Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:
Jeremiah 2:2: “Go and cry into the ears of Jerusalem and saying, Thus said the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in land that was not sown.”
After consulting George, my Greek teaching friend, my study partner and I were studying John 1:1 in the Greek and throwing rocks at the Jehovah Witnesses who translate the verse as: “The Word was a god.” As we pondered the grammatical reasons why this verse should be rendered: “The Word was God” I suddenly had an epiphany. I suddenly realized the importance of why John put the predicative nominative before the nominative (bet that really impressed you). I mean I knew this, you know this, we all know this, but do we really KNOW it.
If the later manuscripts are correct and the Jehovah Witnesses are right and this is really saying the Word was a god, then what you have is God the Father sitting up on His throne drinking his Mogen David wine while Jesus is being whipped and tortured and thinking: “OOO! I bet that really smarts.” But what John is saying is that the very essence and being of Jesus was God. That means that every whip lash was felt by God the Father. When the nails were driven into the hands of Jesus, God the Father felt that same pain exactly as Jesus felt it. When Jesus fell under the weight of the cross, the God who can juggle the earth and other planets like a circus troubadour fell under the weight of the cross. God loved us so much, He wanted to feel what we feel when we suffer. He wanted to know what it as like to cry out in pain as we do. He wanted to walk our road.
With that I look upon Jeremiah 2:2 with new respect. God’s love is pictured as a rejected lover remembering his beloved and her love during her espousal. The word in the Hebrew for espousal comes from the root word “kalah” which means a bride. He is remembering what it was like when Israel had practically nothing wandering in the wilderness and how Israel loved God loving her new husband during this time. Now that Israel has grown comfortable, rich, and no longer living on manna every day or needing that daily miracle, their love has grown cold and yet God remembers that time, He remembers and longs for that love again.
The thing we miss is in that word “remember.” What is God saying when He says that he “remembers?” The word in the Hebrew is “zacar.” It is spelled “Zayin, Kap, Resh.” I kind of wish I were in my office with my Daleth and Looking Glass so I could step behind and see what Zayin, Kap and Resh are up to. But soft, I hear someone calling my name. I am on the top floor of an assistant living building with my 99 year old client who is asleep, so he is not calling my name. It is coming from the porch and when I step out on the porch I meet Resh (which means top or head as in top floor). I meet Resh on the porch who is looking out over the town of Lombard. I know the Lilac Park is off to the South and the Lilacs are now in bloom. But it is dark out and I can not see the park. I try to remember what it looked like when my study partner and I visited the park the other day with the crazy idea of going to the park to study. As I tried to remember suddenly Zayin and Kap appear in formation with Resh to spell the word “remembrance.” “Yes,” I told Zacar, “I am trying to remember what the Lilacs, Tulips and other flowers were like but I can’t picture them.” Sadly, I stepped from the porch into the living room of my client, only it wasn’t his living room. I was in some sort of park, but certain not the Lilac Park in Lombard. This park was filled with weeds covered with thorns and thorn bushes. There were no colors, no beautiful flowers.
As I walked through these thorns, I knew I had passed through the “Looking Glass,” I was in Hebrew Esoteric Land and I called out to Zayin, Kap, and Resh: “Help me, these thorns, the shadows, the darkness it is so depressing.’ Suddenly, Zayin appeared. Zayin looks a little like a sword and one of it’s meanings is a sword. Zayin suddenly started slashing away at the thorns and thorn bushes clearing a path and allowing sunlight to come in. I looked at my hand and there is Kap resting in my palm. Actually Kap means “palm” as in the palm of the hand. Kap also means “heart.” I looked up and I saw Resh. Resh is shaped like a path that makes a sharp left turn. Resh is directing me to walk in a path where I can not see the end. However, Zayin immediately makes the turn and cuts away at the thorns. As I follow the path directed by Resh and made clean by Zayin, I suddenly come upon a beautiful Lilac Bush. Kap whispers to me: “It’s ok, take the Lilac into the palm of your hand.” As I did, I placed it over the Kap which also represents my heart. Suddenly when I pressed the Lilac into my heart, I found myself back on my client’s porch and it was sunny out and I could see off in the distance Lombard’s Lilac Park. Only now I could remember it’s beauty. Kap said: “You see it now because you have embraced into your heart. Zayin and Resh had to make the way for you to find the source for your remembrance.
As I stood on the porch with Zacar snuggled up to me I heard Zayin say; “You know I have another meaning, it is a binding with God.” Kap then said: “I too have another meaning, I represent God’s heart.” Then Resh said: “Remember too, that I represent the Holy Spirit.” Then Zacar said: When you think of God remembering you, think on our deeper meaning to remembrance which is: “God binding you to His heart through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
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