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Safety in Numbers

30 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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

I almost didn’t post this week.  Last week was fraught with difficulty and I wasn’t able to complete the studying I had laid out as thoroughly as I would have liked.  Perhaps I will have done by next week.  I was going to skip a week but then I came across a quote in a book by Don Keathley and, since it did relate to my current study of Isaiah 45:7, I am going to both share it and expand on it.

The quote is: “You are relieved of judging anything and anybody at any time as good or evil.  Be still and simply respond to the voice within.  Be as Jesus is only say what you hear the Father say and only do what He shows you He is doing.”1

There is such an incredible freedom in no longer eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil but eating from the Tree of Life that is Jesus Himself.  What liberty I have in the Spirit!  I no longer do what seems good in my own eyes nor do I determine what others do to me as good or evil.  I am learning to think in terms of “life and not-life”.  This doesn’t mean I live in some sort of imagined Holy Spirit ivory tower where, whenever evil things happen to me, I pretend they are NOT happening because “God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.”2  All due respect to Robert Browning but I don’t know of anyone who can look around right now and say a statement like that has any truth to it.  Neither was this statement true closer to home.  All is NOT right in my world.  Last week was difficult both emotionally and spiritually.  I had to deal with difficult people and I am fairly certain those same people thought it difficult to deal with me.

Why?

One answer is, while I am no longer eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, many others still are.  They are both determining for themselves what is good and evil and then judging my behavior according to those standards: I am not doing what they say is “good” therefore I am evil.  Perhaps you have experienced this yourself.  And, perhaps you are like me: a people pleaser.  I don’t want people to be mad at me and neither do I want people to dislike me.  But, when I began eating from the Tree of Life and fixing my eyes solely on Jesus, this new lifestyle meant that I truly did only those things I saw the Father doing.  There is a quote I’ve seen floating around and I do not know who to attribute it to.  The quote is “It might look like I’m doing nothing but on a cellular level I’m really quite busy.”  In order to only do those things I saw the Father doing, I had to know what the Father was doing.  In order to know what the Father was doing, I had to live as a sheep that knew only my Shepherd’s voice and, in order to do that, I needed the Holy Spirit to teach me how to know that Voice in the midst of countless others.

There is an interesting piece of scripture.  It’s one tiny sentence but there is limitless treasure to be mined from it.  It’s Exodus 33:11: “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.  And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”  Isn’t that amazing?!  Here are two entirely different relationships two men had to the Lord.  The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend and that is wonderful.  Joshua however, did not depart from the tabernacle so he stayed immersed in the Lord’s presence.

I wonder how many times members of the camp grumbled against Joshua.  No doubt there was plenty to do and Moses was just one man.  And, there was no denying he was getting old and that lazy servant of his was young and able bodied but was he out helping Moses?  Noooo.  Joshua was not departing from the tabernacle and what could he possibly be doing in there that was more important than meeting the immediate needs of the camp?

It did not look like Joshua was doing very much from those outside, but on a spiritual level, both he and the Lord were very busy.  Joshua was being prepared for a unique position within the people of God and so are you and I my fellow believer.  It might not look like we’re doing very much, but on a Spiritual level, both we and the Lord are very busy.  I’ve written about it before but the Hebrew word for wait as in “wait on the Lord” (Ps. 27:14) or “they that wait upon the Lord” (Is. 40:31) is qavah (H6960) and means “to bind together”.  It might look like we are doing nothing, but this waiting on the Lord is anything but passive.

And yet, we have an adversary who “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).  That Serpent of old is revealed as a dragon who “deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9).  How can we be certain we are not being deceived?  I encourage you to take some time and check out how many times the words “in Christ” are used in the New Testament.  We can trust that our God WANTS us to know Him and isn’t looking to pull a fast one on us.  The apostle Peter quoting Isaiah writes, “’Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame’(Is. 28:16)” (1 Peter 2:6).  We have the absolute trustworthiness of our God revealed in Jesus.  Trust in Him and we will not be put to shame.  By no means!

