I have atonement on the brain. I’ve reread many passages of Jacob Milgrom’s three-volume commentary on Leviticus lately. I’ve read twice, some parts more than twice, Scot McKnight’s excellent book, A Community Called Atonement (and I had read the book before when it was new in 2007). And I’ve been writing, throwing out un-creative and overly academic first drafts, and rewriting the chapters of Yeshua Our Atonement.

I’m glad we don’t use typewriters any more. Rewriting is already enough work. But I actually enjoy this and the creative in me wouldn’t want to spend my summer any other way. Study, write, family, congregation. Who could ask for anything more?

All that to say that today’s blog post springs out of my preparation for the book. It leapt off the page at me (reading from the elliptical trainer at LA Fitness) when I came across this list in McKnight’s book. I’ll take his list of eight kinds of “sin” and elaborate just a bit with examples and thoughts.

NOTE: In all the examples below, I list the Hebrew word in its simple form, not in the actual grammatical form in which it occurs in context.

פֶּשַׁע – pesha – rebellion

… extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving guilt, rebellion (pesha), and sin … (Exod 34:7).
Israel has been in rebellion (pesha) against the house of David to this day (1 Kgs 12:19).

Willfulness and a sense that we know better than God, that we do not need boundaries or wisdom about the best way to live, leads us to rebel. All creation is in a revolt and every act of headstrong defiance increases the wrongness of the world. Faith counters rebellion as does learning, since the ways of God will appear more and more lovely as we look into them.

מְשׁוּבָה – meshuvah – infidelity

Why is this people — Jerusalem — backsliding with a persistent infidelity (meshuvah)? (Jer 8:5).

Betrayal and unkindness to one who has been there for us is a sad human disease. We take for granted those who favor us, thinking we are secure in their love and that all will be forgiven. Frequent rehearsal of the goodnesses of God and our loved ones will help us see more clearly what they mean to us and why we should be faithful.

בֶּגֶד – beged – disloyalty, faithlessness

Woe is me! The faithless (beged) have acted faithlessly (beged); The faithless (beged) have broken faith (beged)! (Isa 24:16).

Double crossing and stabbing in the back, we treat those who love us with unkindness. Disloyalty and infidelity are alike. We need to increase our attachment to God and loved ones, so that hurting them becomes more unthinkable.

טֻמְאָה – tum’ah – getting dirty

… when he touches human uncleanness — any such uncleanness whereby one becomes unclean — and, though he has known it, the fact has escaped him, but later he realizes his guilt … (Lev 5:3).

In Torah, becoming unclean (impure) is not a sin. It is the failure of Israelites to undergo the purification procedures that is a sin. This system of purity laws (which is about God’s aversion to death) teaches us many things, but not least is this: God has some ways that are not rationally necessary. God’s symbolic requirements of us, his communal requirements for us, are as important as issues of right and wrong.

עָוֹן – ‘avon – wandering

He forgives all your wandering (‘avon), heals all your diseases (Psa 103:3).
… the iniquity (‘avon) of the Amorites is not yet complete (Gen 15:16).

The idea of guilt assumes a judge and a standard. Guilt is both a feeling and a verdict passed on us by a judge. Our guilt can be real or imagined. We need to learn about and increase our understanding of forgiveness, God’s mercy, and the lifestyle of repairing the world which undoes the harm of evil and rehabilitates us.

מַעַל – ma’al – trespass

None of the righteous deeds that he did shall be remembered; because of the treachery (ma’al) he has practiced (ma’al) and the sins he has committed — because of these, he shall die (Ezek 18:24).
… the whole account of his sin and trespass (ma’al), and the places in which he built shrines … (2 Chron 33:19).

In human relationships as well as in our connection to God, trespasses do harm. A fly in the perfume spoils the whole lot. We need to learn to do good without spoiling it in selfish trespasses, to love without adding selfishness.

עָבַר – ‘avar – to transgress

I determined that my mouth should not transgress (‘avar) (Psa 17:3).
If you break (‘avar) the covenant that the Lord your God enjoined upon you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them (Jos 23:16).

The ego can become monstrous and is a master of disguising itself with excuses, even calling transgressions a “right” or acting as if our motive is love. Learning humility is about grasping the goodness of other people and God and rejoicing in things more important than selfish desire. Dedication to God’s mission to repair the world will teach us not to transgress.

חַטָּאת – khatta’t – failure or missing the mark

The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin (khatta’t) so grave! (Gen 18:20).
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have been guilty (khatta’y) of a great sin (khatta’t) (Exod 32:30).

Ultimately we all miss the mark. Sins great and small fill all of our lives. No matter how much we allow the wisdom of God and the power of God to transform us, we will always have to say, “We have no good deeds in us.”

The second part of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) is about the Israelite exiles in Babylon. But the words of Isaiah 45:18-25 are addressed to the gentiles who are refugees during Cyrus the Persian’s conquest of Babylon. Perhaps the prophet’s primary audience is the Israelites but through their eyes he has a message to and about the nations and their turning to God in faith.

This passage is all the more important because it addresses gentiles and also because part of it becomes a messianic hymn of the early Yeshua movement. Compare Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:5-11. What is the message of Isaiah in these verses?

