● Jeremiah 18:2-6
2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel(h0070. אֹבֶן ’ôḇen). 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! ● ((indeed this is how he speaks to us))
We are in life situations, and God’s words come to us if our spirit is calm, and we are listening.
There have been two recent witnesses in my life that I will try to share briefly, that will fit with what I am currently hearing in God’s Word. Life situations teach us, if we are attuned.
I recently met a man visiting from out of state. He was here for an unknown period of time, was retired and here to support his son. His son had only ever wanted to be in the military. When he was a teen he told his parents he wanted to go into the military, and they put him off saying they would not sign a release until he was of age. This happened two or three times. Finally after he graduated from high school and tried a year of college, he decided on his own that he would indeed join the military. He made it through Boot Camp just fine. He went to a military establishment nearby and was apparently faced with some challenges to his lifestyle that took the form of “initiation rites.“ He was now in a mental institution for a short hospitalization with symptoms that he was anticipating would bring about a discharge from the military. The dad was thinking some form of PTSD. I shared some time with the dad.
The other example is a coworker who was very much focused on having a family. She and her husband went through many trials of artificial insemination after they had been unable to have children on their own. After several failed attempts, they were successful in obtaining pregnancy with twins. This all hit about the same time as the coronavirus pandemic. As a result she ended up with a high risk pregnancy being at home for many months during the pregnancy and after the babies were born. Trying to be as positive in words as possible, I would say this young woman was quite self-focused when I worked with her before. Since her return, with months of time for reflection and times of responsibility, to me she seems to be a very changed person.
These are the two life situations that have recently spoken to me and stand out with some recent Scripture study I have been doing. I’d like to share that with you, in hopes that it may help make some of life more understandable, some of Scripture more understandable. We have already spoken numerous times about “children,” and how children may be biological, but also may be those that learn from us in our every day life; those whom we influence; those who gain understanding from us. Yes, in this discussion, we should make our way back to the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding investigation.
Once again, I share with you that the thoughts may not be original. It’s very possible that other people who have deeply studied Scripture have already discovered these things. Very possible. I have not read about these thoughts. So there is a warning to you that they may be only one person‘s perspective. I will start with an introduction which was a teaching from the AlephBeta website (retrieved 05092021) by Rabbi David Fohrman on the following passage:
Deuteronomy 22:6-7
6 “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; 7 you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
https://www.alephbeta.org/playlist/shiluach-hakan-parent-trap
The point I hope to get across from sharing that video is one that fits with the other parts of this message. The mother bird restrains her instinct for preserving her own life in order to protect her children. I see this as an echoing theme in Scripture and hope to share what I have been led to. I doubt we can cover it all in one entry, but I will begin. What got me started down this path is some of the recent work I have shared with you, the breaking down of words into parts and the origins/meaning of prepositions. I was studying the consequences of the decision to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in Genesis 3, which we will hopefully get to at some point. But first, this glimpse into the large concept of parenthood being a means of maturing us in life. When you are my age, you have heard friends say many times how their children used to think how very stupid they were until they had children of their own, and then suddenly the parents were not so stupid any longer. Of course, you will also recognize that the topic also relates to one of our common points about changed perspectives, challenges to our assumptive reasoning. Shifting gears, we move to a very well-known covenant, God’s covenant with Abram/Abraham. An introduction from Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_of_the_pieces
“According to the Hebrew Bible, the covenant of the pieces or covenant between the parts (Hebrew: ברית בין הבתרים berith bein hebětarim) was an event in which God revealed himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him, in which God announced to Abraham that his descendants would eventually inherit the Land of Israel. This was one of the first in a series of covenants made between God and the biblical patriarchs.”
