Category Archives: Apologetics

The Origin Of The Legend Of Nimrod

Apologetics, , , ,

THE ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND OF NIMROD

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan). These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth (Gen. 9: 18-19).

This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood . . . the sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan . . .Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.’ The first centres of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah – which is the great city (Gen 10: 1; 6-12).

The Bible gives very little information about Nimrod, a significant figure in the evolution of the false religion which infiltrated the nations of the ancient world and still powerfully influences the world today. We have to rely on the findings of archaeology and tradition to build a picture of this man and his contribution to what is called “Babylonian Mystery Religions”.

. . . First, what does the name Nimrod mean? It comes from the Hebrew verb marad, meaning “rebel.” Adding an “n” before the “m”, it becomes an infinitive construct, “Nimrod.” (see Kautzsch 1910: 137 2b, also BDB 1962: 597). The meaning then is “The Rebel.” Thus “Nimrod” may not be the character’s name at all. It is more likely a derisive term of a type, a representative of a system that is epitomized by rebellion against the Creator, the one true God. Rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations were restored. At that time, this person became very prominent.

In Genesis 10:8-11 we learn that “Nimrod” established a kingdom. Therefore, one would expect to find also, in the literature of the ancient Near East, a person who was a type, for example, for other people to follow. And there was. It is a well-known tale, common in Sumerian literature, of a man who fits the description. In addition to the Sumerians, the Babylonians wrote about this person; the Assyrians likewise; and the Hittites. Even in Israel, tablets have been found with this man’s name on them. He was obviously the most popular hero in the Ancient Near East.

The Gilgamesh Epic

The person we are referring to, found in extra-Biblical literature was Gilgamesh. The first clay tablets naming him were found among the ruins of the temple library of the god Nabu (Biblical Nebo) and the palace library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. Many others have been found since in a number of excavations . . . 

How does Gilgamesh compare with “Nimrod?” Ancient historian Josephus says of Nimrod,

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah – a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny – seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his own power.

He also said he would be revenged on God if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers! (Ant. I: iv: 2)

What Josephus says here is precisely what is found in the Gilgamesh epics. Gilgamesh set up tyranny, he opposed YHWH and did his utmost to get people to forsake Him . . .

After the Flood, there was, at some point, a breakaway from YHWH. Only eight people descended from the Ark. Those people worshipped YHWH. But at some point an influential person became opposed to YHWH and gathered others to his side. I suggest that Nimrod is the one who did it. Cain had done similarly before the Flood, founding a new city and religious system.

Our English translation of the Hebrew of Genesis 10: 8-10 is weak. The author of this passage of Scripture will not call Gilgamesh by his name and honor him, but is going to call him by a derisive name, what he really is – a rebel. Therefore, we should translate Genesis 10:8-10 to read,

Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a tyrant in the Earth. He was a tyrannical hunter in opposition to the Lord. Thus, it is said, ‘Nimrod the tyrannical opponent of YHWH.’

Likewise, Gilgamesh was a man who took control by his own strength. In Genesis 10 Nimrod is presented as a type of him. Nimrod’s descendants were the ones who began building the tower in Babel where the tongues were changed. Gilgamesh is a type of early city founders.

Two of the premiere commentators on the Bible in Hebrew have this to say about Genesis 10:9,

Nimrod was mighty in hunting, and that in opposition to YHWH; not ‘before YHWH’ in the sense of according to the will and purpose of YHWH, still less,… in a simply superlative sense… The name itself, ‘Nimrod’ from marad, ‘We will revolt,’ points to some violent resistance to God… Nimrod as a mighty hunter founded a powerful kingdom; and the founding of this kingdom is shown by the verb with consecutive to have been the consequence or result of his strength in hunting so that hunting was intimately connected with the establishing of the kingdom. Hence, if the expression ‘a mighty hunter’ relates primarily to hunting in the literal sense, we must add to the literal meaning the figurative signification of a ‘hunter of men’ (a trapper of men by stratagem and force); Nimrod the hunter became a tyrant, a powerful hunter of men (Keil and Delitzsch 1975: 165).

“in the face of YHWH” can only mean ‘in defiance of YHWH’ as Josephus and the Targums understand it (op. cit.: 166).

And the proverb must have arisen when other daring and rebellious men followed in Nimrod’s footsteps and must have originated with those who saw in such conduct an act of rebellion against the God of salvation, in other words, with the possessors of the divine promise of grace (loc. cit.).

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/nimrod.html – retrieved December 2015.

