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Mark 15:17
And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. Thirty four hundred ago the Creator of the universe revealed Himself to a man who would in turn introduce Him first to Israel, then to the world. For many years Hashem watched the affliction of His people; He was now ready to bring them out of Egypt to embrace their grand destiny. The One who created us knows us. Whether we realize it or not, He is always with us even in this exilic world. He also knows that our human frame causes to judge by appearances so as a long awaited mysterious visitor He carefully prepared His grand entrance on the scene of our History. Everything had to be right, especially the form of His appearance to us for His message is not only in His Words, but also in the form of His revelation. In the Text, we read that the Creator appeared in what seems to us a paradox: a bush that burned, yet was not consumed. None of it was illusionary: the thorn bush really burned, yet it was not consumed. The Hebrew word for thorn is: ‘s’neh’ carrying the same etymological root as ‘Sinai’. According to Rabbi Yanni's perspective, God’s appearance in the midst of a thorn bush was emblematic of the anguish He suffered over Israel’s affliction. The Revelation of the Almighty El-Shaddai within a lowly dry thorn bush was something akin to putting on sackcloth and ashes. The thorn bush then represents a royal messianic statement: Hashem’s empathy for Israel. Through Isaiah our great Father unveils His emotional attachment to His people; He says, In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9). “This is comparable to the spiritual connection twins experience with each other Rabbi Yanny says, “if one has a pain in his head the other feels it. Israel certainly had a pain in his head.” Eventually, as an illustration of Hashem's empathy for His people, Mashiach wore the thorns of Sinai upon his own forehead (Mark 15:17). A father naturally suffers when his child is afflicted, so naturally Hashem suffers when His people are afflicted. He takes upon Himself all their suffering until the time when in His fury He awakes and desires vengeance, yes vengeance on those who afflict Him through His people (Isaiah 63:3). As we are afflicted, He is afflicted! On the other hand, parental love contains an element of hatred against our children’s evil behavior. Parents should not be afraid of afflicting their children in order to set them straight.. Thus the uncomfortable love, hate, and affliction paradox of returns. If we succeed to solve the love, hate, and affliction paradox of the burning bush; once our finite mind feels comfortable with the idea of a God who loves us so but in His hatred of our sins can also let us suffer, we may have succeeded to rationalize ourselves into the greatest of all errors. Hashem reveals Himself to us in a paradox: the mystery of the burning bush; the Mystery of Mashiach.
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Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. In his exhortation to the Children of Israel towards obedience to God, Moses reminds them of the sin of the Golden Calf; he warns them against idolatry with the words, For Adonai your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24). The writer of the Book of Hebrews admonishes his readers to obedience using this same passage (Hebrew 12:29). For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest (Mt Horeb) … But you have come to Mount Zion (in Jerusalem where Messiah was crucified). This whole chapter is usually read as an antithesis between Mt Horeb and Mt Zion. It is usually interpreted in the assumption of a spiritual opposition between the two mountains: "you haven't come to Moses, but to Yeshua; not to the Torah, but to 'grace'; not to the Old Testament, but to the New. God was mean before, but now He is nicer!". This is a flawed understanding and even a minimal understanding of not only the context of the chapter, but also of the style of Jewish writers reveals it. In this passage the writer makes a point for people to obey and fear God's discipline (Hebrews 12: 1-17) using the traditional 'kol v'homer' argument so often used by Paul, Yeshua, all the prophets and apostolic writers. In the same manner that Yeshua said (my narration) "if God clothes the lilies of the field which are here today and burned tomorrow better than even King Solomon in all his glory, won't he also clothe you?", the writer of Hebrews declares, "you think Mount Horeb, the mountain of Moses and of the congregation in the desert was so awesomely terrible that people who disobeyed died a terrifying death? Mt Zion, the mountain of the firstborn (Yeshua) in Jerusalem is even more deserving of your respect." He says; See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth (Moses), much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Yeshua) (Hebrews 12:25). Now we get the intended message: "You saw what happen to those who disobeyed at Mt Horeb? Mt Zion is even more terrifying!" In this day and age people tend to have a very familiar relationship with Yeshua; they remember the baby born in Bethlehem, He who cried at the death of His friend Lazarus, the gentle Lamb who opened not His mouth as He was reviled by both His brothers and the pagans. We tend to forget though that the baby grew up to be the returning King clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and vested in all the authority and power of God to execute judgment and vengeance on His enemies and on all those who defy His rule (Revelations 19). He is able not only to kill the body, but He can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). May we stand and be warned: Serve Adonai with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalms 2:11-12). John 17:21
That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, One thing I have discovered in my life with God our Father is that it is always subject to change. Changes are constant in our lives especially when we endeavor to follow Him. Change is an unchangeable fact; it is inevitable because He doesn’t change. Because He doesn’t change we are the ones who have to do the moving and the changing in order to adapt to His unchangeable continuity. One time a man complained that he didn’t feel as close to God as he used to, when his friend asked him, “Who moved”. Broken friendships and marriages work much the same way; we must ask ourselves, ‘Who moved?” Or “Who changed their priorities?” God doesn’t, so when we feel further from Him than we used to we must have changed things somehow. The Creator of all things expressed His unchangeable nature when He gave His Name to Moses on the Mount. He introduced Himself then as”אהיה אשׁר אהיה” roughly translated as “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”, and meaning “I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Many people have fallen into the trap that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is different than the One of the Apostolic Scriptures. A thorough understanding of God’s Name as introduced to Moses on the Mount claims the exact opposite. A solid grasp on God’s unchanging nature spares us from falling into errant theology. Yeshua Himself directly disclaimed this theology of being different than the Father. He claims total unity of concepts with the Father when He says “even as we (the Father and I) are one, (John 17:11, 21). Yeshua teaches us that because He is on the ‘same page’ with the Father, if we go on the ‘same page’ with Him, we will also be on the ‘Same page’ with the Father. This reflects the standard Jewish Chassidic theology of approaching God through your spiritual mentor. God doesn’t change. He remains the same from creation until today. From the beginning His standards of mercy, grace giving, patience, goodness, compassion, and forgiveness have been the core of His being. Now, and just as it was in the past, His people have always been able to rely on these attributes in order to come in His Presence, but so are the rest of His Name’s attributes unchangeable: truth, justice, and retribution (Exodus 34:5-7). May we never forget it as we pray to Him who never changes. (You may notice I didn’t list ‘love’ as an attribute of God. It is a purposed omission in my listing. Love being abstract is better defined through the afore-mentioned attributes). |
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