If revenge is so sweet why is there a rotten taste in my mouth?

This may actually be the shortest post I have done or will do, so hang on to your hats, here goes. Never try to get even with someone, although you may have the power and ability to do so. Okay, there is your lesson.

 These are my two precious grandsons. 

 I think the picture sums up this story. 

You will understand at the end.

Oh, you need more? Begin reading in Genesis 41:1 and read through the end of the book. You have just read about the greatest example of meekness ever witnessed short of Jesus Christ himself. Oh, yeah what was that Hebrew lesson I taught on a few weeks ago? Could it have been something called.....fractals? Yes, I think that would be the word. Could Joseph be a fractal of the Messiah? Hmmmm. Let us explore that thought.

Joseph (one of 12 brothers) was a young man when his brothers - ten out of eleven, sold him to a caravan of peddlers. Those peddlers then sold him to Pharaoh as a slave. After years of serving Pharaoh (and ending up in prison for quite a few of those through no fault of his own), Joseph comes to be quite powerful within the government. He is given a new Egyptian name and most likely looks very Egyptian. His God has given him the ability to interpret Pharaoh's dreams which involves seven years of great harvest followed by seven years of great famine. It is during this time of famine that the story unfolds.

Those older wise-guys who sold him into slavery many years ago have shown up in Egypt to buy food.  Joseph is a very powerful man. He literally holds, within his power, life and death to the multitudes.  Joseph has been placed in charge, of all the food in the land, by Pharaoh himself. Joseph recognizes the brothers, but they don't recognize him. Aha! He can finally get even with them for what they did to him. "Sell me into slavery and make me have to live in a dank dark prison, will you!"

Now be honest, isn't that what you would have done? How many of us make the statement regularly, “if I were them I would let em have it!”  We throw out statements of that nature all the time. We watch the news and judge people who are arrested. We declare that if we were the judge we would throw the book at them! "If I were his wife......" "If I were the supervisor......" Joseph could have snapped his fingers and had them all thrown into the dungeon. They would have spent the rest of their days on the chain gang or put to death, if that's what he chose for them.  After all Joseph had the power and servants who would do whatever he ordered them to do, without question. So, what did he do?

If you read the narrative through with a western mindset, it sounds as though Joseph is toying with the brothers in order to be cruel to them. He insists they bring back the younger brother, but they must leave one brother behind, for collateral. He then orders his servant to put their money back into their sacks. This act causes the brothers great anguish for many months when they discover the money upon their return home. Our story continues with the brothers returning to Egypt bringing the youngest brother with them, much to the Father's dismay. The return trip does not bode well.  As they re-stock on supplies and are leaving, Joseph's servants pursue them and accuse them of taking a goblet from Joseph’s house. It is found in the youngest brother's sack, after being planted there by a servant at Joseph's instruction.

Hopefully you have been learning from my posts that you must read God's Word from an Eastern mindset, though. As we readjust our thought process we can see that rather than toying with the brothers, Joseph is merely testing the situation. It is of absolute necessity that he be able to know whether the ten who sold him still have animosity toward the youngest brother, Benjamin, the only other child of his mother Rachel. Did you catch the two times Joseph was so overcome with emotion at seeing his brothers he had to turn away from them or leave their presence in order to collect himself? No grudges here, just overwhelming love. 

Rather than repaying them with vengeance, Joseph confesses who he is and grants them immunity and a place to live.  He brings them into the safety of Egypt where they can live in comfort and peace, for their lifetime.  Shortly after his father’s death he tells the brothers,

“Although you intended me harm, God intended it for good:  in order to accomplish – it is as clear as this day – that a vast people be kept alive.”  Genesis 50:20

Aren't you glad that God doesn't pour out His vengeance on us?  Talk about someone with the power to unleash everything on us and give us what we deserve!  And think about this, with every person we would love to "give it" to, there are probably five that would love to "give it" to us.  I tend to forget there are probably just as many or more that I have wronged out there, as have wronged me. 

Oh to have eyes to see such insights into the things which come our way!  Joseph was truly a man led by the spirit of God, so much so that he holds a special place in the teachings on the Messiah and it is more than just a fractal!  Let us take a look at the Messiah fractal and also look at a new concept. The Jews teach there will be two Messiahs; Messiah ben (son of) Joseph and Messiah ben David. Mashiach ben Joseph must come first. (whoo hoo! you think he might already have? - See if you think Yeshua came as this Mashiach the first time!) Let's look at the similarities between Joseph and Yeshua (Jesus).

(Excitement building.......)

1. Joseph and Yeshua have this connection thing with the land of Egypt (Matt 2:13-15)

2. Genesis 41:38 "Could we find another like him - a man in whom is the spirit of God?"(take your pick of NT verses!)

3. Joseph was 30 years old when he came to power or into his leadership role; Yeshua was approximately 30 when he began his ministry.

4. Genesis 41:55 "Go to Joseph. Whatever he tells you, you should do." (Water into wine story John 2:5)

5. Genesis 42:8 "Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him." (Was it not true that the brothers, (Jews), of Yeshua did not recognize him either?)

6. Genesis 42:18 "on the third day, "Do this and live" (hmmm, where else have we read something about the third day and live?)

7. Genesis 42:24 "He turned away from them and wept" And again in Genesis 42:30 "so he went into the room and wept there." (And was it not also recorded that Yeshua wept?)

8. Genesis 44:10 "What you say now is also correct" (Are these not almost the exact words Yeshua replied to the woman at the well?

9. Joseph became a Redeemer for his generation by devising a plan, for storing up enough food during the seven years of good crops, in order to have food enough to last during the seven years of famine.  Yeshua became the Redeemer for not only His generation, but for all mankind!

The previous nine statements or quotes are a concept I want to introduce to you known as verbal tallies. A verbal tally is a portion of scripture or one kind of odd word from scripture that leads you to another portion of scripture and connects the two. To be truly in keeping with the teachings, they should be read the other way around.  For example when you read the quotes from the New Testament it leads you to the scriptures in the Torah.  The problem with most Christians is that we are very familiar with the New Testament, but have only a vague remembrance of Torah. 

Now, do you want to hear more of the teachings on the Messiah?  Okay, well here are the things taught by the Jews regarding the Mashiach ben Yoseph:

1. Mashiach ben Yoseph will prepare the world for the coming of the final redeemer, Mashiach ben David.

2. Mashiach ben Yoseph will be killed and resurrected.

3. His death will be followed by a period of great calamities or tribulations which will occur before the coming of the Mashiach ben David.

 

Does any of this ring a bell with you?  This makes me excited about the coming of the next phase of the Messiah, does it you?  I am setting on GO, BABY!!!!! 

I am also getting so excited about what is to come in the Parashat readings for the coming year.  We have only just begun and the next month should get you ramped up and blow your mind.  I guarantee they will totally change your way of thinking about God and your relationship with Him!  (For the way better I might add, but your paradigm may have to make a major shift in the process!)

 I know I am behind and am hoping to start fresh in the New Year!  As I close out my posts for 2012 and get ready to ramp up for the New Year to come, I want to leave you with a blessing which will be for you and your family in 2013.    