I have included this lengthy quote to set the scene for our investigation of the origins of the false religious system originated by this man we know as Nimrod, and his evil wife, Semiramis.

A variety of legends grew up around Nimrod. He reappeared in the pagan religions of other countries, together with his wife, by different names, but with the same history, myths and beliefs surrounding them.

In Egypt, Semiramis and Nimrod were known as

Isis and Osiris

Ashtaroth and Baal, in Phoenicia,

Aphrodite and Adonis, n Greece,

Venus and Cupid, In Rome.

We shall learn more about these two people and the religion they founded as we continue our study of the pagan origins of Christmas, Easter and Hallowe’en.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

The Legends Of Christmas And Easter – Truth Or Tradition

Apologetics, ,

THE LEGENDS OF CHRISTMAS AND EASTER

TRUTH OR TRADITION

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions . . . Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down (Mark 7: 8; 13).

Is it possible to cancel the truth of God’s Word by our traditions?

Jesus had a bone to pick with the Pharisees. They changed God’s instructions to suit themselves, included their alterations in their interpretation of the Torah, and held people accountable for obeying or not obeying what they prescribed as law.

God’s instructed His people to honour their parents. The religious leaders overwrote that instruction with another. They gave the money they should have used to support their parents, to the temple, declaring that it was “corban”, devoted to God, meaning that they were obliged to give it to God. They may have looked “holy”, but they deliberately disobeyed God to impress people. They cancelled God’s command by setting up their own.

Yes, it is possible to override God’s instructions by our tradition, even in the name of our faith in Jesus.

A glaring example of this practice is the way the church copies the world in its celebration of Christmas and Easter, as though God ordered and sanctioned these festivals. How can we find out for ourselves whether these practices are Biblical, and rooted in the truth of Scripture? God commanded His people to:

. . . Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5: 21).

As God-honouring and Christ-honouring people, it is our duty to test everything we believe and practise since we are Jesus’ chosen witnesses to the truth of what He came to do and to teach. Luke, in the Book of Acts, singled out the Bereans for a word of affirmation:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17: 11).

It is a tragic fact that believers in Jesus rely more on what their denomination or so-called “teachers” tell them than on the truth of the Word of God which they ought to study for themselves. Like the religious leaders in Jesus’s day, we fail to search for the evidence that will prove or disprove whether preachers and teachers are disseminating the truth.

God instructed His people to celebrate seven feasts which He called “appointed feasts” which they were to celebrate at a particular time each year. The feasts presented in picture form what Messiah would do when He came, in order and in two parts.

The first four feasts depicted what He would do when He came the first time – He would deliver them from slavery (Passover), remove sin (Unleavened Bread), rise from the dead as the first-fruits of the resurrection (Firstfruits) and send the Holy Spirit to gather in the harvest (Pentecost).

He will fulfil the last three feasts when He returns – Trumpets (Yom Teruah – the Feast of Trumpets) will precede the Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur) and finally the Feast of Tabernacles when He comes to make us His dwelling place forever.

As Gentile believers in Jesus, God has not commanded us to celebrate the feasts. The Jews rehearsed the work of Messiah each year as they anticipated His coming and work.  However, our faith is rooted in Jesus whom God sent into a Hebrew home, who grew up in Hebrew society and spoke the Hebrew language. We cannot disconnect what He did and taught from its Hebrew roots.

Jesus gave us two ordinances to celebrate and remember His death and resurrection, both of which arise from the Hebrew culture which God taught to His people. We celebrate Jesus’ death by taking part in what we call “The Lord’s Supper”, a communal meal in which His body eats bread and drinks wine to remember His broken body and shed blood for our salvation. The Lord’s Supper fulfils the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread.

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5: 7-8).  

The ordinance of baptism is a ceremonial washing which identifies the believer with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who were all active in our salvation. Baptism commemorates and identifies us with Jesus’ resurrection and signifies that we have died with Him and risen to a new life.

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death? We were, therefore, buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Rom. 6: 3-4).

When we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection through baptism, we recognise that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits. His resurrection guarantees that those who believe in Him will also rise to new life. We have risen from spiritual death to new life now as we live for Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. We will also rise with Him from physical death, never to die again when He returns to establish His kingdom of earth.

