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With Perfect Hatred

26 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Studies, Walking in the Way

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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

Reconciled

13 Monday Feb 2023

Posted by in Poetry, Writing

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Hello Readers!

My shoulder injury acted up so I couldn’t type up a post for the Isaiah 45:7 study. Instead, I’m posting a poem I wrote years ago after a particularly devastating crisis. The poem still resonates with me and makes me think of 2 Corinthians 5:19: “It was God (personally present) in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against (men) their trespasses (but cancelling them), and committing to us (of the restoration to favor)” (Amplified).

While living any aspect of the Christian Life is impossible without the Holy Spirit, perhaps especially so is seeing those who have done us great wrong as beloved of and reconciled to God. But, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, it is possible to see even those who have terribly hurt us with the eyes of Jesus Christ and know what His heart longs for them. That is the message I tried to convey in this poem. I hope the poem blesses you.

Reconciled
How could I have made such a mistake?
How could I have missed when he lied?
My God, where are you?-I looked deep inside;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
I'm a fool, a failure, I've damaged my pride,
How could I have not seen at all?
My God, where are You?-I looked deep inside;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
I am flooded with doubts-they come on all sides,
I cannot escape them-I've tried.
My God, where are You? I searched far and wide;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
Did I ignore them? The warnings? The signs?
Were they in fact there all the time?
My God, where are You? I feel like I've died.
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
Perhaps I was wrong-the Shepherd's voice,
Perhaps I can't hear it at all.
My God, where are You? I looked deep inside;
Are You there? I need You?, I cried.
I am here, He answered, I was here all along,
Every moment-along for the ride.
My God, where were You? I searched far and wide,
I need You to hold me!, I cried.
Always, My Child, you are here in my hand,
Be still and know I am Yours.
My God, forgive me!, I sobbed and I cried.
Help me forgive him, I've tried.
My blood covers all things, both his faults and yours-
Do not let them trouble you more.
My God, I thank you. I breathed and I sighed.
I know it's in You I abide.

His Attributes Are Clearly Seen

10 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Photo by Walter Strong

Hello and welcome to another post on Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue to look at the Hebrew letters comprising the word bara which is most often translated “create” in the Old Testament.

I admit I didn’t get far in the study process.  As Aleph is the first Hebrew letter and Bet is the second, it was easier to turn the pages of Mr. Haralick’s back and look at Aleph then to flip through to Resh which is the twentieth letter.  Thus I am not looking at the letters of bara in the order in which they appear.  As I was reading through Mr. Haralick’s entry on Aleph, I was struck by something he said regarding Elohim, the first name of God revealed in scripture.  Elohim is spelled Aleph Lamed Hey Yod Mem אלהים and, looking at the letters in reverse order gives us another name of God Yah יה and the root word male מלא (pronounced mall-ay) which means “to fill” or “to be full.  Male also means multitude, fullness or filling matter so Elohim can be understood as that aspect of Yah, God, that fills matter. (Haralick, 23)

I have already shared how energy fascinates me and I follow the studies on energy being conducted in Physics and Quantum Physics.  Studies are showing that it is energy that was converted to the smallest particles which are the building blocks of atoms and thus of all that exists.  I found this quote in Mr. Haralick’s introduction: “…’In the beginning, God created heaven and earth,’ should be rendered; ‘When God began to create heaven and earth’.  For the world is continually being created-every day, every hour, even this very instant the world is being sustained by the same primordial creative force with which it came into existence, the force of berishit (בְּרֵאשִׁית), ‘In the beginning.’  If this creative force would depart for even a split second, the world would return to nothingness.” (Haralick, xiii)  This quote made me think of Hebrews 1:3 which states Jesus Christ “upholds all things by the word of His power”. 

During this study of bara, I have been meditating not only on the Word creating in Genesis 1 but how that Word was energized by the Holy Spirit to bring into being all that exists.  I was curious how energy was associated with the Holy Spirit in scripture and so looked it up in my Strong’s Concordance. I didn’t find it.  I was so flabbergasted I thought for a moment I’d forgotten how to spell energy and was looking in the wrong place.  I had not and was not and had to accept neither Greek nor Hebrew had been translated as “energy”.  This both did and did not make sense.  I’m sure that energy wasn’t a widely studied concept in 1611 (Publication of the King James Bible) and yet I am surprised more modern translations haven’t used the word energy as it’s there in the Greek.

The Greek word is energia (G1753) and means “energy”.  Consider Ephesians 1:19: “and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working (energia) of His mighty power” or Ephesians 3:7 “of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working (energia) of His power”.  Energia also appears in Ephesians 4:16, Philippians 3:21, Colossians 1:29, Colossians 2:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:11. 

