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The Day of the LORD
Understanding the Chosen
For believers in Yeshua who observe the Shabbat, we are reminded frequently…make that every week…that most of the world has not chosen to honor the Seventh Day as His chosen day. For many, they’ve simply not been taught about it. For others, they’ve been taught incorrectly. For others, they know, and they don’t choose to honor it. It’s a matter of choice. Our choices reflect both what we
1) understand
and/or
2) prefer
In the internet age, we are harassed multiple times per day to “rate” a product or a service. With a greedy disregard for the value of a purchaser’s time, the vendor expects to take a minute, five minutes, or even longer, for the purchaser to fill out surveys and questionnaires on preferences in order to help the seller adjust products and selling techniques to make more money.
Shouldn’t they be paying us?
I don’t work for free in my secular job, only in ministry. You probably don’t either. There is rarely an offer of more than a trinket of thanks in return for our valuable time, but sometimes we give it to them because we are flattered that someone would want to know what we think or we have an opportunity to vent even though a real human being is not likely to see or care what we write. In that sense, the business takes our money, takes uncompensated time, and then largely ignores the specific concern and buries it in a mass of number data. What a deal!
The process depends upon what we choose. Why did we choose that product? That company? That day? That salesperson?
Now here’s the question: Because we chose that particular product from that particular company on that particular day from that particular salesperson, does it mean we HATED every other choice?
Of course not. We simply did our shopping and research (hopefully), and we preferred one over the others. Choice. We found the right thing for us personally. Unfortunately, many approach Shabbat and the Word with a similar mindset. They see it as a personal choice of what best suits them rather than a process of learning what their Creator has chosen and mirroring His choices.
Esau is a great example of one who knew what to do, yet chose differently. This is why Esau, Edom, “The Red One” represents the untamed appetites of the soul: appetite, emotion, desire, and intellect. It is a tremendous life force designed by the Creator, yet in its design, the spirit of a man was chosen to rule over it. It doesn’t mean Elohim hates the soul in an emotional sense: quite the contrary! He loves us so much that He sent His Son to save our rowdy souls. The spirit of a man comes from above, from Elohim Himself. He wants that Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) to rule over the soul. He CHOSE that modality.
• The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” (Mal 1:1-3)
It can be confusing when reading Scripture to understand being “chosen.” In context, it can simply mean preferring one over the other, not hating the one who was not chosen. Because we associate hate with an extreme emotion, we lose the grasp that what is chosen is loved in the sense of preference and precedence in certain matters, and what is hated is what is ranked beneath it in certain mattters.
In our culture, we rarely use “hate” if the feeling of loathing and disgust is not attached to it. Herein lies the problem. The human experience is only a parable of reality, which is found in our Creator. Our experience of emotion, desire, and intellect only mirrors His, but His is perfect. When we see love and hate only as strong emotions, then we can miss the nuances of Scripture where He is teaching us the importance of good choices based on His preferences instead of ours. He’s not offering us a survey to find out which of the commandments we prefer or even if we prefer to do them at all. He’s observing us.
The times in Scripture when people felt rejected, they also felt unloved, so they acted in reprehensible ways. Kain killed Abel. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. King Saul tried to kill David, and so on. Their story is our story. The problem is that when Adonai expresses a preference for those who do His will instead of their own, we miss the issue, just like Kain. Kain knew what to do in order to have his sacrifice respected. That’s all he had to do. Choose and do what Elohim preferred. Here is another example of the choosing-lesson:
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“He also rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.” (Ps 78:67-68)
Joseph/Ephraim were not rejected as people, only their territory as the resting place of Adonai’s glory. Instead, the Judah/Benjamin territory was already chosen as The Place of the Temple Mount for the peoples to come worship. The Father loved Mount Zion, which means He loved His People...all His People who would go up there to worship. It would be a House of Prayer for ALL nations to worship. He loved the world. It is hard to accept “God so loved the world” if we trip over “He rejected Joseph and did not choose Ephraim.”
In context, the choice indicates the great plan of salvation and the geography of how it will be accomplished, not a qualitative assessment of everyone descended from Joseph. We do tend to get stuck when we’re not chosen for something, and if we can’t step back and decide
1) is it a “Kain Question,” of whether I need to modify my own behavior and choices to do better?
or
2) does it really have nothing to do with me and my choices, only how a greater plan is being executed? Divine plans and design.
The world really does struggle with words like Zion, Zionism, Zionist. Why?
• Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch. (Is 62:1)
• Then the angel said to me, “Shout this message for all to hear: ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies says: My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong.’” (Zec 1:14)’
• “This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies says: ‘My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem!’” (Zec 8:2)
Zion and Jerusalem are the Covenant People walking in righteousness, assembling at “The Place.” The Father has passionate love for them, for they are instrumental to His ultimate plan.
Zionists are people who obey their Creator and choose what He chooses.
