Tag: Christ

  • Shin

    Shin

    Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

    Sin and Shin [Schin]

    161 Princes persecute me without cause,
    but my heart stands in awe of your words.

    Consider for a moment, authority; both legitimate and illegitimate. Government: leaders and those with power over other people. Explanation of “Princes,” used here holds complexity that could include many men and women of the world of many positions even in this day.

    שַׂר – sar – 

    prince, ruler, leader, chief, chieftain, official, captain

    from the root: From שָׂרַר (H8323)

    1. chieftain, leader
    2. vassal, noble, official (under king)
    3. captain, general, commander (military)
    4. chief, head, overseer (of other official classes)
    5. heads, princes (of religious office)
    6. elders (of representative leaders of people)
    7. merchant-princes (of rank and dignity)
    8. patron-angel
    9. Ruler of rulers (of God)
    10. warden

    Consider how many rule (lord it over) other men. What is the basis of their authority?

    Is it God, our Creator and LORD of all? Or have they no legitimate cause to lord it over anyone, least of all a righteous man?

    Further, consider the humility by which for your sin a righteous man would give the Princes and powers the authority to hang above His crucified body a sign proclaiming Him:

    Jesus, King of the Jews

    162 I rejoice at your word
    like one who finds great spoil.
    163 I hate and abhor falsehood,
    but I love your law.

    Surly the Princes are liars! Leaders who lie in wait to snare the righteous that they might reap the spoil of their meager wages.

    The Lord God will avenge the faithful, those who love His law.

    164 Seven times a day I praise you
    for your righteous rules.
    165 Great peace have those who love your law;
    nothing can make them stumble.

    Ezekiel 3:20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die.

    The Hand of God shall place before the evil ones the stumbling block of their fall and the snare of their demise.

    166 I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
    and I do your commandments.

    Yĕhovah sabar  yĕshuw`ah

    KJV – LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation

    167 My soul keeps your testimonies;
    I love them exceedingly.
    168 I keep your precepts and testimonies,
    for all my ways are before you.

  • Tsadhe

    Tsadhe

    God’s Righteousness Upheld – No One Is Righteous

    10 as it is written:

    “None is righteous, no, not one;
    11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
    12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”

    23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness…

    Righteousness: As it is written in this section of Psalm 119

    Tsadhe [TZADDI]

    137 Righteous are you, O Lord,
    and right are your rules.
    138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness
    and in all faithfulness.
    139 My zeal consumes me,
    because my foes forget your words.
    140 Your promise is well tried,
    and your servant loves it.
    141 I am small and despised,
    yet I do not forget your precepts.
    142 Your righteousness is righteous forever,
    and your law is true.
    143 Trouble and anguish have found me out,
    but your commandments are my delight.
    144 Your testimonies are righteous forever;
    give me understanding that I may live.

    Righteousness is important to God.

    From Treasury of Scripture Knowledge – excerpts:[Rom 3:10 KJV] 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
    [Rom 3:10 ESV] 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

     

    [Rom 3:4 ESV] 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

    [Isa 8:20 ESV] 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
    [1Pe 1:16 ESV] 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

    There –
    [Psa 14:1-3 ESV] 1 To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
    [Psa 53:1-3 ESV] 1 To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

    none
    [Rom 3:23 ESV] 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
    [Job 14:4 ESV] 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
    [Job 15:14, 16 ESV] 14 What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? … 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!
    [Job 25:4 ESV] 4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
    [Jer 17:9 ESV] 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
    [Mat 15:19 ESV] 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
    [Mar 7:21-22 ESV] 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
    [Mar 10:18 ESV] 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
    [1Cr 6:9-10 ESV] 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
    [Gal 5:19-21 ESV] 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
    [Eph 2:1-3 ESV] 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
    [Eph 5:3-6 ESV] 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
    [Col 3:5-9 ESV] 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
    [1Ti 1:9-10 ESV] 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
    [2Ti 3:2-5 ESV] 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
    [Tts 3:3 ESV] 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
    [1Jo 1:8-10 ESV] 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
    [Rev 21:8 ESV] 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
    [Rev 22:15 ESV] 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

     None is righteous. You are not. I am not.

    Romans 5:19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

  • Samekh

    Samekh

    Depart from me…

    Picture the stoic traditionalist teachers of the Bible venturing out from the mega-cathedral to a far from urban valley of the Jordan and encountering a crowd that should be in church.  They are listening to an unkempt man with uncut hair and rags of animal skins and leather. As they descend the dirty hillside toward the river in their custom-made finery, he acknowledges their addition to the crowds.

    “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…  Matthew 3:

    Pretty bold talk from a Nazarite to esteemed teachers of the Law from the Temple. Could John have had Psalm 119 in mind?

     Psalm 119 – English Standard Version (ESV)

    Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

    Samekh

    113 I hate the double-minded,
    but I love your law.
    114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
    I hope in your word.
    115 Depart from me, you evildoers,
    that I may keep the commandments of my God.

    Although the EST statement ‘I hate the double-minded,’ brings hated hypocrites like the Pharisees, Sadducees, certain preachers and christians to mind, the KJV stated: ‘I hate vain thoughts.’

    Indeed, the Psalmist is not condemning (yet) those with double-minded thoughts.  John, as he baptized and cleansed into repentance those in the crowds with ears to hear was not hiding in the Jordan valley; rather his hiding place was in the Lord and in the hope of God’s word.

    All of us must take heed to vain thoughts and ideas of our own (not of God). Vain thoughts are ambivalent, divided and half-hearted. Of course we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind (not just some of it). Hypocrisy, like that frequently demonstrated by the Pharisees is the intentional action of a double-minded believer.

    John continues his warnings to his audience:

    10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    This same double-minded, half-hearted faith comes to mind in Jesus parable in Matthew 7:

    17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    Christ Jesus was also most critical of this half-attitude of belief. In these last days, the axe is at the root of the tree of the church.

    The Psalmist continues his plea to God:

    116 Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
    and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
    117 Hold me up, that I may be safe
    and have regard for your statutes continually!
    118 You spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
    for their cunning is in vain.

    119 All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,
    therefore I love your testimonies.
    120 My flesh trembles for fear of you,
    and I am afraid of your judgments.

    Again, we did not receive the baptism of repentance and the cleansing of the Cross of Christ to appear as dross to a world that looks to the church and christians for every defect and impurity.

    “Be holy, as I am holy,” says the Lord.