COMMENTARY: ISAIAH 45:18-25
I will give below a concise commentary, verse by verse. I will use the ESV translation except in vss. 23-25 where I will use my own. If you are in a hurry, skip to the SUMMARY AND APPLICATION below.

18 For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord, and there is no other. (ESV)

The Creator made the world for people, to be their God. He made it to be beautiful and inhabited. He is addressing the refugees and survivors of the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE (see below on vs. 20). The highest definition of the Creator in ancient terms is “creator of the heavens,” since the heavens cover all the world and express the universality of his dominion. He formed and made the earth, assigning functions to give it all order. Therefore what he has made is not a formless waste (tohu, as in Genesis 1:2, desert). He made it to be inhabited and thus his creation always was for people and living beings.

19 I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I the Lord speak the truth;
I declare what is right.(ESV)

He addresses here the complaint from vs. 15 (“you are a hidden God”) and says, “I did not speak [to Israel] in secret.” The nations should be able to look at Jacob, the people called by Hashem, and see that their way in the world is different than all other peoples. Israel is Hashem’s light and in them he is revealed, not hidden.

20 “Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together,
you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge
who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god
that cannot save. (ESV)

He invites the wandering, hopeless gentiles to reason as in a court dispute (the refugees from the Persian conquest of Babylon). There is no soundness in the case for idols and polytheism. In the prophecies and wisdom revealed to Israel, God has shown in advance what will happen, and the idol-worshipping nations should be able to see truth.

21 Declare and present your case;
let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none besides me. (ESV)

In contrast to dead idols he is the God of whom we can say he lives and in spite of the existence of forces and powers higher than humankind, the true meaning of deity is the one and only Eternal above all things. In the prophecies and wisdom revealed to Israel, God has shown in advance what will happen, and the idol-worshipping nations should be able to see truth. He alone is deity, alone is Justice, alone is Savior. God is establishing post-exilic Israel not only for Israel’s sake, but also to show the world he is God and Savior of everyone.

22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other. (ESV)

In the previous verses they were told they could look to Israel and see that God is real while idols are not. Now God says that these refugees can be saved. We might ask what they will be saved from? Radak says, “Just as you have seen Israel saved by me, since they turn to me, so will you, all the nations from one end of the earth to the other.” God offers personal and corporate hope, that turning to him in faith can give peoples a purpose and identity just as Israel possesses.

23 By myself I have sworn,
A word issues from my righteous mouth,
And it will not return to me,
Every knee will bow,
And every tongue will swear, (my translation)

Every knee will bow someday. What does this mean? Is it that the doubters about God will begrudgingly be forced to bow the knee in the final day? Or does it mean the doubters will repent and turn in faith to Hashem? The next two verses are crucial for understanding this. Note that vs. 23 is cited in the New Testament in an early hymn of the messianic movement, equating Yeshua with Hashem (Phil 2:10).

24 ‘Surely in Hashem,’ he will say,
‘is abundant justice.’
And strength will come unto him,
that all who were angry with him will be ashamed. (my translation)

Vs. 23 ended with “every tongue will swear” and now in vs. 24 are the words every tongue will swear, “Surely in Hashem is abundant justice!” The meaning of vs. 24 is crucial and it is a difficult verse, capable of various translations. The gentile who turns to Hashem will discover covenant righteousness and will see reconciliation with his enemies and safety from his perils. The ultimate application of vs. 23 (“every knee will bow”) may very well be in the life to come, but first this passage envisions what happens when people turn to God in this present world and experience a new way of life and peace.

25 In Hashem they prove right
and praise all the seed of Israel. (my translation)

Vs. 25 is crucial to the meaning as well. That is to say, when gentiles bow the knee to Hashem and discover covenant righteousness, they prove that Israel is truly the vessel of God’s blessing and praise Israel for bearing witness to Hashem.

SUMMARY AND APPLICATION
God made the world for all people and he called one people, Israel, first. He did this so that all peoples would look to Israel and know truth. God’s purpose is righteous, to show humanity covenant goodness. Israel is his witness. The story of Israel is the story of good news for the world. Israel itself is a Bible of truth to which the gentiles may look. The reality of exile and destruction is not denied, but the promise lives on pointing forward. In the future time, every knee will bow because every person will see that God is good.

The early messianic movement, even before Paul’s letter was written to the Philippians, used Isaiah 45:23 in a hymn (Phil 2:5-11). They saw in Yeshua, the Ideal Israel himself, the fulfillment of this promise. Yeshua in the hymn is both Israel (the one to whom people look to see truth) and God himself (the knees bow to Yeshua in the hymn). The story of Yeshua is the story of Israel. The swearing allegiance to Hashem is swearing allegiance to Yeshua. The pieces come together in Yeshua, from creation to consummation of all things in the world to come. God is reconciling all things in Yeshua, the Son of Israel.

Well, kryptonite runs amok on the internet in a gigantic profusion of youtube videos, Facebook posts, tweets on Twitter, websites, and forums where people think there is secret knowledge which can save you. That secret knowledge (snake oil alert!!) is the long-lost name of God: “Yahuwah”.

