WORD STUDY – DISCERNMENT
Deuteronomy 16:18-19 “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.” (19) “Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.”
I hear Christians all the time talking about living in the last days or that the day is quickly approaching where there will be some sort of catastrophe and our food supply and water will be shut off. They are actively preparing for such an event by storing up dried foods and water. Some are even arming themselves. I am not condemning this but I am suggesting that we consider something much more important to prepare ourselves if such an event were to take place and that is developing good spiritual judgment, discernment or as it says in the Hebrew shaphat.
We recognize the word shaphat because it is found at the end of the names of many Biblical leaders such as Jehoshaphat. All these phat boys had one thing in common, they were known to be judges or to use good judgement or discernment in their leadership. The word shaphat of course means judgment. It is a legal term and is used most often for legal matters and making a decision in such legal matters. However, the word is not exclusive to legal matters. It basically has the idea of making a determination through use of discernment.
So how does shaphat cross over into our every day life? Judges in the Hebrew culture were commanded to follow spiritual discernment. Human discernment is easily clouded. For instance I was reading in Jewish literature of widow who went to a judge weeping over a wrong that was done to her. The judge heard the case and then immediately recused himself and turned all the facts over to another judge who did not even see the woman. The judge did so explaining that the tears of the poor widow would influence his decision.
That is one immediate problem in trusting in our discernment, we tend to let our emotions cloud our discernment. Our news media was birthed in bias opinion. There had always been a desire for non-bias reporting. Before World War II it was taken as a given that certain newspapers were democratic or republican. William Randolph Hearst and even Joseph Pulitzer who established the Pulitzer Prize struggled to give unbiased reporting but usually failed. There is a fine line between reporting and commentary and with the pressure of ratings, which determine sponsorship and the amount of sponsorship, it is very difficult to not cross that line.
Today we are hearing cries of “fake news.” There has always been “fake news,” both on the left and the right. We had a brief time after World War II when news reporting had some semblance of non-bias reporting. I could never figure out if Walter Cronkite was a republican or democrat, still most news agencies could not help contain their bias and it was a given that newspapers would give their endorsement for certain candidates.
Today many new agencies make no bones about their political leanings and they have every right to do it. They are fighting for ratings and if supporting a certain political base brings higher ratings, you can’t blame them for doing so. The republicans complain about the new media with a democratic leaning and the democrats complain about news media with a republican leaning. Recently their bias has become so intense that many have not been properly vetting their stories and were faced with embarrassing retractions.
All this is to say what Will Rodgers said pre-World War II when the media was every bit as bias as it is today: “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.” This brought great laughter because only a naïve country bumpkin like Will Rodgers would believe everything he read in the newspapers.
This brings me to our study verse today. Unless we really are naïve non-thinkers, we know all the information we receive about our government and governmental leaders comes from various news media all of whom have a particular bias. So we try to filter through the bias with shaphat, judgment and discernment. But our judgment can easily be clouded by the circles we live in and the people we associate with.
If we are living in last days, it is vital that we learn true discernment. Matthew 24:24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” There is much debate over how to interpret this verse. Is it saying that it is impossible to deceive the elect or there is a possibility the elect could be deceived. In the Aramaic the words for if possible are en sheach. Sheach which is the word that is used for possible really means to obtain, find or invent. We could read this as “There will arise false prophets who will show great signs and wonders en- so as to sheach obtain the elect.” I know this is still open to debate but I choose to believe that the elect can be deceived. I believe the enemy is working very hard to cloud our discernment with the news media, the people we associate with and we must tread very carefully.
I read this morning the story of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who lived in 1755-1825. He served as a rabbinical judge. As he was hearing a case he suddenly felt inclined to favor one of the litigants. Although his initial leaning was against him. He called upon God for spiritual and divine discernment and suddenly ordered a halt to the proceedings . Upon investigation he discovered that someone had slipped a packet of money into his coat as a bribe. Had he ruled in favor this litigant and the bribe would have been discovered, which it surely would have, Rabbi Abraham would not only be disgraced, removed for his office but also guilty of a crime. I Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Sometimes the roar of news media, those we associate with and maybe even our religious leaders can be so loud that we fail to hear that still small voice that Rabbi Heschel was so attune to.
If you want to really prepare for the last days, the first thing on your survival list is to learn to listen to that still small voice of God offering spiritual discernment, shaphat.
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