Fashionable
He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me. Psalm 101:7 NASB
Practices deceit – Who practices deceit? Who’s on your list of liars? Let’s see. Maybe some politicians (or may be all of them?). Maybe your ex-spouse. Maybe your business competitor. Maybe that guy down the road who you just can’t stand. Maybe someone from your past. If you stop and think about it, is there anyone in your life who has never lied to you? Do you think that David the king was proclaiming that no one who ever told a lie would dwell in his house? Hmm. That leaves him outside too. There must be something else going on here.
First is motive. Of course David wants all his household to not lie. It is a commandment of YHWH (bearing false witness – although there is a bit more involved in this mitzvah. Telling the truth is the basis of trust and therefore, the basis of economic and social interaction. Lying damages both the perpetrator and the victim. It insults the image of God in Man and God’s character. At nearly every level, deceit is disastrous.
But the Hebrew words David uses mean a lot more than a lie. Those words are ose r’miya (from asher and rama). Literally David says, “Those who fashion (make, manufacture) treachery (fraud, deception, sloth).” Let’s amplify. The list you made should now include companies that misrepresented their products or services, people who defrauded others, those who exhibited continual laziness, those who refused to put forth effort, people who cheated or duped or embezzled. Perhaps you could add a few more. David says that anyone who practices these kinds of actions will not find a place before the king. To practice is to perform regularly, to work at, to train, to carry out over and over. This is not the same as a mistake. Mistakes are unintentional. Mistakes can be forgiven. Everyone makes mistakes. But not everyone deliberately abuses the inherent trust of human beings in order to take advantage of another. When that happens, rama is being practiced.
We are quick to apply this lesson to our moral environment. We want to deal with people we can trust. But what do we do when we find that our spiritual advisors have deliberately defrauded us, not of money but of the truth? What do we do when we discover that our Bibles have been manipulated with theological intent? Do we feel Rabbi Singer’s outrage, “Who gave Christians permission to change the meanings of our Scriptures?” Have we been cheated by religion paradigms? Why do millions of worshippers pray to Mary? Who told them to do so? Why do we think the Church will receive the end-time promises of God? Who told us to believe that? Who manufactured our Bibles with so many bent verses? Who sold them to us? Who told us we could decide for ourselves how to live the Christian life? Who convinced us that abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage and anti-Semitism were matters of tolerance? How long will we listen before we become part of the problem?
Topical Index: deceit, practice, asher, rama, Psalm 101:7
Darkness conceals but Light reveals.
The Light of the world is Jesus, for He has said, “I AM the Light of the world”
Yeshua spoke to them again: “I AM the Light of the world; whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life.”
~ But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God ~ (John 3.21)
~ Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? ~ (John 7.48)
You Must Be Born From Above
There was a man among the P’rushim, named Nakdimon, who was a ruler of the Judeans. This man came to Yeshua by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know it is from God that you have come as a Teacher; for no one can do these miracles you perform unless God is with him.” “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nakdimon said to Him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit. Stop being amazed at my telling you that you must be born again from above! The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.”
Nakdimon replied, “How can this happen?” Yeshua answered him, “You hold the office of teacher in Isra’el, and you don’t know this? Yes, indeed! I tell you that what we speak about, we know; and what we give evidence of, we have seen; but you people don’t accept our evidence! If you people don’t believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of Heaven? 1 No one has gone up into Heaven; there is only the one who has come down from Heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that everyone who trusts in Him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave His only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in Him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. Those who trust in Him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the One who is God’s only and unique Son.
“Now this is the judgment: the Light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their actions were wicked. For everyone who does evil things hates the light and avoids it, so that his actions won’t be exposed. But everyone who does what is true comes to the Light, so that all may see that his actions are accomplished through God.”
After this, Yeshua and His talmidim went out into the countryside of Y’hudah, where He stayed awhile with them and immersed people. Yochanan too was immersing at Einayim, near Shalem, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to be immersed. (This was before Yochanan’s imprisonment.)
A discussion arose between some of Yochanan’s talmidim and a Judean about ceremonial washing; and they came to Yochanan and said to him, “Rabbi, you know the man who was with you on the other side of the Yarden, the one you spoke about? Well, here He is, immersing; and everyone is going to Him!” Yochanan answered, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from Heaven. You yourselves can confirm that I did not say I was the Messiah, but that I have been sent ahead of Him. The Bridegroom is the One who has the bride; but the Bridegroom’s friend, who stands and listens to Him, is overjoyed at the sound of the Bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine is now complete. He must become more important, while I become less important.
“He who comes from Above is above all. He who is from the earth is from the earth and talks from an earthly point of view; He who comes from Heaven is above all. He testifies about what He has actually seen and heard, yet no one accepts what He says! Whoever does accept what He says puts his seal on the fact that God is true, because the One whom God sent speaks God’s words. For God does not give him the Spirit in limited degree — the Father loves the Son and has put everything in His hands. Whoever trusts in the Son has eternal life. But whoever disobeys the Son will not see that life but remains subject to God’s wrath.”
