Parasha Eikev

by

D’varim (Deuteronomy) 7:12 – 11:25

Haftarah:  Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 49:14 – 51:3

Brit Chadasha:  Rom. 8:31 – 39

עֵקֶב meaning “consequence, gain, or reward i.e. reward for obedience”

  • Parasha Highlights:
  • The Fathers reward for obedience will come “at the end of the latter days.”  **Our journey, like Israels, is connected to our choice of walk.
  • The second part to the Shema, the V’a’havta ( and you shall love).
  • In its ancient form עֵקֶב would read: “We are to know which way to face when we choose the family.”  The numerical value is 172; 1 + 7 + 2 = 10.  Ten provides us with an association to the Ten Words.
  • Since Eikev has to do with a “reward for obedience,” the question becomes when, when will those who walk in obedience receive their reward?
  • In my opinion, our reward will be granted at the end of the age when King Messiah establishes His millennial kingdom.  My reasoning is as follows.
  • In our sidra, Am Israel is camped at the Jordan River at the conclusion of the forty year wilderness journey, waiting for Joshua to take them across in order to “take possession of the land.”  
  • That was then and this is now!  We are preparing for the “second exodus” wherein Yeshua will gather us from the four corners of the earth, He will call us to “take possession of the land.”
  • Our “reward,” or Eikev, will be given during His millennial reign.
  • The number ten also provides a connection to the tenth letter of the Aleph Bet, the Yud.   When we prefix עֵקֶב  with a Yud, we see the name Jacob, Ya’akov, (יעקב).  This becomes a different word with a simple change in the nikkuds.  The name Ya’akov means  “heel holder” or “supplanter.”  Jacob should be synonymous with end, or end of the age because the heel is positioned at the “end” of our foot.  At the end of the age we will receive our reward for our obedience to the Ten Words.
  • The name Jacob, or Ya’akov, provides an opportunity for a deeper examination of our sidra.  When we add the numerical value of the Yud, which is 10, to our existing number of 172, we increase the numerical value to 182; 1 +8 + 2 = 11.  Eleven is a number that represents Yeshua.  Our reward for obedience will be given by Yeshua.
  • Jacob is the second son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.  He will sire the twelve tribes of Israel, the fourth of which if the tribe of Judah.  Yeshua will descend from the tribe of Judah.
  • The name Jacob was changed to Israel.  The Scriptures often use these two name interchangeably as they refer to the Northern Kingdom.  The Northern Kingdom can also be referred to as Ephraim, meaning “doubly fruitful.”
  • I submit to you that the gentile people coming to faith will be grafted into Ephraim as part of that “double fruit.”  The other part would be the native born Israelites coming to faith in their own Mashiach.
  • What does Jacob have to do with our sidra? The struggle between Esau and Jacob in Rebekahs womb is a partial fulfillment of Ge. 3:15. 
  • Let’s first review this struggle recorded in Ge. 25:23 – 26:  “Now Isaac pleaded with YaHaVah for his wife, because she was barren; and YaHaVah granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  But the children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘if all is well, why am I like this?’ So she went to inquire of YaHaVah. And YaHaVah said to her:  ‘Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.’ So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb.
  • And the first came out red.  He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.  Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob.”
  • The fact that Jacob was born second was not a surprise to The Father as we just read the prophecy.  I will submit to you that Jacob was simply  trying to prevent Esau from crushing his skull.
  • Lets compare to Ge 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
  • Ge. 3:15 is the first Messianic prophecy of Scripture and is also the beginning of the “seed war.”  Esau represents the “serpent seed” while Yeshua is the “pure seed.”  Both seed had their formation in a womb.  Their womb was Gan Eden.  Jacob and Esau were also formed in a womb, the womb of their mother.
  • We are experiencing the “birth pangs” mentioned in Scripture.  Ask yourself what womb are we in?  Certainly not a physical womb rather a spiritual one.
  • Esau is Rome and all manmade doctrine while Yeshua speaks only The Fathers doctrine.
  • Dt. 32:8 – 9:  “When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel (Jacob). For YaHaVahs portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.”
  • In the Book of Job 1:6 – 7:  “Now there was a day when the sons of El came to present themselves before YaHaVah, and Satan also came among them.  And YaHaVah said to Satan, ‘from where do you come?’ So Satan answered YaHaVah and said, ‘from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’”
  • Scripture tells us that the adversary has had free reign on the earth for six thousand years.  His reign does not get “paused” until the Second advent of Messiah Yeshua.
  • 20:1 – 3:  “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.”
  • After the thousand year reign of Yeshua He is released from the pit. Rev. 20:7 – 10:  “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.  And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.  And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
  • The adversary is defeated once for all just prior to the Great White Throne Judgment.  Ge. 3:15 is brought to its complete fulfillment.
  • There is also the subject of the Abrahamic Covenant and its restoration.
  • Dt. 7:12 – 26:  “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that YaHaVah your Elohay will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.  And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
  • You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.  And YaHaVah will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.  Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom YaHaVah your Elohay delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.  If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’—  you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what YaHaVah your Elohay did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 
  • the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which YaHaVah your Elohay brought you out.  So shall YaHaVah your Elohay do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.  Moreover YaHaVah your Elohay will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.  You shall not be terrified of them; for YaHaVah your Elohay, the great and awesome El, is among you.  And YaHaVah your Elohay will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.  But YaHaVah your Elohay will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.
  • And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.  You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to YaHaVah your Elohay.  Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it.  You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.”
  • He speaks to blessings and curses!  We each get to choose what we want, either or.
  • Our sidra uses the word Covenant six times in our parasha.  The number six is a reference to the six thousand years allotted to mankind.
  • Ge. 6:3:  “And YaHaVah said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ In the time reckoning of YaHaVah, fifty years is a jubilee cycle. Fifty x’s 120 = 6000, six thousand years are allotted to man.  For six thousand years mankind could have walked in obedience to the “Rules of the Kingdom.”
  • Scripture tells us that The Father always keeps for Himself a remnant of obedient followers.  Perhaps we are part of that remnant.
  • Our Eikev, our reward, will be given to us at the end of the age.           2 Jn. 1:8 – 9:  “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.  Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Messiah does not have Yah.  He who abides in the doctrine of Messiah has both the Father and the Son.”
  • Rev. 22:12:  “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
  • What do you believe is our full reward for Torah obedience?