May the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, pour out blessings upon you.  May your desire be for His Torah and to dwell in His tents!

 

Thank you for reading and please feel free to pass this post along to all your friends or anyone who wants to go deeper in the Word of God.  You are welcome to give me your comments and insights.  I learn as much from you as you learn from me.  In fact, I have a tidbit to pass along in a short little post that I learned from a friend recently.  It may be that the comment you make today, is needed by another reader for “such a time as this.”

 

Shalom!!!

 

 

 

Broken Mirrors, Lost Diamonds and the Festival of Lights!

 

Happy Chanukah!





It is time for me to take a break from the Parashats long enough to slip in a little Hebrew lesson, so to speak. This lesson has been on my mind for weeks, but has become so poignant over the last few days due to a family tragedy for a friend of mine. I can not go into detail for reasons of confidentiality, but I will ask that you pray anyway. It matters not when you are reading this, God will use your prayers to meet a need at the appointed time.

It is also a special holiday season for the Jewish nation.  Today is December 8, 2012 (USA) or 24 Kislev 5773 (Hebrew calendar) and the season of Chanukah begins today at sunset.  Chanukah is the Festival of Lights and what a lesson for us to explore at this time.   I grumble and complain at the many things that prevent me from sitting down at my computer to write, but how appropriate that God, blessed be He, would allow those things to interfere in order for me to have this lesson ready today!  Praise Him!!!!

For this lesson we will travel back to Genesis and the creation. One of the Hebraic teachings is that at creation everything perfectly reflected the image of God as in a mirror.  When sin entered the picture the mirror shattered into billions of pieces.  As that mirror shattered, everything in creation was left with at least a small shard of that image within it.  Some shards were large, yet some were so tiny they could not be seen by the naked eye.  The important principle in this is the fact that all humans contain within in them at least a fragment of the image of God and that carries within it....HOPE!

I had almost forgotten this principle when just a few weeks ago I was in a discussion with a friend regarding a certain individual.  I made the statement that there was no hope for them to which she replied, "they contain a sliver of glass, there is always hope." I had to eat a little crow that day, but I was so glad she reminded me of that.

As I turned around on the job and went back to work, with my head hung low in shame at myself, I began to think about the man who lived among the tombs in Luke 8:26. He most likely was mentally ill and it seemed as if everyone was, at the very least, afraid of him, but had also written him off as "hopeless."  Then Jesus came along and He saw, what was that....a sliver? And Jesus said, "My Father wants the piece of glass that lies in your heart to come back home to the mirror. Will you let me put it back in place?" And the man said, "You believe there is hope for, for.....mmme?"

Not only did Jesus see something in the man, but the man saw something in Jesus.  Do you know what it was?  Let me give you another example and see if you can grasp where I am going with this.  It has to do with Chanukah!

The first time I heard my Rabbi tell this principle my mind immediately thought about an incident which happened many years ago with my parents. When I was about 10 years old, my parents were in St. Louis, Missouri and my dad bought my mom a set of wedding rings at a pawn shop. My mom had never owned more than a gold band and now she had a diamond ring and band to match. The diamond was a sizable one and she wore it for several years before deciding to have it placed into a new fancier mounting. She wore it faithfully without ever taking it off, even when doing laundry by hand (mistake). One evening before going to bed she looked down and noticed the diamond was missing from the setting. She and my father turned the house upside down looking for that diamond to no avail. They looked for weeks, but still nothing. Finally my dad said, "well, I'll just buy you another." And he did.

The next day my parents visited the jewelry store of a friend and they bought a new ring with an even bigger stone. My mother claimed the stone was too big, but daddy said nothing was too good for his wife. Almost a year went by and as they were walking around outside they walked into the garage. It happened that the morning light was coming into the garage at just the right angle.  My dad glanced at the stairway and said, "what is that?" He bent down by the steps leading up into the house and what did he find? The lost diamond! My mother was a meticulous housekeeper and had swept that garage hundreds of times over that year, but had obviously not swept up close to the steps.

The diamond was taken to the jewelers and re-set into its mounting where it still sits today. Both rings are now worn by me, since my mother has passed on, but the story of the lost diamond lives on. You see, only when the light hit the stone just right, could the stone be seen, but it required a light. 

It is God's desire that the mirror be put back together. Impossible, you say? Not with God. Nothing is impossible with him. When the mirror shattered, God put a plan in place to redeem all the pieces.  God's plan was to send a light into the world to seek out the lost shards in order that they may be found.   John 1:5, 9, 12 "The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overtake it. The real light that shines to every person was coming to the world. To those who received him, who believed in His name, He gave strength to become sons of God."

As His children, we have been given the task of carrying the light and shining it into the darkened world.  In the words of Matthew 28:19 As we go into all the nations, we are to be looking for those shards to bring them to the Father for redemption. 

Romans 10:14-15,  "How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"

We are, therefore to look for that shard of reflection in each and every thing, but especially each and every person. We are never to take any human being lightly or regard them as worthless for they contain a reflection of the image of God within them. The image in some is easily seen, but in others whose lives have been so covered in the mud and mire of this world, that image is hidden from us and we have to dig deep in order to find it.

Looking for that shard may require us to leave our comfort zone and venture into unknown or frightening waters or it may result in pain (have you ever broken a mirror or a glass and cut yourself on a small shard while trying to find all the pieces?).  It matters not the cost, do it anyway.  We are given a task and are promised that He, the Light of the world, will be with us as we go.  We are only called to take the light, it is not our job to redeem.  That job belongs to God and God alone.  Only when the light of God hits the sliver of glass can it be seen and at that moment He will draw it back to it's rightful place. 

And this is why Torah matters!  It is within Torah that we learn our principles so we might better understand the work Yeshua (Jesus) layed out for us in the Gospels!  Do you have eyes to see?  Do you have ears to hear?  Let me share with you a little known fact among Christans.  Everything Yeshua said in the Gospels is either a direct quote from or a comment on the Torah (either the written or the oral Torah);  therefore if you do not know Torah, can you truly understand the Gospels?

Do many of the scriptures you memorized as a child come into your head right about now?  Are they making more sense?  What about Luke 19:10:  "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  or the story of the woman in Luke 15:8 who lost one of her coins or the story of the lost sheep?  What about the many, many scripture about the Light:  (just a few)  Psalm 119:130, Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 4:16, Daniel 2:22.  I could go on and on, but I needed to let you see the connection.  It is in Torah that we realize how much God loves and cares for all men, for it is there you see how intricate the plan was to redeem them. 

God believes that all humans have value and are worth redeeming .  Some of them will reflect His light easily, while others will need the Light to hit them at just the perfect angle.  When we forget the image principle, we fall into a dangerous chasm.  It is a place where we begin to regard humans as mere objects without value or worth.  This is the point of the following scripture from the book of Amos, where the prophet proclaims this sin as being the very thing God has against the nation of Israel at the time.  It certainly sounds like our world at the current time, selling or even killing someone for their shoes!

Amos 2:6-7:  "for their selling a righteous man for money and a poor man for shoes.  They aspire as they walk along for the head of the poor and they twist the judgment of the humble; a man and his father go to a young woman in order to have their way with her." 