Spirit of the living God, illumine me..
~ Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of Your law ~ (Psalm 119.18)
It reminds me that GOD, His Son-JESUS CHRIST, and His HOLY SPIRIT are the only ones EVER who have never, ever lied. This is one facet of the character of GOD that I desire to replicate within my family, my church and my community. Oh that one day I could stand before the Son and hear Him say…you spoke truthfully with all! May I listen to the pleading, the convicting of His HOLY SPIRIT, and not be accepting of anything but “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!”
It seems our typical brand of christianity has morphed in to an advanced discipline of shaping what the first and second testaments call us to do in to forms radically different than the original recipients.
We have specialized in creating the biggest chasm we can between hearing and doing, doing and hearing that is so much emphasized by the first century and previous Hebrews.
Dr. David Friedman, in his book, “James the Just,’ says “There is a vital and necessary connection in both ancient and modern Judaism between studying the Torah and living it (i.e. “doing it”). There is no separation of philosophical thought between the concepts of hearing and doing.”
Friedman indicates his understanding of Ex. 24:3 and 24:7 as they obeyed and did what YHWH commanded, THEN they heard, or sought to understand it as best it could be understood. Their original intent, that later went astray by some, was just do it. Once we do it, we can spend necessary time attempting to understand it all, if that is indeed possible. But whether we actually grasp any or all the ramifications of a mitzvot is beside the point. Doing what is demanded of us is the call and point.
Could it be “he who speaks falsehood” are those of us who fashion our own twisted standards to follow instead of simply doing just what YHWH says. We don’t really need to explain it until we actually do it. Only then will room for possible reasons materialize as we endeavor to discover what is behind the mitzvos. Even if we can’t give any rational justification, there is no validation of minimizing his word or modifying it or ultimately doing away with it outrightly.
It seems there is a fine balance between studying Torah and doing it. Do it first of all, then, major in prioritizing study of Torah to understand as completely as possible the clearest and purest way to do Torah in our daily living. We must begin to move toward mastering what the actual words meant in order to get closer and ever closer to doing what he wants us to do. That is a mighty tall order for those of us separated from the writers those hundreds and thousands of years ago. I have trouble and a huge challenge understanding and deciphering what teachers in my own lifetime say and mean. Good grief!
I’m peddling as fast and as healthy as I can.
I wrote a previous TW on the passage in Exodus. You might look at that too.
I read your 04/18/12 TW, if that’s the one you meant.
Great stuff.
Wow.
Such a barrage of excellent questions to ask ourselves!
Such application here. This stirs me up and makes me really carefully consider what my motivation is today (and every day).
I think the bottom line for me is accepting the idea that God is to be completely and unequivocally trusted. To simply chose to do something because I read it is so (God’s mitavos) is difficult because I want to know why before I do it!! Oh how Greek is that? Hehe Ridiculous how much that comes up in my thoughts.
What you said Michael is amazing. Do it first and then learn more about why you are doing what you are doing. That seems pretty Hebrew in thought to me.
I am impressed and thank you for sharing it with all of us other readers. I hope it lands as well with the majority as it did with me.
I have much to learn but I am getting more and more excited about it rather than discouraged as I go.
I think a lot of that is because I can see what a positive difference it makes in my life as I take God seriously and DO as He teaches me to do.
Yes, and amen. It was James, the half-brother of our LORD and early leader of the ‘First Assembly of Jerusalem,’ who said, ~ “be doers of the Word and not hearers only,” (James 1.22) and it was our LORD Himself who said, ~ if you love Me, – keep my commandments ~.
His own mother affirmed this also when she said unto the servants at the wedding of Cana, “whatever He says unto you.. -do it.”
This discussion adds a whole breadth of understanding about what it means to lie or bear false witness.
Howe does this reconcile however, with the story of Rahab who lies to protect the Hebrew spies? She appears to be honored for this.
If anyone has understanding, please comment.
Some time ago I gave a series on Rahab and the use of hesed. The answer to your question lies in the meaning of hesed and its power. I am sure I have written about this in prior Today’s Word editions. Try searching the web site for the appropriate verses or for “Rahab.”
Well Stated! And thank you! I liked the explanation of liars and mistake. So where can we obtain a copy of the New Testament that has not been altered thousands of times? Does such a book exist? And if so, why are we not aware of it. Thank you for any help regarding this matter.
This is approximately the third or fourth time that I have tried to comment, all before Dec.20, but it was never ;posted, so am writing this much to see if it gets posted before I write again. Thank You, LaVaye Billings
Okay, good, will write later. Thanks to whomever got it working for me! L.B.