Jesus & the Law – on God & YHWH … (12/04/18)
There are number of Old Testament laws that dealt directly with honoring God1 – believing wholeheartedly that He2 & He alone exists (see Exodus 20:2-3 & Deuteronomy 5:6), revering His name (see Leviticus 22:32) and refusing to blaspheme or take that name in vain (see Exodus 22:28, Leviticus 19:12, & Leviticus 24:16); cherishing Him internally with one’s entire being (see Deuteronomy 6:4-6), worshiping Him externally with all of one’s will & passion (see Deuteronomy 6:13, Deuteronomy 10:20, & Deuteronomy 13:4), refusing to challenge His authority (see Deuteronomy 6:16), and willingly keeping His edicts and steadfastly imitating His ways (see Deuteronomy 28:9). It goes almost without saying that these were some of the more revered edicts in the Hebrew Bible in Jesus’ day, and it bears noting that Jesus – radical reformer though he was – not only refused to amend these commandments, but repeatedly and vehemently championed them.3 That having been duly noted, just because Jesus adamantly abided by these laws does not mean he wasn’t true to his role as a bold reformer in relation to them. For even though he did indeed choose to honor God devoutly throughout his ministry, the heavenly “Father” he chose to honor was quite different from the God honored by his more traditional Jewish compatriots; a God of harsh wrath4 and a dispenser of stern judgment5 – a God to be coddled as much as worshiped – a God to be feared as much as respected.6
Indeed, in stark contrast to the aforementioned “Lord” of anger & condemnation, Jesus spoke repeatedly of a “Father in Heaven” who was gentle and kind – a God who was the essence of a perfect Love that knew neither fear nor punishment (see Matthew 5:39-48 + 1 John 4:187); a God whose mercy was pure (see Luke 6:27-36 + Luke 10:29-378) and whose forgiveness was given to all without bound or limit (see Matthew 18:21-229); a God who was more familiar friend than oppressive overlord (see Mark 14:3610); a God who resided within human hearts as much as He did above their heads (see John 14:10-26).11
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then at least believe me because of the works themselves … And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees It nor knows It. And yet you know Him because He abides with you and lives within you … In a little while the world will no longer see me, and yet you will still see me … And on that day you will understand that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 14:10-20)
…………………………………………………….
1 It bears noting that all references made to “God” in this tome refer to either YHWH or Adonai (written as “LORD” from Genesis 1:1 through Exodus 3:14 in many English biblical translations) not the Elohim (identified as “God” in those same passages). It is a little known probability that there were actually two competing celestial forces at work in the earliest books of the Bible; the former representing the divine essence most know as God, and the latter illustrating the often less-than-moral desires & deeds of “fallen angels” merely posing as the same.
2 In harmony with the blatantly patriarchal language of the ancient texts, I too will refer to God via masculine pronouns herein – pronouns which even Jesus employed during his sermons & teachings (see the 120+ times he refers to God as his “Father” in the Gospels). That having been said, it is worth mentioning that God is not exclusively male in the ancient manuscripts, with the Divine having a distinctly feminine essence (at least in part) in Genesis 1:27 & Deuteronomy 32:18, with the Greek term for the Holy Spirit (pneuma, Strong’s #4151) being distinctly gender-neutral in John 14:26 (also John 15:26 & John 16:13-14 et al), and with Jesus repeatedly honoring “the Father which is in Heaven” (not “who is in Heaven” – see Matthew 5:16, Matthew 5:45-48, Matthew 6:1-9, & Matthew 6:18 et al).
