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		Living in Exile     Vayelech   (Deut 31:1 - 30)

D'varim/Deuteronomy 31:8   The L-rd, He is the one going before you, He will be with you; He will not desert you and He will not forsake you; you shall not fear and you shall not be dismayed.

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Our text forms part of what Patrick Miller calls "a formal procedure of installation or commission"¹ and concludes with an assistance formula assuring Joshua of The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem's continued presence and support for him as the new leader of HaShem's people, encouraging and exhorting him not to quail at the task in front of him. Moshe has called Joshua out in front of all the people and, fulfilling the command he himself was given - "Give Joshua his instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at the head of this people ..." (D'varim 3:28, NJPS) - makes Joshua's appointment official before all the people, an encouragement that HaShem will echo later in the same chapter: "Be strong and resolute: for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you" (31:23, NJPS). Jeffrey Tigay notes that "the same encouragement that Moshe addressed to Joshua privately he now addresses to him publicly, making his appointment known to all."

Word order is often essential in the Hebrew text, telling us important things about the emphasis or meaning of what the author is trying to communicate. Our text starts with יהוה, the Tetragrammaton covenant name of G-d, immediately followed by הוּא, the 3ms subject pronoun, then הַהֹלֵךְ, the Qal ms participle from the root הלך, to walk or go. Together they make a very emphatic statement: HaShem, Himself and no other, is the one who is - already - walking before Joshua. The next phrase repeats the pronoun, again preceding its verb, to follow up the first affirmation with a second: He Himself is and will be with you. What Is ...

Targum Onkelos: An early (1^st-2^nd Century CE) translation/paraphrase of the Torah into Aramaic; attributed to a Roman convert to Judaism, Onkelos; used in Babylonian synagogues during the Talmudic era
Targum Onkelos, as ever anxious to avoid anthropomorphism, changes the Hebrew עִמָּךְ, "with you" to Aramaic בְסַעְדָּךְ, "your helper", assuring Joshua that HaShem will be his helper.

Completing the first half of the verse, Moshe tells Joshua that HaShem will not desert you - יַרְפְּךָ, the Hifil 3ms prefix form of the root רפה with a 2ms object pronoun suffix, translated by some versions as "He will not release you" - and neither will He forsake you - יַעַזְבֶךָ, the Qal 3ms prefix form of the root עזב also with a 2ms object pronoun suffix. On the one hand, these are standard terms that will be used again and again through Tanakh when prophets, kings and warriors are commissioned by HaShem or sent on His behalf to go and confront the enemy; on the other hand, they speak personally and particularly to Joshua as he takes over the leadership of the Israelites from Moshe, as he steps out from being simply an assistant into the lonely position of being the leader. Peter Craigie points out that "Joshua, more than his fellow Israelites, would need the strength, courage and freedom from fear that found their roots in G-d's ability and trustworthiness."²

Robert Alter suggests that "G-d is imagined as a celestial warrior headed out in front of the people against its enemies. The presence of that divine vanguard is the reassurance the people have when faced with adversaries superior in numbers."³ In time to come, Israel - a small nation on the global scale - will be increasingly vulnerable to successive generations of regional super-powers: Egypt, Assyria and the Mesopotamian nations. "Consistently", Ronald Clements suggests, "the unspoken question arises as to how Israel can compensate for this weakness, and the answer given is that G-d must fight on their behalf. Only with such divine support can Israel match and overpower the strength of its enemies."⁴ Joshua is assured that this will be so during the conquest and settlement of the Land; HaShem will be there for him just as as He has been for Moshe, so Joshua should not be afraid or concerned that he has to do this on his own.

