Bread Making

Lately, my heart has been burdened with an earnest yearning for God’s Truth; there is a particular issue, which I’ve seen come up again and again in this world, whether on the news or on Facebook or wherever else, and it has caused some serious division among people (For this reason, I won’t say what it is so people don’t try to pull me into the argument as well), but I’ve seen it cause a lot of heartache, and I (being as empathetic as I am) feel the heartache myself hearing about this stuff and I've asked God for the answers we all need. I’ve heard what we human beings have had to say on both sides of the issue, but I for one am not convinced anyone has yet heard directly from God Himself; I am not interested in what man has to say, I want to know the mind of Jehovah.

Yesterday, as I was ‘bearing my cross’ working outside in the cold with beardcicles freezing onto my face, I meditated more on the Bible, and God met me there. He turned my attention to the scripture which says, ‘It is impossible for offenses not to come, but woe unto him through whom they come! It would be better for him that a millstone be hanged around his neck, and he was cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.’ This (Luke 17:1-2) was recorded in the gospels repeatedly. When God says something repeatedly, it’s because it’s important, and because He knows how thick-headed we can be, so take care to pay attention. The word ‘offense’ in this scripture is better translated as ‘stumbling block’ or ‘snare’ which is a reference to how we can impede each others walks with God.

But He called my attention to that millstone Jesus mentioned. Why a millstone? One can think of a lot of devices and methods one can use to drown a person in the sea; this seems oddly specific. It is strange, until you realize what you need a millstone for. It is a large stone a miller would use to grind wheat into flour which in turn is used to make bread; we all know this.

But remember the bread Jesus spoke of to his disciples, ‘this is my body which was broken for you. Eat ye all of it.’ He was talking about the bread of life, our spiritual bread, which most people simply think is equivalent with the scriptures in the Bible. Most people are also wrong; ink scrawled on the pages of a book can in no way give you spiritual life. You can learn the Bible inside and outside and upside down, and it still will produce nothing in you, unless God makes it real to you and it starts working in your real life.

How does this happen? Well, the very first thing that needs to happen is that the scripture needs to be gathered and then it needs to be changed into something that the Holy Spirit (symbolized by water) can seep into. Then it needs to be refined in the trials of an overcoming life (symbolized by fire, i.e. an oven or furnace). And THEN you have your bread of life.

The little bit that I left out there, you might have noticed, is the wheat and the millstone, which, at this point, should be rather easy to figure out. The wheat is the scriptures, and the millstone is the hard, weighty tedium of meditation. Many people nowadays misuse the word ‘meditation’ and think of bald guys sitting around chanting ‘ohm.’ This is not what it’s supposed to mean; the oldest and best translation is ‘reiteration’ which means you go over it again: you reread it, you remember it, you listen to it again, you make another written copy of it, you reanalyze it, you sing it, you go over it again and again and again until it has been transformed into something soft and easily handled: something the Spirit of God can really get into.

The admonition of this scripture, which connects the millstone (how you handle the scriptures) and impeding someone’s walk with God is not just about being careful with the way you treat people. It is really warning us against false religion: don’t be a part of that. One of the chief defining qualities of false religion is the way it handles (or rather mishandles), the Word of God, hence the millstone: if you mishandle the scriptures, you ought to die out there in the sea, and to take your millstone with you, because it’s just as useless.

With that in mind, I just want to encourage everybody to seriously meditate on the word of God, and to not simply take everything it has to say at face value, nor should you pick and choose what scriptures you want to use to make your ‘bread,’ but remember that Jesus said to eat all of it: grind it all to powder and use it.

Go with God and have a blessed day!

2 Revelations

Since a couple of months ago, when I started attending regular Bible studies, my heart has been turning more frequently towards the Bible and what it means to have sound doctrine, the importance of which cannot be overstated. I’m calling this post, ‘2 Revelations,’ because I’ll be focusing on a couple of things that God’s deepened my understanding with, not two things I figured out or interpreted on my own (see my last post, ‘Ask the Author’).

