The Half-God Mistake
And there came near a man of Elohim and spoke to the sovereign of Yisra’el, and said, “Thus said YHWH, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “YHWH is Elohim of the hills, but He is not Elohim of the valleys,” therefore I shall give all this great company into your hand, and you shall know that I am YHWH.’” 1 Melakim 20:28 ISR
All this great company – What prompts God to give over an entire nation into the hands of His people to destroy them? We have an answer in the historical account of Israel. Perhaps that answer has some application for us. Let’s see.
Israel faced the Syrians (the Arameans). Compared to the vast Aramean army, Israel appeared like “two little flocks of goats.” Military strategy said that they had no chance. They would fall quickly on the basis of numbers alone. But numbers don’t make one bit of difference when God is in the fight. A man of God (who was he?) came to the Israelite king and told him that all the vast army would be conquered. Why? It had nothing to do with numbers or weaponry or even Israel’s standing as God people. It had to do with the enemy’s arrogance. “That god of Israel might be the god of the hills, but he is not the god of the valleys – and we are in the valley, so we have nothing to fear from him.” Ah, the grand mistake, thinking that God’s sovereignty is limited to the topography of His people. Sheer arrogance to suggest that YHWH is not the God of everything. The result: certain doom. The Syrians had their own gods. They believed that all gods were local gods and therefore only had power in their holy spaces. They were tragically mistaken. God gave kol hehamon haggadol (the great multitude) to the little flock on the basis of an insult to His sovereignty.
Let’s fast forward a few thousand years. Is God the sovereign lord of all? Yes, I think that hasn’t changed. Are we behaving as though this is the absolute truth? Well, I’m not so sure that we aren’t following the path of the Syrians. Do we think God is ruler over the world’s politics? If we do, why do we find it necessary to compromise with those who oppose Him? Do we think God is master of our financial well-being? If we say, “Yes,” then why are we looking to the government to solve our problems? Do we think God is Lord over life? Then why do we tolerate abortion as an option under any circumstance except those He allows? Do we think God runs His Kingdom as He sees fit? Then why do we believe we can revise His rules?
How much restriction to “locality” will it take before God gives us into the hands of His instruments of correction? Is He Lord or isn’t He? Do we trust His word, and the examples He has provided us from His past actions, or don’t we? When did we decide that God is the God of our spiritual concerns but He isn’t the God of our material world? I guess we will have to wait until a man of Elohim shows up before we learn the lesson all over again.
Topical Index: sovereignty, locality, Syrians, Arameans, 1 Kings 20:28
O I C
To see: (chazah) to know, to perceive, to understand.
On this, we agree in totality, Elohim, the LORD our God IS Sovereign. Yes, “LORD of the mountains, AND LORD of the valleys. But…
Have “we” been to the mountaintop? and have “we” been “THROUGH” the valleys? Have “we” been through the furnace, the fire, the flood?- And do “we” also have a history with God? Have we seen His salvation- His deliverance- “up close and personal” and in our own lives?
Until we do, this will only be about someone else. Starting with Adam and on down the line, all of His created creatures (including us, folks!) will testify and do testify, God IS faithful. But..
Has He been faithful to me? (May I?) Permission please. Permission to proclaim unto all who have ears, to all who have eyes, to all who draw breath- God is (always) Faithful, (and always Good!)
Listen again, for the first time- to the words of our LORD, through the divine revelation that was given unto John: ~ Then I saw Heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for He judges fairly and wages a righteous war ~(Revelation 19.11)
What was the Name, (the wonderful Name) of this Rider? His Name is (both) Faithful and True, and (once again) He (alone) judges fairly and wages a righteous war. Oh, how grateful we should be to know-to serve-to love and to worship this Righteous Rider upon the white horse. One day we (who will be in the armed assembly of this Rider) will stand with Him on that Day. And yes, Hallelujah! “what a Day that will be!” And yet..