Our first consideration, therefore, is that Jesus is the Messiah and that He came to fulfil God’s plan, outlined in the feasts of the Lord in the Old Testament, and not in the traditions which are practised by the world today.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Give Our Money And Possessions Away

Apologetics, , , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST GIVE OUR MONEY AND POSSESSIONS AWAY

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on His knees before Him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour you father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’

Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. (Mark 10: 17-22)

Well, didn’t Jesus tell this young man to give everything away? Sure he did, but Jesus was addressing a specific individual in a specific situation, not telling everyone who follows Him to get rid of their money.

We have no idea who this young man was and how he came to acquire his wealth. He could possibly have been his father’s eldest son who had inherited a double portions of his father’s wealth as the firstborn in the family. There is no evidence that he was a tax collector who had acquired his money through dishonest means. He was quick to tell Jesus that he had not defrauded anyone. He seems to have been an honest and upright young Jew who did all the right things.

In spite of his law-abiding life, he still felt that there was something missing. What did he recognise in Jesus that brought him to Him and not to his own religious teachers? Perhaps he recognised that they were no further than he in their religious lives and practices. Perhaps he even saw through their phoney “holiness” and knew that they had nothing to offer him. How long had he observed Jesus and seen in Him a quality that he longed to have in his own life – a humility and genuineness that showed up the “holy” ones for what they were.

Whatever his reasons for seeking Jesus out, he presented a golden opportunity for Jesus to explain the “gospel” to him.  Why did Jesus begin with the Ten Commandments? Is this a model for evangelism? Get people to admit that they have broken the commandments and are going to hell? Jesus did not even mention hell, or contradict the young man when he declared that he had observed the commandments from his childhood. What was His intention? Was it to find out where this man stood in his understanding and attitude towards God?

From his response it was obvious that this man was a devout Jew. He did all the right things, even fasting, praying and doing his tsidaqahs, his acts of righteousness which were his duty – his first-fruits offering, and his tithes to the temple, and giving to the poor. He did everything by the book. What did he lack? He must have had an emptiness somewhere in his heart, a sense of unfulfilment that niggled at him, and became more urgent when he was near Jesus.

He desperately wanted the assurance that he would “go to heaven when he died”. Is that the conviction that he lacked? Perhaps he thought that one good deed, one thing above everything else he could do would do it so that he would never have to worry about it again.

Do, do, do! That was what hammered in his brain. All he wanted was to do something special to have his future secured.

What was his understanding about eternal life? Was he aware that eternal life is not something you “get” when you die; that is it a quality of life that begins now when you embrace God’s instructions for living in the kingdom of God?

Why did Jesus love him? Was Luke saying that Jesus did not love everyone else? I don’t think so. I think Jesus saw the potential in him and longed to see him fully involved in God’s kingdom. He also saw something else in this man; a huge barrier to his becoming a genuine citizen of God’s kingdom – his wealth. In one quick instruction, Jesus uncovered his heart. “Give it all away,” He said, “and come, follow me.”

There is an important principle in Jesus’ words. It’s not necessarily about money. It’s about who or what we love more than Him. He said that whatever stands between us and Him must go or we cannot be His disciples. Why is it so imperative that we follow Him without any baggage? He came to show us the Father and to take us to the Father. We can only ever experience eternal life when we are reunited with and completely one with the Father.

Jesus said that a branch has no life outside the vine. There is no life in us when we are disconnected from Him because He and the Father are one, and to be one with Him is to be one with the Father. Jesus is the way, the only way and, apart from Him we have no life.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matt. 6: 24)

The bottom line is; who do you love? You will serve the one you love. This rich man obviously loved his money too much to let it go. He chose to forfeit life in union with Jesus and to become whole again and one with the Father because money held his heart.

What holds yours?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Be Peace-keepers

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST BE PEACE-KEEPERS

There is a huge difference between being peacemakers and peace keepers. What did Jesus say?

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5: 9-12)

This chiasm has been arranged a little differently. The central thought has been put first.

 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Once again, to understand this chiasm, we must go back to its use in Scripture. There are only two places in the New Testament where the term, “making peace” is used, apart from here.

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and though Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. (Col. 1: 19-20).

Through His shed blood, Jesus reconciled to God everything in the universe that was alienated from God through Adam’s disobedience.

Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth . . . were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.  (Eph. 2: 11-16)

Wow! Can you see how deep the roots of peace-making go? There can never be peace between God and man and between man and man outside of the sacrifice Jesus made to reconcile us to the Father by doing away with the reason for the hostility. Sin alienated us from God, an impenetrable barrier that we could not nothing about.

There was only one solution – a perfect sacrifice made by a perfect son. God demands death as the penalty for sin, but every sinner must pay for his own sin. Only a sinless human could pay the debt for all sin, and Jesus was that sinless human.

