“Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee”
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;” Exodus 34:6 NASB
Gracious – Sing it! Sing it loudly! This is not theology. This is freedom. This is rescue. This is the answer. Now, how do you feel?
“At Sinai, Yahweh introduced himself to Israel first and foremost as a God of grace.”[1] Set aside the theological analysis of the attributes so commonly proof-texted with this verse. Remember the audience. Israel, recently enslaved to a god of power and vengeance, humiliated by the absence of divine protection, murdered without reprisals, subject to the whims of a pantheon of pagan deities, slowly absorbed into a world filled with hate, repression, apathy and abandonment. A world where the wicked prevail and those who attempt righteousness are summarily removed. Is YHVH’s declaration a theological contention? Or is it an emotionally filled declaration of care, divine concern, stability for those whose lives were nothing but chaos?
Sing it! “Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee.” YHVH has made a way—a way for those too worn and battered to fight any longer, a way for those who compromised in order to survive, a way for the homeless, the frightened, the abused. A way no man could ever provide. The fact that this grace, this avenue to joy, comes on the rails of judgment does not diminish its beauty. Of course there must be judgment. How else will the grip of the Pharaohs of this world ever be defeated? We who have suffered under the taskmasters of our own folly, who have enslaved ourselves to the pursuit of what we could never find in the desert of wandering, are at last released. YHVH has spoken. Will He not fulfill what He has proclaimed?
For two weeks we have recounted the miseries of decades of life in search of peace—peace for ourselves, the tranquility of emotional confidence that we are enough, and peace for our world, the cooperation of the creation and the people who populate it in an anthem of praise for the One who brought us all to be. For two weeks we have listened to the heartbeat of despair, despair that we would ever see true forgiveness in a world no longer at war, in a life no longer malnourished. For two weeks we examined the feelings of those dark corners we have kept so carefully hidden. We have discovered that judgment, divine judgment of those things that have ravaged our lives, is the precursor to singing joyfully. Perhaps the lesson is simple: We cannot know the exuberance of joy without knowing the despair of disobedience. Deliverance only has meaning as the opposite of slavery.
Today, Day 16, is a day for remembering. Remembering how we were rescued and what we were rescued from. Remembering that joy is the product of graceful judgment.
Topical Index: joy, grace, hen, Exodus 34:6, rescue
[1] D. L. Freedman and J. R. Lundbom, hanan, TDOT, Vol. V, p. 33.
“Deliverance only has meaning as the opposite of slavery.” Halleluah!
I spent most of yesterday thinking about what Michael C. wrote yesterday about Torah observance. He made the point that the Law is what we are saved INTO. It is the conclusion of salvation. In fact, if salvation does not dump me into the loving arms of that Law, then I have not been saved. Further, I have to be sorry, in order to be saved. Paul says that without the Law he would not have known what sin was. That gives me pause. Have I read the ENTIRE Law? Have I been sorry for EVERYTHING in it that I am not doing? Only the Law can show me what I must be saved from, and the Law is the only place I can go after I am. The Law provides the only place in the cosmos that I can be and not be in sin. It is the only physical place of residence for me outside of sin. If salvation moves me, the Law provides the only place that I can be moved TO. It provides the only map for the escape route, because I do not know what I am to repent of without it, but it also provides my new home, for I have not repented (turned away from) if I have not simultaneously established obedience (turned toward), and the question then becomes, obedience to what? The Law hems me in: I cannot repent (the only basis for salvation) without it, and I have no other place to go after I am saved. Without it, I am not, in fact, saved. There is no neutral hinterland, no limbo, out there that gives me a place to be where I am no longer in sin (saved) but not observing that Law.
It is grace that gives me everything to be thankful for, but freedom is what grace gives. There is no grace but what provides freedom. But, there is no freedom except from sin, and, because I suffer from the effects of sin every second of my life on this planet in some form or another, grace is what provides my only relief from that sin. It is by grace that I am not constantly (instantly) consumed in each moment, and that is even BEFORE I repent! Especially before! (Thank you, Yeshua! You died for me when I was still lost! That was grace, too!) Grace gives me what I would have had if I had been obedient in that place. Grace also puts me in a place of freedom where I can obey.
I think the world presumes much because of grace. The world concludes it must be doing ‘all right’ without G-d because they are ‘living just fine’ without Him! That is a breathtakingly presumptuous nose-thumbing at the grace that is providing that existence – that amazing chance (freedom) to choose again! So much of the gratitude I am rightly supposed to be walking in each moment must, by needs, come from being grateful for the goodness provided that is there IN SPITE OF my current disobedience. Grace keeps me humble and grateful. Grace gives me another chance to want to do better. Grace girds me behind and before, just as the Law does. In fact, there is no place I have been able to find where one is, and the other is not. They are two sides of one coin, and that coin is the only coin of the realm. If I make a move to spend grace to enter the Kingdom, I must needs employ the Law, too. Grace gives me a new chance to obey, but if I do not take that chance, I am still just as lost as if grace had not provided it. Grace provides all the reasons to jump for joy, but the physical space in creation to jump in; the very air my lungs has to breathe to shout with; is the freedom from sin that only the Law provides me. Grace is what dumps me back over the fence of that Law, out of sin, but then, I have to stay there! I am either sinning, or sorry for sinning, but I can only be sorry (repent, or, turn away FROM) if I have a place to turn away TO.
Only within the fence of Torah do I have a place to be joyful. There is a reason that David, In Psalm 119 (which is my favorite chapter in that whole Book), says the Law is what provides him all his delight. David has experienced the freedom of the fence. It is sin, and all its baleful effects, that is crushing the life out of me. Only within the Law can I find the love I so desperately need to live. Love can only exist within that fence, too, because the Law is what defines what love IS. Joy is what I experience when I have been set free: rescued from sin and its effects (curses) by grace from outside that fence, and returned to the love that can only be found within it. (May I stay there this time!) Halleluah!