But still, “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) so how can we be really really sure the voice we are hearing is truly the voice of our Great Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ?  I am not going to share the process through which I have come to know the guidance of the Holy Spirit and discern the voice of Jesus Christ and the will of the Father.  Take any ten believers and you’ll find ten different workings of the Spirit.  There are a few things I think are universal experiences though and the first is follow your peace.  The peace of Jesus Christ rules in our hearts and we can’t go wrong following our peace.  That doesn’t mean the things we are given to do are easy or even always that pleasant but 100% of the time I’ve had a deep calm peace about doing them.

This is in contrast to the uncomfortable stressed out feeling that comes directly on the heels of being shown what to do by the Spirit.  I can tell you my experience has been that the tactics of the enemy have not changed since that first “Hath God said” the Serpent uttered to Eve.  Again, 100% of the time, the call to disobedience has boiled down to “Hath God said…?” Not always in those exact words but that I have found that same hiss of the Serpent under every argument against doing what I know I see the Father doing.  There are also the guilt words, as my mother calls them, of “should”, “ought”, and “must”.  Whenever someone comes at me using those three words, I cling ever tighter to the cornerstone that is Jesus and listen for His voice.

One last thing: strong emotion does not necessarily equate to a moving of the Holy Spirit.  I was privileged to have an experience with my family in the last few weeks.  We participated in a supposedly ‘spirit-filled’ situation and there was no denying we laughed and cried.  There was overwhelming emotion and, when the experience was over, we wanted to have it all over again.  However, in the following days, I began to realize that strong emotion was all it was.  There was no answering from the Holy Spirit deep within my spirit.  I kept that realization to myself until my mother mentioned she too thought the experience was all emotion.  Does that mean it’s bad and no one should have participated?  Of course not!  I believe Romans 8:28 is true and God works in all things for the good to those who love Him.  What I am saying is test everything and just because a group of people are insisting something is Spirit-filled doesn’t mean it is.

This might mean you feel like the only person seeing something different from the rest of the group.  There is a perceived safety in numbers: if they are seeing/saying/doing it, then it must mean I am safe if I also see/say/do it.  No.  There is such freedom in Jesus Christ and the fruit of the Spirit is a very real way of life.  The joy of the Lord is alive in us through the Holy Spirit and, while it is our strength, it should not be confused with happiness.  Hebrews 13:12-13 states, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”

When the Spirit opens our eyes to the hope of our calling in Christ Jesus and the richness of His inheritance in us, there is no unseeing it.  We have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light and, once we taste the reality, there is no falling for the counterfeit.  It is painful to see what someone else does not see and to be written off as deceived or worse, evil.  It is sometimes lonely outside the camp because we don’t always see the others also outside the camp.

It is not possible to be alone here.  I have another quibble with the great Robert Browning.  Our God is only in His heaven in the sense that “He is before all things and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17).  I came across an exhilarating passage while conducting my study on “evil” and it’s found in Jeremiah 23:23-24: “’Am I a God near at hand,’ says the Lord, ‘and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places so I shall not see him?’ says the Lord; ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the Lord.”

Our safety is not in what a great number of people believe is true, our safety is Jesus Himself.  He is at hand.  He is not up or over or afar off.  It is true that he is before us and around us and behind us and with us.  Best of all, He is IN us.  Do not be deceived away from this great truth: the being of God cannot be separated and so, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, so does the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because He is in the Father and the Father in Him, the Father is also in us.  We can know and do only what the Father is doing.  Oftentimes, what the Father is doing is not at all what others would have us do. Don’t worry if your holding fast to the cornerstone does require you coming outside the camp.  I’ll see you here.

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

  1.  Keathley, Don, Hell’s Illusion: Exposing the Myth of Hell, 2022
  2. 718. Pippa’s Song. Robert Browning. The Oxford Book of English Verse (bartleby.com)

The Life in Us

23 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Hello!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.

One day last week, I perchanced to listen to a bit of a conversation on Bible translations.  The two participants were talking about the dangers of reading translations done by just one person as opposed to other translations; ones that actually lived up to the word “translation” (as opposed to being called a “paraphrase”) because they were made by committees of scholars. One of the participants inferred bibles translated by a committee of scholars are more trustworthy than those translated by a single person but I don’t necessarily agree.  I have found translators have an incredibly difficult time not translating the Bible according to what they think it ought to say rather than sticking to the meanings found in the original languages.

