HEBREW WORD STUDY – AND I BESEECH YOU – VE’ETCHANAN – ואתחנן Vav Aleph Taw Cheth Nun Nun

Deuteronomy 3:23-24: “And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, (24) O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God [is there] in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?”

“Moses was God’s faithful servant, the greatest of the prophets, the receipt of the Torah from God. Yet after 120 years of the most Godly life ever lived, he sees himself as only having begun in his relationship with God.” Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov

I mean who could have known God better than Moses. God appeared to Him in a burning bush, he performed countless miracles through him in the Wildness. He sat before God and spoke to Him face to face as a friend would speak with a friend and now in he says he has only begun to know God?

For the past 17 years, I have been on a journey, a quest to discover the heart of God. For a minimum of 3-4 hours a day I have studied the Word of God in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Since the launch of our Learning Channel, I teach three live classes a week, upload an audio and printed version of an In-Depth Study, do a daily word study that is uploaded to this website as well as a daily live Facebook word study and continue my book writing. I am now spending practically every waking hour and every minute of my downtime on my job as a disability bus driver absorbing myself in the Word of God, talking to God and listening to Him talk with me through the revelation of His Word.

I am turning 70 years of age and realizing that my life’s journey is approaching its final trail I fully understand what Moses meant when God told him he was going to die and not enter the Promised Land: “But Lord, you are just not beginning to show your servant you’re greatness.” I look forward to the next few years and in my spirit, I see a time of real trouble for believers in this country. Our roosters have come home to chick, or something like that.

For many years the Christians controlled the arena. We told Hollywood, no swearing, no nudity no nothing that will offend us. We elected officials to pass laws that favored Christianity and opposed what we believed to be immoral. We asked the government to pass legislation on morality, asking the government to do our job, our job to win the lost world, and let the Holy Spirit clean up morality. Now the foot is on the other shoe (or is that shoe on the other foot?) The other team now has the upper hand. They are now deleting our Scripture verses and our call to morality on social media, they are pushing for laws against hate speech and calling our evangelistic appeals as prime examples of hate speech. In the past, people tried to appease the church as it was good business. Today churches try to appease these immoral forces as it is good business for the church. The cry and temptation for Christians to comprise has never been stronger in this country and I feel in my spirit it will only get worse.

Like Moses, I feel I have only begun to experience the greatness of God and now it seems so unfair that just as we Christians are about to be tested as never before I am at an age where God could easily call me home. Moses pleads with God in Deuteronomy 3:23: “I besought the Lord.” The word besought in Hebrew is ve’etchanan which is the title to the Torah Portion Study we did on our Learning Channel this morning. This comes from root word chanan which means to seek favor from someone. It is in a Hithpael form which is saying –“I am asking this favor for myself alone.” Moses wanted God to allow him to enter the Promise Land. But God replied that it was already decreed that he could not enter.

Now come on, if anyone should get an answer to prayer it should be God’s faithful servant Moses. Ok he, blew it, he yelled at a rock. Is that any reason to be forbidden from fulfilling his lifelong mission to enter the Promised Land and see the full extent to God’s glory and power? I mean the children of Israel worshipped a golden calf and Moses ve’etchanan to God to forgive them and God changed His decree to destroy Israel and answer Moses’s petition. Now here is Moses with a personal petition and God will not grant that? Who would be more worthy to have an answer to prayer but Moses? Yet, God told Moses, “Sorry old bean but that is the way the cookie bounces (or is that ball bounces)?” You see, God does not answer prayer based on our merit. If that was the case, Moses’s prayer should have been answer. God answers prayer according to His Divine plan.

The Midrash teaches that the entire history of Israel would have changed had Moses been allowed to enter the Promised Land. God decreed Moses could not enter the land because his influence would have changed the history that God decreed which eventually leads to the coming of the Messiah Jesus.

However, Rabbi Baal Shem Tov once said; “God does answer all prayer, but not always on the same level as the prayer.” One is never the same after he prays for when finishes praying he has a much clearer picture of God’s perspective and his expectation may be changed. That is why we must never hesitate to pray and continue praying until God answers or we know what level He will answer. God answered Moses’s prayer or his ve’etchanan only on a different level.

I remember in Sunday School my Sunday School teacher said that because Moses yelled at a rock he was forbidden to enter the Promised Land, but God let him at least climb a mountain and look at it. I remember thinking: “Big deal, he gets to see it. Some consolation prize.” The Midrash however teaches that God really let the beans out of the bag (cat out of the bag? I forget) the word see in Hebrew is ra’ah which is both physical and spiritual seeing. Moses just did not see the Promised Land but God showed him the future and how it would all lead to the end of the world. He saw his great contribution to God’s mighty plan including the coming of the Messiah, His Son Jesus Christ and the final destruction of the world and the third temple and New Earth that follows. Like Martin Luther King prophetically saw the “Promised Land” in his last speech. He said he had been to the mountain top and he saw it. He also said, like Moses, he would not get there with them. Like Moses he died very shortly after that vision and speech.

That is all Moses really wanted, was to fulfill the law of God, the Torah that He brought into the world, but it could never have happened in his lifetime, yet God allowed him to see it.

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