Archive for » February, 2010 «

Who Knows Me?

Sunday, February 28th, 2010 | Author:

I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul Psalm 31:7 NASB

Known – Omniscience.  Oh, it’s a great doctrine.  God knows everything that can be known.  It’s a significant statement about the scope of His observation and understanding.  But it’s kind of sterile.  It’s one of the those big ideas that lends itself to debates like, “If God already knows what I am going to do tomorrow, can it really be my free choice?”  I wonder if David ever concerned himself with such cognitive issues.  David’s approach is far more personal.  God knows the troubles of my soul.  When it comes to my relationship with the Lord, this might be all I really need.

The verb is quite familiar.  Yada covers the widest range of knowing in Hebrew, from knowing the facts about the enemy army to knowing the sexual intimacy of marriage.  It’s worth reflecting on this range.  We have many distinct verbal expressions for different kinds of knowledge.  We categorize our information.  There’s a box for facts, a box for opinions, a box for theories, a box for observations, a box for involvements, etc.  Nice, neat compartments where we can “know” the right thing in one area but never let it touch the things we feel or observe in another area.  But yada reminds us that everything is connected.  It isn’t possible to “know” something and keep it neatly separated from the actions that make up who we are.  If God knows the troubles of my soul, certain implications about this fact must follow.

God knows my tsarah.  He knows the distress I encounter, the adversities I face, the troubles life hands me and the vexations that plague me.  God knows these things.  That does not simply mean He observes them as facts.  Yada-ata.  He knows them.  He experiences my troubles.

Think about this.  When I weep, is God weeping with me?  When I rejoice, does He dance?  When I shake with fear, is He there beside me?  When I battle with decisions, does He fight for the right?  Yada says “Yes!”  The full range of relationship dynamics is known to Him.  He is not the God of disengaged research or the moral policeman.  He is as close as my breath, my sight, my thoughts and my sighs.  He is the God in my need.

Would it make a difference in our struggles for righteousness if we contemplated the God of yada?  Would we feel His comfort, His guidance or His warning just a little more intensely if we engaged the Hebrew umbrella of knowing?  David worships a God who is intimately involved in life.  He doesn’t sit on His throne in Zion waiting for quarterly reports on our progress.  He sits by our side, asking us to lean on Him.  He is the ‘ezer, the benefactor who comes to our aid in times of need.

Topical Index:  known, yada, omniscience, Psalm 31:7

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 10 Comments

Where Is It?

Saturday, February 27th, 2010 | Author:

“Thy Kingdom come,” Matthew 6:10

Come – There is little doubt that the Greek text of Matthew reads eltheto.  Literally, the verse is “Let come the kingdom of You.”  Eltheto is an active imperative.  That means it is a command – a call to action – not simply an observation.  There are plenty of commentaries that elaborate the nature of this call.  But Gordon and Johnson discovered something radically different when they investigated the copies of the Hebrew version of Matthew.[1] What they discovered is that the original Hebrew gospel probably read “Your Kingdom be blessed,” not “Your Kingdom come.”  The difference is significant.

The Greek version of this prayer focuses our attention on the future arrival of the Kingdom.  It looks for something that has yet to be.  It projects an image of the heavenly government as the eventual objective of the earthly realm.  This is commonly described in Christian circles as the “already but not yet” dynamic of the Kingdom.

But if the Hebrew version is the original, things change.  The prayer is much more in line with Yeshua’s proclamation that “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Instead of “Your Kingdom come,” the text reads “Your Kingdom be blessed.”  Suddenly this prayer is about God’s reign and rule here, on this earth, at this moment.  It is a proclamation of blessing on the present manifestation of the Kingdom.  Just like the Greek text, it is a call to action, but now it is a call not for the arrival of some future government, it is a call to act in accordance with the present Kingdom of YHWH and, by so doing, bless His reign.  It is a call to look around you and see where God is at work and join Him there.  It is a call to right living right now.

