The Meaning-Maker
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1 ESV
Created/Formed– Understanding the text of an ancient Near-Eastern Semitic document requires a particular kind of imaginative listening. It’s not just vocabulary definitions, grammatical constructions and syntax. It’s thinking around the box, imagining what else the text might say. Avivah Zornberg gives us an example using this text from Isaiah.
“In an even more paradoxical version of this idea [the role of human beings in the world], the midrash quotes provocatively: ‘But now thus said the Lord—Who created you, O Jacob, Who formed you, O Israel’: (Isaiah 43:1) God said to His world, ‘My world, My world, I shall tell you who created you, who formed you. Jacob created you, Jacob formed you—as it is said, ‘Who created you: Jacob. Who formed you: Israel. God speaks lovingly to His world—and assigns it another creator. It is apparently human consciousness, in all its contingency, that ‘creates the world.’ In this sense, God ‘becomes’ the Creator of the world, only when the question of meaning has been decided by man.”[1]
What radical changes accompany the subtle difference in punctuation! Just a shift from a comma to a colon and the whole message of the text is turned upside-down. And since there is no punctuation in the original, who is to protest such a radical revision? The message delivered by this text depends entirely on the paradigm that comes before we read the text. If we assume God is speaking as the Creator to His created people, we will arrive at the ESV translation. But if we assume that Man has an irreducible and irreplaceable role in the meaning of the world, then we will arrive at this midrashic interpretation.
Are you able to think around the box? If I suggested that you change the punctuation in your favorite verses, would you hear God differently? Did the thief on the cross really expect to be in heaven that night? Did God really create the world from nothing? Are Paul’s instructions about leaders in the assembly only for men?
If a tiny change in punctuation can make such radical differences, imagine what would happen if we changed the sentence structure or the grammatical possibilities. Is it “faith in Christ” or “faithfulness of Christ” that secures our relationship with the Father? When the rabbis taught that there are 371 million correct interpretations of each text, weren’t they much closer to the truth than our ideas about the “one right answer”? Is the Kingdom in your midst or among you? Perhaps we should start over. “ . . . to read is to invite the text to yield up its meanings.”[2]
Topical Index: Isaiah 43:1, formed, created, midrash, punctuation
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 28.
There is no such thing as a person ‘independent’ of God. We were created to be linked in our spirits to His Spirit and to express Him with our entire nephesh. We, like Christ, are made to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. If we are choosing to be actuated by the wrong spirit, we will not be able to conform to His Spirit, for our very design is to be spiritually aligned with another spirit(s). If we are not filled with His Spirit, we are, therefore, going to be automatically infected with other, unholy ones. We are spiritual sponges, by design, after all.
Spiritual realities are “spiritually discerned”. When Christ proclaimed Himself the “bread of life”, so many of the Jews – including the majority of His own disciples – (like so many of us today) refused to take that saying any other way than the literal one. They apparently had one ‘correct’ rigid interpretation that they were conforming to, it seems (just like we are prone to do), and so they turned away from that “hard saying” and justified it by telling themselves that He had refused to declare Himself the Messiah and instead had asked them to be cannibals! (A flesh interpretation, indeed: this was not just a comma differentiation, y’all.)
The filtration system of the mind – the amygdala – is created to sift all conscious thought through the belief system, which is a spiritual reality. We literally cannot ‘hear’ what does not conform to what we previously have chosen to believe: our paradigm. The Jews’ insistence on their own version of what Messiah was made it impossible for so many of them to ‘see’ Him when He was in front of their faces in the flesh! They would only ‘see’ the ‘proofs’ that confirmed their prior conceptions. We are no different. We bring our paradigms to the Word of God and filter accordingly. If there is nothing else Skip has taught but the fact that we are prisoners of the paradigm, it would be enough, I think!
If we would examine our hearts before we examined His Word, we would become willing to place ourselves – heart, mind and soul – into the province of His paradigm instead of our own: to literally accept the “mind of Christ” with which to think, through the agency of that Spirit. He came to show us HOW to not “think (our) own thoughts” but instead do “the will of the Father”. We will never attain the knowledge of that will by means of our own intellect, however.
Humility – the humility of Christ – is where we lay down the worship of our own minds and, like our Example, obediently accept that mysterious union with His mind, as per our design. Then when we read that Word, it won’t matter what translation, what knowledge we possess or not, or even where the commas may or may not be placed. We, too, are invited to “eat (His) flesh and drink (His) blood”; to assimilate that most precious revelation of God to us – His Word – into our very lives, and so fulfill our design as the image of that Word for all around us to read.
