WORD STUDY I CHANGE NOT לא שׁניתי

Transcription

1 WORD STUDY I CHANGE NOT לא שׁניתי Malachi 3:6: For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Beth and Tom are an elderly couple married over sixty three years. They are a very distinquished looking couple and by couple I mean couple. They are always together, they go to the doctor s office together, church together, and whatever functions there are they do it together. For over sixty three years Beth and Tom have been lovers, friends and companions. I asked how they met and Beth said they met by accident. Tom hit her with his car while she was on a bicycle. She broke her leg and ended up in the hospital. Every day Tom came to visit her bringing her little gifts and apologizing for the accident. She said the only way she would forgive him is if he married her and so he did. They spent sixty three years together, raised three children

2 who themselves grew up to be successful and raised a family giving them six grandchildren. They are the type of people you look at and think, yeah, they are the sturdy stock of America. They are a handsome, loving, happy couple, contented and enjoying their golden years together. Every time I drive them to a doctor s appointment they always have me drop them off at the Orange Garden Restaurant where they have their little date night. The Orange Garden Restaurant is the same restaurant where Tom proposed marriage to Beth sixty three years ago. The restaurant remains unchanged, same booths, same tables, same silverware, same place settings and same menu. They always order the chicken soup because that is what they had the day Tom proposed. Wouldn t it be wonderful is things would never change? However, the last time I picked Tom up for a doctor s appointment he was alone. I didn t say anything but he did ask before I let him off at the Doctor s office if I would drive him to the hospital after his appointment. His sweetheart of sixty three years was there, she was not in very good condition. Tom said he did not need a ride home from the hospital. He would stay as long as the hospital would let him stay and then take a cab home. There would be no dinner at the Orange Garden on this day. As I watch this once tall, elegant, proud and joyful man slowly step out of my bus, I saw for the first time an elderly, sad bent over man as he made his way to the entrance of the hospital. My heart cried out to God, Why, oh God, why must things change? Why did you create us to bear such happiness only to snatch it away as we reached the end of this life? Why does there have to be old age, why do we do have to

3 see loved ones pass? Why must there be change? I decided to drive by the Orange Garden on my way to my next assignment, I don t know why, I just had to see that something didn t change. As I drove by I saw that the restaurant was closed up and there was a sign on the window, For Lease. I then began to weep, it was another change. I wept not just for Tom and Beth but for myself as well for this only served to show that no matter how secure we can make this life on earth, it will change, it will end. My own life will change, nothing I have will last very long. I was overwhelmed with the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2: Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity. Solomon as the wisest man on earth realized that all was vanity. The word vanity in Hebrew is havel and it means emptiness, something that is transitory, not meant to last. I then told the Lord that I was starting to fall into a real funk and He had better pull some rabbit out the hat. In that moment I suddenly thought of Malachi 3:6, For I the Lord, I change not. That word change in the Hebrew is shanah which is the same word for year. It is where the word Rosh Hashanah comes from. It means to repeat the year. The word shanah means to repeat, do again and again. When God says He will not change what He is saying is that He will not need to repeat himself. You repeat something becomes it comes to end so you do it again. When Tom and Beth ate at the Orange Garden and ordered their chicken soup over and over again it is because that moment that joy they felt when he proposed had ended and they had to keep repeating the events of that moment to re-experience that joy. But God is saying that with Him we will never need to repeat old memories and

4 joys, His special moments do not end, they are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us His joy, His mercies, His love are never consumed, they never end or fail they are new each morning. I fell into a funk because I knew all that I enjoyed in this world will one day end, yet God has promised that He is unchanging, what I have in Him will never end and every day there is something new and exciting in Him. The joy I experience in His Word, that will never end, the joy I experience in learning about Him through His creation, that will never end, His beauty will continue for eternity and I will never have to look back to capture old joys for there will always be new joys ahead. Word Study: Sleep Yishenah Sleep Hebrew: yishenah sleep, to repeat, to change, to understand, divine revelation. Song of Solomon 5:2 I sleep but my heart is awake, it is the voice of my beloved that knocks. The word Yishenah comes from two possible root words. The first is Yishen which simply means to sleep. The second is often overlooked by Christians as it does not seem to fit the context, yet for the ancient sages it fits very well. The second root word is Shanah which is the same root word for

