yada

Yesterday, The Word nourished me deeply by rendering several things that I've been ruminating!

Many streams of hearing The Word keep repeating one Word: know

I was encouraged by a faithful teacher to simply read the Torah. Every king in ancient Israel was commanded to make their own copy, that they would learn to fear YHWH.

As I began in Genesis yesterday, it came to my mind that Abram knew YHWH, he was familiar with Him already, so he approached Him by name when he approached the three men! 

Yesterday, as Drew left for work, he reminded our daughter to care for one of our ewes that seems to be ailing somewhat. The day was full of excitement, and so it was, that it was late afternoon when I asked if she had completed her father's instruction. She said "no, I forgot". I related it to The Word, how we can make excuses about life being busy and full, and we forget to obey our Father. In fact, this Word I'm sharing is one such thing--Satan is biting at my heels as we speak about the milk bottles that need washing, and so many other things! But in order to faithfully pursue Him, attention and focus must be placed on what The Father has said! 

If we have familiarity with The Word, then we can recognize what is of Him, and what is not, and we remember these things because we know He cares about them. Like a bride-to-be studying the preferences of her groom, learning his smell.

The Word then brought a bunch of Scriptures to mind in series:

but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am יהוה, doing loving-commitment, right-ruling, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” declares יהוה.

Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 9:24

The Hebrew word translated as "understands" is saka. It is conceptual knowledge, prudence and insight.

The Hebrew word translated as "knows" is yada. It is the same word for intimacy, covenant-binding, faithful. It is the same word used in Genesis 4:1 , Genesis 18:19 , and throughout Psalm 139.

All of this makes sense, when you dig into the Hebrew. For quite some time, the number 14 has grabbed my attention. I believe the reason Matthew makes note of the sections of "fourteen generations" affirming Yeshua's identity is that it both reminds one of David (dalet vav dalet, 4+6+4) and the hand  of deliverance, as on Passover, the 14th of Aviv. The word "yod", meaning hand, is made up of a yod and a dalet, which mean hand/10, door/4, respectively. (Jeremiah 32:21). Please, stick with me here, if you're not familiar with Hebrew! The thing I just noticed about yada is that it is made up of yod dalet (hand) and ayin (eye). Have you ever heard of "hand-eye coordination"? It is what allows us to hit a nail on the head, shoot an arrow at the bullseye, and physically complete what the mind desires to do, so that you are doing what you are seeing. Yada is experiential knowing,  not rational thinking. This is the reason behind all of the Feasts, and Shabbat--yada. Experiential understanding. 

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Yoḥanan (John) 10:27

It came to me, that it says I KNOW THEM. It doesn't say "they know ME". I cannot say why this concept has been hidden from me, that it reflects the intimacy of Yeshua with His own, not our "knowledge" of Him!

This carried me to Matthew 7:22-23, possibly one of the scariest things recorded, that Yeshua has said:

Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ “And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!

Mattithyahu (Matthew) 7:22-23

These folks are people who claim the Master, doing works He has said to do, to please Him!

His statement is that HE must know them. This is intimacy. Like a man holding the hand of His bride, telling her the ways He likes things, as the Master of the House. This single statement declares that He is not "familiar" with those who are not of the Father, working righteousness according to His Word! Drew commented the other day about the engagement period of becoming husband and wife. This is when the hand-holding, eye-locking longing tells of the desire for complete oneness. How will we "know" Yeshua if we do not intently pursue His desires? The more familiar we become as His Bride, the more we experience what He experiences, as a unit.

I had a suspicion that the same word is used in Isaiah 53:3, for being "aquainted with grief". Personal experience. 

The corresponding Greek word meaning "know" in the verse above, is "ginosko". For example, it is used in the record of Mary's response to the angel:  'And Miryam said to the messenger, “How shall this be, since I do not know a man?” Luqas (Luke) 1:34

And then finally, as though it was finally rendered, The Word brought me back to the same place I started in my last post:

However, the solid foundation* of Elohim stands firm, having this seal, “יהוה knows those who are His,” and, let everyone who names the Name of Messiah turn away from unrighteousness. But in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some unto value and some unto no value. If, then, anyone cleanses himself from these matters , he shall be a vessel unto value, having been set apart, of good use to the Master, having been prepared for every good work.' Timotiyos Bĕt (2 Timothy) 2:19-21

*The Greek word here is themelios: laid down as a foundation. Beginnings. First Principles. Institution or system of truth.

If it is a SEAL, what does this mean, "יהוה knows those who are His"?

As I looked for the Scriptures being quoted above, I found this nugget, echoing perfectly the cleanness of the vessel. 

'Turn aside! Turn aside! Come out from there, touch not the unclean. Come out of her midst, be clean, you who bear the vessels of יהוה.' Yeshayah (Isaiah) 52:11 

and again Sha'ul (Christians call him Paul) quotes this in 2 Corinthians:

    Therefore, “Come out from among them and be separate, says יהוה, and do not touch what is unclean, and I shall receive you. “And I shall be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says יהוה the Almighty...

