Rabbi’s Reflections – Friday, September 15, 2023
(Early) Shabbat Shalom,
Reminder: Come to Shomair, 3811 Boyds Bridge Pike, Friday night (covered dish) dinner at 6 with Shofar service following at 7. Then join us again at 10:30 on Saturday morning for more as we continue to celebrate the first of the fall feasts.
One In Messiah part 61 – Romans, part 172
Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how incomprehensible His ways!
Can you sense Paul’s excitement as He writes this verse? He is gushing over the goodness of God. How deep are God’s riches in both wisdom and knowledge? “Ayn Cheqer” is a well worn Hebrew phrase. There is no (Ayn) finding out or inquiry (Cheqer). We plumb the depths, in search of the full understanding of Who He is and His ways, yet there is no way we will ever get to the bottom of God.
Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” It is a declaration of Adonai. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
But God, by sending His only begotten Son, has made a way for us to relate spiritually to Him. Matthew 13:11 And He replied to them, “To you has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Only those who receive the Son are given “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.”
Our faith precedes our knowledge. This is why it can be so difficult for smart people to come to faith. By definition, you can’t tell a know-it-all anything, because they already “know it all.” The kingdom of God works in what appear to be upside-down ways. He makes wise the simple by His Word. Psalm 19:8 The Torah of Adonai is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Adonai is trustworthy, making the simple wise.
Tonight (Friday night, as I’m writing this for Friday) is the beginning of Yom Teruah (the day of the shout), aka Rosh HaShanah (head of the year). This day is the start of the seventh month. But it is a new beginning as it marks with anticipation the crowning of Yeshua at the beginning of the 1,000 year reign.
On Passover and all the spring feasts we look back to historical events, like the exodus from Egypt. But on Yom Teruah and all the fall feats, we look forward to events that have not yet happened, but are prophesied to happen concerning the millennial reign of Yeshua. In anticipation of that soon and coming reality, Jan and I wish you all “Shanah Tovah U’M’tukah,” meaning a “good and sweet year.”
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Fri 15 Sep 2023 29th of Elul, 5784
Ge 21:22-27 Zep 3 2 Ch 23 Rev 9:1-12 (Ac 16:19-40)