Haftarah

  • Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 49:14 – 51:13
  • V 18  “Lift up your eyes, look around and see; all these gather together and come to you.  As I live,” says YaHaVah, ‘you shall surely clothe yourselves with them (the 10 Words) all as a jewel, and bind them on you as a bride does.”  **The Ten Words are our bridal ornaments.
  • This connects us back to Mal. 3: 16 – 18.
  • Malachi 3:16 – 18 also tells us we become His! 
  • “Then those who feared YaHaVah spoke to one another, and YaHaVah listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear YaHaVah and who meditate on His name.  They shall be Mine, says YaHaVah of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.  Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Elohim and one who does not serve Him.”

Brit Chadasha

  • Mt. 4:1 – 11 and  Lk. 4:1 – 13 Speak to the temptation of Yeshua. Our connection is found in v 4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
  • Ja. 5:7 – 11  Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
  • The early rain is the “first” exodus as it began in the spring encompassing Pesach, Unleavened Bread, First Fruit and Shavuot.  The first four festivals were all fulfilled by Messiah Yeshua at His first advent.
  • The latter rain is the “second” exodus as it will occur in the fall.  The fall festivals begin in the 7th month and encompass Yom Teruah, Yom Kippurim and Sukkot.  We will receive our “ekev,” our reward in the “final” annual festival of Sukkot.
  • In conclusion, our sidra reminds Am Israel of their “reward (Eikev) for obedience which will be given to them at the end of the age.  YaHaVah makes six statements regarding His covenant, i.e.  The Covenant of Pieces.
  • The Father is determined however, to reconcile Am Israel to Him and His covenant.  He speaks a prophecy regarding the circumcision of their heart, Dt. 10:16.  Furthermore, the people of Jacob/Israel are His allotted inheritance.
  • Scripture speaks often of The Fathers faithfulness to us.  Those of us who love Him, Yeshua and the Spirit of Holiness should make this choice as well, to honor and love him beyond measure.