All humans have worth whether they are rich, poor, functional, dysfunctional, sound-minded, not of sound mind, etc.  Get the point?  And, everyone has a story of what brought them to this place at this very moment.  If you only knew the story behind every person you came into contact with, you might be more tolerant and be willing to shine the light to look for the sliver.  That obnoxious woman who works near you?  Perhaps she believes no one loves her and all she really needs is to be loved.  And the boss you can never please?  Yeah, well, maybe he had a dad he could never please either.  Or the co-worker who is absent a lot?  Just might be that his wife suffers from a mental illness and he is having to deal with another crisis at home.  What about the guy who always looks like he hasn't had any sleep?  Well maybe he has a teenager who is giving him a lot of trouble.  Or that..... well, you understand. 

The absolute truth is everyone, including you, has a story.  Everyone is dealing with something difficult in their life and has some type of need, BUT at the same time all have a sliver of God's image in them.  Now during this Festival of Lights keep shining His light into all the world.  Take every opportunity given to find the pieces of that image so each and every one can have the chance to return to it's rightful place in the mirror.  There is another lesson just waiting for you that will take this one a step further.  Wait for it and it will come at the appointed time (oh that is even another lesson)!  Are you beginning to get excited about Torah?  Shalom!

If you want to know more about Chanukah and it's celebration, you may do so at the following website:  http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm

Vayeitzei - The Jacob Principle: is your field full of distraction or have you turned the soil into a well watered garden?

                    

Shalom!  I pray that your Thanksgiving holiday was safe, happy and relaxed and if you were brave enough to venture out on black Friday, you were not trampled in the crowd.  I am terribly behind in my writing and will try to get caught up this weekend.  I spent the Thanksgiving weekend out of town at my great-nephew's wedding and had the most fabulous time with my entire family, grandsons and all!  The picture above is that nephew, Adam and his bride, Andrea.  How wonderful that God seems to place into my life the very circumstance of the Parashat for each week.  This week is about a wedding of sorts. 

As we begin this Parashat, (which is actually last week’s lesson), we pick up Jacob as he is in the process of finding a wife.  I find it ironic, that throughout my life as I have read and been taught this section, I never really thought about many of the story’s realities.  One of those realities was Jacob’s age, which was 77 at the time.  Did you think he was much younger?  I grew up thinking he was probably 20-25, so the reality of this love story isn’t about a couple of young hot lovers is it?  This isn’t quite a Romeo and Juliet kind of story, although it has been painted that way.  Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy thinks he is marrying girl but is deceived by father-in-law, boy gets her sister and now must work seven more years to get the real love of his life.  See what I mean.

 I think it’s time we took a REAL look at this Parashat to see what the Word really does say and what it doesn’t say.  Along the way, I think God may have a word for you.  OH and BY THE WAY MEN!  This week is for you.  If last week spoke mainly to the women, God has a special word for you in this one.  I didn’t plan it this way, but He did.  Now grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable and prepare to be challenged.  You may never have seen the story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah in this light before.

Let’s start with what we do know about Jacob.  Jacob was, as we established last week, a man who dwelt in tents.  By that we learned he was a man who focused on the Lord God and serving Him only day and night.  Jacob was basically a man who sought God with every fiber of his being as well as living every moment in oneness with Him.  He had also been this way for 63 years and had never married when he left his father and mother to go in search of a wife.  He was sold out and devoted with a single minded heart to God and God alone.  I want you to keep that last thought in your mind, because it is going to play a key role in this lesson.

One thing we aren’t told in the scriptures, yet the sages have deduced from their readings and adding up of the age accountings in the scripture is a 14 year gap in Jacob’s life.  The sages deduce from this that Jacob spent those years in the academy of Shem and Eber before going on his way to seek a wife.  Whoa!  A totally sold out Godly man needs to go to an academy to study more?  Wow!  What was he preparing for?  I think we need to really, really take notice of this story!  (Men are you paying attention yet?)    

Now we begin our Parashat.  Jacob is apparently leaving the academy and starting on the next leg of his journey when night falls.  It is necessary for him to find a place to sleep and it just so happens that, as scripture puts it, he happens to be at “the place.”  The Place is Mount Moriah, where Abraham bound Isaac and where the Temple would later stand.  Jacob arranges the stones around his head and lies down and as he sleeps, God appears to him in a dream.  In this dream, there is a ladder that reaches from heaven to earth and angels are going up and down.  There is an entire lesson just on the ladder, but I’ll have to save that for another day.  Oh well, got your curiosity up yet?  Just a little hint; it wasn’t a ladder like we think of.

God speaks to Jacob, in this dream, and says He will give the ground upon which he is lying to him and his descendants.  Jacob’s offspring will be as the dust of the earth and will spread out powerfully westward, eastward, northward and southward and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by him and by his offspring.  God promises to be with him, to guard him wherever he goes and the Lord will return him to this soil for He will not forsake Jacob until He has done what He has spoken about him. 

If you will recall, Isaac has already given Jacob a blessing that says: “Peoples will serve you and regimes will prostrate themselves to you.  Be a lord to your kinsmen and your mother’s sons will prostrate themselves to you.  Cursed be they who curse you and blessed be they who bless you.”  “May El Shaddai bless you, make you fruitful and make you numerous and may you be a congregation of peoples.  May He grant you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you that you may possess the land of your sojourns which God gave to Abraham.”  Genesis 27:28-29, 28:3-4

Dad has pronounced a spectacular blessing upon him, sent him out and now the God of heaven and earth is blessing him again!  I cannot even begin to imagine how Jacob must have felt when he awakened from that dream!  Joy beyond measure, I’m sure.  Now what?  Well, I guess if Jacob is going to have descendants like the dust of the earth….there needs to be a wife, you suppose?  Kind of hard to procreate without a partner isn’t it?  So on with the journey, right?  Oh no, not just yet.  First things must come first, to a man of God.  Jacob makes a pledge that if God will be with him and guard him on his way and gives him bread to eat and clothes to wear and allows him to return in peace to his father’s house and God will be a God to him then the stone he set up will become a house of God and whatever God gives him he will repeatedly tithe to God. 

I would love to take the time to break this story down into little bits and pieces, but I do have a specific place to go with this one and for that reason I will be traveling pretty fast from this point on.  Jacob finds his way to a well where he meets his future wife, Rachel.  I have always thought Jacob just fell head over heels in love with the sight of her that day.  Then I learned the truth about Jacob’s age and thought, would a 77 year old man really fall deeply in love with and be blown away by a beautiful young woman?   We know that Rachel was a beautiful woman, the scripture tells us that much, but was there something more about her?  Did Jacob see a woman of Godly character?   Any man who is in touch with his spiritual side, the way Jacob was, would surely know when he met a woman of spiritual nobility, right?   After all, the wife he chooses must be the mother of a nation! 

The problem with Rachel is that as much as she is revered and held on a pedestal, there are some issues I could get into great depth on.  Rachel does give birth to a deliverer, but seems to mirror some of the traits we saw in Jacob’s brother Esau.  (Wish I had the time to go into detail on that one.  Perhaps in the near future, but not right now.  They are after all only my thoughts, not the Chassidic Masters!)   

