Devotional Isaiah 61:3

Transcription

1 Devotional Isaiah 61:3 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar: Here is a mystery. Isaiah 61:3: To provide for the mourners in Zion, to give them beauty instead of ashes. The word for beauty here is pe er (pe, aleph, resh) and the word for ashes is eper (aleph, pe, resh). Both words can be used to represent a turban. Even Muslims will admit that turbans have their origins with Judaism. Oddly, it is rarely used by Jews today. Turbans have taken on many different meanings throughout it s history. Among the Jews it was to be a sign of purity and honor. Aaron as a high priest wore a turban as well as his sons. This was to be a sign that they were pure enough to be honored as a priest. Turbans were made of fine linen. Fine linen of ancient times was very difficult to come by and only the wealthy could afford it and by the time of Isaiah it was a sign of wealth or authority. So why does Isaiah use pe er and eper. He will give them a turban instead of a turban. Pe er is a turban worn by those who are honored. This is sometimes translated as beauty. Beauty in the sense of purity, respect, or honor. The word for ashes eper is also a Turban worn by the rich, and honored, but they are in state of mourning and sadness, thus we translate ashes as ashes represent mourning, penitence and sadness. Catholics probably know this symbol well as each year they receive ashes on their forehead as sign of repentance and mourning for their sins.. God will exchange a turban of purity and honor for one of mourning and sadness. He will exchange Aleph, pe (God is silent) to Pe, Aleph

2 (silence before God). I view this as a message for Christians. We have the turban but under that turban lies heartbreak, sadness, mourning. God will exchange that Turban for one of beauty and joy. There is an old Jewish story of a king who acquired the largest ruby in the world. He was so delighted and he gave it to the royal jeweler to polish it and make it perfect. The jeweler examined it with his practiced eye and replied: Your majesty there is a crack in this stone. Well, fix it. declared the king. I can not. replied the jeweler. However, I can cut it into three smaller pieces and each will be beautiful and perfect. But the king replied: No then it will not be the biggest, it will not be the best. The king hired a number of jewelers, but not one knew how to fix the crack and turn the jewel into a large, beautiful and perfect ruby. One day a visitor came to the palace. He saw the ruby and asked permission of the king to examine it. After a long period of examination he said, I can make your stone into something beautiful. The king asked: Will it be big? Will it be beautiful? Will it be perfect? The visitor replied: Yes, yes, yes. Everywhere in the palace you could hear the grinding and polishing. It took three days (yes three, this is the way the sages tell the story). Finally the jeweler approached the king with the jewel covered by a black cloth. It is still big? Is it beautiful? Is it perfect? asked the king anxiously. Yes, yes, yes, replied the visitor. But, the crack, how did you get rid of the crack? asked the King. It is still there. replied the visitor and with that he removed the black cloth to reveal the biggest, most beautiful and most perfect ruby in the world. At the center of the stone was now carved a most wonderful rose. The crack had become the stem.

3 The king was awed and he did something unusual. He stopped talking and just stared in wonder at the worlds biggest, most beautiful and perfect jewel. I wonder if this ancient story was in Solomon s mind or even if it was Solomon who was the king is this story when he used the term which we as Christians associated with Jesus in the Song of Solomon 2:1: I am the rose of Sharon. We may have many flaws, but God created us as a beautiful gem stone. We only need the Rose of Sharon to take our flaws and make something beautiful out of it. To exchange our turban of mourning and heartbreak to a turban of joy. To give beauty for our ashes. Devotional Exodus 14:15, 16 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar: Exodus 14:15, 16: And Jehovah said to Moses: Why do you cry to me? Speak to the sons of Israel and let them move forward. And (then) you (will) lift up your rod and hold out you arm over the sea and split it, so that the sons of Israel will march into the sea on dry ground. The children of Israel were trapped. Pharoah s army on one side and the red sea on the other. No where to turn. They began to cry that it was better to be slaves under Pharoah than to die. The situation was hopeless and they expected nothing but death. Moses declared that God would send a great miracle and they would be saved. Then Moses prepared to address God asking for the miracle. Yet God said a strange thing.

