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| SOME OF THE LADIES IN MY BIBLE CLASS |
My Bible class and I have been studying Genesis to see what
we can learn about God and our relationship with Him through the Patriarchs. We’ve seen how God promised to bless those
who bless Abraham and his descendents but that He also warns that He will “bind
in a curse” any who curse Abraham or his descendents. We take this to mean the
Jewish people and also those who become Abraham’s children through faith in
Israel’s God through Messiah Yeshua.
Pretty serious matter, cursing someone, or having anyone
curse you, don’t you think? Perhaps Abraham thought that God would take care of
his enemies and he didn’t have to worry about them. He would focus on the
blessings. They were sure to come about as God promised! But God seems to be letting Abraham know
there will be opposition. Not everyone is going to see these people as God does;
not everyone will see them as blessings, but as cause for cursing them. There’s
often a balance in the promises God gives.
He will protect us, but there will be cause for Him to protect us. He will see to it that His people continue to
exist, but there will be attempts to destroy them.
Often we look at the positive promises and quickly glance
over the rest, the part that implies, “You’re going to really need to hold on
to the promises of my goodness and protection and blessings. You’re going to have to remember that you are
Mine and I have set my face toward you to see you through to being the
blessings I have ordained you to be. But be aware, there will be those who will
not see you as the blessings I intend you to be.” How are we to feel about those people?
To reiterate, Abraham was essentially told by God, “I will
bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3) This was meant to include all of Abraham’s
descendents from then on. It would be easy to focus only on the blessings but
what about those who would bring curses upon Abraham and his progeny? How was Abraham to relate to them? How are we
to relate to them, as Abraham’s children, whether natural, spiritual, or both
(as in Jewish believers)? To take it further and personalize the matter, how do
you feel about people who have had a bad attitude about you because you
represent God to them? Or what about if
they don’t connect their attitude toward you with God? What’s your reaction to difficult people? Is your
reactions to them, your feelings and intentions toward them what God’s are?
As I looked at Abraham this week, I began to wonder about
how he must have felt when God told Him these promises of blessings and curses. Suddenly, for the first time, I saw this as
a great responsibility of God’s people to be, act, live, and speak as people
that will not antagonize, or perhaps instigate, those who might be inclined, as
a result of our behavior, to speak words of curses about or to us. As I am seeing it now, this is wrapped
up a good bit with our position in
Messiah. He said, “Love you enemies” and
He certainly exemplified that with His whole being. Most of us were His enemies at one time
before Yeshua reached out and brought us to Himself. Thanks be to God who loved
us enough to rescue us.
How we respond to those who act toward us as if they wanted
to lay a curse on us, is not just about their behavior, but about ours. If we
maintain an attitude, even if only within ourselves, of “God likes me but He
sure doesn’t like you,” they are going to know it and it will alienate them
further. If we are defensive and try to justify our positions or get “our”
truth across, even if we think we’re speaking the “truth in love” when we’re really judging
them, then we are contributing to the atmosphere of antagonism and aiding the
potential for curses to take place.
What does it really mean for someone to curse someone? The
word “curse” in this sense in Hebrew is to despise, to bring into contempt, to
esteem lightly, to consider someone as insignificant or of small worth. It also
means to execrate which is to loathe, detest or deplore. This can apply to the cursing
of individuals or even a whole people groups.
Have you ever heard unkind jokes about certain ethnicities or people
groups? Were they being seen as
insignificant or of little worth in the eyes of those finding humor in
degrading them? Would Jesus think it was
funny? Doubt it? So should we? The
commandments are all about honoring and respecting one another. Curses certainly don’t fit in there, do they?
I wonder, was the promise God made to Abram also designed to
bring a concern for others who might speak with derision to or about them? Or was
he, meaning Abraham and then us to just toss them off as the bad guys who came
against him and his people and figure they were deserving of God’s wrath? Knowing God as we do today, which exceeds
what Abraham could have known of Him, we know that He sent His Son to die for
His enemies, and Yeshua gave His life for those who cursed Him! He
forgave them and petitioned His Father to forgive them as well, saying, “They
don’t know what they’re doing.” No, they
couldn’t have. But neither generally do
those who would curse God’s people know all the dynamics involved. They don’t know that they are striking a pose
of opposition against the Almighty, challenging Him who has put His name upon
the people whom they are cursing. Nor
are they aware of the potential eternal consequences of hell, unless there is
repentance. Most sadly, history is replete with instances of such hatred and
curses. Are we, though, like Yeshua, to
forgive in the realization that they do not know what they’re doing, and pray
for them for Abba to forgive them as Yeshua did?
Back to Abraham and the second time God confirms His
covenant with him. “When
Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to
Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be
blameless.” In one sense, in view
of the blessings/cursing proclamation I take those words to mean, “ Don’t act
in ways that will cause others to not think well of you.” In today’s language,
“Don’t be a jerk.” Sorry, that didn’t sound
very holy, did it? You get my drift.
Yeshua’s half-brother Ya’acov (a.k.a. James) had to deal with his own
interpretations of what were blessings and
curses of his Brother being crucified (see previous article on this blog). Likely
in remembrance of Yehovah’s words to Abraham, he wrote to the believers, “And
let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:4). Obviously his
statement has much further application than the issue we’re discussing, but
does it not take endurance to respond with love and forgiveness to those who
are triggering the opposite?
With regard to endurance, while this
may exceed any call we could possibly experience in comparison, we are “looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God” (Hebrews
12:2). If we are to follow the author of our faith, then there are times we
must endure. The joy comes when the
forgiveness is accomplished and received by those to whom we offer it. And then
we have the promise of being “seated with Him at His right hand in heavenly
places” (Ephesians 1:20). When we know
those who were our enemies are no longer in the place of potentially being
bound in a curse, when we see their freedom from curses, we rejoice! But if we are to be like Yeshua, sometimes we
must endure with a godly attitude toward those who really just tick us off, or
who are acting in a way that is so ungodly that we are appalled at their
behavior.
I had opportunity for both this past
week. My motivation for writing this article was a personal experience with the
need for such endurance when a situation presented itself – one in which I was
confronted with forgiving someone, or getting angry in self-justifying retaliation
or slithering into self-pity. I vacillated between the three, quite honestly. But
when I read these words in Genesis 12:3 for the umpteenth time, this time I saw
what I’d never seen before. I had already forgiven him but now I realized what
a responsibility it is to have the right attitude toward someone who really
could be setting themselves up for what they surely wouldn’t want in their
lives, and doing so in response to their perception of you. Or in this case, me.
My concern for the person then became
far greater than my self-absorption and how I was feeling. While I wouldn’t
classify him as my enemy, I now had greater insight into what Yeshua meant by
loving our enemies. It means to have more concern for their ultimate wellbeing
than our own. As it turns out, while my
expectation was that the relationship was broken, I received a phone call from
him of reconciliation. HalleluYah! I do
not believe, however, that if I hadn’t released him from my own judgment of
him, if I had chosen bitterness rather than forgiveness, I would not have
received that phone call. Even though he didn’t know, God knew and He rewarded
my willingness to align myself with His higher standard and desire to protect
this person from possibly finding himself in difficult circumstances of a curse
and not making the connection as to why.
When God curses someone, that is a different Hebrew word
than when someone curses another person. It means to bind (as like a spell), to hem in
with obstacles and to render powerless to resist. We’re talking about the
Almighty binding this kind of curse here. Not something to take lightly by any
means. The example would be when God
cursed the ground because of Adam and Eve’s sin. The soil was condemned;
cursed, and never again has the earth been fruitful as it was in Eden where no
sweat of man’s brow was required for the bounty that existed. The fertility of
Eden was banned when God cursed the ground on account of them.
A few more Hebrew words come into play here having to do
with Who God is. First of all, we use the term God without realizing that our
western cultural idea of God is a Greek concept. In the Hebrew culture, Elohiym actually means Judge or One who
judges – in the sense of having great power and authority. So whatever your
concept of God is, it needs to be adjusted to realize that Elohiym is the Judge of all that takes place on the earth.
When we call Him Lord, which in Hebrew is Yehovah (accent on the vah), the word
means, “He exists,” or the (Self)-existent
One. It is He who is judge with great power and authority who exists. He says “I AM” because He “am” Lord of
everything that exists within the framework of His existence. One cannot, therefore,
have ill feelings even about someone and not have God know about it and hold us
responsible for it. The Bible tells us that we will be held
accountable for every word we speak. Yeshua said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give
account of it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). That’s a sobering
statement, isn’t it?
One of the greatest declarations in Judaism begins, “Sh’ma,
hear, listen and understand, O Israel, Yehovah our Elohiym is one.” In English we are inclined to think this
means there is only one God. And this is true, but not true of what this word
one means in Hebrew. In Hebrew the word is
ehkad.
In this statement in Hebrew it means that Yehovah is in unity with
Himself. One example would be that He
manifested Himself as a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day, both
working together to preserve His people, night and day. Different
manifestations but in unity. We can see
the “oneness” of Yehovah’s manifestation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in that
same unity. They are not three persons as has erroneously been believed but God
manifesting Himself in different ways, always in unity with Himself.
Have you noticed that when you are holding resentment
against someone, to further address our present issue here, we are not “in
unity” with ourselves. We’re out of
sorts, we’re at odds in our emotions. There is a sure clue that we’re out of
touch with God’s ways. When we are at peace with God, we are at peace with
ourselves which means we’re at peace with others. It may take some forgiving,
but we’ve been giving the wonderful immeasurably valuable gifts of forgiveness
and repentance to maintain His ways in our lives. I’m often grateful for both.
