Deut. 3:23-7:11
Is. 40:1-2

Long ago, the Jewish sages created the parsha, a reading calendar to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every Sabbath. They are from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books or Nevi’im of the Old Testament or Ketuvim). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days.

This portion called Va’etchanan (I Pleaded), was read in synagogues on July 25, 2026. This portion covers many passages that Jesus cited during His ministry years, and I will cover some of those sections in that context too.

Do not Add or Take Away

 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you (Deut. 4:2).

In the book that concludes the Torah, Moses very specifically warned not to add to or take away from God’s commandments. This did not mean that Moses forbade any future divinely inspired Scriptures. To the contrary, 34 additional books were added to the cannon of Scripture that today comprises the Jewish Bible or the Christian Old Testament. And that’s nt even counting the New Testament.

At the end of Revelation, the Apostle John uses similar language:

¹⁸ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, ¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Rev. 22:18-19).

The New Testament does not contradict or replace the Torah, but it is built upon it, and the spread of the church since the conclusion of Revelation is built upon John’s final book and every book of Scripture written before it. You can’t understand Revelation without understanding the Old Testament. There are too many parallels with prophets like Daniel and Zechariah. Taking the Torah and prophets out of the gospel removes the life from it and adding more to the gospel plagues it. From Moses’ authorship to the Apostle John’s, it is one intact, complete, continuous, unchanging story, up to this very day. Anything in church doctrine that contradicts this is out of line with Scripture itself, and consequently, with the God Who ultimately authored it all. And on the other side, although traditions and historical records can enlighten us and help us gain better understanding of the Scriptures, holding them to the same level of Scripture is not acceptable. Traditions may contradict Scripture sometimes, but Scripture never contradicts Scripture.

Just as God Commanded Me

See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it (Deut. 4:5).

Moses did not speak on his own authority, but God’s. Whatever God told him, that’s what he communicated to Israel. He spoke on God’s behalf. Jesus, likewise, spoke on God’s behalf and not His “own authority”:

 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works (Jn. 14:10).

Whereas Moses was commanded by God what to speak, the Father dwelled in Jesus’ body and acted through Him. This can be confusing, but Jesus is God, the Father’s dwelling place, like the tabernacle was God’s dwelling place. And Jesus is saying that He is not a human speaking on human authority, but because the Father dwells in Him (indeed because He and the Father are One), He speaks on God’s authority. The Divine Presence in the tabernacle was God Himself, and the Father in Jesus was God Himself. It’s not that hard to understand when you think of it this way. I honestly think what the church understands as a mystery (God in the flesh) is actually easier to understand from a Jewish context. Deuteronomy 6:14 says, “You shall not go after other gods.” Jesus did not claim to be another god, but instead He claimed to be the one true God.

What Is Right in Your Own Eyes

And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers (Deut. 6:18).

This is not what Israel did. They did what was right in their own eyes (Deut. 12:8; Judg. 17:6, 21:25). But Jesus did what was right in the eyes of Father God.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise (Jn. 5:19).

Words, but No Shape

Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice (Deut. 4:12).

When Israel encountered the Living God at Sinai the day He spoke to them the Ten Commandments, they heard His voice and saw fire, but no distinguishable form. This reminds me of a New Testament encounter with the Living God as the risen Savior.

³ Now as he [Saul] went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. ⁴ And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one (Acts 9:3-7).

Later, Paul tells that this light shone upon them at noon, which means it was brighter than the sun, and that the men with him did not understand the voice (Acts 22:6, 9; 26:13). Paul also tells later that Jesus spoke to him in Hebrew (26:14). Since God revealed Himself in fire at Sinai, it’s important to cover some properties of fire. Fire produces light and heat, and so does the sun. But when Saul encountered the risen Jesus on the road, He was brighter than the sun. The Torah shows God’s glory, but the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Torah, is more glorious. The Torah is a copy, but the Messiah is the substance (Ex. 25:40; Heb. 8:5).

