Category Archives: Walking in the Way

The Way He Has Made

07 Monday Aug 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

This week’s post is a continuation of my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a; the passage which contains the Apostle Paul’s description of the Whole Armor of God.  I have not yet delved into the pieces of armor as there has been so much to learn from the word “stand” as it appears in this passage.  The Greek word translated “stand” is histemi.  “Stand” is a perfectly good translation for histemi but it doesn’t fully express the intent of the word.  Histemi means “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set up, staunch, stand”.  It is not standing in the sense of perseverance or holding fast but rather carries the idea of being made to stand.  I have been thinking of verse 10 of my study passage in terms of defining histemi: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might”.  We do not stand in our own strength or merit but are made to stand in the power of His might.  The other word that has grabbed hold of my attention is “covenant”.  I have not ever thought of the whole armor of God in terms of covenant before and doing so now makes me feel as though I am approaching this passage for the first time.

Ever since I looked up the meaning of histemi, I have been thinking about covenants.  It never ceases to fascinate me how, when my attention is focused on something, I begin to see that same thing everywhere.  In last week’s post I quoted from an article published in an issue of Biblical Archeology Review.  I’ve had this issue for months but I just happen to open it and read on article on covenants in the ancient world at the exact time I have begun to meditate on covenants.  During this Sunday’s sermon, the Teacher just happened to mention the phrase “blood is thicker than water” is a shortened version of “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”.  There is no getting away from covenants.

And, what is a covenant?  It is not what I hear it defined as from a great number of believers.  They define covenant in terms of if Person A does this then Person B will do that which is not a covenant but a contract. Of course, I cannot blame my fellow believers for thinking in these terms because THE COVENANT in the minds of believers is the Mosaic Covenant i.e. The Law given at Mount Sinai.  Before Moses and Israelites ever get to Mount Sinai, there is this word from the Lord: “…If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statues, I will put none of the diseases up you which I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord Who Heals You” (Exodus 15:26, AMP).  Reading on through the giving of the law and the description of the results of failing to keep it, I understand why the language of if/then has been drug into this Day.

The Covenants of the Old Testament is a subject worthy of a devoted study.  For the sake of staying on the track of my current study, I point out the Mosaic Covenant is not the only covenant of the Old Testament nor is it the most important.  There is a fascinating passage in Galatians which speaks of a covenant made before and one which takes precedence over the covenant of Moses: “…just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Brethren, I speak in the manner of men; Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.  Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.  He does not say, And to seeds,” as of many but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.  And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Galatians 3:6-18).

This passage is referring to the covenant described in Genesis 15: 9-21.  The animals are brought and split in half but Abraham (though he is still Abram at this time) falls into a deep sleep.  God speaks to Abraham but it is a smoking oven and burning torch which pass through the carcasses and blood of the animals.  Abraham certainly took part in the preparation of the animals and he drove vultures away from the carcasses but, when the sun comes down, Abraham falls into a deep sleep.  He is a spectator rather than a participant.  I wholeheartedly agree this is a covenant God makes with Abraham but the keeping of it didn’t depend on Abraham in any way as he did not pass through the pieces himself but slept and saw as if in a dream or vision the smoking oven and burning torch pass through the pieces.

I think of this covenant when I think of the New Covenant which we all live under.  It is not a covenant of keeping laws and rules, or moderating behaviors so God will be pleased with us and bless us.  Like that covenant made while Abraham slept, this New Covenant was not made with our participation.  Like that covenant described in the Galatians passage, this New Covenant is not one of law but one of promise.  Hebrews 12: 18-24 says: “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who hear it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow”. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,”I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

“In Christ” is such a small phrase.  It’s only two words but they refer to a life and an inheritance that surpasses anything we’ve been taught to expect.  In the crucifixion of Jesus we see “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Human hands participated in the making of the New Covenant by preparing the sacrifice but, again, humans could only watch as the New Covenant was established.  But now, we are In Christ!  Every promise of God is “yes” in Christ Jesus.  We are raised from death to life in Christ Jesus and we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  His life in us is the life of the New Covenant.  Life, not keeping rules and laws.

How does this pertain to the Whole Armor of God?  I see so many believers engaging in “spiritual warfare” by attempting to animate the Mosaic Covenant with the keeping of rules and laws and adhering to standards of behavior.  I rarely if ever hear fellow believers exulting in passages like the ones I’ve shared from Galatians and Hebrews or Paul’s beautiful description of Christ’s fulfilling the law as related in Romans 8. 