Why am I starting a “Messianic Wall of Weird”? Although I will in some ways be making fun or denouncing certain teachers and schools of thought, my purpose is actually concern. I am concerned that well-meaning people who want to know God are tricked by hucksters. I am concerned that Christians think Messianic means weirdness. I am concerned that Jews think Messianic means weirdness. I am concerned that snake oil sells better than Torah and gospel. I am concerned by the hundreds of people I see posting errors and lies on Facebook — most innocently as they learned these things from the kind of people I will be holding up to scrutiny. Let’s start with some propagators of the Yahuwah silliness.

Snake oil salesmen used to roll into town with secret medicines intended to cure all your ills. The secret ingredients were the thing. Selling secret information has been a trick of bad religion for a long time. The “secret” ingredients in snake oil were alcohol and/or laudanum (addicting and guaranteed to make you feel better). The “secret” ingredients in the Yahuwah cult are a sense of exclusive entitlement, a promise of narrow salvation, and an inside track to the supposed depths of who God really is while the vast millions of Christians and Jews out there have it all wrong.

Labels like “Messianic” and “Hebraic” and “Netzarim” and “Nazarene” are code words for these hucksters. They have no connection to actual Hebrew, bona fide Jewish people, or any real ancient knowledge. They are merely sales tools designed to deceive.

If you have a strong stomach, Google Yahuwah or search it on youtube. I did. Let me present to you a few examples of the ignorant twaddle being disseminated.

MESSENGER-OF-THE-NAME ON YOUTUBE
This guy has a very large, old, beat up Bible. He knows nothing about Hebrew (I will talk about some of his blunders in this video). He says there has been a conspiracy by the leaders of religion to cover up the true name of God. But he has, through his amazing scholarship, using nothing but English translations, Strong’s Concordance, and [I am guessing] Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons. Before you possibly decide to waste 10:24 of your life watching this video, know that afterwards I will point out a few of the more egregious errors below it.

Okay, on to some mistakes:

• He says that the name of God has been lost due to a conspiracy of religious leaders. Well, what is “messenger of the name” if not a wannabe religious leader? What he really means is: “quit following those other religious leaders and follow me instead.”
• He says the origin the English word “Lord” is from the Hebrew בַּעַל Baal (BAH-all). I think if you look into it you will find “Lord” comes from titles used for nobility in Europe.
• He says that the English word “God” comes from the Hebrew גַּד (gahd) meaning “fortune deity.” I think if you will look into it you will find it comes from the German “Gott”.
• He cites a passage in Isaiah 65 where God complains about some Israelites who have ceased to “call on my name.” He tells us this means they quit using the name Yahuwah. He never proves that the name is Yahuwah. We all must be idiots to think Isaiah was talking about people ceasing to pray or believe in him. Rather, we should accept messenger-of-the-name’s unproven assertion that the secret name of God Yahuwah is meant.
• He tells us he knows all about false names of God and proceeds to misspell most of them. He thinks Molech in Hebrew is מֹלֶק and that the way to pronounce Chemosh is (KHEEmush). He spells Satan in Hebrew with a regular נ at the end of the name and not a final ן. Yet he repeats that their names are in the Bible in “perfect Hebrew!” He’s really emphatic about that and doesn’t know Hebrew. He also says Jews are wrong to pronounce Satan as (sah-TAHN) and that he knows from Strongs it is really say-TUNN.
• In case you didn’t understand that last point, you can check for yourself that this guy does not now how to spell Molech in Hebrew, to pronounce Chemosh, or that Satan is pronounced sah-TAHN in Hebrew.
• His explanation of the name Baal (BAH-all) is hilarious. His big complaint: it is generic word for “lord” and that is the origin of the heresy of using generic terms like “God” and “Lord” instead of the super-secret divine Name that teachers like him can bestow on us.
• He has no idea that Baal in Canaanite religion was a title usually followed by a second signifier (Baal Zaphon, for example). He has no idea Baal in Hebrew means “master” or “lord” or in modern Hebrew “husband.”
• He says, “Nowadays some rabbis even use the title Baal for themselves.” He doesn’t have a clue it is a perfectly normal word for master in ancient and modern languages (and also “husband”). Is it evil to call someone “master” or “husband”?
• It is evil, he claims, to use general titles for God. He seems to have no idea the Bible uses Elohim over 2500 times and El plenty more! What are they but generic titles, the same ones used by nations surrounding Israel.
• Perhaps the most hilarious tripe in this video is the idea that Santa Claus’s pointed “Phrygian cap” comes from Molech!

KINGDOM-OF-YAH, THE #1 YAHUWAH SITE ON GOOGLE
The first paragraph of this lovely site proclaims:

Check out the preface of your Bible under “YHWH” or “the Covenant Name of God” and it will usually admit that the Covenant Name of our Father Creator is taken out and changed in favor of Jewish-Christian traditions!

Well, I doubt the kingdom-of-yah site author will care, but in the New Testament the apostles do the same thing. They do not attempt to spell out the divine Name in Greek letters. Instead the use the title Kurios (Lord).

In the second paragraph, in a hilarious bit of Hebrew ignorance, he says that Messiah signifies MessiYAH. Never mind that in Hebrew it is mah-SHEE-akh (Mashiakh). Where is the “yah” in that?

