Do you know what two things in the Torah are called “great and awesome”? And what does Messiah have to do with a flint rock? Oh (and here’s a biggy!), did you know that two arks traveled with the Israelites in the wilderness? I didn’t think so. These are some of the seasonings that will add flavor to your parshah study.
Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25)
Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the great and awesome wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the rock of flint.
1 Corinthians 10:4 …and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Messiah.
… the great and awesome wilderness … = הגדל והנורה (hagadol v’hanorah)
Deuteronomy 10:17 For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
הגדל והגבר והנורה (hagadol ha’gibor v’hanorah)
Moses’ Prayer (9:26-29)
…אדני יהוה אל תשׁחת עמך ונחלתך אשׁר פדית בגדלך אשׁר הוצאת ממצרים ביד חזקה׃ זכר לעבדיך לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב אל תפן אל קשׁי העםהזה ואל רשׁעו ואל חטאתו׃ פן יאמרו הארץ אשׁר הוצאתנו משׁם מבלי יכלת יהוה להביאם אל הארץ אשׁר דבר להם ומשׂנאתו אותם הוציאם להמתםבמדבר׃ והם עמך ונחלתך אשׁר הוצאת בכחך הגדל ובזרעך הנטויה׃
Total no. of words = 58
חן (chen) = “grace”
REFERENCES:
Deuteronomy 1:19 “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and awesome wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Adonai our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea.
Deuteronomy 9:26-29 … “O Lord Adonai, do not destroy Your people and Your heritage, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which You brought us say, ‘Because Adonai was not able to bring them into the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ For they are Your people and Your heritage, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’”
Deuteronomy 10:1-5 “At that time Adonai said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And He wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that Adonai had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And Adonai gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as Adonai commanded me.”