Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, March 19, 2022
Shabbat Shalom,
Growing in Love for God 8
by David Harwood
We’re delving into God’s motivations revealed in the Foremost Command. We’re doing this so we might love Him more.
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37–38 TLV TLV)
We are not being asked to do something that God doesn’t do. God knows Himself as a Trinity and finds Himself to be worth loving. Our last couple of meditations encouraged us to seek the Lord for illumination about what God loves about Himself. If you haven’t done this recently, I encourage you to ask the Lord, “Yeshua, what is it that You love about Father that You could tell me that I might love Him together with You.”
It’s a worthwhile quest. It’s an abbreviated application of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians.
that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, our glorious Father, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in knowing Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened … (Ephesians 1:17–18a TLV)
That prayer works well with Paul’s great ambition:
(T)hat I may know Him (Philippians 3:10a TLV)
I mentioned a couple of things I believe the Ruach of God may have brought to my attention through inquiring of the Lord along those lines.. We considered Yeshua’s love for the Father’s holy goodness and how God is determined to cause everything to work out for the good.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28 TLV)
I love what Romans 8:28 reveals about God’s goodness, love, wisdom, power, patience, determination, and His good will towards us and all creation. Please stop reading and consider what you just read.
What a revelation of God’s amazing holiness. To truly know this, to believe it deeply, transforms the human soul.
There are other things that have captured my heart. For instance, I love God’s humility because it manifests His love. Yeshua washed the disciples’ feet because He loved them. He humbled Himself and became human because He loves us. Yes, His awe inspiring humility is in the service of His love.
Please review Philippians 2:5-8.
Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua,
6Who, though existing in the form of God,
did not consider being equal to God
a thing to be grasped.
7But He emptied Himself—
taking on the form of a slave,
becoming the likeness of men
and being found in appearance as a man.
8He humbled Himself—
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 TLV)
For God to become human took an incomprehensible act that required His Son to turn His back on what He always experienced and enjoyed in heaven’s glory. He determined something like, “I will humble Myself. I will be with them.” Why?
Perhaps we might capture His motivations in a few Bible verses.
… Ben-Elohim—who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20b TLV)
and walk in love, just as Messiah also loved us and gave Himself up for us (Ephesians 5:2a TLV)
For Messiah once suffered for sins also—the righteous for the unrighteous—in order to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18a TLV)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.(Romans 5:8 TLV)
Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them until the end. (John 13:1b TLV)
Yeshua loved you and gave Himself up for you (Galatians 2:20b; Ephesians 5:2a) to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18a), demonstrating His love for you (Romans 5:8). He loved you to the end (John 13:1b). To do this He had to humble Himself. Yeshua had to become human.
His humility is in the service of His love. He is humble because He loves.
This is something Father loves about Yeshua. How do we know that? Look at the result of Yeshua’s humility.
For this reason God highly exalted Him. (Philippians 2:9a TLV)
Yeshua, humble One, “is the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15a TLV) God is worth loving.
Ask Father for illumination. “Abba, what do You love about Your Son that would capture my heart?” Expect an answer.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sat 19 Mar 2022 16th of Adar II, 5782 Parashat Tzav
Le 8:22-36 Jer 7:21-8:3; 9:22-23 1 Jn1:5-2:2