Good Bye

Dear Reader,

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm suspending any further posts on a temporary basis.

I hope to be back soon.

Shalom.

Jamie

The Plagues of Revelation

Exo. 10:1-13:6

Rev. 8:6-9:12; 16:1-21

The commentary for this Sabbath focuses on Rev. 8:6-9:12 and 16:1-21, which forms part of a complete and full re-enactment of the plagues of Exodus, culminating in the death of the entire first born of Egypt, human and animal. As God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, the severity of the plagues increased until the death of all the first born in the land. Up until this point, Pharaoh’s pride had remained unwavering. Now, however, with this mortal stroke his pride gave way to grief and remorse, though not repentance. Judas experienced this same kind of grief and remorse after he had betrayed the Lord. The grief in the land of Egypt must have been overwhelming, yet God did not allow Pharaoh to soften his heart, for as soon as the shock of what happened had worn off, Pharaoh gathered his army and pursued to his doom the fleeing Hebrew slaves. This act not only allowed the Hebrews to escape, but also brought glory to God among the nations.

Now in the passage from the New Covenant, the book of Revelation, we have a kind of re-enactment of what God did to Egypt, but on an immensely bigger and consequential scale and which fully accomplished God’s purpose in that it affects the entire created order.

The narrative of the apocalyptic plagues—the seven trumpets and the seven bowls—describes the punishment that resides in the mind of God and which will come to fruition in our future, but which of course, as we’ve discussed in a previous commentary, is in God’s eternal present. It is “already, but not yet.” The similarity of the plagues of Revelation to those of Exodus is obvious to even the casual observer who may not however understand that the Egyptian plagues were nothing more than a kind of foretaste—firstfruits if you will—of the plagues yet to come.

The Egyptian plagues are a picture of the consequence of rebellion against God and His people. The final appearance of the consequence of stubborn pride is going to be fully realized, as the prophet John informs us in his vision of the approach of the end time.

We see that with the experience of each of the bowls of God’s wrath, the response by those “who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped its image” is essentially the same as that of Pharaoh who literally bore the mark of the beast on his forehead. That was the Cobra or Asp—the serpent which formed part of Pharaoh’s crown. It was originally a symbol of the goddess Wadjet but also from God’s perspective, it stood for the mark of the beast, Satan’s servant, the epitome of rebellion and evil. By wearing this odious crown, Pharaoh was actually proclaiming his allegiance to sinfulness and pride, to rebellion against God himself.

And like Pharaoh, the people described in our portion from Revelation remained insolent and resentful and full of self-importance. They were so far gone along that road that they were unable to turn back, even as Pharaoh was unable to turn back from pursuing the Hebrews in the desert. The plagues of Egypt are the prototypes for the plagues of the end time. In reading these two accounts side by side, we are able to understand in more depth the description of God as the beginning and the end. What has come before will come again. The purpose of God is not linear but circular, its beginning meets with its end; they are merely two instances of the same cosmic event. The only difference is that in the latter expression, time will cease to exist at the conclusion of the event described in Revelation. From the throne in the Heavenly temple a voice cries out “It is done” echoing the words of Christ upon the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The English words “It is done” represent the single Greek word gegonen (ginomai) and means “it has become”, “it has happened”, and so on.  It is used for God’s actions as emerging from eternity and manifesting in time and space.

With the pouring out of the third bowl of wrath we are told that an angel of God—His messenger, therefore His representative—declares that the punishment so far meted out is nothing less than what the people deserve. This is an announcement that the time for mercy and grace is now past, that the opportunity for repentance has come and gone. Now there is nothing but the inexorable working out of God’s eternal will for justice. He was not exaggerating when the preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) declared that “sinners in the hands of an angry God” would find no mercy and goes on to explain that “the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.” However, Edwards did not have this cataclysmic end time in view. In his sermon, he was referring to individuals, not whole nations, not millions upon millions of people who in their rebellion would be the recipients of God’s final and never-changing judgment. Sinners foolishly comfort themselves with the notion that this race of humanity will somehow escape the wrath we are reading about, even if some individuals—the truly terrible—will not. Nevertheless, both Exodus and Revelation make it plain that God did not reserve these catastrophic events for some special class of evil doers. We read in Exodus, “Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead” (10:30). These were ordinary Egyptians, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. They were not the perpetrators of horrible acts of cruelty. The same is true for the people of Revelation. They were just so-called ordinary folk. But all of them—both individually and nationally, were rebelling against God, his commandments and most especially, His very Son, the messiah, who came to earth to pay for the sins of all who would come to Him in contrition and humility.