He tries to give the page a sense of scholarly depth by showing a fragment of a Greek copy of scripture (apparently it is from the minor prophets). He points to the fact that in this scroll the divine Name is written in the ancient kind of Hebrew letters (what scholars call paleo-Hebrew, but the kingdom-of-yah author says this also is a deception).

Why does he point to this scroll fragment? He is trying to show us that true believers in the secret Yahuwah name have existed for many ages. And you, dear reader, should ignore Judaism and Christianity and the practice of the apostles in the New Testament and take his word for it that what some scribes in the desert did 2,000 years ago should be your basis for faith in the secret name.

But the thing is, in truth, they only wrote the consonants on this Greek fragment and not the vowels. Even his one example with some potential for academic credibility has nothing to do with the secret knowledge he is peddling.

He claims that “Jew” and “Hebrew” are words coined in the last 400 years. No one ever heard these words before that. And he says “Jew” is a curse word!! So is “Hebrew”! You see where this kind of revisionism gets you: always back to anti-Semitism.

I wonder how many people who post the word Yahuwah on Facebook have any idea what sort of teachings they are supporting?

His silliness reaches its height in this paragraph which I will not bother to debunk, but simply to cite in full:

YAHUWAH himself began the breaking of this “Great Persecution of YAHUWans and The Word of YAH” (Mat 24) with the many spiritual awakenings from the Reformation on and the following birth of world wide religious freedom in AmericAH in 1776-7, followed by the DUWtch, YApan, ChinAH, KoreAH, GUWths, FrancAH, Breit-ish, Scot-ish, YArish, RussiYAn, PrussiYAn, AustraliYA, South AfricAH and other multiple awakenings.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: THE WORD “GOD”
Isaiah 45:22 is a good corrective to the idea that only some long-lost specific pronunciation of the divine Name can save you:

פְּנוּ־אֵלַי וְהִוָּשְׁעוּ כָּל־אַפְסֵי־אָרֶץ כִּי אֲנִי־אֵל וְאֵין עוֹד

Penoo ayl-ie ve-heev-va-sh’oo kol af-say a-retz kee anee El ve-ayn oad.

Turn to me, all the ends of the earth, and be saved! For I am God (El) and there is no other.

A faith that points to bigger things, a faith that uses symbols as signposts, communicates better than a faith without. It is no mystery why in Torah a festival with unleavened bread and spring lambs, another with cut branches and brush arbors, and other signs and remembrances of release from Egypt and wisdom given at Sinai, is prescribed by God. Earthly signs of heavenly realities give us tangible pointers to invisible meaning. A feast-filled faith is, well, bigger.

The traditions of Judaism surrounding Shavuot augment the original requirements (pilgrimage, sheaves of wheat, shared feast) with new ones (omer counting, late night study sessions, reading Ruth, the Akdamut). Shavuot is a remembrance (all the more so for Messianic Judaism) and it can also be a wedding.

SHAVUOT AS REMEMBRANCE

Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.
(Exodus 19:5-6 JPS)

On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
(Exodus 19:16 JPS)

All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance. “You speak to us,” they said to Moses, “and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses answered the people, “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.” So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.
(Exodus 20:15-18 JPS)

If you study Shir HaShirim Rabbah (Song of Songs Rabbah, the 6th century midrash collection on Song of Songs) you will find that the early rabbinic movement thought in detail about the love relationship between God and Israel in this moment at Sinai. In perhaps the most poignant of all the midrashim here (and I am grateful to my mentor, Rabbi Carl Kinbar, with whom I am studying midrashim) the rabbis speculate about the consequences of Israel asking Moses to be a mediator.

When the people heard Torah directly from God’s mouth, it was like the line in Song of Songs, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” (1:2). The kisses are words of Torah received directly from God’s own mouth. And the rabbis ponder this idea: when Israel heard God directly, they gained the ability to know truth without needing to study and without having to ever worry about forgetting.

But when the people were afraid, when they asked Moses to listen to God and then speak to the people, when they brought in a mediator and ceased receiving the words directly from his mouth, the study of Torah changed. Now the Jewish people would have to study Torah and write long commentaries and pass down traditions, always forgetting so that daily study would be required to know what could have been known without effort! Something has been lost, but it will be regained.

The people say to Moses, “Oh that he would speak to us a second time! Oh that he would again kiss us with the kisses of his mouth!”

Moses said, “He will, but this is not for this time, but for the time to come.” That is, Torah will be written on our hearts as per Jeremiah’s prophecy.

Shavuot is the remembrance of the giving of Torah at Sinai. Some see it as a wedding. The ketubah (marriage contract) is Torah. This is not a perfect or complete understanding (Torah is not merely a promise of the groom to the bride, but a requirement placed on the bride of faithfulness and holiness). Nonetheless, a wedding can be a sign of the meaning of Shavuot.

A WEDDING ON SHAVUOT
On a website recently (can’t find it at the moment) I saw a modern rabbi who incorporates a wedding-like ceremony into his synagogue’s observance of Shavuot. The people are already gathered with dairy dishes and flowers. There is a great feast laid out. The readings and customs of Shavuot are already being followed. He adds to that a huppah (Jewish wedding canopy) from which he reads some of God’s words of love to Israel (selections from Exodus 19, Deuteronomy 4 and 10, perhaps). The people respond with Exodus 19:8 (“All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”).

