Messiah Before the Foundations - Part 4

[00:00:00] What we talked about last week in particular, as you remember, was the person of YesHua. And we asked some pretty intense questions. [00:00:10] The human divine question of messiah. Is he God? Is he deity? Is he divine? How do we put these words together that have all been attached to him? And I gave some perspective on that last week. We looked at texts that illuminated a very particular concept. Colossians, the image of the invisible God. [00:00:34] Hebrews, the exact imprint of his nature. Philippians, though he was in the form of God. [00:00:47] And a culmination of sorts took place when we went eventually to YOhanan. Book one, the Prologue, verses one through 18, which says simply, in John's word, the word was God. [00:01:05] And I left you with a word translated. Who is sent? A hebrew word. Does anyone remember? The word that I told you best represented the concept of what John was talking about? Hebrew word, meaning the sent one, or one who is sent starts with s, but that's close to m in the Alphabet. [00:01:30] Shalia. [00:01:32] Shalia. [00:01:34] From Shalach to send. [00:01:38] And because I know you've been waiting in Baited Anticipation for the Shabbat to see how that would work out, I made some pretty big promises about that word in its ability to help us understand John's language. John's Prologue, and most of mean in understanding Messiah, the person of MeSsiah, as we know YEsHua, the anointed one. So the word was God. Is there any interpretation necessary? Well, there's been a lot of them made, so I would say maybe some clarification. But here begins the journey to understanding John's Prologue with this word, Shaliach word. [00:02:32] We see it all over. There's another concept, though, that I don't want you to forget and don't get distracted from. John speaks of another major concept in that prologue word, and what anyone know? [00:02:44] Light. Word and light. We haven't even gotten to how Light factors into the creation of the universe and Messiah and all that. Stay with me. Not today, but soon. [00:02:54] There is an absolute preoccupation in those first several lines of scripture with the significance of the pre existent word, or what in Greek is called logos. Logos. Why? [00:03:13] Two questions. Why? Why does John take such a mystical approach to this introduction? None of the other gospels do that. [00:03:22] Why would he choose this path? And why such an emphasis on the concept of the word when we're talking about Yeshua the person? Why such an emphasis on the word? And both can be answered by one simple statement. The reason everyone he spoke to read taught. Everyone understood what he meant. Everyone knew immediately the context of what he was saying when he says the word was God, 2000 years later, a lot of people don't understand what that means, but this is the illumination of that concept. It was familiar and illustrated the significance of what Yeshua was and would be in a way that really no other language could connect to first century. [00:04:19] And it is this Shaliach concept, an intermediary of sorts. But I don't want to get confused on mediator intermediary. I'll make sense of this, the origin of the Shaliach, because remember I said last week, it's not as if all of a sudden God out of nowhere comes up with a brand new plan and says, the world's messed up. I'll jump into a human body, we'll get this thing fixed, I'll shoot right back up here and it's all good. I'm going to take care of this like that. That's not how it worked. [00:04:56] Judaism has always had, I wouldn't say a dilemma, a struggle might be a word has worked to reconcile how the immeasurable, transcendent, unseeable, all powerful God can walk in the garden, can have conversations with Abraham, Isaac, can appear to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, can be showing up in places where people are seeing him. [00:05:35] How can this be? [00:05:38] He is transcendent. He is so far above and beyond anything that could ever be contained in our world. How does it work? Well, Judaism has some very good answers for you, in other words, and I gave you this term before, and it'll be important again, but it's a bit of a more esoteric description of God, the ain sof, right? In Hebrew, the ain sof without end. He has no beginning or end or concept or measurable capacity component. There's nothing measurable about him. He is without end. [00:06:21] So how does that create? [00:06:28] How does something with no form create? [00:06:33] And the word is the word by his word. [00:06:40] Now that's an interesting concept to consider briefly. Do words have form? [00:06:53] Show of hands, do words have form? Yes or no? [00:07:01] And no one will raise their hand. [00:07:04] Okay. [00:07:05] It doesn't matter, because I'm going to give you my opinion. [00:07:10] Your answer is whichever. Thank you. [00:07:14] Well, I'd like to go there, but I'm going to go a different way. Do words have form? Yes, they have form. [00:07:23] They do have form. And how is this? Well, they come from a place unseen. [00:07:32] Okay, now stay with me, because as I was developing this thought, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out if this made any sense at all. And if you're the one writing it and you have to figure out if it makes sense. You really got to prepare people to listen. So do they have form? Yes. They come from a place unseen. You cannot know my thoughts before I speak them unless you're my wife who tells me all the time. I knew you were going to say that. [00:08:06] I knew what you were thinking, and it's kind of true, actually. But when I'm ready, when a thought comes and my brain puts it together, and my essence within me has created this idea and thing, words form. But what's the form? [00:08:28] The invisible is the form. The sound waves that are making it to your ears right now. And what your ear does with those physical sound waves, there's a physical interaction going on in your ear, right? So there's got to be some physical form to my words in order for them to accomplish something. [00:08:51] Does that make sense? That's the easy part. Okay. [00:08:55] Furthermore, my words have power. More power for some than others. Annabelle. Zach. Right. My words have more power for you than they do for other people. [00:09:12] Taylor lives in her own world. [00:09:21] My words, by the power of my words, can accomplish things which I cannot accomplish. [00:09:31] Okay, that's weird. But by my words, I can accomplish things that I physically could not accomplish. [00:09:41] And maybe an example will help. Now, this is a loose example because you realize, obviously, that we're talking about God's word, and it is in no way comparable to my word or my power. But I want you to listen to this example. [00:09:57] My desire is I want to retrieve something from a room. There's someone in there who has something I need, and I want to retrieve this from this room. It's a small room. The entrance to the room is even smaller, like the door in Alice in Wonderland. [00:10:19] I cannot fit into the room, but I need and want what's there. [00:10:28] Now, the opening is too small, but I have immeasurable power compared to these walls. I'm 240 pounds. The walls are paper. I could bust through them. I could break them down, but not without destroying the creation, which would not be helpful. [00:10:50] Therefore, I find Annabelle Eisner. [00:10:57] Annabelle can fit, so I can speak to her, and through my words, I tell her what I want to accomplish. And her form allows her to do it. You with me? It's not difficult. [00:11:16] She acts on my behalf in a space into which I cannot fit. [00:11:22] By my words, and through her agency, the task is accomplished n important. [00:11:33] My word is me. [00:11:36] My word is a component of me. It is not all me. I have a substance of sorts, but my word is me and not me by this point, because now my word has gone to Annabelle, who has taken it. She has the ability, with my word, which is an extension of me, to accomplish, to do, and that fulfills my will. [00:12:05] And that's me. That's me. A human being working with a human being. Now, imagine the incomprehensible, immeasurable, ineffable beyond any measure, God and what his word is capable of doing when it is directed into an agent. [00:12:26] Thus, the word was with God, and the word was God. My word is still my word, but it's actually with her. Now, you cannot separate God's word from him. You can't. [00:12:46] But his word can act independently of him. Right? Easy. We see it everywhere in the text. [00:12:56] It interacts, it creates, it accomplishes. Apart from him, but from him, it's his, but it's independent. But there is one very last important component about Annabelle and my word and accomplishing my will in order for the people in the very small room with the tinier entrance to give her what I want. What does she need? [00:13:20] My authority. [00:13:22] When they see her, they need to see me. They need to understand she is operating with the full extent of the one on the other side of the wall. [00:13:34] And in so doing, by my. In essence, essence, my word, my command being within her, she has accomplished this by my authority. Now, granted, there are difficulties in that, I said, because of the human part, but the concept is simple. Agency. [00:13:54] Agency. Ashalia. I sent her in to get it done. And by my authority, and by my word, and by my power, she got it done. [00:14:04] Now, does God work like this? [00:14:10] Is there anyone who could argue that God does not work like this? He works like this. There's no question about it. And we can understand why, if we're willing to entertain that idea, that Hashem God Adonai, the