Surrender and Slavery

I was listening to Dutch Sheets speak about Intercessory prayer, and something he said suddenly just clicked!  God created man (Adam) to be an image (a shadow, an illusion, a re-presentation) of Him and His glory here on earth.  Adam looked like YHWH and was given His authority to re-present the will of YHWH on earth.  Unfortunately, Adam surrendered that authority and gave it to Hasatan, our Adversary, and in doing so, turned over YHWH’s kingdom to the enemy.  Now Adam was stripped on that authority and a slave or captive. But YHWH promised the enemy who had gained authority that a time was coming when his rule would be crushed.

Reclaiming the Kingdom

Four thousand-ish years later, Yeshua came.  A man surrendered authority and a man had to take it back.  To do this, Yeshua had to overthrow the rule of the enemy, death.  When Yeshua rose again, defeating death, He took back the kingdom authority for YHWH on earth.  Once again, the true King rules and reign. 

Redemption

So what does that have to do with people?  What does it mean to “trust in Yeshua”?  When I trust in Yeshua, when I surrender my will to His, when I choose to believe and accept that He is the One, true King, I choose to become part of His kingdom.  Kind of like a naturalized citizen in a country.  I swear my allegiance and submission to the rule and reign of YHWH.  I turn my back on my former citizenship and slavery, and I choose to submit to His rules and His ways.

Reigning

As a citizen of YHWH’s retaken kingdom, I choose to submit to His laws, the Torah.  As His embassador to this earth, it is my role to live a life that demonstrates what it means to be a part of His kingdom.  And since His kingdom is totally different from the enemy’s, my life should reflect that difference.  Just like Roman ambassadors were charged with making conquered citizens more Roman, I am charged with showing the newly freed and those who still live in bondage what it means to be a part of YHWH’s rule and reign.

Reconciling the Torah

One confusing bit was how the Torah fit in.  I believe in its relevance, but how does it work with what Yeshua did?  Here’s my thoughts:  I can live by the Torah and never enter into and submit to YHWH’s kingdom authority by believing that Yeshua, His Son has reclaimed the keys to the kingdom (so the Torah can’t bring me true life, but my inability to follow it does show me that I need Yeshua, someone to save me from slavery.).  But, if I do believe that Yeshua crushed the rule of the enemy and now rules this earth, and if I submit myself to His rule, then I also choose to obey His rules (Torah).  Do people break rules?  Yeah.  Sometimes on purpose, and sometimes in ignorance.  Are there consequences for breaking rules?  Yeah.  Some are more obvious than others, though.  If I choose to eat pork, the consequence may be a build up of fat and being unhealthy.  It may not kill me, but I won’t be all that I could be.  On the other hand, there are some laws that, if broken, carry more obvious consequences.  Like murder.  I can live in YHWH’s kingdom and not follow Torah.  But life will be richer, and I will be a better light and re-presentation of YHWH’s kingdom if I do.

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Psalm 91:15-16

He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.  With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see my salvation.

Want to hear something cool?  Do you know that the word for salvation is yeshua?  Yup, the name of the Son of God literally means salvation!  I’m a teacher, and I’ve taught some students with some really unusual names…  The name Salvation would have been one of them.  Imagine Mary calling Him for dinner, “Salvation!  Salvation, it’s time for dinner!”  But in this context of this verse, it’s pretty neat, too.  We can look back with hindsight and see all he different implications of seeing His Yeshua – His salvation for us.

I also think it’s neat to see the things that God does for me: He answers, He’s there, He rescues, He honors, He satisfies, He reveals.  I have to call on Him.  Sounds  like His part of the deal is much more extensive, yet how often do I forget to call?  And God is faithful to answer me, to be with me, to rescue me from the midst of the storm, to honor me (this is a little mind boggling), to satisfy me, to reveal His Truth and His Light and His Way – Yeshua.  That’s pretty incredible!  And I all He asks me to do is call!

Psalm 21:1-5

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. O LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice!

You have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.

For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

He asked life of You, You gave it to him, Length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great through Your salvation,Splendor and majesty You place upon him.