The first thing is concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil spoken of in the book of Genesis’ second chapter. I’ll admit that I’ve often been bewildered at what actually grows on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but God took my mind off of the ‘Good and Evil’ aspect of it long enough for me to realize what grows on any ‘Knowledge’ tree: thoughts, ideas, images, inventions, plans, etc. It makes sense if you consider the fact that you can’t have any of these things without first having a knowledge (or awareness) of the relevant subject matter.

In the matter of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind had a basic awareness of these things right from the beginning. Jehovah had given them instructions regarding life (good) and death (evil), “The day you eat of that tree, you will surely die.” Those who know the Bible will say that Adam went on living for over nine hundred years, but remember that a thousand years to God (who views time quite differently than we humans do) is like a single day, so God was still right because Adam died in the same day he partook of the forbidden fruit.

One thing you need to understand about what happened to mankind in the Garden of Eden is that the two specific trees of the Garden mentioned in the story represent man’s free will – or ability to choose something for oneself. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil produces deadly fruit which is why it is the counterpart to the Tree of Life – which I would say is also a tree of Knowledge, not regarding good and evil, but simply the Truth.

Of course the main question at this point is, ‘How do you “eat” ideas, inventions, or plans?’ It’s simple really: the seeds. I’ve long heard the adage, ‘Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a future.’ When we sow our own ideas about what we think is good or bad and act on them we are always led astray. James 1:14-17 says, ‘Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin when it is finished, brings forth death. Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no fickleness, or obscurity of variation.’ In the story of Adam and Eve, they looked at the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and it triggered their base desires, or lust. It was described as good for food (appealing to the body), pleasant to the eyes (appealing to the mind), and coveted to make one wise (appealing to the ego). They submitted to their lust and sinned, and by sinning they brought death to themselves.

But why does sinning cause death? Because of what sin is: a man (or woman) doing things their own way, based on their own ideas, rather than doing things God’s way which leads to everlasting life. One of the most common arguments people have against God is regarding the matter of mankind’s suffering and death. Well, this is the reason: all actions have consequences and mankind chose this course of action (and its consequence) from the very beginning. Could God have stopped this? Yes, of course, but to do so would require Him to destroy mankind. Our free will is a part of what makes us what we are and without being made to face the consequences of our own choices, the very idea of free will is meaningless. And, of course, God knew all of this right from the start, yet He still thought mankind was worth creating. In case you didn’t catch that subtle hint, God has something better in store for all mankind; there is hope. We just have to stop thinking we know what’s best and trust God’s way.

The second revelation is regarding how God wrote the Bible – and history. Throughout the Bible there are many things which can be examined from different angles, as well as many things being used as types, symbols, or allegories. If you didn’t know that God likes to use such devises, you should reread the Gospels in the New Testament; Jesus often communicated with parables, and he only ever said what God had instructed him to say. As for myself, I’ve always been told that the Bible is (as God designed it to be) written in ‘Shadow and Type’ referencing how one can shine the ‘light’ on an issue from different angles (which casts different shadows) and use metaphors or symbolic language to communicate an idea.

The specific example God brought to my attention recently is in regards to the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but first I’ll have to assert what I believe is symbolized in the sun and the moon. The sun is Jesus and the light of the sun is the Blood of Jesus shed in the New Testament while the moon is the law and the prophets of the Old Testament, and bear in mind that the moon has no light of its own but rather reflects a small portion of the light of the sun. This is why the Bible says the law makes nothing perfect (Heb 7:19) and Jesus made for us a better testament (Heb 7:22) while fulfilling all of the law (Matt 5:16-18). The Jews of Jesus’ day revered the Law (which can be personally represented by Moses) and their old Prophets (which can be represented by Elijah), and, as a matter of fact, God demonstrated this in the story of ‘The Mount of Transfiguration’ in Matthew 17:1-9; this is where He also made it quite clear that Jesus was the one they should look to now.

