Our Great Niece, Elie, in Tombstone (AZ) Jail by Crystal A Murray, All Rights Reserved
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access my full photo stream at Flickr.
Did your parents ever tell you that whatever punishment they were about to give was going to hurt them more than it hurt you? I know mine did, and I never believed them until I had to play the parent role. Whether the punishment was to sit in the corner, or something bigger like taking away a favorite toy or object, having to dish out any kind of pain to someone we care about causes us immense sadness even when we know it’s for the good of the one receiving it. Even with the above photo showing my great niece in a fake jail, seeing the sadness on her face is painful even knowing she was doing as she was told and making a sad face for the picture. There’s just something inside of us that does not like to cause pain to others–especially when those others are people we love.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 3:23 through Deuteronomy 4:4, we begin a new week and a new Torah portion. Our week’s Parashah is number 45 titled Va’etchanan in Hebrew and meaning “I Pleaded” in English. We begin with Moses pleading with God about His decision to keep Moses out of The Promised Land. Moses begins with praise, telling God how he is just now learning how truly great He is and how mighty his works are. He asks God to please let him cross the Jordan River and see the wonderful country and Lebanon.
Moses then tells the people how angry God is with him because of them, and he says God will not listen to his pleas. Instead, God tells Moses to be quiet about it and not talk to Him anymore on the subject. He tells Moses to go up to Mount Pisgah and when he gets there, he will need to make sure he can see north, south, east and west. God promises Moses he can look with his eyes, but he absolutely will not be allowed to cross the Jordan.
God tells Moses to encourage Joshua as the new leader of Israel because he will lead them into the new land. Moses explains this and goes on to remind them to listen to all the laws and rulings he is teaching them because the laws will enable Israel to live long and to take possession of the land promised to their ancestors. He tells them not to add anything to what he is saying, and not to subtract anything from what he has told them, and then he reminds them of what God did at Ba’al Peor and how God destroyed all who followed the false god, Ba’al Peor. But God spared all those who chose to follow only Him, and Moses reminded them how every single one of them who followed The Lord was still alive and ready to enter the promise.
Somehow, without the Scripture actually saying it, it seems I could hear the pain in God’s words to Moses about no longer bringing up his desire to cross over. Even though it says God was angry, it was more like, “Enough, Moses. This is hurting me more than it is hurting you. I want you to cross over, but I must keep my word because I am The Lord and I change not. Now get up to the mountain where you can see everything, and don’t bring this up to me anymore because it hurts me too much to discuss it.” And the fact that Moses joined Yeshua and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration would appear to line up with the fact that Moses did go to Heaven even if he didn’t get to go into The Promised Land.
I imagine that even now, in order to show us mercy and keep us from being lost in our sins, when God has to send us some kind of painful “wake-up call,” it still hurts Him to do it. Because no sin can enter the Heavenly realm, He must push us toward a place of repentance where we will let go of our sins and willingly cast them under the blood of Yeshua. It’s not about how big or little the sins are, and it’s not about how many good deeds we do in this life to try and make up for any evil we have done, it’s about turning away from the ways of the flesh that seem right to a man and totally surrendering to the will of God. When we do that, we become dead to self and all things become new, so we can enter Heaven washed and clean. Then, God will say, “Well done, my true and faithful servant. It was worth the pain and suffering I had to bring to be able to spend eternity with you dwelling in the fullness of my presence and joy.”
July 26, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, heaven, hurting God, Israel, Moses, promised land, punishment, Scripture, Torah Portions |
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Today’s reading from Genesis 9:18 through Genesis 10:32 is a bit longer, and it is so because it’s another chapter that covers a bunch of genealogy. This time, it’s the genealogies from the sons of Noah from whom the entire earth was repopulated after the flood. But before it gets into the genealogies, this chapter tells a story of excess, drunkenness, and disrespectful behavior.
Noah was a farmer, so after getting off the boat, he planted a vineyard. From the fruit of his labors, he drank a bit too much wine (it is easy to go overboard when you have gone without something for a very long time) and passed out in his tent. I’m guessing his robes came undone, or the wine made him warm, and he stripped them off, but for whatever reason, he was laying there completely naked. What happened next changed the future of many people groups.
Noah’s youngest son, Ham, happened by his father’s tent. Instead of backing out and respecting him, he ran to tell his brothers all about it. Now remember, the sons who entered the ark were married men and their wives, so this was a full-grown married man running off to make fun of his father to other full-grown married men. I think there is likely much more to the story, but here’s what I see: The states of mind before the flood were not only lacking any direction toward God, but they were so selfish, they were immature. Learning to care for others instead of just yourself takes time and maturity, so selfish people often act childish by being demanding, having temper tantrums, and/or being just plain silly. I think Ham came on board with the mindset of those who had just been destroyed. Maybe all but Noah boarded that way, but I believe Ham “missed the boat” mentally and emotionally when he did not learn a lesson by watching the end result of that evil behavior. And that childish behavior caused problems from his son, Canaan, on down the line because Ham did not create a legacy of maturity and obedience that could be taught through the generations.
