Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, September 24, 2022
Shabbat Shalom,
Growing in Love for God 35
by David Harwood
I want to develop the topic of our fellowship with one another together with the Lord.
In the beginning of Israel’s history a people was called with the purpose of loving God with one another. Let’s bring to mind, once again, the command that God Incarnate, Yeshua the Jew, emphasized.
Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5 TLV)
As with every individual, the entire nation of Israel’s love for God was desired by God. He loved them and longed for their love. The reason for this command to a corporate entity is the same as the reason for individuals.
Jacob’s descendants were fashioned to be a people whose love for their Deliverer was highly valued by the One who liberated them. Just as every individual’s love for the Creator is significant to their Creator, so is Israel’s. As Israel’s love is cherished by God, so also is the love of every group formed and called together by God.
This is important: The Great Command was given to a people. The fulfillment of the command by the nation was only possible when individuals, who comprised the people, loved God wholeheartedly. This is the established pattern of the communities of believers to this day. The individual’s love for God comes first.
You and I are intended to know God’s love and reciprocate love to God. In the beginning God fashioned a person, not a nation. We know that Adam was created for several reasons. One of them, perhaps the primary intention, was not explicitly stated. He was created to be lovely to God and to love the God who found him worth loving.
Adam was fashioned to be fully human in full fellowship with God. He received breath-life from God, in an environment from God, with a commission from God, a wife from God, and instruction from God.
Adam walked with God. It was “in the wind of the day (Genesis 3:8 TLV).” The description of this time together has the inference of being mutually refreshed. In view of the command to be fruitful and multiply we can conclude that God wanted the same relationship with other individuals, and with a huge family.
God, beginning to recreate humanity, starting through Abraham, culminating through the last, eschatological Adam (Yeshua), is in full pursuit of a loving relationship with each of us. Through the Messiah this purpose will ultimately be consummated. Meanwhile we get to experience the foretastes of the this purpose’s fulfillment.
Those who know the LORD are destined to love God within the framework of the entire family which loves God. The strength of this love shall be determined by the intensity of each individual’s relationship. Yeshua is the first-born of this family. Consider His love for the Father. The Messiah is the empowering agent of this corporate love. Consider the strength of redeemed humanity’s love for God. The Great Command will ultimately be fulfilled by those who are utterly transformed at the Resurrection of the Dead.
And just as we have borne the image of one made from dust, so also shall we bear the image of the One from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49 TLV)
The Messiah is our life. When He is revealed at His return we will partake of the strength of His love for our Father. Yeshua shall fully share His view of the glorious God He loves as we are glorified with Him.
When Messiah, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in glory. (Colossians 3:4 TLV)
And, please reflect upon this, the Lord is already doing it. He’s already begun. He’s revealing Father now, and He is building a family which fellowships with Him in the wonder of who His Father is.
We are intended to know God’s love within relationships. The command, “You shall love…”, was spoken to a corporate personality. God is still after this and, recall, within that context each person is included. The corporate can’t if the individuals don’t.
We are beckoned to fellowship upon the basis of our interaction with God. This happens when people receive illumination through the Ruach ha-Kodesh and communicate their insights with one another. This sharing reinforces what each received and, like seed, the revelation germinates and produces a harvest. This especially transpires when one friend shares what they believe they have received from God to another who is, providentially, uniquely fitted to receive the same illumination.
We share light and become light bearers. Let’s fellowship with one another.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sat 24-Sep-2022 28th of Elul, 5782 Parashat Nitzavim
De 30:15-20 Isa 61:10-63:9 Lk 4:14-21