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Tag: moses

  • Are we children of Ephraim? – Psalm 78

    Are we children of Ephraim? – Psalm 78

    A child of blessing

    Ephraim was the second child of Zaphnath-Paaneah and Asenath. His father’s high position second only to Pharaoh gave Ephraim every advantage as he was brought up with all the riches of the palace.

    You may recognize him as brother of Manasseh and both brothers known as sons of Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob).

    He was much like the church we know in the US now. These sons and their families grew up with practically everything a man could desire. But one change in leadership would relegate them to lesser roles before they lost faith in the wilderness.

    Even though they had followed the Lord when Moses returned to save Israel from slavery, during forty years in the wilderness each year of yearning for former days turned their hearts from the Lord.

    Think about their roles as followers of God in the way Asaph contemplates years later. Think also closer to home, considering your own push-back from faithfulness from the Lord who would save you.

    Psalm 78 

     God’s Kindness to Rebellious Israel
 A Contemplation of Asaph.

    9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
    Turned back in the day of battle.
    10 They did not keep the covenant of God;
    They refused to walk in His law,
    11 And forgot His works
    And His wonders that He had shown them.

    How like US

    Forget for a moment your own heritage.

    Perhaps your forefathers came to a land of promise or a home of the free. They may have bought passage to new hope in a land of milk and honey, a hopeful homeland of riches.

    Or perhaps they fled in huddled masses from persecution, slavery and imminent death. Oh, the hope of our poor and tired aliens embarking on a pilgrimage of promise.

    Who will you trust if not the Lord?

    Of Ephraim’s blessing

    Note centrality of Ephraim & Manasseh, Joseph’s sons to the promised land and a divided people of the LORD

    12 Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers,
    In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

    Do you, even in your days of difficulty, remember what the Lord has done for you and your fathers in days past, how the Lord has saved you?

    13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through;
    And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
    14 In the daytime also He led them with the cloud,
    And all the night with a light of fire.
    15 He split the rocks in the wilderness,
    And gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
    16 He also brought streams out of the rock,
    And caused waters to run down like rivers.

    Here is Asaph’s embrace of the Lord’s blessing many years prior to his own life in the Kingdom of David.

    How like the blessings thousands of years later of the ‘new world,’ a new land to conquer and colonize. Ephraim was one blessed by the Lord, but the promise of the Lord was long forgotten.

    Sin and Rebellion

    Egypt or England will call it rebellion, or course. But your journey of hope from oppression must remain in the hand of the Lord.

    We know in your heart that our forefathers were not without sin. The cause of our exodus from a former existence was not so righteous as our national celebrations would have us believe.

    Though Asaph laments of his founding fathers, we could well apply their rebellion to our own hearts.

    But they sinned even more against Him
    By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

    Psalm 78:17 NKJV

    18 And they tested God in their heart
    By asking for the food of their fancy.
    19 Yes, they spoke against God:
    They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
    20 Behold, He struck the rock,
    So that the waters gushed out,
    And the streams overflowed.
    Can He give bread also?
    Can He provide meat for His people?”

    The PERSON of GOD

    If God IS a Person, then how does He feel about your sin?

    How does God the Father react to the sin of His child?

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Psalm 78

    21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was furious;

    So a fire was kindled against Jacob,
    And anger also came up against Israel,
    22 Because they did not believe in God,
    And did not trust in His salvation.

    I’ll own it – I’m a rebel like Ephraim. Lord forgive me.

    And remember this, along with His many blessings to our forefathers, your own faithful or rebellious children, and what the Lord does for you.

    23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above,
    And opened the doors of heaven,
    24 Had rained down manna on them to eat,
    And given them of the bread of heaven.
    25 Men ate angels’ food;
    He sent them food to the full.

    Do you remember the miracles of the Lord’s blessings?

    Here we are so blessed more than most, yet craving the past and coveting the riches of others. Are we not like Joseph’s sons – Ephraim, the most blessed, whose rebellion failed to trust in the Lord?

    The Father’s wrath

    29 So they ate and were well filled,
    For He gave them their own desire.
    30 They were not deprived of their craving;

    But while their food was still in their mouths,
    31 The wrath of God came against them,
    And slew the stoutest of them,
    And struck down the choice men of Israel.

