Paradigm Exemplars (2)
It is your own wickedness that will punish you and your apostasy that will condemn you. Consider and take note what a bitter and evil thing it is to forsake Yahweh your God so that you have no reverence for me – The word of the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts. Jeremiah 2:19 (J. A. Thompson translation NICOT)
Forsake – Can a man wound God? Jeremiah says, “Yes.” Just as we are capable of forsaking marriage partners, so we are capable of spurning the love of God – sometimes without even knowing it.
The verb azav is first found in Genesis 2:24. It is a requirement of a man who enters into a covenant relationship with his ‘ezer kenegdo. He must forsake the prior obligation to his parents in order to elevate his wife to the place of utmost human relation commitment. The intensity of this shift is implicit in the verb; a verb which is also used for abandoning idols.
But now YHWH tells us, through the prophet Jeremiah, that azav has happened to Him. His people have forsaken the “spring of living water” for cracked cisterns of their own making. They have once again become slaves and returned to the house of bondage. How can this be? Because of their apostasy.
“Apostasy” is a word that implies abandonment of a religious belief. In this case, God holds Israel accountable for abandoning Him. How has Israel done this? By forsaking His Torah. In Jeremiah, apostasy means not practicing God’s instructions for Kingdom living. Apostasy is an abomination. It is completely offensive to the culture of God’s chosen people. It is the declaration of divorce, the decision to pursue an affair, the determination to find other lovers. Apostasy is spiritual adultery and just as physical adultery is an offense to the covenant commitment of marriage, so apostasy is an offense to the covenant commitment between God and His people.
Yesterday we learned that abominations include heinous acts like child sacrifice and commonly-ignored acts like eating unclean animals. Today we discover that forsaking Torah not only injures and insults the God who brought us out of captivity, it also produces its own catastrophe. The relationship with YHWH is broken. His protective hand is removed. And sin has its consequences.
In conclusion, God says, “You have no reverence for Me.” What can that mean? Don’t we go to church? Don’t we tithe? Don’t we say prayers and try to be good? Ah, but reverence is about values, not only behaviors. Reverence means that I honor what God honors. I esteem what He esteems. I respect what He respects. And insofar as my values are not aligned with His values, I fail to revere Him.
Time for some self-reflection.
Topical Index: forsake, azav, Genesis 2:24, Jeremiah 2:19, abomination, reverence
IMPORTANT PRAYER NOTE: My dear friends, Luzette and Gert, in South Africa, who are responsible for ALL the teaching arrangements when I go there and who have supported everything I do in South Africa, have recently been hit with a series of serious tragedies to their farm (their livelihood) and their health. I am asking each of you to lift them up in prayer today. This is critical right now. Thank you.
Hi Skip
Todays TW and yesterdays are excellent! They are just what I need as teaching for some people I have been mentoring…..thank you for your clarity and insight.
Re your SA friends -I know many people who are walking in His ways and truth being greatly tested these past few weeks – including myself and my husband.
I have prayed that Yah will firstly heal and comfort them and secondly restore whatever he deems right for them to continue to live and work their farm.
Recently my dear friends Arnella and Mike pointed out the remarkable way the book of James starts (James writing to the messianic community in Jerusalem and the dispersed tribes) indicating that they must have been going through tremendous trials for him to start his letter this way.
I quote from my ESV on my phone beginning at verse 2
2 Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Please pass this on to your friends….Yah knows and they will not lack…..he is full of kindness and mercy and will never forsake them no matter how it looks ‘on the ground’.
Christine
P.S. We have such intermittent internet that I dont get to write comments very often but just want to say again how much I glean and learn from your TW’s. May Yah bless you……I cried with joy when I read that 10 year old’s ‘thank you’ from Virgina….What a blessing for you!
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This song came to me Sunday morning. I had not heard nor thought of this song in years. I pulled up the lyrics and thought this is the way G-d feels with us…When I read TW, it just confirms what G-d is saying….especially the words..”don’t forsake me because I love you”
I will be praying Psalms 20 for your friends in S Africa and for dear Rodney and his family.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxW7c-oe0M
I have read all the comments that have been posted on TW today and specially what they say for your friends in SA and I join myself to their prayers adding that before the blessing comes the trial and so do not despair for God is in control. Now in regards to TW from today and yesterday my head is telling me, you see one day is one thing and another is other some say done with the law…. and my heart is totally sadden because I know and now completely convinced that we have been misleaded and some are so, I cannot find the words to described it, to their beliefs that for them we are the ones committing or saying an apostsy and I belief is time to pray for them all. I thank God for having me one day look into this website and putting me in the right path. God bless you Mr. Moen and I hope one day God lead your steps back to the Dominican Republic.
Luzette and Gert,
May YHWH grant you His mighty strength to sustain you both during this time of testing and trial.
Praying for you both.
YHWH is King!
And Who is our paradigm Exemplar? Could it be anyone other than our LORD Jesus (who is the) Christ? Moses was an outstanding leader and wonderful intercessor and yet he (in the end) showed himself to be fallible. David? A man after God’s own heart and yet .. he too “came up short..” and did sin. One by one and with the exception of One we see (and must agree) with God’s own inspired writings, “there is none righteous, no not one..” (Romans 3.10) ~ for (once again) “ALL” have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God ~ (Romans 3.23) Look around and we do not have to look very far, (including the man in the mirror) to see, to know and to perceive- God’s own inspired words are true- there is (truly) none righteous- no not one! Well..- with (only) One exception, the One who is (the) Christ.
Only One among us would dare to say “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me?” (John 8.46) (if I were the translator I might say “since” instead of “if”- I believe it fits in very well here..even “more gooder!”) “Since” I AM telling the truth- for the One who is speaking here, is Truth Incarnate- (Remember His words?) ~ I AM the Truth ~ (John 14.6)
Wouldn’t it be nice if I were to say (or could say) “I have never lied, but I (of course) would be lying if I said so!) No, only One who lived among us never- ever sinned. The rest of us? Guilty before God and in need of a covering, or an atonement for sin.
Amazingly, no.. greater still, – “Providentially”- the very same One Who is our paradigm Exemplar is also the very same One who is our atoning, propitiating Sacrifice for it was He who gave His “sinless” life’s blood on Calvary’s tree.
Living He loved Me
Dying He saved me
Buried He carried my My sins far away
Rising he justified
Freely forever
One day He’s coming
O glorious day!
Skip,
All that I can say is WOW! The more you provide examples on each day’s TW and the more I read on my own, the more I am becoming convinced that the “Church” really has totally missed the point. It has not only removed the Torah as being central to living life in God׳s community, it celebrates doing so. My wife and I have been reading through Psalm 119 as we have been counting the Omer and I have been awestruck at how much David speaks to loving Torah. It’s in at least every other verse. And yet the “Church” today rails against the “law.” It really must be an abomination to YHWH.
Thank you so much for everyone in the community who has been praying for us. Also for all the phone calls, encouragement and prayers from our communal family in South Africa.
To be comforted by prayers from all over the globe is truly the most amazing way to be blessed! And what a comfort to know that God knows what He is doing even if we sometimes don’t and whatever He does is always good.
“God’s purpose is to purify, not to destroy (Isa 1:25-26). Through suffering lies the way to restoration and to the implanting of His will in the hearts of regenerated people. In distress we may seek Him( Hos 5:15)” – Abraham Heschel