When that Word shines clear in our lives, it won’t matter where our commas are placed, either – where our own feeble understanding may or may not be – for the Spirit Who lives in us will be unhindered by us, and that Light will shine the truth of God’s love in all the ways most needed. We, after all, are just supposed to be the billboard: He writes the message through us on the hearts of all around us. (Hopefully they won’t be hindered by their commas – I mean their ‘own’ interpretations – either!)
May we open our mind, body and soul to His Word – given through those ancient writer billboards of old – so that He may write again that timeless, unique, living and intimate message anew in us on the billboards of our lives, too, is my prayer. Amen.
My mind immediately dismissed Avivah Zornberg’s midrash but then (luckily) my heart said “listen !”
As to punctuation: Is Peter really the rock ?
I’ve had people say to me, “You can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.” Or, “You can read whatever you want into the Bible scriptures.” I guess this Today’s Word would pretty well support those sentiments!
On the other hand, no matter how you want to look at Isaiah 43:1, nothing is changed concerning our responsibility to the created world. Humans are supposed to be the dressers and keepers, the grateful caretakers and guardians of a masterpiece.
Whether you think outside or around the box,you still have to have a box . Give a child a box and they can make it a house,car, or airplane,but it is still a box. How about creative restraints as a thought when reading the word?
Wow…how refreshing!
Wow. Did I get sparked!
The statement that Skip made “ is it faith ‘in’ Christ”, or “ faithfulness of Christ” that secures our relationship with the father?!. Takes me into a whole different paradigm of thinking…. takes me out of the whole idea of performance.
It’s a “mind renewer” therefore it becomes transformational! Romans 12:2 . This type of truth sets us free. Not because I said it but because God said it, “ we would know the Truth and the Truth would set us free! He is the living Word! In the beginning was the word, and Word was with God and the Word was God !
I love the words, “faithfulness of Christ “. It sets me free from me …..
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid rock I stand !
Thank you Jesus, thank you Skip, thank you Laurita and company!
Rev. 19:11-16… (NASB) And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Oh yes.. for me, it’s the “faithfulness of Christ” and yes Larry, it sets me free from me. Shalom brother.
I always wondered how one is “in Christ”. That line has always been so vague…a sort of catch phrase that I would grasp. Maybe it is faithfulness OF Christ that makes more sense. But if I read my ESV version or any version for that matter, how are we to know what is right? Is it “Let’s eat, Grandma” or is it “Let’s eat Grandma”? There are so many treasures to find. If only I had the knowledge to see it. Is their a midrashic translation? Forgive my naivety…
The word, “christ” at its most basic simply means, smeared with oil, or, anointed. When used in isolation, it does not necessarily refer to Jesus the Christ, The Messiah, (same word in Hebrew).
We find the phrase Body of Christ several times in Paul and it is well understood that this phrase is referring to the group of Believers and not to the literal flesh of Jesus. So we, ourselves, are called anointed. But this was nothing new for the Israelites.
All of Israel was chosen, all accepted the covenant, and God called them all His anointed, Ps 2:2, Ps 28:8, Hab 3:13
So, always keep this option in mind when you read, “christ”. If you are “in christ”, you are simply one of the members of this anointed group. As one of many examples, I think Paul says this quite plainly.at,
Col 1:24 Young’s literal: I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly,
Did Jesus the Christ lack tribulations? I don’t think so. This is saying that PAUL gladly suffered for the sake of the “assembly” (ecclesia/church/synagogue). He took on sufferings, along with them, and, for their sake.
Skip, I want to thank you for the humility and agony that surely went into learning how to read the way you do. No one could write the way you do without having spent much time in the refining fire. You help me know and glorify God. May YHVH look upon you and yours with great compassion and grant you shalom.
I find it thrilling that we have the opportunity to study God’s Word for ourselves. I am grateful to Skip and other teachers over these last few years that gave me the awareness that I could study for myself. Because I want to know what God is saying to us. We can read and study Scripture for almost free now and not many people seem to be interested. I have always found it to be a big turnoff when someone says they are just telling me what the Bible says. Thank you Skip, rabbis and other teachers. Maybe if people would just say this is my interpretation or this is how we interpret this passage.