One such case in point is the NIV translation of the Bible.  This is a popular translation.  According to Amazon.com, since its publication in 1973; the NIV has sold 16o million copies1.  I own a copy myself: a NIV Journal Bible because I find the columns an invaluable space to note the Greek words that have been translated by different English words: sometimes in the same sentence.  Despite the NIV being translated by a committee of scholars and despite some key changes made in the 2011 update, given the choice, it is not a translation I would trust to be the only one I read.

But then, no translation is perfect.  I have already pointed out how the translators of the King James Version were bothered by the word Elohim in Psalm 8:5 and chose to render it as “angels” rather than “God” despite there being the Hebrew malak translated angel or angels in numerous other passages.  And yet, the KJV does translate Galatians 2:20 as “…the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” rather than “”the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” which is how the NKJV as well as many other translations renders it.  It’s a small change-“of” to “in”-but it shifts the meaning and focus from His faith in us as our strength to live our lives to our having to have faith in Him.    

Despite the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the various translations, I love reading my Bible.  I enjoy reading it in different translations because the rhythms resulting from the different word choices help me to look at passages in a different way.  I honor my brothers and sisters who risk their lives by merely possessing a Bible and I am grateful I live in a country where I can possess as many copies in as many translations as I like.  It is a privilege I never take for granted.  I do have a favorite translation which I read the most because the language suits me.  I think the best translation of the Bible for everyone is the one that suits that person.  For example, the Action Bible does not appeal to me in any way.  However, I recently read an article that said the Action Bible is the version that is appealing to new believers in various regions of Africa.  Just because it is not a version I care to read does not mean it is not a version the Holy Spirit would use to open others’ eyes to the truth of Jesus Christ.  Who am I then to say what is good or evil?

Bible reading and the disagreements over translations have been weighing on my mind as I’ve conducted my study on evil.  Just reading a translation, any translation, does not give a complete nor accurate picture of the meaning of evil.  For example, let’s compare the Strong’s Concordance list of scriptures containing the word “evil” in the books of Matthew and Romans.  There are 19 occurrences in the Book of Matthew.  In all but three, “evil” is used to translate the Greek word poneros (G4190). Two exceptions are Matthew 24:48 and 27:23 where the Greek word is kakos (G2556) and the third is Matthew 6:34 where “evil” is used to translate kakia (G2549). The opposite is true in the Book of Romans.  There are 17 occurrences in Romans and all but two are translations of kakos.  Romans 14:16 does not have a reference number next to it in the Strong’s.  The passage is “Then do not let your good be spoken evil of” and the word “evil” is supplied by the translators as they sought to make the meaning of blasphameo (G987) clear.  The other exception is Romans 12:9 where we are to “abhor what is evil” and the Greek word there is poneros.  We can glean a bit of the differences of meaning through a careful reading of the context of these scriptures but we cannot help but bring our own definition of “evil” to these passages.  The words in the Greek mean very different things and I am convinced something is lost with a mere reliance on an English translation.

Poneros means “hurtful, bad, evil, grievous, lewd, malicious, wicked” and derives from ponos which means “toil”.  It is a word that relates to effects rather than character and is the word translated “evil” in the scriptures describing deeds and works as well as the heart and eye (See Matt 9:4, 12:34, 15:19, 20:15, John 3:19, 7:7).  It is also the Greek word found in the scriptures describing “evil spirits” and the “evil one” (See Mat. 5:37, 6:13, Luke 7:21, Luke 8:2, Luke 11:4, John 17:5, Acts 19:12).  Kakos is a primary word and means “worthless, bad, evil, harm, ill, noisome, wicked” and-despite the definition-is not interchangeable with poneros in that kakos is intrinsic meaning the “badness” or “evil” belongs naturally to the subject being referred to. Kakos relates to character.  This fascinated me because I would have expected kakos to be the word describing both evil spirits and the evil one and it is not.  I need to take a much longer and deeper look at why this is so.

Just to be thorough, the Greek word kakia is the noun while kakos is the adjective.  The words do not carry different meanings.  

