All That Matters
I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever; to all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. Psalm 89:1 NASB
Faithfulness – The message and story of the Bible can be summarized in one word—‘emunah—faithfulness. You might be inclined to say, “Yes, of course. It’s all about God’s faithfulness.” But maybe there’s a bit more to the story.
“emunah is derived from the root ‘aman, meaning “to confirm, support, uphold, make steady.” Other derivatives include “truly” (‘amen), “steady-handed, trusting, firmness, nourishment, support” and “truth.” As you can see, the umbrella is big but the ideas are connected. All of these seem to be easily applicable to the character of God. Here’s the first crucial implication. God is faithful. He keeps His word. He does not act on a whim. He is steady and reliable. We can count on Him to perform according to His declarations. He does not waver. And, as a result, what He said in the beginning has not changed. Moses is today’s prophet just as he was the prophetic voice of YHVH centuries ago. You can count on it.
But there is another implication, perhaps a bit more confrontational. We are also called to exhibit ‘emunah. We are to be faithful. We are to keep our promises to God and to others as a sign that we are following Him. We have a responsibility and an obligation to demonstrate ‘emunah. That seems fairly obvious when it comes to human relationships. Trust is built on faithfulness. Without it, human communities break down. Without it, men become wolves.
But how do we show ‘emunah to God? The answer is found in the idea of the covenant. A covenant is a performance promise between parties. It specifies the obligations of each party to the other(s). Keeping the covenant works two ways. God keeps His word with the expectation that we will keep ours. There are, of course, provisions for the eventuality that we don’t keep our promises, but those provisions are not the norm. The norm is the expectation of fulfilled obligation. When we do what we are expected to do within the covenant provisions, we are righteous. That’s what it means. Righteousness is not some mystical quality spiritually appropriated by ritual or rite. Righteousness is simply doing what we are supposed to do under the covenant. Righteousness is acting in accordance with the promises.
When I keep Shabbat, I act righteously. When I pray, I am righteous. When I give to charity, righteousness reigns. When I care for my neighbor, recite the Shema, celebrate the festivals, do good for my enemy, pay my debts, honor my parents—I am righteous. As long as I am faithful (‘emunah), I experience righteousness. It’s not hidden, mystical, mysterious, confusing or difficult. It’s simple. Do what God says. That’s all.
Topical Index: ‘emunah, righteousness, covenant, Psalm 89:1
Love and Obey there is no other way!
Skip, you are right. We have no excuses for not keeping our end of the covenant, and we all, in our hearts (because the Spirit is present wherever He is not resisted, and therefore can put in our hearts what is right) know what love (the law) requires; what is right. But, Nike is not our emblem. Why? To put it bluntly, if we could work our way to heaven, a whole bunch of the supposed heathen would be there. We know what is right. We don’t do it. None of us. No, not even you. Why?
I want to ask you (because you talk like you haven’t, and if you have, please set me straight) if you have ever been held hostage, or were blackmailed in any way? Have you ever been threatened, or were any of your loved ones threatened? Have you ever been in prison, or on death row? Have you ever been trapped and couldn’t get out, or found yourself on a deserted island? Have you ever been in a marriage, or another living situation where your partner or those in authority over you got what they wanted from you by force, or, even worse, by threatening all you held dear? Have you been the victim of crippling mental or physical illness to the point where you could not think straight or were helpless in other ways? Are you the product of generations of poor choices that left you with poor genetics, a crippled intellect and emotional responses to life that, effectively, make you insane? If the answer to all the above is “no”, then I could see why you might not be able to understand just what it is about love that we cannot do flatfooted, from where we are standing.
We live in a country of great privilege, and have a great heritage, with a lot of great laws, too. Many of our parents were diligent in righteousness, which, incidentally, makes it exponentially easier for the children to do likewise. It is easy here, with this heritage, to ‘do right’. But, what if you lived in a world where everything having to do with love was against the law, and attempting to do anything loving got you hurt or killed? Would Nike swoosh down and save you in such a place? Could Nike provide the ability for you to stand up in your stocking feet against the husband who knew all your weaknesses and how to use them against you to keep you from being able to follow your heart? I want to ask you, what do you do in these places? As a person of privilege and relative freedom, where the choices of loving are free; where the only reason you aren’t loving freely would be because you didn’t want to, these questions might just seem rhetorical. But, freedom is not free, and Paul says we are all slaves to sin. What does that mean?