SPIRIT AND MESSIAH
For Messianics and Christians there is an added element to Shavuot. The event which happened in the Temple at Shavuot (Pentecost) in Acts 2 is parallel to what happened at Sinai in Exodus 19. The words of Peter in Acts 2:14-21 are appropriate to recite at our Shavuot remembrance. To them we might add Paul’s understanding of Law and Spirit in Romans 8:1-6.

A FEAST TO BE REMEMBERED
I encourage leaders in our movement and among Christians who have discovered the feasts of the Bible to make Shavuot a special observance. Do it big. Follow the customs (see “Shavuot: Meaning and Practice”). Add a wedding affirmation by having the leader read some selected words of God from under a huppah and the people respond with Exodus 19:8. Pass out flowers and dance in a circle singing praises. Make it unforgettable for the children.

“There arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). Let’s not let this happen so easily in our community. Let’s find our place at the table of tradition.

See my book FEAST at LifeWay.com.

One sacred cow that holds people back from getting far more out of Genesis (and Isaiah, Proverbs, Psalms, etc.) is that “create” in Genesis 1 means “out of nothing” (ex nihilo, for you theology buffs). Important clarification: I, and also the people whose writing I will allude to, absolutely believe that God created out of nothing, that he and he alone is the source and origin of all that exists. This is not about whether God created out of nothing. It is about “what does ‘create’ mean in Genesis and what is it teaching us?” Also, this is not a liberal-theology-indoctrination-pamphlet (I know some readers worry about that). It’s reading Genesis for what it really is about.

And the difference it makes, in seeing what creation in Genesis is really about, is you don’t get sucked into unfortunate arguments about choosing between “what the Bible says” and “what science says.” It would be good for most of us to get beyond either-or and black-and-white simplicism (my spell checker says “simplicism” is not a word, but it should be).

My decision to blog about this came this morning as I wrote my “Daily Isaiah” email message about Isaiah 45:9-13. Vs. 12a says, anokhee aseetee eretz v’adam alayha vara’tee (“I, I made earth and humankind on it I created”). The word “create” is from the familiar root bara. What does bara mean and how does that tell us more about creation in Genesis 1?

ROADBLOCKS TO UNDERSTANDING GENESIS 1
Before we ever get to the word “create” and its meaning, there are plenty of roadblocks for a modern reader to get over to reach the goal of perception. The wisdom of Genesis 1 is worth attaining. We might need to throw out some of the heavy cargo from our trucks to make it over the rough road though.

First, there is the matter of translating verse 1. There are three main possibilities. I won’t go into them here in detail. I will simply bring up three possible interpretations:

1. Vs. 1 describes an act of creation which happened prior to vs. 2 and about which Genesis 1 says nothing (“before the story I am about to tell you, God created the heavens and the earth”).
2. Vs. 1 is not a complete sentence, but a clause leading into vs. 2 (“when God began to create … the earth was formless and void”).
3. Vs. 1 is simply a summary of what is to follow and no action occurs in it at all (“in the beginning God created … and here is how it happened”).

All three views have their proponents. But my point in bringing this up is that modern readers often assume it is easy to tell what is going on right from verse 1. But it is a good idea to keep an open mind. We ought to think about what God actually does in Genesis 1 and not assume things based on old arguments about evolution vs. creation. (And here is a place where John Hobbins discusses the lack of ex nihilo creation in Genesis 1).

Second, we have the problem of group-think and totalitarian control by religious consensus looming over us. For too many people it is not an honest reading of the Bible that sets limits on our thinking, but the peer pressure of the religious group. And what many people think is the “biblical view on the matter” is actually the opinion of the uninformed being labeled as “biblical.” The solution is an open mind and eyes that actually read. Too little reading and too much arguing have led to a spiritual stalemate that many are trapped in.

BARA AS “CREATE” OR AS “SET IN ORDER”
John Walton of Wheaton ends up defining the Hebrew word bara as “assigning function.” Trying to keep it simple, I am using the translation “set in order.” At the beginning, God assigned functions for the things of heaven and earth. He set all things in order. Although it is true that God “brought all things into existence from nothing,” this is not what Genesis 1 is about. Walton gives a detailed, yet not overly long, and easy to understand summary of it all in The Lost World of Genesis One (here on amazon).

One of the helpful things Walton does is study the verb bara in the Hebrew Bible and ask the question: what kinds of things does God “create”? It is easy to see with some of the things God creates that these are not “brought into existence from nothingness”: darkness, a pure heart, wonders, a nation, a cloud of smoke, Israel.

How does God, for example, create darkness? Darkness is not a thing (it is the absence of light). Perhaps bara is not about “bring the material into being from nothingness” so much as setting times, places, and things in order. There is a period of light (day) and a period of darkness (night) on the earth and God set this pattern in order to be the way of things on earth. Whoever wrote Genesis 1 (many assume it was Moses, but it could pre-date Moses or, as many modern scholars think, post-date Moses), we can say with certainty: they did not know the earth was round, rotated on its axis, and that this rotation caused periods of light and darkness. Nor should we assume that God divinely dictated advanced astronomical concepts to them. They simply understood that the earth is God’s Temple, it has a certain order, and the originator and sustainer of that order is God.