Meanwhile, back on this green planet, -let us (for a moment) lay aside the “sweet-by-and-by” and “testify” concerning the “nasty-now-and-now.” Is He (also) LORD of Monday mornings? And what about Friday at 7:04 a.m. in the Central Standard Time zone, or in an obscure place, or in the life of an “ordinary” man? Is He LORD of all- “right now?”
I am reminded (thank you Holy Breath of God) of what has been said, “Most people are not so taken or impressed with streets of gold and gates of pearl, but rather “how to hack it on Monday mornings.” It is so.
Of what “practical value” is knowing Jesus Christ as my LORD and Savior? -(or dare I even ask such a question?)
May I? – What if? What if there were no future reward of Heaven? What if there were only “this..?”
Would we still “follow Him?” Is it “worth it” to know-to love-to serve- and to worship Him- to know Him as our Sovereign-Shepherd-King only in “this life?”
I am not denying Heaven or Hell but rather focusing on a relationship. A personal relationship. May a man, who is a known sinner- become a child of the King, -even a royal ambassador for Christ?
When our Savior said (we do listen to Him,- or do we?) ~ I have come that they might have life ~ (John 10.10)- who (he inquired) are “they?” “They are us,- and “we” is they. We are the recipients of the grace of life, brought to you by and sponsored by our LORD and Savior and Redeemer and faithful Friend, the LORD Jesus (who is the) Christ.
Is (he inquired) “eternal life”- (that’s long time!)- a “quantity” or a “quality?” “Selah,” sirs and sisters.
Oh yes, we do “err” not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God and we all do “err” (to err must be human) causing great damage to our own selves and society. How can we possibly be the salt and light we are supposed to be if we do not know, ~ these things have I written unto you that believe in the Name of the Son of God..that you may know! ~ (1 John 5.13)
Who are these people- and where are these people, “that believe in the Name of the Son of God?”
With apologies to all lovers of linguistics- “they is us!”
Friends, ~ let the Redeemed of the LORD- say so! ~ We may see now, (with 20/20 hindsight) the great “blunder” our “not-so-great” great grandparents, Adam and Eve made.
They (both) failed to remember and they failed to speak. Remembering and speaking. Is is possible for us to remember (only) two words? Now, go forth..To remember,(zakar) and then to speak,(dabar) Now.. what were the instructions of our Creator-Comforter-Companion?
This has been the failure of every adam, since Adam, with the exception of One perfect adam.
And in the words of the Second Adam: ~ remember Me ~
Remember this.. “the way we may know our future is by remembering the past”
Has God been faithful and true? Has He lived up to His Name? Remember,- and then speak!
Once again, Adam..- may I ask, “Did God really say that?” And do you (now) doubt the word of the LORD?
When Adam left the gates of Eden did he carry with him the “remembrance” of what once belonged to him? Of how, he and Eve walked with Elohim in the cool of the evening.. Were Adam and Eve the very first adamahs to experience and to know and to feel the pain of regret?
Would Adam agree? “if only?”
If only I had remembered and obeyed the clear and concise words of Elohim: “Adam, do not eat the fruit,”- and if only I had answered the Deceiver courageously- “YES!” God did say that. “Amen, yes, -it is so,- I remember. God DID say “don’t eat the fruit.”
And for the long years following Eden, as all additional adams may testify- sorrow succeeds sin, as night follows day.
And after Adam,- Abraham speaks: ~ shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right? ~ (Genesis 18.25)
May we (all us adams alive today) remember, and then speak?
Did our Elohim ~ provide Himself the Lamb? ~
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
– And did my Sovereign die?
Amen brother..
I can see why praying 3x a day formally,as a distinct action, evening, morning and afternoon, could help snap us out of our daily grind and tunnel vision of completing our ‘to do’ list could help us remember the One in charge of all our daily ‘to do’s’!
It is so very easy to lapse in to thinking that’s all wrapped up in just me rather than putting energy toward translating all I do in relation to Him and His glory.
I need to find this man of God and set up for him to come by regularly to remind me who’s really in charge. I seem to forget all too quickly and easily!