I came across an interesting entry in my New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements.  In the collection of George Ricker Berry’s Synonyms under “Covenant”, I found: “Asynthetos, occurring only in Romans 1:31, is “covenant-breaker”, one who interrupts a state of peace and brings on war by disregarding an agreement by which peace is maintained.  Aspondos is “implacable”, one who refuses to agree to any terms of suggestions of peace.  It implies a state of war, and a refusal of covenant or even of armistice to end it permanently or temporarily”.

This struck me because God has, by His own desire, established a New Covenant in Christ Jesus.  It is one where He chose not to impute our trespasses against us.  It is one where Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and one where He has destroyed the devil who had the power of death.  He has come that we would have life and that abundantly!  Now, this New Covenant cannot be broken because it does not depend on us.  However, calling anything but the life and inheritance that is now ours in Jesus Christ “good news” is a refusal to partake of the covenant.  It is a rejection of the peace that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The result is a warfare that is carnal rather than spiritual because it is warfare that seeks to gain a victory over a perceived enemy when the reality is, in Christ Jesus, the victory is already won.

We put on the Whole Armor of God and our feet are shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.  I look forward to gaining understanding of just what this means. 

To be continued…

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

 4 quotes that you have been terribly misquoting. | by Josiah Ross | Student Voices (mystudentvoices.com)

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, G. Allen, New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements, 2014-2018, Page 64

With Perfect Hatred

26 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Studies, Walking in the Way

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Image by Egonetix_xyz from Pixabay

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am taking another look at the Hebrew word sane (saw-nay) which is often translated in scripture by the English word “hate”.

An interesting passage in Psalm 139 kicked off this study.  I read in verses 21-22: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?  And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?  I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”  King David appears to be saying his hate is a good thing and something that honors God.  How can this be especially since the words of Jesus in Luke 6 conflict?  “Love your enemies,” Jesus instructs.  “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28).  I do not believe the Bible contradicts itself.  I believe when and if passages appear to contradict each other, it is my understanding that is incomplete.  What then, did I understand about hate?  Was there ever a time when hate might be considered a good thing?  What is meant by “perfect hatred?”

The definition of “hate” in my New World Dictionary didn’t help in my attempt to find an answer.  The English word hate means “to have strong dislike or ill will for, loathe, despite, bear malice toward.”  I read through some scriptures containing the word sane and it did seem as though that definition was accurate.  Consider these passages:

Deuteronomy 19:11: “But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rise against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies…”

1 Kings 22:8 (also 2 Chronicles 18:7): “so the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.’”

Psalm 25:19: “consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.”

Psalm 41:7: “All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt.”

Each one of these passages, and others like them, appear to bear up the definition of “ill will, strong dislike, malice” and it is obviously not considered to be a good thing. But then, in contrast to each one of these passages, there are others where sane/hate is considered to be a good thing.  Consider:

Psalm 97:10: “You who love the Lord, hate evil!”

Psalm 101:3: “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.”

Proverbs 8:13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.”

Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 8: “To everything there is a season…a time to love and a time to hate.”

As I have studied the Hebrew word sane, I have found various scholars who say “hate” is not an appropriate choice to translate sane.  A better one would be “reject” or “turn aside.”  I read through the Strong’s concordance listing of scriptures containing sane with that definition in mind and…okay; I can see where that definition might be appropriate.  And yet I am not satisfied.  Few of the passages accurately represented what I think of when I hear the word “reject” in that the ones “hated” were not ostracized or left utterly alone. 

One article I came across said something that struck me and which I have been pondering all this week.  The article is posted on the Light of the World blog and says, “The original Hebrew Picture shows us what Hate does, not how it feels.”  The author quotes Psalm 139:22 and says, “Our English definition of Hate does make it appear that King David Detests, abhors, and Despises, בוז Buz his enemies.”  She then quotes Proverbs 14:21 which says, “But he who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.”  The author points out, “He (King David) would have known that it is Sin to Despise your Neighbor because it missed the Mark of the Commandment to Love your Neighbor: ‘You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall Love your Neighbor as yourself: I am YHVH’ Leviticus 19:18.  This means שנא Sane cannot include the emotion of Despising anyone.  In context, we see that he parallels Turning Aside, סור Sur, With Hate, שנא Sane, Psalm 139:19.” 