So, in Genesis 1 we see functional creation and not out-of-nothing creation. Vs. 2 suggests that earth already existed and was formless and void until God set all things in order. He assigned functions to things and gave creation purpose.

HASHEM OF ISRAEL VS. MARDUK OF BABYLON
Do we think that the Bible was written in a vacuum? Were there no other writings when the texts now included in the Bible were first spoken and written down? Was Genesis the only book in the bookstore? Was the land of Israel sealed up and isolated from the surrounding peoples? According to the Bible itself, Israel was in constant interaction with the other peoples of the Near East and there were good and bad results from this interaction.

Genesis advocates a specific belief about what “deity” means and what it means to be “Israel” as a people. And in some very obvious ways, Genesis reacts to the ideas of surrounding cultures and especially those of Babylon and wider Mesopotamia. And a main concern in Genesis is to show that God is the Ultimate One and not merely a divine being with power over the forces of nature.

In the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation myth, Marduk takes the Tablet of Destinies from Kingu, the demon god and lover of Tiamat the chaos dragon. This Tablet of Destinies allows Marduk the power to assign fates to things and beings in the cosmos. After killing Tiamat, Marduk uses the power of the Tablet of Destinies to separate heaven and earth, appoint the heavenly bodies such as sun and moon, and to assign roles to humanity and other gods and goddesses (whose power is over the forces of nature).

In other words, the chief god of Babylon uses a power higher than himself — magic, controlled in this case by the Tablet of Destinies — to decree fates and assign roles. Yet the God of Israel is said in Genesis to be that ultimate power himself and to use only his spoken Word. He does work very similar to what the Babylonians credit to Marduk. God separates a period of light (day) from a period of darkness (night). He separates waters above (sky) from waters below (ocean, rivers). He separates dry land from water. He assigns plants to reproduce after their kinds. He assigns the lights of the heavens. He assigns creatures to live in the air and water. He assigns creatures to live on land. And he assigns humanity, male and female, their role as keepers of the world. Humanity does not serve God in the same way as in Babylon (slaves to bring them food) but is a free creature given dominion over the world.

This is what functional creation is all about. It’s not about the origin of the cosmos from nothing. That question was of less interest than other ones like: why is time divided into days and nights? Why don’t barley stalks produce olives? Why will sheep and goats not produce offspring together? Why are people dominant on earth and the only beings with higher thought and speech? Why do humans know and worship God (or gods) while animals do not?

Once you have realized that Genesis 1 is about God assigning purpose and meaning to the elements of creation, the next step is to see that the world is God’s Temple. He does not dwell in a house made with hands. He made the world to be his place. And he will dwell here — in the world to come. But that story deserves its own chapter . . . Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a commentary on Genesis and can handle one that is a bit academic, this is my favorite. It’s out of print and can be gotten used on amazon here or it is in most university libraries: Umberto Cassuto, From Adam to Noah: A Commentary on Genesis I-VI.

From 2009, some Shavuot Music and a Picnic at Tikvat David (in Atlanta).

Two-tenths of an ephah is about 18 cups of flour. But is that two loaves, each being 9 cups or two loaves of 18 cups each (a “normal” loaf of bread is 4 cups of flour)? In any case, our apartment in Chicago was about 400 square feet. Our oven was small (only a small turkey would fit in it). I think we only tried to make a 9-cup loaf. We almost had to call the fire department!

Wheat is a big deal to the Leman family (we grind our own wheat and make our own bread). Shavuot (Pentecost) is traditionally about flowers and dairy foods. In temple times it was a great feast and quite a lot of lamb, goat, and some beef was being grilled as well (a great kosher BBQ!). The Lemans get together with the congregation for a big outdoor picnic every year and enjoy food and outdoor music.

In what follows, I will summarize (there is so much that can be said, Shavuot is easily worthy of a book) the meaning and practices of Shavuot.

SHAVUOT IN JEWISH SOURCES AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Shavuot (Weeks, Pentecost) is one of the three pilgrim feasts of Torah, a time when the males (and often families) would come for a large gathering at the Temple (see especially Lev 23 and Deut 16).
• Shavuot is a Yom Tov, a special Sabbath on whatever weekday it occurs (cooking is permitted on Yom Tovs, unlike regular Sabbaths).
• In the fifty days leading up to Shavuot, we count the Omer (a way of literally fulfilling Leviticus 23:15).
• A man has nought else to do on a festival save to eat and drink or to sit and study. Divide it: devote half of it to eating and drinking and half to the beit midrash [house of study].” –R. Joshua, Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 68b
• It is customary to eat dairy dishes as Torah is like milk for newborn babes (cheese ravioli, blintzes, cheesecake, etc.).
• Shavuot is traditionally the day God spoke to Israel from Mount Sinai (Ten Commandments) — and you can determine from Exodus that the commandments were given at roughly the time of Shavuot.
• At one particular Shavuot (Pentecost), just after Yeshua’s resurrection and ascension, the Yeshua-disciples at the Temple had the sign of a flame over them, indicating the Holy Spirit came upon them to cause them to speak in languages they did not know as a sign of God’s favor on this new movement (see Acts 2).
• Shavuot begins at evening, after the stars are out, and following the Erev Shavuot service, some have a Tikkun Leil Shavuot (staying up late, some all the way until morning) following special readings from the Bible in study pairs (chevrutot).
• The book of Ruth is read on Shavuot (for a variety of reasons — see below for more).
• A special prayer called the Akdamut (it means “introduction”) is read or chanted — it contains beautiful imagery of praise.
• I suggest that Ezekiel 36:26-27 and Romans 8:4 are great texts to read in addition to Acts 2 and the book of Ruth.

