WORD STUDY – ALL HIS DOMINION
– ‫בכל ממשׁלתו‬
Psalms 103:22: “Bless the LORD, all his works in all places
of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.”
The phrase all His works appears to be pretty comprehensive.
Logically, it would seem that the places of His dominion has
already been covered. I mentioned in the last chapter that
all His works is limited to only those works that are in
harmony with Him. There is a lot of his works that are out of
harmony with Him and thus cannot join in and bless the Lord.
I think the words places of His dominion
is meant to clarify
what all his works are that can bless Him. The word places is
meqom. It does mean a place but this is very specific. It is
like an outpost or a region under the domain of a kingdom and
power. Sort of like Puerto Rico is a territory of the United
States but it is not a state of the union, yet it is under the
protection of the United States and any attack on Puerto Rico
would be an attack on the United States.
I believe this is an indication that there are places that God
does not rule.
I believe many churches fill this category.
They may be what we evangelicals call called dead empty places
devoid of the presence of God. Yet God has His remnant and
just the presence of one or two true believers will give God a
foot hold and be able to establish a meqom.
Joseph was the
only true believer in Potiphar’s house yet God bless Potiphar
because of Joseph. He was the only believer in prison and God
bless the overseer.
In Luke 10:5 Jesus commanded His
disciples Luke 10:5: “And into whatsoever house ye enter,
first say, Peace [be] to this house.”
We are called to
establish that meqom that beachhead over that territory
claimed by the enemy. You may be the only one at work that is
a believer or the only one in your family that is a believer,
well maybe God has called you to establish a beachhead or a
meqom at work or in your family. You claim your workplace as
a meqom for Jesus or your family as a meqom
Jesus.
a beachhead for
Once you plant your flag then God is ready to establish His
dominion. The word dominion is memshalah from the root word
mashal. This is not the word used in Exodus which is radah
which means to dominate and tread down. One rabbi told me
that we Christians are using the wrong root word here, that is
should be yaradu which means to come down to the level of
someone or something. That is kind of a blow to us arrogant
humans. We are told to come down to the level of the animals,
not dominate over them. The animals are out there not for our
domination but for us to learn from, to see the beauty and
nature of God and some ancient rabbis even believe to
communicate with them about God’s relationship to us.
However, in Psalms 103:22 we have a different word. This is
the word mashal which means to rule or reign over. It does
mean to rule over but in its Semitic root it carries the idea
of being like something, being similar. It is also a word
used for a parable where a parable has a parallelism, it is
likened to something that is similar yet different.
So once God establishes His meqom, His beachhead through who
are believers, He then proceeds mashal to bring it to His
likeness or to bring it into harmony with Him. In other words,
you may be the only believer in your family, what a privilege,
He has asked to walk point to establish a beachhead. Only the
bravest soldiers will walk point, yet someone has to establish
their presence. Don’t despair, rejoice because God has shown
enough confidence in you to walk point and establish that
beachhead. Sure it is dangerous, anyone in the front lines
are in danger. But the front lines is where the action is,
not in the rear where you do the laundry. If you are the only
believer in your family or on the job, you have a wonderful
opportunity to gives God a foothold into your family. Once
you plant His flag they no longer belong to the enemy. That
is why your family may fight you tooth and nail to ostracize
you, the enemy is not giving up his territory. Yet you have
established that territory for God and He is working to bring
it all to mashal, to be in harmony with Him.
You may feel
persecuted on your job but it is only the enemy who has
claimed the workplace for his own and then you come along,
establish a beachhead, raise the flag of God, for a meqom and
the enemy will throw all he has at you. Don’t give up, hang
in there because God is working to establish his mashal,
bringing everyone into harmony with Him and before long only
those who will not submit to God will be the ones to leave,
not you. But you must trust Jesus completely, you cannot for
a moment trust in yourself. Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.” The enemy is a liar and you will face his
lies and people will accuse you of all sorts of horrible
things, but you must keep trusting God, don’t even for a
minute lean to your own understandings. He promises to direct
you path.