Could it be a possibility that for the first time in Jacob’s life he was faced with something all of us are far too familiar with, a double-minded heart?  You may think you know what I mean by this statement, but then again you may not.  I want to explore this thought with you at length and see how it applies to our lives in today’s society.

For the first time in Jacob’s life he was literally leaving the “tents” to go into the “fields”.  If you recall from last week’s Parashat, tents refers to spiritual learning and study and fields refers to the world where there is idolatry and worldliness.  The tents represent safety and a place where there are no distractions, (the mountaintop experiences if you wish).  The fields however, are not necessarily bad all the time.  Fields are where the crops are grown, but they can also harbor danger.  One of the greatest dangers in a field is in seeing something alluring, just over there.  You get caught up trying to find whatever is alluring you and when you finally arrive at the object you have lost sight of home.  

Jacob, I believe was truly being tested in the fields.  His purpose, (do you remember our lesson on fractals?  Now is a good time to go back and read that one if you haven’t read it already), was two-fold.  His immediate and future purpose was to bring the tents to the fields.  Are you following me?  His entire purpose was to bring into the world a dwelling place for God and also a messiah, which he did.  Stay with me here, if you don’t you’ll be throwing stones at me.  He became the nation of Israel where the temple was eventually built and he did bring into the world a messiah, eventually (down the line) another messiah and ultimately THE MESSIAH!  Oh man, I can’t wait to do the lesson on Messiah with you.  (I only wish I could do this full time.  My time is limited as you can tell.  I am so far behind and have very little time to work on these teachings.  Oh well, God knows when the time is right for each of these posts to be done.  I will leave it in His hands.) 

 

The Field of Distraction

Jacob has left the tents and traveled to the fields.  His mission is to find a wife from his uncle’s house.  The first female he sees just happens to be his niece and this also happens to be his first distraction, for she is beautiful.  Jacob goes back with her to her father’s house and begins to work for him.  I am sure Jacob has worked during his life, since it seems he knows how to do those things, but now he has to work in order to eat and now we have distraction number two.

Jacob asks Laban for Rachel’s hand in marriage, but he seems to know that Laban will try to deceive him so he makes it very clear which daughter he wants to marry.  They agree on a dowry of seven years of labor from Jacob and at the end of that time Laban deceives Jacob anyway and gives him Leah, distraction number three.  An agreement is made for Rachel and a week later he weds Rachel with the promise he will work seven more years as a dowry for her, now there are two wives and a deceitful father-in-law, distraction number four.

We have no record that Jacob ever strayed away from his devotion to God, but this is what I want you to see with me.  As more responsibility is added to Jacob’s life, devotion became more difficult.  Spending time in God’s tents was divided between spending time in the tents of his wives and also among the flocks and herds and trying to appease a difficult, deceitful father-in-law.  Does this sound like your life, with the exception (I hope) of having more than one wife? 

Dedication to the Word of God is so easy on Sunday morning or at a conference right up until the alarm clock goes off on Monday morning.  Suddenly its business meetings and deadlines, the battery’s dead on the car again, a recital at 6 p.m., did I remember to schedule an oil change at the dealer?  What was that again?  Am I taking the children to school this morning or are you?  I can’t possibly fit another thing into my schedule.  Is there enough money in the checking account to pay the mortgage this week?   And property taxes are due by the end of the month and now rumors are flying at work there might be a layoff. 

Distractions, distractions, distractions!  Why must we always have to be in the fields!!!!!  I would love to stay in the tents!  The problem with staying in the tents is that we would become obese while the rest of the world literally starved to death from famine.  (Almost sounds like an analogy of the United States and Third World countries, doesn’t it.)  We quite possibly create many unnecessary distractions, though.  True there are necessary ones such as family and work, but what is in our lives that could be culled out?  Do we need to tear down the “idols” we have allowed to be set up in our fields and replace them with tents?

 If you are familiar with much of the Old Testament, you know there are many times in the book of Kings where you read about a king who allowed Asherah poles to be built in the fields.  Along comes a Godly king who comes in and tears them down.  Are there Asherah poles we need to tear down in our lives?  What activities are you or your family involved in, containing no intrinsic value, which are mainly just time wasters?  What about television?  Do you sit, in the evenings, mindlessly watching programming that would be considered to be “field material”?  What about Church activities?  Are they just that, activities, or is there a spiritual purpose behind each and every one? 

I have to confess, guilty of all charges!!!  Busy lives.  Busy people.  Everyone is, well, just busy.   A co-worker and I were talking about it this past week.  He said, “I get so tired of doing the same thing every day.  I get up, eat breakfast, go to work, go home, change clothes, go work out, go back home, eat supper, take a shower and go to bed, just to do it all over again the next day.”  I said, “yes I know, we are creatures of routine and complain about it, yet if anything interrupts that routine, well then we complain about that also, don’t we?”  That’s when we both had a good laugh! 

It certainly seems that everything in life tries to keep us from focusing on God and growing spiritually.  We get in a little routine of spending more time in the Word and in prayer and what happens?  We have to work overtime or we get sick or a child gets sick or an appliance breaks down or the alarm doesn’t go off or there is a controversy at work which catches us smack dab in the middle!  The next thing you know you are preoccupied with those matters and what were you going to do….oh yeah you were going to spend time with God.  Guess you’ll have to do that some other day.

 

 

Field of Well Watered Soil

 

Why can’t we just live in a little spiritual bubble?  Our problem is we think in the wrong direction.  As western thinkers we think horizontally when we should be thinking vertically.  Let me show you a new way of thinking.  A new thought pattern will bring about an action rather than a reaction in your lifestyle.  (Just so you know, I am learning this along with you also, as I am pointing toward you there are three fingers pointing back at me!)  I am going to call this the Jacob principle.  I really think most, if not all of you, know this principle we just tend not to practice it.  Our lives as westerners is not really conducive to this practice and thought process.  We are loners, not communal.  You’ll see what I mean. 

The Jacob Principle – Rather than letting life be a distraction for your spiritual health, let your spiritual health be a distraction for life.  Let me give you an example.  If every part of your life was filled with thoughts of God and what He thinks and wants, would you do everything differently?  The moment your eyes opened in the morning, what would your first thought be?  As you put on your clothes?  As you make your breakfast?  As you awaken your children?  As you gather your belongings for work?  As you go out the door?  What about when you are driving down the road to work or school?  What would be different about the way you went about your day on the job?  What would happen when your children came to you asking to participate in extracurricular activities?  What would you do with your evenings?  How would you spend your weekends or family vacations?  How would you handle the breakdown of the dishwasher or the plumbing leak?  What about the mechanic bill on the mini-van? 

Can you see anything differently in these scenarios?   I want to give you a little glimpse into the life of a practicing Orthodox Jew for a moment and show you how we can learn from them.  They learned from their father Jacob.  And guess what?  He didn’t have any written word!  For an Orthodox Jew there is a book of prayers called, the Siddur.  The Siddur contains thousands of prayers.  Each day begins with the first conscious thought in the morning.  As soon as a person realizes they are awake, the following prayer is uttered from their lips; “I thank You for returning unto me my soul with compassion, great is Your faithfulness!”  Wow!  What a way to start off your day!  From there a prayer is said after each part of your day, i.e. going to the bathroom, washing your hands, putting on your clothes, etc.  There is a men’s Siddur and a women’s Siddur. 