And I want to ask Skip a question about the Trinity. Hope this is okay. I tried to search to see if you had written anything on
1 Corinthians 15:27-28. I couldn’t find anything. Have you written anything and if so, how can I find it?
[1 Cor 15:27-28 NIV] For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
If you searched the web site and didn’t find these verses, then there probably isn’t anything specific about them. But there is a lot about the doctrine of the Trinity, as you know.
The first time I heard of Skip was on the Trinity. On YouTube.
What is that up the road a head?
What? Is THAT up the road a head?
What is that . . . Up the road a head?
What is that up the road? A head?
Communicating takes much effort and energy and attention. Tonight, at a restaurant with my wife, daughter and new boyfriend, we had been talking. Conversation centered around getting acquainted with this new guy in my daughters life. We were talking about his job as a helicopter mechanic in the National Guard and how he was being trained and the training he had received. My daughter then got up to go to the restroom. When she was gone, I continued the conversation asking the boyfriend, “So, do you know what you’re doing?” My intent regarded his level of helicopter training. As we continued with a couple of more exchanges, my wife started giggling. We both stopped and looked at my wife with the expressions of “What’s so funny?” Giggling a little more, she answered, “When you asked if he knew what he was doing I thought you meant if he knew what he was getting into with a relationship with Andrea (my daughter) as in are you SURE you want to pursue this activity! We all laughed at the miscommunication heard in my question. Then, I asked him that question for real. DID he know what he was doing with her? We all laughed again.
It’s difficult enough face to face to communicate effectively. I am continually amazed at the challenge and charge in attempting to understand words from hundreds and thousands of years ago from people so far removed from us culturally, socially, historically and in so many other ways. I giggle a lot listening to and reading people that make such hard and rigid dogmatic statements these days from scriptures. I’m slowly learning to see a box, in and around the box, and if it really is a box at all! So many fun questions, hard questions, scary and chilling questions that continually rock my world(s). It’s a great journey. Thanks, Skip and all the rest that contribute and rattle my cage pretty much daily. I find myself saying, “Hmmmmm,” a lot!
I loved this Michael…..and laughed too. My husband and Ethiopian but American citizen – speaks English but not fluent. We have spent so many hours over our 8 years of knowing each other ‘misunderstanding’ not hearing and not listening because we just don’t know each other’s idioms/culture (I’m Australian) background paradigms etc etc. Yes, some aspects are funny but many cause huge concerns and worries simply because one didn’t understand what was being communicated.
Our relationship has (plus years having been an English teacher for speakers of foreign languages) shown me just how much we miss by being DIFFERENT ….different language,different culture, different geographical understanding, different way of doing business, different understanding of heaven and earth! ? yes and different punctuation….
Soooo when it comes to Yah׳s word ….wow we can truly miss the context etc. I am so grateful I stumbled upon Skips site all those years ago…2007/8. It was the first time (for me) someone was actually looking at the context/historical/cultural etc., aspects of individual words – I was amazed and hooked!
Of course we don’t all have that ‘time’ or perhaps ability etc that Skip has so diligently followed. So we do what we can but most of all, as said above, we must rely on HIS spirit to lead. We must wrestle/juggle/cogitate and be willing to think out if the box – as Skip would say……׳and that is OK׳. Another teacher/rabbi I listen to regularly said that Torah is like a diamond – each way you turn it you are looking at a different facet and it has many facets for us to consider/ discuss/ enjoy……..psalm 119 ‘oh how I love your Torah’.
Well I‘ve written enough….I’m finally moving today into a studio that Abba graciously supplied here in the UK and my husband also yesterday moved to an apt which Yah graciously supplied in the US while he continues treatment for his heart ( having another stent inserted today….please keep him in prayer, thanks). Our lives are in HIS hands how comforting that is to know when our plans seem to have gone awry!
Christine
Thank you for sharing Christine. I can relate to your message. And I will certainly join in prayer for your husbands heart issue. Also, for all our heart condition, frankly. Some have physical heart conditions like your husband. Most of us have conditions of the heart that needs constant checks, balances and directing. But, it’s all part of the journey, isn’t it? And what an amazing journey it is.
That’s funny, Michael. I’ve never noticed your last name. How do you pronounce that? Like base or crazy?
The first audibly, the second characteristically.
‘Did the thief expect to be in heaven?’ I remember reading how that couldn’t be! Otherwise he would have gone to heaven before Yahshua. I don’t believe anyone has anymore.