Yeshua often used various agricultural images in his parables. For example, he explained that people are known by the “fruits” of their lives (Matt. 7:16-20). He likened the spread of his message in terms of “sowing and reaping” (Matt. 13:3-23) and compared the Kingdom of Heaven to the secret working of a mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32). Yeshua regarded the world as a “field” for planting with different “types of soil” (Matt. 13:38-43), and warned of the “great harvest” of souls at the end of the age (Luke 10:2; Matt. 13:30). He pointed to signs from a fig tree to indicate the nearness of the prophesied End of Days (Matt. 24:32-33). Yeshua also used the metaphor of a “vine and its branches” to explain how his followers are to be connected to Him (John 15:1-6).
Month: January 2021
God’s All-Sufficient Presence…
This week we revisit the story of Moses and how God called him to lead the Israelites during the time of judgment against the cruel power of ancient Egypt. When Moses asked God why he (of all people) was chosen to be his prophetic emissary, however, the LORD did not explain His choice in natural terms; nor did he appeal to Moses’ past experiences, or to his potential, or even to his great humility… Instead God simply said that whatever inadequacies Moses may indeed have, being in a personal relationship with Him was going to entirely sufficient for the task: “for I will be with you” (i.e., ki eheyeh imakh: כִּי־אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ). That is all that Moses would need (Exod. 3:12).
When Moses further sought to justify his calling as a true prophet sent from God, however, he asked to know God’s “name” (see Exod. 3:13). God’s response to the request was enigmatic: אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה – ehyeh asher ehyeh: “I will be what I will be” (or I am what I am), which may be understood as, “It doesn’t matter what my Name is – I will be what I will be – all that matters is that I will be with you (ehyeh imakh), and that is enough! Indeed, God’s name is nifla (נִפלָא) – “wonderful and incomprehensible” (Judges 13:18; Psalm 139:6), since the LORD is infinite and beyond comparison to finite things (Psalm 147:5). God is the great “I AM” that pervades all of Reality (אָנכִי), the glorious Eternal Personal Presence (i.e., hayah, hoveh, ve’yihyeh) whose power constantly sustains all things. Most of all, He is declared and expressed as our Savior, the One who reveals the face of God to us all (2 Cor. 4:6).
Fruit in his Season…
Spiritual fruit does not immediately crop up but requires time and its own season (Psalm 1:3). The process of spiritual growth is mysterious and comes from heaven’s creative power, as Yeshua said: “The Kingdom of God (מַלְכוּת הָאֱלהִים) is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. By itself (αὐτομάτη, i.e., “automatically”) the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. And when the grain is ripe, he comes in with his sickle because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29). The wonder of faith understands the “ordinary” process of the growth of a seed as genuinely miraculous… With God all things are possible – and that includes the miracle of our newness of life. It is the fruit of the Spirit, after all, and that means that its source and end is found in God’s love…
Thank God it is a process, that we are not perfected in a day, otherwise we might die in despair over ourselves… As it is, God helps us endure ourselves, reminding us to lay down and die so that the power hidden in the “seed” can be released (John 12:24).
