Psalm 119:2-3 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! The word edah is the word used for testimonies and it’s interesting that, according to the dictionary, it’s always plural and always about God’s law. The word for keep means to preserve, so it’s about not changing or losing His law. Over time, politics and philosophy tend to seep into the text, but those who preserve (or seek to be able to read) the original will be blessedness (remember ‘esher is a noun). Side note: to be blessedness seems to mean that you bless those around you by your actions. So perhaps by preserving and obeying God’s law we spread blessing and are a blessing to others. The last part of the first verse actually reads” whole heart seeking”. It means the same thing, but it’s prettier. So another way a person is blessedness is by seeking God with his/her whole heart. No part held back or hidden. No part chasing after other things. That’s probably easier said than done. I know it’s not the easiest thing for me to do. I’m very easily distracted. “They also” could be translated as “so much more they who”. Using that definition gives this verse an interesting twist. The word for also (or so much more, therefore, etc.) is always used as a conjugation showing greater than status. So David says, basically, that it’s even better to do no unrightousness (interestingly the word for this is evel – sounds like evil). It’s about action. Don’t just know it cognitively, do what it says. Walk in His ways! Walk in His manner of life (which is what ways means). Basically, it does seem to ask the question, “What would Yeshua do?”
I don’t know how I get to places online sometimes. I start one place and somehow end up somewhere else… Such was the case this morning. Several days ago I listened to an mp3 by a Karaite Jew named Nehemia Gordon about a verse in Matthew. What struck me as interesting is that Karaite Jews don’t accept the Talmud (the oral teaching and traditions of the rabbis created hundreds of years after the Torah was given), because many of the Talmud teachings don’t seem to be based on any scriptural truths. It’s an interesting (and to me, logical) take on reading Torah. Anyway, I was curious to see what others thought and Googled the man’s name. As with most things he is somewhat controversial, depending on the viewpoint of the blogger. Some totally agree, while others think he’s going straight to hell in a handbasket. Anyhow, I ran across this article and thought it was a good reflection on the requirements of the law on Jews and Gentiles. It doesn’t really offer any answers, but it does a good job of expounding on some of the viewpoint of today. If you’re interested in reading more about Karaite Jews you can go to this site that has lots of information.
Numbers 7:89 Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that [was] on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him. Can you imagine hearing the voice of God? Actually, the Hebrew (as I have it in the Blue Letter Bible) says he heard the voice speaking to him…, but it’s implied that it’s God, because who else would be speaking from the ark? Whatever the wording, Moses has an incredible relationship with God. He saw God’s back (basically, saw every place in history where God had been), and he had lived for months on the outskirts of the camp with God regularly visiting his tent! He also regularly hear God speak. He didn’t hear Him the way we think of it, that God speaks through His Bible or through songs or through other people or circumstances. No, he heard that actual voice of God (probably muted and gentled so as not to blow him away). What an experience that must have been! I wonder if there’s anyone alive today who’s heard God’s voice, truly, in an audible way. I wonder if it knocked them off their feet in fear and wonder. I read a book a long time ago and in it the main character had to go and find the name of god in order to defeat the creature who had imprisoned her friend. When she received it she had a hard time concentrating because it filled up her entire being and held so much knowledge and understanding that she could stand for hours just contemplating and thinking and basking in the radiance. Interestingly, even though the story takes place in a fictional place, the implication through the imagery and other descriptions is that the people from whom she receives the name of god are a lost tribe of the Israelites and the god’s name is the name of our God. Anyway, reading this verse reminded me of that portion of her story, and I wonder if the voice of God held the same kind of wonder and overwhelmingness (yes, not a word, I know). That would be incredible! Note: Skip Moen spoke about God as the Word this morning… an interesting connection!