One more example because it makes me shake my head in wonder: “evil” appears three times in Titus and each time it translates a different Greek word.  The passages are Titus 1:12, 2:8, and 3:2. The phrase in Titus 1:12 is “evil beasts” and the Greek word is kakos.  Titus 2:8 says “…having nothing evil to say of you” and Titus 3:2 says “speak evil”.  The Greek words are phaulos (G5337) and blasphemeo, respectively.  I include this because I would not necessarily think the words all translated by “evil” had different meanings in the Greek based on context.  The Strong’s Concordance is, of course, based off of the King James Version.  Different translations have sometimes chosen to use different words in the passages I’ve listed but then they too end up having their own inaccuracies.  Again, no translation is perfect.

Paul says two things to Timothy which will bring me to my material point.  The first is in 2 Timothy 2:15 where Paul says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” and, as I have heard that used to stress the importance of studying the Bible, I include it here.  The second is 2 Timothy 3:16 where Paul says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  The NIV (ha!) but also the ESV as well as other translations have “god-breathed” instead of inspiration. 

I don’t disagree.  As I said, I love reading my Bible.  I do so for enjoyment and I can’t put into words how my knowledge of the Lord has grown through studying the Bible.  Looking beyond the language of my translations into the Hebrew, Greek, and even Aramaic is also invaluable to my increasing knowledge.  But, I do not consider my reading and study a substitute for knowing God, personally and intimately.  Paul also wrote, “our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5.-6).  The Spirit gives life.  I cannot say that too many times.

In recent days, the social media algorithms have sent me various posts which all have contained the same message: the number one way to grow closer to God is to read your Bible.  That is not true. You can definitely come to know about God by reading your Bible but; to know Him, which in the original languages carry the intent of the same level of intimacy as the marriage relationship, is only possible in the Holy Spirit.   It is the Spirit alone who ministers life-the very life of Jesus Christ-to us by dwelling in us.  My Bible Teacher recently pointed out the Persons of God are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not Father, Son, and Holy Scripture.  I am concerned that all I hear is a stressing of first and foremost reading the Bible.  The Holy Spirit is not mentioned.  Ever.

Do not allow yourself to be kept from living to the fullest the life of Christ Jesus which is yours now through the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit who inspired the writers of the Bible lives in you.  So read your Bible in whatever translation you choose but take the time to close your Bible.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the truth of you in Christ and Christ in you. If you do not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit right now, ask Him to open your eyes to this reality.  Do not settle for knowing about our God, but KNOW HIM!

May the Spirit of wisdom and revelation open the eyes of all our hearts.

Amen.

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

1. NIV/The Message Parallel Bible (New International Version): Zondervan: 9780310928898: Amazon.com: Books

References

The New Testament in Four Versions, Christianity Today Edition, Washington, D.C. 1965

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

Interesting Reading

Where Did the NIV Come From? | The Story of the NIV (thenivbible.com)

NIV changes “sinful nature” to “flesh” | Freedom In Christ Ministries (ficm.org.uk)

The Men Who Wrote Scripture Were Led by the Spirit – BJU Seminary

It’s A Heart Thing-Part Two

16 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to Renaissance Woman!

This week I am continuing my study of Isiah 45:7 and am still looking at the words of the Lord: “I create evil.”  If you read last week’s post, you will see the record in scripture is clear: God knows evil, God uses evil, and God turns away from the evil He has determined to do.  What I do not see recorded in scripture is God is the source of evil. 

I think it’s important to review-just in case anyone reading this has the same reaction I do when hearing “evil”-is that what the scriptures are intending to convey don’t always align with what we think when we read a word.  Those things I think of when I hear the word “evil” are comprehensively listed in Galatians 5 verses 19-21: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries.  These the Apostle Paul calls “the works of the flesh” and God is not the source of any of these things.  These are the things that originate out of the human heart and mind. 

None of the passages describing the evil that God does are referencing any of these things.  In this sense “evil” is not a great translation for the Hebrew word ra.  I don’t find “bad” any better of a choice because I find I still have a knee-jerk reaction at the thought of God doing bad things.  There are some translations that have chosen “calamity” but the translators aren’t consistent. For the sake of clarity in this post, and because “evil” and “bad” carry a mental connotation I have not quite rid myself of, I will use the term “injurious to happiness” when describing the actions of God.