 The Light of the World blog compares Exodus 20:12, “Honor your Father and Mother” with Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not Hate his Father and Mother…”  The author writes, “Apparent contradictions like this one should alert us to our misunderstanding of the original meaning.  With the meaning of Hate being to Turn Aside, it is possible to Honor our parents, while Turning Aside From the lies they have inherited, in order to Obey the Commandments of our Eternal Creator.”

I can see how defining sane as “to turn aside” could work and yet it doesn’t entirely fit especially when it comes to God.  His promise to never leave nor forsake stands and His turning aside never meant utter abandonment.  As I look at the Hebrew letters comprising sane which are ש Sin נ Nun and א Aleph, I see the picture of a fire rooted and emerging from God.  The ש Shin carries the meaning of a process of destruction and consumption until completion.  Hebrews 12:29 states “our God is a consuming fire” and I am convinced the love and hate of God are two aspects of the fire that He is. 

There is an idea circulating that the love of God is this saccharine thing: that He is some ancient drooling entity confined to a celestial rocking chair where He bestows vacant grins on His children and just loves them.  No.  He is alive and passionate and because He loves so utterly and completely, He hates.  Last week I quoted a bit of Romans 2 from the Message and I like how this is rendered: “God is kind, but he’s not soft.  In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us unto a radical life-change” (MSG).  Hebrews 12:5-6 quotes Proverbs 3: 11-12 saying, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”  There is a dark side to the love of God, for lack of a better word.  Certainly there are experiences that don’t feel all that great but they can be endured because we know He loves us and the consuming fire that He is only destroys those things that would hinder us from growing into His image.  The ש Shin is a comfort here in that the process repeats itself over and over.  In His love and mercy, He doesn’t burn through our lives all at once.  He is, above all things, agape and His lovingkindness endures forever.

As creatures made in the image of God, we are capable of hate and it is right that we are.  Hate burns within us when we see a loved one suffering from a disease or when we see pain and injustice.  Hatred burns within as a “No!  These things shall not be!”  That fire within us burns the apathy out of us and we are roused to take action.  I think hatred only becomes a bad thing when it causes us to sin and fall short of the glory of God.  I think of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he quotes Psalm 4:4; “’Be angry and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27). 

It is so important that we realize that God, in his ultimate hatred, cried “No!  These things shall not be!” and that this hatred looks like Jesus. “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).  What did Jesus do?  “…once, at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26).  Jesus Christ is “Himself the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) and “through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). 

The cry of “It is finished” heard from the cross echoes through the ages.  It was the ultimate victory and it is now made a reality in our lives through the processings we experience.  We know these processings are not to utterly destroy us but are necessary so that Jesus Christ present us, The Church, to Himself not having any spot or wrinkle but are presented holy and without blemish (See Ephesians 5:27).  We embrace the consuming fire that He is knowing when He has tried us we shall come forth as gold!

Just as He is so are we in this world.  We have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus (See Philippians 2:5) and therefore, because Jesus Christ is alive in us, we love as He love and hates as He hates.  We hate with perfect hatred.  We go out into the world and we make war.  What is crucial to remember is “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).  It is also crucial to remember we do not conduct our warfare after the way of this world.  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

We seek to know Him as we are known and then, with our confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we take up the full armor of God.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

Scripture notations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress.  All rights reserved.  Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Quotes in this post are taken from the Light of the World blog at:  Hate (Sane), the Ancient Hebrew Meaning – Light of the World (wordpress.com)

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1972, 1976

Haralick, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Peterson, Eugene H., The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1993, 2002, 2018

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

One and the Same

19 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue looking at the Hebrew word sane (saw-nay) often translated by the English word “hate”. 

In last week’s post, I shared an article by Chaim Bentorah where he says a nineteenth Century Hebrew master and linguist named Samuel Hirsh applies the English word “rejection” to sane rather than hate.  A post on the Light of the World blog (linked below) says a closer translation of sane would be “turn aside”.  This post also points out the original Hebrew picture of the word sane shows us what Hate/Rejection/Turning Aside does, not how it feels as that picture is not one of an intense negative emotion.  This is a subject I’d like to explore in the upcoming weeks.  For the sake of this post, I want to share some thoughts I had as I considered the different ways to translate sane. 

