Month: March 2021

Passover Meditation #1

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

Plagues. The idea of plague is no longer distant, unfamiliar, the memory of older relatives or neighbors. It is familiar. The fear. The uncertainty. The affliction. The anxiety. Death. It’s all too real.

While the plagues of Exodus were judgments upon the nation of Egypt due to pharaoh’s hardness, the words translated plague(s), meaning “to push” or “to touch” by the hand or power of God, however, also prepared hearts to open, and ears to hear.

Few of us have escaped the experience of personal or community tribulation. During distress our ears are open. Our senses are on alert. We want to know. We want news, information, or warning. We are listening for rescue, even when anticipating the unexpected.

As in Egypt 3000 years ago, in the midst of this global pandemic, with the uncertainty facing so many, we are learning to look to heaven in a more expectant way, and depend on the faithfulness of the One who is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

Messiah said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. 11:15; cf. Deut. 29:4). To have ears to hear, biblically, was to have a heart ready to act on the word received. Yeshua is saying there is a difference between having ears, and having ears ready to hear.

As we deepen faith in Messiah, He opens our hearts and ears to hear Him, trust Him, and follow Him, out from the plague, to freedom (Gal. 5:1).

Be well. Shalom.

One Word

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

Amen. אמן. One word can mean so much. Too often we say it with little regard for what we are “amen-ing”: “preacher said, “amen,” so, “amen.”

Amen is a prayer in itself. When you look to heaven, at times, all we can say is: “Amen.” And that’s ok.

It is also an affirmation that opens our attitude. Perhaps we are down, upset, uninspired; amen opens the door of release, allowing entry into a new soul space: faith, awe, worship.

By saying it, amen, even when we are not there yet, adjusts our direction, our intention, to that which we desire: Him.

Amen is not simply the end of a prayer, it is a word of joining in, of joining together. Jewish tradition asks that “amen” be the response to every blessing we hear, and every blessing we say.

Amen, אמן, is derived from a verb root meaning to be firm, stable and trustworthy. Amen conveys: let this be so, or let it be solid.

Amen is a spiritual discipline in itself, as it is a single word that can refresh the physical, spiritual, and emotional download of the day. Refresh.

As Yeshua so often said, “Amen, amen, I say to you…” as He rebooted our crashed systems, thereby refreshing our hope.

Say it: Amen. Sing it: Amen. Live it: Amen. Pray it: Amen.

Be well. Shalom.

Mercy for Stones

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

In the revelation of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17) we find no direct command for mercy, tenderness, or kindness. While commands regarding these tender, interpersonal qualities are present in the Torah (Lev. 19:18, 34, as examples), they are not revealed as apodictic law.

But the stones.

In Exodus 20:25-26, an unusual command is given regarding altars:

“If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.”

Following the revelation of the Ten Words on Sinai, the chapter concludes with the above instruction regarding altars.

1. It is to be constructed of whole, intact stones.

2. It must have a ramp, not steps.

To build an altar was to build an avenue for approaching God. He becomes the direction, or goal of the effort. Yet the Lord is giving a caution: Be careful how you handle the stones and how you approach Me, lest I see your nakedness.

What?

The rabbis found this to be a message on compassion, tenderness and mercy. Mercy for stones. To avoid striking the stones in order to shape them to our desire was seen as a form of mercy – mercy for stones.

Rashi, one of the most important of rabbinic commentators, noted regarding the exposure of nakedness by the priests, that wearing underpants, they could not expose their nakedness. Unless, the exposure was from the step; as taking the step up revealed that mercy had been withheld.

Lesson.

1. If the Lord desires mercy, tenderness, and kindness for stones, which do not feel, how much more does He desire this towards the other created in His image?

2. In our journey to seek the Lord, let us not step over, upon, or disregard the other in a religious effort to reach the Lord.

The natural inclination of the human heart misses the Spirit, and rests on the letter. In doing so, we miss the mercy for stones, and the lesson pointing us to a higher way of relating to the other.

This exhorts us to move away from looking toward the other with a self-benefitting motivation, and to look upon the sons of God with the regenerate heart of a servant in His Kingdom, and keeps our nakedness covered in the presence of God.

Be well. Shalom.