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2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? We have mused with the idea of Abraham’s son Isaac as a foreshadow of Messiah. Isaac was bound to the wood and destined to a certain death which Hashem averted, thus he did not see corruption (psalms 16:10). Now things take a different turn. Isaac seems to disappear from the text of Torah while Abraham does not return to Sarah his wife. He only returns many years later to bury her. Abraham’s next concern is the choice a wife for Isaac who is now nearing forty. Keeping our analogy in mind, let’s see what happens. Abraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac. First the old patriarch extols two promises from Eliezer: 1.to not choose a woman from among the Canaanites around them, 2. to not take Isaac out of the land; Isaac was to stay pure. Even though his wife would come from an idolatrous home, she would take on the God of Abraham as her own. She was also from the same genealogic stock as Abraham. Also, Isaac was to marry Rebecca, but she would come to him from Babylon; he would not go to her. It is Abraham’s servant Eliezer, which means in Hebrew: ‘the help of my God’ who goes to look for her. Today, as Eliezer was required to, the Holy Spirit also runs to and fro through this world seeking to gather the Bride. The Sprit is commissioned to bring to the Master a bride pure and undefiled. The Bride is to come out of Babylon; she is to clean herself from her Babylonish ways and culture in order to meet her husband. Isaac does not go to Babylon and tries to assimilate to the culture so he can be agreeable to a potential bride. He stays in the land, sends a messenger and the bride comes and changes her ways for Isaac. This teaches us something. Because of Paul’s injunction, ‘I have become all things to all people (1 Corinthians 9:22)’, we tend to think that Yeshua adapts Himself to every way and culture. Whereas He wants to be relevant to all, relevance cannot be taken to an extreme where today Yeshua has become a-cultural. From the minute we remove Yeshua from His Hebraic context, all that remains is an adulterated copy of the real thing. In the last 2,000 years, the world has created a Yeshua as a western person with western thoughts and ways, a Republican from the Bible Belt. We all want Yeshua to come and relate to us, but it is us who have to go to Him and become like Him, and whether we like it or not, He is nt a Western Caucasian from Europe, but a Semitic Jew form the M. East. Let us therefore learn to not only come out of Babylon, but also not to carry Babylon with us. Like Rebecca, let us rid ourselves of our Canaanitish/Babylonish/Helenistic Western ways and learn to endorse the culture of Messiah which is Torah culture: the culture of the Bible. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to teach us through the Word all the ways of the Master so that when we come to Him at the end of days, we are a pure bride, undefiled from the ways to the world.
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Matthew 5:45
That you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven. As Eliezer arrived in Padam-Aram, he asked the God of Abraham to help him identify she who would be the next matriarch of Israel. He stopped by the municipal well expecting the chosen maiden to remove a very heavy stone from the mouth of the well, and then water his ten camels loaded with the bride price with hundred fifty gallons of water. This was a very unlikely sign but the calling was high. The chosen one needed to have the right heart, the heart of a servant. Many years later Jacob, Rebeccah’s son would stand by that same well and return the favor to the House of Laban. This time he would roll the stone from the well and water Rachel’s flocks Genesis 24:12-20; 29:1-11). The Torah teaches us the notion of measure for measure. It says, But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Exodus 21:23). We may tend to think that to be God’s ‘Old Testament’ modus operandi, but our Master Yeshua expected us to also live within the notion of measure for measure; He said, For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:14). You see His idea was not for us to exact our measure like saying, ‘you did this so I’ll do that; you didn’t do this so I won’t do it either’, but rather in the sense that there is a god in heaven who on that Great Day will balance the scales. In His teaching about ‘Measure for Measure’, Yeshua affirms the teaching of some of the great luminaries of Israel who said, “Whoever refrains from exacting his measure, the heavenly courts forgives its sins (b.Rosh Hashana 17a)”. Another one also teaches that “Regarding those who are insulted but do not return an insult, those who are rebuked without replying, they are the ones who do good out of love for Gof and rejoice in their suffering …He who passes over an opportunity to retaliate has all his transgressions passed over (b.Yoma 23a)”. May we also like these great sages learn to live by our Master’s idea of measure for measure, by the Sage of all sages who said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Judge not, that you be not judged, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Here is how the Master taught us to apply measure for measure; He said, “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you … that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven (Matthew 7:1; 6:12; 5:38-45).” |
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