Nitzavim “Standing”/ VaYelech (He Went)
Deuteronomy 29:9–31:30
Isaiah 61:10–63:9
Hosea 14:2-10
Revelation 6-12

Starting To Think

Many people have said through the years how great it would be to have lived during Biblical times. They imagine what it would have been like to live during the time of Jeremiah, Isaiah or one of the other prophets. They think how exciting it must have been to have heard first-hand the words of John just days after he saw the vision.

If you have ever been one of those who thought this way, I encourage you to consider that we live in an even greater time today. Not only are we reading these exciting prophecies in our day, but we are also living them out. We are truly witnesses to the day which the prophets longed to see.

Moses himself spoke one of those prophecies in this Torah portion. Moses has already stated he was not merely speaking to the people who were gathered on that day, but to multitudes who were not there. He was speaking to a generation yet to come. When he spoke the words of Deuteronomy 30:1-6, he was not speaking to the people he was seeing with his natural eye, but to a people he could only see with his spirit. He was speaking to you and to me!

In verse 1 he says, "When you start thinking." Take a moment and consider the last few years of your live. Was there a time when you could say you just "started thinking" about the words of Torah. “Are they for us today?” “Do they have any relevance in my life?” “Were they truly done away with?” “Was I taught wrong?”

If these are questions you have asked, then the words of Moses are literally being fulfilled in your life today.
It is sometimes difficult to imagine that our lives are really fulfilling scripture. The fact is, life on most days just seems so, well, daily. We get up and go about our normal routines of life day after day. The weeks and months pass by at such an incredibly fast pace that we can be living a life of prophecy and never truly take the time to consider what is happening to us. We just think we are living our life, when in fact the pages of scripture are being lived out in every new day of our lives. Every time we look at the news we see scripture coming alive before our eyes. Every time you and I read a verse of Torah, find something new to us and seek to place that verse into our life and lifestyle, we are fulfilling the words of scripture. Each of us is in the midst of starting to think and our actions are driving us to become a people restored to our Creator and to the instructions He has given to us for life. In the midst of that restoration our spirits are beginning to yearn for the full promise of being restored to our home, Israel.

In just a few short days we will enter into the Fall Feasts. We will begin with Yom Teruah and move on to Yom Kippur and Sukkot. These are days in which we are called to reflect on the life that was, the life that is, and the life to come. Do not allow the busyness of these days to cause you to miss the point of the days. These feasts are to be times we are to set aside the normal cares of life and focus on Him. We are to focus on His call on our life, the day He has called us to live. We are to ask YHVH to cleanse our vessels and prepare us for the next steps along the way.

The Fall Feasts are a mixture of both personal time and community time. If at all possible make every attempt to live out both sides to their fullest. Take time to not only start to think, but to continue to think of the place He has called you to in His family. Know that He has placed each of us here for a specific time and for a specific purpose. Take time to think this through and you just may find that there is truly no greater time to be alive than right now. We are not just reading about a prophecy to come, but instead living it out with every breath we take.