Parsha: Deuteronomy 29:10(9)-30:20

Haftarah: Isaiah 61:10-63:9

Long ago, the Jewish sages created reading calendars to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are the Parsha (from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftrah (selected reading from the prophetic books of the Old Testament). Today, I begin posting writings from a new series that will explore the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days. For September 20, the readings are cited above. The number in parentheses tells the verse number according to the Jewish Bible. I would encourage you to read those passages first before you read my post, or at least read them in tandem. I hope one day I will have these put into poems, but until I feel satisfied enough with one to share publicly, you will just have to settle for my exegetical explications.

^“18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,” (Deut. 29:18[17]).

The root bearing poisonous fruit in Deuteronomy chapter 29 is associated according to Hebrew tradition with hemlock, an herb deadly to humans. Socrates was executed by drinking hemlock. This phrase in Deut. 29 literally is translated “a root bearing a head.” It reminds me of the head of the serpent in Gen. 3:15 that God promised would be crushed by Eve’s seed. He introduced bitterness into the world by deceiving Eve and caused Adam and Eve to obey instructions contrary to God’s. Here in Deut. 29, it is associated with a spirit of idolatry. In Proverbs, it is a spirit of adultery, also a Biblical metaphor for idolatry. Another interesting layer is that the Hebrew word here translated as bitterness or wormwood, la’anah, is a feminine noun. It conveys a rebellion against God’s instruction, particularly by calling good evil and evil good (Amos 5:7; 6:12).

Upon reading this passage, I felt like the Lord reminded me of Exodus 15, where The Lord led the newly freed Hebrews in the desert for three days until they came to water, but they couldn’t drink it because it was bitter. This word for bitter, mastemah, is also a feminine noun describing hostility and hatred, indicating an attitude and state of animosity and rejection, especially toward God’s prophets and spokesmen. The story of Exodus 15 tells us the people grumbled against Moses and asked him what they were supposed to drink. Moses looked to the Lord for help, and He showed him a “log” to throw into the water and make it sweet and potable.

Exodus 15:15b-26 says, “There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

The story seems pretty weird to me. Why would a log make bad water potable? And then I felt led to think of the cross. Jesus heals us at the cross. Jesus takes away all our bitterness, idolatry, and adultery against God at the cross. But is that too much of a stretch? I looked at the word translated “log” in the ESV, which is ‘es, a masculine noun sometimes meaning a tree, a plank, stick, even firewood. The word can be literal and figurative. But the cross? Yes. It can also mean “tree or pole on which a slain person was hanged…also to a wooden gallows….” (See Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary word number #6086 according to Strong’s Concordance). So The water was bitter. The people were at a loss for what to drink after three days without water, the approximate physical limit of the body without water (also conveniently the number of days Jesus was in the tomb), Moses cried to God for help, and He showed Him the cross. Wow. It’s kind of like how God showed Abraham the ram just in the nick of time, just before he sacrificed his son, Isaac. The cross makes the bitter sweet. The cross makes poisoned water pure and life-giving. The Lord healed the water and healed them. But it isn’t just bad water that He heals. He heals bitterness of spirit, He heals animosity with God. Romans 5:10 says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” He is our Healer because He wounded Himself in our place. In place of the root of bitterness, we have the Root of David (Rev. 5:5).

Now as a complete reversal of the story of the “log” at the waters of Marah, Revelation 8:10-11 tells us of a future wormwood, a star (perhaps a fallen angel?) falling from heaven, making a third of the earth’s waters bitter and even fatal. This star named Wormwood falls to earth after the third angel in a sequence of seven angels blow trumpets or shofars. Wormwood is also translated as bitterness, the Greek word apsinthion, also a feminine noun. Revelation uses the image of a woman on a beast, a prostitute, for the apostate and idolatrous state of the world in the end times, just like the etymological connections in the Old Testament. Because the world at this time does not receive the gospel, that is, faith in the work Jesus accomplished on the cross, the reversal of Exodus 15 occurs. Instead of sweetness, bitterness. Instead of healing, sickness and even death. At the end of the seven angels and the seven shofars, Revelation 11:20-21 tells us, “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” The world at this point is living completely counter to God’s instruction in Deuteronomy 29, and in our very own days, we have people calling evil good and good evil. How much more during the tribulation! Yet even still, the shofars for repentance will sound, so that whoever believes, repents, and obeys, can find sweetness and healing at the cross, even in a world tainted by bitterness and death.