A Vessel Unto Honour

I just encountered something that blew my mind and I have to process it, but I don’t know how, so I am just going to write it out and process it all here in a post. I am going to take you, my reader, with me for the ride!

I am in my Stone Edition Tanach, reading Proverbs 22 because it is Elul 22 and verse 21 just slapped me in the face like a hardball, because as-it-is-written in this particular translation, it was like reading 1 Peter 3:15, but from the Law of Moses perspective rather than the saved-by-grace-don’t-have-to-do-anything-except-believe-on-Christ perspective.

My mind has been blown, and I don’t know how to perceive anything anymore because the difference in understanding between Proverbs 22:21 versus my understanding of 1 Peter 3:15 is too great a distance apart from one another that I cannot reconcile the meaning of this verse anymore according to my old understanding.

Here is what Proverbs 22:21 says, “to teach you the veracity of true words, so that you many answer words of truth to those who send word to you.”

Now I will follow this with a quote of the full section from Proverbs 22 because the words up to this verse are what gives this verse context and makes the meaning so completely different from how I received these words coming from Peter.

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise; set your heart to My knowledge. For it is pleasant if you guard them in your innards and establish all of them upon your lips. Let your trust remain with HaShem, I have made this known to you today, you also. Surely, I have written for you in the Torah extremely noble things, with counsel and knowledge, to teach you the veracity of true words, so that you may answer words of truth to those who send word to you.

Proverbs 22:17-21

I have come to find that everything Peter said in his letters is literally direct quotations from the Tanach. He just put all the quotes together into a letter and formed it into a personalized message. All of Peter’s thoughts were God’s words compiled together into a cohesive message as a form of instruction and directions.

Just wow.

Now, taking that message from Proverbs 22:17-21 and overlaying it on top of Peter’s letter completely alters my understanding of what Peter was saying.

The understanding is pointing towards Peter ultimately concluding this:

The path of the righteous is like the glow of sunlight, growing brighter until high noon, but the way of the wicked is like darkness, they know not upon what they stumble because they are walking in their own understanding, according to their own personal opinions and personal priorities, they know not upon what they stumble.

The Words of life are the words of God, definitely including the Law of Moses, and the Torah warns to “Let them not depart from your eyes, guard them within your heart.”

The Scriptures says God’s instructions/His Torah are life to he who finds them and healing for all his flesh.

We are warned: More than you guard anything, safeguard your heart, for from it are the sources of life.

The word “lev” is the Hebrew word that is interpreted as “heart.” But the word “lev” encompasses all of this as its meaning: the things you think, the emotions/feelings connected to your thoughts, your opinions and your personal priorities.

So, this means that to safeguard your heart is to be vigilant and diligently aware of your thoughts, feelings, opinions, personal preferences and personal priorities at all times and to master over them to keep them in alignment with what God’ word says at all times…

Once this happens, you will experience the healing of your flesh that keeping Torah brings to you, and you will have an answer to those who send word to you. It is not arbitrary. It’s literal and practical, even viscerally experiential. It’s not just ethereal. Not just emotional. It’s not just surface layer, it’s behavioral pattern, neuro-synaptic-repatterning level deep.

Now I am rereading Peter and I am realizing it is an encouragement to me as I keep Torah and pursue righteousness according to the instructions of the Creator, as spoken and written by Moses.

The Creator destroyed the Temple most likely because He was tired of us bringing Him offensive offerings with offensive hearts (thoughts, minds, opinions, priorities), but He in no way did away with His Law. His Law is eternal and it is the only thing that is considered Good/Tov by definition. That is even according to Jesus’s words.

Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your heart: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

God already told us in the beginning what He considers to be evil and what He considers to be good.

We can check our conscience towards God by keeping the standard that He set. If we are keeping His commandments, then we can know that we have a good conscience towards God.

If we are not, then we are using our own “lev” (thoughts, opinion, dogma, personal priorities) as our standard to measure our conscience towards God. That is an example of building our house on sand.

The Rock is the solid foundation already set, and reinforced through teaching and example set by Jesus Christ Himself.

He literally taught Scriptures in the synagogues on Sabbaths, as recorded in all four gospels. He was teaching the Word of God, not some new doctrine. He only ever said that we need to continue to keep the commandments. He said “till heaven and earth pass away…”

And interestingly, the earth hasn’t passed away yet… as evidenced by you and me still being here, alive today, breathing, on the earth.

Shalom!

To me, this just proves that if we don’t have a strong root of understanding what God’s word said before Jesus came, we inadvertently twist the scriptures because we literally lack knowledge. It is NOT on purpose. It’s scriptural. God’s word says “For a man to be without knowledge is not good.” If we aren’t obsessive about the Old Testament, then we are not ready to be obsessive with the New Testament because we will not understand it as it was meant to be understood. We will misunderstand and won’t really know the Truth, evne though we will think we know the truth, we will be in error and accidentally put ourselves into self-deception due to our error in thinking because our thinking will cause us to have a lack in “doing.”