You might wonder how such an immediate presence of the Kingdom ever got changed to a far-off expectation.  After all, it is very Jewish to think in terms of a present manifestation of God’s reality.  Why would a Greek translator shift the focus to the future?  While the answer is now hidden in the historical past, we might speculate that this might be expected from a Greek point of view.  In the Greek world, significance and meaning are lodged in the future where the utopian ideal will come about.  The world today is a mess.  The world tomorrow will be better.  So, our hope is pushed over the horizon.  Some day we will get to heaven – and everything will be wonderful.

The Hebrew perspective is back, not forward.  We are called to return to the original, not project a utopian tomorrow.  Our focus is on this day, the day God has given us to bring about one more act of restoring what was lost.  Genesis is our goal, not simply our beginning.  Of course, we can go right on praying the Greek version, but we might have to pause a bit.

Topical Index:  come, eltheto, kingdom, Matthew 6:10

[1] According to Gordon and Johnson, A Prayer to Our Father, there are 28 extant copies of a Hebrew version of Matthew in various libraries around the world.  One of these copies of earlier manuscripts was done by a Jew named Pozanski.  In his copy, he corrects the Hebrew text to match the Greek common reading but makes a note about the correction in the margin, indicating the different Hebrew word.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 9 Comments

Sign of the Prophet

Friday, February 26th, 2010 | Author:

“even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another,. . .” Jeremiah 23:26-27

Intend – The Hebrew verb hashav covers a lot more than intentions.  It means “to devise, to invent, to consider and to reckon.”  When it is used with God as the subject, it also means “to plan.”  We find it in the famous verse about God’s plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11).  God plans good things for those who faithfully follow Him.  But that’s not the case with false prophets.  Jeremiah proclaims God’s words about their plans.  One of the characteristics of a false prophet is the scheme to make the people of YHWH forget His name.  Those who deceive the flock are those who devise ways to remove God’s name from memory.  They want God’s name to be lost.  That makes substitution much, much easier.  The people follow innocently when the prophets scheme to remove the name of the Holy One of Israel.

Does that make you a bit uncomfortable?  Do you need to revise your evaluation of the church fathers?  Who was responsible for removing God’s holy name from our religious experience?  Who gave us Adonai or LORD or Jehovah or Jesus?  Why are we left with only the consonants YHWH instead of the name that David used every day (Psalm 145:1-2).  What happened in the course of history that made God’s name disappear from human language?  Do you think it was “accidental”?

Perhaps you’ve heard the rejoinder, “Well, what’s the big deal?  I know who I’m talking about.  Does it really matter if I use an English substitution rather than a Hebrew name?  Surely God understands.”

Yes, He probably does.  But that doesn’t make it right, does it?  For quite a long time my senior tutor at Oxford thought my nickname was Steve.  As a proper English gentleman, he never considered the name “Skip” as a proper name for a man.  Everyone who knew me realized that when he said “Steve” he meant me.  But it wasn’t my name.  One day someone was brave enough to correct him.  He was embarrassed.  I was relieved.  We became much better friends.  I imagine God might feel the same way when we don’t use His name.  After all, it’s the most important name in the universe.

Tragically, somewhere in our history we have been the victims of false prophets.  They have removed His precious name from our lips and now we have only a guess at its real sound.  I am quite sure that God understands our dilemma.  But I for one would certainly like to know what it really is.  I want His name to be my constant praise.

Topical Index: name, hashav, plan, intend, Jeremiah 23:26-27

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , ,  | 17 Comments

Distinctively Different

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | Author:

“Then if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.” Jeremiah 12:16 NASB


As The LORD Lives – OK, you’ve read the verse in English.  It doesn’t matter much which translation.  Now reread it in Hebrew (hai-YHWH).  The word “Lord” does appear.   You already know that the English substitution “LORD” isn’t what the text says.  The text contains the Hebrew divine name, YHWH (in English consonants to accommodate the technology of the delivery systems).  Now think about what this means.

