What Lies Behind
Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar Genesis 22:9
Bound – There is a deep connection between the binding of Isaac and Yeshua. There is a deep connection between the sacrifice of father Abraham and the Father. There is a deep connection between the ram and the look behind. But that’s not quite all of it.
The pictographic representation of the word akod (to bind) is found in the three consonants Ayin-Qof-Daleth. That picture is “to see the open palm over the horizon,” or “to experience what opens behind.” In other words, the Hebrew idea of binding is not related to our concepts of forced submission and powerlessness. It is related to the purpose of the binding, not to the event. That purpose points us toward the future where we experience the grace of God’s open hand. To be bound is to be placed in the hand of God. It is to put my life into His care. Because binding is consensual submission, it must be based on the trust that God’s open palm will be seen in the future.
The pictograph of akar (behind, afterward) is “to see what is behind a person.” Coupled with the Hebrew idea of the future, this word perfectly describes the rowboat man. But now we know something else that is very important. The rowboat man is bound. The rowboat does not pick out any marker on the past shoreline to set his course. He is bound by invisible (usually) constraints that require him to pick only one set of markers. He sets his course by them because he allows himself to be bound by them. He consents to one path and only one path. In this way, akod and akar are “bound” together.
Do you get it? To travel toward the future with Messiah Yeshua is to be bound to a single pathway. That pathway is the one He gave us – to keep His commandments as He kept His Father’s commandments. There is only one way. It is the way of torah. To travel with Yeshua is to be bound to Him so that we might experience His open hand grace here and in the future.
Pay no attention to the world’s proclamation that all roads lead to God. They do not! Flee the seduction that there are many paths to righteousness. There is only one! Be cautious of all who would discard the clear commandments of God, no matter how “reasonable” their arguments seem. God’s way is not reasonable. Does the connection between akod and akar make sense? Does it really seem sane to think that the way to peace is to be bound? Do we really imagine that the marks of suffering are the badges of trust? No, God does not ask us to think our way into His plan. He asks us to obey!
What lies behind is God’s open palm, but you can’t get there by looking over your shoulder. You can only get there by climbing up on the altar and letting Father bind you. Then you will experience what is over the horizon, completely out of sight to all who refuse to let the ropes hold them down.
http://www.atgodstable.com/tw_print.cgi?l=en&a=1662
August 07, 2008
Age of Consent
Age of Consent
Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar Genesis 22:9
Bound – According to Jewish tradition, Isaac was a young man of marriageable age (approximately 36) when his father Abraham took him to be sacrificed. Erase the idea of Isaac as the innocent and helpless child. At age thirty-six, Isaac could have easily overpowered his one-hundred year-old father. He did not do so. He consented to be bound. He obeyed in spite of the fact that his death was clearly imminent. In this story we have a foreshadowing of the great sacrifice of Yeshua who also consented to the will of His Father and was bound to the cross for our sins.
But there is even more here than this great foretelling of God’s ultimate gift. You see, the word for bound is akod. It describes wrapping in order to secure. The Jewish rabbinical scholar Rashi says that this word refers to the ring-like marks that are left behind as an indication of the binding. In other words, even after the ropes have been removed, the signs of akod still remain. The forensic evidence of submission leaves its impression.
Have you ever thought about the fact that Yeshua retained the marks of His submission even in His resurrected body? Why was that necessary? If the resurrected body is the perfectly redeemed expression of the true nature of the human being, why weren’t those terrible reminders of the agony of the cross removed? Why wasn’t the body of the resurrected Messiah perfectly new? The answer, of course, is that these marks of akod are the eternal badges of His fulfilled mission. When you and I see Him, we will see the marks. They are reminders that He had to be bound in order for us to be freed.