Not only is an Orthodox Jew’s personal life regimented in this way, but if that person lives in a Jewish community, it too is of the same heart and mind.  This means that all Sabbaths, holidays and feasts are celebrated with one heart and mind.  There is strength in numbers.  We, as American Christians have a hard time being of one heart and mind in our own homes, let alone our churches and communities.  What could be done to bring the “tents” of God to the fields if we as Christians became single-minded individually and jointly? 

A Jew’s life is not only filled with prayers, but everything in life reflects some aspect of the God he or she serves.  From the way the challah bread is braided to the lighting of candles and even the woman’s monthly cycle.  Everything is significant in that God can be seen and a lesson taught from it.  Fathers even take seriously the command to train up their children in the instruction of the Lord.  Hmmm, now there’s a thought.  The daily calendar is another way of incorporating God into the lives of the Jewish life.  There is an occasion every week and every month to celebrate some aspect of God’s provision for them and the nation of Israel! 

We, on the other hand, take so much for granted and are so nonchalant about the gifts we have been given.  It would almost seem as if we look for ways to get out of spending time with God instead of trying to get out of other things in order to spend time with God.  We have two basic celebrations each year to show what God has done for us, Easter and Christmas and many churches cancel their evening services on those holidays as well as any other holidays that would be great times to spend thanking God for his provision.  

      Walk into any church in the United States on a Sunday morning and there are fairly large crowds, but go back to those for the evening service and you will be fortunate to see 20% of the morning crowd in return attendance.  (Probably isn’t 2% on Super Bowl Sunday!)  Drop back by on Wednesday evening and it probably drops again to 50% of that 20%.  The end result is probably only 10% of the Sunday morning crowd is faithful dedicated churchgoers for those churches who have three services each week.  Many churches have done away with the Sunday evening service due to a lack of attendance. 

        The bottom line is this; an Orthodox Jew takes every moment of every day and especially every Sabbath very seriously.  How serious do we even take the Sabbath?  For that matter, and I am actually going to leave everyone with this thought, how serious are we about any of God’s Word?  When was the last time our prayers reflected our thankfulness rather than a list of Lord pleases?  I think I have given good examples of how thinking differently can affect actions.  How different would our outlook be on life if everything we thought, did, ate or said was filtered through the God filter?  Well, go ahead and talk amongst yourselves.  As for me, I’m a little verklempt!  I think I’ll spend more time talking to God and reading Torah and see how many Asherah poles I can tear down in my fields. One of those poles may have to be fb, OH NO!  : (  Oh well, if that's what is necessary!  Shalom!    

Toldot - The Tale of the Twins

 

Sorry about the mess in my kitchen in this picture, I was in the process of freezing produce from my garden at the time, but since I don't have twin guys in my family I had to use twin squash from my garden, so here are Jacob and Esau or Esau and Jacob!!!!  (you choose, I could probably make a lesson either way, ha ha!  Just roll with the VeggieTales theme here, would you?)  I always try to have a visual to go with my lessons.  Somehow it just seems to help me, does it help you even if it is a picture of squash?  I, personally tend to remember things better when a picture is involved. 

This Parashat is perhaps one of the more difficult writings for me, at this time.  I think it is due to something weighing heavy on my mind regarding a tragedy in our community.  I feel the need to write a lesson on that in the near future yet feel the need to expound on this section first.  There are a lot of lessons in Toldot, I just don't particularly have any of them on my heart right now.  The only lesson I am leaning toward at this time is geared to women, so I hope if you are one of my male readers you just hang with me on this one, but men you could take a little clue from this one that God REALLY does talk to women in unique ways.  With that in mind, you might want to listen a little closer to your wife at times (or perhaps ask her what God has told her lately).  Hint, hint!! 

Last week we learned about the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca.  This week we pick up where that Parashat left off.  After 20 years pass in their marriage, it is apparent that Rebecca can not conceive (sound familiar).  Isaac pleads with the Lord God on her behalf and God not only hears, but answers the prayer by allowing Rebecca to conceive.  I am not sure if I mentioned the fact last week that Rebecca was a devout, Godly woman.  When she married Isaac the Shechinah Glory of God, which had departed when Sarah died, rested once again upon the tent.

We now have a pregnant woman who is obviously in-tune with the Lord God.  (I know there are a great number of women reading this, who know exactly what I am talking about here.  You will totally relate with what I am going to say, because YOU have these conversations with God all the time or you had one during a pregnancy.)  Rebecca is probably midway or more through the pregnancy since she can feel movement and although she has never been pregnant before, she knows something isn't right.  Come on now, you girls know what I am talking about.  It's not a feeling like you are going to miscarry, but like maybe the enemy is trying to take your child before he is even born!  You know you have a fight on your hands at the very onset.  If you have more than one child you knew what each child was going to be like while they were still in the womb. 

Whatever Rebecca was feeling she knew something just wasn't the way it should be and it greatly troubled her!  It troubled her so bad that she went to her knees before God Himself, and cried out to Him.  "If it be so, why am I like this?"  In other words, "If you have blessed me with these children, why am I so distraught?"   And God answered her!  He graciously told her what she needed to know, yet the answer was twofold.  There certainly was a spiritual battle going on inside of her.  She would have two children.  The older would be worldly minded and the younger would be spiritual minded.  Not only that, but the older would serve the younger and both will turn into great nations, yet one of the nations would not seek God, but idols.  Gee, I don't think I ever got a word from God like that, have you? 

I know that during both of my pregnancies, God clearly spoke to me about my children.  I knew things about them I could not have known otherwise unless God told me.  Do you have a similar story?  I think we have overlooked this portion when reading this story many times.  Now, follow me on down into the story further, because it skips a lot of years in the re-telling of it. 

We see that as they grew up, Esau became one who knows hunting, a man of the field;  but Jacob was a wholesome man, abiding in tents.  Our problem with seeing this verse from a western way of thinking, is interpreting Esau as a man's man and Jacob as a Mama's boy.  Admit it, isn't that the way you have heard this lesson explained many times in Sunday School or from a pulpit?  Come on now.  The fact of the matter is, nothing could be further from the truth.  Esau, according to the Jewish Rabbi's and sages was a deceiver.  His game was in his mouth did not refer to hunting, but referred to the fact that he could deceive you with his mouth.  He also idled away the hours in the fields "where the idols were," rather than taking care of the things he needed to at home.  (You know the ones, out skateboarding or playing video games instead of cleaning their rooms or doing homework, ahem!!!  Just joking, but trying to kind of put a modern day spin on the story  ;-)  Jacob, however, is described as one who "dwells in tents" a phrase meaning to seek the righteousness of the Lord God on a daily basis. The person who dwelt in tents was one who walked with God; meditating on Him day and night and spending time with Him in conversation. I don't think that sounds like a Mama's boy, does it? 