4 Why do you cry to me? The word cry (tise ak) comes from the root word se ak. If you ever watched Star Trek you will remember Spock s father s was named Serak. Se ak literally means to make a plea for unity (Lenord Nimroy who played Spock is Jewish). The character Serak in Star Trek was an ambassador to the universe whose mission was to bring unity to all living things. If it wasn t Lenord Nimroy who suggested the name for his screen father it had to be someone who was Jewish. In this story we have Moses tisea ka to God. The taw in front of Se ak puts this in a future tense. Moses had not yet called out to God. Translators have a problem with this passage as a literal translation would be ackward: And God said to Moses, why will you call out to be unified with me? In the context Moses is asking to be unified with God to receive power for a miracle). Yet, let s stay with that literal translation and see what we get. The next word is devar, The grammatical form used here is a Piel imperative. You tell the people in not uncertain terms move forward. The next phrase is Lift up your rod. The word to lift up or raise is Harem, not Nasah which is the generic word for raising up. Harem comes from the word mountain Har, with a mem put at the end. The mountain representing an imtimacy with God as discussed in my last devotional with a mem which represents the hidden mysteries and secrets of God. This is in a future tense and should be rendered: Tell the people in no uncertain to move forward (toward the Red Sea) and then as you draw near to Me you will receive hidden knowledge. Not power, but hidden knowledge which will bring about the power of God. In John 14:12 Jesus tells his disciples: Indeed I tell you truly, he that believes in me, the works which I do that one shall also do and greater things than these shall you do because I go to the father. Too many full Gospel Christians wrongly assume that the Greek word for works here is

5 energeo, where we get our word energy. In other words the works we perform are filled with power. Actually there word for works here is ergon, which literally means to carry out a task. This is so very important to understand. We get this arrogant idea that we have the power of God and we lay hands on someone and impart that power. This is not what Jesus was teaching in John nor what took place at the Red Sea. We, as Moses, are only to carry out a task. In the performance of that task, the power of God is released. In our passage in Exodus we find that Moses and the people had to perform a task, move forward. The Talmud tries to explain this by illustrating what could have happened, not that it did, but the Talmud is only trying to expound on this truth. As the story unfolds in the Talmud, the people were paralyzed with fear. Moses lifted his rod, spoke the sacred name of God, spoke the Words that God gave him to speak, but the sea did not part. He tried again and again, but there was no miracle. Moses commanded the people to move forward. No one dared to move forward for that would mean to walk into the sea and drown. Suddenly man stepped forward, without fear, with perfect faith he began to walk toward the sea. The people went quiet. Some called to him to stop this suicidal march, but he continued and boldly waded into the sea. The water got deeper, it rose to his nostrils, the people screamed in terror. But when the water reached his head, the sea then parted. You see, Moses had no power, his rod had no power, only God had the power and it would not be released until the performance of an act of faith. This bit of hidden knowledge to appropriating the power of God was then revealed to Israel. Yes, I know, we would much rather have the power then go out. But Jesus taught we must first perform the task and then the miraculous will come.

6 Oh, by the way, that man that walked into the Red Sea? The Talmud identifies him. He Was The Prince Of Judah. Devotional Psalms 51:19 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar; Psalms 51:19: True sacrifice to God are broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. The word for sacrifice is zivechi. This is an amazing word. The sages formed this word with a combination of zayin, beth and chet. In it s prime state it represents an involvement with God through a struggle in your heart which ends with being bonded to God. Simply put, it is making a choice for God over something that is very important to you. That choice may result in a broken spirit. The word broken is shavar which is a breaking like waves breaking against a rock. Once that powerful wave hits a rock, it s force and fury ends, it is contrite. Spirit here is ruach. Ruach is often referred to as the Spirit of God, but when used in reference to man, it reverts to it s prime state representing pleasurable smells, touch, that which feels joy and delights in. The drive to experience pleasure can be like a forceful wave. Ever try to go on a diet and you just begin to lust after rich, fatty, foods. Oh, to just enjoy that moment of pleasure of biting into a Big Mac. This mighty wave of pleasure in you, this ruach driving you to that driveout window, suddenly strikes the rock of Jesus Christ and is broken like a wave against the Rock. Like a wave breaking against a rock your desire for that Big Mac becomes contrite. Such a thought gives new light on the idea of fasting. But soft, there is more. God will not despise (bazah) or