One thing that I’m learning is how to dig out the meaning of a word in Hebrew. I’m not always sure if I’m doing it right, so I don’t know if I always make sense. Skip challenged his class to look up the words in John 17:17 which says, Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify, in Greek, means “the separation of the believer from the world in his behavior”, so it’s about a change in behavior that shows a believer to be different. The Hebrew equivalent, “qadash” means to be separate. Truth is from the Hebrew “emeth” which means firmness, reliable, stable. In other words, it’s something that can be depended upon, it doesn’t move or change. Word is from the Greek “logos” which is the Hebrew equivalent for “dabar.” This word means “speech, sayings, occupation, and manner.” Interestingly though, the Greek “logos” was a word created in 600BC and means “ordering principle of the universe that stands for divine reasoning and is present everywhere” and is sometimes condensed into meaning “rational divine power that orders and directs the universe.” This is the same word used at the beginning of John when he says that “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1). So in the beginning was a rational divine power that orders and directs the universe. And that rational divine power was God and was with God. I thought the meaning of “logos” was quite different from the meaning we usually give it. If this definition of word is used in the context of this verse, it’s saying that God’s plan for and direction of our universe (which includes us) is reliable and unchanging. Jesus asks God to set believers apart from the world, our behavior signifying that separateness, through the fact of His reliability and unchanging nature. In other words, because God doesn’t change, because His plan and direction of the universe (and subsequently our lives) is reliable and stable, we can act differently than those around us who see the world as chaotic and shifting. Maybe it’s similar to when David calls God his Rock. Or maybe it’s more like this: Set them apart (by how they act) in your reliability and stability (divine plan and direction of the universe). –> Set them apart in your rational and divine plan for and direction of the universe which is reliable and stable. Either way, it’s really interesting to figure out what the original meaning of the words are because it lends a whole different light to the verse. I’d love to have a copy of the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament because it goes into much more depth about the context and use of the the words. It’s going to take a while to wrap my brain around the implications of that verse. I’m still new to this figuring stuff out, so if you think I’m completely off base here, that’s okay. You’re welcome to say so in the comments… but I’m not going to be able to get into a deep theological argument, considering I have no formal training in this and am just now learning my way around all these tools.
2 Corinthians 1:21 It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ… I’m having a day, or series of days, where nothing really jumps off the page at me. I read lots of things that I’ve read before or that are things that I know about and believe. It just feels a little blah. However, that’s me, not God’s Word. I think that’s one of the hard things about having read something before. It’s easy to read it and think “I already know that.” But God is renews every days and each morning there is more to know. Sometimes I’m just a little slow. Anyhow, this is the verse I focused on today. It was a good reminder that sometimes it takes God’s strength to stand firm. I teach in a public school, and many of the people I work with either don’t believe in God at all or think of him as an abstraction. I’m good friends with some of them, and yet I’m often surprised at the things they support (like trying to get the ad with Tim Tebow and his mom taken out of the Super Bowl). I tend to just lay low and try and live well. But if it were to come to it, I hope God would give me strength to stand firm in my convictions and speak out for what I believe. I’m not good at speaking my mind. Just ask John. But I’m learning. Slowly.
I was looking for something else on Skip Moen’s site but found this (because it’s from today). From Skip Moen’s Today’s Word “The Hidden God” post: The word of God is not an object of contemplation. The word of God must become history” (emphasis added). Contemplate this insight. Biblical revelation, God’s disclosure of His point of view about us, is tied directly to unrepeatable, unique historical events. It comes from outside the schemata of general laws. It has no precedent and no subsequent parallel. If we are to understand, we must realize that God’s word is, in itself, an incarnation. It is God becoming history – our history. The hidden mystery of God splits our chronos, repeatable experience and leaves us with a slice of the divine, exploded in an event in life here and now. The hidden quality of God is discovered in His desire to open a window into heaven. It could not be more momentous. Is that what you realize when you read His word? Do you find yourself captured by a mystery? Are you consumed by the event of His disclosure, stunned by His presence? Do you read the words trembling that God allows you to peek behind the curtain, even if only for a split second? Are you in awe? Or do you read in order to categorize, systematize and universalize? OUCH! I totally read to categorize, systematize and universalize. Sometimes I am captured by the mystery – like with the whole angel thing yesterday… but how often am I consumed by and stunned by His presence? Do I even realize that I am getting a glimpse into the mind and heart of God? That is certainly something for me to contemplate.