Isaiah 11:1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Transcription

1 נצר WORD STUDY THE NAZARENE Matthew 2:23, And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. Isaiah 11:1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: Now here in the Bible do we have a prophet or prophets saying that the Messiah would be born in Nazareth and that he would be called a Nazarene. I really do not find this anywhere in Scripture. Yet, even today Jesus is referred to as the Nazarene. In fact in the Middle East today Christians in Muslim communities are called the followers of the Nazarene and are identified by the Arabic letter Nun which looks like a u with a dot over it. The name for the town of Nazareth may have come from the Semitic root nzr which means to keep watch, or to protect. There are some who claim that this may have been the home of a

2 particular Jewish sect called the Nazarites who took on a vow to live a life of separation as nzr also means to consecrate and make separate. They would not cut their hair or drink wine. Some feel that Jesus Himself was a Nazarite which could be. There are a lot of uncertainties here. But one thing is for certain, the Hebrew Bible makes no mention of the town of Nazareth or that the Messiah would be a Nazarene. Or does it? The Pershitta or Aramaic Bible shows something very curious that you would not pick up on in your Greek New Testament. The Aramaic word for Nazarite is spelled Nun, Tsade, and Resh, where the Hebrew word for Nazarite is spelled Nun, Zayin, and Resh. There appears to be a Semitic play on words here as the Tsade and the Zayin both make a z sound. We distinguish between the two by showing the Tsade as a ts and the Zayin as a z. The Hebrew verb nazar means to take a vow or to consecrate. Examples of a Nazarite in the Old Testament would be Samuel and Samson. Today in the Assyrian Church the order of the Nazarites is preserved. Such individuals will not cut their hair, marry or use alcohol. Yet, there are many who do not take a Nazarite vow in that culture, yet they will still seek to live a separated life. Such individuals are called a Nazarene as an Aramaic figure of speech. It is possible the writer of the Gospel meant this as a figure of speech playing on the Hebrew word nazar, that Jesus lived a consecrated life and was called a Nazarene, not only because he came for Nazareth but that he lived a nazar life.

3 Still, that does not answer the question as to where in Scripture does it say that the prophets would say the Messiah was from Nazareth and would be called a Nazarene. The town of Nazareth really did not exist during the time of the prophets. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament, the Talmud makes no reference to it in the 63 towns of Galilee that it mentions. Josephus mentions 45 cities of Galilee and none are called Nazareth. No trade routes ran through the city so it was isolated which brought about the saying, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Archaeologist have uncovered evidence of a town in the area but have no idea when it started to be called Nazareth. What is very likely is that the writer of Matthew was making a Semitic play on the word ntsr. The ancient Persians used the word ntsr to express the idea of a green plant. The Aramaic word ntsr with the Sade means a branch. Even the Talmud in Sanhedrin 43a recognizes Isaiah 11:1 as a prophecy of the Messiah and renders the word ntsr as a branch. In other words the writer was making a play on the word and the use of the Sade in Aramaic and the Zayin in Hebrew to express two thoughts. One is that Jesus was the ntsr spoken of in Isaiah 11:1 and that he also came from the town of nzr. That he was also one who was consecrated for a special task. I mean it would make perfect sense to the Semitic people of the first century, but it leaves the Western twenty first century people scratching their heads wondering, Say what?

4 HEBREW WORD STUDY GOD LONGS TO SHARE HIS HEART Psalms 23:2,6: He makes me lie down in green pastures Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Practically every English translation will translate that last phrase as I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Yet, this is not the standard Hebrew word for forever. We are automatically assuming that the house of the Lord is referring to heaven where we will live forever. It was this verse that I was discussing with an orthodox rabbi who simply shook his head and said: You Christians do not understand the heart of David. It was then I realized why the word le orek rather than olam

5 is used in this passage. Both can mean forever, but le orek simply means a length and is followed by yomim which means days. Thus it literally means a length of days. David really seems to be talking about the remaining days of his life on earth not in heaven. We assume the house of the Lord means heaven and therefore David is speaking of the afterlife. But Heaven does not exist in time, there are no yoms days in heaven. David is talking about the here and now. Before this David says that goodness which is tov or harmony with God, and mercy will follow him all the days of his life. The word mercy is chasad. Jewish literature teaches that in a spiritual context this word chasad (mercy) pictures one being sheltered in the heart of God. The word follow is radapa which is used in a Piel form and means to be pursued, chased or sought after. In other words God is chasing after us to be in harmony with Him and to shelter us in His heart. He is longing to share His heart with Him as a wife is longing to share her heart with her husband and he with her. We don t have to beg and plead with Him to be sheltered in His heart, we just have to stop running away from Him in pursuit of our own ways and simply trust Him enough to share our hearts with Him. Looking a little deeper into this word radapa (follow) we find it has a numerical value of 284. The phrase: for his mercies endure forever also has a numerical value of 284. Ancient rabbis believed that these words, his mercies endure forever, opened a portal, as it did for Jehoshaphat when he went to war against the three kings. In other words God is pursuing us with an open portal to His heart. Once we enter His heart we will find rest. I believe hidden in Psalms 23, one of the most famous and