Now this raises a question for us. What are your akod marks? What have you allowed the Father to bind so that you could be obedient to Him? I suspect that we each have these identifying badges of consent. They are uniquely ours. There is something that God pressed us about, some element of our human will that had to respond, “Not my will but yours be done.” My guess is that this act of obedience left a scar. Do not expect that scar to go away. It is the eternal reminder that you belong to the ones who consented to be sacrificed. This is not a scar that you got on the way to conversion. Those painful reminders of past sins will be washed into the forgiving sea. These new markings are the evidence of your post-conversion obedience. They will not be washed away.
That does not mean that they were not painful. It just means that they were worth it.
A follower of Yeshua who does not bear any marks of akod is either too weak to allow God’s gracious suffering or too foolish to see what suffering really is all about.
http://www.atgodstable.com/tw_print.cgi?l=en&a=1661
Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar Genesis 22:9
Bound – According to Jewish tradition, Isaac was a young man of marriageable age (approximately 36) when his father Abraham took him to be sacrificed. Erase the idea of Isaac as the innocent and helpless child. At age thirty-six, Isaac could have easily overpowered his one-hundred year-old father. He did not do so. He consented to be bound. He obeyed in spite of the fact that his death was clearly imminent. In this story we have a foreshadowing of the great sacrifice of Yeshua who also consented to the will of His Father and was bound to the cross for our sins.
But there is even more here than this great foretelling of God’s ultimate gift. You see, the word for bound is akod. It describes wrapping in order to secure. The Jewish rabbinical scholar Rashi says that this word refers to the ring-like marks that are left behind as an indication of the binding. In other words, even after the ropes have been removed, the signs of akod still remain. The forensic evidence of submission leaves its impression.
Have you ever thought about the fact that Yeshua retained the marks of His submission even in His resurrected body? Why was that necessary? If the resurrected body is the perfectly redeemed expression of the true nature of the human being, why weren’t those terrible reminders of the agony of the cross removed? Why wasn’t the body of the resurrected Messiah perfectly new? The answer, of course, is that these marks of akod are the eternal badges of His fulfilled mission. When you and I see Him, we will see the marks. They are reminders that He had to be bound in order for us to be freed.
Now this raises a question for us. What are your akod marks? What have you allowed the Father to bind so that you could be obedient to Him? I suspect that we each have these identifying badges of consent. They are uniquely ours. There is something that God pressed us about, some element of our human will that had to respond, “Not my will but yours be done.” My guess is that this act of obedience left a scar. Do not expect that scar to go away. It is the eternal reminder that you belong to the ones who consented to be sacrificed. This is not a scar that you got on the way to conversion. Those painful reminders of past sins will be washed into the forgiving sea. These new markings are the evidence of your post-conversion obedience. They will not be washed away.
That does not mean that they were not painful. It just means that they were worth it.
A follower of Yeshua who does not bear any marks of akod is either too weak to allow God’s gracious suffering or too foolish to see what suffering really is all about.
http://www.atgodstable.com/tw_print.cgi?l=en&a=1661
Cast Your Eyes Upon
Cast Your Eyes Upon
Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; Genesis 22:13
Behind – If you’re reading this verse in English, you may discover two curious things. The first is here in the NASB with the addition of the word “him.” The second curiosity is found in translations like the NIV where the word “behind” is simply left out of the translation. Both options should cause us to pause. Something strange is happening and the English translations are stumbling over it.
The Hebrew actually says, “and behold a ram behind” (vehine-ayil achar). The word behind is achar meaning “behind, after or afterwards.” In order to make sense of this word, English translations like the NASB add the assumed pronoun “him.” But the text doesn’t say that. It says the Abraham looked and saw a ram achar. In order to understand what is implied here, we need to know that the Hebrew concept of the future is tied to the idea of behind. Achariyt comes from the same root. It is about the last time, the end or the future. It paints a picture of a man in a rowboat with his destination behind him so that he cannot see where he is going but only where he has been. This is the Hebrew idea of the future. When Abraham looked up, he peered into the behind and saw a sacrificial ram. It’s possible that Abraham saw a ram behind him, but that is not what the text says. It says that he saw the afterward-ram. In other words, in the moment that the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham to stop the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham was allowed to see something deep in the afterward, far in the behind, hidden in the future. Abraham saw the coming sacrifice provided by God, the ram that would act as God’s own provision on the altar. Abraham caught a glimpse of the future.