As with all of God’s stories though, there is always some good news to find. In this case, it was the two older brothers who walked backward with a blanket and covered their father’s nakedness instead of making fun of him. Were they mature because they were older, or had they matured as a result of the last year and the lesson learned from the destruction of mankind? It’s hard to tell, but in a literal way, they fulfilled Proverbs 10:12 where it says, “Hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions” (Amplified Bible). The immature son disrespected his father, and hated him enough to try to stir things up against him in the hearts of his brothers. But his brothers loved their father and chose instead to cover his transgressions. I also like the way this is stated in 1 Peter 4:8 (Amp)….”Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].”
We have a Savior who feels love toward us, so when given the choice to mock our sins and put them on public display for punishment, He chose instead to cover us–with His own body and blood. He took the public display, the mocking, and the punishment on Himself. And because mercy and love is more powerful than punishment and hate, we have the promise that His love covers our sins, not only unto the third and fourth generation (as it is with those who hate God), but unto thousands of generations of those that love God and keep His commandments. (See Exodus 20:6).
October 10, 2013
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible, Bible study, Canaan, Complete Jewish Bible, cover, covering, covers, crystalwriter, disrespect, drunkenness, Genesis, Genesis 10, Genesis 9, God, God is Love, Ham, immaturity, Lord, love, love covering, love covers a multitude of sin, love covers sin, love has mercy, maturity, mercy, nakedness, Noah, Old Testament, Proverbs, punishment, Savior, Scripture, sin, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, wine, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, Yahveh, Yahweh |
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Crystal Writes A Blog 
This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You
Our Great Niece, Elie, in Tombstone (AZ) Jail by Crystal A Murray, All Rights Reserved
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access my full photo stream at Flickr.
Did your parents ever tell you that whatever punishment they were about to give was going to hurt them more than it hurt you? I know mine did, and I never believed them until I had to play the parent role. Whether the punishment was to sit in the corner, or something bigger like taking away a favorite toy or object, having to dish out any kind of pain to someone we care about causes us immense sadness even when we know it’s for the good of the one receiving it. Even with the above photo showing my great niece in a fake jail, seeing the sadness on her face is painful even knowing she was doing as she was told and making a sad face for the picture. There’s just something inside of us that does not like to cause pain to others–especially when those others are people we love.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 3:23 through Deuteronomy 4:4, we begin a new week and a new Torah portion. Our week’s Parashah is number 45 titled Va’etchanan in Hebrew and meaning “I Pleaded” in English. We begin with Moses pleading with God about His decision to keep Moses out of The Promised Land. Moses begins with praise, telling God how he is just now learning how truly great He is and how mighty his works are. He asks God to please let him cross the Jordan River and see the wonderful country and Lebanon.
Moses then tells the people how angry God is with him because of them, and he says God will not listen to his pleas. Instead, God tells Moses to be quiet about it and not talk to Him anymore on the subject. He tells Moses to go up to Mount Pisgah and when he gets there, he will need to make sure he can see north, south, east and west. God promises Moses he can look with his eyes, but he absolutely will not be allowed to cross the Jordan.
God tells Moses to encourage Joshua as the new leader of Israel because he will lead them into the new land. Moses explains this and goes on to remind them to listen to all the laws and rulings he is teaching them because the laws will enable Israel to live long and to take possession of the land promised to their ancestors. He tells them not to add anything to what he is saying, and not to subtract anything from what he has told them, and then he reminds them of what God did at Ba’al Peor and how God destroyed all who followed the false god, Ba’al Peor. But God spared all those who chose to follow only Him, and Moses reminded them how every single one of them who followed The Lord was still alive and ready to enter the promise.
Somehow, without the Scripture actually saying it, it seems I could hear the pain in God’s words to Moses about no longer bringing up his desire to cross over. Even though it says God was angry, it was more like, “Enough, Moses. This is hurting me more than it is hurting you. I want you to cross over, but I must keep my word because I am The Lord and I change not. Now get up to the mountain where you can see everything, and don’t bring this up to me anymore because it hurts me too much to discuss it.” And the fact that Moses joined Yeshua and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration would appear to line up with the fact that Moses did go to Heaven even if he didn’t get to go into The Promised Land.
I imagine that even now, in order to show us mercy and keep us from being lost in our sins, when God has to send us some kind of painful “wake-up call,” it still hurts Him to do it. Because no sin can enter the Heavenly realm, He must push us toward a place of repentance where we will let go of our sins and willingly cast them under the blood of Yeshua. It’s not about how big or little the sins are, and it’s not about how many good deeds we do in this life to try and make up for any evil we have done, it’s about turning away from the ways of the flesh that seem right to a man and totally surrendering to the will of God. When we do that, we become dead to self and all things become new, so we can enter Heaven washed and clean. Then, God will say, “Well done, my true and faithful servant. It was worth the pain and suffering I had to bring to be able to spend eternity with you dwelling in the fullness of my presence and joy.”
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July 26, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, heaven, hurting God, Israel, Moses, promised land, punishment, Scripture, Torah Portions | Leave a comment