CANDLEGLOW LESSON: VAYELEKH
Deuteronomy 31:1-30, Week 52
The pattern of the children of Israel reveals how quickly they tired in the journey with Adonai, soon wanting more or less; soon hungering for something from long ago; soon craving what they did not have. Their pattern of discontent includes falling away, leading to judgement from the Lord, then later to repentance by the nation, because their discipline became too harsh to bear! Finally, into the open arms of their Father they were welcomed. This is the pattern from beginning to end. It starts with His blessing, and ends with His blessing. This is why there can be a song sung by each generation; because Adonai is utterly faithful to His delight, which is to bless His children!
This is the Lesson of His Love Song: “He made them ride on the heights of the earth. They ate the produce of the fields. He had them suck honey from the rocks and olive oil from the crags, curds from the cows and milk from the sheep, with lamb fat, rams from Bashan and goats, with the finest wheat flour; and you drank sparkling wine from the blood of grapes.” (Deuteronomy 32:13-14 CJB)
His love song is that of a Bridegroom for his Bride. He provided a bounty of blessings which would bring delight and trust. They, these people chosen before the foundation of the world as the inheritance of Adonai, were the apple of His eye.
This is the Lesson of His Love Song: “He found his people in desert country, in a howling, wasted wilderness. He protected him and cared for him, guarded him like the pupil of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up her nest, over her young, spreads out her wings, takes them and carries them as she flies.” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11 CJB)
There is nothing in this song which promotes chance or coincidence. Nothing written of the relationship between the Nation of Israel and the God of Israel is happenstance. Every detail of their ordained relationship, aligned in the council room of heaven before the Spirit of God hovered over the void and declared, “Let there be light” (Yehi’Or), confirms a master blueprint for history. The truth is, the Nation of Israel was at the heart of the Creator’s master plan, for all time and eternity. This is why there can be a song sung by each generation! Adonai is sovereign, as the Divine Architect of creation, and Israel is proclaimed as the apple of His eye!
This is the Lesson of His Love Song: It is because of Israel’s falling away, and the judgement of the Lord upon them, that His eternal blessings would also be offered to a people, who were not a nation. (The Gentile World)
We, His Wild Olive Branch, (Romans 11:17-18) have been grafted in! We are the benefactors of the blessings of Adonai, promised to Abraham and his children. We share in the rich nourishment from the Root of the Divine Vine of Heaven. Adonai is our source! May we sing His love song; a song of praise! May we lift our hands as a child to a father, for we too are the apple of His eye. Sing dear seeker, as Moses did, the attributes of Adonai Tzevaot, the Holy One of Israel, over your family, and your children, and their children!
CANDLEGLOW LESSON FOR SHABBAT
The beauty of Shabbat is to rest, in our spirits and in our bodies, relinquishing our distrust, fear, anxiety, and any broken place in our hearts to the God who commanded us to observe His Shabbat. This is for our good. This is mercy! This cycle of resting on the seventh day is the way to put into practice the exercise of denying ourselves what the fleshly part of our nature craves; to control by our own intentions, instead of trusting in the Lord of Creation to partner with us, as He pulls forcefully and in tandem with us in our yoke of life.
The amazing journey of the Nation of Israel brings out into the light the undeniable wrestling match of every human being, every Image Bearer, and how we must get down and dusty with our ego and self-willed rebellious hearts, until like Jacob, we will not let go of this spiritual war with the Holy Spirit, until we are blessed by Him. This is when we find, through our wrestling match with our own fleshly desires, that we limp away, victorious and changed! We will be more humble, more tender, pained by our resistance to the God of the Universe, who created mankind, simply to love and be at-one, in an intimate walk with His children. We are all His children! We have to learn the dusty lessons of the wrestling-out of our old natures in order to come into alignment with our new natures, in Christ Jesus. This new nature, abundantly available and full of power, is there for our maturing and growing up, in ADONAI, if we will but surrender! If we will make the journey of carving out our life, of all that is un-necessary, to make ample room for the cross of Christ, to be planted there in that open space, allowing His spirit to bring beauty and eternity into us.
He finds us, at our greatest point of need, in that howling wasted wilderness of life lived on this present earth, and He takes us on our own personal journey into the wilderness where we can be still and hear His voice. Remember, B’Midbar or wilderness in Hebrew, has the connotation of “The Voice in the Wilderness”.
This is how Moses, their deliverer, prophet, leader, teacher, and a Scribe for the Lord, was able to have one of the most intimate relationships recorded for all time in the Old Covenant stories, in TORAH. Moses, who was face to face with the Father, who talked and walked with God, and who prayed and beseeched the God of Creation for all that was needed each day, as Moses led and suffered long for this “stiff necked people”, was able to pour forth this glorious song in praise of ADONAI, which we will study next week, called Ha’Azinu (Hear).
This is another magnanimous reason we can find our Shalom; our peace for Shabbat tonight. We too, as the Wild Olive Branch, grafted into the Nation of Israel, and inheritors of all that the mystery of this union with the Lord will bless us with, can sing a song of praise and adoration, for we have been PULLED out of the slavery to sin and death, set utterly FREE in Jesus the Messiah, REDEEMED by His eternal righteousness, and PROMISED that He will DWELL in us, as we are in Him. This is the wedding language of the Bride and Bridegroom; united as one, inseparable, and Holy! Amen.
May you be in Him, as He is in you, this Sabbath; fully alive in unity, in peace, and in love, with the Lord of your life.
Shabbat Shalom,
Sydney