Thursday, September 25, 2008

QUESTION ABOUT THE FEAR OF THE LORD

After posting my thoughts on the Fear of the Lord, Bob responds with these thoughts:

Good post Ron,

I would like to add a little.
The Fear of God is only the BEGINNING of Widsom. Not Wisdom itself.
That is why the Law leads us to Christ. An awareness the Fear (Awe) of the Lord will turn to the Love (Mercy) of the Lord when we begin to understand Grace.

I like your "parallels" of those lines idea, but take another look at it. It can also be seen as contrasting lines.

He had more to say, but this blog is only addressing this part I quoted from. Here is my answer, nice and concise as always... :)


Hello Bob,

Thanks for sharing your insights. I have considered whether the parallelism in Pro 9:10 could be considered as contrasting, but the Hebrew construction doesn't allow for that, since the two clauses are joined by an 'and', indicating they are speaking of similar things. "The fear of the Lord" is synonymous with "The knowledge of the Holy One," not set in contrast.

As for it being the 'beginning' of wisdom, as though it were merely a start that needed to be abandoned at some point, consider the following:

Chronologically, this proverb came from a source earlier than is recorded in Proverbs. The same basic proverb is recorded in Job, where Job said:

"The fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to withdraw from evil is understanding."

Notice a couple differences. The first is that here, the fear of the Lord is not the 'beginning of wisdom', but 'is wisdom'. Now, I agree that the fear of the Lord is not wisdom itself. Neither is the knowledge of the Holy One understanding itself. We would understand it to mean "The fear of the Lord imparts wisdom, the knowledge of the Holy One imparts understanding." The second point is that 'the knowledge of the Holy One' is paralleled with 'to withdraw from evil.' This is where we get the following proverb from:

"By the fear of the Lord a man will withdraw from evil." Pro 16:6

So, the fear of the Lord, or the knowledge of the Holy One, or to turn away from evil...
leads to wisdom and understanding.

Why then did Solomon insert the word 'beginning' with regard to wisdom? That word could mean beginning as in starting point, but there is another meaning that might just be the one Solomon had in mind. Beginning can also mean 'chiefest, or best of.' So what if Solomon were saying that "The fear of the Lord imparts the best of wisdom?" Or, if he truly meant starting point, does it have to imply that we move on from it at some point to something else? I do not see that such an interpretation is necessary.

The main thing that got me to rethinking all of this with regard to the fear of the Lord is that the phrase itself tells us that it is something that the Lord himself possesses. Yet we do not think of it in that way in our western mindset. We think of the fear of the Lord as something we do toward him, and that it has nothing to do with any characteristic of his. Yet, if you go back over my partial list (there are several other similar phrases) you will see that in each case, the Lord (the object of the noun) POSSESSES the Word, Voice, Face, Name, Garden, Eyes, Angel, Way, Mount, and yes Fear. They are all his. They come from him.

As I pointed out in my first article, this fear of the Lord is not to be confused with fear in general, such as the fear which God has not given us, (2Ti 1:7) or the fear that love casts out. (1Jo 4:18)

This fear is that balancing attribute that God himself possesses wherein he is totally and perfectly aware of himself and all he is capable of. It is the closest thing to him being in awe of himself, for lack of a better term. He speaks of this several times where you read of him 'magnifying himself', 'making his name known,' etc. He knows this is necessary, even if from a fleshly mindset it sounds like pride and haughtiness. With God it can be no such thing. Only with us would it be to do such a thing.

This attribute of fear that God possesses is what he imparts to us by his spirit. That is how it flows from his 'gut' to us. And notice the striking parallel this scripture gives us with comparison to the others I have shared about the fear of the Lord:

and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge...Ex 31:3.

This ties it all together. The spirit of God results in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. These are the same elements we saw in the proverbs, only there it was tied to the fear of the Lord. Here it is describing the 'vehicle', if you will, of the fear of the Lord. The "fear of the Lord" is his Spirit which flows out of him into us giving us wisdom, knowledge and understanding

Rather than believe that this Godly fear is something we only possess at the start, then abandon as we mature in love, I believe, because it is something God himself possesses, and Jesus possessed while on earth as a man who totally walked in perfect love that we too are given the fear of the Lord and walk in it all our lives. (Notice Isa 11:2, speaking of Christ: The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and ofthe fear of Yahweh)

Incidentally, in the Isaiah passage we see all the same elements of the spirit of Yahweh imparting wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and the fear of Yahweh.

