Post by R' Y'hoshua Moshe on Jul 28, 2007 10:34:17 GMT -8
Shalom chaverim,
The following is the d'rash/message from Oriyan, one of our
teachers at our synagogue. He will be sharing this message today (07-28-07)...Enjoy!
lesson on Parashah Va'etchanan[/center]
One of the most difficult aspects of having a relationship with God is knowing exactly what the nature of that relationship with God is. We often use metaphors such as king and servant or father and child, but in our culture, we often have skewed ideas of what those relationships are supposed to be. We have examples from history of kings and their subjects. Some of those relationships were positive, but most were not. Most subjects lived in fear of the king, and did what he said only because he said it, and to go against the king meant certain death. Many children, if they even have a father in their life to have a relationship with, often have similar relationships with their father based on fear, more than love. So do we even have, in our culture and human experience, an accurate picture of what our relationship with God is? I'm not sure. At least, not something everyone can relate to and understand.
Though we may lack a good model today to illustrate for us a proper relationship between us and God, we do have plenty of examples in God's Word, and one of the best comes from the writer of himself, Moshe. In Moshe, we see a man who had ties with both Israel and Egypt. He was an ordinary man, who lived an extraordinary life at the hand of God. He became a leader of God's people, not by his own choice, but by God's direction. Most importantly, I think, we see a man who on a regular basis communed with God Himself. He talked to God as though he were a close friend, and in one way or another God responded, often audibly. Moshe had many strengths, but his greatest one would have to be that he was a man who knew how to talk to God. This talking to God is what we call prayer.
Of all the aspects of my relationship with God, one of my greatest struggles has been, and continues to be, that of prayer. I have had periods of time when I have been convicted of the lack of good, consistent prayer in my life and I will start out setting aside time every day to devote to prayer. I pray about whatever I can think of to pray about. Sometimes I've even had prayer journals. It doesn't take long, however, for that prayer time to become dry. I pray about the same handful of things almost all the time, and it becomes little more than a ritual that I do before doing something else. Eventually I just stop doing it all together, until the next time conviction strikes. Sometimes some crisis will bring my attention to God as well.
Recently, however, I have been doing more studying and thinking about prayer. I've found out that I am not alone in my struggles, and I have learned a few things that have helped me, and I hope they will help you too. The first problem I see is a mindset we tend to get in when it comes to prayer. We have times set aside for prayer, which makes it a scheduled event, separate from our normal lives. We sometimes use prayer books to make sure we do it just right. Some people even have their own prayer language to further separate talking to God from any other kind of talking. Others use prayer shawls to aid in getting in the right mind to pray. In Israel, there is an entire wall devoted to prayer.
Now, I'm not saying any of these things are wrong. In fact, many of them are good. However, they can end up giving us a mindset concerning prayer, which isn't entirely what I see in Scripture. Whether it is Avraham, Moshe, David, or Yeshua Himself, I see one important concept when it comes to prayer. It is not merely coming up with a few eloquent praises to God followed by some sort of request or requests of certain areas of our life which could use God's help. It is the act of bringing your heart to God, and bearing it all to Him. Everything is put on the table, the good, bad, and ugly. We see David praising God for His wondrous works and being his refuge in times of trouble. We also see the anguished frustration of Iyov/Job who is tested by God and loses everything important to Him. This is similar to Moshe in this week's Parashah, who disagrees with God's decision not to let him into the Promised Land, and pleads with Him to allow him to go. This type of brutal honesty is rare between a servant and his or her master, but in the Bible we see mere humans struggling, wrestling, showing anger toward, and pleading with God for answers. Sometimes he responds with a harsh rebuke, and sometimes He doesn't seem to respond at all. God's own Son cries out from the execution stake, “Father, father, why have you forsaken me!” There is no answer.
God's response to our prayers is actually not the important part of our prayers. What is important is our honest communication to Him. When we are honest with God, we are honest with ourselves. When we go to Him with our heart, we acknowledge our relationship to and dependance on God. However, our requests are considered by God within the framework of a much larger plan, which we know nothing of. This is why the response may not be what we hope for or expect, but this does not mean we should not pray. Sometimes God's plan can allow for much more than we have, but He never gives it to us because we never come to Him asking for it. I have a toy of one of my children, which I have had for over a month now. I know he would probably like to have it, but I had hoped a while ago he would come to me asking about it. His lack of asking shows me perhaps he doesn't care about it that much. There were times when Yeshua would actually ask people if they wanted to be healed before He healed them. Why wouldn't a crippled man want to walk? Yet Yeshua still asks the question. By answering the question with the obvious “yes”, the person not only shows an interest in being healed, but an acknowledgment that Yeshua could, if He wanted to, actually perform the task.
This brings me back to this week's parashah. Moshe probably knew the response God would give him concerning entering the Promised Land. It appears the two of them have had this discussion more than once before. Moshe makes himself like the child who asks his or her parents one too many times if they can go to the ice cream store. “No! That is final! Stop asking me!” Now we read God's response and think, “Uh-oh Moshe overstepped his bounds and made God angry. He shouldn't have done that.” I'm not so sure that is right. He was being honest with God, and showed Him his true feelings, even if perhaps one too many times. God is not offended by Moshe's pleading, He is not hurt by Moshe's pleading, He just has the need to stop Moshe's train of thought in order to see a purpose which extends beyond himself. As long as his focus is on trying to convince God to allow him to go into the Promised Land, he is failing to see why Israel is being brought to the Promised Land without him. A harsh rebuke is required to make this happen, but the intimate bond of love between God and Moshe is untouched. If anything it is strengthened.
One of the reasons we may have a difficult time understanding this is the difficulties in conflict we experience in our human relationships. Gentiles, seem to have particular difficulty in handling conflict. If you have a room full of Jews and a room full of gentile Believers, both rooms will have much theological debate, however, generally speaking, everyone in the Jewish room will leave as friends. That is likely not going to be the case in the gentile room. Gentiles argue in order to prove their side and win the argument. Sometimes when it looks like someone might lose, emotions get personal, and at times violence can even erupt. Walls are built, and sometimes people have nothing to do with another person with whom they have had a disagreement with. Jews on the other hand argue in order to attempt to arrive at a greater truth. The object is not to win, but to sharpen one another. Ideas and viewpoints, even gripes can be shared without friendships or family ties being affected.
Some of us avoid conflict with other people, in order to avoid walls and rejection. If this is how we approach human relationships, then this is likely to carry over to our relationship with God. We become afraid of disagreeing with God or showing Him our true feelings about something, because we are afraid of offending God, creating conflict with God, or overstepping our position as God's servant. Though we have to do our best to maintain respect for God, at the same time we have to be honest with Him. If Moshe didn't care about the Promised Land or if he didn't love and respect God, he would not have gone to God with his frustrations. His wrestling with God was a healthy part of his relationship with God. Give God the mud of your life, He will use it to help you see a better way in His plan, the same way Yeshua used mud to help blind men see.
Have you ever noticed that when people are forced to endure a difficult situation together, they bond in ways that more relaxed and enjoyable situations will never do? Life is hard, and full of trials and tribulations. Life also has its good times as well. Having a sincere relationship with God, built on honesty and truth reqires acknowledging both to yourself and to God that He has made both the good and the bad. The same God who leads us to green pastures also leads us to dark valleys. The good news is He is there in both places to get you through it. Yeshua is called, “Emmanuel”, which is God with us. However, if He is to go with you, you must go with Him.
Yeshua's main qualification for His talmidim/disciples was simply to follow Him. They had many questions and difficulties in trying to understand the ways of their sometimes unorthodox rabbi. There were times he got frustrated with them and had to rebuke them for their sheer stupidity. He asked seemingly impossible things of them such as feeding 5,000 people with three loaves and two fish. They expressed their confusion in his requests, and He would more or less just tell them to do what He said. What an almost impossible task Yeshua, the Son of God, had in attempting to teach mere mortal, sinful, humans His truth, character, and Kingdom promises. However, through much patience, debate, frustration, correction, all guided by His unending love for them, this ragtag group of Jewish men eventually understood and became the pillars of the early body of Messiah. What we know of Yeshua and His salvation comes from them, in the same way that what we know of comes to us through the Moshe. Certainly, as we talk to God, there has to be a sense of respect for who we are talking to. He is more than our buddy. However, being afraid to be open with our feelings is not what He desires either. Our world is filled with all kinds of fascinating and wonderful things which God has made for His glory and honor. As we are able to witness these things, it is important to give sincere praise to God for the wonders His hands have made. The affects of sin surround us constantly as well. It is important for God's people to be in earnest prayer concerning these aspects of life. Our hearts and minds become filled with the best and worst of emotions. We are to cast our anxieties on Adonai, for He loves us. We never know what the outcome of our prayers will be, but through prayer, whatever the outcome is, we join God in the work He is doing. Through prayer, we connect ourselves with the source of all Creation. With Him, all things are possible. With Him, we are never alone. With Him, the darkest situations can be made bright.
There is nothing magical about prayer. It involves ordinary people, speaking ordinary words, in the midst of ordinary situations, but to an extraordinary God. He is the one who answers the prayers in sometimes wonderful, unexpected, and miraculous ways.
Prayer is less an activity, and more a lifestyle. It involves the whole way in which we live our lives. Scripture teaches us to be in continual prayer, something I still don't fully understand and am only beginning to know how to apply to my life. However, I don't believe that what the verse means is that we are to live in a monastery and spend our whole lives on our knees in meditative prayer. Prayer must then be something we do as we go about our daily lives. I think the more we learn to walk in the footsteps of, and the more we learn to walk in communion with God, sharing all aspects of ourselves with Him, the more we will learn what living in constant prayer is all about.
The following is the d'rash/message from Oriyan, one of our
teachers at our synagogue. He will be sharing this message today (07-28-07)...Enjoy!Pleading with God
[/u]lesson on Parashah Va'etchanan[/center]
One of the most difficult aspects of having a relationship with God is knowing exactly what the nature of that relationship with God is. We often use metaphors such as king and servant or father and child, but in our culture, we often have skewed ideas of what those relationships are supposed to be. We have examples from history of kings and their subjects. Some of those relationships were positive, but most were not. Most subjects lived in fear of the king, and did what he said only because he said it, and to go against the king meant certain death. Many children, if they even have a father in their life to have a relationship with, often have similar relationships with their father based on fear, more than love. So do we even have, in our culture and human experience, an accurate picture of what our relationship with God is? I'm not sure. At least, not something everyone can relate to and understand.
Though we may lack a good model today to illustrate for us a proper relationship between us and God, we do have plenty of examples in God's Word, and one of the best comes from the writer of
himself, Moshe. In Moshe, we see a man who had ties with both Israel and Egypt. He was an ordinary man, who lived an extraordinary life at the hand of God. He became a leader of God's people, not by his own choice, but by God's direction. Most importantly, I think, we see a man who on a regular basis communed with God Himself. He talked to God as though he were a close friend, and in one way or another God responded, often audibly. Moshe had many strengths, but his greatest one would have to be that he was a man who knew how to talk to God. This talking to God is what we call prayer.Of all the aspects of my relationship with God, one of my greatest struggles has been, and continues to be, that of prayer. I have had periods of time when I have been convicted of the lack of good, consistent prayer in my life and I will start out setting aside time every day to devote to prayer. I pray about whatever I can think of to pray about. Sometimes I've even had prayer journals. It doesn't take long, however, for that prayer time to become dry. I pray about the same handful of things almost all the time, and it becomes little more than a ritual that I do before doing something else. Eventually I just stop doing it all together, until the next time conviction strikes. Sometimes some crisis will bring my attention to God as well.
