Shabbat Shalom - Parsha Nitzavim-Vayelech - You are Standing / And He Went !!!
Last week, in Parsha Ki Tavo (When You Enter), God instructed the Israelites to bring the first-ripened fruits (bikkurim)
to the Temple in Jerusalem once they have finally entered the Land He promised to them. This week, in Nitzavim-Vayelech,
the Jewish People stand before God about to enter into the covenant, a solemn oath with Him. The Parsha opens with a
declaration of the unity of Israel. Why were the Israelites collectively standing before God? It was for one reason alone:
to enter into a covenant with Him. The expression you are standing (atem nitzavim) is used almost 300 times in the Bible
and always to enter into some kind of contract, pact or agreement. All were invited to enter into the brit (covenant) with Adonai
—from the least to the greatest. Everyone, from the leaders, elders and officers of tribes, to their wives and children had
equal opportunity to receive a place in the Kingdom of God. Even the ger (stranger or foreigner) was offered an equal place
in the covenant with Elohim, in order “that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God (Elohim) to you.” (Deuteronomy 29:13)
Due to there being more Torah portions than weeks this year, the Parsha (portion) for this Shabbat (Sabbath)
combines two Torah studies: Nitzavim (You are Standing) and Vayelech (And He Went) ...
Previously posted ...
Indigenous Headhunters - BOOTS against the INVISIBLE !!!
http://conpats.blogspot.com/
♥†♥ ♥†♥ ♥†♥
BREAKING NEWS FROM ISRAEL
Minute by minute updates here ...
http://www.kolbonews.com/
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/
http://www.jewishworldreview.
http://www.israpundit.org/
http://pamelageller.com/
Excellent biblical analysis desseminating events leading to the harpazo
9-18-14 Hummingbird027's Updates on End-Time and Prophetic News (57:49)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://hummingbird027.com/
29 Elul - Erev Rosh Hashanah - 9/24/14
http://www.chabad.org/
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves
‘the circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Messiah,
excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. Ephesians 2:11–13
Shabbat Shalom
- Parsha Nitzavim-Vayelech -
You are Standing / And He Went !!!
A beautiful vid for you and your beloveds ...
Press Campaign from the Church of Singapore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thanks - Jim Harris PhD - Aloha from Hawaii - God's Blessings to you ...
Shabbat Shalom !
Welcome to Nitzavim-Vayelech
(You are Standing / And He Went), this
week’s Parsha (Torah portion).
Due to there being more Torah portions than weeks this
year, the Parsha (portion) for this Shabbat (Sabbath)
combines two Torah studies: Nitzavim (You are Standing) and
Vayelech (And He Went).
Please read along with us as we study this portion.
NITZAVIM (You are
Standing) / Vayelech (And He Went)
Deuteronomy 29:9(10)–31:30,
Isaiah 61:10–63:9, Luke
24:1–12/Luke 24:13–43
“You are standing [nitzavim]
today in the presence of the Lord your God…. You are
standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the
Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 29:10, 12)
Lifting the Torah in Jerusalem
Last week, in Parsha Ki Tavo (When You Enter), God
instructed the Israelites to bring the first-ripened fruits (bikkurim)
to the Temple in Jerusalem once they have finally entered
the Land He promised to them.
This week, in Nitzavim-Vayelech, the Jewish People stand
before God about to enter into the covenant, a solemn oath
with Him.
The Parsha opens with a declaration of the
unity of Israel.
Why were the Israelites collectively standing before
God? It was for one reason alone: to enter into a covenant
with Him.
The expression you are
standing (atem nitzavim)
is used
almost 300 times in the Bible and always to enter into
some kind of contract, pact or agreement.
All were invited to enter into the brit (covenant)
with Adonai—from the least to the greatest.
Everyone, from the leaders, elders and officers of tribes,
to their wives and children had equal opportunity to receive
a place in the Kingdom of God.
Even the ger (stranger
or foreigner) was
offered an equal place in the covenant with Elohim, in
order “that He may establish you today as a
people for Himself, and that He may be God (Elohim) to
you.” (Deuteronomy 29:13)
A Jewish man prays at the Western (Wailing) Wall in the Old City
of Jerusalem.
This covenant was unique in that it transcended
any limitation of time or place. It was made
with “those standing there as
well as with those who were not present at that time.” (Deuteronomy
29:15)
After Israel broke this covenant, God promised through
the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah a “New Covenant” (Brit
Chadashah) for the people of Israel and Judah:
“‘The
days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a
new covenant (Brit Chadashah) with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the
covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My
covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the
LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:31–32)
Once again, this covenant is extended to everyone—from
the least to the greatest:
“No longer will they teach
their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:34)
So if this New Covenant has been promised to the House
of Israel and the house of Judah, how do the Gentile
followers of Yeshua the Messiah enter into God’s Kingdom?
