Friday, 9 October 2020

The song at the end

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We are finishing the Torah reading cycle, to begin again next week in B'resheet. At the end of Deuteronomy, we are given the song, which was mentioned in chapter 31. When Israel learned it, this song was meant as a witness (31:19) to the children of Israel. God explains that Israel would rise up and whore after other gods in the land they were entering and break the covenant (v. 16).

In terms of our most recent teachings concerning identity, this song is well considered. The song begins with the works of God, or to put it another way those actions, which are in line his identity. The next major part contains a rendition of those actions of Israel, which were out of line with their identity and the results of what happens when they are out of line with who they are. The final part, is a part of rejoicing, but it is also runs back to his identity. (v. 43.)

Our identity, which is meant to be in line with Yeshua's. And, our goal and the goal of discipleship is to continue moving in that direction. To that end, the song above teaches us a path in discipleship. We get our identity by seeing it reflected from others. The same is true of our identity in Yeshua.

This songs demonstrates this path. Discipleship is about first, seeing the actions in line with our identity. These are often followed by our actions, which fall out of line. But, when they do, because Yeshua is always glad to be with us, despite our separating ourselves from him and the results of that. He calls out our actions by reciting them as being out of line with who he is. He does this by first demonstrating the identity to us. Ultimately we see his desire is to bring us back to our identity through joy.