{"id":4606,"date":"2021-06-23T09:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=4606"},"modified":"2021-06-26T05:53:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T10:53:54","slug":"through-the-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/through-the-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Through the Shadows…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cWhom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you\u201d (Psalm 73:25). \u00a0Such is the \u201cexile of hope\u201d we suffer in this world… \u00a0Torah begins: \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was \u201ctohu va\u2019vohu v’choshekh<\/em>\u201d (\u05ea\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d5\u05b8\u05d1\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d5\u05b0\u05d7\u05e9\u05c1\u05b6\u05da\u05b0) – confusion and emptiness and darkness – which the sages interpret to mean that when we truly understand that God created the heavens and the earth, we will realize our earthy desires to be barren, empty and unreal.<\/p>\n

In their despair, Plato and the early Greek philosophers sought \u201ctimeless universals\u201d which they believed disclosed the reality of an \u201cupper world,\u201d a heavenly realm of unchanging goodness, beauty, and truth. The world we experience with our senses is a shadowy place of change and decay; but the real world, discerned by clear thinking, is a place of permanence, goodness and illumination. Likewise the righteous soul trusts that despite this fleeting world (\u05d4\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd \u05d4\u05e0\u05e2\u05dc\u05dd) that turns to dust, there is an eternal realm (\u05d4\u05ea\u05d7\u05d5\u05dd \u05d4\u05e0\u05e6\u05d7\u05d9), a place of abiding love, and a heavenly home.<\/p>\n

The land of promise is a \u201cforeign land\u201d to this world, but the heart of faith beholds \u201cthe city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God\u201d (Heb. 11:10). \u201cFor here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come\u201d (Heb. 13:14). Therefore \u201cwe look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient (\u03c0\u03c1\u1f79\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2), but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens\u201d (2 Cor. 4:18-5:1). \u00a0In this world we suffer exile, groaning to be with our Savior, the Source of all blessing: \u201cI say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2).<\/p>\n

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Hebrew Lesson:<\/h2>\n

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