October 2025
Nitzavim
Haftarah reflections 50
Torah portion Deuteronomy 29:10 to 30:20
Haftarah portion Isaiah 61: 10 –63: 9
Listen to the Prophets
Isaiah proclaims the clear message of Messiah Yeshua in this parashah. It contains some of the most often quoted prophetic Scriptures in our Bible. It is worthy of our attention because it speaks of events which have captivated the thoughts of believers in Yeshua for 2,000 years. His triumphant return. We rejoice in that together.
But the very last verse of this reading says so much more. “In all their (Israel’s) affliction, He (Yeshua) was afflicted”. Sense the pain here. Turn your thoughts for a moment to the anti-Semitic pogroms, the holocaust, the reviling taunts, the dismissive attitudes, the arrogant humiliation, to which these beloved of God have been subjected throughout their history. That is “their affliction”. And Isaiah tells us that every hurtful act was experienced and felt personally by Yeshua. What shame we bear.
This prophetic writing has to be read with care in order to discern the person or people being addressed by Isaiah, so as to get the full understanding of the sequence. It opens with the statement about Yeshua’s time on this earth, and the purpose for which He came. It is Yeshua who was anointed by God to preach the ‘good tidings’, to ‘heal the broken-hearted’, to ‘proclaim liberty to the captives’. It is Yeshua who ‘gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’. It is Yeshua who declares them (Israel) to be ‘the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified”.
Sense the love which is embodied in those words. God sent Yeshua, His only Son, to make these changes in the lives of His chosen ones. It was God’s declared intention to heap His love upon them. It remains His intention. But there is a God ordained interval in His programme. The gospel of John, chapter 12, quoting Isaiah 6:9,10, spoke of the ‘blindness’ of Israel. The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Rome captured it with these words. “.. have they (Israel) stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” He goes on “ … if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”
And it is in glorious anticipation of this “fullness”, their restoration, and the “blindness” removed, that Isaiah’s prophetic words continue.
The Messianic Kingdom, where Yeshua will reign, (and rule with a rod of iron) comes clearly into focus. But in case we think that God is slow to bring this about, the prophet exhorts the hearer “you who make mention of the Lord, (that’s US isn’t it?) do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth”.
Look what happens to Israel. “The Gentiles shall see your righteousness (all iniquity forgiven), and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord”
Is it any wonder that the prophet Zechariah, speaking of the same era, said: “In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
Earlier in our study, we saw the pain of affliction felt by Messiah Yeshua for the agonies of rejection endured by His chosen ones. Our parashah ends on a note of righteous judgement on those who were the enemies of these chosen people. “Who is this who comes from Edom?” is the question. The description is of One whose garments are stained with blood. The blood of battle. Of One who is victorious in that battle. “For the day of vengeance is in My heart and the year of My redeemed has come” He says.
Then He said: “Surely they are My people, children who will not lie” So He became their Saviour.
There was a time, some 4,000 years ago, when God said to the righteous Abram “I will bless those who bless you, and I will “a’rar” (bitterly curse) those who “qalal” (treat with contempt) you.” The descendants of Abram, through the line of his son of promise, Isaac, were included in that promise.
Let’s take God at His word. Listen to the voice of the Prophets.
Shabbat Shalom
RS