5 Shannah in Rosh Hashannah. Shanah means to do over again and again; it is also means year, and change and new beginnings. In its most primitive form it expresses the idea of divine revelation, peace and the power of God. The word is spelled Shin (completeness, wholeness), Nun (moving forward) and Hei (the presence of God). Esoterically the word sleep has the idea of God completing us, making us whole so we can move forward with His presence during the day. This is how the ancient Jewish sages viewed sleep, it was a time for God to complete us and make us whole so that we could move forward in the new day with His presence. If God has limited man to just 120 years on earth, why did He create us to spend one-third or forty of those years in an unconscious state? The ancient sages teach that it is only our physical natural bodies that are unconscious; the spiritual part remains awake and allows God to share His heart with ours while we are sleep. However, God does not live in time, he lives in the past, present and future so if He shares His heart with us during our sleep, we know what He knows including the future. That is why prophets received their Word from God in dreams. That is why we forget our dreams or they take on symbolic meanings because some knowledge we receive in this union of hearts would be too painful for us. I sleep but my heart is awake is a very sweet romantic phrase which carries very deep spiritual insight. The lover may be asleep but her heart is awake, waiting for that knock at the door of her heart. Her lover is off in a palace, she is in her simple home, yet she believes even separated by many miles or even in the same bed that while they are asleep the physical barriers are knocked down and her beloved can knock on the door of her heart and whether in the same room or the same bed, their hearts can still embrace while they are asleep. When we are asleep, the physical part of us, that part filled with the cares of this world, our lust, our fleshly desires are out for the count and our hearts stand open and vulnerable to the influence of spiritual forces. Fill your wide awake

6 heart with a movie of zombies and vampires and the enemy will come knocking at the door of your heart. Fill your heart with the Word of God and praise before going off to the land of nod and it is Jesus who comes knocking at the door of your heart. Which heart does yours embrace the enemies (nightmares) or the loving Father s heart (sweet dreams)? Devotional Malachi 3:6 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar; Malachi 3:6: For I am the Lord, I change not. Matthew 10:29: Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your father. The word used for Lord is Yehavah where we get the name Jehovah or as some like to say YHWH. Actually it simply means I am. But there is a strange twist to this word in it s use of the yod. As a verb it is an incomplete action, although it is clearly a completed action and oddly enough is also used as a participle. In other words you would translate the name of God to mean, I am, I was, and I will be. That fits with the following phrase very nicely, I change not. The word change is shanithi which is in a simple Qal past tense I am unchanged. The root word is Shana which means to repeat, do over, again and again and again. In the words of Stuart Hamblin, What He s done for others, he will do for you. But embodied in this word, shana is the fact this is a complete unchanging, down to the slightest detail. To make sure nothing changes, that God fits into shana He must be

7 aware of every little detail in our lives so that nothing will pass His notice so we cannot say: Ah ha, caught cha, God, you missed that one didn t you. See there, you made a slight change. As my study partner said, His dependability, His faithfulness, His way of salvation, His love towards us, His Word, all his attributes will never change. Every detail is covered. Rabbi Toldos Aharon teaches during this season of Channukah that the main thing is not to give up hope no matter what happens, because it is written: For I am the Lord and I do not change. God watches over every single person who is walking with Him in every single act. No such person can hurt even a small finger in this world without His notice. Does this sound familiar to you? Matthew 10:29: Are not two sparrow sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Note that the passage does not say without the Father s notice but simply without your Father. In the days of Jesus a sparrow carried significant importance for travelers. It was believed that a sparrow would always return home no matter how far he has flown. Thus a traveler would purchase a couple sparrows indigenous to his home before going on a journey. Then when he returns home he releases the sparrows and follows them home, and thus, would not get lost. However, exhausted from his journey a sparrow may fall, and if the traveler was too cheap to purchase more than one sparrow or the sparrows he took died, he would be lost. However, with the Father the sparrow will not fail to lead you home. It is the Father who leads you home, not an undependable sparrow, that is so fragile. The father noticing the fall of the sparrow is noticing and aware of the fact that you have lost your way.

8 The sparrows were also envied by the Jews in Jerusalem because they had the freedom to fly in and out of the temple. They could even fly into the Holy of Holies. So possibly the home that the sparrow is leading one to is the Holy of Holies or God s presence. Verse 31: Fear ye not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So if a dozen sparrows can freely fly into the Holy of Holies or the presence of God, are we not of more value than a dozen sparrows sold for a few pennies that can freely enter the temple or the presence of God? If Jesus purchased us with His life, would we not have an even greater freedom to enter His presence?