6 favorite of all Psalms, is a key to opening a portal to God s heart of rest. It is in verse 2: He makes me lie down in green pastures. A green pasture in Hebrew is dasha. The spelling of this word reveals a built in commentary, the word itself will tell us what these green pastures are. The word is spelled Daleth which is a portal to the Shin a resting place in the Aleph God s heart. Note that David says that God makes or causes him to find a resting place in His heart. God is the one who opens this portal. When David says that surely goodness and mercy will chase after me all my days, he is admitting that he is running away from God. What happens when we let the lovingkindness of God catch up with us? He will lead us to green pastures or He will open a portal to his heart of rest. Until the rabbi challenged me to understand the heart of David, I just assume that when David referenced the house of Jehovah, he meant the temple where the presence of God dwelled or heaven. But the word house or byith in Hebrew which has a broad range of meanings and could also mean the heart as a dwelling place. To fit the poetic flow of this Psalm it would be appropriate to render this as: I will dwell in the heart of Jehovah for all my days. To David, it was not enough to dwell in the presence of God, he wanted to dwell in the heart of God. Dwelling in the heart of God and finding rest in the heart of God is really the message I found this morning when reading this passage. When two people fall in love with each other, they will naturally share their hearts with each other. They will open themselves up and reveal the very depths of their longings and desires with their beloved. We are made in God s

7 image and this does not mean physical features but emotional features. In other words we have a heart like God s heart that longs to be shared with another person. Yet, sharing your heart with someone is very risky business. It makes you vulnerable to that person, it gives them the power to deeply hurt and wound you. Thus we only open our hearts to that person that we can trust. We are so designed to long to share our hearts with someone that people will actually pay someone to open up their hearts to. They would pay a therapist or counselor knowing that that person is professional sworn and legally bound to not betray the secrets of the heart that the person will reveal. Yet, the greatest fulfillment of love is when you can trust someone who is not bound by profession or law to protect your hearts secrets but is bound by love to never reveal the secrets of your heart. So too with God, we know we can share our hearts with God, he poses no threat to us, he is not going to go around blabbing to all the angels about the secrets of your heart. But this works two ways. If someone shares their heart with you because they love you and you love that person in return you will make yourself just as vulnerable by sharing the secrets of your heart with them. This creates a deep bond between you and the one you love, you both have made yourself vulnerable and it is this vulnerability that deepens this bond and also brings you rest and peace with you are with that person. It is that bond that causes you to find comfort in that person and makes you long to be with that person. If you were to share your heart with another person that one that loved you enough to share their heart with you will be deeply wounded and feel betrayed.

8 If we can trust God enough to share our heart with Him, can He trust us enough to share His heart with us? Can He trust us to not seek other gods for comfort and security. Can he trust us to open His heart to us, to share His longings, desires and pain with us. Can He find rest in us? For only when two hearts make themselves vulnerable to each other do they find that rest and security. Only when we share our hearts with God and He shares His heart with us do we lay down in those green pastures. WORD STUDY THE GREEN TREE Luke 23:31: For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry tree.? This is an example of a verse which is unintelligible in the Greek, but it makes perfect sense when read in the Aramaic or language that Jesus actually spoke. When translating one must know something about rabbinic methods of Scriptural interpretation. In a very rabbinic way Jesus is giving a hint into an Old Testament passage found in Ezekiel 20:47, And say to the forest of the south, Hear the

9 word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. In this prophecy Ezekiel declares that God will send a forest fire, it will sweep through the forest of Negeb. The heat was so intense that even the green trees were burned up. Allegorically, the green tree represents the righteous and the dry tree the not so righteous. Here s the kicker, the sages also see the Green Tree as a representation of the Messiah. Now back to Luke. As Jesus was being led to the cross a company of women followed Jesus weeping. Jesus turned to them and said: Weep not for me but for yourselves and your children. Jesus was making a reference to the coming destruction of Jerusalem. In other words: If this is done in the Green Tree (referring to Himself) what will happen to the dry trees, your children who will follow me? The Aramaic text reads, For if they do these things so in the Green Tree, what will be done with dry wood? The Greek text in verse 31 literally says: If they do these things in a Green Tree. The Aramaic says so in which is an Aramaic idiom meaning to do to someone. If you do not consider this idiom you can get a little confused when translating this passage. The RSV for instance recognizes the Aramaic use of dry wood but then translates this as: For if they do this when the wood is green, what will they do when it is dry? Some translations say green wood rather than Green Tree missing the illusion to the Messianic intent behind the words Green Tree

10 as shown in Ezekiel 20:47. If we were to understand that Jesus was using a rabbinic form of teaching by hinting at an Old Testament passage then we would see that this passage should be more correctly translated: For if he do these things to a Green Tree as a reference to Ezekiel 20:47 which was recognized by the sages and the people of that day as a reference to the Messiah in Ezekiel 20:47. Thus when Jesus referred to Himself as the Green Tree, He was declaring Himself to be the Messiah. It is have often been said that nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus actually call Himself the Messiah and some take that to deny the divinity of Jesus. However, a little understanding of the teachings of those through whom the Messiah came, the Jews themselves who ironically rejected Him as the Messiah, would reveal that Jesus was constantly declaring Himself as the Messiah, as God Himself in human form. He may not have said openly, I am the Messiah but he sure dropped enough hints. Jesus was also hinting at another Aramaic symbolism. Green wood was a symbol of innocence where dry wood was symbolic of guilt. If they did this to an innocent man how much more when followers of Christ face who will be forced to live under Roman law which would eventually make it illegal to be a believer. A greater suffering was about to come for the children of these women who would follow after Jesus. Green wood burns slowly, but dry wood burns much quicker. In this Jesus was declaring that He was the Messiah and warned

11 that following him would not be an easy journey. His followers would also be called upon to pick up their cross daily and share in His sufferings for the sake of bringing His message to a lost world. Jesus was not using some slick marketing skill promising all sorts of wonderful things like prosperity, restored relationships, constant joy, but instead he was promising a walk on the Calvary road if you choose to follow Him. Accepting Jesus as your Savior is not to be motivated by getting a bag of goodies and when the goodies run out you run to another God. Instead it is like a marriage, you marry out of the desire to make a commitment to love someone in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, no matter what happens you want to do it with that person. So too with God, no matter what happens you committed yourself to love God for better or for worse, whatever happens, you want it to happen together with God.