For instance, the Talmud (the Oral Torah) tells us that the day of the birthright incident takes place on the very day of Abraham's death.   (The twins would have been 15 at the time.)  The day when a family and probably the entire area around for many miles was in mourning, Esau was no where to be found.  He certainly wasn't taking care of family business and when he did come in from the fields he didn't even seem to be concerned that his grandfather had passed away.  On the other hand Jacob was there taking care of his father and mother and family business that day.

Just wondering....do you see the ending to this day with Esau selling his birthright to Jacob any differently now?  Someone who thinks so little of family and obligations thereof  ...... hmmmm ........ would think highly of his birthright?  Rather than seeing Jacob as an opportunist, do you maybe see him as someone trying to hold up the family honor?  Maybe even a little angry at his brother for acting so non-chalantly about Abraham's death and the fact that his own father, Isaac was grieved?  Okay, let us go on.

Now, let's fast forward  a few years toward the end of Isaac's life and his blessing of the two boys, or rather men.  What do we know for certain about this passage:  Isaac was either blind or near blind at the time, the family had lived through a famine and a well digging incident and Rebecca and Jacob set out to deceive Isaac so Jacob can receive honor and glory, right?  Are you sure about that last statement?  Let's take a closer look at the story with new eyes. 

Isaac is (according to the Midrash), 123 years old at the time.  He is mostly or completely blind and knows his death could come at any time.  He has probably been thinking about what he needs to do to get his affairs in order and passing on the Patriarchal blessing is one of those.  I kind of doubt there were wills, insurance policies and mutual funds in those days to worry about. 

What we read and what the Jewish Rabbis teach seems to be worlds apart.  The commentaries I have read on this one says that Isaac knew Jacob was a man of God and was intent on serving Him.  Isaac was so well pleased with that fact, he wanted nothing to interfere with that goal, therefore he wanted Esau to have the blessing of ruling cities and governments so Jacob would not be burdened with such and could live out his calling. He also believed Esau needed the blessing, in order to arm him in his struggle to overcome an inborn nature toward bloodshed and other cardinal sins.  Can you see a little bit in this how we can have the correct motive, but be making plans to go in the wrong direction?  I think I have heard a scripture quoted about that which says something like, "My ways are not your ways, says the Lord".  Quite a different picture than the many lessons I have been taught. 

The Rabbis also teach that in order for the Patriarchal blessing to take place, the prophetic spirit must be resting upon someone and that person must be in a state of joy (Shabbos 30b).   That is why Isaac tells Esau to bring him some game prepared the way he likes it before he can bless him.  Rebecca overhears the conversation and suddenly she is in overdrive.  She knows Isaac and she remembers the words of the Lord God during her pregnancy, (not that she has ever forgotten them).  What should she do?  She has never told Isaac about them.  I wonder why she never revealed those words to him?  The Rabbis say the Lord God never authorized her to tell him.  Hmmm  Here is the interesting thing about this situation, if the prophetic spirit is the one who will give Isaac the words to say in the blessing, then Rebecca has no way of knowing what Isaac will say in the blessing of the young men, right?  Then why is she so worried and why does she go to such great lengths since she knows God has already pronounced the blessing on them?  Wouldn't you think she would be confident that God would take care of it all?  Pondering....pondering....pondering.  I really have no answer and can't find one from the sages.

I think I need to sidebar for just a moment here on something.  I did call them young men just a few sentences back, but according to the Jews, (and there is clear evidence for this), the twins were 63 at the time of the blessing.  Not so young in our time, huh?  Esau had been married for 23 years to two Hittite women, who are said to be a kind of "spiritual blight" to Isaac and Rebecca.  The commentaries are divided on the meaning of this:  either they were leading him away spiritually to idols OR they were the daughters-in-law from you know where.  Either way, not a good family bonding experience or in modern day terms - a little dysfunctional family situation.  Those poor, poor grandchildren is what I'm thinking about right now!  Oy vey! (woe, woe!)

We see when Rebecca tells Jacob what to do in order to receive the blessing, Jacob does not want to go along with it.  This further exemplifies Jacob's character as he lets his mother know there will be a curse associated with deceit of this nature.  Rebecca is so adamant about this matter she is willing to accept the curse on herself if necessary and so the plan begins. 

There is more than a spiritual difference between the men.  It is apparent that Esau is a hairier man than Jacob, so that fact must be dealt with.  Rebecca to the rescue.  She takes the skin of the goats she has just prepared and covers Jacob's neck, arms and hands with them.  She also takes a piece of Esau's clothing for Jacob to wear.  Not just any clothing, but the clothing he received by killing Nimrod.  (I'll let you research that one!) 

Jacob enters Isaacs presence with the meal his mother has prepared.  He addresses his father and Isaac asks who it is.  Jacob never really says he is Esau.  You have to catch the play on words he uses.  The Hebrew translation reads as follows:  " It is I, Esau your firstborn."  As if to say, "It is I, Esau is your firstborn."  It is actually with the character of his own mouth that Jacob is nearly given away when his father asks how it is that he was able to find game this quickly and get it prepared.  Jacob responds with thanking the Lord God for blessing him with the meal.  Isaac quickly picks up on this matter, because he knows Esau rarely ever expounds, spiritually, on matters. 

We can look the part, smell the part and even cook up the part, but the words that come from our mouth will always give us away.  Our words reflect the heart. Jacob's mouth almost gave him away.  It was a true reflection of his heart, one that sought God with all his being yet Esau's heart was one that followed idols and his mouth revealed the truth.  Remember his game was in his mouth?  Even in relaying the birthright incident to Isaac at the blessing, he recounted it as if it were a deception that came from Jacob.  It was however, a lack of a connection with the Lord God Himself that led Esau to sell his birthright.  He chose to give it up, because it meant nothing to him.  There was no deception involved.  We all know those Esaus.  The siblings in a family who are all up in every situation that gets attention for themselves, but when the family needs them they are nowhere to be found.  Lots of excuses and no time to be involved.  Bottom line, they just don't care about anyone but themselves.  They will shrug their shoulders if it bores them or cry rivers if that's what it takes to get the attention.

I want to leave you with one parting thought on this Parashat.  Rebecca was a great Godly woman.  Isaac a great Godly man.  Two sons, one of them drawn to idols while the other was drawn to God.  Did Isaac and Rebecca love both of their sons?  I think the answer to that is, absolutely!  When the time came for the blessing, Isaac and Rebecca had the same motive yet different ideas on how that should play out.  A mother's heart, a father's heart.  Both loved their sons dearly.  Both wished to see Esau walking a Godly path like Jacob, I'm sure.  We are not told if the two of them ever discussed this situation beforehand.  We really aren't told if they inquired of the Lord with the exception that the prophetic spirit would give Isaac the words to say at the blessing.  If they had, I wonder if the reading of this entire Parashat would have been different......what do you think?