We are told in the
book of Ephesians that it is through the blood of Yeshua
that those who were far away have been brought near and
granted an equal place in the covenants of promise.
“Therefore,
remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and
called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the
circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human
hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from
Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope
and without God in the world. But now in Messiah
Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near
by the blood of Messiah.” (Ephesians 2:11–13)
An Orthodox Jewish man and a tourist stand side by side at the Western
(Wailing) Wall praying fervently.
The Hebrew Scriptures from Parsha Nitzavim-Vayelech are
always recited on the Sabbath preceding the evening Selichot (prayers
for forgiveness) service, which takes place on
Motzei Shabbat, the night after the Sabbath ends; that is,
after nightfall on Saturday (around midnight).
These special tefillah
(prayers) are recited before the normal
shacharit service (morning prayer) from the Sunday
before Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) until Yom Kippur
(Day of Atonement). They add an extra 45 minutes
of prayer.
Thus, the mood of repentance becomes more urgent as the
month of Elul draws to a close, as we prepare for a special
period called the Yamin
Noraim or the Ten Days of Awe, a time
designated for repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur.
In English, this period is often referred to as the High Holy Days. It is a time for deep
introspection, reflection, and an honest examination of
one’s spiritual state.
A Jewish rabbi recites selichot.
In this Parsha, Moses asks the people to
examine themselves.
He warns them, in a dire prediction, that because of
their obstinacy, idolatry and sin, they would be forced to
endure a nightmare of tragedies including siege, famine,
poverty, war, forced exile, and desolation: however, Israel would
survive as a nation and would return to the Holy Land.
This prophecy
was fulfilled in May 1948 with the re-birth of the state
of Israel.
This re-birth of an independent Jewish state stands in
contrast to so many great empires which have come and gone.
God has faithfully kept His covenant with Israel.
A Jewish lad holds the flag of the State of Israel.
The Haftarah (Prophetic
Portion)
"Comfort, comfort My
people, says your God." (Isaiah 40:1)
For the past seven weeks since Tisha B’av—the
remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy
Temples—all the prophetic messages in the Haftarot have
focused on comfort and consolation.
The Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, comforts the exiles of
Israel with the assurance that God has forgiven their sins
and, in His mercy, will bring them back to their Land. Haftarah Nitzavim is the
climax of these seven messages of comfort.
The prophetic portion of Scripture studied this Shabbat
passes over the first portion of Isaiah 61, which is an important Messianic
prophecy. Whether or not this is a
deliberate omission to keep the knowledge of Yeshua from the
common people is debatable.
However, it is important that we read and study the
entire Bible and not rely only upon the traditional Haftarah
portions that may leave out these crucial Messianic
prophecies.
This omitted prophecy of Isaiah 61 is the passage that
Yeshua read in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Shabbat) to
proclaim Himself Messiah, as well as proclaim “The Year of the LORD’s
Favor.” (Luke 4:16–19)
“...
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on Me, because the
LORD has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the
prisoners to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” (Isaiah 61:1–2)
Yeshua Unrolls the Scroll in the Synagogue,
by James Tissot
The rest of the verse, which Yeshua apparently did not
read, is for future fulfillment: “… and the day of vengeance of our God”
looks forward to the day of
Yeshua's return, when He will take vengeance on the
enemies of Israel.
In this Haftarah portion, God appears dressed as a
warrior in that day of vengeance; His clothes stained in the
blood of Israel’s enemies.
“Who
is this coming from Edom [descendants of Esau—terrorist
faction of radical Islam], from Bozrah, with His garments
stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding
forward in the greatness of His strength? ‘It is I,
proclaiming victory, mighty to save.’” (Isaiah 63:1)
Israel stands as a sign and beacon to all peoples
everywhere of the wonderful grace and mercy of God.
Its glorious
restoration reveals that He can replant, rebuild,
re-establish His people from the worst destruction in
each one of our lives. If we will give Him our ashes
and mourning, He will give us beauty and the oil of joy.
“The
Lord has anointed Me to ... provide for those who grieve
in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of
ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment
of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” (Isaiah
61:1, 3)
"They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee
away." (Isaiah 51:11)
New Beginnings in
the Haftarah
This week's Haftarah (prophetic portion) provides three
powerful images of new beginnings:
1. New Clothes:
“For God has clothed me in
garments of triumph, wrapped me in a robe of victory, like
a bridegroom adorned with a turban, like a bride bedecked
in her finery.” (Isaiah 61:10)
God is going to give us a whole new look, and whether we
are male or female, we’re going to look gorgeous!