    How like the children of Ephraim we are!

    We plea to the Lord our God, ‘Father, give us this one thing we must have.’ Then, we think, because our Father has blessed us we will tell him of our next desire for blessing.

    32 In spite of this they still sinned,
    And did not believe in His wondrous works.

    33 Therefore their days He consumed in futility,
    And their years in fear.

    34 When He slew them, then they sought Him;
    And they returned and sought earnestly for God.

    Have you taught your children?

    SPOILED CHILDREN
A meditation of J.C. Ryle 4 min. 23 sec.
John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield England, 10 May 1816, appointed first Bishop of Liverpool. "His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’ - source

    Have you told your children of blessing that God our Father, the Lord, must be their Lord or they will suffer His wrath?

    Do you fear death and judgment (or even judgment, then death)?

    In fear have you promised God one thing, then in your comfort forgotten your Father?

    Psalm 78: (cont.)

    35 Then they remembered that God was their rock,
    And the Most High God their Redeemer.

    36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,
    And they lied to Him with their tongue;
    37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
    Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

    A Father’s love

    Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out:
     “The LORD, the LORD God,
     is compassionate and gracious,
     slow to anger,
     abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
     7 maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations,
     forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.

     Yet He will by no means excuse the guilty;
     He will visit the iniquity of the fathers
     on their children and grandchildren
     to the third and fourth generations.”

    Do you, forgetful unfaithful claimant of the Lord, remember your repentance?

    Have you returned to the way of your sin, though your fathers repented and told you the faithfulness of the Lord?

    The Father’s compassion

    וְ֭לִבָּם לֹא־נָכֹ֣ון עִמֹּ֑ו וְלֹ֥א נֶ֝אֶמְנ֗וּ בִּבְרִיתֹֽו׃

    Psalm 78:37 WLC

    But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

    For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

    Psalm 78: (continued)

    52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
    he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
    53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
    but the sea engulfed their enemies.
    54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
    to the hill country his right hand had taken.
    55 He drove out nations before them
    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

    Testing the Lord

    56 But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
    57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
    58 They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

    Does any sin of ours deserve the wrath of God our Father more than our worship of idol after lifeless idol, while we fail to remember our Father and Shepherd?

    Consequence of the Sin of Ephraim

    When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

    So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men..

    Psalm 78:59-60 KJV

    The Very Presence of God left the Tabernacle of worship for Israel, because of their rebellion.

    Psalm 78: (CSB)

    67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
    And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
    68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion which He loved.
    69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
    Like the earth which He has founded forever.

    God then chose Judah

    70 He also chose David His servant
    And took him from the sheepfolds…

    … He brought him
    To shepherd Jacob His people,
    And Israel His inheritance.
    72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
    And guided them with his skillful hands.

    • Are we children of Ephraim?
    • Children of Moses or of David?

    WHO HAS THE LORD CHOSEN?

    Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: yes Israel was chosen and blessed.

    Joseph, who came to be known in Egypt as Zaphnath-Paaneah, was blessed over his eleven brothers who finally bowed down to him.

    Then the LORD through a final blessing by Joseph’s father Israel blessed his sons, Manasseh the eldest, but giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.

    Yet through disobedience of the sons of Ephraim Israel’s blessing fell upon Judah.

    God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness – Psalm 78

    And after this all of Israel and its ten tribes were given over to their enemies Judah remained.

    But in time by their own wickedness, refusal to hear the Lord’s Prophets and turning against the Lord their God, the LORD also gave Judah over to its enemies.

    A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Prayer for Help – Psalm 79

    Another Psalm of Asaph – a short reading of 13 verses

    Then the Lord brought back a remnant to Judah. They again discovered the Law of Moses in the Temple the Lord had abandoned.

    Yet again after a short time they again turned against the Lord their God. And for a time no word of the Lord was heard in all Israel. Again as Israel, Judah failed to listen to the Lord’s Prophets.

    “Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’

    “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the LORD of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.”

