What You Don't Know
Perhaps a better title would be Who you don't know.
Can hurt you.
With Passover approaching, our Footsteps of Messiah text of the Song of Songs becomes ever more relevant. It is providing us with more than just prophetic understanding of our time, but even with practical advice that we'd expect more from Proverbs than the love song of the ages found in the Song of Songs. In fact, it is customary to read the Song of Songs during Pesach. And although this week's newsletter teaching came spontaneously, what I believe to be the voice of the Ruach speaking, not reviewing the week's lessons or books, be warned, this is a long one. I'd recommend maybe reading in smaller chunks or waiting until you have some uninterrupted minutes.
This newsletter is practical advice about Who you know...and Who you don't. My prayer is that every reader does know our Father and His Son Yeshua. Let me explain.
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Now God gave Solomon wisdom (chokhmah) and very great discernment (tevunah) and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt... He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:29-34)
No doubt King Solomon (Melekh Shlomo) had wisdom! With all this wisdom, "he spoke."
“he spoke”
דָבַר Strong’s H1696
Strong’s: dâbar; a primitive root; perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue:—answer, appoint, bid, command, commune, declare, destroy, give, name, promise, pronounce, rehearse, say, speak, be spokesman, subdue, talk, teach, tell, think, use (entreaties), utter.
Brown-Driver-Briggs: verb speak (original meaning dubious; range in order)
Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee: adds to BDB’s definition of “range in order.” To lead, to guide, especially to lead flocks or herds to pasture; to rule, to direct.
The fifth book of Torah is Devarim, sharing the shoresh (root) of davar. It is the “little scroll,” the summary of the preceding precepts and history. It means “words or things.” It arranges things in an order by declaring them, mustering the flock of Israel in preparation to cross the Jordan. The flock of Israel has again “come up from their washing” of the Davar (Word) as prophesied in Song of Songs 4:2, one of the prophecies we've covered in past newsletters. Yeshua adds:
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“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” (Jn 15:3)
The Gospel of Luke records this same teaching as John and adds:
- “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you THE kingdom.” (Lk 12:32)
Yeshua is preparing his disciples, the little flock, to disperse and go into the world, just as Moshe gathered the flock dispersed in Egypt and prepared it to go into the Promised Land. Yeshua continues speaking to the little flock:
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“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning." (Jn 15:18-27)
Here are some thoughts on Yeshua's ordered Words:
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’”
- The Word set in order the things the little flock needed to remember as they testified about Yeshua and his commandments. If others refuse to receive the Word, the servants should not expect to receive greater treatment than the master, who also was rejected for the Word.
- Yeshua makes a distinction between those of his generation who heard, saw, and believed in him and those who heard, saw, and yet hated the Word. To “see” implies to understand. Now they have sin.
- The Ruach HaKodesh is able to help the disciples of Yeshua testify about him, the Word. Its power is truth.
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Those who persecute the disciples for the Word and the testimony of Yeshua will be those who do not know the Father.
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Those who testify of Yeshua have been with him from “the beginning,” the opening words of the Scripture. Their testimony begins there, not Matthew 1:1.
Three of the seven spirits of Adonai listed in Isaiah have a special relationship to one another (see above graphic):
Wisdom
Discernment (Understanding)
Knowledge
While wisdom and understanding are located in the "spring" of the menorah, knowledge is found in the fall feasts, a place of maturity. Wisdom and understanding walked with counsel and power lead to knowledge, or da'at.
This is where the praise of Melekh Shlomo falls short. Repeatedly the reader is told of Solomon’s wisdom, or chokhma. He is also imbued with understanding, or tevunah (binah). Chokhma is the raw information, and binah is the ability to build with the information by sorting, categorizing, ordering, separating, cutting, attaching, etc. A wise woman builds her house. Imagine the process of building from procuring raw materials, crafting, and then assembling.
The glaring omission in the shining character of Melekh Shlomo is knowledge, or da’at. Da’at is intimate knowledge applied, used, sacrificed for, and practiced. It is what the person has become, not just the information acquired. Every fact is now part of the person in a relationship characterized by love, two becoming one: “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
So here are questions:
• If the Ruach HaKodesh is a feeling, a soul ecstasy, then what if a person does not feel that the Torah is to be believed, seen, and obeyed as a testimony of Yeshua?
• If the added measure of the Ruach HaKodesh is the ability to identify and speak truth, then does a feeling matter?
• Is it possible that Adonai can give human beings extraordinary amounts of wisdom and understanding of the world and His commandments, yet they do not mature to know Him?
The ability to set the Word in order, quote it, reference it, connect it, or parse it may still leave something vital out of the order: knowledge. Knowing the One who gave it.
Yeshua hinted to this when he referred to Melekh Shlomo:
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“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mt 6:25-33)
Although King Solomon “spoke about” the birds and animals, Yeshua says,
• “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”
Although King Solomon wore the most expensive royal robes of a king, Yeshua says,
• “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.”
What kind of glory or faith does a lily of the field have that it exceeds the faith of Yeshua's disciples? It is the glory of simply trusting the Creator to clothe it. The glory of a bird is that they trust the Father to feed them. They are not greater than their master. Human beings uniquely believe and behave as if the servant is greater than the Master. They lose their glory, which clothes the flock. Even a shorn flock come up from washing is not naked, but clothed in their Good Shepherd’s glory.
