Living on Credit
In last week's newsletter, we began to relate the Israelites' walk in the wilderness with their first steps in righteousness. Not so coincentally, they didn't have much of their own. They'd fallen to a terrible level of sin while they were in slavery in Egypt: “I said to them, ‘Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.'" (Ezek 20:7)
Having fallen so far, nevertheless, the Israelites believed Moses and obeyed the few commands he gave them. They followed him to Mount Sinai on a credit of righteousness they hadn't yet earned. The Song of Songs describes how beautiful the Children of Israel were when they came up from their washing of the Reed Sea like a flock of clean sheep:
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How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep which have come up from their washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost her young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is beautiful. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with layers of stones on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies.
Although the Israelites were in the middle of a "holiness sandwich," nevertheless they were unharmed. They were walking on credit in righteousness they hadn't personally attained. Instead, they walked in the righteousness of Yeshua, the living Word. They believed Adonai, which means they believed His Word as spoken to them through Moses, a metaphor for the Torah. At that moment that the Israelites came up from the washing of the Sea unharmed, the Midrash says that the following from our Song was said of their uprightness:
- “Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is beautiful. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil.”
The pomegranate is a symbol of the Torah's 613 commandments, for the number of pips in a pomegranate is around that number. The symbolism of the pomegranate pips as the 613 commandments suggests the doctrine taught by the apostles:
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For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Ro 4:3)
- for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Ro 10:10)
Salvation comes with the potential to fulfill the righteous and holy commandments. We are given mercy and grace while we walk and learn in the wilderness, preparing to ascend to the Promised Land. Drop down a couple of verses, and the Song reads: “Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies.” One the applications of the two breasts is the milk of the Word, demonstrated by the two tables (tablets) of the Ten Commandments. If those two breasts represent the two (twin) tablets of the Torah given at Mt. Sinai, then their formation into something mature (613) would come through further instruction from Moses in the wilderness.
Ezekiel 16:6-14 rebukes the Israelites who later rebelled and walked in the very sins from which He'd delivered them. Adonai reminds them of how He found them struggling in their birth blood, twelve tribes now a nation in the midst of another nation, struggling to emerge from Egypt. He describes how He waited for them to grow up and to meet Him at Sinai to receive the Words of their promise at betrothal:
Of note in Ezekiel 16 is: “...11 I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. 12 I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.” (ibid)
What are these ornmaments to Israel?
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“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck.” (Pr 1:8-9)
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“My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck.” (Pr 6:20-21)
Like children, the Israelites were guided from Egypt to Sinai by Moses, Aaron, and "mom" Miriam (Micah 6:4; Ex 15:20). The children walking in the credit of Yeshua's righteousness were given the Big Ten at betrothal, which hang on the Big Two, and eventually Moses would teach them the fullness of the 613 so they could be "married" and enter the Land of their Promise. The two tablets represented how the Israelites would grow in respect to their salvation from Egypt, the realm of sin and death. Why were the commandments written on two tablets?
The sages asserted that each brother of the twelve sons of Jacob had a twin sister. Half of the commandments focus on our relationship to Elohim, so they are the “father” commandments. As Paul taught the Corinthians, the man’s head represents the glory of Elohim restored to the groaning Creation:
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“For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.” (1 Co 11:7)
The other “twin” tablet is the “mother commandments,” which teach us the human relational Torah. The female “twin” head represents the glory of mankind restored in the Creation, which groans for human beings to walk in the revealed righteousness of Yeshua, the Word of Elohim:
- For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (Ro 8:18-25)
The Creation is groaning because like Israel, who had the potential to mature into 613 seeds of the pomegranate from the Big Ten, the Creation, too, is encoded with a greater potential than has ever been realized outside of the Garden of Eden. It is groaning because it wants to be growning! I know. Bad pun. Most puns are.
Let’s identify some bullet points related to our study:
- There is a glory to be revealed to human beings. This is symbolized by the “heads” in the congregration: men, the revealed glory of Elohim in the Creation, and women, the revealed glory of human beings in the Creation
- Creation has an expectation of this, it is “encoded” for greater growth and fruit
- Human sin prevents the Creation from breaking free of its slavery to corruption. Until the glory is revealed, it is in childbirth, the life within prepared, yet held back.
- Likewise, the human body before resurrection is encoded with the ability to live in glorious immortality, yet is not revealed until full redemption of the body.
- The Ruach HaKodesh is our “firstfruits”, or the hope of the resurrection to glory.
At Mount Sinai, the Israelites promised, "We will do, and we will hear." They were again credited for righteousness they hadn't yet learned or earned, but Adonai would give them time to grow in their salvation beyond the milk of the Big Ten.
Sadly, they broke the commandment of idolatry, not even internalizing the baby stuff. Moses made them remove their ornaments at Sinai. They'd been given the jewelry of a bride on credit, but they were not yet able to wear it. In fact, they'd already cast off their true ornaments, the commandments of Elohim. They forgot their Father's discipline and their mother's torah (teaching). The mother is sometimes a symbol of the Ruach HaKodesh.
The world is judged according to the Word at the Feast of Trumpets each year, or Rosh HaShanah, in preparation for the final Firstfruits feast, Sukkot. Those righteous who are sealed in covenant with the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, and have learned the Word and walked faithfully in the learned Word, repenting as necessary, will be resurrected one day when that shofar blows. As their spirit is alive, so will the corruptible body put on immortality to live forever in righteousness:
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...and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Ro 6:13)
Whatever may be left to be learned will not be a problem, for those righteous have kept their promise to "do and hear." There is no resistance left to the Word, and any remaining deficit can be rectified in the blink of an eye.
If the Israelites could not continue walking in their righteousness credits from the Firstfruits of the Barley at Passover and the Firstfruits of the Wheat at Shavuot, then how would they...or the nations to which they were to witness of the Word...ever be prepared for the Feast of the Nations at Sukkot?
The moral of the story? Continue to grow and learn Yeshua's righteousness that is already in your account. "We will do, and we will hear." Correct, re-direct, repent, re-learn, add to, subtract from your daily life as necessary. You don't know what you don't know, and for that there is "credit." If you know and rebel, then I don't know how long you can live on credit in that account.
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Shabbat Shalom!