It’s disappointing that this special view is lost in English translations. In an effort to make the words compatible with English grammar, we obscure the depth of the Hebrew. No Hebrew word is an accident. Unless we stick to the text exactly as it is written, we miss what God has to say. But now you know. Now you know that Abraham’s sacrifice connects us directly to Yeshua. Perhaps you always saw the implication. Now you see something even more wonderful. The secret was hidden long ago in the very word that describes the ram.
Once in awhile God allows a man or woman to see what’s coming. The occasions are rare. There is a reason for this. Human beings are preoccupied with knowing the future. It is a form of idolatry. Why? Because the motivation behind wanting to know what will happen is the motivation to control our destiny and that is based in a desire to be God. The reason the future lies behind us is so that we learn to depend on what we already know; namely, the long history of God’s faithfulness with us clearly seen in the past. As we learn of His reliable care, we trust Him. We find contentment. We reject independence. We stop worrying about tomorrow. We become children of the man who, when he was ready to sacrifice all, looked behind and saw the God who provides.
http://www.atgodstable.com/tw_print.cgi?l=en&a=1660
Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; Genesis 22:13
Behind – If you’re reading this verse in English, you may discover two curious things. The first is here in the NASB with the addition of the word “him.” The second curiosity is found in translations like the NIV where the word “behind” is simply left out of the translation. Both options should cause us to pause. Something strange is happening and the English translations are stumbling over it.
The Hebrew actually says, “and behold a ram behind” (vehine-ayil achar). The word behind is achar meaning “behind, after or afterwards.” In order to make sense of this word, English translations like the NASB add the assumed pronoun “him.” But the text doesn’t say that. It says the Abraham looked and saw a ram achar. In order to understand what is implied here, we need to know that the Hebrew concept of the future is tied to the idea of behind. Achariyt comes from the same root. It is about the last time, the end or the future. It paints a picture of a man in a rowboat with his destination behind him so that he cannot see where he is going but only where he has been. This is the Hebrew idea of the future. When Abraham looked up, he peered into the behind and saw a sacrificial ram. It’s possible that Abraham saw a ram behind him, but that is not what the text says. It says that he saw the afterward-ram. In other words, in the moment that the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham to stop the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham was allowed to see something deep in the afterward, far in the behind, hidden in the future. Abraham saw the coming sacrifice provided by God, the ram that would act as God’s own provision on the altar. Abraham caught a glimpse of the future.
It’s disappointing that this special view is lost in English translations. In an effort to make the words compatible with English grammar, we obscure the depth of the Hebrew. No Hebrew word is an accident. Unless we stick to the text exactly as it is written, we miss what God has to say. But now you know. Now you know that Abraham’s sacrifice connects us directly to Yeshua. Perhaps you always saw the implication. Now you see something even more wonderful. The secret was hidden long ago in the very word that describes the ram.
Once in awhile God allows a man or woman to see what’s coming. The occasions are rare. There is a reason for this. Human beings are preoccupied with knowing the future. It is a form of idolatry. Why? Because the motivation behind wanting to know what will happen is the motivation to control our destiny and that is based in a desire to be God. The reason the future lies behind us is so that we learn to depend on what we already know; namely, the long history of God’s faithfulness with us clearly seen in the past. As we learn of His reliable care, we trust Him. We find contentment. We reject independence. We stop worrying about tomorrow. We become children of the man who, when he was ready to sacrifice all, looked behind and saw the God who provides.
http://www.atgodstable.com/tw_print.cgi?l=en&a=1660
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