Right at this moment, my husband and I are so very disappointed that we are not with Skip in western WA state. We had to fore-go being with him in order to meet obligations here at home that WERE CANCELLED… Ugh.
For Today’s Word, I scream from the rooftops AMEN AMEN AMEN!
Sorry to be missing you in person. But there are other places. Why don’t you come to Israel with me and Bob. It will be awesome, and can’t be duplicated anywhere else. There were still some openings this morning.
Oh how I would love to go with you. Ric is praying about going (I know he needs to make up his mind QUICKLY.) The biggest issue is that the dates conflict with our busiest time of the year in our meek real estate business/only source of income.
Do we think God runs His Kingdom as He sees fit? (Amein) Then why do we believe we can revise His rules?
We can revise YHWH’s rules because ‘we are smarter than He is’, and we know better what is good for us! HIS written Word needs to be edited, as they are outdated, because we progressed into knowledge
from “old” to “new”!
I guess we will have to wait until a man of Elohim shows up before we learn the lesson all over again.
One of Elohim’s man has shown up and his name is Shaul, and many in the Christ-iandom(Cristos in Greek;anointed in English; messiah in Hebrew. My preference is to be in MessiahKingdom) are “learning” so much from him that frees them from the ‘Law’ of the ‘Jews’ (Hebrews, in fact) and from Judaism (which we are not into), to practice a new faith based on what Shaul “wrote”.
I say all these with a heavy heart, as time is running short, and there is only ONE camp, made up of followers who believe in the whole truth and nothing but the truth as written under the inspiration of YHWH’s Ruach, but translated into various languages with an agenda to mislead ,to stumble precious believers, to a false interpretation not aligned to what was in the original texts, adding to and subtracting from and, changing the entire message to one of idolatry -placing Shaul’s word above YHWH’s.
It is beautiful to learn from the various aspects from each other, but NOT from a false perspective from a false understanding as taught by men lacking wisdom in the original cultural, and context of what Shaul is conveying; yet hanging on to their concrete mindsets, not willing to learn from a ‘NEW’
perspective to be truly free from a boxed-in erroneous mentality.
Poor Shaul must be protesting-that is NOT what I meant!
A man of Elohim? Besides, Shaul, who came much later, there was Moshe, and the many prophets.
And then there is another “man”- Yeshua/Yahushua.
Are we paying attention to His words, or rather the words of men?
Did Yeshua said ABBA’s laws (dietary, circumcision, Feast Days, Shabbats) are done away with?
Are we still stuck on a false Greek name when He is named Yeshua/Yahushua, being a Hebrew?
Would HE have a foreign/alien name when His parents are of the Levitical lineage, being aware that Hebrew names are full of meaning, not simply any name chosen for a baby, in Eastern culture. Is there an agenda here?
No one would respond to any name called out to them if that is not their name. Why would Yeshua?
Shalom!
Ester, You write well!
Shalom John!
Glad you like that! HalleluYAH! Todah!!! You made my day!
This makes me think of a website I visited yesterday to read an article about prophecy. It was an interesting article, but when I got the bottom and started reading the comments, I was completely shocked! There were people discounting his message, disparaging his credibility, and calling him names… all because he took his verses from the “Old Testament” instead of the “New Testament”! I have never encountered people who were so narrow minded to think that that prophets no longer exist (even though Shaul does talk about the gift of prophecy) and to think that if someone uses the Torah as a proof text that the message is incorrect and flawed (how ironic, considering prophets in the “New Testament”, Yeshua, and Shaul all took Torah scripture as their proof texts)! They were quite hateful towards the author. I couldn’t keep reading because it made my stomach turn (for many reasons).
I suppose this is an extreme case of refusing to remember the things of God, refusing to accept His sovereignty through His ENTIRE Word, and recklessly dismissing the connection we as followers of Yeshua have with the people of Israel. Their history is our history! It boggles my mind to know that some people completely discount and ignore it. I knew that people didn’t think Torah guidelines should be followed, but I didn’t know it was this bad. How heartbreaking!