7 condemn a heart that is shavar or contrite. Some people think that in the midst of sorrow, or suffering you must stand up, declare victory, walk with your head high, while inside your heart is shavar and dekah (broken into pieces). I have heard of churches which disassociate themselves from people who go through a divorce, or an illness that is not healed. They avoid those who are not walking in victory, It is said that the Christians are the only ones who shoot their wounded. But God promises that he will not condemn you. For to him it is a true sacrifice. In the Gematra, the numerical value of sacrifice, zivech, is 17 which is the number for victory. Victory is pretending you do not have a broken heart, not pretending that you are happy when everything in you cries out in pain. Victory is when you allow that wave of suffering, pain, and torment to strike against the Rock of Jesus. The Talmud teaches on Leviticus 6:21 in Pesachim 30b: If only the heart were a vessel of copper, that requires scrubbing and rinsing to become pure. For, unfortunately, an earthenware vessel does not release its impurities and must be broken. Devotional Deuteronomy 1:17 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar; Deuteronomy 1:17b. And the thing which is too hard for you, you shall bring near to me and I shall hear it. The context of this passage is a message delivered by Moses who instructed the elders to judge matters of conflicts and bickerings that would arise among the people of Israel. If a matter were too difficult to handle, they were to bring it to Moses who would hear it.

8 There are some questions that come to mind when you read this verse. First the word for thing is davar which is literally word. The Talmud teaches that this matter or word in relation to kasah harsh, stubborn obstinate, relates to an obstruction. In other words if this thing becomes an obstruction to hearing the voice of God. It seems this verse is trying say that if the elders hear something that is very difficult such that they can not discern the voice of God in the matter, they are to take it to Moses. The word mekem (for you) grammatically does not belong here. This is a separable pronoun, which does not add anything to this verse. The sages teach that the mekem is there to emphasize the point that the obstruction is in the elders. You ever have a problem in your church and as a pastor you have to mediate and somehow the conflict is just overwhelming. It is very easy to just say these people are impossible and maybe even be tempted to tell the person in the center of the conflict that it would be better if they worshiped somewhere else. Or if not a pastor, a conflict in your home, or at work where you find yourself in the middle trying to mediate a problem and you reach that point where it is too kasah, hard, stubborn. You are tempted to just crawl under yon rock and hide or even quit your job. Consider what Moses is telling the elders. If the problem is too stubborn mekem for you. Moses says to bring it to me and I shall hear it. The word for hear is shama which means to listen intently. Why does he not say: I will make it know. Moses does not say he will give them the answer, only that he will listen. The sages teach that a person s preoccupation which the physical world and desires will cause a wall of separation between himself and God causing him to be unable to hear the voice of God. You see the conflicts that these elders were to deal with would ultimately be resolved through hearing the voice of God. But they become so personally involved in the

9 conflict that they will not hear the voice of God. They become preoccupied with the earthly or physical matters and forget the spiritual matter involved. So, the sages teach, that they were to go to Moses. We learn in earlier passages that the elders were to remove their shoes when they approached Moses. This was not a sign of respect but a sign of removing oneself from all physical desires. Then before Moses they will hear the voice of God and learn God s way of resolving the conflict. Next time you find yourself with a conflict to mediate at home, work or in the church, it might not be a bad idea to find yourself a Moses who is totally removed from the conflict and spiritually remove your shoes or remove yourself from your physical desires. In other words you motives of self interest in resolving the conflict (find personal peace, get rid of a personal headache, feel more secure in your position etc.). The let your Moses listen to the matter and together come into agreement or Amen what you discern is the voice of God and what He is saying. Your Friend Clyde And the thing which is too hard for you, you shall bring near to me and I shall hear it. The context of this passage is a message delivered by Moses who instructed the elders to judge matters of conflicts and bickerings that would arise among the people of Israel. If a matter were too difficult to handle, they were to bring it to Moses who would hear it. There are some questions that come to mind when you read this verse. First the word for thing is davar which is literally word. The Talmud teaches that this matter or word in relation to kasah harsh, stubborn obstinate, relates to an obstruction. In other words if this thing becomes an

10 obstruction to hearing the voice of God. It seems this verse is trying say that if the elders hear something that is very difficult such that they can not discern the voice of God in the matter, they are to take it to Moses. The word mekem (for you) grammatically does not belong here. This is a separable pronoun, which does not add anything to this verse. The sages teach that the mekem is there to emphasize the point that the obstruction is in the elders. You ever have a problem in your church and as a pastor you have to mediate and somehow the conflict is just overwhelming. It is very easy to just say these people are impossible and maybe even be tempted to tell the person in the center of the conflict that it would be better if they worshiped somewhere else. Or if not a pastor, a conflict in your home, or at work where you find yourself in the middle trying to mediate a problem and you reach that point where it is too kasah, hard, stubborn. You are tempted to just crawl under yon rock and hide or even quit your job. Consider what Moses is telling the elders. If the problem is too stubborn mekem for you. Moses says to bring it to me and I shall hear it. The word for hear is shama which means to listen intently. Why does he not say: I will make it know. Moses does not say he will give them the answer, only that he will listen. The sages teach that a person s preoccupation which the physical world and desires will cause a wall of separation between himself and God causing him to be unable to hear the voice of God. You see the conflicts that these elders were to deal with would ultimately be resolved through hearing the voice of God. But they become so personally involved in the conflict that they will not hear the voice of God. They become preoccupied with the earthly or physical matters and forget the spiritual matter involved. So, the sages teach, that they were to go to Moses. We learn in earlier passages that the elders were to remove their shoes when they approached Moses.

11 This was not a sign of respect but a sign of removing oneself from all physical desires. Then before Moses they will hear the voice of God and learn God s way of resolving the conflict. Next time you find yourself with a conflict to mediate at home, work or in the church, it might not be a bad idea to find yourself a Moses who is totally removed from the conflict and spiritually remove your shoes or remove yourself from your physical desires. In other words you motives of self interest in resolving the conflict (find personal peace, get rid of a personal headache, feel more secure in your position etc.). The let your Moses listen to the matter and together come into agreement or Amen what you discern is the voice of God and what He is saying. Deuteronomy 10:12 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar; Deuteronomy 10:12: And now, Israel, what has Jehovah your God asked of you, only to fear Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Only? To fear Him, walk in all His ways, love Him and serve Him with all your heart and soul? Yeah, only that, nothing more. I mean, like is there anything more? Do that and He s got it all. Hey, like I am all for it, what born again Christian, washed in the blood of Jesus does not want to walk in all His ways, love Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul. Man you know like a dream come true. I mean I m ready, let s go for it. But, I ve been a Christian since I was 9 years old and now that I am old and grey I am still not

12 walking in all His ways, I still do not love Him as much as I desire and I still pass up opportunities to serve Him. Our English translations seem to have a fine way of telling us what we already know and feel in our hearts, but never seem to give us the clue to getting there. Well, Scripture is complete, the answer is there. God is not in the business of playing a cat and mouse game with us. He is pretty straight forward. We just have to take pause and meditate on His Word for a moment. The key lies in the phrase ki yi lire ah. Yi and lire ah are connected with a megeth. That little horizontal line, no bigger than a dash is the key to unlocking the secret to walking in His ways, loving Him and serving Him with all your heart and soul. For what that does is make the phrase only to fear Jehovah your God a complete phrase. In other words we only need to fear Jehovah and then walking in His ways, loving Him and serving Him with all your heart and with all your soul will be the natural result. Our focus does not need to be in trying to walk in His ways, trying to love Him and trying to serve Him. Our focus should be in fearing Him and then the rest is easy, you will do it because you want to do it, not because you have to do it. Now it becomes very important to understand what that word fear really means since this is our focus. The word in Hebrew is ra ah. Translating it as fear is very unfortunate, because fear in the English language carries a negative feeling. Ra ah in not a negative word, but a very positive word. Remember, Hebrew is an emotional language, a poetic language. You have to feel a word to understand it. Checking into the back of Strongs Concordance or pulling up a Lexicon online will not cut it. The sages translate ra ah as awe. Most unfortunate is that we have no word in the English language to use for ra ah. Awe is the best we can get. I remember I had a student whose wife

13 just had their first child. He said to me: When I took my first look at my baby daughter, my whole life, all my dreams, hopes, and desires instantly changed. Suddenly all I wanted was to be with her, to love her and to go out and work to take care of her.? I said only one word ra ah. Note, the passage says to fear your God. It does not say our God. Just as that baby girl was my student s daughter, she was no one else s daughter, God is your God, you belong to Him and He belongs to you. I performed many marriages and I could not help but think of ra ah when I saw that man look into his new wife s eyes and she looked into his. They belonged to each other. She belonged to him and he belonged to her ra ah. I saw ra ah (awe) in their eyes as they came to the realization that here was someone who thought he or she was worthy enough to make a life time commitment. It almost seemed ridiculous as I ask: Do you promise to love, honor and cherish etc I almost expect them to answer: Why do you ask such stupid questions? What does Jehovah ask of you? Only to realize that you belong to Him and He belongs to you. Next time you run out of gas in your prayer time, meditate on that and as you do it will fill you with such awe that walking, loving and serving will no longer be such a chore. Come unto me all you labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and gentle in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29.

14 Devotional Exodus 7:9 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar: Exodus 7:9: When Pharaoh says to you: Prove yourself by working a miracle. It is interesting to note that the word for prove here is not nacah which means to prove. The writer is using the word nathan. This was another vocabulary word that I found easy to remember in my first year Hebrew class. I just thought of Nathan Hale, I have but one life to give for my country. That old boy must have had some PR guy working for him when he came up with the name Nathan, because it is a Hebrew word meaning to give. Those in my class probably remember learning that the sages formulated this word to start with a nun and end with a nun. This shows a circular pattern. The final nun does not have a foot on the bottom but the line extends below the page. This shows that the first nun which represents faith passes through the taw which represents praise or prayer from the heart, goes back to another nun (faith) but the nun is not closed so it is given out and then, because of the circular nature of the word, it comes back to you again. The sages see two representations for the word nathan. The first is when you pray in faith the prayer comes back to you answered. The other representation is that when you give, you will receive back so that you will always have something to give. Curiously in Exodus 7:9 nathan is followed by the word takem (to you or for you). Nathan is used as a verb here and the writer could have easily put this into a Hithpael form. The remez is why add the prepositional phrase? The answer may be found in the next word, mopheth. This is not the Hebrew word for miracle although it is used two times for miracle, once here. The Hebrew word for miracle is owth. Mopheth comes from the root word yaphath. This has the idea of sign

15 or wonder used as a form of intimidation. Quite literally what Pharaoh was telling Moses was: Make yourself an intimidation to me. That is understandable. Here was the Pharaoh, he was considered a god. Here was Moses, an outcast representing the slavery class and Pharaoh was saying: Who are you and who is this God of yours. You don t scare me. Go ahead and try to intimidate me. The Talmud puts it this way: Give yourself credibility by displaying a sign. There is a story in Jewish literature about a simple man and his wife who owned a small inn. The man would spend all his time in prayer and study of Torah. When a guest would come, the wife would call the man and he would come and prepare the meal and bed for the visitor. He was just a simple man. One day his brother in law, a very learned and well recognized rabbi was passing through and stopped to spend the night in the inn. The rabbi thought to himself how unfortunate it was that he should spend the night with this simple boring brother in law. When he arrived he began to order the brother in law around, telling to feed his horse, prepare his meal etc. The next day was Friday and the rabbi was anxious to leave to spend the Sabbath with his learned friends, so that he might study Torah with them and discover the mysteries of God. After a hasty breakfast the rabbi prepared to leave and the rabbi s brother in law asked if maybe the rabbi would honor them and spend the Sabbath with them. The rabbi thinking what a bore it would be to spend the Sabbath with this simple man and his sister said he had important and learned friends to spend the Sabbath with and needed to be on his way. But he had no sooner left than a wheel on his carriage broke. He returned, had it repaired and went on his way again. This time the other wheel broke. He returned had it repaired and went on his way again. The third time his harness broke. By now it was too late to travel and he was forced to spend the Sabbath with the simple, boring brother in law.

16 During the Sabbath dinner the brother in law expounded on a passage of Torah that the rabbi just rolled his eyes and thought what a simple understanding this man has and to himself laughed it off. That night as the rabbi prepared for bed he saw the glow of a fire in the dinning room. He called for his sister and cried: There is a fire in the dinning room, we must put it out. They raced to the dinning room and there the rabbi found no fire but his brother in law sitting by a candle studying Torah and his face glowed with a brilliant light. The rabbi immediately thought of the Torah passage that evening and his brother in laws explanation and knew that he had been given insight into the deep mysteries of God. If we truly are in God s service as Moses, God will give us mopheth credibility. Devotional Hosea: 14:10 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar: Hosea: 14:10: He who is wise will consider these words, He who is prudent will take note of them. For the paths of the Lord are smooth; The righteous can walk on them But the sinners will stumble on them. Four words I would like to examine here. Path (Derek), smooth (ysahar), walk (Halakah), and stumble (kashol). There are about six different words in the Hebrew for path.

17 There are many different types of paths. The path to success, the path to a relationship, the path to knowledge. Derek is a path of adventure (loosely put). We often talk of the rough, rocky road we walk. I am guilty of that. Yet in Jesus, the road is never rocky or rough, it is a smooth, ysahar, a straight, direct road. However, it is only smooth and straight when you walk (halkah) the path of righteousness, the steps of Jesus, walking in the center of His will. For then God promises to make our way smooth (Isaiah 26:7). The sinner, well they stumble, kashol to stagger, grow weary. I know what you are thinking, because I am thinking the same thing. The road I walk is anything but smooth. I am staggering, stumbling, growing weary. There is an old Rabbinic tale of a man who was in a tavern and gulped down his usual share of wine. Suddenly, he began to scream, Jews! Save yourselves! Run from this bar to dining room for the barroom is about to collapse. Everyone ran to the dinning room and the man screamed we must run out side, for the whole building is about to collapse. They all ran outside and the man screamed, we are doomed, for the whole world is about to collapse. By this time the crowd began to wonder about this guy and a spokesman asked: Why do you think the world is about to collapse? The man said: Every time I take a step, I stagger sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. This is a clear indication that the bar, the dinning room and world is unstable and on the verge of collapse With that the crowd broke out laughing: The spokesman said: My friend, see for yourself, we are walking straight without stumbling, the reason you stumble is because you are drunk. Because of the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, He has made our way straight and smooth. If we stumble and stagger on this road of life, it is not because it is unstable and

18 rocky, it is because we are too full of the wine of this world rather than the Spirit of God. Does that not contradict Matthew 7:14: Narrow (Gk. Thilbo, suffer tribulation) is the way that leads to life? This is not contradiction when you consider that Derek, represents an adventure. It is a divine video game so to speak. You are safe and sound playing the controls and you navigate through one trial and tribulation after another. At the end of all those trials and difficulties, you reach your goal, you stand up and say: That was fun. When we are in the center of God s Divine Will, we are never in any danger, so we walk through all life s trials and difficulties experiencing a adventure with Jesus, watching him knock off the bad guys. However, step out of the center of God s will, well then we begin to stumble, grow weary.