Why not translate energia by the closest related English word, energy?  It might be because energy is a touchy subject among Christians.  I conducted an internet search and found articles addressing whether or not God is energy.  The consensus among the ones I looked at was a resounding “no!” and I wholeheartedly agree but that doesn’t mean we can’t understand something of how God works by exploring how scripture speaks of energy.  However, I see a de-personalization of God going on to the point where He is spoken of as a “presence” or “energy” or, the one that really makes me cringe: “the universe”.  I can see why the word “energy” would be avoided as this de-personalization becomes more widespread.  I picked up a book called Coffee Shop Conversations by Dale and Jonalyn Fincher and was astonished when Jonalyn shared she’d overhead another woman express her astonishment than anyone still believed in a personal God. It is a tragedy that God is rendered to a mere force or worse yet an aspect of His creation.

I find a similar tragedy in the consideration of creation.  I consider scriptures like Hebrews 1:19 and Colossians 1:17 and am not surprised that science is saying it is energy that is converted to matter.  It’s a strange thing:  I don’t disagree with anyone who says God called all that exists out of nothing because He is before all things.  Neither do I quibble with those who say God created all things out of Himself because of the manner in which I create.  When I write a poem I first have the thought to do so.  I decide on what form I want to use then choose rhyme and meter.  Then I sit down and write it and a new thing is brought into the world.  This analogy does break down of course because I create out of forms and words that already exist.  I am not the source of all poetry whereas God Himself is before all things and is the source of all things.  I create a poem because God Himself is a poet and I am made in His image.

I do quibble with those who say the creation is God.  He certainly thought it, called it into being, and upholds it by the dunamis of His word but He is no more His creation than I am a poem I write.  I am certainly connected to a poem I write and anyone who reads a poem can certainly learn something about me but reading one of my poems doesn’t mean the reader knows me.  It’s the same with God.  Romans 1:20 says it perfectly: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”  God is certainly connected to His creation because it’s His.  Creation can show us what He is like but we cannot know Him via creation.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote something I think pertains to what I am attempting to say.  It comes from his story “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty” and is spoken by Sherlock Holmes: “There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,” said he, leaning with his back against the shutters.  “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner.  Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.  All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance.  But this rose is an extra.  Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it.  It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.” (Doyle, 300)

I agree with Sir Conan Doyle that the goodness of God can be seen in His creation.  However, as Andrew Murray says; “Nature speaks of God and His work; but of Himself, His heart, and His thoughts of love toward us as sinners, nature cannot tell.  In his deepest misery, man seeks for God-but how often, to all appearance, in vain.  But, God be praised, this seeking in vain is not for always.  The silence has been broken.  God calls man back to fellowship with Himself.  God has spoken!” (Murray, 42)

We are not left in ignorance as to how God has spoken.  He has spoken to us in His Son (Hebrews 1:1).  He has spoken to us in a person and, since seeing Jesus means we have seen the Father (John 14:9) we know that God is Person.  We can know Him.  We can fellowship with Him.  We can have relationship with Him.  We can look at what He has made and even attempt to understand how He has made it but all of this is useless unless we look beyond created things and energy and power to the One before it all.  That One is love.  He loves us so much He gave us this beautiful world to live in and take care of.  In the midst of our failure and darkness, He sent His son Jesus Christ to rescue and restore us.  Now, He freely pours His Spirit onto and in us so that we live in union with Him. 

The Holy Spirit is difficult to understand.  Whenever I see Him in scripture He is moving, hovering, vibrating, covering, energizing, and so many other action verbs.  He is difficult to describe without using words like “energy” or “power” and, as He is the reticent Person of the Godhead, it can be easy to think of Him in impersonal terms.  And yet, in John’s gospel, the Holy Spirit is described in the most personal of terms.  He is Helper, Comforter, Teacher, and Guide.  Only a Person can be these things. 

I believe in a Personal God.  I can call Him by name: Jesus.  I can know Him as my Father.  His Spirit living in me is my very best friend.  I live in Union, Fellowship, and Relationship with Him and this is only possible because He is Infinite Person.  What He is to me, He is to everyone else.  Do not allow this precious life that is yours in Christ Jesus be stolen from you by one who has not seen.  This life is the free gift of God.  It is difficult to believe that we don’t have to earn it or clean ourselves up first so we are acceptable.  The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to this truth, strengthens us, and energizes us so we can receive it. 

Who is like our God?  Who gives gifts like our God?  Our God is an awesome God!

Hallelujah!

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

References

Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury, Crown Publishers Inc., 1976

Fincher, Dale & Jonalyn, Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2010

Haralick, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of 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

Walker, Allen G. The New Koine Greek Textbook, Volumes 1-4, 2014-2017

The Nature of Light

21 Monday Feb 2022

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I’m not sure how I took this-my hands might have been shaking-but I thought it was cool.