Why did the Children of Israel have to go out of Egypt before they could worship? Because doing right in the land of bondage was against the law and would get you killed! Why do I have to be delivered from sin before I can do right? Because sin cripples me and nullifies all my efforts faster than I can make them. Just ask any wife in an abusive marriage what is keeping her from following her heart. She could tell you: it would get her, or those she loves, hurt or even killed! All the years I knew the Law, and tried with all my strength and might to do it, circumstances and people around me controlled me and prevented me. I also was exhausted. “Just doing it” was not an option in my world, where, no matter how diligent I was, I was too weak to stand up for the freedom I needed to obey love, and when I loved anyway, it was used against me. It is a miracle that I am not dead. I have been threatened, time and again, in all the places where I stood up for what I knew was right, and forced to quit. If somebody has your child by the throat, you tend to stop what you are doing, even if you know it is right. In Egypt, life is the price for love! In Egypt, putting YHVH first will get you killed. In sin, love is held hostage. When I am weak, I cannot protect what I know, and want, to protect. I have to be free before I can love.
Skip, I think you missed a detail. Even YHVH knew the Children needed deliverance before He took them to Sinai. He didn’t leave them in Egypt. You shouldn’t leave us there, either. If I can love in my flesh, Yeshua died in vain. He knew I needed freedom first. So should you.
Beloved Laurita, do I sense some bitterness in this comment? I don’t blame you!
My take on this from your comment- you have been righteous! If the other party is not, it will not be held against you, if I may say this, that you can bet, your hands, your conscience are clean!
It is still you firstly being aware of what’s right and true, and standing faithful to it, that was your “doing, performing” part. Your spirit was/is free, no one can bring it to slavery unless you surrendered it to slavery.
I have been through some of what you said, but I did not surrender my will, nor my spirit in compromise nor to be enslaved by wickedness. Reason? I saw through the evil of deceit and lies. I fought out of it!
And I am certain you did too, being here where you are today, blessed above many. (applause) You did great!
During the Holocaust, from what I gathered from the movie, Jews were singing their way into the gas chambers, even though it was the “best” they could do, and quietly keeping Shabbat. That was their righteousness! And, FAITHFULNESS!
Shalom! Have a Blessed, Joyful Sukkot!
Thank you, Ester. I know it could not have been easy for you, either, even though you are so quiet. I know that by the type of wisdom you display, and also by your sweet heart. Thank you for your encouragement. I pray for you, too! I hope the weather is favorable for you while you are keeping Sukkot. Have fun!
The bitterness you see is my concern for others. I won my war, forgave everyone all around, and collected my prize, so what’s not fine for me? LOL! My concern is for the struggling ones, who try and try, and are not in a place where they can prevail, I think. I want to encourage them that the fire is for purifying.
Sin in my life, or the AGREEMENT with others’ sin too(!), can make it impossible to practice love successfully. If I try to ‘do right’, but am still doing wrong, it still won’t work. Numerous places, in the Tanakh as well as the Brit Chadashah, I find that I have to forsake the old first. The fire is for convincing me to do just that. I found it was not innocent little me against the world, just trying to do right. No, I found out that I was the other half of the dynamic. Everything changed when I decided to own that half THAT I COULD NOT SEE AS LONG AS I BELIEVED I WAS ‘INNOCENT’. It was when I realized that there are many ways to agree with sin, and one of those ways was to either attempt to ignore the evil around me, or, worse, to try to fight evil on my own. There was no way to ‘just do right’ as long as I was being yanked around by that wrong; however chosen into my life by myself or others as it may be. I repented for giving that evil power over me (mainly by believing that it did), dropped my white knuckles, yelped for help, and the storm ceased, as you know. Whew!
Shabbat shalom!
Yes, lovely Laurita, through the trials and fires of affliction we went through, we are the better for it-wiser, I am sure.
When we forgive, we reap the benefits, but question is, does the wrong party realise they have done wrong to repent, besides simply saying “I am sorry, IF I have done wrong”? Like you said, agreeing with their sin makes me an accomplice to their act. There is nothing anyone can do when they are not open to correction.
Both of us are aware the path is narrow, and it is a journey, with much to learn, but looking and working toward hearing ” well done, good and faithful servant! We are called, just got to take heed how we take each step so carefully. ABBA will keep us blameless as we seek to be so.
We are so blessed to be at the stage where we are. ABBA, help us from stumbling!
You have a joyful Sukkot, and Simchat Torah!
Beautiful TW, Skip. This is exactly how/why Yeshua says: loving YHVH and loving your neighbor as your self – “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” We can’t just educate ourselves with more info. And we can’t just sit back and expect or imagine that He will cover us with righteousness. “Righteousness is not some mystical quality spiritually appropriated by ritual or rite. Righteousness is simply doing what we are supposed to do under the covenant. Righteousness is acting in accordance with the promises.”
We must be emunah/faithful by putting it into action and that action is LOVE. And it is that love action that IS/fulfills righteousness; that love action being hesed – the loyal loving covenant commitment to the Father and to each other.
Father, teach me to be faithful!
Oh Amen! Thank you both Skip and Laurita! You are both so right on and are such a powerful source of clarity and encouragement for me today. (Please be united and loving and thankful in that! Iron sharpens iron!) I’m so blessed to be here on TW; growth sometimes seems exponential!