{"id":4415,"date":"2021-06-12T14:07:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T11:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2021-06-14T06:34:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T03:34:40","slug":"keeping-hope-during-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/keeping-hope-during-exile\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping hope during exile&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-297 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/devakut01.jpg?resize=147%2C147&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"147\" height=\"147\" \/>&#8220;Grass withers, a flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever&#8221; (Isa. 40:8). This verse sets up a great contrast between <em>olam ha-zeh<\/em> and <em>olam haba<\/em> \u2013 between this present world and the heavenly realm. King David states, &#8220;Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you (\u05d5\u05b0\u05d7\u05b6\u05dc\u05b0\u05d3\u05bc\u05b4\u05d9 \u05db\u05b0\u05d0\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05df \u05e0\u05b6\u05d2\u05b0\u05d3\u05bc\u05b6\u05da\u05b8). Surely all mankind stands as a mere vanity&#8221; (Psalm 39:5). Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God, the Eternal, the abiding, and true: &#8220;Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you&#8221; (Psalm 73:25). To the extent that we regard this world as our &#8220;home&#8221; we will find the transience of life to be tragic; but when we regard ourselves as strangers here, merely passing through, our transience becomes a passageway to the heavenly places&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Hebrew Lesson:<\/h2>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4416\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/isa40-8-analysis.gif?resize=570%2C530&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"530\" \/><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4415-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/isa40-8-jjp.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/isa40-8-jjp.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/isa40-8-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Blessings\/Blessing_Cards\/isa40-8-lesson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Isa. 40:8 Hebrew study card (pdf)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The carnal mind instinctively is afraid of change, since it implies death and dissolution, and therefore it reasons from a continuous state of dread (whether conscious or not). Hence the &#8220;besetting sin&#8221; of the flesh is to &#8220;absolutize&#8221; the moment and to otherwise regard the finite as an end in itself. But God is our &#8220;Rock,&#8221; a metaphor that implies that He is the immovable foundation and cornerstone of all reality. The LORD is our strong refuge in the stormy changes we all face in this world; the Divine Presence both grounds us and sustains our way. Therefore the LORD is called<em> El Ne&#8217;eman<\/em> (\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc \u05e0\u05b6\u05d0\u05b1\u05de\u05b8\u05df), &#8220;the faithful God.&#8221; His very Name means certainty, reliability, strength, truth, reality, presence, being, life, and so on&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Whenever I read the news I am reminded that we are living in a &#8220;withered and fading world&#8221; &#8212; nearing the prophesied &#8220;End of Days&#8221; (\u05d0\u05b7\u05d7\u05b2\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05ea \u05d4\u05b7\u05d9\u05bc\u05b8\u05de\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd). But <em>baruch Hashem<\/em>, our place (\u05de\u05b8\u05e7\u05d5\u05b9\u05dd) is grounded in truth that stands (i.e., \u05d9\u05b8\u05e7\u05d5\u05bc\u05dd, lit. &#8220;is raised up&#8221;) forever! Yeshua is our life; he is the Word of our God that is raised up forever! So press on faith. Believing is seeing, not the other way around. &#8220;Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life&#8221; (Jude 1:21).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For more on this topic, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hebrew4christians.com\/Meditations\/Consolation\/consolation.html\">Our Everlasting Consolation.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Grass withers, a flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever&#8221; (Isa. 40:8). This verse sets up a great contrast between olam ha-zeh and olam haba \u2013 between this present world and the heavenly realm. King David states, &#8220;Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,23,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-dvar","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-philosophy-theology","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4418,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions\/4418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}