Beyond Repentance – Vayelech

No one who desires to walk with God will deny that repentance from sin is a key component to living a sound spiritual life, however, some never go beyond repentance. The Bible as a whole clearly teaches that to walk with God with a complete heart, one must not only repent but also walk according to the Holy Spirit of God:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. – Galatians 5:16-18

Being filled and led by the Holy Spirit of God is a vital component to walking with God with a complete heart and living a life free from the snares of the flesh. The necessity of possessing the Spirit of God is brought out in this week’s Torah Portion.

Crossing The Jordan

In the final pages of Deuteronomy, Moses reassured the Israelites that the generation with whom he was speaking would certainly enter the Promised Land:

So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ It is the LORD your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the LORD has spoken. – Deut. 31:1-3

Moses shared these words with them because he would not be joining them on this final leg of the journey. Although Moses was not leading the people into the Promised Land, Moses told the Israelites that the LORD Himself would cross before them and would destroy the enemies on the other side of the Jordan. The LORD would go before them and Joshua would lead the people.

The Promise of God’s Presence

Moses led the Israelites for forty years but his days were about to expire while Joshua would take up the mantle and lead the people forward. Although Joshua would continue as the leader of the people, Moses repeated two additional times that it was the LORD Himself who would go with them:

“…Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” – Deut. 31:6-8

The people were never to look to Joshua alone as their leader but rather to the LORD Himself. Joshua was to be a strong and courageous leader with confidence that the LORD would go before them and that He would be with them. 

The Removal of God’s Presence

There was a guarantee of victory for the Israelites as they moved from their forty years of desert wanderings into the Promised Land which flowed with milk and honey. Joshua would lead them and the LORD would go before them. The promise was certain but the blessing of the people in the Land of Promise was based on their covenant with the LORD:

The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’ But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods…” – Deut. 31:16-18

The LORD warned the people through Moses that they would not remain faithful for long. They would eventually be led astray by false gods in the Land and would forsake their covenant with the True God. The result would be that God would remove His presence from them and His blessing upon them would cease.

This prophecy and prediction of the LORD came true in the years to come. Throughout the pages of the Bible we read of the idolatrous acts of the Israelites and how God gave them into the hands of their enemies, brought drought and famine upon their Land, and even removed the people from the Land. Whenever the Israelites would repent, however, the LORD would forgive them and restore them. 

Repentance – Shabbat Shuvah

The concept of repentance is highly esteemed in the Bible, as it is in Judaism today. The Hebrew word for repentance is תשובה – Teshuvah and the Hebrew word for returning is שובה – Shuvah. These words are closely related and work together to bring reconciliation between man and God. The Jewish concept of repentance includes an acknowledgement of sin and a turning back to the right path with God. Rabbi Meir Lau explains this concept of repentance in his comments on Shabbat Shuvah:

Repentance has a number of stages: 

1. 1. 1. Recognizing that one has committed a sin;
      2. Regretting the action;
      3. Refraining from committing that sin again;
      4. Confessing the sin;
      5. Obligating oneself not to commit that sin in the future. – Lau, Rabbi Israel Meir. Practical Judaism. Modan Pub. Tel Aviv. 1997. p.238

Repentance includes these stages, as detailed by Rabbi Lau, with an emphasis on admitting the sin and then turning away from this act. 

This particular Sabbath, October 5, 2019, falls in-between The Feast of Trumpets and The Day of Atonement and as a result it is given the name, Shabbat Shuvah – The Sabbath of Returning. To learn more about The Day of Atonement, click this link: Day of Atonement. These ten days in between The Feast of Trumpets and The Day of Atonement are called the Ten Days of Repentance with the Sabbath day in between these two Appointed Times marking this season as an opportunity to repent and of return to the LORD. This particular Sabbath day gets its name from a verse in the book of Hosea:

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips. “Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses; nor will we say again, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in You the orphan finds mercy.” I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. – Hosea 14:1-4

These verses in the book of Hosea provide a beautiful invitation to the nation of Israel to return to the LORD, forsake one’s sin, and walk in the blessing of the LORD once again. It is only through repentance and forgiveness that a person can walk in unity with the LORD and receive His blessing in one’s life.

Repentance & The Spirit

Although repentance from sin is foundational in be reconciled to God, there is more that God has for His people. God told the people of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel that He wants to forgive their sins but that He also wants to put His Spirit within them:

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. – Ezekiel 36:25-27

God has always wanted a people that would walk with Him in holiness and He details in these verses that this is only fully possible by receiving His Spirit.

The verses above in Ezekiel 36 were eventually fulfilled through the New Covenant which was preceded by the ministry of John the Baptist: Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:1-2) John himself was filled with the Holy Spirit from the time that he was in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15) but he was only responsible to prepare the way for the One who would bring the promised Holy Spirit to others: “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt. 3:11) John was the forerunner to the Messiah. It was Yeshua the Messiah who would give the Holy Spirit to His disciples and to all who would believe in His Name thereafter.  

The Gift Of The Holy Spirit

Following the death and resurrection of Yeshua, there was a period of seven weeks until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the believers at the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). From this point in history and following, the Holy Spirit is given to all who repent and believe in the Name of Yeshua. Peter and the rest of the disciples proclaimed this message to others: Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) Beyond repentance and the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to impart God’s Spirit in our lives.

The reality of God living in us by His Holy Spirit is something supernatural. It is difficult to explain to others who do not believe in Yeshua as the Messiah about this reality and especially to those who believe in God and are striving to walk in holiness without the knowledge of Yeshua. We read an example of this in the book of Acts:

It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Yeshua.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Yeshua. – Acts 19:1-5

This account of Paul talking with these disciples at Ephesus is a good reminder of why it is important to teach the fulness of the holiness of God and the complete work of Yeshua as the Son of God including the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Is it possible that still today there are those who believe in God but have not yet received the Holy Spirit? Some of you may think that this is not necessary in our day and age with our literate societies and established churches all over the world, however, I have personally talked with different individuals around the world who have believed in God and even believed in Yeshua as the Messiah but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. I’ll share one of these accounts here to illustrate this point.

Spirituality Without The Holy Spirit

During an evangelism training session a few years ago, I was teaching a group of university students about how to share their faith with others. At one point in my teaching I mentioned the importance of listening to the Holy Spirit for the right words to share with others because sharing one’s faith is more than simply relating facts and information. It was at this point that one of the young ladies in the group asked what I meant by listening to the Holy Spirit and literally asked “Who is the Holy Spirit?” It was at this time that I realized that not everyone in this group had been introduced to the indwelling Holy Spirit of God through faith in Yeshua. After some more teaching about this subject of the Holy Spirit I asked if anyone else would like to receive the Holy Spirit in the Name of Yeshua. One other young lady said Yes! We then spent a few minutes praying over them and giving them opportunity to pray and receive the Holy Spirit. 

I have personally kept in touch with one of those young ladies and saw a dramatic change in her life after she received the Holy Spirit. The ironic thing about this particular young lady is that she is the daughter of a Christian pastor. There was obviously something missing in his teaching and life but thank God that she had ears to hear and a spirit to receive the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Beyond Repentance

We should never take the indwelling Holy Spirit of God in our lives for granted. What a privileged day we live in to believe in the Lord Yeshua and to receive of His Spirit in our individual lives. In teaching God’s Word and telling others about the amazing truth of Yeshua as the Messiah, we should always be diligent to clearly teach about the Holy Spirit of God so that others can walk in the fulness of God’s blessing, beyond repentance and the forgiveness of sins. 

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Deut. 31

Haftara: Hosea 14

Musaf: Micah 7:18-20. Joel 2:15-27

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