Ekev: Cause and Effect, True Obedience, and the Measure God Returns

History Is a Chain of Events — Where Are You in It?

The Hebrew root of the word "Ekev" is also the root of the name Jacob. It literally means "at the heel of / what follows / the cause of the following events." If history is defined as a chain of events, then this word stands in the middle of that chain. It is so important to always ask: "How and why did this happen to me?" — not only about bad things, but about good things too. Maybe I want to repeat the success or avoid the repetition of unpleasant chapters of my life.

The principles of "Cause and Effect" are a natural principle that works in every single frame that we as human beings recognize. It works in our homes with our wives and children. It works in nature, in our gardens, in our jobs, in driving a car on the highway. It is very strange that in some Christian circles the fundamental message is that this basic principle doesn't apply — that Christians can ignore the cause and try to escape from the effect by calling on the grace of God from the foot of the cross of Yeshua.

The whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, says otherwise.

The principle is everywhere.

There is also never in the Bible a promise of prosperity for human beings who are not obedient or not performing their duties. There is also never a promise of prosperity for receiving grace or forgiveness for sinning or doing something wrong or bad.

Prosperity is always connected to doing.

The Most Misused Prosperity Text in the New Testament

That's why there is probably no Torah portion more important for the Western church today than Ekev. Why? Because before we can understand what God promises in response to obedience, we need to clear away one of the most common and harmful distortions of Scripture operating in churches today.

Some churches and pastors have become multi-millionaires by teaching fake prosperity doctrines — saying that if people come to church and give money to the "church" (meaning the pastor), God will prosper them and multiply their wealth by 100%. The text most commonly used for this teaching comes from the Gospel of Luke:

These prosperity preachers focus on the words "give and it will be given to you" and teach that if you give money to the church, God will multiply your finances. But the context of this text in Luke is not giving money at all. Start with verse 36 — "be merciful." Follow the logic: "Forgive, and you will be forgiven." And here it comes: "Give, and it will be given to you."

What does this text not say? It does not say what you give. It does not say to whom you give. It says that things like forgiveness, mercy, and not judging your fellow man are the things that you give — and the things that God our Father will multiply to you. It could include charity of money. It could even include giving money to the church. But what it does not include or teach is that your motivation for giving in any of these cases is to receive good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

The Same Measure You Use

How do I know this? Look at the conclusion:

In other words, if you give with the wrong motivation of selfish desire, what you are going to get from others will be their insincerity — in double measure, shaken together, right into your bosom. I don't think anyone will enjoy receiving any measure of hypocrisy and insincerity.

Even to God — or especially to God — don't give in order to gain for your selfish desires. Give to God from all your heart and with an honest and faithful desire to be a blessing, without calculation of what you are going to gain for yourself. When you do this right, you will see how God will sincerely bless you in more ways than you can imagine.

This is not a denunciation of giving. It is a clarification of the motive behind giving. The obedience and performance of God's commands is not a mechanical performance of a robot, but a sincere obedience with the right motives and intentions — out of the true relationship based on

The right action with the wrong motives is hypocrisy. And God looks into our hearts and knows our motives and thoughts. Hypocrisy always brings the opposite results to what we hoped for.

Lack of Prosperity Is Not a Sign of Sin

Before anyone misunderstands, let me be very clear: I believe in God's blessings. I believe in living a good life and a prosperous life in this world and eternally spent with God and with Yeshua and with all the saints of history. I do not believe in misery or suffering as virtues that men ought to aspire for. But I also do not believe that a disciple of Yeshua will always be rich and happy and prosperous in this world.

Lack of prosperity is not a sign of sin and punishment. It can be boot camp for the men of God — like Elijah the prophet — to train for bigger tasks and missions from God. Many denominational Christians have the wrong and false idea that the Torah has no mercy. But Deuteronomy 7:12 says specifically that God is going to keep

Covenant and mercy — together. Moses is not condemning but encouraging. God is going to be faithful to His promises. And that faithfulness includes being faithful to correct and train and humble us when necessary — because He loves us.

Four Reasons God Gives Commandments

When Moses explains Deuteronomy 8:1-6, he actually gives us a rare glimpse behind the curtain — God's own explanation of why He gives commandments at all. There are four of them. First: "That you may live and multiply." Second: "That you may possess the land." Third: to keep us humbled and to show us that man shall not live by bread alone. And fourth: God gives us commandments so that we might not forget to FEAR the LORD.

The fear of the Lord is not a topic that is very popular or being emphasized in evangelical churches today. But it is a very important principle that we all must be reminded of often — and God built it into the very structure of why He gave us commandments in the first place.

Who said:

That is Yeshua Himself. Most Christians don't even keep the commandments of Yeshua Himself, to say nothing of the commandments of the Apostles. Maybe we ought to start thinking about keeping at least those commandments that Yeshua Himself commanded us first. Maybe it is not so hard — it is like riding a bicycle. It looks hard when you start, but once you get on the bicycle and start to peddle — WOW! You are riding and happy!