Melekh Shlomo was wiser and more understanding perhaps than any human being except for Yeshua, who is the Word itself. With all that wisdom and understanding, is it possible he ran short on the crucial element of da’at, knowledge? Unlike his father David, Solomon sacrificed little for his relationship with the Father.
Solomon did not trust the Father to protect and provide for his kingdom, so instead he formed wise treaties with multiple nations, resulting in the gifts of hundreds of foreign concubines and wives to “seal the deal” as was done in ancient times. He understood the Torah, yet violated its instructions to the king not to go back to Egypt for horses to build the military. He put in order the plants and beasts of the earth, yet declined in his ability to order his own household, allowing sacrifices to foreign gods.
This is all written to instruct us. Wisdom and understanding must be perfected in knowledge, evidenced by faith in the Creator to provide every needed thing. This generation has access to the Word that is unprecedented in the history of the world. We must not become merely wise and understanding in that Word. We must mature in a new relationship with the Father, or we will be found naked again:
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Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. (Re 3:17-19)
These “knowing” clothes are acquired by seeing with the eyes of the Ruach HaKodesh like the lilies of the field. Flowers don’t debate whether they should be white, yellow, purple, or red. They just are. They just flower gloriously. Smugly debating the real meaning of verses of Scripture or taunting those who don’t meet our personal bar of obedience can be a completely naked exercise if we don’t know the Father and Yeshua. Smugness and taunting can be disguised as sincerity and the pursuit of truth, but it is chametz, leaven. Leaven doesn't leave room for knowing the Father. Chametz is sour, and it sours human beings on the commandments instead of nurturing faith and a loving relationship.
This isn’t refining fire resulting in glory, just a way of feeding a sense of self-righteousness. Fire singes us and consumes the parts we’d call chametz, or leaven. This is why leaven is burned in fire in Jewish communities. Too many Scripture debates drive people away from knowing the Father because the competitive nature of it obstructs the goal: knowing and loving the Father and people.
The gold riches of the kingdom are acquired with fire. Sacrifice. Practice. Walking in the Word with the Ruach of the golden menorah is something we have to practice. It would be a shame to find out at the judgment that the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh was measured out to our vessel in such a small quantity because we obstructed it by refusing maturity. Maturity is knowing the Father and Yeshua. As with Yeshua’s parable of the diligent investor earning even more, so the lazy investor can lose even what he or she has.
Endless debates are lazy even if they are the product of scores of hours of research. None of this helps us to know Yeshua in the fellowship of his suffering. Understanding he was an Israelite led Moses to kill two men; knowing YHVH led him to lead the flock from the realm of death to life. And to suffer for them. Being given the wisdom of the Name YHVH led an Israelite to blaspheme it; knowing YHVH led Caleb and Joshua to lead the flock of Israel to their pasture.
When what we understand, believe, and practice costs us esteem, money, friendships, job promotions, scorn, opportunities, hobbies, and whatever the “Magic Kingdom” of this world offers, then we acquire clothes fit for THE Kingdom. It’s glory and riches that cannot be purchased with money, but only acquired with the capital of our human faith in the One who created us. Unlike a salvation garment alone, knowing Yeshua and acquiring his robes of righteousness cost the flock something.
It is the little flock coming up from the washing of the Word that is clean. Until Messiah returns, there will be those who dress in sheep’s clothing to pull the wool over the eyes of the little flock so that they can’t see with the Ruach clearly. They are clouds, yet without water, nor can they be clothed with clouds of glory. They attend the feasts of Adonai, yet only as hidden reefs, shipwrecking and breaking up others longing to know the Father and Yeshua in a more profound way. If successful, these home-wreckers will leave the flock scattered, clinging to boards and life rafts, adrift, looking for solid ground.
Don’t despair, little flock. If you have found yourself in such a situation, then you are not greater than your master Yeshua. Yeshua’s own little flock scattered when he was arrested, but after Pesach, he re-gathered it, re-formed it without the wolf, and re-commissioned them. They knew him before, sacrificing family life and occupation to follow him while he ordered the words for them. Now they knew him more, in the fellowship of his suffering. The ordering of the Word would now be who they were, their very lives, not just what they learned and debated with religious scholars (and pseudo-scholars).
Perhaps Judas thought he knew Yeshua, and that Yeshua under pressure would finally stand up and proclaim himself King of Israel and destroy the Roman Empire. Having basic wisdom in the prophecies of Messiah did not mature Judas to knowing that Messiah needed to suffer and die for love. Judas' growth stunted when all he could think about was competing with The Beast. He couldn't trust Yeshua, and there was no glory in his life. All that Word ordered and poured into him, yet Judas was empty. The wisdom and understanding didn't matter at all because he didn't know Yeshua in the day of trouble.
Judas was a hidden reef at the love feast. Let's pray that the odds of a wolf in the Passover flock today are worse than one out of twelve. Knowing Yeshua is not setting aside his commandments; quite the contrary: "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" Knowing Yeshua is becoming one with his suffering for those very commandments for the Father's sake, not our own righteousness. Not our own timeline. Not knowing Yeshua hurt Judas. Fatally.
Because we love Yeshua sacrificially, we know him. He is the Word, our very life. As an elder woman in our congregation once said, "A sheep don't think about bearing wool...it just bears!"
May your snow-white wool be the glory of Messiah Yeshua and the Father this Pesach, and may the Ruach HaKodesh mature us all to walking in the Word and knowing Him in the upcoming Day of Trouble.
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Shabbat Shalom!
