Gratitude is essential to the life of faith… We read in the Torah: “And you shall bless the LORD your God for the good” (Deut. 8:10). Whenever we derive benefit or enjoyment from something we are to bless (i.e., thank) God for his goodness. Indeed the Hebrew term for gratitude is hakarat tovah (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה), a phrase that means “recognizing the good.” The heart looks through the eye, and therefore how we see is ultimately a spiritual decision: “If your eye is “single” (i.e., ἁπλοῦς, sincere, focused),” Yeshua said, “your whole body will be filled with light” (Matt. 6:22). When we see rightly, we are awakened to God’s Presence in the little things of life, those small miracles and “signs and wonders” that constantly surround us. The good eye of faith sees hundreds of reasons to bless God for the precious gift of life (1 Cor. 10:31).
Month: November 2021
Mystery and Humility…
Though it is important to guard our sincere convictions and to be passionate about what we believe, we must nevertheless be careful to walk in humility before the mystery of life… After all, much is inscrutable to us, much is beyond our understanding, and therefore, if we are honest, we should be reverent before the “sacred secrecy” of everything. Fanaticism and intolerance (whether secular or religious) is motivated by willful ignorance of the marvelous complexities that pervade existence. The fanatic invariably seeks to reduce life to a simple formula, recipe, and a generalization. The humble person, on the other hand, freely confesses that they “walk by faith, not by sight” — by hearing the Word of God and heeding what the Spirit of God is saying to the heart… For now we “see through a glass darkly,” which literally means “in an enigma” (ἐν αἰνίγματι). An enigma (or riddle) is an analogy given through some resemblance to the truth, though quite often the correspondences are puzzling and obscure. Hence, “seeing through a glass darkly” means perceiving obscurely or imperfectly, looking “through” something else instead of directly apprehending reality. We see only a reflection of reality, and our knowledge in this life is indirect and imperfect. This is contrasted with the “face to face” (פָּנִים אֶל־פָּנִים) vision and clarity given in the world to come, when our knowledge will be clear and distinct, and the truth of God will be fully manifest and no longer hidden. Being “face to face” with reality means being free of the riddles, the analogies, the semblances, etc., which at best adumbrate our way.. Such reflection should make us humble whenever we share our faith. “Now we know in part, but then shall we know in whole” (1 Cor. 13:12). Let therefore repeat that an honest theology must find a place for mystery, for “seeing through a glass darkly,” and for the apprehension of awe and wonder.
“There was a time when I had all the answers. My real growth began when I discovered that the questions to which I had the answers were not the important questions…. A genuine faith must recognize the fact that it is through a dark glass we see; though by faith we do penetrate sufficiently to the heart of the mystery so as not to be overwhelmed by it. A genuine faith resolves the mystery of life by the mystery of God. It recognizes that no aspect of life or existence explains itself, even after all known causes and consequences have been traced. All known existence points beyond itself. To realize that it points beyond itself to God is to assert that the mystery of life does not dissolve life into meaninglessness….” (Reinhold Niebuhr)
Since the LORD God is called the Infinite One (אֵין סוֹף) whose understanding is without limit (Psalm 147:5), we must use analogies, metaphors, symbols, allusions, parables, poetry, and other linguistic devices (as well art and music) to convey spiritual truth and meaning. We compare (συγκρίνω) spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13). Some of the classical “mystics” have said the way to God is through the transcendence of words altogether, though most of them use imagery and poetry to speak about “ineffable” reality. Others, like Soren Kierkegaard, use “indirect communication” to evoke the decision to believe, to find hope, and to walk by faith. The truth can be found, not by means of humanistic learning, but by special revelation and encounter with the Truth of God.
After all, much is inscrutable to us, much is beyond our understanding, and therefore, if we are honest, we should be reverent before the “sacred secrecy” of everything.” – jjp
Hebrew Lesson:
- Psalm 147:5 Hebrew page (pdf)
Torah of Comfort…
“No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear” (C.S. Lewis). We naturally feel sorrow when we experience loss in our lives, though we may experience a sort of consternation, too, since the very ground beneath our feet may seem to fall away, us leaving us feeling alienated and terribly alone. Over time our grief can make us numb and disconnected. We draw inward, afraid that whatever we love will be taken from us… As someone once confided: “Each loss makes a little hole in you; after awhile, they all add up, and there’s just a gaping hole where your heart used to be.”
