Shake, Rattle and Roll (again)
He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. Psalm 62:2 NASB
Shaken – In Hebrew, the word for “shaken” is ‘emmots. It is from the same root as the word for yoke (motsa’). Both of these words carry the imagery of a pole used as a walking stick that shakes when it strikes the ground. We can visualize this situation quite easily. Hebrew is such a practical language!
But notice how David uses the word here. YHVH is my Rock and my salvation. I will not be shaken (or at least I will not be greatly shaken). This is a promise that God will remain faithful no matter what the circumstances. Read what Walter Kaiser says about mots.
Righteous men are unmovable and secure, for they have the Lord as their Rock and Salvation (Ps 62:2 [H 3], 6 [H 7]; 112:6; 15:5; 16:8; 21:7 [H 8]; 30:6 [H 7]). God gives them a hand on the pathway of life so that their footing does not slip (Ps 17:5). The enemy of the righteous will have no cause to rejoice in his being moved (Ps 13:4 [H 5)), for he trusts in the salvation of God.
Such assurance is strengthened even more by the everlastingly secure covenant which God made with Abraham and David. The promise is unconditionally maintained in perpetuity for all who will participate by faith. While the mountains may move (mûš) and the hills shake, God’s loyal love will never move (mûš) and his covenant of peace (the new covenant, the Ab-rahamic and Davidic covenant) will never shake (Isa 54:100).[1]
Did you catch this comment: “The promise is unconditionally maintained in perpetuity for all who will participate by faith”? That is a clear statement that the Church does not and cannot replace Israel made by a man who is a leader in Christian theology. As a scholar of Semitic languages, Kaiser recognizes that God’s promise to Abraham is unconditional and eternal. And Kaiser was one of my professors. But I can assure you that I never heard anyone at that school teach that the Church usurped Israel’s God in order to justify its own identity. Somehow the unconditional and eternal promise was rearranged to fit the Christian paradigm. If that can happen in spite of the work of scholars like Kaiser, what chance do ordinary believers have of breaking free of the yoke of Christian replacement thinking?
In Isaiah YHVH asks for a fast that breaks every yoke. We think of this passage in terms of addictions, sinful behavior and selfishness. And we should. But can you see that there are other yokes, so invisibly attached that we may not even be aware of their influence? Those need breaking too. How can that be accomplished without wrenching pain? How can the mind be readjusted unless we are willing to go through theological electro-shock therapy?
Topical Index: yoke, pole, stick, mots, to shake, motsa’, Psalm 62:2
[1] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1158 מוֹט. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (494). Chicago: Moody Press.
When I homeschooled my kids I found that the methods used to teach me did not work on my own children. I had to go back and reteach myself first (which is what Skip is trying to say here, I think). But then, I found that the little monkeys did not need me then to ‘teach’ them, for they were copying me by doing what I did. I would laboriously gather info, summarize it, study it, synthesize it, and then turn around to share it with them, but they would already know it! They were doing the same thing I was doing, albeit behind my back, and they learned it much faster than me. I did better when I caught on to that, and then told them that they could choose to either take the test or to explain it to me until I understood it, at which point I would give them an A.
I think this society has limited itself to passing on info only under methods that make eunuchs out of its students, whether it be our institutes of learning or religion, with the intention that no one is able to pass on info directly. We require ‘permission’ (degrees) first. This is highly unbiblical! The Israelites fresh out of slavery (and, incidentally, so ignorant that they NEVER learned) were still told to teach the Torah to their kids. YHVH knew that we learn best by passing it on to others. The kids DID learn (from their ignorant parents!) and that gave me hope for mine.
I found, to my sorrow, that the single WORST way to attempt to pass on instruction to my children was the sermon. Sigh. I have wondered often about the intention behind the structure of sermons. What if they were designed for passing on instruction with the intention that the participants would need to be immediately passing on what they had just been given? I have my suspicions that church would rapidly begin to look much more like a noisy, interactive synagogue, where just any hometown, uneducated carpenter’s son could get up and pass on Scripture, read his way, and through his own understanding…
“….what chance do ordinary believers have of breaking free of the yoke of Christian replacement thinking?”
Every chance available to them through reading the Bible with new lenses, a hunger in seeking, a thirst for truth. “The Bible need not be rewritten, but to be re-read”, commencing from history-church history, itself, to be taught by YHWH’s Spirit, with a truly renewed mind, He will give us the understanding of Who He is, and what is pleasing to Him.
Much seeking to be done to better relate with Him.
Shalom!
The nature of light is it dispels and vanquishes the darkness by mearly being. Skip and all who are truly seaking truth and reality inform and in fact transform the entire body of Messiah / Christ. It’s just a matter of time for if after all His light and His will and timing!
(Is after all)