Thank you Laurity, That was profound!!
OK – This is inspiring to me!
“emotionally filled declaration of care” I love this. It is the substance of the Spirit powerfully and experientially moving to the degree we surrender. As to not being able to understand freedom without slavery or blessing without curse, I must respectfully disagree. What you are proposing is a form of the philosophy of dualism. Right cannot exist without wrong, no good without evil, no light without dark, no God without a devil, it is the epitome of Greek thinking that the physical and spiritual are separated and do not have to interact.
If YHVH was from the beginning and the Creator of all things and He changes not, then prior to what we, as humans know as this life as it exists now, He was all good, all light, all righteousness, all justice, all loving, etc., etc. In Him is no darkness nor variableness.
I know a man who is fond of saying: God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Not exactly. God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not. I do not have to experience the horror of rape to know it is not good and something I don’t want. I know this because YHVH has said it, but also because I live in a world where it is done and see the destruction, which YHVH said would be the result. I can know the difference between good and evil, but I must choose good; not because evil exists, but because that is what YHVH commands.
YHVH said, “I am Life and Peace, choose Me.” It makes more sense to us to try and put these things into a form that we can wrap our minds around. Who can understand the mind of YHVH? His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. Maybe, just maybe, it is about trusting Him, period, just trusting that what He has said is true and going about finding why that is so difficult for me. What in my life prevents me from taking Him at His word? What must I change in order to agree with Him? Is this the simplicity?
“What you are proposing is a form of the philosophy of dualism.”
“I do not have to experience the horror of rape to know it is not good and something I don’t want”
Hi Sherri,
I believe I understand what you are saying, however, I kind of thought of things differently than you expressed.
Regarding not having to experience rape to know that it is wrong has another side to it, I would think. Adam and Havvah could know what was right and wrong simply by doing what YHWH told them to, and that would be enough. But, there is something to experiential knowledge that has a powerful effect, don’t you think?
Rabbi Fohrman and Skip have addressed this if I understand them correctly. Adam and Havvah collected experiential knowledge of their sin by participating in it. Where does understanding of the effects of rape come except from actually enduring it? Heaven forbid that any would, but, once a participant, there it is. Yes, one can know it is wrong, but a rape victim will identify with another rape victim more closely and intimately than one who hasn’t experienced it. Same is true with many other situations. Empathy comes from shared experiences, good or bad, it seems. There is some value to it for sure, at least, for those of us on this side of experiencing sin. I would think that none of us want to experience the power of rape personally, however, I also think the experience would change one’s perspective and therefore would have some value in comparative knowledge. Is there a difference in me knowing I wouldn’t want to be raped because it is wrong and an actual rape victim KNOWING they wouldn’t want to be raped (again?) because they had experienced it.
Did Yeshua ever experience sin even though there is no record of him ever acting lawlessly? If he didn’t, how could he identify with us as sinners? The only way I can come up with is he, through experiencing death, when he didn’t do anything to deserve to die, felt the sting of death willingly.
I think there is some difference and that it isn’t necessarily a form of philosophy but an experience of life. That is what I took from Skip’s “Deliverance only has meaning as the opposite of slavery.” Would that all of us never have had to know slavery. But we find ourselves in these situations and stations of life whether by our own choices or not. Understanding the actual experience via participation does have an effect on us. Sometimes it has negative results, other times clarifying effects. I took Skip’s comments as putting color on a black and white understanding of before and after.
Things like freedom can be taken for granted allowing their full value shadowed until a less than desirable alternative is experienced, i.e. slavery of some form or fashion. Then a stronger yearning for freedom is evoked within in freedom’s absence. A not so bad motivating influence, in my opinion. The more I move toward torah I find the less I need to experience the alternatives. Experiential history does teach, one way or the other. One either learns and moves away from the bad stuff or somehow allows the addiction of want take over. It boils down to choice. Always has. And, isn’t there a dualism to contend with every moment of our lives when we must decide over and over again whether to give rule to the yetzer hara or yetzer hatov?
“Choose this day life or death” Dualism in our faces! BAM!
Choosing life is the best path. May we all do so.
All true, Michael. Thank you for your remarks. Were Adam and Chavah not experiencing blessing prior to the bad choice? Why do we think we must experience something horrible to really appreciate something good?
A little story: During my teen years, I would go to church events where young singers or ministry groups would be brought in. Almost without exception, they had these glowing testimonies about how God saved them from the pits of depravity. I would go home feeling as though I had nothing to offer God that could be as effective as this in getting people’s attention. As I agonized over this, the Father spoke to me and said, “But look what I have saved you from.” Why did I think I could not be useful unless I had been through hell and back? Because that was the impression being presented.
I do not believe it is ultimately about comparisons, although that is how we tend to relate, which I think is sad.
The Shalom of our Savior
~ The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you [His] peace..~ (Numbers 6.25)
~ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~ (John 14.27)
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
Thomas answered and said to Him, “My LORD and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?
“Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believe.”
LORD, I believe!.. — please help my unbelief..
~ Then said He to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold My hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing..~
~ You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, — ALL whose thoughts are fixed on You! ~ (Isaiah 26.3)
I was doing a search fornJebrew word for joy. Your website came up. Surprise. Clicked on it and clicked on this TW. Without a doubt, Skip, you have been such a blessing for me!!
Today, Day 16, is a day for remembering. Remembering how we were rescued and what we were rescued from. Remembering that joy is the product of graceful judgment.
I have been rescued and not a day goes by now that I don’t experience joy and gratitude.
I’m gonna read the sixteen days but right now I have to go to work.
Shalom shalom