    Malachi 1:5-6a CSB

    1:6 בֵּן יְכַבֵּד אָב וְעֶבֶד אֲדֹנָיו וְאִם־אָב אָנִי אַיֵּה כְבֹודִי וְאִם־אֲדֹונִים אָנִי אַיֵּה מֹורָאִי אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאֹות לָכֶם הַכֹּֽהֲנִים בֹּוזֵי שְׁמִי וַאֲמַרְתֶּם בַּמֶּה בָזִינוּ אֶת־שְׁמֶֽךָ׃

    Masoretic text of Malachi 1:6

    The Son before Abraham

    The Good News of the Son – John 3:

    “For God loved the world in this way:

    He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

    The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

    Do you, sons and daughters of blessing, sons and daughters of great blessings through the Lord our God, believe in the Son of the Father, the Messiah Jesus, the Son of Man and only Son of God in whom you have eternal life rather than God’s wrath, as we well deserve?

    What must you do?

  • A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A 21st Century Parable

    You know the old story (actually, several variations on a theme). Three men (but today you might have to include other designations) encounter the same situation and the third one gets the punch line.

    That’s not quite what happened to me recently as I witnessed the following story (which also includes a woman I don’t mention and a well-dressed black man I include).

    My story’s ending may be unexpected but to the best of my knowledge none of the three strangers were a priest, rabbi or a pastor. You may see some humor in it. Picture these strangers I encountered today.

    Which neighbor of the three might you have been?

    Stranded at our Neighborhood Kroger

    It was no emergency and I was prepared. Yet I was unprepared for what would follow when my car wouldn’t start.

    Yes, I had jumper cables in the trunk so I raised my hood and looked for some help.

    Stranger number one

    A man approached from the grocery store with just a few things in his bag. He headed for his car parked in the row just behind my stranded car with the hood up. I approached him as he entered his car.

    “Could you help me jump my car?”

    He rather reluctantly looked down and away from my glancing appeal from outside his door. “Sorry, but I can’t.”

    Okay, I thought. He’s dressed up and could be in a hurry. Someone else will help. So I walked to a car on the other side of the same row where my car sat helplessly with its hood up.

    Stranger number two

    Another kind-looking man had just entered his car with a soft-knit cross hanging from the mirror. My spirit lifted with hope that here was a brother who would help. So I asked.

    “Could you help me jump my car? I have battery cables.”

    He nodded his head gently saying, “My battery is really low. I don’t think it would help.”

    My heart dropped as I walked back to my car thinking of his cross on the mirror.

    Later I thought, “Gee, I should have asked him if he was a priest or Levite?” (Of course I would never do that and neither would you, but we all think those things.)

    So I called for road service, which could reach me in my local neighborhood grocery parking lot in something like forty minutes. It was then that Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. Even most non-believers know that one, but no good Samaritan here today, I thought. No big deal. I’ll just wait.

    Stranger number three

    As I sat in my car with the hood up for a bit more time in thought a man walked up to me and asked if I had help on the way.

    “Yes, I called a tow truck, but all I need is for someone to help jump my car.” He agreed to try and pulled his car up in front of mine.

    After connecting my jumper cables to both cars I got in my car and turned the key. Nothing.

    The man then said, “Let me get in my car and give it a little gas.”

    I reconnected the cables making certain to have the best contact possible then we both got in our cars and I tried again. This time, success!

    I thanked him, disconnected it all, drove home, unloaded groceries from my idling vehicle and drove to a neighborhood repair shop for a new battery.

    Just like one helped by a fictional hero of my youth, ‘I didn’t even ask this man his name.’ He was The ‘Lone Stranger’ helping someone in need.

    God knows the name of each good Samaritan and some praise their witness to a world steeped in self-righteousness, unlike a neighbor loved by the LORD.

    A Not so Funny ending

    Unlike the man in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan, I was not on a distant highway, hurt and hopeless due to such a severe attack by robbers.

    Ok, you might laugh that I’m not exactly your helpless victim in peril here. And you may laugh just a bit more at the great irony of the man with the cross in the window not helping a brother in Christ. (It’s really kind of typical of our witness, isn’t it?)

    Yes, maybe there’s a lesson here too.

    So in our 21st century story I guess it’s the second guy who gets the punch line and the third guy’s no joke. In fact he’s just the kind of neighbor we all wish we had.