I am continuing in my study of Isaiah 45:7, specifically the study of light.  The Hebrew word for light in my passage is owr (H216) and has a fairly basic definition: illumination, luminary (in every sense including lightening, happiness, etc.), bright, clear, day + light (ening), morning, sun.  The Hebrew word translated light in my passage is the same word translated light in Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light’”.  I was curious to see if I could learn anything from this but, as I went through other scriptures where owr is used, I wasn’t getting any light on the matter (ha ha).

In the Genesis Account, plants are created before the sun, moon, and stars.  The Word of God declares, “…let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth” (Genesis 1:14-15).  The light of Genesis 1:3 cannot be sunlight and I was curious what my science books had to say on the subject.

In John Wiester’s book The Genesis Connection, he writes, “The Universe began at a sharply defined instant in time in a fiery explosion of intense brilliance.  In the beginning, pure energy was transforming itself into matter.  One of the greatest contributions of nineteenth-century physics was the statement of the law of conservation of energy.  In essence this law says that energy can change form, but it is never destroyed.  Thus in the Big Bang, pure energy would alter itself into forms of matter about which we can only theorize.  The first particles to emerge were photons (particles of light) and neutrinos (subatomic particles that travel through solid bodies at the speed of light).  These were almost instantaneously followed by electrons, positrons, protons, and neutrons.  Initial temperatures were beyond comprehension, such as one hundred thousand million degrees.  The Universe was filled with light.” 

I found a similar quote in Mind Maps: Physics by Dr. Ben Still: “It is thought our universe started with a Big Bang.  Before this event, there was nothing, including no space for things to move in, or time to grow old by.  At some point, some quantum fluctuation triggered energy, space, and time to be unleashed.  In the first moments, the universe expanded outward into the nothing faster than the speed of light, a tiny period of time known as inflation.  Space and time unfurled like a carpet as the universe doubled in size many times over until it reached about the size of a golf ball.  This young universe, much less than one second old, was very hot, as huge amounts of energy were confined to a very small space.  In the moments that followed, energy was converted into different forms, including the mass of many fundamental particles.  Strong interactions almost immediately bound quarks into baryons and mesons, while electrons and other leptons stood by as spectators.  At just minutes old, the universe was a plasma of electrically charged particles, each sharing energy through the exchange of light.”

Both of these quotes paint fascinating mental pictures for me.  That beginning must have been glorious and beautiful beyond explanation.  I am awed at the thought but don’t feel I am gaining any insight into what light actually is.  I continued to peruse both books and in Dr. Ben Still’s book, found a section titled “The Strange Behavior of Light.”  In Mr. Wiester’s book, I found: “Light is the key to all life in this world.  It is the form of energy that is necessary for all life on Earth.  It is an imperfectly understood gift that behaves as both a wave and a particle to provide the energy upon which all life ultimately depends.”

In reading both books, I got the sense that scientists don’t fully understand light and my attention was captured by Mr. Wiester’s words, “imperfectly understood.”  I was reminded of 1 John 1:5 which says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  Like the created light that, while studied and knowledge is growing all the time remains imperfectly understood, so does the God who is light remain imperfectly understood.  Or, He would if He had not chosen to reveal Himself to us.  All through the Old Testament we have God revealing Himself but this revelation is piecemeal.  No one person had a complete picture.  There are promises like this one in Isaiah: “The Sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory” (60:19).  And then, in the fullness if time, every promise was fulfilled.

The Word became flesh and, in Jesus, we see the final, full, and complete revelation of God.  John’s Gospel says,”No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18).  Light can now be perfectly understood. 

My study has only touched on the darkness mentioned in Isaiah 45:7 as I have looked up scriptures and seen darkness and light mentioned together.  I have not looked at all at the word “evil” in the passage and I am interested to see where the study goes as I look at the words that carry a negative connotation.  What I can say for certain at this point is that I have often quoted scriptures like, “…that in all things He might have preeminence” (Colossians 1:18) and “God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9) without fully understanding what they mean.  As I study, I am convinced that Jesus is everything.

Jesus Christ is Lord.  Jesus Christ is my Salvation, my Peace, my Rest, my Inheritance, my Promised Land, my Health, my Mind, my Source, my Very Life.  In Jesus is Life.  That life was, is now, and always shall be the light of all mankind.  In Him all the promises of God are Yes!  This day we declare; “Arise!  Shine!  For our light has come!  And the glory of the Lord is risen upon us!” (Isaiah 60:1).

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Still, Dr. Ben, Mind Maps Physics: How to Navigate the World of Science, 1st Edition, Unipress Books Limited, 2020

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

Wiester, John, The Genesis Connection, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1983