Falling Down
“Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.’” 2 Kings 20:5 NASB
Prayer – Hezekiah’s life was on the line. Perhaps that’s why YHVH heard his prayer and changed His mind. Perhaps the fervent intensity that comes with facing death purifies our desires so that the usual chaff no longer matters when we come as close to the edge as we can. Perhaps God truly hears us when we are desperate, and nothing makes us more desperate than staring into the grave—our own or the one for someone we deeply love. This we understand, but perhaps there is something else here, hidden from us because of the translation, that we must understand as well.
The Hebrew word tefilla is usually translated as “prayer.” It includes the nuances of discernment, judging, intercession and self-reflection. But Avraham Weiss points out that tefilla is fundamentally different than our ideas of prayer.
“While the English word ‘prayer’ means to ask or implore, tefilla is associated with the Hebrew word nafal, which means ‘fall.’ Thus, unlike prayer, tefilla entails falling before God and feeling His presence on an intimate level. . . —falling before God, feeling His love, sensing that one is never alone, that God is near and caring . . .”[1] But it often takes complete desperation to come close enough to experience that He is near and that He cares. This implies that our true relationship with the Father is not really an intellectual one. It is not really about how we think, how much we think, how well we think. Just as my relationship with my biological father is severely impaired if it is based on how I think about him, so my relationship with my heavenly Father follows suit. If what I know of God is what I can articulate, what I can categorize, what I can analyze, then I am probably on the outside looking in. Until I come to falling, the place where I am no longer in control, even of my words, until there is nothing of me to grasp but only the emptiness of life without God, until then I probably haven’t felt Him.
I often wonder what trusting YHVH was like for Abraham. He had no text, no prior history, no ancient rituals, no extended community to lean upon. He had a calling—and an intermittent encounter with YHVH, with years of silence, with requests to give away all that he longed for and lots of falling. Could I have such a faith? Could my relationship survive, let alone grow, in that environment? Or do I have to have the right answers, the correct doctrines, the extended community, the trappings of religion? And if I do have to have these, what is my relationship to the Lord really all about? When did I last fall into His presence, feel myself slip into the spaces between words and know that He is God?
Topical Index: tefilla, nafal, prayer, fall, 2 Kings 20:5
[1] Avraham Weiss, Holistic Prayer, p. 56, 59
Experiencing this kind of intimacy with God generally comes with great difficulty and, I have found, is nearly impossible to articulate to others. You’ve done so beautifully. The spaces between words, especially when I’ve lost control of my words….. just beautiful.
Humility and the human intellect are like oil and water. One leaves off where the other begins. My heart knows why that is perfectly well, but my head hasn’t a clue!
http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/28173 – Impression of King Hezekiah’s Royal Seal Discovered in Ophel Excavations South of Temple Mount in Jerusalem
“The symbols on the seal impression from the Ophel suggest that they were made late in his life, when both the Royal administrative authority and the King’s personal symbols changed from the winged scarab (dung beetle)—the symbol of power and rule that had been familiar throughout the Ancient Near East, to that of the winged sun—a motif that proclaimed God’s protection, which gave the regime its legitimacy and power, also widespread throughout the Ancient Near East and used by the Assyrian Kings.”
Can it be that Hezekiah changed the symbol on his seal after this experience??
Because of Calvary’s Lamb
“Whatever you ask in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it..”
~ But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.…” ~
~ And when He again brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.” ~
O I C
“When they saw Him..” eido (i’-do:) to see; by implication, (in the perfect tense only) to know..
Can you see it? Do you “get it?” Comprende? Capisce? Do you [now] understand? Have you [too] seen the Light?
Isaiah “saw” Him..
~The Ruach of YHWH will rest on Him– the Ruach of wisdom and of understanding, the Ruach of counsel and of might, the Ruach of the knowledge and fear of the LORD ~(Isaiah 11.2)
[It is] Because of Calvary
“In my hand no price I bring
Simply to Thy cross I cling.”
We bow down, we lay our crowns
at the feet of Jesus..
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.. God and sinners [are now] “reconciled..”
~ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need ~
~ God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has entrusted to us this [wonderful] message of reconciliation ~
~ Therefore, we are [now, today] ambassadors for Christ [the Messiah], God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, (please) be reconciled to God. ~
~ For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.. ~
Yes, [it was] because God So Loved..
~ when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you [now] are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God ~
Therefore, when we pray, we may [now] say, “Our Father..” Amen.
Sigh. So, Carl . . .
Your first quoted statement: “Whatever you ask in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it..”