A while back I looked at a pattern that is repeated in Psalms.  A-B-C-B-A.  It’s here, too!  Verse 1 (A) is related to verse 5 (A).  Verse 1 speaks of how the king is glad and rejoices in God’s strength and salvation.  Verse 5 relates those things to his own life – the king’s glory is great because of God’s salvation, and God gives him splendor and majesty, too.

Verse 2(B) is related to verse 4 (B).  He asked God for his heart’s desire and it was given to him.  Verse 4 tells us that this desire was life, eternal life perhaps (length of days forever and ever).

And verse 3 (C) is the pinnacle, the top of the mountain.  It recognizes that God blesses him with good things!

Pattern is important.  Events in the old testament are often repetition of patterns.  In Matthew he shows how events in Yeshua’s life are often patterned after events in the old testament (the Torah and Tanak).  In Genesis, it’s written with and event and then genealogies then events then genealogies and so on.  Maybe these patterns persist even today, except that we don’t see them since we’re so busy (and because we aren’t looking).  We can be glad and rejoice in God’s strength and salvation (rescue in a literal sense, rather than the more “Christian” sense) because we are strengthened by God’s hand and rescue.  We ask Him for our heart’s desire and He grants it.  If we think in typical terms, this could apply to an eternal relationship with God.  And He still blesses us with good things!

Neat, huh?!

Psalm 119:41

Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD– Your salvation according to Your word.

I almost hesitate to even try to dig into this verse.  Salvation is a confusing and misused word in a lot of ways, and I’m still trying to wrap my mind about it.  But, oh well.  My ten cents (or two cents, or whatever the saying is).

Mercies

First, I think I must be missing something because the Hebrew words given for this verse (via Blue Letter Bible) don’t seem to match with what’s written.  The word for mercies is checed which means “kindness, faithfulness, and goodness.”  No mercy anywhere.  Oddly, or perhaps interestingly, checed also means “shame and reproach.”  I’m not even going there.  So anyway, the very first part of this is about goodness, kindness and faithfulness, not mercy.

Come also to me

The word for “come also to me” is bow and it means (among many things) “to come to pass, to come upon, and to enter.”  So, it seems more like David is asking for YHWH’s faithfulness/kindness/goodness to come to pass or perhaps to even enter into him or his circumstances.

Salvation

Salvation, my favorite, is teshew’ah and it means:

1) salvation, deliverance

a) deliverance (usually by God through human agency)

b) salvation (spiritual in sense)

Gesenius defines it as “help, welfare, or victory” (Gesenius’ lexicon via Blue Letter Bible).  This is pretty different from our particular view of salvation.  When this was written Yeshua hadn’t come, and the idea of forgiveness of sins was wrapped up in sacrifices and the Temple altar.  So, I doubt David is talking about sin in the same way we do today.  I thought that definition 1a was especially interesting because of the parenthesis: usually by God through human agency.  In other words, God uses people to deliver others.  Deliver them from what?  Well, trying to put myself in the context of when this was written, I’d imagine it could be deliverance from many things: the idolatry of the nations that seemed to constantly be trying to steal into the Hebrew culture, the threat of warfare or death by these same nations whose idols were so slippery, even the plots and plans of men to overthrow, kill, or harm the monarchy.  David could be asking for help or victory over these things.  And if Gesenius is correct in his definition as “welfare” then perhaps David is asking even for God’s provision in time of need.  Now you see why this word is complicated?

Want to add one more layer to “salvation”?  The word implies rescue at the very last, most dire moment, when defeat seems certain unless help arrives.  It’s at the darkest moment before dawn.  And then the light breaks through, help arrives, and the tide is turned.  It’s not necessarily the moment of victory, but rather the turning point from defeat to triumph.  But it’s only because someone else (in our case, God) arrived at the crucial moment (and not a moment too soon) to reverse the course of the battle.

Your word

And finally we reach the end – according to Your word.  The Hebrew for “Your word” is imrah and it means the “Word of God, the Torah.”  Remember, when the Psalms were written, the only part of the “Bible” that these people had were the writings of Moses (the first few books of the Bible).  There were no books of Kings or Prophets or Proverbs or probably even 1 & 2 Samuel.  There certainly was no New Testament and letters from Shaul or the others.  So, David’s salvation, his rescue, would come from or through or “according to” the Torah – the laws that YHWH had laid out through Moses.  If this rescue was from the corruption of the surrounding nations, then the remedy was to live according to God’s laws.  By living according to God’s law, then Israel would continue to be in line with the covenant and would receive God’s blessings.  If not, then the covenant would be broken and, well, we know what happened when Israel failed to keep YHWH first and only.