When we speak of Elohiym as Judge and having all power and
authority, it could be very frightening if we didn’t know He was also love – as
in “God is love” (1 John 4:8 & 16).
An explanation of the Hebrew sense of love would be helpful here. The word is Ahav. It is not an emotion but an action. If you’ve read through 1 Corinthians 13, the
love chapter, you’ve seen that it’s about doing or not doing, and not about
feelings. We are to “love” God and each other with our actions, not with our
emotions. Emotions might follow but love
is about how we treat one another, not how we feel about one another.
Hebrew is about actions, not feelings. The words are about concrete ideas. The
Hebrew culture sees differently than we
do about many things, this being one of them – and a significant issue it
is. If we think love is dependent upon
feelings, then so would forgiveness be about feelings. Not so from Yehovah’s
perspective, nor from Israel’s as He set the standard for the way they saw all
of life when the followed Him. Forgiveness, like love, is a choice of how to relate
to someone, and is not dependent upon our emotions toward them. For this
reason, we forgive not because we feel like it but because Yeshua died to
forgive us all.
Hebrew is much more concerned with function, with actions,
with the way things happen, while Greek thought is much more concerned with the
way things appear, or look. For example,
a pencil would be described by a Greek by what it looks like: yellow, eraser on
one end and a pointed lead on the other, while a Hebrew would be more inclined
to say, It writes words or draws pictures.
The original Hebrew were word pictures and combinations of
word pictures. The Hebrew word for father was one of an ox and a tent. Ox
represent strength and the tent or a house. Put them together and they
represent “the strength of the house.” The father is the one who provides the
strength to the home. He is the provider
and protector. You can understand from this concept how fathers were greatly
respected in Hebrew culture. Abraham is still considered the father of Judaism
and even to the Christians he is the father of faith. The strength of his faith remains the foundation
of the “house” of God’s people.
The opposite of curse, of course, is to bless. Bless too is
an action word. It’s not just to say nice things about someone so they’ll be
happy and feel good. Bless in Hebrew is
barak, which means to kneel down and present a gift in respect or honor to
another. When the Bible says that the
Lord “gave gifts to His church,” He bestowed great honor upon us, even respect
that we would use the gifts wisely and under His guidance. To imagine God kneeling before us seems
irreverent, but when we consider how Yeshua humbled Himself to become a man, a
human being, let alone die, we see the blessings of God in His gift of Yeshua
to us.
A part of the blessings of God is to walk in the light as He
is the light. That Yeshua is the reflection of the light of His father, the
outraying just as the rays of the sun show us the sun we cannot look at, the word for shine is or, literally to shine. This
word equates with bringing about order because light illuminates or reveals
what has been in the dark. We pray for
God to shine His truth into the hearts of those do not understand His ways of
love and forgiveness. We pray they will
come to understand to enter into His graciousness, which is reflected in how His
people are to one another just as God intended us to be – in expression of His
gracious character.
The word for Gracious will give us another word
picture. The word for gracious is Hannan. The name Hannah comes from this
word and also means gracious. As
Abraham’s tents would have been set up in a circle, as all wanderers would, it
was considered a place of beauty. Not
just in appearance but in action. It would be a place where love, friendship,
community and sustenance existed. The word gracious is a verb, a word of
action, a way to be, and to act with one another. Even strangers would find a
gracious welcome among other tent dwellers. We see it personified when Eliezer
went to cousin Laban to find a wife for Isaac. While admittedly there were
tensions amid Abraham’s tents with Sarah and Hagar, the concept of gracious
living was this one.
Such a life would be one of peace, of shalom. This word has a root word of shalam, which means to restore in the sense of replacing or
providing what is needed in order to make someone or something whole and
complete. When used as a noun, shalom is used for one who has or has been
provided with whatever is needed to be whole and complete.
When we forgive someone we restore them to the place of
having nothing against them, of being free from any curses that might have come
to them. We release them from any
expectations which they have not fulfilled or standards they have violated. Do
they always deserve it, or will they always receive it? It is likely that in many instances, we will
not have the opportunity to tell them we forgive them. But in our own eyes and
heart, we are seeking to be right with God, and to be His instruments of
forgiveness, extending His forgiveness to those in need.
When we are cursed, rejected, even despised, it is the way
of God to forgive, and it is the grace and power of God that enables us to do
so. The light of the Lord shining
through us will put things in order which will not be in order without His
light. We pray that things will fall into the order of Yehovah’s kingdom for
them, as we look to the Father in all His strength to bring them into His
house. In chosing to do so, we find that
we are in unity with God and with ourselves as well as with others. Why would anyone want less than
that?