ineffable, the transcendent God needs. And I'll. Careful with that word. [00:14:36] An agent. [00:14:40] I've debated how much to go into here. First of all, some of you are probably very familiar with this concept. I don't want to bore you to death. Secondly, there are a number of resources available. Pray for us to get our bookshelves done so that we can establish our library, which will in turn become our Beit midrash, which will in turn, allow you to access some of the resources right there that I'm going to give you. Chronicles of the Messiah, even David Stern, the jewish New Testament commentary, a book by John Ronning called Logos. [00:15:14] I can't remember the exact title, but all of these books that will be available for you in the bit Midrash to study this concept deeper. I am not going down, up to a master's degree level here with this concept because we don't need to. What is the concept? [00:15:33] The jewish context that predates John's gospel informs it. God has, throughout history, interacted with his people through an agent known as the word. We've established this. Why would he need an agent? I said needs. And watch out for that word. Why would he need an agent? [00:15:55] Here's the answer. [00:15:58] God is capable of anything, right? He can do anything, but man cannot. [00:16:06] Man cannot. And when it comes to interaction between the transcendent God and man, what can man not do and live? [00:16:22] Cannot see God and live. Exodus 33. It's the Torah. [00:16:30] You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. Judges 13. Remember Samson's father? The rabbis say Samson's father was a bit dense. His name was Manoah. Verse 22. Surely we will die. We have seen God's. We have seen God live. We have seen him live. [00:16:49] We will die. [00:16:51] That was the concept. Hagar also had an experience. Have I seen the one that cannot be seen? [00:17:02] And through his agency, it is as if in his words and actions, God himself is personally present. [00:17:14] Okay, so he can accomplish all these things by his agent that, technically, he couldn't accomplish without an agent. Why? Because we'd all die. That wouldn't accomplish much. [00:17:28] God forbid, if my agent was crushed going through the doorway, it doesn't accomplish much getting my thing out of the small room. [00:17:38] So. Jewish commentary tradition the Torah makes sense of this. The time before John, before Yeshua. Drawing from chronicles, the biblical text points to the word, who was God's creative agent? I'll give you a hint. Proverbs. [00:17:56] According to proverbs, who was God's creative agent? [00:18:02] Wisdom. Technically, right? That's what the proverbs say. Wisdom three. How was the world created? The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth by understanding, he established the heavens by his knowledge. The deeps broke open, and the clouds dropped down the dew. Proverbs 822. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work. Who is me? Wisdom speaking. By the way, Christianity says this is Yeshua. [00:18:29] It's a woman. It's personified as a woman. [00:18:35] The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old, ages ago. I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth, when there were no depths, I was brought forth when there were no springs abounding with water. Especially then. I was beside him like a master workman. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him, always rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. So wisdom, proverbs, smartest man in the world, says, is the creative agent of God, not all of God, but not completely separated. [00:19:15] So a unique component of him, but not him completely. Bin Sarah also, Ecclesiasticus predates YEshua, 175 years or so, also makes that connection, an apocryphal text. Taking that. So what does this have to do with the word? That's wisdom. So what? [00:19:36] Well, psalm 33 six makes a very nice connection for us when it says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. [00:19:51] By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts. So do you see a connection? Wisdom was the master workman I was before. I was with him in the beginning. What created his word? Therefore, his word and wisdom are synonymous. [00:20:12] And this worked well for the rabbis and for us, because thus the rabbis said wisdom, which was the word, is the Torah the word of God accomplishing as an agent within the finite world. Now, understand this key. We're not saying that out of the heavens descended at this point before creation, an animal skin scroll, and began to just spout out words from the TOrah scroll and everything happened. That's not what we're talking about at this point. When we talk about Torah word wisdom, we are ObviOUsLY talking about his wisdom word, his EssencE building, creating, capable of utilizing matter and energy to create the