Post by Mark on Dec 14, 2007 4:56:30 GMT -8
Grabbing God's Heart
The
reading this week is on the tearful reunion of Joseph, his father and beloved younger brother. It is an amazing scene. It is a literal picture of the resurrection, "my son that was once dead is now alive." Messiah ben Joseph in traditional Judaism is understood to be that of the "suffering servant". Yet, his end, his final position is that of highest honor and royalty. This is suffering? Yet, the suffering is not only a physical state.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
(Mat 23:37 KJV)
When Joseph hung on his brother's neck, he wasn't laughing. He was sobbing uncontrolably. Was this form the sense of loss of the time that they had been apart? Was it the release of pent up sorrows that they could not permit themselves to express until now? Was it anger? Was it sadness? Was it hurt? Was it simply joy? When someone is crying bitterly, it's a reasonable question to ask "What emotion are you feeling?" Yet, such a question could never be answered. Generally, there's an emotional soup of every passion mixed together which brings such tears.
The rabbis compared the "falling on the neck" to entering into the Temple for worship. The neck is the go-between of body and brain. The neck is the most vulnerable place of the body. IN the same way, our worship is something that is to be protected and reverenced as that which is vital and relevant. In our emotional distress, our passionate releases, where should we take them but to worship, before the throne of Adonai.
When the young Pharaoh met with Israel, he leaned down from his throne in amazement and asked him, "How old are you?" It's played in my mind that he asked the question in such a way so as to believe that if he could ascertain this information, then he would truly know how old dirt really must be." Israel smiled graciously and responded, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are few and full of trouble..." translated in a normal venacular, "I'm not as old as I look... only 130 years old." Remembering Israel's last discussion with Laban, his early life weathered his face with wind and sun. Later his face was weathered by grief. He most likely looked about as old as dirt.
Yet, the word that I hang on each time I come across this reading is the word "pilgrimage." This is how Israel saw his life and the lives of his fathers. This existance of mortal flesh is not the substance of our reality; but a journey: a pilgrimage to a new home, a kingdom not made with hands.
One day, we'll shed this husk of skin and leave the famine of the land behind us. We will be called home by our Messiah, who has declared to us that His is Regent over all the land and has made provision for us. We will fall on His neck and He will fall on ours and we will weep bitterly for all the reasons and in all the emotions that come up as confusion, loss and indignity. We will release every burden and every care and He will demonstrate His forgiveness and love toward us and He will bring us in and care for us.
It is important that we see our life as a pilgrimage, not as the substance of our being. There is a hope that yet there is for us a resurrection of the dead. I would invite you to spend some time worshipping Adonai our God in meditating on the words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 15. Stay tuned. More to come. Our faith is not about history but about the present and future of our lives.
The
reading this week is on the tearful reunion of Joseph, his father and beloved younger brother. It is an amazing scene. It is a literal picture of the resurrection, "my son that was once dead is now alive." Messiah ben Joseph in traditional Judaism is understood to be that of the "suffering servant". Yet, his end, his final position is that of highest honor and royalty. This is suffering? Yet, the suffering is not only a physical state.O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
(Mat 23:37 KJV)
When Joseph hung on his brother's neck, he wasn't laughing. He was sobbing uncontrolably. Was this form the sense of loss of the time that they had been apart? Was it the release of pent up sorrows that they could not permit themselves to express until now? Was it anger? Was it sadness? Was it hurt? Was it simply joy? When someone is crying bitterly, it's a reasonable question to ask "What emotion are you feeling?" Yet, such a question could never be answered. Generally, there's an emotional soup of every passion mixed together which brings such tears.
The rabbis compared the "falling on the neck" to entering into the Temple for worship. The neck is the go-between of body and brain. The neck is the most vulnerable place of the body. IN the same way, our worship is something that is to be protected and reverenced as that which is vital and relevant. In our emotional distress, our passionate releases, where should we take them but to worship, before the throne of Adonai.
When the young Pharaoh met with Israel, he leaned down from his throne in amazement and asked him, "How old are you?" It's played in my mind that he asked the question in such a way so as to believe that if he could ascertain this information, then he would truly know how old dirt really must be." Israel smiled graciously and responded, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are few and full of trouble..." translated in a normal venacular, "I'm not as old as I look... only 130 years old." Remembering Israel's last discussion with Laban, his early life weathered his face with wind and sun. Later his face was weathered by grief. He most likely looked about as old as dirt.
Yet, the word that I hang on each time I come across this reading is the word "pilgrimage." This is how Israel saw his life and the lives of his fathers. This existance of mortal flesh is not the substance of our reality; but a journey: a pilgrimage to a new home, a kingdom not made with hands.
One day, we'll shed this husk of skin and leave the famine of the land behind us. We will be called home by our Messiah, who has declared to us that His is Regent over all the land and has made provision for us. We will fall on His neck and He will fall on ours and we will weep bitterly for all the reasons and in all the emotions that come up as confusion, loss and indignity. We will release every burden and every care and He will demonstrate His forgiveness and love toward us and He will bring us in and care for us.
It is important that we see our life as a pilgrimage, not as the substance of our being. There is a hope that yet there is for us a resurrection of the dead. I would invite you to spend some time worshipping Adonai our God in meditating on the words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 15. Stay tuned. More to come. Our faith is not about history but about the present and future of our lives.