Please share what just this one statement means. What do the individual and collective components of this offering communicate as Yeshua’s audience would have received it. I can read this verse myself a thousand times in English and still not really understand what is being said via repeated, ad nauseam, English translations. If Yeshua would have said its equivalent of “Go take a chill pill!” I’m sure we could quote it a million times two millenia later and still not understand it isn’t an actual medical remedy contained in a capsule or pill form available at any local pharmacy. Or not. Some might make an assumed doctrine from it and build an altar to the healing and life giving chill pill. Hallelujah.
Please. I’m asking. Help me understand what these quoted words mean. I am awash with reading them from my own books. Got any depth in their regard? Any insight. My 4 ½ year old can read them to me with a little help.
4 ½ year old grandson, that is. Whew! I’m done with raising my own kids. 🙂
Shalom Carl, At times reading your shorter comments, I thought, wow, he has finally, after the many TWs, got it! But then you go back and forth, and lost it again.
Do you understand what “in My name” Hebraicly means, I wonder?
Ester, I know you were directing this question to Carl, but I’m wondering if you would explain what you are getting at regarding “in My name”.
Nothing is more empowering than being powerless is there?
Nope.
But only when it is in the hands of YHVH, and in a time of tragedy that can be a moment by moment exercise.
Hi Skip, Craig and others, I was expecting something less by the title than what is here and truthfully needed. Worship in my understanding of Hebrew, is much like tefilla as developed here. Powerless is empowering because I then realize I need the Lord to continue restoring. Based on that need and frustration with the pig-pen of sin drive me to Messiah. We all need to be driven to Messiah more oftan than we may care to admit. Hallelujah for the desperation and the powerlessness from doing it our way!
Hi David — I’ve often experienced the same phenomena with the day’s TW, much like the weekly parashah, which somehow leads me to an answer for the weight on my heart. Keep reading Skip’s posts, and don’t let the rest of us — who often digress from the posted topic — throw you off track. Please forgive me if my comments have created confusion for you.
Hello Suzanne,
David here. No apology necessary but accepted. Interestingly, today I was transferring some Hebrew Root Bible studies someone had done with me a few years ago and a comment hit home. It said, “Sin is choosing to act on a false belief.” I saw the corellation as clear as light, or as a blind person, heard it as clear as a bell. Any of us choose to sin because we think the choice is okay, personally deserved, in our best interest, so on and so on. Not true. The studies elsewhere said faith, emunah, is certainty, confidence, sureness, beyond hoping, trusting and all those words Hebraic are understood simultaneously when someone would say emunah. That’s cool! Glad to share with you and appreciate your intro!
David R
Skip your last paragraph is spot on.
I understand where you are going with the last paragraph. Maybe where my confusion is (or maybe I’ve missed it all completely) is this: While yes, Abraham did all these things with faith and yes there was silence – we live in a time closer to Joseph. There is no audible God speaking to us, there is not a promise of building a great nation out of us. In fact it’s quite the opposite. We don’t live in a time of prophecy and if it is indeed the last days, the only promise we would have is things get worse.
So what I’m trying to say is in a lot of regards I think that Abraham had it easier. He lived in an age of miracles he saw the hand of God, he got direct covenants with God, angles came to his tent, and while yes there were breaks of the audible it would be hard to deny the presence of God. Furthermore Abraham wasn’t really alone. He did have community, he had Lot, he had his wife and whole bunch of people that followed him around as well (got held captive with the battle of the kings but nevertheless). Naturally he had free will like all of us but I still don’t think he had it too hard…? He had tests of faith and obviously showed more of it than I would (binding of Isaac), but he also treated Hagar pretty poorly…
What I’m confused about is Abraham was far from alone in the physical community sense up to the spiritual manifested in angles and miracles (seeing S&G get destroyed or his barren wife give birth or a goat appearing). So the comparison to me being alone and Abraham being alone is where I’m getting confused. Furthermore this walk needs community, only time I know that there isn’t any is Job and one could argue it wasn’t too great for Job. I don’t know of anywhere in O.T that is just a man alone.
Agreed Derek. It’s pretty difficult, if possible at all, to walk out a Torah-obedient and observant life, apart from being in a face to face community.
I see most all of Scripture being given and applied in a community environment. Including Abraham whom I don’t think we could see him as being by himself. He had family and many people within his gates. Not to mention, as you said, with God Himself and the miracles that were done in his presence. And of course not to diminish in any way, YHVH Himself standing before him and interacting with him. And the topper, him being “called a friend of YHVH”. That’s pretty intimate and personal.