We must go through the desert before we can live the promise. Since experiencing loss is part of life in a fallen world, we must first acknowledge our troubles and sorrows. “Don’t call me Naomi (“my delight”) but Mara (“bitterness”), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me (כִּי־הֵמַר שַׁדַּי לִי מְאֹד). I went out full, but the LORD hath brought me home empty” (Ruth 1:20-21). Once we give voice to our pain (and that might have to be done over and again) the heart can reopen to hope once again. We then can turn to God and learn to live in the moment, trusting him to help us through the troubles of the day (Matt. 6:34).
Trust in Dark Hours…
We are living in dark times, perilous days (2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Pet. 3:3). The world has become more and more lawless, corrupt, irrational, and violent. Many live in dread, sensing that days of difficulty are ahead. Indeed, with the advent of the “Covid” pandemic 18 months ago, it is evident that things are likely never to return to “normal” as the world economy and the global political situation are restructured… God has sent strong delusion “so that those who do not love the truth should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:10-11). These are truly unprecedented times, and the hour draws near, friends….
Though we might not understand why God allows these things to happen, we nevertheless hold fast to our conviction that the Lord is our Good Shepherd who is restoring our souls. He speaks to us in the midst of uncertainty: “Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his Servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the Name of the LORD and lean upon on his God” (Isa. 50:10).
Friend, the Lord allows the dark cloud of unknowing for his own sovereign purposes, perhaps as a means to teach us to abandon ourselves to his care. Surely God understands our powerlessness; “he remembers our frame, that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14); surely He knows that we cannot see and therefore he calls us to “lean upon Him” for guidance. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we find that he is with us, and therefore we must choose to fear no evil.
Trusting in God (i.e., bittachon – בִּטָּחוֹן) does not mean that we are obligated to affirm that this is “the best of all possible worlds,” though it does mean we believe that eventually God will wipe away every tear and make all things right. Bittachon is a word for this world, which says, “Though he slay me, I will trust in him…” We do not need to trust for what is seen in this world but for an unseen good (Rom. 8:24). Those who call upon the LORD can trust not only in concealed good behind ambiguous appearances (“all things work together for good”) but also in a future, real, substantive good that will one day be clearly manifest for us all… We fight the “good fight” of faith, which is a worthy struggle that eventually is realized for blessing. We die daily; we mortify ourselves and surrender to God’s will. Meanwhile, we ask the Lord to be kept from such depth of sorrow that leads to self-destruction and despair….
We must press on without fear, trusting that our faithful LORD will strengthen us for “such a time as this.” We must be brave, equipped for battle, and full of conviction that the message of the gospel is the only hope for this moribund and decadent world. We must be on guard lest we fear, for fear is the greatest tool of the enemy of our souls, and therefore we must resist him steadfast and full of divine assurance. “The Lord is faithful: He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thess. 3:3). The Spirit says, “Fear not, for I am with you always.” The Lord “will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the Day of our Yeshua the Messiah” (1 Cor. 1:8). He who calls you is forever faithful; He will surely do it (1 Thess. 5:24).
If you ask for bread, your heavenly Father will not give you a stone… Only God can deliver us from our “disordered loves” to take hold of what is truly essential. All we can do is ask, and keep on asking – even as we struggle on, despite ourselves, despite our losses… And we often revisit our sins over and over until we become “sick of our sickness,” that is, until we begin to understand what our heart really needs. It’s as if we are constantly being asked, “Is this what you want?” and our choices confess the truth… Only God does the miracle of real change within the human heart – only God can give life from the dead!
Hebrew Lesson:
- Isaiah 50:10 Hebrew Card (pdf)
The Sacred Center…
“We are in God and God whom we do not see is in us” (Julian of Norwich). This follows from the meaning of the Name of God itself which is Eternal Life. YHVH (יהוה) means that God was (i.e., hayah: היה), God is (i.e., hoveh: הוֶה), and God always will be (i.e., yihyeh: יהיה) the Source, the Heart, and the End of our lives. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). We may think of the LORD as being “out there” someplace apart from us, but that is untrue, for he constantly upholds all things by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3) and by Him all things “consist” or “hold together” (Col. 1:17). His will is the gravity that directs all of reality. We may sometimes feel like God is distant from us, but understand that feeling to be an invitation to wake up, come alive, and to live before his Presence. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Him….
