The beauty of God’s words to us in the Bible is written inside language.
The art of knowing God is the relationship we build with Him through the power of His Spirit – His Holy Breath. Language is an art form because written words only impact the reader who understands what those words are meant to convey by the author writing them.
God has been communicating His desire to love and care for mankind since the first words of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Moses penned Genesis 3400 years ago. And, when the last of Yeshua’s disciples wrote his own account, the Gospel of John, begins with “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John wrote his Gospel about 1930 years ago.
Meanwhile, the King James Bible was translated about 400 years ago and the Tree of Life Bible was translated about 7 years ago. Both the King James Bible and the Tree of Life Bible were translated for the broadest reading level possible at the time. Interestingly, the King James Bible targeted a 6th grade education, while the Tree of Life is targeting an 8th grade education now – but English language literacy in America has plummeted from 99% to 85% in just the past 20 years alone! If common English language literacy has sharply declined, what about Bible Literacy? With so many Bible translations available online, in over 30 languages, how did the Bible become so common without more Bible literacy creating more ‘peace on earth and goodwill toward men?’
Do we even have the right to ask such an inflammatory question? Amidst the world panic over COVID, allow me to wax poetic for a moment. Bible literacy is Bible reading. Bible reading is not the same as Bible studying. Reading comprehension is understanding the message of the writer and that the author of the Bible is God, not Moses or John or even the TLV Bible Society. The Author of creation is God. His Son came to illuminate His Father’s words to us, hidden inside humanity, sacrificed for the forgiveness of sin. The Messiah of Israel, Yeshua, is quite literally the ‘womb fruit’ of one of the daughters descended from the tribe of Levi, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, and the seed of Abraham through Sarah.
The Prince of Peace walked amongst men in the midst of religious oppression, hidden inside the space and time that He created! The art of knowing God does start with believing He exists. And, for people who find Yeshua’s forgiveness first, the annual return to Genesis every Rosh Hashana by the ‘Children of Israel’ is REFRESHING!
Think about this for a LONG moment. Would Yeshua’s blood have any value if we did not know that in the beginning the Children of Israel were promised ‘the seed of the woman’ would crush the head of the serpent – the promise – in Genesis chapter 3? Would the Children of Israel have become a people set apart by God Himself if they had not obeyed His command to put the blood of the Passover Lamb on their doorposts on the final eve of their captivity in Egypt – the freedom – in Exodus chapter 12? How do we know that Yeshua’s sacrifice pays the debt for our sin without actually reading about the blood in Genesis chapter 9?
And, how can we identify the profound love of this invisible God that leads us daily by His spectacular Presence and learn to trust Him in our daily lives? Surprisingly, this is also found in the 3400 year old words of the God penned by Moses – the journey – summed up in Numbers chapter 33. Thankfully, the retelling of the first four books are recounted and confirmed in the ‘second Torah’ of Moses, the Book of Deuteronomy. Here, the ending of the matter is better than the beginning! Moses pens the watchword in Deuteronomy 6. Our faith is not ours alone. The truth of God’s Words are our gift to our children and our children’s children – our inheritance.
The Children of Israel have written and rewritten God’s words on animal skins for thousands of years – the Words of Life – indeed. The cost of the knowledge of our sin literally written on the skin of animals to teach the next three to four generations about the holiness of our eternal God. Please consider getting a print of the ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ TLV Art Print for your home. This picture by the amazingly talented artist, Michael Washer, actually shows Yeshua being formed out of the words of Isaiah 53 in Hebrew! I believe this picture is God-breathed and will open your heart to a deeper knowledge of God!
As I have raised my Jewish children, and they have come to value the hand-scribed parchment scrolls our people have carried for centuries, I imagine how much we NEED those skins to remind us of the VALUE of our Savior’s blood. Every week, at synagogue gatherings, these lambskin scrolls are taken out and processed and blessed and read from – a true testimony to God’s faithfulness to His people! I know the Bible is true because, as horrible as the accounts of humanity’s suffering are throughout the Torah, have we really ever EVOLVED beyond the evil inclination bent on controlling other’s for our own gain – save the knowledge of God Himself coming to rescue mankind?
The only true and lasting peace comes from God – through God – and in God. Thank you, God, for being so faithful. Thank you for sending Your Son, Yeshua.
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