I cannot deny, and I don’t think any believer will disagree; God does do things that are injurious to our happiness.  We expect Him to do so because we know that we are sons of God and that “whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6-7).  Chastening and scourging never feel good but we submit to their processing because we know that the end result will be us fashioned into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  What is injurious to our happiness in the present moment is meant to bring us to a glorious result and we rest in the fact that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

As I read through the scriptures in the Old Testament containing ra (evil), I saw that the injurious to happiness acts of God were always in response to the actions arising out of the hearts of humankind.  I quoted Jeremiah 17:9 in a previous post: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”  This is not a rhetorical question nor does it go unanswered.  Verse 10 says, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”  

This promise is echoed in other scriptures:

Deuteronomy 32:35: “Vengeance is Mine and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them.”

2 Chronicles 16:9: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”

Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

Isaiah 13:11: “I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”

These passages are echoed in the New Testament as well.  Jesus Himself says, “Woe to the world because of offences!  For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” and Paul consoles the church at Thessalonica saying, “it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you” (2 Thes. 1:6).  With all these passages in mind, I can obey the admonition in Proverbs 20:22: “Do not say “I will recompense evil’; Wait for the Lord and He will save you.”

My first instinct when someone injures me is “how dare he/she/they?” and to retaliate.  However, because of the promises of God that He will indeed repay everyone according to their deeds, I can put that person in the hands of God and trust that He will indeed repay them.

But there’s a problem.  I’ve already quoted scriptures in Jeremiah where God promises to change his mind and turn away from the injurious acts He has determined to do if the person or people will turn their hearts to Him.  I also find these passages in the Bible:

Proverbs 16:4: “The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.”

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live’, says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live’.”

In the New Testament, Peter writes, ““the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

I am reminded of the story of Jonah.  God wished to send him to the people of Nineveh to issue a warning to turn from their wicked ways and turn their hearts toward God.  Jonah eventually does so but he has no expectation his warning will be heeded and goes up onto a hilltop in order to better see the destruction God is about to rain down on the people.  The people do heed the warning, they do turn their hearts, and there is no destruction.  Is Jonah thrilled?  No.  In fact, he is angry at God.  Despite being a prophet of the Lord, he did not share God’s heart for the people.

How often have I not shared in God’s heart?  How often has my desire been for the ground to open up and swallow my enemies or at least a little fire and brimstone and not “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?”     

There is a passage in his epistle to the Romans where Paul instructs us to: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.  Be of the same mind toward one another.  Do not set our mind on high things, but associate with the humble.  Do not be wise in your own opinion.  Repay no one evil for evil.  Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.  If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.  Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  Therefore “If you enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head” (Proverbs 25:21-22) Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12: 14-21).

Everything in this passage is possible to do while continuing to carry resentment and the desire for revenge in my heart.  I can, through will power, put on a good show, so to speak.  It is not possible to genuinely live out everything in this passage without the life of Jesus Christ made a reality in me by the Holy Spirit.  My cry is that of David: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  This cry is perfectly answered by God in the prophecies found in Jeremiah 32: 40-41 and Ezekiel 36: 25-27.  These prophecies are made a reality in this day we live in.  What is impossible with man is possible with the Father through the finished work of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Our new heart is already a reality.  It is the gift of God. Jesus has already come to this world, lived as one of us, been crucified, risen from the dead, ascended to the Father, and sent the Spirit.  The Spirit has been lavishly poured out into our hearts declaring to us who we really are in Jesus Christ and teaching us how to live out of this new heart.  We are new creations in Christ Jesus and the new heart that has been put in us is His heart.  We are, in this very moment, partakers of His divine nature.

We human beings are truly beautiful.  God Himself called us good when He made us.  We are capable of doing such great things.  We are not stupid.  We know both good and evil and we exercise our power of self-will every day.  We oftentimes do good to our fellow beings even when everything in us doesn’t want to do it.  We can, and often do, act in direct opposition to our feelings.  This is not enough for me.  I can do all the good that is in my power to do and still be aware of how far I fall short.  The word of God stands firm: “Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50).  There is no amount of preparation I can do on my own heart.  All I can do is respond to the truth as the Holy Spirit opens my eyes.  This is the truth: I have been crucified with Christ.  I am dead to sin and to my old way of life.  I am alive to Jesus Christ.  It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

Living out of this new heart is not instantaneous.  My flesh still carries the memory of how I used to think and act.  But now, whenever that memory tries to assert itself, I tell it no, there is a new heart and new law at work now, and I make the deliberate decision to, as Paul says, “by the mercies of God…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1:2).