While reading this part of Moses’ speech in which he recaps the events at Sinai, I was reminded of another New Testament passage that sounds very similar.

Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:36).

“These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me (Deut. 5:22).

At Sinai, God revealed Himself in bright fire but also a cloud and spoke the Ten Commandments and “added no more”. God revealed Himself similarly in the New Testament, but pay close attention to what He says in this later account.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. ³ And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴ And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁵ He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” ⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” ⁸ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only (Mt. 17:1-8).

Again, Jesus is brighter than the sun, just like what Paul saw on the road to Damascus. Jesus gave three of His disciples a glimpse of His glory before His crucifixion that He exuded after His resurrection and ascension. And like at Sinai, the Father appeared in a cloud on a mountain. But whereas God spoke the Ten Commandments at Sinai, here, God said on this mountain, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Because Jesus kept all the Ten Commandments, He was a living example of them. The Father simply said, “Listen to him.” Again, the Torah is powerful, but the Messiah takes prominence over the Torah (not replacing it).

Luke renders the words from the cloud as, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Lk. 9:35). This wording reminds me of Moses’ later words, “you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you” (Deut 17:15). This phraseology concerning the chosen king is used by the psalmist of Psalm 89 and Isiaiah, and they both testify the chosen one is the Messiah.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
² He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
³ a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴ He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.

⁵ Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶ “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
⁷     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸ I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
⁹ Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them” (Is. 42:1-9).

This Messiah here is God’s chosen. He would bring light to the nations, and the nations wait for “his law.” It doesn’t say the nations wait for God’s law. It also says, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.” Both of these phrases are because the Messiah is God, and He is the One Who gave the law to begin with.

And when Jesus was on earth, and even John the Baptist had doubts, he sent men to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt. 11:30). Jesus answered, “[T]he blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt. 11:5). This is a reference to the Messianic passage in Isaiah chapter 42: “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (vs. 6b-7), and “a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (vs. 3). The poor are like bruised reeds and faintly burning wicks. To heal and revive, goodness must be spoken to them lest they perish. Jesus did all these things in a literal and spiritual sense.

Similarly, Psalm 89 compares the Chosen One to the Messiah: “You have said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations’” (vs. 3-4) and also,

“Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:
    “I have granted help to one who is mighty;
    I have exalted one chosen from the people.
²⁰ I have found David, my servant;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him” (vs. 19-20).

Of Jesus, the Son of David, the angel Gabriel said,

“you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk. 1:31-33).

That is all the fulfillment of Moses’ words, the psalmist’s words, and Isaiah’s words concerning the Chosen One. And remember Isaiah said the nations wait for “his law” and when Peter, James, and John heard God on the mountain, instead of hearing the Ten Commandments of the Law, they heard, “Listen to him!” Wow.

One final point I want to make in this textual comparison is that Peter, James, and John were afraid of their encounter with the glorified Jesus and Father God. The men with Saul on the road were likewise terrified. They responded to the glorified Savior just like ancient Israel when they encountered the living God at Mount Sinai (Deut. 5:5). Again, the glory of Jesus matches or even surpasses the Torah, just like Messiah is supposed to do. It’s in Jesus that we see the words of Moses and the prophets (Is. 42:0; Ps. 89:19) finally take shape (pun intended). The author of Hebrews summarizes it like this:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs (Heb. 1:1-4).

The Fiery Furnace

But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day (Deut. 4:20).

The way Moses described Egypt was an iron furnace, a hot, even uninhabitable place. When Israel was in Egypt, they were not in the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. They were meant to return to the land God promised them. The land was their inheritance, and the people were His inheritance. The description of Egypt as an iron furnace reminds me of similar imagery during the time when the descendants of Abraham were again out of the land they were meant to inherit, when they were in the Babylonian exile. There were three of those exiles who were not willing to bow to the gods of the nations. There were three Israelites who remained faithful to the Lord, and for that, they were thrown in a fiery furnace.

