Yahveh God’s Commandments
Yahveh’s Commandments were given at Mount Sinai to His chosen people, whom He had delivered from Egypt with an outstretched hand. He did mighty wonders to bring the Hebrew nation out, fulfilling His covenant to Abraham, to give them the Promised Land as an inheritance. In Deuteronomy 26, Moses is talking to the Israelites, “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which Yahveh your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it … This day Yahveh (the LORD) your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have today declared Yahveh to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. Yahveh (the LORD) has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to Yahveh your God, as He has spoken” (Deuteronomy 26:1,16-19).
The call went out to Israel to be a people who would carefully and wholeheartedly obey every one of His commands. They would be, in that obedience, a people who are holy to Yahveh. The world would then see the example of a holy people, and like a priest they would point others to the Holy One whom they served. Then the foreigner would come in and worship Yahveh (the LORD).
“Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, ‘Keep all the commandments which I command you today. So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which Yahveh your Elohim (God) gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones … You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly.’” (Deuteronomy 27:1-2,8)
Now remember, they are crossing into the Promised Land. He has already brought them out with an outstretched arm, having declared the embodiment of His name to bring them out, to deliver and redeem them, to make them His people, and to give them the Promised Land (see Exodus 6:7). He gave them His Law (Torah) and He said to carefully obey it for “I am bringing you into the land and the first thing you are to do when you get there is to take some stones and set them up as a memorial to My Commandments” (referencing Deuteronomy 27:1-2,8).
We have to understand why Israel has reaped the consequences of much discipline and judgment over the millennia. If they were judged, we will be judged for the same thing. It is written, “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of mankind who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek [Gentile] …” (Romans 2:9). The curses and the judgments came first on them and they are still falling, but where did this begin? “Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, ‘Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for Yahveh your God. ‘You shall therefore obey Yahveh your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today’” (Deuteronomy 27:9-10). Then the Levites recited to all the people of Israel in a loud voice the many curses. “‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’” (Deuteronomy 27:26). The summarization of the curses is finality. Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the Word and will of (the LORD) Yahveh.
“If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, Yahveh your God, then Yahveh will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, Yahveh (the LORD) will bring on you until you are destroyed. Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven because you did not obey Yahveh your God.
It shall come about that as Yahveh delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so Yahveh will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, Yahveh (the LORD) will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there shall be no resting place … but there Yahveh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life” (Deuteronomy 28:58-66).
This is what the Jews have experienced continually throughout the millennia and are experiencing now, at the pinnacle and climax of this age. They did not obey Yahveh their God. These are His people. He says “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35).
