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The Fear of the Lord

Sunday, October 02nd, 2011 | Author:

And he said to the man, “One is the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom . .”  Job 28:28  Rabbinic Midrash translation

One is – What is yirat adonai?  What does “the fear of the Lord” mean in your life?  If the fear of the Lord is the foundation of all His instructions to us, then what does this look like?  That question was crucial for the rabbis.  They found part of the answer in an alternate meaning in this verse from Job.  Instead of translating the opening word of the statement as “Behold” (the Hebrew word hen), they suggested that this first word is similar to the Greek word for “one.”  With this translation, the Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin suggests that all wisdom is one, that is, all wisdom is found in yirat adonai.  The study of philosophy or science or ethics or the arts does not lead to wisdom unless it leads to God.

Ira Stone makes this observation based on the midrash.  “It should by now be clear that the term yirat Ha-Shem cannot simply be translated as “fear of God.”  Rather, yirat ha-Shem is wisdom as expressed in worship . . . Nor is it any better understood simply as awe, a tactic that contemporary English speakers often take.  Instead, I understand yirat ha-Shem as the overwhelming weight we take on when we recognize the infinite nature of our responsibility for others; ahavah is the infinite potential for joy we experience by our choices to implement the yetzer ha-tov.   . . . our relationship to God is a living rather than a thinking relationship.  It is not speculation on the being of God, or even on how we can speculate about God, that claims the attention of Jewish intellectual effort.  Rather, it is living in the mode of God as we have experienced it in both our personal and communal histories.”[1]

What is the fear of the Lord?  It is you discovering the burden-bearing claim of others as God’s way of exhibiting love.  What is the fear of the Lord?  It is you carrying another’s cross, putting your life at risk for another, standing in the other’s place for good or ill.  What is the fear of the Lord?  It is your awareness of another’s need even if unexpressed.  What is the fear of the Lord?  It is Yeshua dying for you.

Wisdom is relational.  It isn’t found in textbooks or confessions or rituals.  It is found in personal and communal interaction, and in particular, the interaction of choosing shalom for another.  The fear of the Lord is painted in loving-my-neighbor colors.  To recognize a need and to have the ability to do something about that need but instead choose to walk away is to blaspheme His name and His image in us.  The weight of a wounded world falls on our shoulders and we are called to carry it, not alone but nevertheless to the best of our abilities.  Then our lives become worship as Yeshua’s life was worship.  That is the fear of the Lord.

Topical Index:  fear of the Lord, yirat ha-Shem, yirat adonai, hen, behold, one, Job 28:28

 

[1] Ira Stone, Mesillat Yesharim, pp. 10-11.

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A Company of One

Thursday, June 16th, 2011 | Author:

One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger who sojourns with you, an ordinance forever in your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.  One Torah and one code shall be for you, and for the stranger who sojourns with you. Numbers 15:15-16  (Hebrew World)

One – The redemptive plan of the Scriptures depends on the concept of ehad (one).   This word about essential unity not only governs our thoughts about the single Creator and King of the universe (God is ehad as noted in the Shema), it also should direct our thoughts toward the unity Yeshua prays for in the Garden (John 17:22), the unity intended in the reunion of marriage (Genesis 2:24) and the necessary unity required to provoke God’s people to stand apart as one Body (Romans 11:14).  Just as God is one, so His plan is one.  It is precisely the same plan for any child of Abraham, whether Jew or Gentile.  Long before there was any division among followers concerning “law and grace,” God already instructed His people that all who resided within the camp had the same ordinances and the same Torah.  Belief and practice didn’t depend on family of origin, only on family of adoption.

If God tells us that all those who are called by His name are to have the same worldview, the same code of conduct and the same understanding of His purposes, then can there really be any debate about diet, legal rulings, sacrifices, worship or social and civic responsibilities?  If Torah is the same for anyone who is adopted into the family, does that mean we can pick and choose which Torah instructions we want to follow?  Aren’t God’s instructions valid for everyone who claims Him as Father and King?  It certainly seems as if this is the posture prior to Augustine, Tertullian and Marcion.  If God tells Moses that everyone in the assembly (the qehelah) has the same code of conduct, why do Christians and Jews seem so different today?  Could it be that both groups have departed from the single set of instructions?

