Sweetness of the Scroll
In my last
blog I shared about the “word” I heard…”let me hear your voice” which references
a scripture in Song of Solomon. I shared
a few thoughts I believe Holy Spirit revealed.
Since then, I have continued to contemplate what I heard from the Spirit
of God. I believe that Father God speaks
to us…daily…moment by moment if we are attentive. The phrase became not only an instruction, but
also an invitation. However, even after
the blog post I still needed discernment. What act of obedience was the Lord requiring
of me?
I think that
sometimes we act in presumption when it comes to our spiritual walk. We can get comfortable and down right religious
with our spiritual disciplines and that just isn’t good. Some time ago, the Father, let me know, quite
distinctly, that I was not to walk in presumption concerning his Word and His Voice. We can hear something familiar and
automatically believe we know what our response should be. In this season, I don't want to be presumptive concerning what I am hearing from the Lord. Jesus said “Ask, seek and knock”. We should probably ask some questions once we
hear an instruction from the Lord. To
hear in Hebrew actually means to listen and obey! That means action should
follow what is heard. I said all that to say, I couldn’t just assume that I
knew what my act of obedience was concerning “ let me hear your voice”. Well, I think I may have something…sweetness of
the scroll. Let me explain…
I am on this faith adventure into the Hebraic roots of our Christian faith. Each week I read the weekly portion of
scripture assigned and listen to Hebraic roots teachers to learn and grow in my
knowledge of scripture, specifically the Torah.
More often than not, Father speaks to me through the Torah reading. I am learning so much and just plain enjoy
it. Call me a geek …I am okay with that!
Sometimes I think…wow LORD that was such a nugget; a sweet nugget of
truth from your Word. Now I plan to
share those nuggets with others through the spoken word. I will
begin sharing a sweet drop of honey about the weekly Torah reading over social
radio podcast, specifically Spreaker.
I am not a Hebrew Scholar, so please don’t expect in depth teaching on
the Torah. I have only spent a little
over a year listening to a weekly Torah teachings, but I believe that Holy
Spirit does share things with me that can encourage other believers in their
faith. Therefore, in this blog I am
going to give a brief recap of the insights from the first few weeks to catch us
up….then I will move forward on Spreaker.
The Sweetness
Psalm 119:103
How
sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Ezekiel 3:3
And
He said unto me, “Son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this
scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and
it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
Psalm 19: 9,10
The
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true
and righteous altogether. More to be
desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey
and the honeycomb.
We can see
that scripture presents a comparison between the word of God and the sweetness
of honey. Think about it. The promise of God to Israel was the
inheritance of a land flowing with milk and honey. The metaphor of the sweetness of honey and
the importance to godly instruction from scripture is a tradition confirmed by Jewish
rabbis and rooted in Hebrew. Here is an
excerpt from a website:
Whatever the etymology of khanach, the custom of using honey
deserves special mention in any study of Jewish education. Rabbinic tradition
informs us that it was the Jewish practice to use honey in a special ceremony
on the first day of school. The young child was shown a slate which had written
on it the letters of the alphabet, two verses of Scripture (Lev.
1:1, Deut. 33:4), and one other sentence: “The Torah will be my calling.”
The teacher next read these words to the child, and the child repeated them
back. Then his slate was coated with honey, which he promptly licked off, being
reminded of Ezekiel, who said after eating the scroll, “I ate it; and it tasted
as sweet as honey in my mouth” (Ezek. 3:3). After this ceremony, the child was
given sweet cakes to eat with Bible verses from the Torah written on them.[6]
What is the reason the rabbis tie study
and honey together? The answer appears to be due, at least in part, to the
linguistic connection they made between the use of khech (palate, gums) and khanach (to educate) in certain biblical texts. The rabbis
found khech in passages
comparing the sweetness of honey to the sweetness of the wisdom and words of
God which one spiritually ingests.
So here are a
few drops from the scroll…these are simple insights I have pondered each week
while reading through the Torah portions.