You mentioned this as awe, and rightly so. I discussed that aspect, from our human side, in my first article. Just as God has total awe-wareness of himself, which means no one of his attributes is out of harmony with any other; they are all in perfect balance and executed perfectly-so to, his giving that attribute of himself to us is our awe-wareness of him, but also, of ourselves. We see ourselves for who we truly are in relation to him. Notice this idea given in the following scriptures:

"The fear of the Lord results in humility." Pro 22:4

"The fear of the Lord is discipline leading to wisdom,
and humility comes before honor."
Pro 15:33 GW

The fear of the Lord is paralleled with humility, possessing this fear from the Lord leads one to be humble.

We, who are the very body and possess the very life of Christ, are always aware of where we came from, and to whom we owe any privilege we are honored to possess. I know this is a very long answer, but your thought-provoking answer helped me do this. I hope this perhaps makes more sense of where I am coming from. I kind of see a similarity with what we are thinking, with the difference being in whether the fear of the Lord is only a starting point, or whether it continues. Would love to hear what anyone thinks of this.

Ron

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

SEED OF SCRIPTURE-CONCERNING ABEL, CAIN, SETH, AND ENOSH

Of course, these things are not set in stone, but merely ideas that come as we meditate on scripture. Here is what I want to run by you all:

Abel is a type of Christ while on earth
Both were shepherds. Abel, a physical one, Jesus, a spiritual one.
Abel died innocently at the hands of Cain, a type of Jesus dying innocently at the hands of Satan, and sin.

Seth is a type of the risen Christ
In Seth the seed was resurrected, the seed of the sons of God that Satan tried to snuff out by the killing of righteous Abel.
He also replaced that which Adam was, by becoming the firstfruits and firstborn of the new creation. He was truly the second Adam, the completer of the first.
Unlike Abel, Seth lived to have children, thus keeping the promised Seed alive.

Enosh is a type of the body of Christ
Enosh is the first one recorded to call on the name of the Lord. This speaks of recognition. That is what it reads literally in Hebrew. The body of Christ also has recognition (spiritual eyes opened) and calls on the name of the Lord, for salvation.
Thus it is fitting that chapter 4 ends with a calling on the name of the Lord. The seed form is complete.

I am aware of a couple of Targums and some rabbi's who see this calling on the name of the Lord as an apostasy, a negative calling, not positive. I just have not seen enough proof to come to that conclusion. In fact, virtually the same phrase is used in Zep 3:9, which everyone sees as a positive calling on the name of the Lord, with pure lips.

Ron

Monday, September 22, 2008

HOW JESUS RELATES TO GOD

Irenaeus, in his Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, had this to say concerning Jesus, and how he relates to God:

This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father: through whom all things were made; who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show forth life and produce a community of union between God and man.

The Word of God, which, by means of the Spirit of God, was born as Jesus, was not a person before Jesus came on the scene. The Word of God was just that, the word, or expression, that came out of the mouth of God the Father. This word was made manifest in various ways before Jesus was born. One such way was in the written and spoken prophecies that God gave the prophets. Other such ways were by his word being spoken through angels, such as at the giving of the law.

John 1:1 says In the beginning was the word, and the word was toward the Mighty One, and the word was as to its nature, divine.

What I understand this to mean is that in the beginning, before anything was created, there was God. God's word was toward him because when he sends it out it returns to him fulfilling what he desires by it. It is God's self-revelation. He possessed the word. It was his. The Greek word pros speaks of direction; in this case, the direction is toward God. God does not send out his word in vain, it always returns to him, revealing Himself in the process. This is expressed by Paul when he says "For out of him, and through him, and into him are all things."

It was when God spoke that his word came out of him and creation occurred. Because that word was toward God, it could also be said to be of divine origin, or expressive of the nature of God.

The same can be said of man's word. The word of man is with man in his mind and heart. It is not a separate person within or as a part of man, but is the expression of a man. That word is, as to its nature, what man is. This is why it is said to be the word of man.

So I could render John 1:1 this way if I were referring to how man's word relates to man:

In the beginning was the word, and the word was toward man, and the word was as to its nature, human.

Now please don't take this analogy too far. Our words do not have creative power like God's does. That isn't my point. I am merely pointing out that God's Word was not a separate person, existing alongside God, but was the very expression of God himself. So truly, all things could be said to have come into existence by means of the Word of God, because God spoke all things into existence.