I wasn’t sure “rejection” was thoroughly supported by the context of the passages in which sane appeared.  For example, Leah was “hated” but she was not “rejected” in the sense that Jacob had nothing to do with her.  On the contrary; Leah was obviously the recipient of Jacob’s attentions as she bore him children.  So, she was not “rejected” in the way I think of the word which is “to have nothing more to do with” but she did not have Jacob’s heart. 

I saw the same picture where scripture states God “hated” Esau.  I can see a bit more support for the idea of rejection in the story of Esau but there is a passage worth noting.  It is Deuteronomy 2:4-7 where God warns the Israelites to take care as they passed through the lands of the descendants of Esau saying He had given Mount Seir as their possession and not one bit of their land would be given away.  The Israelites were also admonished not to meddle with them in any way and to buy any food and drink that might prove necessary.  So, God “hated” Esau but did not utterly reject him in the sense that He had nothing more to do with him or his descendants.  However, Esau didn’t share in God’s heart the same way Jacob did. 

Since “rejection” didn’t sum up the meaning of sane for me, I looked it up on thesaurus.com hoping a list of synonyms might help fill in some of the gaps.  I was especially curious to see if “incompatible” was included in the list.  It was not but “cast aside” was.  This fascinated me and I was reminded of something I’d just read in Andrew Murray’s commentary on the Book of Hebrews.  He was speaking on Hebrews 12:1 which says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”.  Andrew Murray quotes the latter part of that passage and writes:

“One of the first thoughts connected with a race is the laying aside of everything that can hinder.  In the food he eats and the clothing he wears, how resolutely the runner puts aside everything, the most lawful and pleasant, that is not absolutely necessary to his success.  Sacrifice, self-denial, giving up, and laying aside is the very first requisite on the course.  Alas, it is this that has made the Christian life of our days the very opposite of running a race.  The great study is, both in our religious teaching and practical life, to find out how to make the best of both worlds, how to enjoy as much as possible of the wealth and the pleasure and the honor that the world offers.  With many Christians, if their conversions ever were an entering through a straight gate, their lives since never were, in any sense, a laying aside of everything that might hinder their spiritual growth.  They never heeded the word, “Whosever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).  But this is what we are called to as indispensable: “lay(ing) aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily best us.”  Yes, laying aside every-sin-however little it seems, however much it be our special weakness; it may not be spared.  Sin must be laid aside if we are to run the race.  It is a race for holiness and perfection, for the will of God and His favor; how could we dream of running the race without laying aside the sin that so easily bests us?” (Murray, Page 493)

Andrew Murray had spoken on the idea of perfection in an earlier chapter where he was discussing Hebrews 11:39-40: “’That apart from us they should not be made perfect.’ He writes, “The better thing God has provided is perfection.  The word ‘perfect’, or forms of it, is used fourteen times in the epistle.  The law made nothing perfect.  Jesus Himself was, in His obedience and suffering, made perfect in His human nature, in His will and life and character, to us.  As the Son, perfected forevermore, He is our High Priest; having perfected us forever in His sacrifice, He now brings us, in the communication of that perfection, into real, inner, living contact with God.  And so, He is the Perfecter of our faith, and He makes us His perfect ones, who press on unto Perfection.  And our life on earth is meant to be the blessed experience that God perfects us in every good thing to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight.  Apart from us, they might not be made perfect; to us, the blessing of some better thing, of being made perfect, has come.” (Murray, Page 489).

This idea, of running the race for holiness and perfection and that that perfection is ours in Jesus Christ, the Perfect One, is one that has stuck with me as I’ve sought to understand the meaning of sane.  The Hebrew letters comprising sane are the Shin (ש), the Nun (נ), and the Aleph (א).  The picture of the Shin is of teeth representing Sharp, to Eat, Devour, Destroy, Consume, like a fire, and is also representative of a process that repeats.  The Nun represents a seed, sperm, sprout, continuation, offspring, life, activity, and emergence.  The Aleph is a picture of an ox and represents strength, power, leader, master.  It is also the letter that represents God Himself and Unity with God. 