God’s Name means “I-AM-with-you-always,” imanu-El (עִמָּנוּ אֵל) – always in the midst of you, in your heart, at the center of who you really are (Matt. 28:20; Isa. 41:10, Psalm 23:4, etc). The LORD is so named because he is never without his own, and we are who we are in relation to his presence in our lives. Yeshua is not simply the Lord of the past or the Lord of the future, but the Lord of this moment, this “here” and this “now.” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever – the breath of life, our sustaining hope, the Shepherd of our souls… Whatever else may come of this day, this is the day that the LORD has made, and we find peace in God’s Presence… Let us look to Him in this hour! Amen.
Hebrew Lesson:
- Isaiah 6:3b Hebrew Card (pdf)
Surrender to Peace…
“Be still and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10). This is something you must do; you must quiet your heart to know the Divine Presence. Therefore “set the Lord always before you” (Psalm 16:8) and refuse anxious thoughts that weigh in upon you, creating pressure and “dis-ease.” Quieting your heart allows you to hear the holy whisper: “It is I; do not be afraid…” Once the storm of fear dissipates, you can access the truth of God. As the Spirit says, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isa. 30:15).
Worry is a place of exile and pain. Since God’s Name (יהוה) means “Presence” and “Love,” being anxious is to practice the absence of God’s presence instead of practicing his presence… A divided house cannot stand. Where it is written, “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7), the word translated “anxiety” comes from a verb that means to divide into pieces. Bring your brokenness to God – including those distractions that make you ambivalent and afraid – to receive God’s healing for your divided heart.
“Be still…” Note that the verb translated “be still” (i.e., rapha: רפה) means to “let go,” to stop striving, and to surrender everything to the care of God (Rom. 8:28). “Being still” means letting go of your “need” to control the world. Relax your hold and rely on God’s care for your life instead, without “taking thought” for tomorrow and its concerns (Matt. 6:34). The past is gone, after all, and the future is God’s business: all you have is the present moment to call upon our Lord. Be faithful in the present hour, then, asking God for the grace and strength you need to endure yourself and engage the task at hand. In this way you will experience the peace of God “which surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).
Walking with God isn’t just a matter of “head education,” but also of “heart education,” and these two must always go together as Spirit and Truth (John 4:23). Head education seeks knowledge primarily as a means of defining what you believe (emunah); heart education, on the other hand, centers on fear, or rather, on overcoming your fear by trusting in God’s love and healing grace (bittachon). When you accept that you are accepted despite yourself, you are delivered from the need to defend yourself. You can let go, quit denying who you are, and accept God’s unconditional care for your life – regardless of the state of the world. When your heart learns to “be still,” you can know that the Lord your God reigns over all things!
“Be still and know that I am…” Prayer is a type of listening (shema), a turning back to know the message of God’s love and hope in Messiah. The word “teshuvah” (תְּשׁוּבָה) means an answer or response to a question. God’s love is the question, and the heart’s response is the answer. Some of us may find it difficult to trust, to open our heart to receive grace and kindness. For those wounded by abandonment, it can be a great struggle to hear the voice of God calling you “beloved,” “worthy,” “valued,” and “accepted.” When you find faith to receive God’s word of love, however, your heart comes alive and you begin to heal… Yeshua speaks words of comfort: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe.”
Hebrew Lesson:
- Psalm 46:10 Hebrew Page (pdf)
Leah’s Weak Eyes?
Both Rachel and Leah are considered beautiful women in Jewish tradition, but a verse in this week’s Torah seems to suggest that Rachel was the “beauty queen” of the family: “Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful” (Gen. 29:17). Why are Leah’s eyes described as “weak”? Is this a euphemism for saying she was unsightly? After all, Rachel is described in this verse as yifat mareh – “beautiful of sight” (i.e., attractive). Does this text therefore contrast the two women by implying that Leah was physically unattractive? Or does having “weak eyes” mean that she was perhaps nearsighted? How are we to understand Leah’s weak eyes?
The word translated as “weak” is the Hebrew word rakkot (רַכּוֹת), the plural form of the word rak (רַךְ), meaning soft or tender. Rashi comments that Leah’s eyes were made “weak” (tender) from crying “until her eyelashes fell out.” But why was she so sad? According to midrash, Leah’s eyes were reddened and puffy because she was constantly lamenting the prospect of marrying Esau. The adage of the town was: “Two sons to Rivkah; two daughters to Lavan; the older to the older, the younger to the younger.” Another, and perhaps more likely reason for Leah’s tears, however, was that her father Laban was an evil man…
Leah’s eyes were tender and tear-stained, then, but this is not intended to say she was physically unattractive. On the contrary, saying that she had “weak eyes” is a term of praise for her, since (according to the midrash) her greatest fear was to be forced to undergo an arranged marriage with Esau, and therefore she wept and wept to be the mother of the righteous…. God saw her tears — and blessed her to become the most fruitful of the four matriarchs of Israel. Ironically, it was the less teary-eyed Rachel, who later died in childbirth, that was prophesied to weep for her children (Jer. 31:15).
Regarding this subject the Talmud states that the word rak (tender) connotes royalty (Bava Basra 4a). Indeed, two lines of Jewish royalty were destined to descend from Leah: the royal family of Judah (from whom would come King David and King Messiah himself) and the spiritual line of Levi, from whom would descend Moses, Aaron, and the Kohanim (the priestly class of Israel). Like their tenderhearted mother, both of these houses of Israel would shed tears of concern for the well-being of Israel.
Hebrew Lesson:
The Ladder to Heaven…
Our Torah reading this week (Vayetzei) includes the famous vision of Jacob wherein he saw the angels of God ascending and descending a ladder that reached from earth toward heaven…
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Recall that after Jacob had received the (second) blessing from his father Isaac, he fled for his life to escape the wrath of his brother Esau. He then came upon a certain place (וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם) and stayed there for the night because the sun had set. Jacob then “took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep” (Gen. 28:11). And so began Jacob’s journey from his homeland to attain the promise of God, and such is the way for us as well, as we first receive our Father’s blessing but soon are consigned to desolate places to await things yet unseen. For the way of blessing comes not from the “fatness of the earth” but from the more rarefied “dew from heaven,” which descends in mystery, after the sun has set (Gen. 27:28, cp. Gen. 27:39).
The faithful “descend in order to ascend,” which means they first suffer and then they are glorified. This is the pattern of Yeshua, who emptied himself and suffered before he was raised up in everlasting glory. “Unless a seed of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:36). God humbles and tests those whom he loves so they may learn to trust in his promise – his word – and to demonstrate his faithfulness in the end (Deut. 8:3; Rom. 11:36).
Note, then, that after being driven from his homeland Jacob dreamed of the ladder with the angels ascending and descending as the LORD himself announced his blessing over his seed (Gen. 28:12-14). Yeshua, as we learn from the gospel (John 1:51) explained that the vision ultimately referred to him – about how the angels followed him during his ascent and descent as the ladder or “bridge” between God and man. The descent refers to Yeshua’s incarnation wherein he entered the realm of this world, clothed in human flesh as the Promised Seed, the “Son of Man” who would restore the lost dominion of Adam; whereas the ascent refers to Yeshua’s resurrection – the redemption and return of fallen humanity by means of ascension and glorification as LORD over all. Luther understands the angelic host descending and ascending to reveal how the angels love and follow after their Lord — whose face they do always behold — eager to witness His advent as our Savior and Redeemer (see Matt. 18:10; 1 Pet. 1:12; 1 Tim. 3:16). Yeshua is Emanuel (עמנו אל), the Heralded Seed through whom all the families of the earth be blessed (Luke 2:8-15).
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Hebrew Reading:
Returning to the account of the Torah, after Jacob received this dramatic vision, he awoke from his sleep and exclaimed: “Surely God is in this place, but I did not know!” And he was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God (בֵּית אֱלֹהִים), and this is the gate of heaven” (וְזֶה שַׁעַר הַשָּׁמָיִם, Gen. 28:16-17). Amen, Yeshua is ha’makom (המקום), the appointed “Place” of God, the very “House” of His presence; he alone is the way that leads us back to the Father (John 14:6). Yeshua is the Bridge to the Father, the narrow way of passage that leads to life. He has healed us from the sting of death. He calls out to us in the storm saying, “Take heart. It is I; be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27). Amen.
Hebrew Reading:
- John 14:6 Hebrew Card (pdf)
Refusing Doubt…
If you have read the gospels, you are surely familiar with a disciple of Yeshua named “Thomas Didymus,” sometimes referred to as “Doubting Thomas.” Recall that when Thomas had first heard the testimony of the other disciples that Yeshua was raised from the dead, he was apprehensive and vowed to suspend his judgment until he had sufficient evidence to believe the matter for himself: “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side,” he said, “I will never believe it!” (John 20:25). You know the rest of the story. When Yeshua later appeared to the disciples and this time Thomas was present, he said to him: “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not be become faithless, but believe” (John 20:27).
You might think this lesson should be obvious enough for us: “Don’t doubt, but believe; don’t harden your heart; don’t withhold your hope; don’t trust in human reason more than the testimony of faith; in other words, don’t act like Thomas did! And yet today it has become fashionable to “celebrate doubt” and to “deconstruct” the testimony of our fathers. Instead of venerating the Scriptures that tell of the ordained plan of God to send Yeshua to die for our sins (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 53:1-12; John 3:16; Acts 3:18; 1 Pet. 1:20; Heb. 1:1-3), false teachers have arisen to “tickle the ears” of those who do not want to believe: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). This is that time, friends. Instead of abhorring doubt as the sin against faith, people are now encouraged to question everything they thought they knew about God, truth, life, and death – to break free from their theological biases – so that their minds will be opened and their hearts set free from hidebound and “coercive” ways of understanding. Today’s “Christian skeptics” deny the authority of the Word of God, reject the Biblical narrative that tells the gospel message about the meaning of life, and are generally skeptical regarding the possibility of doing theology at all. It is not what the Bible says that is important, they say, but how you read it that makes the difference. The Bible is more about you than anything else! Affecting humility and sincerity, these dissembling skeptics say that asking critical questions, challenging traditional assumptions, and disdaining “doctrines of dogmatism” constitute an improved way of living the Christian life.
Now while it is true that we should be honest in our convictions and humble of heart, the way of Messiah is not one that “suspends” judgment (epochē) regarding matters of knowledge and truth (John 17:3). The starting point of faith is not the “I doubt, therefore I am” of the philosophers, but rather “I am loved, therefore I am” of the LORD. Philosophical (or rational) reflection approximates the truth of faith but is always at a remove from what faith really is all about, namely, a passionate inner conviction of what is most real. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your being” is the antithesis of tentative reasoning that dispassionately withholds judgment in the reality of love.
The epistemology of Yeshua centers on trusting God by means of the heart. As you believe, so you will know: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he” (John 8:28). Doubt, on the other hand, steps back from faith by attempting to “understand” it. Paradoxically, the attempt to understand by means of answering doubt’s questions leads to second-order questions and doubts, and so on, ad infinitum, so that the “way of reason” becomes vertiginous, unstable, uncertain, and ultimately nihilistic. An attitude of skepticism is both unstable and “unlivewithable,” a sickness of the spirit that has no ground of being.
Indeed the epistemology of the postmodern world is notorious for failing to explain anything of substantive meaning. Everything is left unexplained; no narrative is permitted (except the narrative that there is no narrative, of course); no logical connections to a “real world” are sound; there is no “story” to our lives, and therefore postmodernism entirely misses the essential point of everything. As such, it is a form of nihilism. And it is also a form of sophistry. It is one thing, after all, to affect philosophical sagacity, but that’s a “rich man’s game,” played in places of comfort, ease, and the luxury of speculative indulgences. The message of the gospel, however, is for the poor in spirit, for the heavy laden, the downcast, the hurting, and the lost. And since it does nothing to feed the ego by flattering itself, the gospel is invariably despised by the rich of this world….
It’s been said that there are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is… Doubt is a type of fear, a cautionary or “protective attitude” that deems it better to refrain from believing what may be untrue than to believe what may be true. For the doubter, the risk of being wrong outweighs any benefit of being right, and therefore the skeptic lives “suspended in midair.”
The life of faith, however, is decisive, a matter of the will, and therefore God commands us to trust, obey, and to know the truth. The Lord calls out to us in the storm saying, “Take heart. It is I; be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27). When Peter answered the call and attempted to walk across the stormy waters, he lost courage and began to sink, but Yeshua immediately took hold of him, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt (lit., think twice)?” Faith is “lived forward” in assurance and unwavering conviction of God’s reality and blessing. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). A doubting heart cannot please God because God is known in relationship, but questioning God’s love – drawing near and then stepping back – makes genuine relationship impossible. If we are ambivalent in our resolve to believe, regardless of whatever we may wager to hope, we will be unable to stand still long enough to receive the blessing!