    The Good Samaritan

    Jesus’ parable could have begun with ‘a priest, a rabbi and a pastor’ scenario because in this same way His characters were just as familiar to the parable’s hearers.

    Three characters who could have helped

    A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:31 CSB

    To our many dear Jewish friends I might mention that the Messiah Jesus was considered a ‘lesser’ Jew from Galilee in the eyes of those proper Judean Jews who leaned on their status and the Law. After all, His parable was told to answer a question from the crowd mostly of Jews.

    This Priest is a Jewish Priest, a very pure and proper sort of guy. (We would not have much difficulty envisioning a Roman Catholic Priest or Orthodox Priest with all the robes, incense and the like.) The Priest of the LORD is a long-forgotten intermediary of Jewish worship.

    In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:32 CSB

    The Levites were a Priestly class of Jews better than everyone else by their nearness to religious duties. (Of course nobody in charge of ‘christian’ churches would ever feel like that.)

    We get it (and so did the Messiah’s crowds). A second man also could have helped, but didn’t. (The crowd awaits the Rabbi’s punch line.)

    So everyone knows that the next one will help. (Perhaps they will be of a different religious school of thought.)

    A Samaritan Stranger

    Samaria, on the other hand, had a bad rap in Judah due to long-established cultural prejudices.

    Those who followed the best religious practices expected a Jew to be the hero (just like we might expect a ‘good christian’ to do the right thing). Nobody expected a “Samaritan” to be ‘the good guy.’

    But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion… He went over to him… and took care of him… [paid an innkeeper] and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

    Luke 10: excerpt from Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan

    Questions from Lawyers

    Those who know a little more about the parable where two ‘religious’ guys (yes, Jews) didn’t help a man in need may know what prompted the Messiah’s parable.

    Jesus was answering another question from a lawyer. (You probably know his question.)

    But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

    Luke 10:29 NASB

    Don’t falsely assume that the Samaritan was not a religious man with good and godly principles (just as Jesus points out that we cannot conclude that everyone who claims obedience to the Law will do what is right).

    Prior to this question, most of us know Jesus confirmed the lawyer’s restated validity of the Law of Moses, which even Samaritans likely followed.

    But then the lawyer went a step further by asking, ‘How does this apply in this contemporary case?’ (Who is my neighbor?)

    A Contemporary Contention

    By now most of us tire of endless questioning by contentious legal minds. They demand the right of their differences.

    Who did right and how should we judge the failures of others?

    They play to the crowds who expect more from religious and political leaders than the ordinary people they represent.

    Careful, though. I tend toward this ‘phariseeism;’ and likely, beloved Christian brother, faithful Jew and misled Muslim, so do you.

    Jesus said, “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

    And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.

    John 8:15-16 NKJV

    Ordinary powerless Jews and gentiles loved Jesus’ leading because He has an answer to the endless questioning of others by self-righteous men. It is God’s answer to an all-important question.

    The Questioning before the Law

    So the lawyer in the crowd standing in the spotlight of the crowds surrounding Jesus restates the Law. (Moses had reiterated it so many times.)

    Deuteronomy – Devarim, “the words [of Moses]”.

    וּמָ֨ל יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
    source:
    30:12  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃

    5:20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    15:2 “And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.

    27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'

    Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

    Leviticus 19:18 KJV

    Do ‘christians’ know the question Jesus answered with this parable?

    ANSWER: The lawyer had asked Jesus this leading question:

    “… what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    The Good News of Luke 10:

    Recall that Doctor Luke is a gentile disciple of the first century church, who would have been an outsider to ‘God’s chosen.’

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan

    25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

    27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

    28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

    Do you as well have yet another question?

    “Do this and you will live,” the Messiah Jesus tells us.

    What must I do to receive eternal life? …

    This is the question Jesus answered with the parable of The Good Samaritan.

    Do you have a ‘Jesus’ bumper sticker on your car? (Didn’t you just cut me off in traffic? And you were on your cell, right?)

    You don’t really want to know more than what the LORD has commanded us, do you?

    Who’s right?

    So Jesus seems to pick on the Jews (rather than pick the Jews).