RUTH AND SHAVUOT
I have been teaching a class on “Translating and Interpreting Ruth” in our Tikvat David Learning Center in Atlanta and posting the notes online. This has turned into some Saturday morning studies in Ruth with the congregation as well. And in August I will be teaching two different levels of Ruth (one for those who can basically read some Hebrew and one for those who don’t know Hebrew) through the New School for Jewish Studies (see it here). Would you like to study Ruth? At the higher level we will translate some portions and discuss the concepts of hesed and tikvah and redemption in the book. At the lower level we will learn to read some Hebrew words in Ruth while discussing the literary and theological meaning.

Meanwhile, at my readingruth.wordpress.com blog (where I post class notes) I have an article on “Ruth and Shavuot” (see it here). The reasons we read Ruth at Shavuot are many.

A RESOURCE FOR CHRISTIANS
In 2008, LifeWay published one of my most popular books, Feast: Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition (see it here). Chapter 2 explains Shavuot and helps you celebrate it.

Counter-cultural circles can be good or bad. The opposite of counter-cultural is mainstream. In our time, in the U.S.A., what is mainstream? Our culture, it seems to me as a non-expert, centers on prosperity and entertainment. Likewise our religious culture centers on prosperity and entertainment. After these two chief pillars, political debate seems next most important. People yell at each other in blogs, comments on news blogs, radio, television, and almost completely talk past each other. It is a national sport and more violent than football or even mixed martial arts.

Any person can easily be part of many overlapping circles of cultural involvement. Let me narrow culture down a bit more to religious culture, especially Christian, as that is the dominant religious culture here. We have been in a time of change in the religious culture for a few decades with some trends that seem good to me (an increased appreciation for the Hebrew Bible and the gospels) and some not as good (an increase in shallowness and anonymity in organized religion).

Welcome to counter-cultural religious circles. Some are terrible. White supremacism. That’s one counter-cultural group we can easily reject.

Some are basically good but resist progress, as reactionary movements stuck in a certain bygone century. The Neo-Reformed movement. That’s one that I think is doing harm, elevating 16th century theology as the be-all, clinging tightly to the Paul-is-the-sum-of-the-Bible old paradigm. The Gospel Coalition, part of this Neo-Reformed movement, rejects the idea that the gospel means the story of Jesus as the next chapter in the continuing story of Israel (for a good explanation of “gospel,” see Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel).

And then we come closer to the counter-cultural circles which many MJ Musings readers are part of. The feasts of Israel. The Sabbath. The weekly Torah portions. These things have drawn and are drawing many Christians into various Judeo-Christian circles (some strange in their beliefs, many struggling to articulate what it means to be “grafted in” to Israel). The continuing election of Israel as the chosen people. The promises of restoration of the people of Israel. The realization that Messiah is divine and hidden within Judaism. The joy of community that unites Torah and Messiah-faith. These are cornerstones of Messianic Jewish, Messianic Gentile, and blended messianic circles.

Let’s look back in broad brush strokes at the very early messianic movement, circa 50 CE. Paul is already out there pounding the Roman roads telling gentile God-fearers that the promises in Abraham are revealed in Yeshua. The congregation in Jerusalem and, to a lesser degree the one in Antioch, are the mother congregations. Yeshua-followers are mostly Jews and gentiles who have been for some time in synagogues.

Assuming that Larry Hurtado’s understanding of the development of Yeshua-worship and the divinity of Yeshua is correct (see How on Earth Did Jesus Become God?) there is already great tension between messianics and mainstream synagogue culture. Looking at the descriptions in Acts and Paul’s letters, we can see that messianics tend to have their own meetings. They are small pockets of Yeshua-disciples in a broader Roman culture and in tension with the smaller synagogue culture.

These very early messianics exist in disciple circles. They are counter-cultural. They have teachers and facilitators of various kinds. They have the usual human problems. Why do people idealize the early believers? Read the letters of the New Testament. The same things that plague groups you and I are involved in plagued them too. Meta-leaders like Paul and Peter write to them explaining how to exist as true disciple circles, organizing their communities with roles for teachers and facilitators. How will they make progress, be true to Messiah, and do something worthwhile in a huge culture that is against them? More to come.

Now let’s also look back on the early rabbinic movement, after the First and Second Jewish Revolts (66-70 CE and 132-136 CE). Things that defined Jewish life when the Temple was standing are no more. Jews in Israel and all over the Roman empire are forming a synagogue culture. The rabbis are scholars, not clergy. Let me say that again. The rabbis are scholars, not clergy. Forget what “rabbi” means today and do not think of rabbis as “pastors.”

They work trades and are not full-time scholars, much less clergy. Many are in their circles as learners who may or may not merit the title rabbi. There are rabbis and students of rabbis. They exist in disciple circles. Study groups, not weekly synagogue meetings, are the center of their enterprise.