Bereshit (In
the beginning): Genesis 1:1-6:8
Drop: The Holy Spirit was hovering over
darkness over the face of the waters. Gen. 1:1-2
In the first
Torah reading (parashat) Holy Spirit reminded me that he is not intimidated by the darkness! We can get ourselves all
worked up over the challenges in our lives.
To what end? Worry and
stress? If we believe our bibles, there
is a shaking…and there is darkness…gross darkness already manifesting. So we
had better stay in faith. The Holy
Spirit was hovering in the beginning and He is continuing to move in the midst
of God’s people. Holy Spirit is not alarmed about the darkness in the world. Needless
to say, I needed to be reminded because of a few situations in my own
life. Holy Spirit is present with us in
the chaos in our lives. We must live in that truth.
Noach (Noah):
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Drop: The fountains of the deep were broken and heaven’s
windows were opened. Gen. 7:11
Most believers
are “familiar” with the story of Noah.
The second parashat in Torah covers this biblical account. What really stood out to me that week was the
verse Genesis 7:11...”all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and
the windows of heaven were opened.” I
don’t think I had ever paid attention to that passage. There is a scientist who has studied this and
can scientifically explain how the flood actually occurred! So it was powerful floods of water that
flowed from fountains stored by God in the earth and above the earth in
heaven! That was a lot of water! Jesus said out of our belly will flow rivers
of living waters! Think about the
powerful flow of water in a river. There is a force of power resident in our
spirits. Don’t you think Jesus knows “a little” something about the source of the living
waters and the rivers of God! Let’s get in the flow and stay there! Let’s get
under an open window of heaven and pitch a tent!
Lekh Lekha (Go
forth yourself ): Genesis 12:1-17:27
Drop: Go go within yourself and deep
sleep. Gen. 12:1 and Gen. 15:12
The title of
this parashat in Hebrew is translated go forth yourself or more accurately go within
yourself. The phrase is the first few
words of the Torah reading.
Traditionally, the parashat names are the first few Hebrew words of the
Torah section. (FYI Ezra the priest and
scribe developed the Torah reading schedule).
In this reading, we read about when the Lord came to Abram in a vision
and “cut covenant” with him. It is a powerful
portion of scripture. What popped out at
me was Genesis 15:12. Father put Abram in a deep
sleep. This is the second time that
God put a man in deep sleep. The first time was with Adam in Genesis 2:21. In Strong’s concordance it is H8639 meaning deep sleep or trance. At this point, I am not really making any
connection other than deep sleep. So I go and look up the rest of the
references for the Hebrew word. A very
interesting reference is Job 33:15, 16…”In
a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while
slumbering on their beds, then he opens the ears of men, and seals their
instruction” SAY WHAT!!! I am sure
there is a lot more to this than what I am getting right now, but for me…I need
to make sure I am getting “real” sleep….go in…going within…in my times of
rest. I have suffered from insomnia and happen to be a very light sleeper, but I still tend to have dreams. THE POINT: we
should not allow the enemy to rob us of our sleep and rest. We may be missing
out on important instructions from the Lord!
This is
already longer than I anticipated so I am going to cut the recap here. Hopefully, something shared encouraged and
ignited your faith. Sweetness of the
scroll is going to be a source of encouragement based on the Torah portion for
that week. It will be whatever Holy
Spirit wants shared…I will be exercising my faith to hear and hope that you
will join in faith and listen too…
More to
come… I will finish the remaining Torah portion recaps….next time
I will post
the first podcast…Sweetness of the Scroll...after I record it…help me Lord!
Grace and
peace…
- recaps still to come-
Vayera (And he
appeared): Genesis 18:1-22:24 Tent of
meeting.
Chayei Sarah (The
Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18 Eliezer: Sent One
Toldot
(Generations): Genesis 25:19-28:9 Digging Wells
© Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles, 2013-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ronda Wagner and Kelbey Chronicles with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