world, the word that indeed would later be revealed to moses as TORah on SINAi and would manifest in many ways ThrOughOut history. So we begin just from that to see how powerful the word is in history. Now, everybody know what targums are? [00:21:24] I'll tell you briefly. Targums are because after the exile to Babylon, Aramaic became much more widely spoken. Even coming back to Israel after the exile, Aramaic was spoken a lot. There were many who weren't fluent in biblical Hebrew. Therefore, the targums provided an aramaic paraphrase of the Torah. Right? [00:21:49] That's what the targums were. The targums mention wisdom. It was kind of like the living Bible. How's that? If you read the living Bible today, you're going to be like, reading kind of a story. There's a paraphrase and commentary inserted into the translation. The word as agent theology was very, very prevalent in the targums. Two words primarily Memra dibber memra, an aramaic word meaning what? The word dibber, the word. [00:22:27] Here are some examples from the targums of how wisdom. [00:22:37] The word. The memra was active. Okay, so what does this mean? Where we saw God interacting with people? The targums gave us a different perspective. The Memra is God as he acts and interacts. This is Targum Neofiti. The Memra is the creator. In Genesis six seven, the Lord says, I will blot out man whom I have created, for I'm sorry that I've made him. But the targum says, the Lord repented by his memra that he had made man on earth, and he was saddened concerning them. By his memra, I will abolish man by my memra. His memra closes the door of the ark. The Memra of the Lord descended and scattered the nations. At the tower of Babel, the memra of the Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision and promised him a son. The Memra of the Lord struck down the firstborn of Egypt. You get the point? [00:23:36] The Memra was how the teachers of Israel reconciled. God working in the world. [00:23:46] Does everybody know that? [00:23:48] Is everybody aware of that? And you're wondering, my gosh, this is boring. Where are we going with this? [00:23:55] You have to lay foundation in order to get to anywhere the clearest. [00:24:05] What the Targums did, though, which is relevant for John, what the Targums did is what the Torah had already done, and that is established. An agent of God. Who is the agent of God operating within the Torah? [00:24:22] Anyone have a guess? [00:24:26] The angel of the Lord. Right. [00:24:30] The angel of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord is simply, by most christian tradition, recognized as Yeshua. Joshua bowed down to Yeshua. Yeshua would have closed the ark. Yeshua took on these forms and did all these things. And we've already kind of talked about that a little bit and saying that if every time we saw the angel of the Lord, it's Yeshua, we're up to about his 150th coming by the time we get to the Mount of olives. [00:24:59] But what is it? What is it, then, if it's not Yeshua, which is what is really taught? The angel of the Lord. God doing something, but not really God. [00:25:12] How many Torah examples could we give? A lot. But here is a few where the angel of the Lord is acting on his behalf as his direct agent, like Annabelle. The angel of the Lord. Genesis 18. A conversation with Adonai. Adonai appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Right. And then what's the next thing? Say three men were there. [00:25:36] Three men stood in front of him. Hagar. In Genesis 16 and 21, the angel of Adonai found her. The angel of Adonai will bless her. Can angels do that? [00:25:47] Can angels bless? [00:25:49] No, but their boss can. [00:25:53] Verse 13. The name of Hashem who spoke to her. Have I really seen the one who sees me and stayed alive? No, she didn't really see God. [00:26:08] But she did. How? The angel of the Lord. His full representation. Accomplishing and working on earth. It was an angel. It was a Shalia. In 21, God heard the angel of the Lord. God heard who? He heard Hagar's cries. He heard her. And the angel of the Lord called from heaven. That's weird. God's in heaven. Why didn't he call? The angel of the Lord called. He's working for God. Interesting. And saying, I will make a great nation of Ishmael. [00:26:43] Can he do that? The angel of the Lord? Can he do that? [00:26:47] No, but his boss can. [00:26:53] Abraham. Again, at the Arcada in Genesis 22, we know this one. Angel of Hashem, angel of Adonai, called from heaven. And he says, you've not withheld your son from me. That doesn't make sense. [00:27:07] It does make sense when we consider it in the sense of a Shaliach and the angel a second time. It is an angel. It says it. It is an angel. I shall surely bless. Can he do that? No, but his boss can. [00:27:26] Manoach. We just talked about manoach. The angel of the Lord. Samson's father. Who does the