’etchanan also contains the first part of the Shema, spoken in every synagogue and often included in Christian worship.  The Shema consists of three parts of Scripture, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (in this Torah parsha), Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41 (which is not always included in the daily recital).  It is recited twice a day, upon waking and going to sleep. The Shema is the essence of our faith. At least it should be. It is considered by some the most essential prayer in all of Judaism and an affirmation of God’s singularity and kingship. The Shema has become so central to the Jewish people that it is the climax of the final Ne’ilah prayer of Yom Kippur, and is often a Jew’s last words on earth.
     In Mark 12:29, Yeshua testifies, ‘The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
    To Shema is to hear and listen. It is a foundational concept for our trust, faith and obedience. Without listening to the Words of Adonai, how would we understand His Will?  Yeshua clarifies this in Luke 8:21 ‘But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
     Psalm 81:8 ‘Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me!’
     Jeremiah 26:3-6 ‘Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.’ And you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again…’
     John 10:27 ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me…’
     Matthew 15:10 ‘After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand.’
     Mark 7:14 ‘After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand…’
     We cannot gain wisdom and understanding unless we listen and hear the Words of Adonai.  Wisdom cries for us to listen. His wisdom is found in His Word.
    Proverbs 1:20-23 ‘Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice; on the top of the walls she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?  Give heed to my reproof; behold, I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.’
     Proverbs 8:1-9 ‘Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice?
She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, beside the way, where the paths meet.
She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city, at the entrance of the doors:
“To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.
O you simple ones, understand prudence, and you fools, be of an understanding heart.
Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things;
For my mouth will speak truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
They are all plain to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.
     Proverbs 8:32-36 “Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it.
34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord;
36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.”