What about your motives?  Do you discuss them with God to make sure they line up with His plans?  You can have the best of intentions in the world, but be on the wrong course.  If your intentions are to supply food for the hungry in a Third World country, you will not buy loads of fresh meat to take with you.  Would they love fresh meat?  Absolutely, but they have no way of storing it and you could only feed them for one day.  Take several hundred or thousand pounds of rice or beans and they can store that for months, it goes a looooonnnng way and their hunger is satisfied for weeks to come!  Your'e intentions are the same, just different ways to go about it.  Take along enough seed and tools to show them how to plant and harvest their own crops and you can feed them for years.  Now, try talking to God before you go.  Tell Him your intentions and He might have an even greater way of feeding the hungry that you haven't even thought of!!!!   "You have not, because you ask not!"


I would love to read your comments on any of the postings from Hannah's Song, so please feel free to comment away!  We may not agree, but the Jews have this wonderful saying:  "Ask two Rabbis, get three opinions!"  To the Eastern way of thinking there are many answers to every question, so we don't have to agree.  I am hoping to have something more than a Parashat between now and Thanksgiving, so until then, Shalom!!!!  And if by chance I don't publish another until next weekend, Happy Thanksgiving, be thankful and stay safe my friends!!!

 

Chayei Sarah

This week's lesson is from Genesis 23:1 - 25:18.  It begins with the death of Abraham's wife, Sarah.  An entire lesson could be spent on the way the scripture gives her age, but I am not being led to give that at this time.  God is leading me to teach a different lesson for now.  I know that one particular person will swear I am leaning in this direction due to a life situation for them, but God spoke to me about this matter two days before the phone call I received from them.  In fact, God has placed this matter on my heart for some time now and this parashat has opened the door for such a great starting point. 

We go on to read in chapter 24 that Abraham was old and well on in years.  The sages tell us that Isaac was 37 at the time of Sarah's death and he had no wife, so Abraham set about to take care of that matter.  Abraham knew the importance of having a Godly wife for his son.  He, himself had been priviledged to have the most Godly wife for over 100 years.  Sarah had stood beside him through the good and bad.  She exemplified the Proverbs 31 woman, although Proverbs had yet to be written.  Kind of makes me wonder if Solomon had Sarah in mind when he wrote that chapter.  Hmmmm, guess I'll have to check further into that one.  Anyway, back to our parashat, Abraham knew that the women living around them did not adhere to the Godly ways of he and Sarah so a wife for Isaac would have to come from a different location. 

Our story picks up with Abraham calling his servant, Eliezer into his presence and swearing him to an oath.  Eliezer is charged with the task of traveling back to Abraham's kindred and finding a wife from among them for Isaac.  Out of his devotion for his master he willing takes on the task and with camels and gifts in hand sets out for the city of Nahor.  While on his way, Eliezer comes up with a way to figure out which young woman is the right one for his master's son.  I guess you could say he strikes up a deal with the Lord God.  He stops at a spring just outside the city shortly before the time when the women would come to get water.  He asks God, "Let it be that the maiden to whom I shall say, 'Please tip over your jug so I may drink,' and who replies, 'Drink, and I will even water your camels,' her will You have designated for Your servant, for Isaac; and may I know through her that You have done kindness with my master."  Genesis 24:14  And God graciously answered his prayer, actually before he even finished praying.  Rebecca makes her way to the spring and follows through exactly the way Eliezer had hoped.  She was everything he could have hoped for in a wife for his master's son and met the qualifications to be the next matriarch of the Jewish nation. 

Rebecca's own words and actions praise her worthiness in her new role.  Her family is not willing to let her go so easily.  They want to wait a year or so before letting her leave, but Eliezer is insistent that she leave now.  Rebecca's family decide to call her in and ask her what she wishes to do and she replies, "I will go."  So they pack up her things, send her nurse with her and tell her goodbye and bless her by saying, "Our sister, may you come to be thousands of myriads, and may your offspring inherit the gate of its foes."

As Eliezer and Rebecca, along with their enterouge, are approaching the land of Abraham, Rebecca sees Isaac and inquires as to who he is.  When Eliezer tells her it is his master, she takes her veil and covers her face.  Eliezer then recounts the events of the last few days to his master Isaac and the Word of God tells us that, "And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, he married Rebecca, she became his wife, and he loved her; and thus was Isaac consoled after his mother."  Genesis 24:67

I have so much I WANT to teach from this lesson, but time just will not allow at this moment.  There is a much needed lesson here on tents, but I will save that for a Hebrew lesson at some point.  There is, however, one thing I must introduce to you at this point and that is the concept of a fractal.  A fractal is an image that when you look at a smaller section, that section contains the whole image.  Are you confused yet?  Let me give you an example:

Broccoli.  Guess you never thought of broccoli as a fractal, did you?  I could have zoomed in on one little branch of this stalk of broccoli and shown it to you and said, "I grew this in my garden and if there were nothing around it to give you depth, it would have looked like a full sized head, because each little branch contains a picture of the whole.  If you want to research this concept further, I have found a terrific website that explains the concept of fractals in layman's terms https://www.fractalus.com/info/layman.htm
 
Now, back to Isaac and Rebecca and I will show you how the fractal fits in.  There are only a few men in the line of Yeshua (Jesus) who only have one wife and Isaac is one of those men.   Marriage was instituted by the Lord God, himself, at creation, because it is a fractal of something much greater.  Take a look with me at Revelation 19:7“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” & 9:Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” 
Can you see the picture?  The Lamb is the Messiah, Yeshua and the marriage set forth at creation was a fractal of that marriage to come.  There is an even greater picture of this marriage, but I will get to that in a later parashat.

Now to another point I really want to make in this weeks lesson.  I will do a lot of confession time here.  I have been married for a little over 35 years to the same man.  It is the first marriage for each of us, but it has been a very rocky 35 years.  I was 17 and still in high school when we married.  He was 20.  We came from very different backgrounds.  I had been brought up in a home where we went to church at least three times a week, studied our Bibles daily and made sure to tell each other "I love you" before going to bed each night.  My Daddy always gave my Mother a kiss before leaving for work each morning, again when he left for work at lunch and when coming home from work in the evening and at bedtime.  He continually would wink at her and tell her he loved her.  He would do loving things for her and she for him.  I never heard raised voices in anger and there was always a sense of peace in our home.  Tithing was a given and we were never in need.  We had no real excess, but were never in want either.  At Christmas time our family would gather for a large meal and gift exchange and I would always receive many gifts.

For my husband, it was a different kind of story.  He did not come from an abusive situation, just different.  Rather than three times a week in church, he can only remember three times ever going to church and that was with an aunt and uncle.  He told me he could never remember ever hearing the words I love you being spoken in their home.   His family was very poor, food was whatever they could raise on their farm and Christmas time meant the same thing every year - socks and underwear from their parents and a bucket of plastic cowboys and indians from an aunt.  The toys they played with were whatever could be found in the ditches in the surrounding hills, discarded by others.  Very cold winters with little heat in their home and hot summers with no air-conditioning.  Working in the fields after school and in the summer. 

You can see that we had a lot of differences to work through, which unfortunately we seemed not to.  It's not that we didn't love each other, we just saw things through different lenses and the truth is our past greatly shapes the lense through which we see the future.  I see things with love and compassion and he sees things through frugality and self-centeredness.  The problem is it has taken 35 years for us to realize that we needed a good blend of the two.  You see, I would give everything we have away if I believed there were a need and probably have us in a tremendous debt at that.  He would pinch every penney till it screamed and proclaim, "they can get a job and help themselves."  We have to balance each other out, but a third person is needed to do this. 

