Shelach Lecha – Once Upon a Week

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This Torah portion deals with several topics and raises a variety of thoughts. Undoubtfully, the central and most important story of this week is the sin of the spies. Their terrible punishment caused the people of Israel to wander the desert for 40 years, until the entire generation died. Another thing that catches our attention is the divine saying – “Salachti kid'varecha”, or: “I have forgiven, according to your word.”. We repeat this verse often during the Yom Kippur prayers. God forgives, and yet, Israel still receives the punishment.

What lesson can we learn from this story about God's forgiveness, and about the forgiveness of Yeshua the Messiah? Towards the end of our Torah portion, we encounter yet another difficult story about the man who gathered wood on Sabbath.

His harsh punishment results in him getting stoned to death. The Torah portion concludes with the commandment of the ‘tzitzit’ (which are knotted ritual fringes or tassels), which serves as a reminder of God’s commandments.

Let's return to the beginning of Shelach Lecha. The spies receive the order to scout out the Promised Land and prepare the way for Israel’s entrance to it. The spies were important leaders, tribal chiefs and commanders. The idea was to send out a pioneer squad, a leading force, a commando unit, with the purpose of preparing a detailed navigation map for each tribe. This battle plan would map the tribes’ strengths and weaknesses for the tribal chiefs.

The first question we need to ask is whose idea it was to send spies to scout out the land of Canaan. If it were God’s initiative, then why would He do so? God knew the spies would fail. As a result, they would even cause the nation to fall, too. What is the point of this divine order to send the spies to a mission that would most-certainly fail?

I want to remind that the sin of the spies caused the people of Israel to wander the desert for 40 years, until the entire generation died, instead of the original 2,5-year journey. Now, if the idea to send the spies did not come from God, whose idea was it then? Was it the people’s request to inspect where they were heading, as knowledge equals power and security?

Perhaps the tribal leaders themselves took the initiative, taking charge and taking on their role of leadership and responsibility. In order to prepare a strategy to enter and conquer the land they needed more knowledge.

Soldiers and reservists of the IDF know that every exercise begins with a ‘vantage point’. The commanders and those with important tasks climb up to high ground, in order to understand the terrain and the battlefield that lies ahead. From that spot, we pass the information to the other soldiers, knowing that that knowledge will make us much more efficient soldiers.

If that were the case, maybe it was Moses’ idea to send out leaders to taste the goodness of the Promised Land, so they would return with stories of a land flowing with milk and honey? Hoping that these spies would manage to lift the people’s morale, by planting a seed of hope and the expectation of the homeland and the inheritance they had truly longed for. Seeing the area with your own eyes makes it much easier to imagine the rest.

The question of who initiated sending out the spies is important, because it enables us to discuss biblical interpretation. In answer to the question, I think that the people - encouraged by their leaders - wanted to send out spies in order to prepare a detailed plan of entrance to the Promised Land. They wanted to know about the existing roads and cities they would settle in.

It seems plausible to accept that Moses repeatedly received this request from the people and then decided to bring it to God. God then answered Moses:

Here we touch upon the topic of biblical interpretation. Somewhat justifiably, Bible students will bring verses to my attention that clearly state that it was God Who initiated the sending of the spies. For example, in Numbers 13 it says that:

This is a great example of a problem that affects us all. Most of us read a verse, a paragraph, a chapter or even a book, on its own, and not as part of the entire Word of God. We often quote a verse or a single paragraph and base an entire teaching on it.

In order to understand the full picture, we have to read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelations. It is truly very important to read the New Testament, as it illuminates and adds much to our understanding of the Scriptures.

Hebrews chapter 3, for example, quotes Psalm 96 and provides us with a current interpretation of the story of the spies. Here, the New Testament asks us not to harden our hearts, but rather to encourage one another daily so we won’t stumble and sin due to a lack of faith, as was the case with the spies in the wilderness.

The New Testament clarifies that that wilderness generation did not enter the Promised Land, because they lost their faith and did not believe they were capable.

We must be careful not to base the foundations of our faith on half-verses and half-paragraphs, while completely ignoring the other half of the Word of God.

As an example, I would like to look at one of the foundations of the Christian faith, stating that one is considered righteous in the eyes of God by faith alone. This revolutionary idea was brought to the world by Martin Luther in the year 1520. This theology is based on a verse from the prophet Habakkuk that states that:

This verse is also used by Paul at the beginning of his letter to the Romans. Luther claims that one can gain salvation by faith alone, regardless our deeds. From that time until today, we witness ‘a theological battle’ on the subject of faith and deeds. This discussion trickles down to the Messianic Jewish world, with the opinions being clearly divided.

It is necessary to mention, that the original quote by the prophet Habakkuk, never argued Luther’s claim. Rather, it is an answer from God to Habakkuk, that the people of Israel are more righteous than the people of Babylon, and that therefore Israel will live.