I ask you to pull out your Bible and read all 21 verses of Genesis 15 and reflect on them for a bit. And then I will share some thoughts. Again, I will actually be speaking against some teaching I received in school, and I have no idea what the sages have said except what our professors taught, so, please read with caution. And again, there should be more in future entries on the website to tie in. •••
I will begin with a brief comment about covenants. I have a very good friend who is very interested in Biblical covenants and has done lots of research on them. I could not touch what he knows, so I won’t even try, except to say that in a covenant relationship, whether it is one between “equals” or between persons of different status, there are expectations on the part of both parties in the covenant. One we have referred to several times is the threshold covenant. The expectations on the part of the owner of the house are to provide shelter, protection, and hospitality. The expectations on the part of the one entering the house are to abide by the “house rules.”
As you read in Gn15, the ברית בין הבתרים berith bein hebětarim, the covenant between the parts is a covenant, the founding covenant between God and Abram and his descendants. הבתרים, hebětarim, is from this root:
The word בתר appears twice in Gn15:10:
Genesis 15:10
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut (h1334. בָּתַר ḇâṯar) them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut (h1334. בָּתַר ḇâṯar) the birds (h6833. צִפּוֹר ṣippôr) in two.
The smoking pot and burning torch that pass between the pieces in Abram’s deep sleep (v.17) are symbolic of God (see the descriptions at Mount Sinai, e.g. Ex19:18). God’s walking between the parts indicates acceptance of the covenant on God’s part. What we were taught at school was that this was the only covenant in Scripture that is one-sided, i.e. that there was no indication of a part that Abram had to do, only that God was, “your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” And that, “‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’” And He said to him, “‘So shall your descendants be.’” The teaching was that the expectations were all on God’s part.
I am going to argue against this “one-sided” interpretation, and no doubt (as I am told that the writings of the Sages are full of debates about what passages mean) there is such an argument already proposed somewhere. I simply share my interpretation. I’m in no position to debate the Sages, but I will share a few points, the connections I hope you can follow. First, it is important, in my thinking, that the birds are not cut in two. The root for birds here:
(By the way, not believing in “coincidence,” I just realized that h6833. צִפּוֹר ṣippôr is also the same word for bird in Dt22:6 above.) The idea is that, though God is Abram’s shield and exceedingly great reward, Abram is not “covered completely.” The LORD (יהוה) God tells us this himself in his description to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7. He is patient and forgiving and faithful, but, as any good parent, God has expectations of us. We have a part to fulfill or consequences will result. A couple more points from the Genesis 15 chapter, and then a bit about how I was led here. Part of the explanation given is, in verse 12: “horror and great darkness fell upon him (Abram).” And, there are both pluses and minuses noted, the downside being: Genesis 15:13
13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.•••”
Indeed, would that not bring horror and great darkness to a “father of a multitude,” to be told this?
So, we get to this point with the background of Abram and Sarah being elderly and Sarah barren, and we are about to go into “the Hagar season” in Abram’s life, in chapter 16. But we begin chapter 15, the immediate context of this covenant, with Abram’s obvious focus on wanting offspring.
Genesis 15:2-4
2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
Two words I will call your attention to, “childless” and “heir.” These are obviously Abram’s great concerns, and “heir” occurs four times in these three verses.
Childless: h6185. עֲרִירִי ‘ărîyrîy; from h6209. עָרַר ‘ârar
The verb before childless, “go,” is הלך, which is to walk, to progress step by step toward a goal. The “land” that Abram currently walks is the perspective of being “childless,” isolated, lonely and desolate. His focus on this colors all of his walk in life.
And heir: h3423. יָרַשׁ yâraš
First, let’s dispense with the first words translated as “heir” here in the NKJV, in verse two, where the “heir” is Eliezer, there heir is וּבֶן־מֶ֣שֶׁק, h1121. בֵּן ḇên + h4943. מֶשֶׁק mešeq. Strongs gives the meaning of משק as steward. In the EDBH p.145 משק rustle in the wind, where the verse reference is Zephaniah 2:9. This does not mean Abram does not value the service of Eliezer. What it reflects upon, again, is Abram’s current perspective on his life that this one as an heir has no value to him. But the word h3423. יָרַשׁ yâraš is used otherwise:
If you look up some of these verses, you will get the sense that the person receiving the inheritance takes over all of that which one has worked for in life.