For pride will avail of nothing greater than increased torment, as intractable sinners drain “the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath”. Let each one pray therefore for hearts of flesh, rather than hearts of stone and let each one come before the Creator and Sustainer of all things with reverence, awe and fear, for our God is indeed a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).

AMEN

God's Personal Name

TORAH
Exo. 6:2-9:35

HAFTORAH

Eze. 28:25-29:21

B’RIT HADASHAH

Rom. 9:14-17; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1

Exo. 6:2-9

When God revealed Himself to the patriarchs, it was by a title, not a name—"El Shaddai", God Almighty. As close as was the relationship between Him and the patriarchs, it was still not on the level of the personal. God is a being who is utterly holy and all-powerful and it was as such that He revealed Himself in Genesis. He was “high and lifted up.” He resided in the “heavenlies” and was altogether different from that which He had created.

And this is perfectly understandable because God is indeed all-powerful and sovereign over all. God of the Bible had to reveal Himself through His impersonal attributes and qualities so that those He would call into fellowship would have a deep appreciation of the nature of the God who was calling them. After all, it was for His own glory that He was calling them (and us) in the first place. He is the God who created everything that was, is and will be and he is the God who maintains and sustains this creation without even for an instant failing in this regard. If He—for some unknown reason—were to do so, even for a fraction of time so small it is not measureable, creation would unravel and cease to be. However, God, being God cannot let this happen, even if he wanted it so, as He is absolutely perfect and powerful to accomplish His own ends and purposes. (That being said, this is not an argument for the eternity of creation. God has made it clear in His Word that there will be a day when He will bring this creation to a cataclysmic demise—on the Day of Judgment.)

Even though, as is made plain by God Himself in the chosen passage from Exodus, He had given a title more than a name to the patriarchs, nevertheless, the prophets and rabbis of Israel went one step further. They decided long ago that the God of creation, the one who is so puissant, so majestic, so holy and righteous, must not be referred to or addressed directly by name; to do so would be an act of hubris, contravening the third commandment.  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exo. 20:7). As well, the refusal was at least partly the result of the persecution of Jews by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who, in about the year 135 CE, forbid the use of the holy name as part of his plan to eradicate Judaism. Consequently, the rabbis devised other ways in which to refer to and address God, without resorting to His name. In Jewish circles of the past as well as of today, it has been common for Him to be referred to or addressed as “Ha’ Shem” which means “the Name.”  The rabbis, when encountering the holy name YHVH, (the Tetragrammaton) often substituted the name “Adonai” or one of its variants. Adonai is the plural form of Adon and means Lord, master or owner. Even so, this is still really a title and not a name. The Bible itself gives many other names or titles for the creator/sustainer God. However, one name takes precedence over all others and is the name being referred to in the third commandment as well as in our current passage. This is the name “YHVH.” (Worthy of note is the fact that the Old Greek translation—the Septuagint, LXX—substitutes the word kurios for the Tetragrammaton; this is the title used by Jesus to refer to Himself and was used by the apostles to address Jesus as well.)

The meaning of the word YHVH is given for us by God Himself in answer to Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am” (Exo. 3:13). Moreover, God says to Moses, that this is His “name.” This is God’s own name, the name by which He knows Himself. It is not merely a title. This name, like most if not all names in the OT, is descriptive of an essential quality. In this case, it is descriptive of God’s transcendence and self-existence, His absoluteness.

But in their well-intentioned purpose to keep the third commandment, the rabbis of old misunderstood the larger, modifying context in which the third commandment was embedded. As we have seen from Exo. 3 especially verse 15, this holy name given to Moses by God is the name by which He wants to be remembered forever! Clearly, if God did not want His people to remember Him by this name, why would he have spoken it at all? Further, why would He say to Moses that this was the name by which He wanted to be remembered. The prophet Hosea reinforces the truth that God wants His people to us His personal name, “the Lord, [YHVH] the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name."

The word memorial is in Hebrew זִכָּרוֹן֙ or zikkaron. This word does not refer simply to the recall of something to one’s mind, but also has a subsidiary meaning of to speak aloud. In addition, in the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:22-27 we read, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them’,

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them’” (Num. 6:22-27).

We can see plainly from verse 27 that YHVH wants His people to use His proper name, and not only that, but by addressing Him as YHVH, His people will receive a blessing. Of course, if that is true, then by implication the opposite must also be true, that by not using God’s proper name, the blessing will not be forthcoming. The truth of this is described by Paul at Rom. 11:28-33: a partial hardening has come upon Israel. This hardening is bound up with the refusal to pronounce the very name by which the God of Israel desires to be known. Consequently, neither Jewish nor Gentile believers should refuse to use the name. But of course, in order not to break the third commandment, the name should be spoken and written with suitable reverence.

It is through God’s personal name that He will bless His people; nothing could be plainer. And this indicates that God does not want a formal, cold relationship with us. He is sharing His personal name with us. Next to His Son, this might be God’s most precious possession.

By giving His personal name, God is proclaiming that He is not distant and uninvolved with His creation. When creation was complete, did God not say that it “was good, it was very good?” God loves His creation, especially His people—both Jew and Gentile—who constitute the “apple of His eye.” He does not want to curse us but rather to bless us as a loving father (Deut. 28:1-6).

However, over time God’s people—partly through misunderstanding and partly through persecution—lost the true pronunciation of this name. Nevertheless, by substituting the other aliases, they were in fact unfortunately not honouring God but dishonoring Him. Therefore, God allowed it to come about—presumably as part of their partial hardening—that the name would become unpronounceable by people—including Gentiles. The subject of how this name should be pronounced is one fraught with many problems. Many versions of the name have been proposed, such as Yahweh, Jehovah, and Ya’ hovah. I do not propose to enter into that debate at this time. (For an in depth explanation of how the name should be pronounced, see this important interview with the Biblical scholar Nehemia Gordon.) My purpose is to convince you that God wants with His people a personal, affectionate, and righteous relationship as “Abba”, Father.

As we said in our last commentary, we are in a relationship with God already. That is not the issue. Rather, the issue is what kind of relationship do we have and want. Through the gift of His personal name, God is making it plain what kind of relationship He wants with us.

Let us not be timid. Let us with boldness approach the throne of God and let us not fear to use His holy name.

“The name of Ya’ hovah is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Prov. 18:10).

AMEN

Living in Eternity

TORAH
Exo. 1:1-6:1

HAFTORAH

Isa. 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23 or
Jer. 1:1-2:3

B’RIT HADASHAH

Mt 22:23-33, 41:46
Mk 12:18-27, 35-37
Lk 20:27-44
Ac 3:12-15; 5:27-32; 7:17-36;
22:12-16; 24:14-16
Heb 11:23-26

Luke 20:34-38

The second verse of the Bible describes the very “moment” before the act of creation, when nothing was but God “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” But how can there exist “something” having neither form nor content; something that seems to exist—the earth—when as yet there had been no overt act of creation (understanding verse one as an introduction or prologue to the creative event about to be described in verse two)? Can something exist that simultaneously does not exist?

 

This is the conundrum we explore in our current parashah. In the account of the burning bush, we have a variant of the mystery, a bush that is not destroyed or consumed by fire. The Hebrew is clear and straightforward, this was not a vision or an illusion of Moses. The bush was not radiating a type of non-destructive but visible energy. The bush was burning with fire. What’s more, it kept on burning with no loss of itself. It did not cease to exist.

 

In this encounter with Moses at the burning bush, God open-endedly calls Himself by the descriptive name “I am Who I am” (or I will be Who I will be), implying that He is without any limitation whatsoever; that He is completely self-existent and separate; that He is His own cause and is eternal and ever-existing. He goes on in answer to Moses’ question by speaking the name by which He desires to be known and describes Himself as the God of Moses’ fathers, the patriarchs. He tells Moses to say to the people, “YHVH the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” Notice God does not say “who was the God of your fathers...” While grammatically there is no demand to understand God’s answer only in the present tense, the implication is that being self-existent and eternal, there can be no past for Him; that something therefore cannot be in His past since being eternal requires that there be no past—at least not in the sense of the past as a kind of limitation which could require non-existence. God is always in the present tense by His very nature.

 

In Luke 20:34-38 we encounter a key but often not fully appreciated short clause at verse 38. What has been written so far is preparatory to our consideration of that clause.

 

In the dialogue with the Sadducees concerning life after death, Jesus refers to the encounter in Exodus between God and Moses. His point was to demonstrate to them—from the objective standard of God’s Word—that they were seriously mistaken in their understanding of life after death. The Sadducees did not accept the idea of life after death, but more seriously still, by denying it, they were limiting God’s eternal nature. This is brought out by the parallel passage from Mark at 12:27b where Jesus warns them that they were “quite wrong” (ESV) in their beliefs, by which He meant not only wrong in the sense of being incorrect, not in conformity with the facts, but also that they were wrong morally, that their beliefs were morally deviant.

 

Jesus defines the nature of the resurrection (not merely life after death) of those righteous people whom God considers His children. In reference to the episode at the burning bush He categorically defines Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as being alive. In verse 38 He states emphatically that God “is not God of the dead, but of the living.” He then goes on to say “…for all live to him.” These last words are only recorded by Luke, they are not found in the parallel passages from the other gospels.

 

What is Jesus actually saying at this point? “To him” is a possessive pronoun. It means that what is being referred to—all, i.e. all people—belong to God, those “who are considered [by God] worthy to attain…the resurrection”, that is the righteous in Christ (Rom. 6:11), as well as those who are not.  Jesus is in a sense answering two questions. This passage says that no one really dies in the ultimate sense of obliteration or annihilation. Jesus is clarifying that there is really no such thing as death as an ultimate limitation since God is not limited. Death of a kind there surely is and will be. However, this death is really a transition from one state of life into a profoundly different state of life. This in itself is a sobering thought. The Bible commentators Jamieson, Fausset and Brown have this to say, “It is true, indeed, that to God no human being is dead or ever will be, but all mankind sustain an abiding conscious relation to Him; but the ‘all’ here mean ‘those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world.’ These sustain a gracious covenant-relation to God which cannot be dissolved.” In spite of the context, I’m not so sure that the “all” only refer to those who are worthy.

 

In this passage, Christ is not speaking about eternal life as such. He is responding to the question concerning the Resurrection to come. His intention is to show the Sadducees that their understanding was wrong. The words “…for all live to him” make it plain that we live in relationship to God from our very beginning. Once created, always created. There is no possibility of being removed from a relationship with God— a relationship of one kind or another. There is no obliteration of the soul or spirit—it will forever be in relationship to God as the creator and sustainer. The only question is what kind of relationship is it or will it be. Thought of in these terms, Jesus dire warnings such as at Matt. 18:8 must be seen as not mere hyperbole but rather as descriptions of certainties that one will not be able to avoid.

 

Since we are created beings, totally dependent on our Creator, we are not eternal;  that is to say, we had a beginning, just as the earth did. But also, like the earth, we must have had some kind of existence prior to our physical creation. The earth is described in Genesis 1:2 as being formless and void—without content, without corporeality, without physical dimensions or material qualities of any kind. Yet it existed nevertheless. It existed because God knew it existed. But in what sense might this be possible? It can only have existed in the mind of God. The earth was knowledge in the mind of God before it became a physical entity on day three of creation. But because God is eternal, His knowledge too must be eternal. If this is so, does it not follow that what has been said about the Earth can also be said about us—all of us, for we all live in relationship to God who is eternal. And since we do, we also must have existed as knowledge in the mind of God before our creation. This was true for the tabernacle, for we read “Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” (Exo. 25:9). The pattern of the tabernacle existed, and still exists, and will always exist in the mind of God.

 

And the same is true for us. We are a pattern—a kind of knowledge—in God’s mind. And yes, there will be a resurrection when the dead will rise. (There will actually be two resurrections—one for the just and one for the unjust. Daniel makes that plain and clear, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2)). We need to understand that no one will become non-existent, no one will ever be out of relationship with God, since we have existed in the mind of God as part of His knowledge there is no way to exist or not exist except in relationship to Him. The only questions that remain are “What is the nature of our relationship to God, right now, at this moment?” and “Are we happy with that relationship?” The answers to those questions will have an eternal bearing for you; therefore it is of utmost importance for you to come to firm conviction about them. “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire” (Matt. 18:8).

AMEN