²³ And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” ²⁵ He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods” (Dan. 3:23-25).

Many people, like Amir Tsarfati, think this is a theophany (a manifestation of God, even a pre-incarnate Jesus), and it could have been, but the text just doesn’t say. He could also have been an angel. We just don’t know. Either way, he was a protective presence sent by God to keep these men alive in the fiery furnace, even such that “the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them” (Dan. 3:27). God protected and led out Israel from the iron furnace of Egypt, and God protected His faithful ones in the fiery furnace of Babylon. In Egypt, Israel was captive to Egypt. In Babylon, Israel was captive to Babylon. And in the world, we who are sinners are captive to the world. But God didn’t leave us there, just like He didn’t leave Israel. God went down to Egypt to get His people, and God went down into a fiery furnace to protect His people (either His own self or a messenger on His behalf). So too, God came down to deliver us who are captive to our sins from the fires of hell.

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
    and he gave gifts to men.”

⁹ (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Eph. 4:5-10).

Jesus Himself said, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (Jn 3:13). Both Jesus and Paul are referencing Psalm 68:18, a Psalm of David.

This is not a new religion. The Jews who believed in Jesus did not convert from Judaism. The Apostle Paul, a Jew, wrote to the Ephesian church (a mixture of Jews and Gentiles) that there is one body of believers, one Spirit (God’s Spirit), one Lord God, one faith, and one baptism. This is a continuation of the delivering history God already demonstrated, not a replacement. Just as God went down to the iron furnace to get His people, and just how He went into a fiery furnace to protect His people, He also came down to earth as Jesus to deliver His people from eternal fire, hell. This is the greatest deliverance of all. “Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death” (Ps. 68:20).

The Shema

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:4-9).

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord (Lev. 19:18).

When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus sums up the Torah and Nevi’im with the first part of the Shema and Leviticus 19:18.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:34-40).

In Mark’s recording of the event, he also adds,

³² And the scribe [also the lawyer] said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions (Mk. 12:32-34).

This lawyer and scribe was not far from the kingdom, but he wasn’t there yet. I hope he did make it all the way there through faith in the Messiah after his death and resurrection. Jesus’ use of these texts to summarize the Torah reflects the context of the Shema.

Just before the Shema, in Deuteronomy 6:1-3, it says

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ² that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long (Deut. 6:1-2).

Notice how Moses emphasizes keeping “all his statutes and his commandments” (plural) and then the Shema follows, its antecedent being “this,” that is, the commandment (singular). Likewise, Jesus quotes the Shema and says that this sums up the Law and Prophets. When you look at the grammatical details, it’s really cool how it lines up exactly with Jesus’ use of the passages. And the Jews said (and still do say) the Shema daily, definitely every Sabbath. It is the commandment that summarizes all the commandments.

Now with Jesus’ words, He is definitely not claiming to be another god, but He definitely claimed to be divine, and that’s why Jews wanted to kill him (Jn. 10:33). He said He was God. So of course His summary of the Torah and Nevi’im using the Shema would line up with its textual context. If Jesus is God, Jesus is the one Who gave the commandments and orchestrated Moses’ composition of the Torah in the first place! Now let’s turn to the haftarah portion paired with this reading and see what it has to say about Messiah also.

The Voice in the Wilderness

A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Is. 40:3).

This one is also easy, because Matthew directly quotes this from the parsha in relation to John the Baptist:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
    make his paths straight.’” (Mt. 3:1-3).

Right after Isaiah 4:3, Isaiah also says,

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Is. 40:5).

And the Scripture regarding Jesus corroborates with this:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14).

The one who prepared the way for Jesus, John the Baptist, is the one who first identified Him to the people:

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel” (Jn. 1:29-31).

