This week’s Torah portion is called Eikev, and it covers Deuteronomy 7:12 to 11:25. The name Eikev translates to “because” or “as a consequence of.” Much of its message is about the cause-and-effect relationship between Israel’s obedience and God’s blessings and her disobedience and God’s curses. The portion starts: “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors” (7:12). Moses lists the blessings to include everything from abundance of crops to protection from disease.
History Recap
Moses recaps the last forty years, recalling all of Israel’s highs and lows. He is speaking to a new generation—people who have never known anything other than desert wanderings. However, he recounts the events as if they too were eyewitnesses. He rebukes their shared lack of faith. He reminds them of their darkest moments. These incidents include the crafting and worshipping of the golden calf (9:16) and the constant complaining about the lack of food and water (9:22). Yet, alongside his rebuke of what he regularly calls “stiff-necked people,” Moses reminds them that they were chosen out of all the nations on the earth. All the trials and hardships over the last forty years had a purpose. God was humbling them and testing them so he would know what was in their hearts (8:2). Moses promises them that if they remember to keep God’s commandments after they settle the land, all will be well with them.
The forty years of manna in the desert was meant to demonstrate their absolute reliance on God. They are now set to conquer a land rich with pasture, agriculture, and natural resources. Knowing the human tendency for abundance to stifle our passion for God, Moses issues a warning: “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna… to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3).
Preventing Idolatry
More than food and physical abundance, Moses is concerned with the prevalence of cultic worship among the tribes residing in the land. Deuteronomy, more than any other book in the Torah, is zealous in its condemnation of idolatry.
Moses warns against intermarriage once they settle Canaan. He even condemns intermingling with the surrounding pagan nations. Pagan influence, Moses understands, will be the biggest cause of defection among the Israelites. Seduced by the desire to assimilate, they will surely turn away from the one true God in favor of local false gods. Strict precautions are even put in place in Deuteronomy 7 to prevent the people from pilfering idols strictly for their precious metals.
It was not just the spiritual worship of cultic symbols that was forbidden; ownership of them for their material value was also detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Moses commands, “The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it” (7:25). They must burn the idols entirely rather than bring accursed objects into their homes. If they do hoard molten images, God promises that he will treat them no differently than the defeated pagans.
Deuteronomy designs measures to protect the Israelites from idolatrous practices. We see this in the way Moses’ recounting of Sinai compares to the original account in Exodus. The narrative in Deuteronomy includes far more explicit anti-cultic rhetoric. For example, Moses reveals a detail absent from Exodus. Apparently, God was so angry with Aaron for his complicity in the golden calf episode that he was determined to kill him, but Moses intervened (9:20). In the Exodus 32 account, no specific mention is made of God’s direct threat to Aaron’s life. The telling in Deuteronomy is a much sharper cautionary tale. The moral is clear: no participant in idol worship is beyond divine punishment, not even the High Priest.
This anti-idolatry theme builds upon earlier reminders in Deuteronomy. When recounting God’s giving of the tablets on Mount Sinai, Moses heavily emphasizes the auditory portion of the experience and downplays the visual. Moses explicitly warns the people: “You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire” (4:15). The theological implication is that they must withstand the temptation to create idols to represent the Sinai epiphany. Though they witnessed the descending cloud, dark smoke, and bright lightning atop the mountain, it was the unseen voice of God that they heard from heaven. They saw no image.
Words of God versus Image of God
To this day, Judaism and Christianity are faiths that look to the words of God, rather than the form of God. We look for God’s handprint in the acts of history and his intervention in our daily lives. We eat and drink from the canonized words that have sustained his people for over two millennia. As modern worshipers of the one true God, avoiding physical, molten images seems obvious, and Deuteronomy’s anti-pagan rhetoric might initially feel redundant. What is less obvious, however, is still true: though we have never seen God’s form, he still speaks. And it remains our job to do the hardest thing of all: listen.
Every Torah portion has an anthem. This week’s anthem is in Deuteronomy 10. Moses says: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” (10:12−13).
All the talk about avoiding idolatry and taking over the land to purge out the evil nations needs to be put in this perspective. God wants whole-hearted followers that serve him with everything they have. He wants all to be well with them as they live lives, build families, and farm the land, so that all of it brings glory to God. There were many risks that awaited, whether it was full bellies or tempting idols, but God wanted more than anything for them to stay reliant and focused on him. God never gave up on that goal. Not then and not now.
That’s it for this week. If you would like to get the study questions that go with the reading, please visit our website at www.thejerusalemconnection.us
Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai
Study Questions
Remembering the Wilderness (Deut 8:1–20)
Moses warns the Israelites about forgetting God once they achieve wealth. This is a major temptation they will face in the promised land. How did this dependence on God in the desert prepare the people for a settled agricultural life? In what ways does physical comfort make it harder to rely on him?
The Danger of Pride (Deut 9:1–7)
Moses reminds the people of their past sins to humble them. He commands them not to credit their own virtue for their success. Why is it a problem for the Israelites to view the capture of the land as a reward for their own goodness? How does this reminder shift their focus back to God and his promises?
The Core Requirements (Deut 10:12–22)
After recounting the renewal of the covenant, Moses provides a summary of expectations. How do these internal attitudes connect to the outward actions required by the covenant? What does it mean to fear God while also loving him with all your heart?