Not by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit.

Amen.

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

It’s A Heart Thing-Part One

09 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7

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Hello and welcome to Renaissance Woman!  I am returning to my study of Isaiah 45:7 and, this week, am continuing to look at the words of the Lord where He says He makes peace “and creates evil.”

Simply reading those words causes a host of questions to raise in my mind.  How can a God who creates evil still be called good?  If He creates evil, how come there are passages like Psalm 34:16 which states “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil”?  Or Psalm 5:4: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You”?  If He creates evil, why did Jesus teach us to pray “deliver us from evil?” 

These questions were based on my understanding that “create” meant “to make from nothing” and thus, whenever I read this passage, I understood it to be saying evil did not exist until God created it.  I have proven to my own satisfaction that “create” does not hold that meaning.  This study has led me to a more accurate definition of “to cause and purpose something new to come into being and grow to fulfill that purpose.”  Unwieldy, I know but that definition is the only one that fits every occurrence of the Hebrew word bara (translated by the English “create”) in the Old Testament.  As I looked up these occurrences, I saw that bara was oftentimes used in situations where the act of creating was done with material already in existence and so, there was no reason to think of God as the source of evil based on the word choice of bara/create.

I also looked up each occurrence of the Hebrew word ra translated as “evil” in my study passage.  The preponderance of the scriptures were very clear that God was not the source of evil but rather evil was rooted in the heart of mankind and flowed into the world via their doings.  And yet, every once in a while I would come across a verse like Amos 3:6: “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?  If there is calamity (ra-evil) in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”  There was no denying God did evil as well as man.

And yet, there is a clear difference in the evil of mankind and the evil of God.  Before I point it out, it’s important to take a moment and get the meaning of “evil” clear in our minds.  What we think when we hear the word “evil” is not necessarily what the scripture intended to convey.  The Hastings dictionary defines “evil” as: “…an older form of the word “ill”…the word almost invariably connotes what is either morally corrupt (see Sin) or injurious to life and happiness.”  The Strong’s Concordance has “bad” as the first meaning of ra and continues to define ra with a list of words ranging from “adversity” to “wretchedness”.  I see the same range of meaning in the New World Dictionary where “evil” is defined as “morally bad or wrong” to “causing pain or trouble” to “offensive or disgusting”.  As I looked up the scriptures containing ra, I found reading around the specific passage and sometimes entire chapters necessary to understand which meaning ought to be applied.

The actions I-and I think most people-have in mind when they think of “evil” are the harmful and oftentimes horrendous actions human beings commit against each other: like murder.  The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:19-21 says, “the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…”.  If we keep this list in mind and take a long and honest look at the world around us, the “why” of the existence of the majority of evil in the word is clear.

What then is the evil done by God?  As I looked up the various passages I found “injurious to life and happiness” to be the best definition.  I also saw the truth of Amos 3:7 where the prophet declares, “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”  There was never an instance where God had an intention to take an action that would prove definitely injurious to life and/or happiness where He didn’t first declare it.  He also held off performing the action for a long period of time giving His people a chance to turn from their evil ways and also promising, if they did so, He would turn from the evil He had determined to do.

I found the book of Jeremiah offered up the most complete picture of what I am relating.  There are so many scriptures within this book that describe both the hearts and doings of the people of God as evil.  God declared through His prophet, “Hear, O earth!  Behold, I will certainly bring calamity (ra-evil) on this people-The fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words” (Jeremiah 6:19).  There is a fascinating passage in Jeremiah 18:7-12:

“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.  And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.  Now, therefore speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you.  Return now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good!” ‘“And they said, “That is hopeless!  So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”

I would have thought that would be enough for God to throw up His hands but He continues to entreat His people through His prophet saying to Jeremiah: “Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them.  Do not diminish a word.  Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings” (Jeremiah 26:2-3).

This same chapter describes another man named Urijah who prophesied in the name of the Lord and issued the same warnings as Jeremiah.  King Jehoiakim sought to put him to death and did so.  Urijah fled to Egypt but was pursued, drug back to Jerusalem, killed with the sword, and his body was thrown into the graves of the common people.  Jeremiah would have been killed as well but for the fact that he had the protection of man named Ahikam.  The people of the Lord did not only want to walk according to their own plans, they were set on killing anyone who sought to persuade them otherwise.

Well, the record in scripture is clear.  Despite His promises to relent, the word of the Lord was not heeded and God did bring destruction on Jerusalem and His people.  And yet, He still issued promises and words of comfort to His people.  Jeremiah writes a letter to the people carried away into captivity in Babylon and that letter contains one of the most quoted scriptures of all time: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).  The next chapters contain the promises that the captives would return and both Judah and Jerusalem would be restored.

The book of Jeremiah also records that beautiful promise of God: “They shall be my people and I will be their God, then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear (revere) Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good, but will put My fear (reverence) in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.  Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jeremiah 32:38-41).

I don’t see that the people were incapable of turning their hearts to God.  Rather, I see that they would not.  The book of Jeremiah also includes a story of the men of Judah who had fled to Egypt (despite their being warned not to do so!  See Chapter 42).  Even after they had seen the destruction of the city of God and heard God still promising to care for them in the land, their answer to the prophet was; “we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and put out drink offerings to her as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.  But since we have stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and famine” (Jeremiah 44: 17:18).

Could the people of God then have been so blind that they did not know evil had come upon them as a direct result of the evil of their own hearts and doings, their turning away from God, and their outright disobedience? Even so, God promises to give them one heart and one way.  That prophecy is repeated and intensified through another prophet of the Lord, Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

We will continue to look at this next week…

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

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, 1974

Hastings, James, Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Fifth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, 2001, Page 247

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

Where’s Your Head At?

26 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Image by Christine Schmidt from Pixabay

Hello!  Welcome to the start of another week and another post on Renaissance Woman.

I am continuing my study of Isiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  I have quoted this passage out of the New King James but there are many translations that have the word “evil” in place of “calamity”.  The Hebrew word in this passage is ra and, this week, am taking a second look both at ra (רע)-evil- and ra’ah (ראה)-to see.

Ra has an entire list of meanings in the Strong’s Concordance: bad, evil, adversity, affliction, calamity, displeasure, mischief, and the list goes on.  Looking at the Hebrew letters which comprise the word ra, the meaning is revealed as “allowing the eyes to rule”.  The letter Resh (ר) meaning both “head or principal” and “poverty” is shown bending to the letter Ayin (ע) which means “eye, face, look, appearance, sight”. 

The Resh is a fascinating letter (but then all the Hebrew letters are!).  According to Mr. Haralick’s book, Resh has the energy intelligence of The Cosmic Container.  With this in mind, I look at the word ra and I see the Ayin as both ruling and filling the Resh.  The Resh is the letter depicting the head bowed or a poor person bent under a heavy load.  The Resh bows to, looks for relief to, and looks to be filled by the next letter in the word.  In the word ra that letter is the Ayin.  Thus, evil is allowing oneself be ruled by the sight of the eyes, to build an identity by what is seen, and to look to be filled by what can be experienced through the senses of the body. 

“Evil” is a strong word.  Perhaps you are like me and define “evil” as deeds like assaults and murders.  When I look at ra as I see it defined, evil deeds aren’t necessarily those awful acts and atrocities one human being commits against another.  Rather, evil deeds are anything done because it first looked good and then it was affirmed by the heart and mind.  Evil deeds are those things done out of the flesh.

I do think it’s important to take a moment and acknowledge eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil didn’t result in human beings only being capable of evil.  The word translated “good” is tobe (H2896) and not only means “good” but also “beautiful, bountiful, kindness, prosperity, wealth.”  Just as we can look at the world around us and see evil, so also do we see good.  Humanity is capable of both and there are so many who choose good.  Again, this is so important to acknowledge.  At the same time, it is important to acknowledge partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil resulted in death.  While humanity is capable of great good, I think it’s obvious that good-no matter how great-has no power to impart life.  That same choice set before our Parents in the Garden of Eden is placed before us today and it isn’t to choosing between good and evil: it’s choosing between death and life.

