If There Were A Garden by Flickr User Lee Ann Petropoulos, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
There is something about mosaics that really catches my attention, especially the ones made from broken pieces of glass or ceramics. Maybe it’s the whole idea of something crushed and broken becoming something beautiful that attracts me, and maybe it attracts me because I feel like that represents my life. It gives me hope that anything put into the Potter’s Hands has a hope. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.
In our reading today from Numbers 20:14 through Numbers 20:21, we will read about a continuing sibling rivalry and the end result of a broken and unrepaired relationship. As the Israelites are traveling, they come to the border of the land of the Edomites. Moses sends a message from Kadesh to the King of Edom that begins with a salutation including “from your brother, Israel.” The request is a simple one asking that Israel would be allowed to pass through the land, and stating that Israel will stay on The King’s Highway and not come off it go through fields or vineyards.
The king returns the answer as a resounding “No” and accompanies it with a threat to attack Israel with the sword. But the people ask again, this time promising the same promises plus the added promise to pay for any water the people or livestock might drink. The hateful King didn’t even take time to answer this time but came out against Israel with many people and much force until they turned Israel away.
It took me two reading to notice the statement about the brother, so I looked up the story of the Edomites and found that Edom was the son of Esau and chose to retain the sibling rivalry as if they were “The Hatfields and The McCoys.” If you’ll recall, Jacob brought gifts to Esau to rebuild their relationship, but apparently, the message didn’t get passed along to future generations. I found a great history of the Edomites at a site called “Got Questions.” I wholeheartedly recommend a reading of their article, “Who Were the Edomites.”
When something is left out of God’s hands, it can very easily in on a similar note as the rivalry between the Edomites and the Israelites and be broken beyond repair. But if we see God as the Potter, and we trust that He knows both how to create and how to re-create, we know He can turn that which is damaged to that which becomes beautiful. God even tells Israel something similar to this in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 18, verses 1 through 6 (New Living Translation)…
1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.
The whole chapter is encouraging for Israel, and these words can be encouraging for any child of God. There’s a beautiful scene in the movie “Joshua” where the visitor (Joshua) takes some pieces of broken and crushed glass and makes a whole new object from them. I love when something with God is not broken beyond repair, and I cannot thank God enough for all the repairs He made in me. Many years ago, I wrote a chorus for the Messianic Synagogue I attended. I’ll close with the words to that chorus…
MY POTTER IS YAHVEH by Crystal A Murray
My Potter is Yahveh,
He is my Maker,
He’s my Creator,
I am His clay.
My Redeemer is Yeshua,
And when I am wounded,
I can run through the Lamb’s blood
to my Potter, Yahveh.
June 17, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Edom, highway, Israel, Numbers, potter, repair, rivalry, Scripture, Torah Portions |
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Highway 1 at Sunset by Flickr User namealus, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
Click image to open new tab/window to view original image and to access user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
Proverbs 16:17 in the Amplified Bible (AMP) says, “The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; he who guards his way preserves his life.” With all we are seeing as consequences for the use of drugs, and all I have been learning from the doctors, the idea of doing things God’s way to preserve our lives is making more and more literal sense. We have a relative that completely looks past what our nephew did to bring on the consequences, and she refuses to acknowledge her own part in it or to repent of her continuing sins. Yet, she continues to claim that there will be a miraculous healing just because she is claiming it in Jesus’ name. But is there communion between holy and unholy just because the unholy uses a holy name?
Today’s reading from Leviticus 9:24 through Leviticus 10:11 shows that God is picky about the purity of what is offered to Him and whether or not our offerings are given with a spirit of obedience. After the offerings and blessings that brought forth the presence of Yahveh, we see His Spirit consume the offerings with fire. The people shout and fall on their faces in His holy presence.
But the next thing you know, two of Aaron’s sons (apparently he had four sons who were becoming priests based on this reading), march up all big in their britches and try to put on a show. They take unauthorized incense in their censers and try to light it from the holy altar of God. Not smart! As the fire of God’s presence comes down upon the altar, it consumes these boys who gave an offering other than what God had commanded to give. (Some versions use the term strange fire.)
Oh, but shouldn’t God be merciful just because they were offering something to Him? After all, they were called by God to be priests, right? In today’s theology, it would seem that anything done in Jesus’ name (or by a person who calls himself or herself a pastor or a prophet) is supposed to win God’s favor. Yes, we are made holy by the blood of Christ, but we still have to be led by the Spirit if we want to be free from the curse of the law. It’s all about our hearts, and if our lips are simply declaring the word of God while our hearts are far from Him, then we are an evil tree that cannot bring forth truly good fruit. But if we are sincerely following God, we will walk on His “high above sin” way, and we will bear good fruit.
As the reading continues, God declares that He will be glorified before all the people, and Aaron keeps silent, Then Moses calls Aaron’s other two sons and tells them not to perform any of the rituals of mourning, so that God will not be angry. He tells them to let the community of Israel mourn for them instead. And then he tells them to stay by the entrance to the Tent of Meeting because if they go out while God’s anointing oil is on them, they will die. They are also given a warning to never enter God’s presence having consumed wine or other intoxicating liquor because they must be able to know the difference between clean and unclean, holy and unholy.
The last statement makes me wonder if the first two of Aaron’s sons were intoxicated, and that’s why they couldn’t tell the difference in which incense to offer. If not, I’m guessing they just had disobedient spirits. We don’t get to see a lot of information about them, but we know they had been anointed and consecrated as priests for God, we know they were dressed in holy garments, and we know they had been in the presence of Yahveh. But none of those things compared to the moment they decided to follow after their own ideas instead of being led by God’s Holy Spirit. Living God’s way is about abandoning our own thoughts and ways because we love and trust God, and because we know that His thoughts are above our thoughts, and His ways are above our ways. His way really is the high way.
March 17, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Aaron, Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Creator, crystalwriter, disobedience, God, God's way, high priest, highway, holiness, Holy Bible, Leviticus, Lord, Moses, obedience, offering, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, Portions, priests, Scripture, Spirit led, strange fire, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh |
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Crystal Writes A Blog 
Broken Beyond Repair
If There Were A Garden by Flickr User Lee Ann Petropoulos, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
There is something about mosaics that really catches my attention, especially the ones made from broken pieces of glass or ceramics. Maybe it’s the whole idea of something crushed and broken becoming something beautiful that attracts me, and maybe it attracts me because I feel like that represents my life. It gives me hope that anything put into the Potter’s Hands has a hope. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.
In our reading today from Numbers 20:14 through Numbers 20:21, we will read about a continuing sibling rivalry and the end result of a broken and unrepaired relationship. As the Israelites are traveling, they come to the border of the land of the Edomites. Moses sends a message from Kadesh to the King of Edom that begins with a salutation including “from your brother, Israel.” The request is a simple one asking that Israel would be allowed to pass through the land, and stating that Israel will stay on The King’s Highway and not come off it go through fields or vineyards.
The king returns the answer as a resounding “No” and accompanies it with a threat to attack Israel with the sword. But the people ask again, this time promising the same promises plus the added promise to pay for any water the people or livestock might drink. The hateful King didn’t even take time to answer this time but came out against Israel with many people and much force until they turned Israel away.
It took me two reading to notice the statement about the brother, so I looked up the story of the Edomites and found that Edom was the son of Esau and chose to retain the sibling rivalry as if they were “The Hatfields and The McCoys.” If you’ll recall, Jacob brought gifts to Esau to rebuild their relationship, but apparently, the message didn’t get passed along to future generations. I found a great history of the Edomites at a site called “Got Questions.” I wholeheartedly recommend a reading of their article, “Who Were the Edomites.”
When something is left out of God’s hands, it can very easily in on a similar note as the rivalry between the Edomites and the Israelites and be broken beyond repair. But if we see God as the Potter, and we trust that He knows both how to create and how to re-create, we know He can turn that which is damaged to that which becomes beautiful. God even tells Israel something similar to this in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 18, verses 1 through 6 (New Living Translation)…
The whole chapter is encouraging for Israel, and these words can be encouraging for any child of God. There’s a beautiful scene in the movie “Joshua” where the visitor (Joshua) takes some pieces of broken and crushed glass and makes a whole new object from them. I love when something with God is not broken beyond repair, and I cannot thank God enough for all the repairs He made in me. Many years ago, I wrote a chorus for the Messianic Synagogue I attended. I’ll close with the words to that chorus…
MY POTTER IS YAHVEH by Crystal A Murray
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June 17, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Edom, highway, Israel, Numbers, potter, repair, rivalry, Scripture, Torah Portions | Leave a comment