The Point

So, what’s the point?  The application?  I’m not sure.  In some ways digging just confuses me.  However, it all seems to be tied up in the last phrase “according to Your words.”  The first is related to the last – the rescue is related to God’s faithfulness and goodness and it is all according to His law.  And it’s recorded there in the Torah, too, so it can be remembered.  Not only the law, but also His past faithfulness.  Perhaps we need to look there more often to be reminded of His faithfulness, goodness, and kindness, as well as for deliverance from falling into the pattern of the corruption of this age.

There are two major differences between this view of salvation and our current view:

1.  Salvation is not about getting to heaven.  It’s about being rescued from the world and its ways.  It’s about entering into the nation of God, into a community where God is first and obedience to Him is a result of a decision to make Him Lord of everything.  It’s about doing, and it’s about now, and it’s about shema (hearing and obeying).

2.  Salvation is not a personal thing.  If one family member enters into the community of Israel, swearing allegiance to God and not the rulers of the world(this made me think twice about The Pledge of Allegiance that we say at my school every day), then as a result the whole family makes this move.  When Paul was teaching the followers of The Way, swearing allegiance to God was treason since it required a person to not swear allegiance to Caesar.  Making this kind of statement wasn’t done lightly and often led to persecution and death.  Entering into a community of believers who could support and encourage was huge!  And when one family member entered, the whole family became part.

Honestly, I’m still trying to wrap my brain about all this.  I feel kind of heretical.  Right now my prayer is for truth – to understand what God’s original intent was and to understand how it is worked out in my life.  God is clearly a God of community, but He also knows each of us individually.  How does this all fit together?  I don’t know.  I’ll have to keep reading.

Anyhow, the imagery in this post is haunting (to say the least), but it’s an interesting comment on the way we were and the way we are.  Check it out.

When we read Scripture, we enter the world of Hebrew culture.  The more we are able to grasp that view of reality, the better we are able to worship the God revealed in Hebrew thought.

That is the answer to my “Why?” question.  Why learn about Hebrew culture and try to understand the writers as they were when they wrote it, including the actual Hebrew of the text and the idioms and other metaphors that play such a huge role in Hebrew?  To know God better.

I believe that Yeshua died to cover what ritual sacrifice couldn’t cover – purposeful sins.  In covering these sins He also removed the guilt of the unintented/unintentional sin that had previously been dealt with through animal sacrifice.  I believe it’s by grace that we receive this forgiveness, through believing that He is who He says He is and choosing to make Him lord of my life.  I believe that studying His word, and possibly even following the commands in the Torah (there are only about 20 that are even relevant today), are acts of worship and obedience that come out of my choice to serve God as my liege Lord.  My obedience makes me useful to His kingdom purposes, which is to restore what was perfect and was lost in the Garden – the relationship between God and man.

Does that mean I am not useful if I don’t follow the commands of Torah (which we only partially do today – yes, we are partially Torah observant in that we believe in one God, we don’t worship idols – unless you count money I guess)?  No.  I can still be used.  Look at the many, many people in history that God has used in HUGE ways even if they didn’t understand or agree with the link between the Old Testament and the New – Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, etc.  But, if they had understood, how much greater an impact could they have had?

One of the books that I want to read is called, Constantine’s Bible.  It’s about the changes that were solidified in the Messianic Jewish (aka Christian) church in order to separate it from the Jewish synagogues and make it the “official” religion.  Most of what we consider Christian today actually came out of the changes made by Constantine.  And, according to most scholars (Christian and secular), most of what we consider Christian is actually based on pagan rites and rituals.

Ultimately, God is God and will do as He chooses.  He knows the heart of man and searches and examines it to see its true motivation.  For those of us who have lived out lives in the Christian church, never exposed to the idea that maybe some of the stuff in the Old Testament actually applies still, I can’t believe God would penalize us for that.  And I don’t think He’s shaking His head.  He is sovereign and as such He can use whatever He wants and do whatever He wants.  He is my God despite my imperfections.  I want to know Him more and understand Him better.  And I do that in the only way I know how… I learn, I read, I listen, I pray.  And somewhere along the way, my thoughts get sorted out, and I develop a larger and clearer picture of who I am, and more importantly, who He is.