As time goes on, their skills as scholars and, more and more, their ability to weave captivating parables and stirring midrashes full of passion and meaning draw synagogues to ask them to speak. “Let us hear some parables, rabbi!” They are counter-cultural, believing that for the Jewish people to advance, there must be more study. Many of them think the parables and midrashes are not as important as technical study. But the people find the technical study boring while loving the homilies and the intricate ways of finding Divine Love in Israel’s story. (Rabbi Carl Kinbar will be telling the story of the early rabbinic movement in detail in a forthcoming book which will get much attention here at MJ Musings).

The point of these musings . . . we are a counter-cultural movement in Messianic, Hebrew Roots, and Judeo-Christian circles. If you are reading this, you are likely to be involved at some level with other people who go against the grain of mainstream religious culture. You are a Jew in love with Yeshua and finding the intersection of Messianic devotion and Jewish tradition to be a lush garden. Or you are a non-Jew attached through one of a variety of ideas about what it means to be “grafted in.” Or you are a Christian comfortable with mainstream Christianity while looking beyond it for extra inspiration and information about the roots of your faith.

And the very early messianic movement was a set of counter-cultural circles. And the early rabbinic movement was a set of counter-cultural circles.

What do you do with your circle? How do you participate? What is the value of the circle you are in?

Paul addressed his circles with advice:

Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Be at peace among yourselves.

-Romans 14:19; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Romans 12:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:13.

And the early rabbis said:

Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near the Torah.

-Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 1:12.

We can set our eyes on things. One experience that can be meaningful is setting our eyes on the pages of a Bible, perhaps a favorite one, with memories in the pages or a new one with beautiful paper pages and leather cover. Or we may set our eyes on a Siddur or other prayer book that is precious to us. We set our eyes on the stars at night or a long winding river and it may be that we feel the truth of our faith.

We set our ears on many things that open up our inner being to what is holy. Music is the simplest example, but sometimes pure silence is preferable. The sound of others praying, perhaps talking in half tones so that we cannot exactly make out what is being said, can bring us to a higher level of perception. Or it may be the sound of those we share food and drink and laugher with that makes us believe there is goodness in this world God made.

But one experience I know many of you have had, many of you dream of having, and one which has always been profound for me and many others I know is setting feet on the Land of Israel. What is it about the Land that draws us? What could there be about a place that makes God so much more obviously present? What are the experiences people tend to have in deliberately making a pilgrimage to the Land with the full intent of drawing near to God?

It does not require a high level of biblical scholarship to enjoy the Land and come into contact with a sense of the Presence. One of my greatest memories is from 1988, Shavuot of 1988 to be precise. I was on a tour with 1,500 people, many of whom were Messianic Jews. Some said if we could get enough Messianic Jews to Israel for Shavuot (you know, Pentecost), Messiah would come or would send down tongues of fire over our heads (See Acts 2 if you’re unsure what I’m talking about).

But my greatest memories of that trip were not the worship events or any lesson or sermon I heard. It was walking out of my hotel at sunrise and finding a solitary palm tree to sit under with my Bible.

I didn’t know much about the Bible. I had started reading it about a year before. I had come to the realization that Jesus was real only eight months before. I soaked up the Bible like a sponge, but still, you can’t learn much in your first year. One thing I did know: David wrote some of the Psalms and this was the Land he wrote them in. I was also pretty sure that, as a shepherd, he sat under palm trees now and then. And I was facing the morning sun — it was not hot or uncomfortable — under an Israeli palm. I took out my RSV Bible, which was all I had at the time and that translation is still a favorite of mine, and looked for Psalms that had a note saying David wrote them. Ironically, though I read many Psalms ascribed to David, it was one by the Sons of Korah that most interested me, “My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the Lord” (Psa 84:2, RSV).

I’ve had many other transcendental moments in return trips. Walking down the hill near Tabgha, on the green grass, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, I could imagine Yeshua speaking loudly so the crowds could hear him. Looking over a wall at Megiddo over the valley of Jezreel and thinking past the wars to the beginning of the messianic era, I could imagine a land teeming with new life and new people coming in droves. Sitting by the Mediterranean near Caesarea or on Mount Carmel near Haifa, I could see history. The story of Israel and the story of Messiah seemed ten times as real in these places as back home.

But it is more than the places that lead to deep experiences in the Land. It is also the people that tend to come together for a tour. Most of the groups I have led have been people from a variety of places and backgrounds. They tend toward to the older side as young parents often lack the money or freedom to travel. Many have been people of faith for decades. They tend to get along well with others. They tend to be interested in the awe we have in common about what these places mean and what stories they tell. So differences usually do not rule, but commonalities.

You end up eating breakfast or dinner with different people each morning and evening. Sometimes with a view out to the Sea of Galilee or the streets of Jerusalem, you eat yogurt, cheeses, fruit, and dish in the morning with people who want to talk about Capernaum and the story of Yeshua or Mount Tabor and the story of Deborah. You motion for the tour guide to join you so you can ask if we will go into the tunnels under the Temple Mount. You form a bond in the ten days or so you have with these people.

If you want to join our next group, January 2013, click here for information.