    Can a stranger actually inherit eternal life?

    Christians often treat Jews and Muslims who worship the One God as Samaritans, even though some follow custom and righteousness without grieving the Holy Spirit of the LORD.

    We all see and judge those Catholic Crosses and Protestant Jesus symbols. Yet what do these witness to others?

    Can anyone but the Lord God judge a man’s heart or draw one to repentance and eternal life?

    Some who do not fully believe that Jesus IS the only way to eternal life may be destined to see the Light of Truth on the path of righteousness.

    Even some secretive believers must hide their faith in the Living Messiah of the Lord God. Christians traveling the road between this temporary earthly home and the Jerusalem of true worship must go into all the world with Good News (and not false witness).

    Do you have a question for Jesus?

    You can take the LORD at His Word. Or ask a brother or sister truly following Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, “What must I do?”

    Beloved wounded man of flesh, fallen into the pit of sin along the dust of this dry and temporal life in failing flesh, I pray for your restoration to life, a recharging of your soul into the beginning of a true witness for the Messiah Jesus, One with the Father and Holy Spirit of the Most High God.

    Along this busy quick highway of life, before its end what must you do?

    Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

  • Life in the Spirit

    Life in the Spirit

    What is life?

    The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

    John 6:63b CSB the words of Christ Jesus

    Look intently into the eyes of anyone. Who do you see?

    What makes this mortal son or daughter of man so different?

    King or commoner, young or old, rich or poor — how does this life impact you personally? What is it about this person that makes their life matter?

    A young shepherd of little note speaks to a king. “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?”

    An aging king notes, “Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.”

    And another rich man who has lost everything laments, “For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God requires his life?”

    What is life and what does spirit have to do with it?

    Spirit Living in Flesh

    “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    John 4:24 NASB

    πνεῦμα ὁ θεός theos pneuma – The spirit of the Living God must be approached only in spirit and not in our flesh.

    Is man anything at all before the God of creation? How does the Lord breathe spirit from the holiness of His life-giving Spirit?

    One place the Bible reveals this nature of the One God is in the books of Moses.

    רוּחַ

    And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. – Genesis 1:2 WEB

    Do you realize Moses’ description of the Lord in Eden after original sin describe God as Spirit?

    וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ אֶת־קֹ֨ול יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן לְר֣וּחַ הַיֹּ֑ום וַיִּתְחַבֵּ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם וְאִשְׁתֹּ֗ו מִפְּנֵי֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֔ים בְּתֹ֖וךְ עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן׃

    Genesis 3:8 WLC – NASB translation: They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

    A translation of cool here comes from the word ‘spirit.’

    Therefore the man and his wife ‘heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the Spirit’ in this day following their sin. He created man in His spiritual image, filled our flesh made not for decay with the spirit of His own essence of goodness.

    Generations after man’s expulsion from a paradise on earth spoiled by the evil: “Then the LORD said,

    “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh…”

    So there it is: The LORD speaks to Moses this one mysterious truth of His immortality contending with our mortality.

    πνεῦμα

    The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

    John 6:63 NET – the words of Jesus

    The concept confuses mankind who cannot see the breath of life in our own flesh, that of others, in living creatures, unseen demons or the revealed eternal Spirit of the Living God.

    Our brief look at the Hebrew root [Strong’s H7307 – ruwach – רוּחַ ] primarily suggests: wind, breath and mind, in addition to the Spirit of the LORD God.

    Jesus’ words in common first century Greek also differentiate life in man and things from that of the Holy Spirit.

    πνεῦμα – Pneuma, also signifies: ‘the vital principal by which the body is animated; the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides; the soul, a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting; the wind itself, a breath of nostrils or mouth.

    It also includes beings (good or evil) higher than man, but lower than God; that is: angels, seraphim, cherubim, demons and the like. And of course, Satan is one of these created ones with beginning and end, but a powerful spirit of evil lower than the Lord God Almighty.

    From its root word John describes Jesus walking on the Sea after feeding 5000, a sign mentioned in my previous post.

    The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

    John 6:18 NASB

    Jesus describes more differences in unseen life, which we will explore more in my next post.

    “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

    John 3:8 NASB
    To be continued...