A larger picture lies behind the words of our text. Christopher Wright explains that "G-d has invested G-d's word and name in the future of this people and so ultimate responsibility for them is G-d's own - a fact Moshe uses so effectively uses in his intercession" for the people. HaShem has skin in the game! Secondly, Wright continues, "the leader can count on the unfailing presence of G-d. What was covenantally true for the people ('the L-RD your G-d Himself marches with you: He will not fail you or forsake you', v. 6b, NJPS) will be no less personally true for their leader ('the L-RD Himself will go before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you.', v. 8, NJPS)."⁵ HaShem has a purpose and a plan and He will be personally involved to make sure that His plan happens. As Walter Brueggemann outs it, "YHVH will be, in time to come, whom YHVH has been for Israel in times past. YHVH is reliable and will not fail or forsake. The future will be safely governed by YHVH as has been the past. YHVH intends the land to belong to Israel and will forcefully act to secure it for Israel."⁶

As exiles, Jew and Gentile together on HaShem's journey of life, we have been promised both the kingdom - "Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34, TLV) - and Yeshua's presence with us to fight alongside us and to ensure that His plans and purposes are carried out: "Remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (28:20, TLV). Yeshua calls us to "Turn away from your sins, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (4:17, TLV), urges us to "seek first the kingdom of G-d and His righteousness" (6:33, TLV) and - like the first disciples - has sent us out "to proclaim the kingdom of G-d and to heal" (Luke 9:2, TLV). He tells us that "the kingdom of G-d is in your midst" (17:21, TLV) and warned the chief priests and elders that "the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of G-d" (Matthew 21:31, TLV); the use of the present tense showing that the kingdom was already available to the followers of Yeshua during His earthly ministry years.

Yeshua has invested His name and that of the Father in this enterprise. When He says, "this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and trusts in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40, ESV), He is making a public commitment of the Father's behalf; He is putting the reputation of the Father on the line to fulfil that promise. The Jews of late Second Temple Israel already believed in "the resurrection; both Isaiah - "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead" (Isaiah 26:19, ESV) - and Daniel spoke of it: "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2, ESV). But Yeshua connected those from the nations with the kingdom of G-d, "people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of G-d" (Luke 13:29, ESV); He made explicit the promises already given in Tanakh to include Gentiles in the kingdom.

We fear that we are alone, that we are weak and feeble, that our voices are routinely ignored and sometimes scorned when we speak of the kingdom of G-d, the coming judgement and the need to find salvation in Yeshua, peace and reconciliation with the Father, right now before it is too late. Our text tells us - to the contrary - that HaShem is with us. Yeshua's promises remind us that He is with us, within us, among us. His investment - His name and His promise - is just as sure among His people today as it was with Joshua and the Israelites those centuries ago. HaShem never let His ancient people down; neither will He let His contemporary people in Yeshua down. He intends the kingdom to belong to His Son and to all His children, so will act forcefully to ensure that does happen. He will go before us. Our response is to be the same as Joshua: do not fear and do not be dismayed. Let us grid up our loins afresh today, inspired and empowered by G-d's good promises, by the love of Yeshua, by the power and strength of His right arm - the Ruach who lives within us - and take on the world to proclaim that "the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our L-rd and of His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15, ESV).

Just as Joshua was empowered and enabled to carry out his role leading the Israelites into the next phase of their inheritance, so we are empowered and enabled to fulfil our mission sharing good news of the kingdom and G-d's invitation to join. Just as Joshua received his commissioning in public, before all the people, so we are recognised - like the apostles: "when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Yeshua" (Acts 4:13, ESV) - as the followers of Yeshua. We must join with the apostles in their prayer: "now, L-rd, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness, while You stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Yeshua" (vv. 29-30, ESV).

1. - Patrick D. Miller, Deuteronomy Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), pages 219-220.

2. - P. C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, NICOT, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976), page 370.

3. - Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, (New York, Norton, 2004), page 724.

4. - Ronald E. Clements, "Deuteronomy" in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 1041.

5. - Christopher J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), page 295.

6. - Walter Brueggemann, Deuteronomy Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2001), page 272.

Further Study: 2 Kings 19:15-19; Psalm 77:17-20; John 7:14-18

Application: Are you praying that prayer each day, expecting the Father to hear it and respond like that? Are the place where you pray and the places where you work and witness being shaken as you are filled with the Ruach "to speak the word of G-d with boldness" (Acts 4:31, ESV)?

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© Jonathan Allen, 2025

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