From the end of the Apostolic age to the time of Constantine, Hellenism made significant inroads into the mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles who followed the Way.  By 200 AD, Gentile believers far outnumbered Jewish believers.  At the same time, following the destruction of the temple in 72 AD, Judaism began to move from its eclectic conglomeration of different schools of thought as certain branches of Pharisees became the voice of the people without a temple.  These men redefined Judaism and established the trajectory that Judaism follows today.  Neither Christianity nor Judaism attempted to maintain the unity found in the first century followers of the Way.  In spite of the fact that there is historical evidence demonstrating that the early believers in Yeshua as Messiah were congregations of both Jews and Gentiles until perhaps the fourth century, contemporary Judaism and Christianity are now worlds apart.

But that isn’t what God intended.  What God intended is a Body unified by His Torah.  The critical question for followers of the one true God today is this:  Will I take steps in my own life to bring about this unity?  If I am a Christian, will I begin to live a Torah obedient life so that I can recover the ground lost between my Jewish brothers and sisters and me?  If I am a Jew, will I recognize that Yeshua is Jewish, that He advocated Torah obedience and that He calls all His followers to Torah?  If I am a Christian, will I take on Torah as a sign of my commitment to the God of Israel?  If I am a Jew, will I read Sha’ul without the baggage imported by theologians after Augustine?

How will I begin to heal the breach?  How will I show that I understand ‘ehad?  What must I do today to bring God’s people closer to His purposes?

Topical Index:  ehad, one, unity, Torah, Numbers 15:16

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Priorities

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Author:

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. Psalm 27:4

One Thing – What is the most important thing in life? What must be the absolute goal if life is to be worth living? Before you quickly supply an answer about the relationship with God, consider what the world would say. If you asked the average person what’s the most important thing in life, what do you think you would hear? Undoubtedly, you would listen to the same list of priorities found in Ecclesiastes – with the same result. In the very end, it’s either God or a gun to the head. With Ecclesiastes’ observation in mind, let’s look once more at David’s single-minded focus.

“One thing I have asked from the Lord.” In Hebrew: akhat sha’alti meet-YHWH. The first word is from ehad. You’ll recognize it in the Shema. The Lord is one. Of course, if we were doing rabbinic exegesis, we would connect these two instances of the word. The one thing I ask is from the one Lord. In fact, I ask for the Lord’s uniqueness in me.

Sha’ul paints the pictograph of control, strength and what consumes. In other words, to ask is to control the strength of what consumes – to have authority over someone or something that can provide what you want. If you’re going to ask the Lord, then you better know what you really want. He can provide, of course, but you are presuming on His benevolence by asking, so you must be sure that what you ask is worthy of the request. David understands this, so he asks what the Lord cannot deny – he asks for time in the presence of the One. David desires one thing. He desires to be with the One true God.

Did you notice that the most important thing in David’s life is not the accumulation of stuff, the preservation of power or the reputation among peers? The most important thing isn’t even a relationship with a personal savior. David’s one thing is to be where the Lord is and to contemplate who the Lord is. There is nothing here about asking for me. The entire focus is on worshipping God in His presence.

Our age is defined by its passionate preoccupation with self. Even in our religion, the focus is often on what God can do for me. It might not be as naïve (or heretical) as the prosperity gospel crowd, but it is ever-so-subtle to turn even religious zeal into self-improvement. We want God to make us better servants for His cause or to improve our understanding of His word or to develop our spiritual gifts for the church. Even with God-language, the focus is still on us. But not for David! David just wants to be in God’s presence, to delight in God’s glory and to meditate on the goodness of the Lord. Don’t you suppose that God will honor such a request without delay? What could please Him more? I turn away from the frightening clamor of those deep, dark recesses within me by shifting my focus from me to Him. Want out of the dungeon? Follow the light.

Topical Index: ehad, sha’al, ask, one, Psalm 27:4

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