There is an unusual progression of topics in this portion. I thought that it might be helpful to have a little bit of a map, and then a summary:
- In the first part, Dt. 11:26-32, God reminds the people that they have a choice regarding obeying God. If they obey, there is a blessing; but if they disobey, they will receive the curse. A blessing is a supernatural gift that God gives those who live according to the Torah, or the Word. But the curse is also a supernatural withholding of the blessing in which the natural consequences of not living according to the Torah have its effect. Thus the blessings appear to us as supernatural gifts, but the curses appear to us as natural events.
- In Dt.12, God establishes how the Israelites are to receive the land. They must remove all idols from their inheritance, and also they must establish the Temple as a place of worship. The place of worship must be holy (set apart) and the land it is in must be holy; in other words, it cannot be mixed with other forms of worship. Our lives need to literally and spiritually be holy, not mixed with other interferences that keep up from worshipping God. In the land, people lived according to the commands of God, and thus were a testimony to all the nations about God. Our lives can reflect this as well.
- However, Dt. 13, God warns us of how people begin their walk away from God. It begins with a dream or a prophecy or something placed within the mind or heart of an individual. This person believe that they have heard something special, but what they say does not line up with God's Word, but instead leads back into slavery, the kind of slavery Egypt represented. In Israel's history, there were people such as Ahab and Jezebel who exemplify how this works. Today, there are groups and individuals who lead people into believing that their dreams or visions or feelings have equal weight as God's Word, and they label this as having "listened to the Holy Spirit." We are not to show mercy to such people. In Torah, they are immediately stoned. For us, if the individual is not willing to repent, we would do well to stay far, far away from such people. Notice that in Dt, 13:18, it is the commandments that we obey, not visions, hopes, and dreams.
- In Dt. 14, God reiterates what is clean and unclean, as well as how to bring the tithe to the Temple. This may not seem like an act of worship, but in fact, it may be one of the most neglected acts of worship that we miss—the act of eating. We are reminded to put only clean food into our bodies, and we are reminded to give the tithe of the produce. Finally, we are reminded to not forget the Levites within our midst. All of these are basic acts of worship, and they are practical things that can be done, they are not mystical or highly spiritual. We need to remind ourselves that "being spiritual" does not mean that we must act in some super-pious, holy way that puts us at odds with the culture around us. Instead, our behavior must stand out in such a way as to cause others to desire to seek out God. Thus, our differences do not make us stand out for the purpose of feeling superior, which would be a false feeling; but rather, we do things differently because God asked us to, and if we do them, then perhaps others will want to do them, too. God receive the glory, not man.
- In chapter 15, how we treat those in need is discussed. Every seven years, there is to be debt redemption. For the most part, this chapter deals with those who have received the blessing. Notice that the one who is in debt has received this natural consequence for having lived in disobedience to something. It's not super-spiritual curse, it is just a natural consequence for living outside of God's design. Sure, there are those who appear to have great wealth and do not follow God's Word; they steal from widows and orphans and the poor. But it must be remembered that these are temporary conditions and judgment will one day come. When godly people have wealth, than there are no poor. The fact that there are poor is a reflection of disobedience on a cultural level. It seems odd that a commandment to let land lie fallow for a year would actually cause greater wealth, but this seems to be the supernatural consequence to obeying God…we don't actually work as hard.
- Finally, this Torah portion is closed with the reminder to keep Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Again, this is a reminder that this whole section is about worship. During these festivals, we have a whole week that we set aside for doing different acts of worship. People were created to have fellowship with God and with others, and these are times that God asks us to set aside to fellowship with Him and with others.
In conclusion, this Torah portion is about proper acts of worship: When we are in fellowship with God and are worshipping Him according to the commandments, we receive the blessings—the inheritance of the land, the setting aside of the Temple, the cleanness of our bodies, the general wealth of the people in the land, the absence of the poor and a party set up by God three times a year. However, if we disobey God, we have a tendency to worship God falsely, in a way that we make up, we follow our own dreams and vision, or listen too closely to false prophets and worship something false, we skip paying our tithes, we ignore the widows, orphans, and poor, we ignore the Levites, we eat everything-even that which is not food, we hold our brothers debt in higher regard than our brother, and as a result, we don't even meet with God at the times He set aside for us, to fellowship with Him. This is the choice we have-to worship Him and receive supernatural blessings as a result of having a relationship with Him; or we can worship in a false way, listening to false prophets, and miss out on a relationship with Him, and receive the natural consequences of not knowing Him. This is the blessing and the curse.