The Jewish text that is closest to Luther’s interpretation was written 1300 years before Luther, and says that: (Tractate Makkot 23-24)

One of the commentaries on this Talmudic text explains that:

So, instead of justifying Luther’s argument, this text says the opposite. It emphasizes that faith is the first step towards a life filled with commandments and good deeds.

Our Torah portion and Haftara share a common hero: Joshua the son of Nun. In the Torah portion he is one of the spies, and in the Haftara, he is the leader who sends out the spies.

In Joshua chapter two, the spies arrive at the house of Rahab, which was located within the city walls. This was the ideal place to observe the habits and changing of the guards, plus the ways in and out of the city of Jericho. Eventually, the spies are revealed and Rahab saves them. The New Testament uses this story to show that faith alone is not sufficient, and that the deeds that follow are important and significant, too:

“You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the bodywithout the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:24-26)

The commandment concerning the tassels follows towards the end of our Torah portion:

‘Remember and obey’. The Torah and the New Testament command us to remember. We ought to remember God’s goodness, promises and redemption. We must also remember Yeshua the Messiah and His works. All along keeping in mind that the intent behind remembering, is to get to action. We observe the commandments of God by doing them.

Here we need to highly emphasize, that the internal discussion on faith and deeds is mostly theoretical. In practice, in our actual life as Messianic believers, our faith in the New Testament and in Yeshua is obvious and visible in the way we live out our faith, regardless of our position in this discussion. Whether agreeing with the idea of ‘faith alone’ or ‘faith with deeds’, in both cases, our faith in Yeshua is visible by how we live our life, and Yeshua’s light shines through us.

Yeshua and the New Testament have this great power. The power that causes me to move away from the selfish center, and to place my Messiah Yeshua there instead. Now, when my own self does not fill the center of attention, it leaves space for those around me.

Back to the question of whose idea it was to send the spies to scout out the land. At the beginning of our discussion, we discussed that it was the people’s initiative. They had approached Moses with the request to send spies in order to prepare an organized map of advancement. We learn this from the beginning of Deuteronomy, which describes the events in the wilderness, and allows for a wider picture:

The book of Deuteronomy gives additional information that reveals a strong possibility that the nation was behind the initiative to send out the spies. Moses asked God, and He answers that if they want to, please, “send the spies.” The book of Deuteronomy reveals that Israel was very close to the Promised Land, the Land of Israel. It shows that Moses wanted to raise the morale of the nation, encouraging them by saying: “Go up and take possession! Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged!”

Hebrews chapter 3 states that the people lacked faith. This is the reason that the people and the leaders came to Moses with the request to send out spies. They wanted to know the way of advancement, due to their lack of faith and trust in Moses and God. They wanted to see it for themselves.

Retrospectively, we know the results: the spies speak negatively about the Land. Instead of giving an encouraging and hopeful report, they cause the people to be fearful and even to panic. The spies, who were among the leadership, now cause a rebellion.

The people follow their leaders and actively participate in the spies’ rebellion. They want to stone Caleb and Joshua to death. They also rise up against Moses and Aaron. Then suddenly in front of the entire nation… God’s glory appears at the entrance of the Tabernacle and saves the day at the very last moment.

God’s reaction was harsh. The Bible tells us that God hates rebellion against leadership. We saw this when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, and we will see this again next week, with the rebellion of Korah. Both the Torah and the New Testament require to adhere to the leadership structure.

An example from Titus chapter 3 is to: “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good” (verse 1). Like many other texts, Paul reminds and requires us to keep theleadership structure and to beware of anarchy and its dangers.

As a reaction to the rebellion of the spies in the wilderness, God tells Moses to separate himself from the People of Israel, as God will transform Moses into His chosen nation. Moses, who was gifted with the power of conviction, begins his famous dialogue, that later on became an inseparable part of our Yom Kippur prayers:

Following this speech, we encounter a display of God’s ultimate forgiveness. Nonetheless, disappointment follows directly after:

God forgives, but His mercy is directly followed by true sorrow. God announces that this entire generation will not enter the Promised Land, but will rather die in the wilderness, instead. What kind of forgiveness is this?

This discussion on forgiveness teaches a very important lesson. It seems there is no such thing as forgiveness followed by a clean slate. The reason being that forgiveness is a process. There is a vital need to earn forgiveness and then to rebuild the trust that was broken.

In my opinion as a Messianic Jew, we should not diminish Yeshua by saying: “By the way, Yeshua forgave my sins.” Yes, Yeshua does forgive our sins; yet, in return, He demands that we truly change our lives, instead of going back to the same old sins over and over again. Proclaiming that Yeshua forgave our sins is not something you can mention ‘by the way’.

Truly, it is the essence of the Messianic faith. Yeshua grants us a new beginning and a new opportunity. He grants us the impossible by handing us a clean slate! However, it is up to us not to repeat the sin of the wilderness generation by lacking faith. And so, the key point is faith, because: