|
Acts 2:3
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. The English narrative that concludes God’s uttering of His Ten Statements at Mt. Horeb tells us, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking … (Exodus 20:18). The Hebrew on the other hand literally reads, “And all the people 'saw' the voices and the torches”. One may see a ‘torch’, but how does one see a “voice”? The question may have pushed English translators to stray from a literal rendition of the verse, but not the Hebrew sages. Also, the congregation at Horeb was composed of people from many nations, so for everyone to ‘understand’ them (a Hebrew synonym for ‘seeing’), the Ten Statements would have had to be uttered in several languages. How do you see a voice, and how does a single voice speak in many languages? When Moses recounts these events to the second generation of the Children of Israel in the desert he says, Then Adonai spoke to you out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 4:12). One of the sages saw this verse through the lenses of the following passage, Is not my word like fire, declares Adonai, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? The sages of Israel have always described these events as the Voice of God splitting into seventy voices speaking seventy different tongues and that these voices were actually like hot sparks flying forth from a hammer’s blow on a stone and becoming tongues of fire. This may sound farfetched, but is it really? Fourteen hundred years after these events Yeshua, the Prophet 'like unto Moses', (Deuteronomy 18:15) came to give His elucidation of the Heavenly Voices. When He was on earth, like Moses He climbed a mountain and His disciples came to Him (Exodus 24:9; Matthew 5:1-2). Later, on the same Jewish calendar date as the Horeb events (Pentecost, or fifty days after the resurrection) as the disciples were celebrating the festival of Pentecost they saw these voices in the form of tongues of fire that gave them ability to speak in the languages of all the foreign pilgrims then present for the festival in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-5). These ‘voices’ were later to be sent to the whole world to reach out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to the nations with their message. Today we, followers of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach, are these ‘Voices’ of fire from Sinai. Today, from where ever we are in the world we are Hashem's emissaries and apostles of the great message spoken at Sinai. I usually teach my students that the Words of the Ten Statements uttered at Horeb elucidated by God’s Agent Yeshua, constitute the solution to all of the world’s social problems. But the people must not only hear the message, they must also see it. They must see it in the exemplary walk of our lives. A tall order maybe, but a lot is at stake and His Spirit is ever present to help us. Truly, Yeshua ever lives to make intercession off us (John 14:26; Hebrews 7:25). May we not fail in our mission!
0 Comments
1 John 4:8
God is love. From the time the first generation of Israelites out of Egypt refused to conquer the Promised Land, the Ninth of Av (in the Jewish calendar) has been the 'Day of Woe' of Jewish History. As the second generation of Israelites out of Egypt arrives at the same spot where their fathers tested Adonai, Moses is determined not to have a repeat of the same situation. For five weeks he prepares the people for the conquest of the Land with a long exhortation called in Hebrew 'Sefer Dvarim': the 'Book of Deuteronomy'. In his exhortation Moses explains the Torah to this desert generation (Deuteronomy 1:5). In view of the upcoming battle with the Sons of Anak (giants), Moses reminds the people of their recent military victories, especially with the giant Og (Numbers 32:33). Herein is a lesson for us: to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we must devote ourselves to the study of the Torah. Israel understanding and dedicating themselves to the Torah was essential to the successful conquest of the Land. The camp in the desert also counted other people from other nations, so ancient texts propose that when Moses 'expounded', or 'explained' the Torah, he did it in all the 70 languages of the world. This is reminiscent of the day of Pentecost where it is believed that God spoke the Torah in all the languages of the world through tongues of fire (Exodus 20:18). This also reminds us of the other Pentecost when God sent tongues of fire on the disciples of the Master enabling them to speak the mysteries of the Kingdom of God in the languages of all the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the festival (Acts 2). This is usually referred to as the 'gift of 'tongues' or, 'languages'. Moses may not actually have spoken the sermon of the Book of Deuteronomy in all main 70 languages of the world, except prophetically. As the Children of Israel of old stood at the entrance of the Promised Land, we, in this 'Endtime', stand at the door of the Kingdom of Heaven established on earth as it is in Heaven, and most everyone in the world has access to the Book of Deuteronomy in his own language, just as if Moses spoke it to them. This teaches us another lesson. Sometimes in our hasty zeal to share the Words of the Kingdom, we forget to make sure to expound the Words in a 'language' that people understand. There is more to 'language' than linguistics. We may speak the same 'tongue', but if our body language, intonations, and style are proud and arrogant, we actually lock the message in a language foreign to the hearer. It has been said that 'love' is an international 'language', and love was the language of the Master, which He learned from the Father. As the Master emulated His Father in all things, may we also emulate the Master in learning to share the Word in the 'language' of love, which all men understand, love with our words, but also in deeds. Act 2:3
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. The English narrative that concludes God’s uttering of His Ten Statements at Mt. Horeb says, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking … (Exodus 20:18). The Hebrew on the other hand literally reads, “And all the people saw the voices and the torches”. One may see a ‘torch’, but how does one see a “voice”? The question may have pushed English translators to stray from a literal rendition of the verse, but it did not puzzle Hebrew sages. Also, the congregation at Horeb was composed of people from many nations, so for everyone to ‘understand’ (a Hebrew synonym for ‘seeing’) the Ten Statements would have had to be uttered in several languages. How do you see a voice, and how does a single voice speak in many languages? When Moses recounts these events to the second generation of the Children of Israel in the desert he says, Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 4:12). One of the sages saw this verse through the following passage, Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? The sages of Israel have always described these events as the Voice of God splitting into seventy voices speaking seventy different tongues and that these voices were actually like hot sparks flying forth from a hammer’s blow on a stone and becoming tongues of fire. This may sound farfetched, but is it really? Fourteen hundred years after these events Yeshua, the Prophet like unto Moses, (Deuteronomy 18:15) came to give His elucidation of the Heavenly Voices. When He was on earth, like Moses He climbed a mountain and His disciples came to Him (Exodus 24:9; Matthew 5:1-2). Later, on the same Jewish calendar date as the Horeb events (Pentecost, or fifty days after the resurrection) as the disciples were celebrating the festival of Pentecost they saw these voices in the form of tongues of fire that gave them ability to speak in the languages of all the foreign pilgrims then present for the festival in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-5). These ‘voices’ were later to be sent to all the world to reach out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to the nations with their message. Today we, as followers of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach, are these ‘Voices’ of fire from Sinai. Today, from where ever we are in the world we are God’s emissaries and apostles of the great message spoken at Sinai. I usually teach my students that the Words of the Ten Statements uttered at Horeb elucidated by God’s Agent Yeshua, constitute the solution to all of the world’s social problems. But the people must not only hear the message, they must also see it. They must see it in the exemplary walk of our lives. A tall order maybe, but a lot is at stake and His Spirit is ever present to help us. Truly, Yeshua ever lives to make intercession off us (John 14:26; Hebrews 7:25). May we not fail in our mission! |
Thanks for thinking of us... even a tiny donation is a blessing to us...
Order our new CD at: http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html
Also available on itune. 
Our 'UNDER THE FIG TREE' atL:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html 
Check our original judaica and other jewelery at:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html Archives
May 2013
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed