Post by alon on Jun 13, 2019 15:23:07 GMT -8
The Three Primary Manifestations of God in the New Testament
This week is an adjustment, a sort of a free week when I can write about what I want. This happened because Mark and I got ahead of ourselves with the par'shot, and I posted ahead.
We’ve talked about this before, and I shared the midrash to Psalm 91. But I wanted to expand on the three primary manifestations of HaShem, giving some biblical backing. I want to stay away from the tangible, or incarnate examples such as Christophanies and develop a more etherial proof.
Just how is it we can get God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (in addition to all the other manifestations of God in both the New, and especially the Old Testaments) from One God? If these are not in the TNK, then they are completely invalid in the Brith Chadashah, as it is a biblical principle that the old informs the new. Messiah Himself came not to change either
or the prophets:
Matthew 5:17 (NASB) “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Thayer’s Greek Dictionary: abolish- STRONGS NT 2647: καταλύω; to dissolve, disunite
a. (what has been joined together) equivalent to to destroy, demolish: ( throw down)
b. metaphorically, to overthrow, i. e. to render vain, to deprive of success, to bring to naught; to subvert, overthrow: As in classical Greek from Herodotus down, of institutions, forms of government, laws, etc., to deprive of force, annul, abrogate, discard:
c. of travelers, to halt on [or interrupt] a journey, to put up, lodge (the figurative expression originating in the circumstance that, to put up for the night, the straps and packs of the beasts of burden are unbound and taken off; or, perhaps more correctly, from the fact that the traveler's garments, tied up when he is on the journey, are unloosed at its end;
So that term has connotations of interrupting, of subverting; change one part of and the whole is nullified, or at least weakened. HaShem does not change, and if man can change His word then all is for naught:
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Therefore His besorah (His message of good news) nor the things built upon it, the Kethuvim shel Shaliachim, or Apostolic Writings can contain anything new. So let’s take a look:
Psalm 54:1 (NASB) Save me, O God, by Your שִׁם shem, name,
And vindicate [judge] me by Your power.
“Save me, O God, by thy name שִׁם shem.” Because of the poetic contrivance of parallelism we see here the name of God itself as having power. In fact, in ancient Hebraic thinking the name of God is like a manifestation of God Himself:
John 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Yochanon tells us, in point of fact that the Word of God itself is manifest physically in Yeshua. If someone bings a word, or a message in the name of someone else, it is as though that person is speaking. Therefore we can think of the word of HaShem as the name of HaShem, and we can easily arrive at a physical manifestation of God Himself. So we do have the Word projected into the Brith Chadashah. Neither is the Ruach HaKodesh a New Testament invention. Just one of the many places we see it stated:
Psalm 51:11 (NASB) Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take רוח קדשך Ruach Kodeshcha, Your Holy Spirit from me.
Again, look at the parallel here: “Do not cast me away from Your presence, do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” This, again shows God’s closeness, His presence with us through His Spirit. God is very close in the Hebrew TNK, and He manifests Himself through His Ruach.
In Isaiah 63:11, the Hebrew people lament “Where is He who put His ר֣וּחַ קָדְשׁ֑וַ Ruach Qadsho Holy Spirit in the midst of them.”
The Holy Spirit is very active all through the TNK, just like in the Brith Chadashah. God’s closeness through the Holy Spirit is very much a Hebrew concept.
God is enthroned in heaven and has dominion over the cosmos. So God is here with us, but at the same time has an all-encompassing influence in the heavens:
Psalm 115:2-3 (NASB) Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”
But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
He is very close, manifesting as the Ruach HaQodesh, and He came as the Word made flesh, but He lives in the heavens. He is all powerful, able to manifest Himself any way it pleases Him. Rabbinical Judaism has a real problem here. This is why the sages said HaShem could sit on the Mercy Seat yet still fill the universe with His presence:
midrash to Psalm 91 it is written, “At [the moment that Moses finished building the Tabernacle], a great question arose: How could a Tabernacle with walls and curtains contain the Presence of the Almighty? The Master of the Universe Himself explained, ‘The entire world cannot contain My glory, yet when I wish, I can concentrate My entire essence into one small spot. Indeed, I am Most High, yet I sit in a [limited, constricted] refuge – in the shadow of the Tabernacle.’"
It is how He manifest Himself physically in so many ways in the TNK. And it is how He could manifest Himself in the form of a Man/God for 33 yrs; die, rise again, then ascend to the heavens!
John 16:7 (NASB) But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
That Helper is the Ruach. And it doesn’t say the Helper cannot come, but that He will not come. “He*does*whatever*He*pleases!” And He is always here with His own, yet always “in the heavens,” metaphorically (so we can understand the relationship) as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Psalm 123:1 (NASB) To You I lift up my eyes,
O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
[From my notes.]
This week is an adjustment, a sort of a free week when I can write about what I want. This happened because Mark and I got ahead of ourselves with the par'shot, and I posted ahead.
We’ve talked about this before, and I shared the midrash to Psalm 91. But I wanted to expand on the three primary manifestations of HaShem, giving some biblical backing. I want to stay away from the tangible, or incarnate examples such as Christophanies and develop a more etherial proof.
Just how is it we can get God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (in addition to all the other manifestations of God in both the New, and especially the Old Testaments) from One God? If these are not in the TNK, then they are completely invalid in the Brith Chadashah, as it is a biblical principle that the old informs the new. Messiah Himself came not to change either
or the prophets:Matthew 5:17 (NASB) “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Thayer’s Greek Dictionary: abolish- STRONGS NT 2647: καταλύω; to dissolve, disunite
a. (what has been joined together) equivalent to to destroy, demolish: ( throw down)
b. metaphorically, to overthrow, i. e. to render vain, to deprive of success, to bring to naught; to subvert, overthrow: As in classical Greek from Herodotus down, of institutions, forms of government, laws, etc., to deprive of force, annul, abrogate, discard:
c. of travelers, to halt on [or interrupt] a journey, to put up, lodge (the figurative expression originating in the circumstance that, to put up for the night, the straps and packs of the beasts of burden are unbound and taken off; or, perhaps more correctly, from the fact that the traveler's garments, tied up when he is on the journey, are unloosed at its end;
So that term has connotations of interrupting, of subverting; change one part of
and the whole is nullified, or at least weakened. HaShem does not change, and if man can change His word then all is for naught:Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Therefore His besorah (His message of good news) nor the things built upon it, the Kethuvim shel Shaliachim, or Apostolic Writings can contain anything new. So let’s take a look:
Psalm 54:1 (NASB) Save me, O God, by Your שִׁם shem, name,
And vindicate [judge] me by Your power.
“Save me, O God, by thy name שִׁם shem.” Because of the poetic contrivance of parallelism we see here the name of God itself as having power. In fact, in ancient Hebraic thinking the name of God is like a manifestation of God Himself:
John 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Yochanon tells us, in point of fact that the Word of God itself is manifest physically in Yeshua. If someone bings a word, or a message in the name of someone else, it is as though that person is speaking. Therefore we can think of the word of HaShem as the name of HaShem, and we can easily arrive at a physical manifestation of God Himself. So we do have the Word projected into the Brith Chadashah. Neither is the Ruach HaKodesh a New Testament invention. Just one of the many places we see it stated:
Psalm 51:11 (NASB) Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take רוח קדשך Ruach Kodeshcha, Your Holy Spirit from me.
Again, look at the parallel here: “Do not cast me away from Your presence, do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” This, again shows God’s closeness, His presence with us through His Spirit. God is very close in the Hebrew TNK, and He manifests Himself through His Ruach.
In Isaiah 63:11, the Hebrew people lament “Where is He who put His ר֣וּחַ קָדְשׁ֑וַ Ruach Qadsho Holy Spirit in the midst of them.”
The Holy Spirit is very active all through the TNK, just like in the Brith Chadashah. God’s closeness through the Holy Spirit is very much a Hebrew concept.
God is enthroned in heaven and has dominion over the cosmos. So God is here with us, but at the same time has an all-encompassing influence in the heavens:
Psalm 115:2-3 (NASB) Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”
But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
He is very close, manifesting as the Ruach HaQodesh, and He came as the Word made flesh, but He lives in the heavens. He is all powerful, able to manifest Himself any way it pleases Him. Rabbinical Judaism has a real problem here. This is why the sages said HaShem could sit on the Mercy Seat yet still fill the universe with His presence:
midrash to Psalm 91 it is written, “At [the moment that Moses finished building the Tabernacle], a great question arose: How could a Tabernacle with walls and curtains contain the Presence of the Almighty? The Master of the Universe Himself explained, ‘The entire world cannot contain My glory, yet when I wish, I can concentrate My entire essence into one small spot. Indeed, I am Most High, yet I sit in a [limited, constricted] refuge – in the shadow of the Tabernacle.’"
It is how He manifest Himself physically in so many ways in the TNK. And it is how He could manifest Himself in the form of a Man/God for 33 yrs; die, rise again, then ascend to the heavens!
John 16:7 (NASB) But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
That Helper is the Ruach. And it doesn’t say the Helper cannot come, but that He will not come. “He*does*whatever*He*pleases!” And He is always here with His own, yet always “in the heavens,” metaphorically (so we can understand the relationship) as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Psalm 123:1 (NASB) To You I lift up my eyes,
O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
[From my notes.]
