Devarim and the Power of God’s Word

The book of Devarim describes the last weeks of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. The people were about to enter the land of Canaan. However, Moses wanted to make a few more statements to the Hebrews before they settled in the Promised Land.

In fact, most of the book of Devarim is about this last speech of Moses, in which he reflects on the people’s journey, repeats commandments that were already known, and explains new ordinances that apply to the land.

It reads:

On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, (Deuteronomy 1:5, KJV).

But what does it mean that Moses declared the law, the Torah? Let’s take a look at it and see what meaning we can draw from it for ourselves.

Basics of the Hebrew language

To better understand the meaning of the above verse, let’s look at the Hebrew text. Before we do so, however, we should note a few principles that are important to consider.

1. Most Hebrew words can be traced back to a 3 letter root. From this root, various other words can be formed. These in turn are connected by the root and form a unit of meaning.
2. Each Hebrew letter corresponds to a numerical value. Consequently, each word can be expressed as the sum of its numerical values. This is called gematria. I cannot go into this in detail in this article, but I will point out the numerical values of the Hebrew word for “declare”. If you would like to learn more about biblical gematria, I recommend this book (affiliate link).

Now let’s take a look at the Hebrew word that is translated “declare” in the KJV version of Deuteronomy 1:5.

The Hebrew Word

At this point, I will repeat the verse we are looking at:

On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, (Deuteronomy 1:5, KJV — bolded by author).

The Hebrew word for declare is בָּאַר (ba’ar). This word occurs only three times in Scripture, and always in connection with God’s word that is to be clearly written down or explained. Here are the other two passages, with the relevant word bolded by me.

And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. (Deuteronomy 27:8, KJV — bolded by author)

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. (Habakkuk 2:2, KJV — bolded by author)

The point was for Moses to explain the Torah clearly to the children of Israel so that they would know the heart of the Scriptures and understand what God’s message was really all about.

According to Jewish tradition, Moses explained the Torah in 49 pure and 49 impure interpretations. Thus, the Levite wanted to make it clear that the Torah itself can only be understood with the right spirit, and that the text can also be misused.

But what else does the word בָּאַר (ba’ar) tell us?

A look at the root

Ba’ar is already a root word from which several other words can be formed. One of these words is be'er, which can be translated as spring.

In ancient Israel, a spring was the basis for life and for building a settlement or a city. It was impossible without a water source. The water from the spring was essential to the survival of the inhabitants of the land.

When Moses explained the Torah to the Israelites, he opened a spring for them. That spring was the foundation of their lives. So it is not surprising that David, in a psalm, said of God:

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Psalm 36:9, KJV — bolded by author)

The gematria

Another interesting detail about the word בָּאַר (ba’ar) is revealed when we look at the gematria. The sum of the word is 203 and is therefore identical to the Hebrew term for creating בָּרָא (bara).

With the interpretation and explanation of the Torah, a new life also began for the Hebrews. Moses created something new among the people by explaining the commandments.

Doesn’t this sound familiar to us?

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV)

So we see that God’s message has never changed. Yeshua and the Torah make up a unity that is meant to change us. It is our destiny to become more and more like the Creator. That is our life, and the Torah shows us the way to achieve this destiny.

This article was first published on Medium.com.