For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (KJV) John 1:17

But – You won’t find the Greek word for this translation in Today’s Word index because there is no Greek word in the original text.  The translation adds the word “but” to the sentence.  That little addition changes everything.  It’s not a slip.  It’s deliberate.  And it’s deliberate propaganda!

About a month ago I got a letter from Boaz Michael.  He mentioned this verse in his letter, pointing out that the addition of “but” created a terrible tragedy for believers.  It is the tragedy of thinking that law and grace are opposed to each other; that Moses and Jesus don’t say the same thing.  When the translators added “but” to the sentence, they implied that Christians and Jews have different gospels.  They separated believers into two camps; those who lived under the Mosaic code and those who lived under the free grace of the Gospels.  What a disaster for all of us!  It’s hard to imagine that men took such steps to break the Word of God in two, but they did.  They wanted an unbridgeable gap between the Older Testament and the Newer Testament, and for hundreds of years they have succeeded, convincing millions of God-fearing, humble followers that Jesus did not teach what Moses was given.  All those followers struggled to find a clear path of obedience.  Some succeeded.  Many did not.  God always uses what we are able to give, but we certainly made it much harder by believing what the “professionals” told us rather than looking for ourselves.  They got away with theological murder – and we let them.

The first principle of biblical interpretation is this:  God does not contradict Himself.  If He tells Moses that there are certain steps to be taken in obedience to Him that will insure our greatest usefulness in His purposes, you can be assured that Jesus did not say something different.  This is even more that case when we realize and profess that Jesus is God.  When it comes to salvation, God has not changed His mind.  Salvation is by grace and grace alone.  That was true for Moses and it’s true for us.  That is exactly what Jesus taught.  But usefulness comes through obedience and obedience is determined by a code of conduct revealed to Moses and endorsed by Jesus.  That has also always been the case.  Don’t let any translator slip that one past you.  You do not serve two gods.  You serve only One God and He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

I know that many of us struggle with this truth.  We have been hearing the gospel of grace and the evils of the Law so long that we are convinced that Jesus was a radical revisionary.  Please look again.  You have nothing to lose by asking yourself exactly what Jesus taught about the Mosaic code of conduct, but you have a great deal to lose if you just go on thinking that none of the “Law” applies to you.  Don’t become a “yes-man” just because your favorite translation adds a word here or there.  Insist on truth.  Demand that those who know tell you what words are really in the text and what words aren’t.  Pray that God will lead to you someone who will help you know what He said.  God listens to those kinds of prayers.  I know because I was blind myself before He heard my cry.  This is a journey and we are traveling together.  Just hold on to the one who is a step in front of you and ask a lot of questions. [1]

This clears up a lot of questions for me, making a bit of the confusion clearer.  And even if no one ever reads this post, at least some of my issues were sorted out and I have an easy reference next time I get confused again!

[1] Moen, Skip. “Theological Propaganda.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2008/09/07/theological-propaganda/>.

Romans 10:3

For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won’t go along with God’s way.

Man!  Isn’t this the human way to do things?  God has a way for us that is good (and maybe difficult), but we stubbornly persist in doing it our way!  We don’t go along with God’s way because, of course, our way makes more sense or seems easier or we “have a good feeling about this”.  I know I’m guilty of this.  So often I do the same thing over and over and over, ignoring God’s way because I’m too busy doing it my way.  I think that’s called tunnel vision.  Maybe it’s called pride, too.

Sometimes we don’t do things God’s way because we think it can’t possibly be that easy.  For example, here it’s talking about salvation.  Just believing seems so ridiculously easy that it can’t possibly be the right way.  But it’s that simple.  It says so just a few verses down – Romans 10:10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  And later in Romans 10:13 For “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. We must like to complicate things… which could be partly because of our guilty consciences and the whispers of the Enemy of our souls, “you’ve got to do more, be better, to be saved.”  But Jesus did all the work, and because He loves us so incredibly much, we reap all the benefits simply by believing that His hard work made us right with God.  And, yes, it’s that simple.

It's that simple.