    'Having, then, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting set-apartness in the fear of Elohim.' Qorintiyim Bĕt (2 Corinthians) 6:17-18, 7:1

The quotes used by Sha'ul are straight from The Word (Torah). There is no other form of righteousness but what has been established from the original day, by YHWH.  And once again, how do we learn to fear יהוה? Become familiar with Torah--the Word of Truth! 

All of this together was like a puzzle suddenly coming together to form a complete picture!

When I read "let everyone who names the name of Messiah DEPART from unrighteousness, The Word opened my mind to the obverse, when Yeshua said "DEPART from Me, workers of Torahlessness"! 

And for that tidbit of Revelation that I came upon as I compared the text in final chapters of Daniel and Isaiah to Yeshua's Word to John, I was amazed to find out this--which also has to do with the cleansing of the vessel, what perfecting set-apartness looks like:

Blessed are those *doing His commands, so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of life, and to enter through the gates into the city. “He who does wrong, let him do more wrong; he who is filthy, let him be more filthy; he who is righteous, let him be more righteous; he who is set-apart, let him be more set-apart. “And see, I am coming speedily, and My reward is with Me, to give to each according to his work. “I am the ‘Aleph’ and the ‘Taw’, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

Ḥazon (Revelation) 22:11-14

*in many versions, this is diluted to read "wash their robes".

Also, here's the tidbit in Daniel, also prophesying the end of times: 

And those who have insight shall shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. “Many shall be cleansed and made white, and refined. But the wrong shall do wrong – and none of the wrong shall understand, but those who have insight shall understanDani’ĕl (Daniel) 12:3,10

He gave himself up on our behalf in order to free us from all violation of Torah and purify for himself a people who would be his own, eager to DO good. Titus (Tit) 2:14

That's what a Bride dressed in white looks like. Yada. To know and to do.

יהוה is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Tsiyon with right-ruling and righteousness. And He shall be the trustworthiness of your times, a wealth of deliverance, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of יהוה – that is His treasure.

Yeshayah (Isaiah) 33:5-6

Come, and let us turn back to יהוה. For He has torn but He does heal us, He has stricken but He binds us up. So let us know, let us pursue to know יהוה. His going forth is as certain as the morning. And He comes to us like the rain, like the latter rain watering the earth.’ After two days He shall revive us, on the third day He shall raise us up, so that we live before Him. “For I delight in loving-commitment and not slaughtering, and in the knowledge of Elohim more than ascending offerings. Hoshĕa (Hosea) 6:1-3,6

As He has begun to open our eyes to the wickedness, filthiness, and disasters that have come upon the Body because we have cast aside His commands, I've been praying The Word using Daniel and Ezra, both chapters # 9. Let us fast and pray, beloveds. 

And now, O our Elohim, what do we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commands, which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are going in to possess is a land unclean through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, by their abominations with which they have filled it, from one end to another, by their uncleanness. “And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our Elohim have held back the rod upon our crookednesses, and have given us such deliverance as this, should we turn back, to break Your commands, and join in marriage with the people of these abominations? Would You not be enraged with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor? “O יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. See, we are before You, in our guilt, for there is no one to stand before You concerning this! Ezra 9:10-11,13-15

The fear of יהוה is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Set-apart One is understanding. Mishlĕ (Proverbs) 9:10

So go get you some fear of Yah. How's it found? Shema. Hear the Torah. Write the commands on your doorposts. Teach them diligently to your children. 

If you love Me, you shall guard My commands. Yoḥanan (John) 14:15

Here's something I "saw" recently that opened my eyes a lot to the Scriptures: all things are established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. In Abram's case, his faith was accounted as righteousness, but then the test was the verifying witness declaring that faith, his willingness to offer YHWH his son. In the same way, "heaven and earth" are the witnesses in both Deuteronomy 30 & Matthew 5! It boggles the mind to finally see how Satan has duped the Jews into rejecting Yeshua, and Christians, into rejecting Torah! We all need BOTH, they are echad!

'And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed, those guarding the commands of Elohim AND possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah.' Ḥazon (Revelation) 12:17

'Here is the endurance of the set-apart ones, here are those guarding the commands of Elohim AND the belief of יהושע.' Ḥazon (Revelation) 14:12

'“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him praise, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife prepared herself.” And to her it was given to be dressed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the set-apart ones.' Ḥazon (Revelation) 19:7-8

'And there shall by no means enter into it whatever is unclean, neither anyone doing abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.' Ḥazon (Revelation) 21:27

For by fire and by His sword יהוה shall judge all flesh, and the slain of יהוה shall be many – those who set themselves apart and cleanse themselves at the gardens after ‘one’ in the midst, eating flesh of pigs and the abomination and the mouse, are snatched away, together,” declares יהוה. “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares יהוה, “so your seed and your name shall stand. “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon , and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה.'

Isaiah 66:16-17