Recently, however, I have been doing more studying and thinking about prayer. I've found out that I am not alone in my struggles, and I have learned a few things that have helped me, and I hope they will help you too. The first problem I see is a mindset we tend to get in when it comes to prayer. We have times set aside for prayer, which makes it a scheduled event, separate from our normal lives. We sometimes use prayer books to make sure we do it just right. Some people even have their own prayer language to further separate talking to God from any other kind of talking. Others use prayer shawls to aid in getting in the right mind to pray. In Israel, there is an entire wall devoted to prayer.
Now, I'm not saying any of these things are wrong. In fact, many of them are good. However, they can end up giving us a mindset concerning prayer, which isn't entirely what I see in Scripture. Whether it is Avraham, Moshe, David, or Yeshua Himself, I see one important concept when it comes to prayer. It is not merely coming up with a few eloquent praises to God followed by some sort of request or requests of certain areas of our life which could use God's help. It is the act of bringing your heart to God, and bearing it all to Him. Everything is put on the table, the good, bad, and ugly. We see David praising God for His wondrous works and being his refuge in times of trouble. We also see the anguished frustration of Iyov/Job who is tested by God and loses everything important to Him. This is similar to Moshe in this week's Parashah, who disagrees with God's decision not to let him into the Promised Land, and pleads with Him to allow him to go. This type of brutal honesty is rare between a servant and his or her master, but in the Bible we see mere humans struggling, wrestling, showing anger toward, and pleading with God for answers. Sometimes he responds with a harsh rebuke, and sometimes He doesn't seem to respond at all. God's own Son cries out from the execution stake, “Father, father, why have you forsaken me!” There is no answer.
God's response to our prayers is actually not the important part of our prayers. What is important is our honest communication to Him. When we are honest with God, we are honest with ourselves. When we go to Him with our heart, we acknowledge our relationship to and dependance on God. However, our requests are considered by God within the framework of a much larger plan, which we know nothing of. This is why the response may not be what we hope for or expect, but this does not mean we should not pray. Sometimes God's plan can allow for much more than we have, but He never gives it to us because we never come to Him asking for it. I have a toy of one of my children, which I have had for over a month now. I know he would probably like to have it, but I had hoped a while ago he would come to me asking about it. His lack of asking shows me perhaps he doesn't care about it that much. There were times when Yeshua would actually ask people if they wanted to be healed before He healed them. Why wouldn't a crippled man want to walk? Yet Yeshua still asks the question. By answering the question with the obvious “yes”, the person not only shows an interest in being healed, but an acknowledgment that Yeshua could, if He wanted to, actually perform the task.
This brings me back to this week's parashah. Moshe probably knew the response God would give him concerning entering the Promised Land. It appears the two of them have had this discussion more than once before. Moshe makes himself like the child who asks his or her parents one too many times if they can go to the ice cream store. “No! That is final! Stop asking me!” Now we read God's response and think, “Uh-oh Moshe overstepped his bounds and made God angry. He shouldn't have done that.” I'm not so sure that is right. He was being honest with God, and showed Him his true feelings, even if perhaps one too many times. God is not offended by Moshe's pleading, He is not hurt by Moshe's pleading, He just has the need to stop Moshe's train of thought in order to see a purpose which extends beyond himself. As long as his focus is on trying to convince God to allow him to go into the Promised Land, he is failing to see why Israel is being brought to the Promised Land without him. A harsh rebuke is required to make this happen, but the intimate bond of love between God and Moshe is untouched. If anything it is strengthened.