Now it is time to use some of the tools we have learned from Hirsch and Clark, and hopefully with this piece you will begin to understand the title of this entry and some of the life examples given. We will be using the concepts of phonetic cognates and same letters in different order. First we will look at ישר, which is used in one of my most common signature quotations in my e-mails,
Proverbs 3:6
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will direct your paths.
Some translations give it as “straighten” your paths.
Again, looking at verses to get a “sense” of the word is always helpful. Here, the focus might be on Deuteronomy 33:26
26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
Who rides the heavens to help you,
And in His excellency on the clouds.
ישא is the root for Jeshurun, for which I give you Strongs entry:
h3484. יְשֻׁרוּן yešurûn; from h3474. יָשַׁר yâšar; upright; Jeshurun, a symbol. name for Israel: — Jeshurun.
AV (4) – Jeshurun 3, Jesurun 1; Jeshurun = “upright one”
a symbolic name for Israel describing her ideal character
Remember “faithful to duty,” and think about the discussions of parenthood. And now, let’s go one step further, to a phonetic cognate of ישר, which is יסר:
Hopefully this ties it all together for you, especially why, all of a sudden when our children have children, we suddenly become much less stupid than we were.
Now let’s return to the covenant issue, and the ברית בין הבתרים berith bein hebětarim, the covenant between the parts. My argument that there is indeed an expectation of Abram that is perhaps a little bit hidden here, but becomes more clearly defined later. There is a cost to Abram. The first is the cost of the animals themselves, the taking of Life and the fending off of the vultures (from p.181 עוט, pounce), Abram’s work. But then there is the long-term cost, the expectation that he will, in how he lives his life, teach those descendants that come from him. That requires restraint on his own part, in his lifestyle. And it involves teaching his heirs restraint. Restraining oneself from all of our own desires is a challenge. See this more explicit statement, after Abram has been renamed Abraham (you should read the pericope, verses 16-33, and see how Abraham challenges God as Moses is later seen to do):
Genesis 18:17-19
17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
This, indeed, is the expectation placed upon Abraham at the Covenant between the parts. (We have spoken much earlier of a similar covenant between Solomon and the LORD (יהוה), which Solomon failed to keep (1K3:6-14). The LORD is very serious about covenants, when we say something like, “God, if you will just get me through this or that situation, I will devote my life to you.” This is “cutting a deal” with the Maker, the Potter, to whom we referred in our opening passage from today. I will stop for today, after one more piece. Look above at the excerpt from EDBH p.33 on בתר. Look at the other place in Scripture that we see this root used.
Jeremiah 34:17-22
17 “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,’ says the LORD—‘to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it— 19 the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf— 20 I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. 21 And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army which has gone back from you. 22 Behold, I will command,’ says the LORD, ‘and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’ ”
This is one of the clearest explanations of God’s approach to us; yes we have free will to choose to or not to follow what we say we will do. God is not restrained when we do not keep our part of the bargain. He is then freed to remove from us the hedge of protection that he provides. Read the above carefully. Liberty is proclaimed to let the pieces fall where they may. Don’t you just hate it when the prophets clarify something that might have been more easily misconstrued before?
And lest the Christians among the readers here think this rule no longer applies, I encourage you to read this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:21-23. And pay particular attention to this phrase, “I never knew you” because it directly relates to Genesis 18:18, “For I have known him,” relating to Abraham. To “know, ידע” is a two-way street in Scripture. It is intimate knowledge. It is “acknowledging” in that Proverbs 3:6 verse above. It is a living, ongoing relationship. It is, as always in Hebrew, an “action verb.” Does he know you?
There are many, many connections, including the path that led me here by way of the consequences of eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But I think we have reached a good stopping point for some further pondering. 🤔
Hopefully we will meet again soon.
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