Let me give you a visual image to help.  Have you ever played on a see-saw when you were a child?  If the two people are equally weighted, no problem, right?  What happens if one is heavier than the other?  When we get married, a third person is in the picture, the Spirit comes along side us to give us the help we need.  He stands in the middle of the see-saw and if one of us gets a little heavy-ended (so to speak) he goes along the other side to help that person out to bring the board into balance.  Get the picture? 

The problem in so many marriages is what almost happened in my own.  We feel like we are the one up in the air so much of the time that the "game" isn't fun anymore.  Did you ever play on a see-saw with someone who was a bully and they got on and held you up in the air and wouldn't let you down?  Then you know where I'm going with this.  Your emotions are always up in the air, you walk on eggshells all the time around them, it is always their way or the highway, etc.  You get to a point where you begin to put up walls between you and them.  And then what do you do?  You find a chance, jump off and run away.  Nevermind that the Spirit may get thrown off the board in the process and all the people that have been watching are standing watching him be thrown into the playground dirt, because remember He has been trying to balance out the board all along.  Not such a pretty sight, is it? 

I am saddened to admit that at one point in my marriage I threw him onto the playground dirt.  It is a decision I so deeply regret with everything in me, yet I can not undo that action.  I can say that I picked up the pieces and re-built my marriage with His help and although the emotions did not immediately return they did return eventually and today I can say that I love my husband.  I can not imagine life without him.  I do not want to mislead anyone.  We do not have one of those ooey-gooey cuddly lovey-dovey relationships.  It is a long-term committed marriage.  We each have our role and we love each other.  We know each other's space and respect it and have come to understand each other in a way that is known only to us.  We finish each other's sentences (after 35 years I guess that is expected, ha!).  I have learned to stand up for myself, which only took 33 years and he has learned to respect me for it.  Most of all we have learned that love is a choice, not an emotion. 

Marriage and the picture of it is so important to God.  It was never God's intention that marriage end in divorce, nor do I believe it was God's intention that man have more than one wife.  God created one man and one woman and gave them to each other.  There is no indication that Adam had any other wife.  God certainly never told Adam to take another and in Revelation we do not read the Brides and the Lamb.  It is Bride, singular.  When you begin to look throughout the geneology of Yeshua you can see that God had a definite plan and each time a man chose more than one wife, a problem arose that created a thorn in their flesh for centuries. 

Now my question for you, has the thing we have made of marriage caused our own demise, even within the church?  We take marriage so lightly and divorce so easily and we say we have Biblical grounds, but do we really?  Are we in today's time facing the grave consequences of these choices?  We hear almost no sermons on this topic from pulpits today.  Are pastors afraid of losing most of their congregations if they preach on the subject of divorce?  I know this is a touchy subject and probably many of you have been through a divorce.  I am not throwing stones and I am not judging.  Many of you were not the one who made that choice.  Three of my best friends are divorced and re-married.   All of us live in glass houses and believe me, I have plenty of other skeletons in my closet beside what I have already confessed.  I may go there at a later date, but God is not asking me to go to that closet yet!  Hallelujah!!! 

At this point I will have to delve into the commandments or as I have already taught on this segment, better known as the connections.  Look at Deuteronomy 27 and 28 with me.  The nation of Israel is about to go into the promised land at the helm of Joshua.  God, through the voice of Moses, is giving them instructions for their new life.  Moses has gone over the Torah with the people and he re-iterates the connections with them.  He sets before them the blessings and cursings connected with the Torah.  Blessed are those who observe, to perform all of His commandments and the blessings are spelled out in chapter 28 verses 3-13.  If they do not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God, to observe, to perform all His commandments and all His decrees then He names all the curses which will come upon them and overtake them.  Those curses are listed in chapter 28:16-68!  A much longer list. 

If you read back through the Torah you find that in Chapter 24 there is a passage referring to divorce and an allowance for it, but with great restrictions.  There are many interpretations by the great sages as to what these verses actually mean, but to qualify them completely we must look at the One who knows, the One who wrote the Torah, Yeshua.  He, alone was the Torah made flesh.  Read with me Mark 10:4-12  The Pharisees have approached Yeshua (Jesus) to test him and ask:
"They said, 'Moses made it permitted to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.'  Yeshua answered and said to them,
     On account of the hardness of your heart, he wrote this commandment for you.  But from the beginning of creation,, 'God created them male and female.  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.'  If so, they are not two any longer but one flesh.  Thus, what god has joined, a person shall not divide.'
In the house, his disciples came back to ask him about this.  He said to them, 'One who sends away his wife and takes another is an adulterer against her.  A woman who leaves her husband and goes to another man is an adulterer."

God did NOT desire or even condone divorce.  His will was for marriage to last a lifetime, because it was His picture of the future marriage of His Son.  What have we done to give the world a skewed vision of the marriage of Christ?  Are we constantly throwing the Spirit into the dirt for all the world to see?  Could we, the Church be living in the curses because we have been so disobedient to the connections (commandments)?  Now, you just wait a minute, you say.  We don't live under those laws any more.  We are New Testament.  We live under grace!  Yes we do!  We live under grace and the Children of Israel did as well.  Really?  Yes, but haven't we, as Gentiles, also been grafted in to the vine?  Then we are not exempt from the connections.  But we are no longer under the Law!  We are no longer under the Law (Torah)?  When did this take place?  At the crucifixion?  At the resurrection?  So, since we are under grace we are free to commit adultery?  And to take God's name in vain?  We are free to dishonor our parents also?  And to lie and steal and covet?  Well, that's news to me!   Is that really what Paul is talking about?  I believe we have misunderstood Paul's teaching on this matter, don't you?  Especially when you understand that each of the 10 Connections (commandments) are simply a heading for a section dealing with the 613 other connections. 

I am willing to bet you have never thought of it in that way before, have you?  Now go back to Deuteronomy 28 with me.  I am going to leave you with it.  My purpose, after all, is to make you think for yourself and to read deeper into the scripture than you have ever read before.  Go to that chapter and read it entirely.  The best reading for your understanding is to read it from the Torah getting the correct interpretation.
For those of you who do not have a Hebrew Torah or Tanach, you can read it online at the following:
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9992/showrashi/true

I have linked it to show Rashi's commentaries underneath the verses.  If you do not wish to see these, you may uncheck the box at the top of the reading and it will take them away.  This website is a wonderful Orthodox Jewish website with a treasure trove of information for you on every subject imaginable.  The verses I want you to really look at is 20 and 21.  Marriage is not the only thing we have taken lightly, but this parashat has given us a good place to start.  Perhaps this will cause us all to take a good long look at all the connections and to rid ourselves of the sin that we have allowed to creep into the Church and our own lives.  Perhaps we, like the children of Israel have decided we can pick and choose which connections to obey and discard.  Hashem (Lord God) says, "to perform all"  not some or any, but all!