He will be giving us a new beautiful wardrobe, fixing up
our hair, placing the necklace of precious jewels around our
neck, fussing with our appearance to make us look our best,
a perfect Bride without spot or wrinkle.
This is the ultimate makeover.
God’s Bride, Israel and the foreigners who all
abide in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah), is being
prepared to meet her Beloved. Instead of defeat and
despair, we are going to be clothed in triumph and
victory!
A bride and groom
2. A New Name
(Identity):
In the Bible, a name change is a sign of a
major life change or transformation.
God changed Abram and Sarai's names to Abraham and Sarah
by adding the Hebrew letter hey (ה). This Hebrew
letter occurs in two out of the four letters of God’s name
YHVH. With a part of God’s identity meshed into their own,
they were able to be fertile and fulfill their God-given
destiny.
Jacob’s name was also changed from Yaacov (which
can mean heel, but also
deceiver) into Yisrael—triumphant
with God. Or it may be derived from the verb yashar, meaning straight / honest
with God.
Likewise, the
Bible promises that God will give Israel a new name.
“You will be called by a new name...
No longer will you be called Forsaken [Azuva],
neither shall your land any more be called Desolate [Sh’mamah];
but you shall be called, ‘My delight is in her [Heftzi-bah]
and your land, Married
[Be’ulah]; for the Lord
delights in you and your land shall be married.” (Isaiah
62:2, 4)
In Revelation 2, a chapter emphasizing repentance, God
once again promises a new name:
"To
the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden
manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a
new name written on it, known only to the one
who receives it." (Revelation 2:17)
God wants to change our name so we can know our
true identity in the Messiah: righteous, holy, redeemed,
forgiven, free, friend of God.
Once we truly know who we are in Him, we will begin to
act differently, like true children of God. Others will see
us and relate to us differently, and our whole lives will be
transformed.
“As a man thinks in his
heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
A Jewish woman prepares to unroll the Torah
scroll for public reading.
3. New Love and Intimacy
The third image is that of new love and
intimacy.
The Hebrew root word Baal,
which occurs several times in Isaiah 62:4–5, means marry. God loves Israel and
He loves us as a Bridegroom loves His Bride.
We are the beautiful Bride of the Messiah, a “crown of beauty in the hand of the
Lord—a royal diadem [precious
gem]"—and He rejoices over us: “As
the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God
rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:3, 5)
God is so intimate with us that He Himself dresses us
with new garments, like a mother with a little child; He
names us with a new name, as the parent of a new baby; and He rejoices over us, as a
lover with His Bride.
A bride and groom in Israel (Photo: Go Israel)
On our journey of transformation, as we at
times go through the fires and floods of affliction, we
can find comfort in the knowledge that God is with us and
He cares for us. He will never leave us nor
forsake us. He is so intimately involved with us that in
all of our affliction, He is afflicted.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Isaiah states
that Messiah is a “man of
sorrows and well acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah
53:3)
One of the names of God is YHVH Shamah,
which means God is There.
Sometimes that’s all we need—to know that He is “there for
us.” He is God with us—Emanu-El.
Yes, God wants to restore, rebuild, renew, and even
avenge, but as we
reflect on this past year, if we see pain and anguish,
let us remember that God can do much more than just meet
our needs: He is the parent who dresses
and provides for us, the counselor who guides us into all we
can be, and the lover who adores us.
This may not take away the hurt. God doesn’t always
instantly fix every broken thing in our lives, but He is
always there for us to provide, comfort, and encourage.
Perhaps this is all we need to find the courage to begin
again—to walk into the new thing that God has prepared for
His Beloved.
In these troubled, difficult last days, please pray for
the salvation of the Jewish People and help us bring the
Good News of Yeshua to the Holy Land.
"You will again
have compassion on us; You will tread our sins
underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of
the sea." (Micah 7:19)
"Hear the word of the
LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He
who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over
His flock like a shepherd." (Jeremiah 31:10)
Shabbat Shalom from the
Entire Bibles For Israel Staff !
The Messianic Prophecy Bible
http://messianicbible.com/
Entire Bibles For Israel Staff !
The Messianic Prophecy Bible
http://messianicbible.com/
“‘Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My
house. Test Me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see
if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour
out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to
store it.’” (Malachi
3:10)
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