YHWH says, “If the nations (those who are not Israel) really learn the ways of My people (those who are Israel), so much so that their oaths of fidelity are attributed to My name, then they will be built up in the midst of Israel.”  Let’s look at the implications.

The first thing we recognize is that YHWH is not saying, “As the LORD lives.”  That isn’t His name.  He is speaking of a time when the nations actually say His name, YHWH.   Apparently, neither Jews nor Gentiles have taken this seriously.  The very fact that our English translations use LORD instead of His name is an indication of how far we are from incorporating His fidelity into our lives – whether we are Jewish or Gentile.  Do you suppose God said, “ . . to swear by a religious substitute for My name”?  Of course not!  YHWH envisions a time when His real name is proclaimed by every mouth.

The second thing we notice is the relationship between the nations and His people.  Gentiles do not become Jews.  The nations do not become Israel.  The nations are built up in the midst of Israel.  They are not melded into Israel.  The distinction still exists but, when it comes to serving the one true God, it doesn’t matter.  All of God’s worshippers utter the same oath of fidelity, “as YHWH lives.”

Next we see that once the nations actually taught God’s own people to swear by something other than His holy name.  They accommodated to the culture.  They adopted the pattern of the nations.  They swore by a substitute.  In other words, they fell into idolatry.  They no longer swore allegiance to the one true God, YHWH.  But YHWH brought them back, just as He promises to bring back the nations when they really learn the ways of His people.

That, of course, is the last of our lessons from this verse.  The nations are built up if and when they adopt the ways of His people.  Gentiles don’t get to decide what those ways are.  The ways are already in place – in Israel.  This is a matter of conformity to a pre-existing pattern, not a matter of altering the pattern to fit a new approach.

So, there you have it.  It looks like both sides have a long way to go, doesn’t it?  There’s no time like the present to get started.  Are you ready to swear by His real name?

Topical Index:  name, YHWH, Jeremiah 12:16, swear, LORD

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , ,  | 17 Comments

Surprised?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Author:

“Our Father in heaven” Matthew 6:9

Our Father – If you spend any time with Christian commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer, you will soon discover the common assertion that this prayer is unusual because Jews did not address God as “our Father.”  This idea seems to come from the work of a Christian German theologian nearly a century ago.  For unknown reasons, many Christian teachers followed the declaration of this man, asserting that Jesus made a radical break from His Jewish roots when He taught this model prayer.  Unfortunately, no one seems to have questioned this scholarship until recently.

Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson[1] point out that this common assertion simply isn’t true.  Not only are there many references to “our Father” in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jews recite the prayer called Avinu Malkenu every day for ten days prior to Yom Kippur.  In translation, avinu malkenu means “our Father, our King.”  The prayer goes like this:

“Our Father, our King, favor us and answer us even though we have not done righteousness.  Be kind towards us and save us for your name’s sake.”

This is particularly important because it is one more confirmation that Yeshua taught within the context of first century Judaism.  He did not break free from Jewish tradition or interpretation to start a new faith.  In fact, the more we look, the more we find that Yeshua was Jewish through-and-through.  Gordon and Johnson take us on a journey into the Hebrew version of the Lord’s Prayer – and a few startling revelations occur along the way.

While this bit of scholarship might give you another element in the defense of the Jewish “Jesus,” the real message behind our shift of perspective on the Lord’s Prayer is its focus on community, not on the individual believer.  If it was commonplace for the Jews to address God as “our Father,” then we must look to their understanding of the fatherhood of God if we are going to appreciate what Yeshua really taught.  What we discover is the Jewish idea that God is the Father of all Mankind.  That might not seem too startling to those who have embraced the universalism of Christian thinking, but it certainly shifts the usual Christian view of Judaism.  Far too often Christians believe that Judaism is a religion of exclusion, drawing hard and fast distinctions between Jews and Gentiles.  Far too often, Christians characterize Judaism as a religion of rule-oriented separation.  What we have failed to see is the truth in God’s proclamation to Abraham, “through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Yeshua called Israel back to its true purpose – to reach out to the nations.  Abraham understood that message and is known for his hospitality toward others and his intercession for others.  To be grafted into Israel is to be grafted into God’s plan to extend grace to all through some.  The first words of our Lord’s prayer suggest that community is central to all thinking about God.  We must put aside the Greek proclivity toward individual spirituality and look toward our Father, the person we find together.