One thing I feel the need to clarify, and that is my choice of the word divine with regard to the Word. I am not using the definition of "having the being or nature of God." As I mentioned, I do not believe that the Word spoken of here is a person. I use divine in the sense of relating to, or proceeding directly from God, thus having his characteristics. Another accurate paraphrase might be "and the word was what God is." For example, God is holy, his word is holy, God is good, his word is good, God is righteous, his word is righteous, and so on.

SOME THOUGHTS ON HEBREW 11:3

How true it is that our Father has chosen to take spiritual realities and, like a master artist, paint them in pictures in two ways:

1) the things he made-his creation.

2) In word pictures by means of scripture.

Also, regarding the things I was sharing on an earlier blog regarding the Word of God always pointing to Jesus the reality, this scripture as well shows us that very nicely. Here is how I have translated Heb 1:1-3:

Now faithfulness is conviction concerning those things that are hoped for, as if it were those things in action; and revelation of those things that are not seen. For by this, the elders obtained testimony. By faithfulness, we understand that the horizons have been framed out by the word of the Mighty One, with this result: What is seen has not been made out of things which are seen.

While the traditional understanding of this verse is that it is speaking of the universe being created, I would like to offer another understanding. The word translated "universe" or "worlds" is aionas. It is the plural form of the word that some translations more accurately translate as eon, or age. It speaks in picture form of something on the horizon, the details of which are not clearly seen, the length of which is unspecified. In this case, it is speaking of multiple periods of time, during which God completes some part or parts of his purpose. It has this consistent meaning in all 30 uses of it in the new testament.

I see Hebrews 11 showing the defining of faith, then in verse 3, the writer zooms out, showing the all encompassing periods of time during which God accomplishes his purposes by means of the Word of God, then he zooms back in to show the specifics of those things in time and space, starting with Abel.

God has a purpose, an intent with regard to the aionas, or horizonal periods of time. And how are these accomplished? This is plainly stated by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, where he writes:

according to the intention of the horizons which he made in Mashiyach Yahushuah our Master...Eph 3:11.

Yes, that intention is being carried out IN CHRIST JESUS. This ties in wonderfully with the scripture in Hebrews 11:3, for it is BY THE WORD OF GOD, Jesus Christ, that the periods of time-in which God works his plan out in time and space-are framed out. These pictures have been recorded in the written word so that “the ancient ones”, those living long ago, could have testimony given to them concerning those realities, realities which were not yet realized from our point of view.

Those events in scripture, as well as the various aspects of life we see in the world around us that are recorded there, all point to that ultimate purpose, wherein God unites himself with, by gathering all things together again to himself by means of, and in Christ, the Word of God.

Truly the Scriptures are God's picture book, so we can see all that Father has for us, whom he loves so preciously.

THE SEED OF SCRIPTURE

The sum, or seed, of all scripture, of all that God has done, is doing, and will do, is found in the first 4 chapters of Genesis. From chapter 5 to the end of scripture, we find that seed germinating. I'll let you think on that for a bit before I share more details as to why I have come to believe that.

Ron

LABOR TO ENTER REST?

Let us therefore labor to enter into that rest...

That is how most translations render Hebrews 4:11, in one form or another. As I have been recently working through my translating of that book, I came across something that I believe throws a whole different light on understanding this. The primary meaning of the word for "labor" is "to use speed, to be eager." How different that is from "labor" or "do your best or utmost".

Hence I have decided to translate the verse in this way:

Let us therefore hurry to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

I am considering other ideas that may better communicate the thought, but what I see is not that we are to try our best, or to make effort at all, per se, but to not delay. Rather, to hurry, be quick, and eager (this has to do with the mind, not actions) to enter that rest. And how do we enter it?

For we who have believed do enter into that rest...

It is through believing what God has said that we enter into, or experience, that rest. It is there, has always been from the moment God rested, and he has always left it open for us to experience it with him. Not from our laboring or struggling, but from simply taking him at his word. Israel was offered that rest, but because they did not believe it they missed out.

By the way, as a brief note, the same word is used in another misunderstood verse, 2Ti 2:15

Be diligent to present yourself approved by the Mighty One, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, properly handling the word of truth.

Here again, people tend to think of effort here, doing our best, one way or another. But I have rendered it this way:

Hurry to present yourself approved by the Mighty One...

it speaks, not of effort, but rather of not wasting time, that which has to do with a mindset. In this case, the mindset is to see yourself as approved by God, and thus present yourself in God's presence in that way. This is way different than doing your best to make yourself approved by God by what you do.

The difference is between presenting yourself as who you already are by believing it, as opposed to trying to make yourself into what you should be, but aren't yet. I personally believe the first is God's thought, the second is man's.

Ron