Righteous nations and people accept this pattern. Like Joseph and Ephraim’s territory, their rejection was not being left unloved and scorned, the way human beings hate, but to highlight the way of His choice so they could find that path of obedience to salvation in Yeshua, who will rule and reign from Jerusalem. The Father loves and chooses those who love and choose what He loves and chooses. It is His way of guiding the people of the earth to Him because He loves them all.
Jeroboam set up golden calves in Beth-El of Ephraim and in Dan because he didn’t agree with Adonai’s choice of geography or tribes and priests in the design. Because he did not love what his Creator loved or choose what He chose, he'd do anything to divert the chosen people from the chosen place so that they would lose their identity as those who loved and chose Zion (Tzion). “For out of Tzion shall the Torah go forth, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Is 2:3)
Those who reject Tzion and Tzionists try to dominate or control The Place and People, thinking it will destroy the terms of the Covenant, the Word, the Torah. Tzionism is to choose the Father's plan. Since Judah has leadership, the nations believe controlling or exterminating Jews is the first step toward ruling the whole earth. After that, re-directing the obedience of the nations is next. Esau has always coveted his father’s love, yet did not love the Father enough to obey His plan. “Jacob” obeys, in which case the Father “loves” Jacob and “hates” Esau. In the earth-story, Isaac emotionally loved Esau in spite of his disobedience. In Biblical language, love and hate can be a matter of preference, not necessarily an emotion of hatred.
Let’s extend this principle to the Lord’s Day, Shabbat:
• “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word…”
In the English text, “your own word” is a bit of a stretch from the simple Hebrew word davar. Take a look at the concise definition of davar:
דָּבַר (H1696)
speech, word, speaking, thing
speech
saying, utterance
word, words
business, occupation, acts, matter, case, something, manner (by extension)
The translators are reading more into the simple word davar. They see “your OWN word” rather than word. The reason for this might be due to the many ways davar is translated in its many contexts:
- The KJV translates Strong's H1697 in the following manner: word (807x), thing (231x), matter (63x), acts (51x), chronicles (38x), saying (25x), commandment (20x), miscellaneous (204x).
What sticks out is the number of miscellaneous words davar is used for: 204!
A davar is a word. A davar is a thing. In Hebrew, the word is the thing.
In context, the translators see a contrast between Shabbat behavior, thinking, emotions, and yes, choices versus Days 1-6. It is not that Adonai rejects Days 1-6 to destroy them. Each of those days is full of goodness and good choices. He’s not un-creating Days 1-6. He is, however, choosing and designating Day 7 like he chose and designated a people and place called Tzion. We must choose to let His choosing prevail, and help advance even, the purpose of that choosing by also choosing to honor and enjoy it differently than the other six days of the week.
In fact, all the things we’ve prepared in the first six days of the week become part of Day Seven. If we didn’t prepare it on one of those other six days, then we don’t have it on Shabbat. It’s not a love-unloved, hated-not hated proposition in the sense of emotion, but of design. The soul was chosen for its purpose; the spirit was chosen for its purpose; the body was chosen for its purpose. They work together under the discipline of the spirit to live, not to chop off soul and body. We’d call that being dead!
Esau’s territory will be made a desolation as a discipline for not accepting the choices and design of Elohim. The soul will finally see the death and devastation in the body, formed from earth, that is caused when it does not choose to follow the Creator’s will and design. Likewise, all the 7s in the Book of Revelation hint to the devastation the world must experience in order to acknowledge His choices, starting with the first principle, Shabbat, the Seventh Day.
Understanding the many uses of the word davar, now it makes sense in context. “Your own words” are business words, occupation words, preparation words, the things you talk about and do on weekdays. We can reject those conversations and things in order to choose the words and things of Shabbat.
• The Gemara cites what we learned with regard to the following passage: “If you keep your feet from breaking, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day, and you call Shabbat a delight..., the Lord’s holy day honorable, and you honor it by not going your own way, from attending to your affairs and speaking idle words.” Mishneh Torah, Shabbat 113a:14
Idle words are reik, or empty, worthless. A word that would be valuable if spoken Sunday-Friday is worthless and empty on Shabbat. Words that would be valuable, honorable and delightful on a different day are not on Shabbat. By choosing the Shabbat and its instructions for ceasing from creative work, we exercise a choice to be chosen and loved.
We choose to rest in our salvation in Yeshua, knowing we cannot add or subtract anything from what was already finished on Day Six. All we can do is walk in and honor the Davar that was established “from the foundation of the world.” It is not ours to re-draw the boundaries either of Creation or the Word. It is ours to hear and do. To honor and respect. To delight in and rejoice in.
When we choose and love HIS Day, we have lots of personal choices WITHIN the boundary of Shabbat. What to eat, what to wear, who to have over for a meal, what Torah discussion we can have that is not idle, empty, controversial, or likely to kindle a fire. The Father’s love is strong, passionate, and eternal toward us. Chosen.
Shabbat Shalom!
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