The Law and the Prophets also have another symbolic representation, the doorway. The Bible tells us rather plainly that the Law (and the Prophets) is a schoolmaster which has brought us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). They are, you might say, the doorway through which we must enter if we are to enter the house of the Lord. This is a place of safety (Lev 25:18), safe from the dark influences of the world and safe from the death which is the consequence of sin. A doorway, even a simple one, is comprised of at least two basic things: the lintel, the horizontal top of the door, which is built atop the vertical doorposts at the sides. The horizontal part (the lintel) represents the Law: the kingdom of Israel, the fair and equal governance of all its people. This rests upon the vertical doorposts which are a type of the Prophets: they heard directly from God, hence their ‘vertical’ orientation, and it was their job to anoint the Kings – or the kings-to-be – of Israel, which is why the Law (the government) and the Prophets are inextricably connected (the king would often seek the counsel of the prophets as well). It is through the administration of this functional pair that we can enter (2 Pet 1:11) into the house of the Lord and that place of safety.

One more thing before my fantastic conclusion: Jesus and the Passover Lamb. If you are unfamiliar with the origin story of the Passover (found in Exodus 12:1-38) I’ll try to explain it quickly. When the Israelites were still in captivity to the Egyptians, God chose to use Moses to set His people free. Moses told the pharaoh God’s message but the pharaoh would not listen, so God smote the land and the people of Egypt with all manner of plagues, the last and worst of which was the slaying of the firstborn, of both man and beast. God gave instruction to his servant Moses to give to the Israelites before the plague struck so that they could be kept safe from it. They sacrificed a lamb, ate it in a meal (symbolizing the Lord’s Supper) and its blood was used to mark the doorposts and lintel of every door where they didn’t wish death to enter. The blood was applied with a plant called hyssop which, when struck against the doorway, would leave behind a red cross. God would ‘pass over’ any house with these red crosses on the doorway; everyone inside the house would be safe. Jesus is symbolized by the Passover Lamb; he died for us and it is through him and his sacrifice that we may escape death and obtain life (John 3:16).

Of course, God is thorough, so if He establishes a symbol, He can and will use it wherever appropriate. Jesus, God’s great sacrifice for us, told us, ‘I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, there you may be also,’ in John 14:2-3. Jesus was speaking figuratively of course; as far as physical location is concerned Jesus disciples were often in the same place he was, but he was talking about a spiritual place where he, Jesus, (faultless, sinless, guiltless, and pure) was safe and secure in eternal life. That is where God wants us to be and there is room for everyone who will accept him; Jesus said, ‘in my Father’s house are many abodes,’ which indicates that there is a house (a spiritual and roomy one) inside of which we can be safe. And as Jesus is the ‘sacrificial lamb’ he had to die and let us apply his blood to the doorway into that house where we can be safe. Hence the cross on which he shed his blood and hence the meal he had his disciples eat saying, ‘this is my flesh and this is my blood.’ Of course the ultimate use of symbolism displayed that day could not have been done by any other but God Himself. The Biblical record itself isn’t crystal clear, but using modern astronomy’s techniques for looking at the skies in the past, we can be certain that there was a celestial phenomenon known rather appropriately as the blood moon appearing in the sky that day. The moon was completely covered by the earth’s shadow which made it appear red as it served as a type (or symbol) of the Old Testament and everything else I’ve already gone over. Personally, I think it’s quite possible that it was as Jesus saw the blood moon appear in the sky that that is when he said, ‘it is finished,’ and at last, gave up the ghost.

Anyway, that’s what’s been rattling around inside my brain for the past short while. As always, I’d encourage you to study into these things for yourself, ask questions, don’t take anything you hear or read for granted but put it to the test and see for yourself what it’s worth (you may create some awkwardness and tension in your life, but that’s the cost of seeking after the truth in earnest). I hope you’ve been edified by what I’ve shared here. Until next time, God bless!