3 see Mark 10:18, Matthew 19:17, & Luke 18:19 (“Why do you call me good? No one is truly good but God alone.”) – also Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, & Luke 10:27 (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”) – as well as John 12:28 (“Father, [let me] glorify your name”), John 12:44 (“Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in Him who sent me ”), and John 15:26 (“When the Advocate comes – the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, He will testify on my behalf ”) etc etc etc …
4 see Exodus 32:10 (“Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot and I might consume them”), Leviticus 26:25 (“I will bring the sword against you, executing great vengeance for the covenant”), Numbers 11:1, Numbers 32:13, Deuteronomy 31:17, Deuteronomy 32:35-41 (“Vengeance is mine … because the day of their calamity is at hand; their doom will come swiftly”), 2 Kings 23:25-27, Job 4:9, Psalm 7:11, Psalm 78:59, Psalm 99:8, Isaiah 1:24, Isaiah 13:13, Isaiah 47:3, Isaiah 59:17, Isaiah 63:14, Jeremiah 5:29, Jeremiah 46:10, Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:56, Lamentations 2:2, Ezekiel 7:8, Ezekiel 8:18, Ezekiel 22:31, Ezekiel 25:17, Micah 5:15, Nahum 1:2, and Habakkuk 3:12 et al
5 see Exodus 20:5 (“for I the Lord your God am a jealous God; punishing children for the iniquities of their parents”), Leviticus 20, Leviticus 26:14-39, Deuteronomy 5:9, Joshua 7:11-12, 2 Kings 17, Job 36:17, Psalm 34:21-22, Psalm 37:38, Psalm 75:6-7, Psalm 99:8, Psalm 109:7, Proverbs 11:21, Proverbs 12:2, Ecclesiastes 12:14, Isaiah 13:11, Isaiah 26:21, Isaiah 59:18, Jeremiah 21:14, Jeremiah 31:39-30, Ezekiel 18, Amos 3:14, Nahum 1:3, and Zephaniah 1:12 et al – in intriguing contrast with Isaiah 55:7 & Jeremiah 31:31-34 et al
6 While it is true that the Hebrew word yare (Strong’s #3372) did mean “to revere in awe” (see Exodus 20:20) as much as it meant “to fear”, it is just as true that it was not the Hebrew aheb (Strong’s #157), a word which meant “to love” (a la Deuteronomy 6:5-6) – see Deuteronomy 6:24 (“Then the Lord commanded us to observe all the statutes, to fear [Him] our God for our lasting good”), Deuteronomy 14:23, Joshua 24:14, Psalm 31:9, Psalm 147:11, Proverbs 9:10, Job 28:28, Nehemiah 1:11, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Isaiah 33:6, Malachi 4:2, & Zephaniah 3:7 et al – in contrast with Isaiah 41:10
7Biblical literalists would do well to NOTE that the “algebraic” combination of these two passages not only proves God’s Love to be limitless, but also completely disavows the existence of Hell as it is traditionally known – see Matthew 5:44-48’s “Be perfect [with your Love] just as [the Love of] your heavenly Father is perfect” alongside 1 John 4:18’s “perfect Love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in Love.”
8NOTE not only that Luke 6:35-36 makes it explicitly clear that God’s mercy is boundless – given to friend and enemy alike (“Love your enemies; do good and give to others while expecting nothing in return. [If you do so] your reward will be great, and you will be considered Children of the Most High; for He is just as kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ”), but also that Luke 10:29-37 makes exactly the same point with symbolism that is equally potent – making the hero of its tale a Samaritan (a cultural enemy of the Jews in ancient times) who “showed mercy” (something that can only be given to one who has wronged us).
9While seemingly innocuous at first glance, this passage is deeply profound when examined in greater depth. For the number of forgiveness – “70 x 7 times” – mentioned therein is significant for at least two reasons – 01) because the only other time it is found in the Bible (Genesis 4:24) it refers to the vengeance that will be visited upon a wrongdoer (providing yet another example of how thoroughly Jesus was in challenging the accepted interpretations of the Law), and 02) because numbers had intentional meaning for the authors of the ancient manuscripts – with “seven” being the Jewish number for completeness, and “seventy” referring directly to the 70 nations of humanity mentioned in Genesis 10. As such, Matthew 18:21-22 does not encourage forgiving others “a lot”, but rather in-Courages all to forgive as Jesus’ heavenly Father forgives – perfectly: forgiving every offender and doing so fully, without any limit or condition.
10Though this is the only time in the New Testament that we see Jesus refer to God as “Abba” (what some scholars believe was an Aramaic term of intimate affection), the Gospels are interlaced with instances where Jesus speaks to his heavenly Father both directly and personally (see Matthew 11:25-26, Matthew 26:39-42, Luke 10:21, Luke 22:41-44, Luke 23:34, Luke 23:46, John 11:41-42, John 12:27-28, & all of John 17 et al).
11See 1 John 4:16’s “God is Love, and all those who abide in Love abide in God, and God abides in them” – also John 6:45’s “and they shall all be taught by God”, along with the texts of John 16:12-15 & John 16:25 …
;