mother see? The angel of Adonai. But then she says, a man of God, like that of the angel of God. And then again they talk about the angel of God. And then the man of God. And in verse 16, it's very interesting, he says, let us make you some food and offer an offering. [00:27:48] Let us make you some food and offer an offering. And the angel says, no, I won't eat it. And if you're going to offer something, offer it to Adonai. [00:27:58] But I thought it was God. That's what Manoach says. He says, we saw God. We're going to die. No. [00:28:06] They saw the angel of the Lord. And what did the angel of the Lord possess? Exactly what we have discussed. The full essence. What gave him his power? The memra. The word. The active power of God on earth. And here I will quote Lancaster by word. The word is not less than God. He is as much of God as can be experienced in our universe. And that is the key. [00:28:34] He is as much of God as can be experienced in our finite universe. At the same time, the word is not the totality of God. John employed the same mystical theological circumlocution when he spoke of the logos. That was God. That was with God. And here, my friends, we arrive at the conclusion of sorts. [00:28:59] John one. One. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. [00:29:11] A pervasive teaching from before and during Yeshua's life that John's audience knew. [00:29:19] But that cannot be the end of the story. [00:29:25] Yeshua as a shaliach, Yeshua as an agent. It just can't be that simple. What you're saying to me, Damien, is that now you've reduced the messiah, the king of the coming, king of all the world, you've reduced him to God's do, boy. [00:29:44] That all he is is just another representation. He's just another thing where God took a different path to accomplish his will on earth. That diminishes my view of Messiah, one might say. [00:30:02] Just another agent working in history. Is that what you're saying? Is that what I've said? No, you don't know what I've said, because I haven't gotten to the other part yet, which I won't get to today. It will be looking at what makes this agent different. [00:30:22] Why? If he possessed the spirit of Messiah, which is the wisdom, which is the memra, which is the word, if he possessed it, just like everything else, what's different? [00:30:35] Why is it a big deal? [00:30:38] Big surprise. [00:30:40] In Yeshua, God accomplished something that only he could do in a way that only he could understand. God working to humanity had happened up until now. God working to humanity. Now God would work ready through humanity. But he already did that. God's spirit inspired the prophets. Their words spoke. I mean, he already did that. Those were humans who had the memra. No, something much more significant went on with Yeshua. Right. Of course. [00:31:14] This truly was a new thing. And I am very reluctant to use that word, because people love to talk about how God doing a new thing, doing a new thing. This truly was a new thing, but not unexpected, not unplanned, not a surprise. It was the way it was going to be from the beginning. [00:31:41] We started this message with the word was God. And, yes, I realize it's kind of dry. You don't walk out of here saying, wow, I am inspired to really, really live my life for God from that teaching. [00:31:58] That really got my emotions. Bam. I'm excited. [00:32:03] It's not that kind of thing. It's foundational. [00:32:10] Kind of like last Sunday revelation. [00:32:16] Daniel Lancaster was not like doing backflips and juggling bowling pins and telling jokes. No offense. It was a good one. [00:32:27] It was teaching that made you think. And not everybody is like that. I understand. But the beauty of the word of God is that it can do both things. But sometimes you got to put the pieces together, and that's what we've been doing and that's what we will continue to do. And in the end, even if you say that was boring, the ruach Hakodesh. You're hearing the word, you're hearing the teaching, you're hearing opinions. Your brain is being forced to think. Well, I haven't heard that before. Good. [00:33:07] I want you to be struggling with some things. This isn't a struggle, but by the end of it all, I want it to be emotional. It's what I said last week. Emotional. That's a bad word. No, emotion's good if it exalts your understanding, appreciation, love for Messiah Yeshua. And the one he points to, Adonai, God, the ain't sof. The one working from the beginning to the end. And that is the point. So, yes, I understand. It's dry. [00:33:44] Next week. Get a little more. Not next week, the following week. I won't be here next week. That week. Stay tuned. We're going to look at the humanity of Yeshua. [00:34:01] It's everything. [00:34:03] It's everything for making this all that it can be. [00:34:10] Amen. God willing, will do that. [00:34:14] Shabbat shalom.