Topical Index:  Our Father, Avinu Malkenu, Matthew 6:9, community

[1] Gordon and Johnson, A Prayer To Our Father, 2009

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 16 Comments

Life Insurance

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Author:

And it happened as the sun was setting and a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, a terror of great darkness falling on him Genesis 15:12

Deep Sleep –

One of the principles of Hebraic interpretation is connecting thoughts based on similar words.  When a word appears only a few times in Scripture, the connections become even more important because each “dot” adds to the overall concept.  So, when we encounter a word like tardema (deep sleep) which occurs only seven times, we want to be sure we see where the connections lead us.  This is particularly important when we draw the connection between Abraham and Adam.

Genesis repeats themes that are crucial for living according to God’s plan.  Here we have the first (but not the last) repetition of the story of Adam and Havvah replayed in the lives of Abraham and Sarah.  The choice of tardema is a reminder of the story of Adam.  We need to pay close attention to the implications.  Here’s what we discover.

In both cases, God causes this trance.  In both cases, God is the active agent in the covenant formation.  Notice the results.  Abraham sleeps while God does the work.  Abraham is the beneficiary of the resulting covenant.  He is not a material partner in the agreement.  Everything important happens while he sleeps.  He wakes to find a new situation, one that establishes an eternal promise for his benefit.

Apply that insight to Adam.  While Adam sleeps, God works.  God brings into existence the Woman who is specifically designed to reflect the application of God’s will.  She is built to have an intuitive understanding of God’s boundaries and moment-to-moment direction.  She is the partner in covenant relationship with God.  Adam wakes to find that his world has changed.  But he had nothing to do with it.  He is the beneficiary of the relationship between God and Havvah.  In Adam’s situation, the ‘ezer kenegdo has a connection to God that benefits the man, just as Abraham is benefited by God’s promise to Himself.  In other words, the red-flag marker of tardema begs us to see that the work of the Lord is for the well-being of the male even though neither male actively participates in the arrangement.  This helps us realize that there are really two covenants in marriage.  One covenant is the promise of fidelity between the husband and wife.  The other is the covenant relationship between the ‘ezer and God.  One is voluntary; the other is divinely-designed.

What does this mean?  It means that God’s work in creating the ‘ezer kenegdo is connected to God’s work in establishing the covenant of promise with Abraham.  The Woman is God’s first manifestation of promise.  Man needs help.  God supplies help.  Man is the beneficiary of God’s supply.  We are reminded of the critical role the Woman plays.  We see that her role is to provide shalom to her charge.  The design of God’s covenant for Abraham results in the opportunity for shalom for all Mankind.   Don’t you suppose that the design of God’s “helper” for Adam has the same horizon?  Did you think the creation story was disconnected from the redemption story?  The ‘ezer kenegdo is God’s answer to the problem of being alone, just as the covenant with Abraham is God’s answer to the problem of being separated.  The similarities are impossible to deny.  The Woman plays a crucial role in the manifestation of reunion.  She is the foretaste of the promise of unity and marriage is the vehicle though which this unity is accomplished.

Topical Index:  covenant, sleep, tardema, Adam, Abraham, ‘ezer, Genesis 15:12

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | 4 Comments

Matthew, Session 7

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Author:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | 4 Comments

Matthew, Session 6

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Author:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | Comments off

Matthew, Session 5

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Author:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | Comments off

Matthew, Session 4

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Author:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(To listen, hit the Play button above, or right-click here, select “Save as…” and download the file to your computer.)

Category: Matthew  | Comments off
« Previous Entries