Thinking of sane as a devouring, consuming fire rooted in and springing from God, I am reminded of Hebrews 12:29: “our God is a consuming fire.”  I am also reminded of a passage in Romans 2 which, from The Message, is, “God is king, but he’s not soft.  In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.  You’re not getting by with anything.  Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire.  The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment.  Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you-Real Life for those who work on God’s side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!” (Verses 4-8, MSG). 

I recently conducted a study on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares where I shared scriptures that spoke of each one of us being tried by the same fire.  The results of this testing were good or ill based on whether or not we were united to Christ.  I wonder if sane isn’t the same?  Again, the Light of the World blog pointed out the original Hebrew picture of sane shows us action rather than feeling.  Perhaps the same fire I welcome into every aspect of my life feels like rejection to someone who does not long to, or perhaps does not feel able to, know the heart of God.  Perhaps whether we experience the consuming fire of God as sane or ahab (love) is akin to the idea expressed by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians: “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.  To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life” (2 Cor.: 15-16.) Perhaps the fire of God is life to us pressing ever deeper into Him but rejection to those who are not.

It is something I will meditate on in the coming days and I hope this has been food for thought for each of you as well.  I will continue looking at sane next week.  Until then, let us each one go on unto perfection, that perfection that is Christ in us, our hope of glory.

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

Scripture notations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress.  All rights reserved.  Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

References

WORD STUDY – HATE – שׁנה | Chaim Bentorah

Hate (Sane), the Ancient Hebrew Meaning – Light of the World (wordpress.com)

Did God Really Hate Esau? – Israel Bible Weekly (israelbiblecenter.com)

Murray, Andrew, Holiest of All: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews, Whitaker House, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 1996, 2004

Peterson, Eugene H., The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1993, 2002, 2018

Do I Not Hate Them Who Hate You?

12 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to another post on Renaissance Woman!

Psalm 139 is one of my favorite Psalms.  It is the first one I ever memorized in its entirety and I often use the verses contained within it as prayers and reminders.  However, there is a passage towards the end of the Psalm that does feel like it doesn’t belong.  It starts in verse 19 but, for the sake of this post, I want to focus on verses 21 and 22: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?  And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?  I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”

There is an interesting story related in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 10.  Verse 25 states, “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’”  The complete Jewish study Bible begins this verse with; “An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking…” Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament describes the man as “a certain man versed in the Law (a Lawyer and a legal theologian; a Torah expert)”.  Jesus replies, “What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?”  The lawyer answers, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself’.”  Jesus says to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”  But the lawyer, “wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

The story Jesus tells after the lawyer’s question is the one often called “The Good Samaritan.”  It is a fascinating story with many layers to it.  An important point to realize when reading it the deep and abiding hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans.  For Jesus to use a Samaritan in His story, especially when speaking to an expert in Torah, was one of those times we must pay close attention because Jesus is making a crucial point.

Who is my neighbor?  As I carefully listen to the things being spoken today I do not think I stretch things if I rephrase this questions as, “who am I allowed to hate?”  The answer to that appears to be found in Psalm 139: we can hate those who hate God, loathe those who rise against Him, count them our enemies.  Of course, there is some difficulty in determining just who hates God.  There are times when it appears obvious who hates God but it gets trickier when we come across those who claim to be believers in Jesus but don’t quite believe the right things.  There are so many lines drawn and labels applied to people so we can distinguish our enemies from our friends.  If you belong to my denomination, if you look like me, sound like me, believe like me then you are safe but if you don’t then you are not only against me but against God.  The story of The Good Samaritan is a warning to take care because our neighbor is not who we might think.  After all we humans judge by the outward appearance but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  

And yet, we do live in a time where the heart seems to have been put on display.  The headlines have been full of behaviors where I think we could point a finger and say, “those people there are obviously against God so they are the ones I can hate” but then we come up against John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” and 1 John 2:2: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”  But then, there are passages like Psalm 11:5 “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates” and Romans 9:13 where Paul quotes Malachi 1:2-3 saying, “as it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated’.”  So; God hates but His commandment to us was “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27-28).  Which is it?  Was David wrong in his Psalm or could it be we don’t have an understanding of what the Bible means by hate?

As I search for an answer to that, I have to wonder why “hate” was chosen in the first place by our English Translators.  My New World Dictionary defines hate as “to have strong dislike or ill will for; loathe; despise, to dislike or wish to avoid; shrink from (to hate arguments)”.  There’s a note under the definition that says “hate implies a feeling of great dislike or aversion and, with persons as the object, connotes the bearing of malice.”  Can this really describe our God as revealed in Jesus?

