Current Torah portion & commentary

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It's very important to note at the outset, that when we speak of the Torah we are refering to the first 5 books of Moses (Moshe) and never to the Talmud, Midrash, Kaballah or other Rabbinical or esoteric writings. These books are in the Christian Bible as well as the Hebrew Bible as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Apostle Paul used the term 'the scriptures' in 2 Timothy 3:15 as being synonomous with the Torah of Moses and to explain to us that its the scriptures that are profitable in that they are able to make us wise as to the salvation that comes through faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Its strange to us that many Christians are still taught that the Torah (the scriptures) are not profitable to the New Testament believer. For years we were told to focus on the New Testament exclusively , we routinely encouraged new believers to focus on the book of John and mature believers to focus on the Epistles, especially Ephesians.

Paul however, saw no conflict between that what had been revealed to him by the Spirit and which is now part of the Apostolic Scriptures and the Torah of Moses. This is why the NT writers quote from the Torah or 'Law', especially Deuteronomy, over 80 times to reinforce their theology!

In Paul's time there was no 'New Testament' - that came some 300 years later.

All Jesus and the Apostles had was the Tenak or Hebrew bible which consists of the the Torah, Writings, the Prophets. The Torah of Moses was widely held as the most important component of the scriptures because any prophet that contradicted it was to be considered a false prophet, even if his prophecy came to pass and especially if he worked signs and wonders to back up his new revelations. (Deut.13v1-11) Its the scriptures (in essence the Torah) that are inspired or God breathed and is profitable for teaching about righteousness or right living and its the scriptures that are able to equip the man of God for every good work. Jesus Himself said that the scriptures cannot be broken even before there was a New Covenent , John 10:35. Therefore we should not expect the Old and the New to contradict each other or that the one should supercede the other. There is a unity and a harmony within all of Adonai's Word that is seldom appreciated today.

Worldwide, all Jewish synagogues, Messianic congregations, study halls and prayer groups use either an annual or 3 yearly cycle of Torah readings. In this way, we all cover roughly the same material each week, along with many believers from all over the globe. There is a sense of being part of something that is bigger than the individual and there is a real sense of being united.

At Grace of Life Fellowship we will advocate that followers of Yeshua read the Torah through once a each year and we also encourage believers in Jesus as the Messiah in addition to read the Apostolic Scriptures through once a year. An excellent bible reading schedule for 2010 that covers the Torah, Writings, the Prophets as well as the New Covenant Scriptures can be accessed courtesy of the Seed of Abraham site, by clicking here.

One may suppose that such an approach is far too stayed or 'static' or that it would in some way impede being Spirit Led in our individual study of scripture. Far from it! In fact we never cease to be amazed at how powerfully relevant these timeless portions are and how Lord uses it to speak freshly to our hearts through it!

On this web page you can read the weekly passages themselves, studying them alongside the excellent teaching notes from Tony Robinson of Restoration of Torah Ministries. There are, of course, many other commentaries available on the internet - please contact us if you require more information.

An excellent older children's activity accompanyment can be found at the Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry.

Below is the current and automatically updated Torah Portion...

Nizavim/Va'yelech - "You are standing"

4 September 2010 (Elul 25)

Read Restoration of Torah Ministries' commentary: HTML PDF

Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30

^29:9	Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
^29:10	You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
^29:11	your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
^29:12	that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day;
^29:13	that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
^29:14	Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,
^29:15	but with him who stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day
^29:16	(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
^29:17	and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);
^29:18	lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
^29:19	and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry."
^29:20	The LORD will not pardon him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under the sky.
^29:21	The LORD will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this scroll of the Torah.
^29:22	The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick;
^29:23	[and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
^29:24	even all the nations shall say, "Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?"
^29:25	Then men shall say, "Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
^29:26	and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them:
^29:27	therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;
^29:28	and the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day."
^29:29	The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
^30:1	It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where the LORD your God has driven you,
^30:2	and shall return to the LORD your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;
^30:3	that then the LORD your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where the LORD your God has scattered you.
^30:4	If [any of] your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will the LORD your God gather you, and from there he will bring you back:
^30:5	and the LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.
^30:6	The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
^30:7	The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.
^30:8	You shall return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command you this day.
^30:9	The LORD your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers;
^30:10	if you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this scroll of the Torah; if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
^30:11	For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
^30:12	It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?"
^30:13	Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?"
^30:14	But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.
^30:15	Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
^30:16	in that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.
^30:17	But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
^30:18	I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
^30:19	I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;
^30:20	to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
^31:1	Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
^31:2	He said to them, "I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and the LORD has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'
^31:3	The LORD your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: [and] Joshua, he shall go over before you, as the LORD has spoken.
^31:4	The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.
^31:5	The LORD will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.
^31:6	Be strong and courageous, don't be afraid, nor be scared of them: for the LORD your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you."
^31:7	Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous: for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
^31:8	The LORD, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don't be afraid, neither be dismayed."
^31:9	Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
^31:10	Moses commanded them, saying, "At the end of [every] seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths,
^31:11	when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
^31:12	Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;
^31:13	and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it."
^31:14	The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him." Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
^31:15	The LORD appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.
^31:16	The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
^31:17	Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, 'Haven't these evils come on us because our God is not among us?'
^31:18	I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods.
^31:19	"Now therefore write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
^31:20	For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.
^31:21	It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore."
^31:22	So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
^31:23	He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and courageous; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I will be with you."
^31:24	It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
^31:25	that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
^31:26	"Take this scroll of the Torah, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.
^31:27	For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
^31:28	Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
^31:29	For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands."
^31:30	Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

Isaiah 61:10-63:9

^61:10	I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
^61:11	For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
^62:1	For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
^62:2	The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
^62:3	You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
^62:4	You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
^62:5	For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
^62:6	I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on the LORD, take no rest,
^62:7	and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
^62:8	The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, "Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:
^62:9	but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary."
^62:10	Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
^62:11	Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.'"
^62:12	They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
^63:1	Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."
^63:2	Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?
^63:3	"I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.
^63:4	For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
^63:5	I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.
^63:6	I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
^63:7	I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
^63:8	For he said, "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:" so he was their Savior.
^63:9	In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.