Simchat Torah Special Edition
Torah Portion VEZOT HA’BRACHA – Devarim (Deuteronomy) 33:1- 34:12 Haftarah: Joshua 1:1-18
“For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,” declares Adonai, “plans for shalom and not calamity—to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 TLV
Shabbat shalom, dearly beloved!
This promise was given to Israel when all was lost and there was no hope for restoration in sight. The Babylonians had burnt the Holy City of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) with fire and the Jewish People were taken captive to Babylon in shackles. As they arrived to their painful exile far away from their beloved homeland, they were given survival instructions. YHVH did not want them to sink into despair and oblivion.
thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, to all those in captivity, whom I removed as captives into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and live in them; also plant gardens and eat their fruit;” Jeremiah 29:4-5 TLV
Though He was the One who punished them because of their many sins and rebellion against all the words of the prophets, He still cared for their wellbeing. Even in captivity, He wanted them to prosper. In the midst of distress, He desired that they would enjoy life, plant gardens, eat their fruit, and even multiply!
“take wives and have sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, and do not decrease.” Jeremiah 29:6 TLV
These instructions for His people in captivity seem very puzzling. Since He is the “punisher,” did He not want them to suffer “real good”? Did they not deserve to hurt? It is at the times of great discipline in our lives that we discover how tremendously merciful our Heavenly Father really is. He is very present with us when we are broken, even when He broke us due to our sin, unbelief, and disobedience. He is always looking for ways to restore His People after they have been broken enough.
“See now that I, I am He! There are no other gods beside Me. I bring death and give life, I have wounded but I will heal, and none can rescue from My hand.” Deuteronomy 32:39 TLV
When things are tough in our lives because of our own sin or pride, or because of the pride of others; or, when we feel, like Job, that the dealings of Yah are “unfair;” or, like the Jewish people in Babylon, we may feel rejected and forsaken, remember that He who wounds us, for whatever reason, is also the One who heals us. He will never leave us broken and in our wounded condition. It is in the midst of our brokenness that He is calling us to seek Him, to return to Him, and to believe in His mercy towards us. He always promises a future restoration as we return to Him. The word is shuv, which means “return again,” “return home,” or repent.
“Come, let us return to Adonai. For He has torn, but He will heal us. He has smitten, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, and we will live in His presence.” Hosea 6:1-2 TLV
Many may be tempted to give up hope in the place of our punishment and banishment, but Yah encourages us to believe in His Master Plan and to even pray for our captors. We are to seek for the well-being of those who were the instrument He used to discipline us because often there are people involved in wounding us by rejecting us and treating us roughly or unfairly.
“Also seek the shalom of the city where I took you as captives in exile, and pray to Adonai for it—for in its shalom will you have shalom.” Jeremiah 29:7 TLV
We have been privileged to minister in prisons in Florida where we have hundreds of GRM Bible School students, with many graduates among them, in 17 different facilities. They are in physical captivity in both men’s and women’s prisons. Some are imprisoned for life and are even on death row for the crimes they have committed. Most of them are Christians, some are Jews, and some are Muslims, but we know that, as they return to the God of Israel through Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, they are forgiven. Then, they start believing in the mercy of the Creator and His good plans, and they learn to pray for their captors, the prison guards, and the system that incarcerated them. They then will have shalom, even behind bars.
“Also seek the shalom of the city where I took you as captives in exile, and pray to Adonai for it—for in its shalom will you have shalom.” Jeremiah 29:7 TLV
The last time that I visited the UCI maximum security facility, after I preached in the chapel, one of our inmate students came to me. He believed he had been put in this “hell on earth”, as he called this prison, unjustly. He ran over a biker and killed him by mistake; he did not mean to, but he was convicted of intentional killing. He is a Christian educator, a good citizen and he was desperate. His face was tight and distorted when he came to me with a cry of agony I had only seen in the pictures of Jews in Auschwitz. He barely managed to get the sound out as with excruciating pain he said: “Pray for me. I want to get what you have.” Being a nominal evangelical Christian, he had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I laid hands on him and he landed on the floor, overwhelmed by the power of God. When he rose up, he was praying in unknown tongues, filled with the Spirit, with hope, and with joy. His face was not distorted in pain anymore. He was beaming! Soon after, he was transferred to an easier facility from which he will eventually be released. However, the man that will come out of this ordeal will be a transformed man, full of the Spirit, power, and mercy of Yah, one that Yah can use in His service. I believe that this Christian man was brought to the more difficult prison to break him enough so Yah could get his heart and his undivided attention. Yah knew that we would be there to minister to him and to introduce him to our life-changing Bible School, GRM, that would thrust him into the glorious future that Yah had prepared for him.
“Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Romans 8:28-29 TLV
Maybe you feel like you are in a bottomless pit and you have lost all hope. Please remember the goodness of YHVH that He manifested to His Jewish People in the midst of their captivity and their banishment. There is a time for everything, and suffering will not last forever, even though every day may feel like an eternity to you, as it was for our student inmate above.
For thus says Adonai: “After 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will visit you, and fulfill My good word toward you—to bring you back to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10 TLV
Wait in hope for the Word of promise to be fulfilled in your life. Wait in faith and enjoy life where you are, even if it is behind bars or in the midst of distress. When I visited Auschwitz, I was amazed to find beautiful, delicate wildflowers growing in this hellish place that saw the extermination and excruciating suffering of over one and a half million of my Jewish people. Find His beauty, goodness, and hope– HaTikvah in your reality.
“For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,” declares Adonai, “plans for shalom and not calamity—to give you a future and a hope. “Then you will call on Me, and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you will search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 TLV
Today, after 2000 years of painful exile again, His Word of promise is coming to pass in Israel.
“Then I will be found by you,” says Adonai, “and I will return you from exile, and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,” says Adonai, “and I will bring you back to the place from which I removed you as captives into exile.”” Jeremiah 29:14 TLV
Yah is never late and His good plans will never fail to manifest in His timing.
A Joyful Feast of Simchat Torah to all our disciples, partners, and friends!
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