The Hebrew word used by David in his Psalm is sane (H8130, pronounced saw-nay) and is spelled Shin Nun Aleph (שנא).  The Strong’s concordance defines it as “to hate (personally) enemy, foe, odious” so isn’t all that helpful in trying to understand what sane means.  As I continued looking into the sane, I found articles that said “hate” was an incorrect translation of sane and “to love less” would be more accurate.  Others have said that the ancient pictograph of sane is a thorn and then a seed denoting something unsettling that would be turned away from.  One article says “the Hebrew view of hate was more about being hurt or wounded by something because of love being involved…When we feel pain, we want to withdraw; we are made in His image” (FirmIsrael).  Chaim Bentorah has an article devoted to Psalm 139:21 and the word sane and says his studies have suggested “reject” would be better than “hate” to translate the Hebrew.

I don’t disagree with anything I read in the articles linked below (and there are some wonderful points made about how God blessed Esau even though He supposedly “hated” him-worth reading) but I see something more in the picture formed by the Hebrew letters.  The Shin (ש) represents the totality of an entire process from beginning to end and means “whole, entire, intact” or “complete”.  It also carries the idea of repetition in that the process is completed over and over again.  Shin, with its three arms, also represents fire.  Nun (נ) means “emergence” but it also means “to sprout, spread, propagate, shine, flourish, blossom”.  The Aleph (א) is the letter that represents God but also is the letter that brings all of creation into unity with God.  Thus, in the Hebrew word sane, I see the picture of fire rooted in God.  His sane is the love of His Father’s heart that burns against anything that would keep His children from relationship with Him. 

What does the sane of God look like?  It does look like some harsh dealings as we read the Old Testament but each one of those instances describe the broken heart of God and His reluctance to act.  (I have touched on this in my studies on evil).  The fullness of the sane of God looks like Jesus coming to seek and save that which was lost.  It looks like the stories of Luke 15 where, when the precious lost sheep, coin, and son are restored to their rightful place, the call is “rejoice with me!”  United to Jesus Christ, One Spirit with Him, His sane burns in us.  The apostle Paul is a perfect example of the sane of God manifested in a human life.  As the zealous protector of the Temple, Paul hated the Christians in the dictionary definition of the world.  After His encounter with the living Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul had sane against everything that sought to keep anyone from experiencing the fullness of God.  He became the one who wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

There’s a quote that’s recently been shared a great deal and it has bothered me.  It’s from one of Billy Graham’s sermons and he says, “The closer you get to Christ, the more sinful you’re going to feel”.  The quote is taken out of context and I have not yet had an opportunity to hear it within the entire sermon but, as it stands, I don’t agree with it.  What I believe is the more the life of Christ is formed in you, the more you will sane.  That is not a bad thing.  Our God is a consuming fire and, as we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ from glory to glory, the more His fire burns in us.  We live rooted in Jesus Christ and His life in us shines out of us and lights the entire world.  We sane anything that would seek to destroy the precious treasure of His life within us and, at the same time, that life in us is an irritant to the world. 

There is so much more to be said on this.  I believe understanding the sane of God is the first step toward understanding spiritual warfare and is a subject I will continue to look at in the upcoming weeks.

Until then, let us remember “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19-20).  

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Jacob I Loved, Esau I Hated – Hebrew Word for Hate — FIRM Israel

Sanay: To HATE – Hebrew Word Lessons

WORD STUDY – HATE – שׁנה | Chaim Bentorah

Did God Really Hate Esau? – Israel Bible Weekly (israelbiblecenter.com)

What Does The Word ‘Hate’ Mean In Hebrew and Greek? – Misfit Ministries

The Complete Jewish Study Bible, Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2016

Bentorah, Chaim, Hebrew Word Study: Beyond the Lexicon, Trafford Publishing, USA, 2014

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1972, 1976

Haralick, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Mitchell, Jonathan, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

If No One is Watching

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am running a bit late this week but I did get a post completed!  I had thought I would take a deeper look at the word “wicked” in scripture but then saw some fascinating things in the NT about faith I wanted to look at as well.  And then, there have been so many avenues of study opened up to me through my study of Isaiah 45:7, I wasn’t sure which one to pursue first.  I’ve known my next study was going to be on the full armor of God as described in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (See Ephesians 6: 10-18) and, as I started to put together notes this this week’s post, I realized everything I was looking at would be explored as I looked at the various pieces of armor.  Perhaps I should just wait to post until deeper into my Armor of God study…but then, I read something interesting in Ephesians Chapter 6.  The word as found in The New King James Version of the Bible is “eyeservice” found in verse 6. 

