In parashat Lekh-Lekha we read that Abram was 75 years old, married to (his half-sister) Sarai, and guardian of his nephew Lot (his deceased brother Haran’s son) when he received the promise of divine inheritance and left Mesopotamia for the Promised Land: “And the LORD said to Abram, “Go from (i.e., lekh-lekha: לך־לך) your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you:
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“Whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Here Yeshua speaks regarding “endurance” (ὑπομονή), or the ability to hold fast to your faith despite hardship and suffering… There is a risk – a very real danger – of turning away from God, and therefore we are warned to “continue in the faith” and not to “drift away” from the blessing of our salvation (Col. 1:23; Heb. 2:1-3). It is not sufficient to simply accept the message of the gospel, or to intellectually assent to its truth, because truth is something lived, fought out in our conflicts and in our temptations…
Like our father Jacob, we must wrestle to take hold of the blessing of our truth from heaven. Or to use another analogy, we must be anchored to the truth lest we become shipwrecked in our faith. Drifting occurs slowly and almost imperceptibly, though the end result is as deadly as openly turning away from God in outright apostasy. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” The devil seeks to lull you to sleep…
In light of such admonition, we may at first suspect that the battle has to do with our behavior, for example, whether we indulge the lower nature, and yet, as Soren Kierkegaard once said, “the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith,” which I understand to mean that the struggle is first of all one of the heart, as it decides what it values and thereby directs the will in its choices. “According to your faith be it done to you.”
The very first prophecy of the Torah concerns the promise of the coming “Seed of the woman” who would vanquish the serpent (nachash) that had originally tempted and deceived Eve (Gen. 3:15). This prophecy is sometimes called the proto-euangelion (“first gospel”), since it is the starting point of all subsequent prophecy and redemptive history revealed in the Scriptures. Indeed, since the mystery of the Incarnation of God the Son (the “Son of Man”) is foreshadowed here, this prophecy is linked to the original woman, Eve. Just as Eve became a carrier of the corruption of human nature by heeding the voice of the tempter, so she would be the carrier of God Himself for the deliverance of mankind through the advent of the Redeemer. In the tragic aftermath of the transgression of the first man and woman, then, God first announced His unfailing redemptive love for the human race that would culminate in the birth, sacrifice, and resurrection of Yeshua our Savior and Deliverer – “born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).
The walk of faith refers to trusting in the Presence and love of God for your soul, even though you will suffer and experience various hardships in your life. Yes, we receive comfort from heaven and consolation through the Spirit of God, and yes we are given heavenly wisdom to know the truth that sets us free in Yeshua, however in this life we “see through a glass darkly,” which literally means “in a riddle” (ἐν αἰνίγματι). A 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 love of God will be fully manifest to us and no longer hidden. Realizing this should make us humble whenever we consider our faith. “Now we know in part, but then shall we know in whole” (1 Cor. 13:12). We often do not have the “answers” for suffering, though “seeing through a glass darkly” means we have the means to trust God despite the present hour.
We must humble ourselves and renounce anger, for the “wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Therefore “let go of anger and forsake outrage, for indignation leads to evil within the heart, and evildoers will be cut off” (Psalm 37:8-9). After all, before the eyes of heaven, who are we to take offense at others? Is not all our self-justified outrage a symptom of pride and arrogance? Despite all our sins and the times we angered the LORD we still ask, “Bless us, our Father; let your light shine upon us with favor…” And yet when we get slightly upset at a friend we restrain from showing him a shining face? Know the spiritual principle: As we are to others, so we are to ourselves: middah keneged middah (“like for like”); as we judge others, so we put ourselves before the bar of divine judgment, measure for measure (Matt. 7:1-2). Forgiveness means asking of ourselves what we are asking of God, and the same is true of love. When Yeshua taught us to “forgive us as we forgive,” He taught that our forgiveness (of others) is a measure of our own understanding of the forgiveness (of God). Conversely, demanding perfection from others means appealing to God to judge of our lives… Friends, we should focus on the Eternal; we should believe the blessed promise of God; we should anticipate the great Coming Day of ultimate healing – and then our hearts may be quieted. Remember that nothing happens on its own; everything comes from above, and this too will keep you from outrage and bitterness…
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Originally published on the Hebrew for Christians website Dec, 2021
Our most serious struggles are inward, matters of heart, as we wrestle with dark emotions like fear, anger, disappointment, and guilt. We often despair over the contradiction between our ideals and our realities; we deny reality and then feel lost and unlovable in the hardness of unspoken shame…
On the deepest level, however, the presence of despair may be a sign of real hope, since it may express a holy “protest” over what the heart knows is wrong in its yearning for deliverance from its own wretchedness. The desperate heart knows it must find God or die. This sort of despair laments because it believes, and it believes in the midst of its lament.
As Yeshua said, “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit – the needy, the bankrupt, the powerless – for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). The hidden life of the seed is not released until it first is broken and dies (John 12:24).
The fact that God knows the number of hairs on your head means that he knows you better than you know yourself… Your heavenly Father “sees in secret,” and that also means that he can and will save you from whatever is hidden within you that still resists his love and touch… We have to trust in God’s power to heal us, even when it seems that healing is not forthcoming, even when we still find ourselves divided, troubled, and anxious. We have to believe that God’s help is always present. “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope for the LORD” (Psalm 31:24).
God sees what He does within us, His “it-is-finished” work, the effect of His great salvation within our hearts, even if at this present hour this may be hidden from our eyes… There is appearance, and there is reality; and only God sees what is ultimately real. We have to trust in His promise to be transformed into the divine nature, even if today we find ourselves sinful, needy, and in disrepair… By God’s grace we are what we are. So don’t give up. We are saved by hope (ἐλπίδι ἐσώθημεν, Rom. 8:24), a hope for you today.
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Note: Some of what I share here is intended for those who are hurting, struggling, etc., so if you are not dealing with those issues, then ignore the post…. I am trying to reach out to many people in many different places in their lives. Unlike the idea that there is some “one-size fits all” medicine for everybody irrespective of their unique biochemistry, etc., in matters of the spirit every person is an individual with unique heart needs. Thank you for your understanding.
The earthy Tabernacle (i.e., Mishkan) and its furnishings were “copies” of the heavenly Temple and the Throne of God Himself. Moses was commanded to make the Sanctuary according to the “pattern” revealed at Sinai (Exod. 25:9). As it is written in our Scriptures, “For Messiah has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are representations (ἀντίτυπος) of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24). The centermost point of the earthly Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant (אֲרוֹן־הַקּדֶשׁ), a “three-in-one” box that contained God’s Holy Word (i.e., the tablets of the Torah). As such, the Ark served as a symbol of kisei ha-kavod (כִּסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד), the Throne of Glory. The Ark stood entirely apart as the only furnishing placed in the “three-in-one” space called the Holy of Holies (קדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים). Upon the cover of the Ark (i.e., the kapporet) were fashioned two cherubim (i.e., angel-like figures) that faced one another (Exod. 25:17-18). According to the Talmud (Succah 5b), each cherub had the face of a child – one boy and one girl – and their wings spread heavenward as their eyes gazed upon the cover (Exod. 25:20). This was the sacred place where the blood of purification was sprinkled during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and this is the Place (הַמָּקוֹם) that prefigured the offering of the blood of the Messiah, our eternal Mediator of the New Covenant. “For I will appear in the cloud over the kapporet” (Lev. 16:2; Exod. 25:22). As it is written, “I have blotted out as a dark cloud your transgressions, and as a cloud your sins; return to me (שׁוּבָה אֵלַי), for I have redeemed you (Isa. 44:22).
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The central ritual of atonement given in the Torah is that of the anointed High Priest sprinkling sacrificial blood over the tablets of the law upon the kapporet (the “mercy seat”) of the Ark of the Covenant – the Place where “Love and truth meet, where righteousness and peace kiss” (Psalm 85:10). It was from the midst of the surrounding cloud in the Holy of Holies that the Voice of the LORD was heard, just as it was in the midst of the surrounding cloud of darkness upon the cross that Yeshua cried out in intercession for our sins…
Note further that the High Priest was required to perform the Yom Kippur avodah (service) alone, while wearing humble attire, divested of his glory, and in complete solitude: “No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out” (Lev. 16:17). The Hebrew text literally says, “no adam (אָדָם) shall be in the tent,” which suggests that something more than the natural man is needed for divine intercession. And just as Moses alone approached God in the thick clouds at Sinai to receive the revelation of the Altar as mediator of the older covenant (Exod. 24:15), so Yeshua, the Mediator of the New Covenant, went through his severest agony on the cross as the darkness covered the earth (Luke 23:44; Matt. 27:45).
“But when the Messiah appeared as Kohen Gadol (High Priest) of the good things that were to come, then, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Most Holy Place (קדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים) once and for all. And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption (גְּאוּלַּת עוֹלָם) for us…. Therefore he is the Mediator of a new covenant (המתווך של הברית החדשה), so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance (נַחֲלַת עוֹלָם), since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:11-12,15).