WRideout
05-21-2017, 10:39 AM
In the 1700’s Swedish physician and amateur botanist Carolus Linnaeus, son of a Lutheran pastor, devised a naming scheme for all living things that remains in use today. In his binomial method, everything that lives can be described by genus, and species. By this method, the white tailed deer receives the scientific name Odocoileus Virginianus. Humans receive the name Homo Sapiens. The Linnaean method of naming living creatures remains in use today, and is important to scientific study because it allows all scientists to use the same name for the same creature. The Linnaean method in its present form uses the evolutionary lineage of the creature to derive its scientific name. When God gave Jacob the name Israel, it showed God’s authority over him. The Hebrew meaning of that name can be translated, “He who prevails with God.”
So how do we derive the name of the person who existed before all things? The person who has no evolutionary line, whose very name conveys power and authority? Orthodox Jews to this day do not write or speak the name of God, because to do so would be blasphemous. Jacob was wrestling with the One whose name is so holy and powerful that it cannot be spoken out loud.
Jesus tells us in the parable of the persistent widow that he expects us to struggle with God. He is not proposing some namby-pamby religion where we remain helpless children; recipients of God’s gifts, unable to take action on our own. Jesus Christ wants us to wrestle with God. To take up with him our doubts, fears, and questions. He wants us to be engaged. This is far different than the religion of the time that required the leaders of the Pharisees to puzzle out the correct answers to life’s problems, and codify them in the Torah, and other writings. If you wanted an answer to any particular problem, you just looked it up in the book; kind of like using the National Electrical Code to solve a wiring problem. And certainly you can get an answer that is technically and theologically correct, but still have no heart, no soul. God is not interested in passive Christians who follow a rote set of rules, but rather those who grapple with Him.
Almighty God is faithful to his promises. He promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations. He promised Abraham’s son Jacob that his descendants would spread across the earth. And ultimately, Jacob did father twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Napthali, Gad, and Asher. You might remember those names also as the twelve tribes of Israel.
Out of these tribes came Jesse, father of David, king of Israel, and whose descendants included a Hebrew baby who was given the name Jesus. And so Israel did bring light to the nations. From the root of Jesse came the Messiah, the one who would save the people from their sins. The blessing that Jacob sought, and the promise that God made, have been handed down from generation to generation.
We who are present-day Christians need to struggle with God. It is not enough to follow a script; we need to really know God. We need to wrestle with God over the big decisions we make. We need to tell him our true feelings. I have read that there is a Jewish expression called quarreling with God. Don’t be afraid to have that kind of relationship with Him. Throughout the Bible we read of prophets, kings and priests who were called against their wishes, but who simply brought their concerns to God, much as you would approach a friend with whom you had a conflict. And when you bring your concerns to God, present your case, and grapple with him, don’t forget to ask him to bless you. For God will bless his children, and his promises are everlasting
So how do we derive the name of the person who existed before all things? The person who has no evolutionary line, whose very name conveys power and authority? Orthodox Jews to this day do not write or speak the name of God, because to do so would be blasphemous. Jacob was wrestling with the One whose name is so holy and powerful that it cannot be spoken out loud.
Jesus tells us in the parable of the persistent widow that he expects us to struggle with God. He is not proposing some namby-pamby religion where we remain helpless children; recipients of God’s gifts, unable to take action on our own. Jesus Christ wants us to wrestle with God. To take up with him our doubts, fears, and questions. He wants us to be engaged. This is far different than the religion of the time that required the leaders of the Pharisees to puzzle out the correct answers to life’s problems, and codify them in the Torah, and other writings. If you wanted an answer to any particular problem, you just looked it up in the book; kind of like using the National Electrical Code to solve a wiring problem. And certainly you can get an answer that is technically and theologically correct, but still have no heart, no soul. God is not interested in passive Christians who follow a rote set of rules, but rather those who grapple with Him.
Almighty God is faithful to his promises. He promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations. He promised Abraham’s son Jacob that his descendants would spread across the earth. And ultimately, Jacob did father twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Napthali, Gad, and Asher. You might remember those names also as the twelve tribes of Israel.
Out of these tribes came Jesse, father of David, king of Israel, and whose descendants included a Hebrew baby who was given the name Jesus. And so Israel did bring light to the nations. From the root of Jesse came the Messiah, the one who would save the people from their sins. The blessing that Jacob sought, and the promise that God made, have been handed down from generation to generation.
We who are present-day Christians need to struggle with God. It is not enough to follow a script; we need to really know God. We need to wrestle with God over the big decisions we make. We need to tell him our true feelings. I have read that there is a Jewish expression called quarreling with God. Don’t be afraid to have that kind of relationship with Him. Throughout the Bible we read of prophets, kings and priests who were called against their wishes, but who simply brought their concerns to God, much as you would approach a friend with whom you had a conflict. And when you bring your concerns to God, present your case, and grapple with him, don’t forget to ask him to bless you. For God will bless his children, and his promises are everlasting