Post 115 / The Next Language
November 8, 2022
Torah Meditations
I commend to you the podcasts of Tim Mackie and Jon Collins of the Bible Project. I am following their studies of the Torah and thought it timely for my blogs to get back to the linguistic dynamics of translation and story telling. I have been amazed at their discourse level sensitivity to the structure of the Torah and its unfolding story. This stands as the gold standard against which we should be presenting the Story of Jesus in oral narrative form.
They present the Torah as a Hebrew Chiasm- a story that unfolds cyclically and folds back on itself. In oral presentations these techniques are followed to assist memory but also to establish focus and priority on content. Wisdom or meditation literature is meant to not only be remembered but to be processed over time through serious thought.
Thus it is not surprising that we find the verse in Leviticus 10:3 bearing the importance of being the center of the center in a story that begins with creation and a garden in Genesis and ends with a new creation in the end of Deuteronomy. The Lord speaks to Aaron via Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons who on the very first day of the inauguration of the ceremonial system were consumed by the fire of God’s presence for offering “strange fire.” Evidently in a state of drunkenness they thought they could do things their own way. (Shades of Eden?) God’s response was instant and so clearly understood that Aaron had not one word to say in response. God had said, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me.”
Hidden in the center of the center of the Torah God is focused on two things- atonement and holiness or purity. Those are processes that should be ongoing in the Church and in our personal lives. Although life’s cycles take us around and around the cycle of God’s good intent and our failure we must not lose the focus of the redemptive process especially when we are dealing directly with God. God has set us apart as a holy nation and a kingdom of priests and is deadly serious about holiness and without which no man will see God.
[Heb 12:14 KJV] 14 Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
Because of which we can only cling to the righteousness given us in Christ.
[Mat 6:33 KJV] 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
[Luk 1:74-75 KJV] 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
[Rom 1:17 KJV] 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
[Rom 5:17, 21 KJV] 17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) … 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
[Rom 6:13, 18 KJV] 13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God. … 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
[Rom 8:10 KJV] 10 And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.
[Rom 10:4, 10 KJV] 4 For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. … 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
[Rom 14:17 KJV] 17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
[1Co 1:30 KJV] 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[1Co 15:34 KJV] 34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak [this] to your shame.
[2Co 5:21 KJV] 21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
[2Co 11:15 KJV] 15 Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
[Gal 5:5 KJV] 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
[Eph 4:24 KJV] 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
[Phl 1:11 KJV] 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
[1Jo 3:10 KJV] 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
[Rev 19:7-8 KJV] 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
God Bless,
Larry DeVilbiss | Executive Director
Global Recordings Network USA
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