I suppose we have all been there at some point, unless we were blessed to be born into a Torah believing family. And I know my own perceptions have been confused and ignorant, too. I was just shocked to realize that some Christians apparently believe the “Old Testament” should be completely ignored, that it is no longer the Word of God, and that it no longer holds any authority.
Skip, thank you for bringing the light of Truth into world that has much darkness, for persisting even though it’s a long road filled with much study and frustration, and for sharing your wisdom and gifts with us so that we can travel from the darkness into the Light and more fully understand the richness and fullness of God’s Words. Shalom to you and your family!
May we all (both Jewish and Gentile) agree- “all” scripture is about “Him?”
This is the central, critical message- “the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God has come..”
The Master Theme: ~ behold the Lamb ~
~ behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of Israel.. (Israel only?) No. behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! ~
(Hallelujah!)- “whosoever will” may come!
But.. always it seem “a but!..”
WhY is He not received? Why is He not welcomed?
~ He came unto His own and His own received Him not.. ~
Who are His own? Where was He born? How was He raised? Was He God incarnate? Did God humble Himself and become a man?- and live among us?
“Back in the day” (and perhaps even today)- this would be considered “blasphemy.”
“They tore their robes..”- they didn’t just do this on a whim..- there was a reason, there was a motivation.
And they (the mixed crowd) cried, (together as one) “Crucify Him!”
Christ is central to the message. (The) Christ is the crux of the message.
Was this man, the carpenter’s son, from the nowhere town of Nazareth- the son of man (His favorite name for Himself!) AND the Son of God?
Who was the One who said this? ~ Before Abraham (or even Adam!) was – “I AM.” (Huh?)
~ You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness about Me ~ (John 5.39)
~ And beginning with Moses and *ALL* the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in *all* the Scriptures concerning Himself ~ (Luke 24.27)
In ALL THE SCRIPTURES… (can you hear me now?) – in ALL the scriptures- these are they that testify about THE MESSIAH.
The long-promised Messiah has come. Yes? No? – What are we waiting for? A special invitation?
~ Come unto Me *all* you who labor and are heavy laden..and I will give you rest! ~
WAs He “Who” He said He was? And.. if so..
“Who” was it that (we) crucified so cruelly upon a criminal’s cross? Did (we) kill (murder) our own Creator?
Yes. We did.
~ And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn ~
(Zephaniah 12.10)
“They” is us.
And in the inspired (God-breathed) words of Paul, (formerly known as Saul- a persecutor of Christians)- ~ The Messiah died for sinners of whom I am chief ~
Yes, me? – a sinner? One in need of salvation? Why? what evil have I done?
“ALL” have sinned? The Jew (too?) But they have (and religiously keep!) the Torah of YHWH!
~ he who offends in one point is guilty of all.. ~
One? just one?
~ But we are ALL as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away ~ (Isaiah 64.6)
Our righteousness? The very “best” that is in us? What? We may not “earn” this salvation? It is the gift of God, NOT of works?- Yes. – lest “any man” (Jew or non) should boast.
What about Nicodemus whose very Hebrew/Jewish name means “Superior?” A ruler of the Jews and without a shadow of any doubt a very moral man and certainly a fine upstanding man of most stellar character in the community? Surely he kept every Sabbath and tithed every mint leaf. No “unclean” thing ever entered into his mouth, without a doubt- he kept “kosher” at every meal. Did this altogether (seemingly) righteous and morally superior man (also) need to be “born from above?”
And whose words are these?
~ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person ~
~ Then the talmudim came to Him and asked, ~ “Do You realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” ~
Offended? Rejected? Despised?- “worthy” of crucifixion? Why? – What evil has He done?
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the Light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there – by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His soul in anguish stood.
Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the Tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, LORD, – I give myself away,
’Tis all that I can do.
~ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God ~ (1 Corinthians 1.18)
~ but to those who are the called, *both Jews and Greeks*, Christ the power of God and (Christ) the wisdom of God ~ (1 Corinthians 1.24)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowdjLeaCYs