WORD STUDY BETTER ARE THE תוב רשׁ POOR

Transcription

1 WORD STUDY BETTER ARE THE תוב רשׁ POOR Proverbs 28:6: Better [is] the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than [he that is] perverse [in his] ways, though he [be] rich. Ronald is a good hearted soul. He is in his early sixties, he lived all his life in his parents home and when they passed away he and his brother inherited the house Since his brother was married and had already owned his own home he let Ronald live in the house as if he owned it. His brother would quietly pay the taxes and the up keep on the house so his brother had a decent place to live. Ronald is a little slow mentally but he gets along quiet well on disability income and living in his house. In fact Ronald even has a job. He tells all about his enterprise when I take him to his biweekly physical therapy. Everyday Ronald gets on his bicycle that his brother equipped with a little wagon on

2 the back and he goes out collecting aluminum cans. He has a regular route that he takes and travels around Cicero collect all the discarded aluminum cans. Ronald is proud of his vocation, not only does it provide a little livelihood for him but he also performs a service for the town picking up the discard cans thrown on lawns street curbs, in alleys and in other areas where such debris creates an unsightly image for our town. Many local businesses even have a special container for people to throw their cans and Ronald is faithful to pick up the cans every day. When the town holds special functions or churches hold special events like a carnival Ronald really cleans up as there are special containers that people toss their empty cans into and Ronald is allowed to empty these containers. There is not soda or beer can that Ronald is not familiar with. He can name every brand of soda and beer that is sold in the town. He knows his business picks up during warmer weather as more people purchase refreshments and he knows when local businesses runs specials that involve soda as the volume of his cans pick up during these times. After a day of doing his rounds of picking up cans Ronald then returns home where he takes each can and crushes them with a crusher that his brother purchased for him. He then places no more than fifty cans in a plastic bag. He is careful to be sure that each bag has fifty cans, no more or no less. I am not sure why, but he has his reasons. The local scrap yard calls Ronald when the price of Aluminum

3 is at its highest value and when it is Ronald calls his brother who brings out his pickup truck and they load his bags of cans onto the pick up and take them to the scrap yard where it is weighed and Ronald is given a check for all his labors. Ronald s first order of business is to pay his brother $20.00 for use of the pickup truck. His brother is a valuable part time employee in the firm. This is a lucrative business, Ronald told me that his last check came to around $300 dollars. Not bad for six months of work. Ronald may be looked up as poor living off a disability check and his brother s good will but Ronald is happy, content and proud. He is a law abiding citizen in a free country that allows him to carry on his little enterprise. Solomon said it best in Proverbs 28:6: Better is the poor who walks in uprightness. The word for poor that is used here in the Hebrew is rush which means to be in want, to lack, to be hungry. It also means to be impoverished or destitute. Well, Ronald is not really hungry or destitute, but by the standards of many in this country he really is. However, he does not feel that way. Yet, he is poor but he does walk in uprightness. That word in the Hebrew is for uprightness is tome which means integrity but it is also used to express the idea of innocence and simplicity. That sounds like Ronald. People may think his conditions and situation are pitiful and miserable. But you know what? It doesn t matter what people think, Ronald is so contented and happy he doesn t realize how pitiful his situation is.

4 Solomon compares this to one is perverse in his ways and rich. The word perverse is iqqish which means to be twisted, distorted, crooked and false. Such a person may be rich as a result of his perverse ways. The word rich is ashar which refers to material wealth and luxuries. The key word in all this is the first word in this verse which is the word better. In the Hebrew that word is tov which means to be in harmony in tune with God, the world and those around you. Ronald may be poor yet in his tome that is his innocence and simplicity he is at peace with himself, those around him and with God. He is tov. A rich man who gains his wealth through iggish or false ways will have no peace and will be out of harmony with himself, others and God. Note that God does not say a rich man is out of harmony with everything and everyone only those who acquire their riches through perverse ways. There is nothing wrong with being rich but the more wealth you accumulate the more there is a temptation to perverseness, but it does not have to be. However if you acquire your wealth through twisted, distorted, crooked and false ways, you will end up with a lot of enemies and will always be looking over your shoulder fearful of a lawsuit or someone taking your wealth away. So who really has it better the man who is wealthy and living in fear or Ronald who is poor but also is innocent and simple going about his business collecting cans and being at peace with himself, those around him and with God. Solomon is only repeating an old proverb heard in every

5 culture and every religion around the world. It is better to live in poverty and be at peace than in wealth and living in fear. WORD STUDY ETERNAL LIFE חיא עלמא Matthew 19:16: And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Is it just me or I am the only one who sees that elephant standing in the room whenever we hear this passage of Scripture read? What elephant you ask? I am talking about that elephant trumpeting out that Jesus is telling the man seeking eternal life that his good works (keeping the law) and giving up all he owns and following Jesus will bring him salvation. I ve been taught as just a little splinter on the bench in Tiny Tots that you are saved by the finished work of

6 Jesus Christ, that all our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that it is by grace we are saved, not of ourselves, not by works it is through faith alone and the finished work of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). Say what? Is Jesus now teaching that the good works of keeping the law will grant us a place in heaven? This creates one scary scenario that if we blow the law we are heading down. At least I don t have to worry about that giving up of wealth business since I am very close to setting off lights and alarms on the poverty meter. But this keeping the law is one tricky matter. I can t say like this guy in the story that I have been that faithful. I think the answer to this apparent contradiction can be found if we stop thinking like a 21 st Century Western cultured individual and start thinking like a first century Near Eastern Semitic Jew. The first question that come to my mind is who is this young man? In Luke 18 he is called a ruler. Many commentators feel he is a young prodigy who serves a key position in the synagogue and possibly sits with the local Sanhedrin. He is a man on the way up. Before long those books contracts, TV interviews, mega churches will be calling for him. Yet, if keeping the law is all he needs to do to be saved why does he say in verse 20 that he has kept the law but he is still lacking. I mean if this master teacher told him that is all he needed then why does he doubt? I think we are too quick to assume eternal life is a reference to heaven. The word eternal life in Greek is zoen (life spiritual and physical) and aionion which is an age or unending. That sounds like heaven to me. He obviously isn t asking what to do to go to hell. In the Aramaic eternal life is chaya (life spiritual and physical) and alma, again like the Greek an age or a length of time as well as eternity. Yet, was the Jewish mindset of that day focused on heaven or

7 something else when they heard the words eternal life? I went to the Talmud, a record of the Oral Teachings that was common during the day of Jesus. I found an interesting take on the expression eternal life. In the Babylonian Talmud Sabbat 10a I found this comment by Rabbi Hamnuna where he said about those with prolonged prayers: They forsake eternal life and occupy themselves with temporal life. The times for prayer and the study of Torah (the Word of God) are distinct from each other. Rabbi Zera supports this by quoting Proverbs 28:9: He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer [shall be] abomination. In other words if your abandon the study of the Word of God for prayer you are committing an abomination. Let s face it, you cannot really pray unless you know the Word of God. But Rabbi Zera saw more to this passage. He is pointing out that the Word of God is eternal and has eternal life when prayer only speaks to the temporal, that which will pass. Thus when one spoke of the Torah or the Word of God they were speaking of eternal life. Could it be that this young rich young ruler was seeking a perfect or complete understanding of the Word of God but to accomplish this he must follow the Word of God or its commandments. That is one possible conclusion. Looking further into the Talmud I found this passage in Tractate Abodah Zarah 20b Rabbi Judah R. Meir states that: saintliness leads to the possession of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit leads to eternal life. This is a reference to not only receiving eternal life but giving of eternal life. It is the Holy Spirit who gives eternal life. A footnote in the Talmud indicates that this also refers to the possessor of the Holy Spirit as one endowed with the power of restoring life to the dead (footnote 11). If one had the power to restore life he could provide everlasting life as he could continually restore life once it is exhausted. Indeed Elijah raised a child from the dead. Paul raised a man from the dead who fell off his balcony when he fell asleep during one of

8 Paul s sermons. Of course Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Biblically the power to raise one from the dead is possible through the possession of the Holy Spirit. You know, this is just my thought and a good message for us today. I don t believe this rich young ruler wanted to know how to get to heaven, he probably felt he had that one all sewed up with his obedience to the law. He had seen or heard that Jesus had raised the dead and performed other signs and wonders and I believe he wanted to know how Jesus did all that including raising the dead. He wanted this power for himself. If he could perform some signs and wonders that would pretty well guarantee his future as a religious superstar. When Jesus said he was to sell all he owned and follow Him, well that flew in the face of the man s entire motive for wanting this power. Come on, how many of us with our little floundering ministries see some powerful, influential minister perform signs and wonders and think, Yeah, that s for me. Boy if I could pull a genuine miracle out of the hat, like a resurrection, then, oh boy, I m on my way with book deals, speaking gigs, TV appearances and press coverage. Why I can see it now my name on everyone s lips, if I just had that power to raise the dead. Yeah, you live a good life, you study the Word of God, you pray, you are devoted and then you wonder what it is that you lack that you are not able to raise the dead. Maybe Jesus has a point in verse 21: Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me. Jesus is telling us that we need to forget the book deal, movie rights, speaking gigs, and TV appearances. You want this power you will have to give full honor and credit to God which means you may raise the dead and no one will even know it was you who prayed that prayer. You know you can go before someone with a great healing ministry and he can pray over you and suddenly you are healed. You give honor to God

9 of course but you also become an avid follower of this faith healer, giving him much praise as a man of God, you bestow honor upon and share your financial resources with him. Then one day you get to heaven and you run across a humble servant of God who was just your average Joe Christian that no one paid attention to, never preached a sermon in his life, hardly noticed by anyone who says: You know that day you were healed? I was at that meeting and I saw you up there seeking a healing. I prayed to God that He would heal you and God instantly healed you. Jesus will stand right there and confirm, Yep, it was his prayer not the old wind bag standing up front that brought about your healing, you want to say thank you now? HEBREW WORD STUDY THE CAMEL AND THE NEEDLE S EYE Mark 10:25, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

10 This passage has proved to be very troubling to those seeking some interpretation. It is obviously impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle therefore it must be concluded that it is impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven. It would then follow that only poor people can get into heaven. Then the question arises as to what point do you cross the line between rich and poor. How much wealth do you need before you are considered rich and when do you cross that line to the point where you are considered rich. You may sit back feeling comfortable that you are not rich therefore you have nothing to worry about, but in the eyes of someone from a third world nation you would be considered rich and therefore it is impossible for you to enter heaven. Now this verse becomes very troubling. So this is one verse that we completely ignore as everyone wants to go to heaven but we don t want to be poor to do it. But this is, after all, the inspired Word of God and all Scripture is given to us by God for a purpose, so we just cannot turn our heads the other way and go about our business. At least I cannot turn a blind eye to this passage, I need some closure on it. People who have traveled to Israel often come back with photos of a gate in Jerusalem which their tour guide, looking to wow their shekel paying customers, explains is the gate known as the Eye of the Needle. This is a very low and small gate which was kept open after the main gate closed for the night and a camel could only pass through this smaller gate if it were to have its baggage removed and got down on its knees and

11 crawled through. However, your wily tour guide will not mention that this gate was constructed in the 16 th century and did to exist during the time of Christ. There are other variations to this which include ancient inns having small entrances to mountain passes that has such small entrances that the merchants had to dismount their camels to pass through. These explanations sound plausible and take away the impossibility of a rich man going to heaven only he still has to divest himself of his riches to get to heaven. On top of that there are absolutely no historical evidence of any of these. Besides in verse 27 Jesus declares that it is impossible to pass through without God, not without your riches. Most our commentaries will point out that such an expression is common in all Eastern cultures but it is usually expressed as an elephant going through the eye of a needle and that expression is a hyperbole to show that something is impossible. As far as using a camel to express this, it is believed that people in Judea would be more familiar with a camel. However, if they were not familiar with elephants they would not be familiar with this idiom to begin with. This idiom would have been familiar to the Jews as that very expression is found in the Talmud and hence would have been in oral Tradition. In Berakhot 55b of the Talmud there is this expression, They do not show a man a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle. However, if Jesus was using such a familiar expression why change it to a camel and you are still expressing an impossibility and saying it is impossible for a rich man to get into heaven albeit with the help of God.

12 The Midrash in making a commentary on the Song of Solomon does allude to this idiom in the expression, The Holy One says, open for me a door as big as a needle s eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and camels, although it is questionable that the Aramaic word used here really means camel. Ah, therein lies the root of the problem. The Greek word used for camel is kameolon which means just that, camel, nothing else. Yet, Jesus did not speak this in Greek but in Aramaic. The Aramaic word for camel is gamla which has a double meaning, both rope and camel. The course hair of the camel was often used to fashion a rope by binding these hairs together, hence the word gamla took on this double meaning. Needles in ancient times were not these little metal pin type needles like we purchase at Walmart today, these needles were large and made of oak and you could thread a cord through it. They were often threaded with a cord and hung over the necks of the camels. When the cord was passed through the eye of the needle some of its fibers would come off. Hence a rich man must, learn to share some of his luxuries. I have also read in Aramaic literature an idiomatic expression which seems to have been in commonly use during Jesus s day. When an individual forms an easy and quick friendship he will say that when they met it was like a needle and thread, but if that relationship did not have an easy start and they had difficulty understanding each other they would say that their relationship was like a rope passing through a needle. My feeling is that this is the idiom that Jesus is making a

13 reference to. The kingdom of God to the disciples understanding was not heaven but represented a knowledge of God and an understanding of God. Thus, a rich man to understand God is like a rope passing through a needle, their relationship with God would encounter some difficulty and without God s help it would not be possible. The word for rich in Aramaic is atira which means one who has an abundance of resources, not necessarily money but options to pull one through a difficult situation. Jesus could have been alluding to a commonly understood expression from Oral Tradition later the Talmud where it states that a poor man can easily know God better than a rich man or an atira because a poor man must daily depend upon God for his bread where a rich man can acquire his bread through his abundance. Jesus is simply stating a truth that is common to us all. When we run out of options and resources it is much easier to depend upon God to seek and enter a knowledge of God (kingdom of God) than it is when we have plenty of resources and options at our disposal. PLEASE DON T FORGET TO LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE AT THANK YOU!

14 HEBREW WORD STUDY A WORLD OF ILLUSION Ecclesiastes 5:19: Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth and hath given power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 6:2: A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honor so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires but God gives him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eats it this is vanity it is an evil disease. God may allow his servant to succeed when he has disciplined him to the point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. A.W. Tozer Money a curse? Might I be afflicted and never recover. Tevye Fiddler on the Roof They say the odds of winning the lottery are 18 million to 1. Even if you beat those odds you face another obstacle. God has to empower you to enjoy it. The word empower is shalat which has the idea of dominion, or mastery. You often hear the stories of people who came into sudden riches and they say their lives were worse off when they were rich than

15 when they were poor. There reason is that their riches dominated them or shalat them rather than they dominating their riches. Yet, we learn that is the gift from God. The gift from God is not the riches it is the power to enjoy the riches or to dominate their riches. The word gift in Hebrew comes from the word nathan which is the word for giving. The word is spelled Nun, Taw and Final Nun. It is the same spelled backward or forward. The picture is circular, what you give will come back to you to give out again. To the person who is not empowered or shalat by God, and is not given nathan he will not enjoy his riches, it will be vanity. It is the word vanity that intrigues me. The word in Hebrew is havel which means worthless or of no value. Actually a more definitive meaning is illusion. Without the gift of God his wealth is all an illusion. I remember when I took an economics class, I was really struggling to understand the whole concept of our economy until my professor put it in terms I could understand, it is all an illusion. It is all havel. You take all the United States currency that is in existence today and it will come to only about 500 Billion dollars. So where are the trillions of dollars we hear so much about? Where did the $800 Billion in bailout money come from? The Federal Reserve created it. They don t even need to print it, they type in an amount and there it is. People have a problem believing in a God who created a world out of nothing, but they have no problem believing in a Federal Reserve to create $800 Billion dollars out of nothing. It takes just as much faith to believe you have a certain amount of money in your 401K as it does to believe in a God who will take care of you. Sure there are all sorts of laws the Federal Reserve must follow before it plunges new money into our economy, just as God controls our

16 universe with certain laws. I remember in my philosophy classes where we were studying the search for an absolute. In other words finding something we could be absolutely sure of or was our whole existence just an illusion. About the time the Pilgrims were landing on Plymouth rock a French philosopher name Rene Descartes sat at his desk pondering the idea of an absolute. He looked at his desk and asked: How can I be sure this desk exists. How do I know I am not just imagining this desk. He wanted to find something he could be absolutely sure of. Finally he realized that the only thing he could be sure of was that he could not be sure of anything. This resulted in his famous quote which is the fundamental element of Western Philosophy: Cogito Ero Sum I think there I am. The very fact you are thinking proves that at least there is one existence, you. We cannot be sure that anything else exist, that everything else is an illusion. As I studied the various philosophers of the empiricist thinkers such as Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkley, Rousseau, and Albright, I found it drove me closer to a belief in God rather than away from it. If this world is an illusion, I cannot control that illusion, I cannot make myself rich or healthy. Some believe, like Christian Science, that you can. I believe that if this world is indeed an illusion, then there must be someone who can control that illusion. I believe that master in control is God. He can create any illusion. He can give you wealth or make you poor. If you are rich and find happiness in that wealth, it is only an illusion of happiness. That brings me back to Ecclesiastes and verses 5:19 and 6:2

17 where Solomon addresses the concept of wealth. He seems to be saying that wealth is only an illusion, it is vanity. God may choose to give you joy in that illusion, but the joy ultimately comes from Him, not through the wealth which can disappear and will disappear overnight. You may step in front of a bus tonight and suddenly find yourself in the presence of true reality, the presence of God. Your wealth will be gone at that point and you will have a new wealth in a new existence. Some will say that my belief in God is just an illusion. But from my study of the worldly philosophers, then they are living in an illusion just like me. So to them I will say: May your illusion which you consider reality bring you as much joy and peace as my reality in Jesus Christ brings me. Devotional Psalms 40:1 Good Evening Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:

18 Psalms 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. Matthew 19:23-24: Then Jesus said unto his disciples, verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter heaven, Again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. George, the 84 year old former Greek teacher that I meet with once a week, and I were relaxing doing what we enjoy doing most, making fun of modern English translations of the Bible. George shared one of his biggest complaints. He could not understand why any modern translator did not accept a later manuscript rendering of the Greek word for camel as kamelos (rope) rather than kamilos camel. This would make more sense in Matthew 19:23-24 that is easier to put a rope through a needle s eye than for a rich man to go to heaven. I explained that translators always go with the earliest manuscripts as they are considered more accurate and the earliest manuscripts us kamilos (camel). George just sighed and said: One day they are going to dust off some manuscript in the basement of the Vatican which is earlier than our eariliest manuscripts and it will use the word kamelos (rope). I thought about this as a possible answer to an old question I had. I always, and still do, believe that Jesus was quoting form Oral Tradition (now the Talmud) which speaks of dreams revealing one s heart by saying: They do not show a palm tree of gold nor an elephant going through the eye of needle. Again the Midrash in a discussion of the Song of Solomon, describes the lengths and willingness that God would go to open the door of salvation by saying: Open for me a door as big as a needles eye and I will open for you a door through which may enter tents and camels. The idea of a large animal passing through a needle s eye was

19 a common expression of rabbis to illustrate something that is very difficult if not impossible. I might add that needles in those days could have very large eyes that could accommodate a thin rope, like packaging rope or thicker. Rope, like today, was made by combining thin strands of fabricate and tightly binding them together. The tighter the bind, the stronger the rope was and the thinner the rope was. Could it be that Jesus, being the good rabbi that he was, was making a play on the word camel. He would have been alluding to an old and familiar illustration while at the same time playing the word kamilos (camel) but also leading his disciples to hear kamelos and think of a rope. Yes, if a rope were bound tight enough it could pass through a needle s eye. In other words, for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he must bind himself very tightly with God. That is not so difficult when you are poor and depending on Him for your daily bread, but when all your needs are meet and your storehouses are full, you have a tendency not to bind yourself to closely to God. I remember hearing stories of some old line Pentecostal groups that had what they called tarrying services. They would stay up all night waiting for the Lord to make a visitation. After all that is what is instructed in Scripture in verses like Psalms 40:1 and Isaiah 40:31 which talks about waiting for, or more correctly upon the Lord. I tend to think it is more God waiting for us that we waiting for Him. During these tarrying services the faithful would spend hours praying to God, confessing sins, just really getting down and heavy with God. You see the word wait is the Hebrew word, kavah, which is more than just sitting back waiting like you are waiting for a bus or train. This word is the same word use for making rope. In Psalms 40:1 David is saying he is waiting patiently. Actually, the word kavah is repeated two times

20 which is why the translator added the adverb patiently. The word patiently is implied, it is not in the Hebrew. In this case the repetition of the word kavah was to indicate a very tight binding. David is saying that when he completely bound himself to God, then God inclined unto him. The root word inclined in Hebrew is natah. This has the idea of stretching out, or reaching out to embrace. That is when God heard the cry of David. The word cry here is shava which is a calling out for help. Note, even before God hears the cry of help from David, God is already reaching out to embrace him. Well, let s get this progression right. Before David found himself in trouble where he had to call on God for help, God was already reaching out to him and as He was reaching out David began to cry out for help. There is a story in the Talmud of a rabbi who crossed a street and heard a small child silently sob for his mother who had left him to go to the market. The rabbi knew the mother had left some time ago, for had the mother just left and was in the child s sight, the child would wail loudly for his mother, but now that she was out of sight, the child only sobbed to himself. So, to are we with God. David s cry was not a silent cry, for he knew his heavenly Father was reaching out to him and longing for the nearness of God so he wailed to him He longed for the protective, secure embrace of His Heavenly Father as a child longs for the secure protective embrace of his mother. There is an old song, written by Gary Paxton who wrote such novelty songs as Alley Oop and co-wrote the Monster Mash with Bobby Pickett. After many years of successful song writing Gary Paxton found Jesus and began to write more serious music, such as: Time after time I was searching for peace in some void, I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in

21 Surface relationships used me till I was done in But all the while someone was begging to free me from sin. He was there all the time He was there all the time Waiting patiently in line, He was there all the time. I think maybe this is what David was talking about here in waiting patiently for God. It was really that God was there waiting patiently for David, as David was slowly through prayer, confession, praise, worship binding himself to God. You see the word wait is spelled with a qof which represents sanctification, sacrifice, receiving. This is followed with a vav which represents transformation through unification. The vav is then followed by an ayin which represents spirituality. God is patiently waiting for us to sacrifice our lives to Him so we may be unified with Him and be spiritually transformed. The time of tarrying is not waiting for God to come, it is God waiting for us to lay aside all the hindrances, all the foreign thoughts and fleshly desires so that we become one is spirit with Him. Note that the qof is the number 100 which represents God s patience, vav, is six the number of man and the ayin is 70 the number of restoration. Waiting or kava is God patiently waiting for man to be restored to Him. He was there all the time, just waiting patiently in line.