I study the Torah every year using the teaching tools of Scripture. (Why?)
Today is the 48th Sabbath of the annual Torah cycle. The Torah reading (parashah) is Nitzavim (ones standing), Deu 29:10-30:20.
The Hebrew paragraph divisions given by the Holy Spirit, are:
Deu 29:10-29 {s} Do not forsake this covenant for Israel will be uprooted from this land
Deu 30:1-10 {s} Repentance, obedience, return, and blessing
Deu 30:11-14 {s} Not hidden or far off, but very near that we may do it
Deu 30:15-20 {p} Israel may choose life or death, blessing or cursing
Nitzavim forms its own chiastic structure, which the paragraph divisions reveal:
Deu 29:10-30:20
Deu 29:10-29:28, Moses set before Israel the covenant: keep and be blessed or forsake and be cursed;
Deu 29:29 s, The revealed commandment belongs to us that we may do the Law;
central axis) Deu 30:1-10 s, Repentance and obedience + return and blessing;
Deu 30:11-14 s, The commandment is not hidden from you that you may do the Law;
Deu 30:15-20 p, Moses set before Israel life and blessing, death and cursing.
Once again the central axis is focused on life and blessing as a result of repentance, return, and obedience. Notice that the teaching of the Scripture is that the Law is not beyond God’s people to keep or to do. We are so often taught that obedience does not save a man, that we have completely lost sight, many times, of the benefit of obedience. The benefit of obedience may not be salvation … but it does carry its own benefit.
The central axis reveals it: the circumcision of the hearts of our descendants to love and serve God. The statistic is somewhere around 90% of our children raised in church to believing parents, leave the faith upon adulthood. Why? Their hearts are not circumcised to love and serve God. The Scripture does not teach us that raising our children in church will give them circumcised hearts. Nor will avoiding daycare, homeschooling, forbidding them from playing video games, or being involved parents and monitoring their friends. But what will give our children circumcised hearts to love and serve God? If the parents repent, return to the Lord, and learn His commandments and obey them — then the Lord promises that He will circumcise the hearts of our descendants, to love and serve Him.
I am sure that each of the paragraphs, furthermore, also form their own chiastic structure (I believe that about all the book of Deuteronomoy, even if I have not uncovered all of them yet). The ones I have uncovered so far, are:
Deu 29:10-28 s
1a) Deu 29:10-13, Israel enters into YHVH’s covenant this day;
1b) Deu 29:14-15, He who is not here today is included in the covenant;
1c) Deu 29:16-17, Israel saw the abominations of Egypt + the nations;
1d) Deu 29:18-19, Let not him whose heart turns away bless himself falsely;
central axis) Deu 29:20a, “The LORD will not spare him; for then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy would burn against that man;”
2d) Deu 29:20b-21, Every curse and adversity in this book will settle on him;
2c) Deu 29:22-23, The coming generation + foreigners will see the curse on the land;
2b) Deu 29:24, He who is not here today questions the devastation;
2a) Deu 29:25-28, It is because Israel has forsaken YHVH’s covenant.
Deu 30:15-20 p
1a) Deu 30:15-16, Moses set life + good, death + evil before Israel + love the LORD, keep His commandments;
central axis) Deu 30:17-18, “But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish: you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess;”
2a) Deu 30:19-20, Moses set life + death, blessing + cursing before Israel + love the LORD + obey His voice.
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