I found this idea echoed in Andrew Murray’s Commentary on the Book of Hebrews.  Commenting on Hebrews 11:24-26 he writes, “We all live by faith.  What we love and live in, we believe in.  He who trusts and yields himself to the visible and the temporal lives an earthly, fleshly, life.  He who looks to the unseen and the eternal, and joins himself to it, lives a divine and heavenly life.  Between these two, faith ever has to make its choice.  The clearer and more deliberate and more conscious the decision is for the unseen, the more will faith in God be strengthened and rewarded.  The great difficulty in making the right choice lies in the fact that, by the victory that earthly things gained over us in Paradise, our eyes have been blinded; and the things of time, even where we acknowledge them to be of less value, have acquired, in virtue of their continual presence and their pressing claims, superior power.  The great work faith has to do, and the best school for its growth and strength, is the choice of the unseen.” (Pages 471-472)

Choosing the unseen, knowing what it holds for us and why we should choose it at all, is not possible without the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is lavishly poured out on us and He also takes up residence in us.  He abides with us forever.  He is the Spirit of truth who dwells with us and in us.  He testifies of Jesus.  He guides us into all truth.  He glorifies Jesus, takes what is His, and declares it to us.  He is the one who opens our eyes.  (See John Chapters 13-17 and Ephesians 1).  Because He lives in us, we are united to Jesus who declares “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18). 

Which brings me to my second word: ra’ah (H7200).  This is the Hebrew word which means “to see” but it also means “advise, approve, behold, consider, discern, perceive, respect.”  The word does mean “to see” and is used for the act of seeing out of one’s eyes but the word is spelled Resh Aleph Hey (ראה).  In this word, the Resh is bent to the Aleph rather than the Ayin and it is the Aleph that both rules and fills the Resh.  The Aleph is the letter that represents God and union with God.  It is as we look to, allow ourselves to be ruled by, and are filled by God Himself-the God revealed in Jesus-that we are able to choose life.

Just as “evil” is a difficult word, so is “rule”.  It is a word that contains within it the idea of dominion and oppression and there is, I think, a resistance to the idea of being ruled by anyone or anything, including God.  There are those who would tell us we should surrender to Jesus because it is His right to rule not only as Creator but Redeemer.  They are not wrong but I would call your attention to two passages.  In the first and second chapters of Ezekiel, the Prophet describes the heavens being opened.  He sees the likeness of a throne with the appearance of a man above it.  When Ezekiel sees this and the likeness of the glory of the Lord, he falls on his face.  He immediately hears the voice of One speaking and the first thing this One says is, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.”  Ezekiel then describes the Spirit entering him and standing him on his feet.  The second passage I wish to call your attention to is found in the first Chapter of Revelation.  John hears a voice and when he turns to see the Voice, he sees the glorified Jesus and falls at His feet as one dead.  Jesus bends and places His right hand on him before speaking to him.  If you picture it, you see God incarnate bringing Himself to John’s level so He can speak to him face to face.

Just as “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19) so do we bend to Him because He first bends to us.  Romans 8: 8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  I do not bend my head to the Lord Jesus Christ because I’m afraid He’ll grind me into the dirt if I don’t properly honor Him.  I want to bend my head to Him because I know Him.  I know He loves me and I know He is far more capable of bringing peace and joy to the circumstances in my life than I would be if I started doing what was right in my own eyes.  I bend my head trusting and resting in Him because He is both my glory and the lifter of my head (Psalm 3:3).

Imagine yourself represented by the Resh.  Where is your head at?  Who or what are you allowing to rule over you?  There is only One worth bending to and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Go to Him, rest in Him.  He takes our burdens and yokes us to Himself promising His yoke is easy and his burden light.  Yoked to Him, we walk step by step with Him.  We learn from Him and find He is not dominating or oppressive but meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11:28-30).

Our clocks and calendars are about to register the start of another year.  During this time, let us resolve not to be like the citizens in the parable of Jesus who said, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).  Let us also resolve not to submit ourselves to someone else and their description of Jesus.  Let us resolve to know Him for ourselves.  Let us invite the Holy Spirit to complete His work in us and guide us into the Truth who is Jesus.  Let us “come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ” (Ephesians 4:13-15).

Amen

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

References

(1) REISH – Secrets of the Hebrew Letters – YouTube

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

Blech, Benjamin, The Secrets of Hebrew Words, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1991

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

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

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