Notice how Isaiah described in the text God’s revealed glory after he talked about the voice crying in the wilderness, and here, after John the Baptist preached repentance, he “revealed” Him (Jesus) to Israel, and the Apostle John says “we have seen his glory,” that is, God’s glory. You just can’t make this stuff up! The Scripture is that intricately intertwined and cohesive. I get chills discovering this stuff.

His Reward and Recompense is with Him

Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him (Is. 40:10).

A few verses later, Isaiah describes God’s mighty judgment also coming. The New Testament breaks this out into the Messiah’s second coming. Instead of two messiahs who come once, He is one Messiah who comes twice. Concerning the Messiah’s second coming, the Apostle John writes,

The nations raged,
    but your wrath came,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
    and those who fear your name,
    both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev. 11:18).

¹² “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done (Rev. 22:12).

Here, we have God’s reward and recompense both being given out through Messiah Who comes to rule in power and glory. Isaiah 40 is a telescoped vision of Messiah from the voice that goes before him in the wilderness (John the Baptist) to His second coming! Again, you can’t make this stuff up!

God’s Faithfulness to Israel

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them (Deut. 4:29-31).

Replacement theologians must ignore verses like this entirely. God clearly will never leave, destroy, or forget Israel, even in their apostacy. When Moses says, “if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul,” this echoes the Shema, to love God with all your heart, soul, and might. God promises that Israel will seek God and find Him in the latter days, the acharit hayamim. Just like this promise made in the Torah, the Messiah who came in the acharit hayamim (Heb. 1:2), says,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Mt. 7:7-8).

Just like the promise in the Torah, Jesus offers the same promise when He preached on earth. I pray that you would continue to seek God with all your heart. Since you are reading this, this must be somewhat on your mind. If you do continue to seek Him with your whole heart, I know God will answer you. Whether you are discovering Him more deeply or for the first time, that’s a promise.

Israel did not earn their election by God to begin with, so they could not lose it because of their lack of performance. Quite the opposite, God chastened Israel in a way He did not chasten other nations. They were and are set apart whether they want to be or not. They can be blessed unlike any other nation or disciplined unlike any other nation, but never forsaken.

⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face (Deut. 7:7-10).

This promise has held true through history. What other people have been blessed like Israel? And what other people have been persecuted like the Jews? Yet they retain their distinct identity after displacement and persecution for millennia. That’s a miracle in itself. This section of Deuteronomy, and indeed the New Testament too, support these three main ideas:

1. God loves us because He loves us.
2. God is faithful because of His promise.
3. God is not slow to execute justice.

The Apostle Paul says something similar to Israel’s unconditional election:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-9).

Unconditional election is not a New Testament thing. It’s a God thing. It was the same then. It’s the same now.

The Apostle Peter also says something very similar to Moses in this passage:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).

Moses says God “will not be slack with one who hates him” and Peter says, “[t]he Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.” He is not slack or slow. He is merciful. And His relationship with Israel demonstrates just how merciful He is with all.

God’s covenant with Israel is a covenant of love:

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young (Is. 40:11).

God’s covenant always has been and always will be grounded in unconditional love:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

Jesus said, “ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11). And that’s what He did. He is the Shepherd of Israel. He gathers us, carries us, and leads us gently, because He loves us. He loves the world.

Conclusion

If Jesus was not who He said He was, I don’t think Christianity would exist today. Rabbi Gamaliel had the same logic. He said, “[I]f this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5:38-39). If Jesus did not claim to be God, I find it hard to believe there are so many intricacies connecting Him to the Old Testament. There’s just too much. It compounds and compounds to such detail that it baffles the mind. There’s no way a group of poor uneducated Jewish guys could have come up with this on the fly and willingly died for it, let alone convinced thousands of eyewitnesses of Jesus to believe the same. But God always leaves enough room to require our faith, because “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6).

So seek him like Moses said to seek him. Seek him like Jesus said to seek. Seek Him with all your heart and act on faith, and you will find Him. That is a promise in ALL of the Scriptures. Until next time, God bless.