One of the reasons we may have a difficult time understanding this is the difficulties in conflict we experience in our human relationships. Gentiles, seem to have particular difficulty in handling conflict. If you have a room full of Jews and a room full of gentile Believers, both rooms will have much theological debate, however, generally speaking, everyone in the Jewish room will leave as friends. That is likely not going to be the case in the gentile room. Gentiles argue in order to prove their side and win the argument. Sometimes when it looks like someone might lose, emotions get personal, and at times violence can even erupt. Walls are built, and sometimes people have nothing to do with another person with whom they have had a disagreement with. Jews on the other hand argue in order to attempt to arrive at a greater truth. The object is not to win, but to sharpen one another. Ideas and viewpoints, even gripes can be shared without friendships or family ties being affected.
Some of us avoid conflict with other people, in order to avoid walls and rejection. If this is how we approach human relationships, then this is likely to carry over to our relationship with God. We become afraid of disagreeing with God or showing Him our true feelings about something, because we are afraid of offending God, creating conflict with God, or overstepping our position as God's servant. Though we have to do our best to maintain respect for God, at the same time we have to be honest with Him. If Moshe didn't care about the Promised Land or if he didn't love and respect God, he would not have gone to God with his frustrations. His wrestling with God was a healthy part of his relationship with God. Give God the mud of your life, He will use it to help you see a better way in His plan, the same way Yeshua used mud to help blind men see.
Have you ever noticed that when people are forced to endure a difficult situation together, they bond in ways that more relaxed and enjoyable situations will never do? Life is hard, and full of trials and tribulations. Life also has its good times as well. Having a sincere relationship with God, built on honesty and truth reqires acknowledging both to yourself and to God that He has made both the good and the bad. The same God who leads us to green pastures also leads us to dark valleys. The good news is He is there in both places to get you through it. Yeshua is called, “Emmanuel”, which is God with us. However, if He is to go with you, you must go with Him.
Yeshua's main qualification for His talmidim/disciples was simply to follow Him. They had many questions and difficulties in trying to understand the ways of their sometimes unorthodox rabbi. There were times he got frustrated with them and had to rebuke them for their sheer stupidity. He asked seemingly impossible things of them such as feeding 5,000 people with three loaves and two fish. They expressed their confusion in his requests, and He would more or less just tell them to do what He said. What an almost impossible task Yeshua, the Son of God, had in attempting to teach mere mortal, sinful, humans His truth, character, and Kingdom promises. However, through much patience, debate, frustration, correction, all guided by His unending love for them, this ragtag group of Jewish men eventually understood and became the pillars of the early body of Messiah. What we know of Yeshua and His salvation comes from them, in the same way that what we know of
comes to us through the Moshe. Certainly, as we talk to God, there has to be a sense of respect for who we are talking to. He is more than our buddy. However, being afraid to be open with our feelings is not what He desires either. Our world is filled with all kinds of fascinating and wonderful things which God has made for His glory and honor. As we are able to witness these things, it is important to give sincere praise to God for the wonders His hands have made. The affects of sin surround us constantly as well. It is important for God's people to be in earnest prayer concerning these aspects of life. Our hearts and minds become filled with the best and worst of emotions. We are to cast our anxieties on Adonai, for He loves us. We never know what the outcome of our prayers will be, but through prayer, whatever the outcome is, we join God in the work He is doing. Through prayer, we connect ourselves with the source of all Creation. With Him, all things are possible. With Him, we are never alone. With Him, the darkest situations can be made bright. There is nothing magical about prayer. It involves ordinary people, speaking ordinary words, in the midst of ordinary situations, but to an extraordinary God. He is the one who answers the prayers in sometimes wonderful, unexpected, and miraculous ways.
Prayer is less an activity, and more a lifestyle. It involves the whole way in which we live our lives. Scripture teaches us to be in continual prayer, something I still don't fully understand and am only beginning to know how to apply to my life. However, I don't believe that what the verse means is that we are to live in a monastery and spend our whole lives on our knees in meditative prayer. Prayer must then be something we do as we go about our daily lives. I think the more we learn to walk in the footsteps of
, and the more we learn to walk in communion with God, sharing all aspects of ourselves with Him, the more we will learn what living in constant prayer is all about. 
