Title Bout
Redeem, God, Israel from all its straits. Psalm 25:22 Robert Alter translation
Israel – The etymology of the Hebrew word yisra’el is unusual and important. TWOT makes the following observation: “The verb śārâ limits itself to contexts which discuss the struggle of Jacob as he wrestled with the Angel of Yahweh at Peniel in Transjordan, upon his return from Mesopotamia to Canaan c. 1900 b.c. (Gen 32:24 [H 25]; Hos 12:4 [H 5]). The form in the latter passage, wayyāśar, might suggest a root śûr. But since biblical Hebrew includes no word with this meaning, it should probably be repointed to wayyiśer, apocopated from yiśreh (BDB, p. 975), the normal imperfect of śārâ. The importance of sārâ lies in its derived noun, Israel.”[1]
According to the biblical account in Genesis 32, the name results from a physical struggle with the Angel of the Lord when the defeated Jacob refuses to release his grip. Therefore, the name yisra’el describes one who contends with God, who battles with the Holy One and refuses to give up. That raises an important personal question: If you belong to Israel, are you contending with God?
It seems to me that one of the key elements in a vibrant relationship with the Father is contention. It seems to me that we are supposed to actively engage, to strive, to fight in our relationship with the Father in order to become full participants in the Kingdom. God wants us to work out our salvation. Apparently, He doesn’t want us to be merely passive recipients of His grace. We have to contend in order to appropriate the blessing. We have to show that we are unwilling to let go, even when we are defeated. It is tenacity that produces faith. Just keep hanging on no matter what and God’s attention will not waiver.
This idea might seem quite strange to us. We might feel as if we have no right to demand that God pay attention to us. We might fall victim to the Augustinian view that God is repulsed by my sin and wants nothing to do with me. But now is the time to reject these feelings and pay attention to God and the manipulator, Jacob. The battle at the brook teaches us that God responds to dogged perseverance, to stubborn insistence, perhaps even to intransigence. God loves those who just won’t quit. Perhaps we might even say that God loves those who refuse to submit to Him until they are completely broken—and even then won’t let go of their persistence. Maybe “seek me with all your heart” means more than passive acceptance of His commands. Maybe we have to fight it out in order to really take on Kingdom characteristics.
When David pleads for God to redeem the contending ones from all their troubles, he uses the same Hebrew root, sārâ, that underlies the name yisra’el. Clever, right? Poetic. But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe the reason God redeems is because He enjoys a really good battle.
Topical Index: Israel, yisra’el, contend, Psalm 25:22
[1] Payne, J. B. (1999). 2287 שָׂרָה. 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.) (883). Chicago: Moody Press.
Hasn’t Jacob been contending with Messiah for two thousand years, not knowing His identity but knowing there is a blessing as God’s chosen people? Isn’t James (actually Jacob) a picture of this. No one was in closer proximity to Jesus than James, probably sleeping next to each other as young boys. Do you think they wrestled as brothers do? How do you compete with a brother who seemingly wins by losing? A life long nazarite, James seemed to have a dismissive attitude towards Jesus and his ministry. So close to God, yet so far away. Not recognizing Jesus for who He was until confronted by the risen Christ. Sounds about right.
Skip, you say we have to contend? Almost 40 years ago, I was getting ready to take a group of friends to a Memorial Day weekend singles gathering. I had the spring planting done. Car was ready. But, wait! Where was my billfold, with my driver’s license in it? Too late, I realized I had lost it while doing the field work. There was no time to get a replacement license. I looked, I scoured the field, but I couldn’t find my billfold. Yes, I prayed about it, but I did not find that billfold. The guys gathered at my house, and the time of departure neared. By now, the oats crop was up, I was more than praying. I joked with God, “You’re going to have to put that billfold up on top of the oats if I’m going to be able to see it!” One of my friends said he would take a look out there. He did. No luck. I felt I ought to look one more time. I went out. There, perched upright, sitting open so as to be well balanced, was my billfold. You couldn’t even tell that it had been rained on a number of times.
I went to the singles outing, and the story of that billfold, in all its glory, was the story I told by way of introducing myself to the woman with whom I have now shared almost 40 years in the Garden.
Awesome. Great story.
I Could’ve Been a Contender
~ Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints ~ (Jude 1.3)
(Interesting) “contend,” but without being “congtentious!” – Now, there’s a genuine struggle! Any man may speak the truth, but “speaking the truth in love?” That’s another story!
Jacob (Israel according to the flesh) was (or is) a persistent little cuss. He just won’t give in, and he won’t give up. The flesh, the yester hara, does not die easily. No man, (ever) dies easy. Life is a struggle and death? We just won’t let go, -will we? Even to this day, years later – I still struggle, I still “contend” for the faith. If I were Kermit the frog I might lament.. – “it isn’t easy being green!”- but this quote belongs to Kermit, alone.
So, what is my “malfunction?” What is (so) wrong with this carbon-based life-form? Paul knew it too. “The Struggle..” ~ For I know that in me.. (sin is oftentimes an “inside job”) that is.. “in my flesh” dwelleth (abides) – no good thing.
Paul, – what’s up? What is your malfunction, Mr.? ~ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out ~ ” (Romans 7.18) But Paul, what do the scriptures say? ~ Without Me, (the indwelling Christ) you (Paul) can do nothing! ~ Paul, let’s expand this out just a little bit further..- “I AM the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you (Mr. or M’am) can do nothing.