Reconciliation, then, is not about bringing warring parties together. Reconciliation is about dealing with the cause of the war. God did that through His Son, so that there is no more reason for people to be alienated from God or from one another. The roots of the hatred between the races lie in the problem of alienation between God and man because of sin. Racial hatred will never be removed apart from the cross. It cost Jesus His own blood to do away with the hostility and make peace between God and man and between man and man.

Where does persecution fit into the picture? Human beings are not neutral in their attitude towards God. Because of our natural bent towards rebellion, we are at enmity with God. There is deep-rooted hatred of God and anything that has to do with Him. Why was Jesus crucified? Because of man’s hatred for God!

Those who represented self-help religion in Jesus’ day, the leaders of His people, the religious leaders, rejected Him because He showed them what God the Father is really like, and they hated Him for it. How accurately He diagnosed the problem:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3: 19)

The way people view sin divides the whole world into two camps – those who hate their sin and those who hate God because of their sin. Those who hate their sin readily respond the Jesus and embrace His solution. Those who love their sin are against God and those who are with Him. The outcome is persecution. The sinner can’t do anything to God so he attacks God’s people.

Jesus did not say that persecution is enjoyable. He did say that persecution is a reason to rejoice because it is a sign that we are in good company; those who hate God persecuted the prophets and killed Jesus. We must not be surprised that we come in for persecution as well.

So, what’s the bottom line?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you, on God’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Cor. 5: 17-20)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

Jesus Did Not Say That He Will Fill Us With Righteousness

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT HE WOULD FILL US WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matt. 5: 6-8)

Just as we learned yesterday, these three statements are connected because they are all part of the second chiasm; (you will understand if you read yesterday’s post).

The problem with understanding this chiasm is that we westerners do not understand what righteousness is. O we love the word because it sounds so “holy” but from our perspective it is abstract and therefore we can’t connect it with action.

Hebrews thought, expressed in their language, in terms of action. They experienced life through their senses. Abstract words meant nothing to them. So then, what is righteousness? Throughout the Old Testament, the word “righteousness” is used interchangeably with “generosity”. Here are a few examples:

The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously. (Psa. 37: 21)

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing. (Psa. 37: 25-26)

Righteousness, then, is doing the right thing i.e., doing what God would do in every situation. God’s attitude towards people is always to be generous and to show mercy, therefore, to hunger and thirst for righteousness really means to be passionate about being generous towards people in need, not only with our resources but with our attitudes and behaviour.

With what then, will we be filled? Not with righteousness but with what we gave away. In the original, the meaning is “herbage”. In other words, God will fill us with whatever we gave away. God always responds to our generosity by multiplying what we give away. Consider these words of Jesus:

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6: 38)

Because we are dealing with a chiasm, we must first look at the corresponding statement at the end of the chiasm, and then consider the central thought.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Of course we will have no idea what this means if we try to interpret it literally. How is it possible to “see” God when He is spirit? The Hebrews had a word, zikkut, for the kind of generosity that goes beyond what is expected. Every Hebrew person had a duty to give a percentage of his income away – 20% to be exact. A part of his duty was to bring, every third year, the tithe that was meant for his family to enjoy, to the “storehouse” – the tabernacle or temple – for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien. This was the least he could do to support the needy.

Anything he did to meet the needs of others above his duty was regarded as zikkut. It was this kind of generosity, based on an understanding of, and in gratitude to God for His generosity, that gave the giver an insight into the heart of God. He was able to “see” God with the eyes of a greater understanding than just doing his duty. His heart was “pure”, unmixed with selfishness, putting God and others first, which enabled him to experience God more intimately than those who just did their duty.

It is this kind of attitude that constitutes hunger and thirst for righteousness. These are the people who will experience the abundance of God’s generosity because He can trust them not to consume what He gives on themselves,  but share it with those in need.

The central thought of this chiasm is mercy. God revealed to Moses, in response to his request (Ex. 33: 18-19), that the weightiest part of His name – His character – is mercy. God’s mercy has been fully revealed in His Son. Jesus’ death on the cross was the pinnacle of God’s mercy and should be the motivation for all our deeds of “righteousness”. We show mercy to others, not because we are benevolent but because of His mercy to us.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James. 2: 12-13)

The bottom line is: when we understand the magnitude of God’s mercy, we cannot help but be generous towards others. Then we will be the recipients of God’s abundant generosity towards us with all the material things we need.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  (Matt. 6: 31-33)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com