“Eyeservice” caught my attention because of my study of the word “evil”.  I had looked at the Hebrew and Greek words for “evil” during my study of Isaiah 45:7 and the Hebrew word translated “evil” is ra.  Ra is spelled Resh (ר) Ayin (ע).  Resh is a picture of a bent head or one bent under a heavy burden and the Ayin is the picture of the eyes.  So, those who do evil are those who allow their actions to be guided by what they have determined is right in their own eyes.

The Greek word translated as “eyeservice” is ophthalmodouleia (G3787)and is a bit of a tongue twister.  It’s a combination word of opthalmos meaning “the eye” and douleia meaning “slavery” or “bondage”.  This Greek word appears twice in scripture: here in Ephesians 6:6 and then again in Colossians 3:22 where Paul writes, “Servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but in simplicity of purpose (with all your heart) because of your reverence for the Lord and as a sincere expression of your devotion to Him” (Amplified). 

At first glance, the word ophthalmodouleia doesn’t have any relation to “evil”.  The two passages where this word appears does seem to be speaking about a bondage to another’s opinion rather than doing what is right on one’s own eyes.  Since the two passages are similar, I am focusing on Ephesians 6:6 and  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders the passage as, “not in accord with eye-service (or; in line with slavery to the eyes [of folks watching]; or = doing it only when being watched) as folks desiring to please men, but rather as slaves of Christ, constantly doing (performing; producing) the will and intent of God-from out of [the] soul (=with the whole inner being; mind, will, emotion, life-force; or: = spontaneously)”. 

The Amplified is a smoother read: “Not in the way of eyeservice-as if they were watching you-and only to please men; but as servants (slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul.”  Paul’s admonition is to not behave one way when another person is watching you and another when they are not.  In other words, Paul is telling us not to be hypocrites.  And yet, I do see a deeper meaning in this passage.

In June of 2020, I was in prayer asking not only that the eyes of my understanding be enlightened but that I would see the Holy Spirit guiding me into all truth.  The answer I received was “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  I did a word study on Genesis 2:9 but, once I’d completed it, I wasn’t sure where to go next.  I didn’t need to worry: the Holy Spirit was about to guide me.  I began hearing my Bible Teacher’s mention the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then they weren’t just mentioning it but teaching on it.  I also would just happen to come across books and other writings teaching on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as well as the Tree of Life.  Since June of 2020, I have come to see that there are two ways to live.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which means we have ourselves at the center of our lives and determine for ourselves what is good and evil.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of Life which is the very life of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ made real to us through the Indwelling Spirit. 

I do not see Ephesians 6:6 (or the passage in Colossians) as Paul only telling his listeners not to be hypocrites.  I see this passage as Paul urging his listeners, and us today, to live our lives out from the very life of Jesus Christ no matter what position we find ourselves in and no matter what work might be placed in our hands to do.

I hear the word “secular” a great deal.  I get what people are saying but may I suggest there is no such thing as “secular” where a Believer is concerned?  Our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are One Body with Jesus Christ, partakers of His divine nature and co-creators with Him (2 Peter 1:4, 1 Corinthians 3:9).  This is our very identity.  This is not something we pick up and adorn ourselves with on a Sunday morning but then lay aside when we go to work or to school or whatever occupies our time on a day to day basis.  Everything we do we do unto the Lord and with Him because He is in us. 

That is what I saw in Ephesians 6:6.  I suppose “eyeservice” does have some relation to “evil” because a person who is living for the approval of others and is acting accordingly has determined it is good to do so.  In that sense, that person is doing what is right in his or her own eyes.  Let us not live that way.  Let us live-and live spontaneously-with our whole inner being: mind, will, emotion, out of the Christ.  Let us each one live joyfully knowing that it is no longer we who live, it is Christ who lives in us. 

Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

The Comprehensive Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, G. Allen, Koine Greek Textbook, Volume IV-V, 2014-2017