Yes. I have questions, too. Who is this “vine” spoken of here in John chapter 15? Err.. uhh.. – back to the Bible? “I AM the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” I’m not for sure, but I think we may have discovered (intentionally?) “who” the Vine is! John chapter 15 is a very special time in the life of our LORD. Any last words? These are the words of a Man (the second Adam) who (now?) knows, – the Good Shepherd is about to lay down His life for the sheep! Has He (once again) saved the best for last? There seems to be a pattern here. Knowing the time of His crucifixion was drawing near, – it seems His final instructions to His talmudim were becoming more intensely focused and ripe with revelation! ~ Abide in Me.. ~
Brett,
Thank you. “Hasn’t Jacob been contending with Messiah for two thousand years, not knowing His identity but knowing there is a blessing as God’s chosen people?” Interesting timing that your comment was one of the first things I saw when I woke up this a.m.
I was up way late last night wrestling with the word, “if.” See Exodus 19:5. HUGE. In the Tanach (Stone edition), the side note reads “God’s proposal.” A proposal, in the English language, means “bid, idea, offer, motion, proposition.” This “if” seems to mean that the Israelites have to actively participate in something for them to be “to Me the most beloved treasure of all peoples… You shall be to Me a kingdom of ministers and a holy nation.”
Skip and others: I’d love feedback on this.
And Skip, thank you, too! You have just enlightened me on who I’ve been since I was a small child, why my family saw me as such a “problem” (they still do to this day), and why I have always had the faith that I do:
“It is tenacity that produces faith.”
Tenacity: chutzpah, courage, determination, firmness, grit, guts, perseverance, persistence, spunk
Wow. Thank you. I was always taught that there was something, A LOT OF THINGS, wrong with me!!!!!
Thomas,
YEAH!!!!!!
Keep On Trustin’!
From Shadow to Substance
~ For the Torah has in it a shadow of the good things to come, but not the actual manifestation of the originals. Therefore, it can never, by means of the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, bring to the goal those who approach the Holy Place to offer them. Otherwise, wouldn’t the offering of those sacrifices have ceased? For if the people performing the service had been cleansed once and for all, they would no longer have sins on their conscience. No, it is quite the contrary — in these sacrifices is a reminder of sins, year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
This is why, on coming into the world, He says,
“It has not been your will
to have an animal sacrifice and a meal offering;
rather, You have prepared for Me a body.
No, you have not been pleased
with burnt offerings and sin offerings.
Then I said, ‘Look!
In the scroll of the book
it is written about Me.
I have come to do your will.’”
In saying first, “You neither willed nor were pleased with animal sacrifices, meal offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings,” things which are offered in accordance with the Torah; and then, “Look, I have come to do Your will”; He takes away the first system in order to set up the second. It is in connection with this will that we have been separated for God and made holy, once and for all, through the offering of Yeshua the Messiah’s body.
Now every cohen stands every day doing His service, offering over and over the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this One, after He had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God, from then on to wait until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has brought to the goal for all time those who are being set apart for God and made holy.
And the Ruach HaKodesh too bears witness to us; for after saying,
“ ‘This is the covenant which I will make
with them after those days,’ says ADONAI:
‘I will put my Torah on their hearts,
and write it on their minds . . . ,’ ”
He then adds,
“ ‘And their sins and their wickednesses
I will remember no more.’ ”
Now where there is forgiveness for these, an offering for sins is no longer needed.
So, brothers, we have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place opened by the blood of Yeshua. He inaugurated it for us as a new and living way through the parokhet, by means of His flesh. We also have a great cohen over God’s household. Therefore, let us approach the Holiest Place with a sincere heart, in the full assurance that comes from trusting — with our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us continue holding fast to the hope we acknowledge, without wavering; for the One who made the promise is trustworthy. And let us keep paying attention to one another, in order to spur each other on to love and good deeds, not neglecting our own congregational meetings, as some have made a practice of doing, but, rather, encouraging each other.
And let us do this all the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies.
Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common *the blood of the covenant* which made Him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, Giver of God’s grace!
For the One we know is the One who said,
“Vengeance is my responsibility;
I will repay,”
and then said,
“ADONAI will judge His people.”
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
But remember the earlier days, when, after you had received the light, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly disgraced and persecuted, while at other times you stood loyally by those who were treated this way. For you shared the sufferings of those who had been put in prison. Also when your possessions were seized, you accepted it gladly; since you knew that what you possessed was better and would last forever.
So don’t throw away that courage of yours, which carries with it such a great reward. For you need to hold out; so that, by having done what God wills, you may receive what he has promised.
For “There is so, so little time!
The One coming will indeed come,
He will not delay.
But the person who is righteous
will live his life by trusting,
and if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”
However, we are not the kind who shrink back and are destroyed; on the contrary, we keep (on) trusting and thus preserve our lives! ~
~ Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.. ~
I was struggling more than usual with what God had given me today, some very bad neighbors
And then I came home to find one of his gifts, my neighbors, had parked in my private space
At wit’s end, or almost, I realized that the two issues were not in fact related
And at that point It became clear to me that I was making mountains out of mole hills
And I realized that if I had just accepted what God gave me in the first place
There would have been no reason to contend with all the bad feelings
“Apparently, He doesn’t want us to be merely passive recipients of His grace. We have to contend in order to appropriate the blessing. We have to show that we are unwilling to let go, even when we are defeated.”
Yaccov fought for YHWH’s blessings, as he had fear of Esau coming to attack him.
We contend in prayers seeking for answers and solutions from YHWH.
This is the portion of our trust in Him; who else can we go to, but Him Who is in authority over all creation.
This demonstrates Who we rely upon in times of need, revealing our personal relationship with Him, instead of running to men.
We need to contend/deal with our old beastly natures particularly the lashon hara “to really take on Kingdom characteristics.”
Shalom!