I know it can get discouraging, you feel like Elijah that you
are the only one. But God has His 5,000 who have not bowed to
Baal. There is only weapon the enemy can use against you. My
father once told the story of how Satan decided to go out of
business, so he had a big garage sale, and laid out all his
tools to sell them off the demons who would take over for
him. He had some of his finest tools, lust, jealousy, envy
they were all there all his tools that he used to trip of the
believer and cause him to desert his post, God’s meqom. These
tools carried a great price and demons who could afford them
quickly purchased them. But there was one tool that was so
high priced no one could afford it. At the end of the day it
was the only tool left. Satan looked at it and thought that he
did not need any other tool, this one tool was all he needed.
So he decided to stay in business using this one tool. He is
using it today, he is using it on you, he is using it on me.
That tool is called discouragement.
If you are tempted to give up on the people in your job, in
your family and even your church, don’t, you have established
a beachhead, a meqom and troops will be arriving soon and they
will help bring God to establish His mashal so that even all
the places of His dominion will be able to bless Him.
HEBREW WORD STUDY – DOMINION
Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness and let them have dominion over fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepth
upon the earth.”
I was driving Daisy home from a doctor’s appointment. She is a
woman of faith who believes that God does care for us.
However, she was having a little difficulty believing this on
this day as she had just received news from her doctor that
she would need some pretty serious surgery. She was really
feeling depressed over this matter and I happened to remember
something I had studied in Jewish literature called yiredu.
This is translated into our English Bible as dominion but the
Jews have a different rendering for this word which I will
explain a little later. I also recalled reading in Jewish
literature that when a little bird lands near you and begins
to sing and dance he is reminding you that the Holy Spirit is
near. So I prayed a little prayer and asked God to send a
little bird to greet us when we arrived at Daisy’s house.
As we pulled up to the house, sure enough there was a little
robin waiting for us on Daisy’s porch. As we got out of the
bus the robin began to sing and dance and I said to Daisy:
“Oh, lookie there, a little bird singing and dancing on your
porch. Daisy responded with, “Oh, he just wants to poop on my
porch.” Then she walked up, waved her arms and said, “Scat!”
I looked at the robin, he looked at me with such a sad little
face and then he flew off.
As I look at all the Modern Christian Translations of the
Bible I find that without exception everyone of the
translations follow the common teaching that the word yiredu
comes from the root word radah which means dominion, or to
subdue, to rule over, to tread upon like in a winepress.
An
old rabbi, however, once pointed out to me that the root word
is really yarad.
When he told me that I instantly thought
of the story in Acts where in the Aramaic the Holy Spirit
necheth descended like a dove.
Seven hundred years after the birth of Christ the Masoretes
put a chireq (one dot) under the Resh making this the root
word radah which means to subdue. Had they put a tsere (two
dots) under the Resh they would have the root word yarad which
means to come down or lower oneself. The original inspired
Word of God had no dots and I believe this old rabbi was
correct in using the root word yarad (to lower oneself) rather
than radah (to rule over). In the original Hebrew the word
starts with a Yod which is a picture of a heavenly messenger
or yarad which means to lower oneself and not a Resh which
means to rule over.
Because Christianity followed in their own way and not the way
of their Jewish heritage Christianity throughout the last
2,000 years, with notable exceptions like St. Francis of
Assisi, missed out on a special blessing and spiritual
experience. If you read the biography of St. Francis of Assisi
you would discover that he would go to the woods to worship
God with the animals. It is said that the animals wild and
tame would approach him.
Not because of St. Francis but
because they wanted to be near their Creator that St. Francis
worshipped. That is why you always see St. Francis of Assisi
pictured with a bird on his shoulder and a wolf by his side.
The story goes that a town was being attacked by a wolf and
the town leaders came to St. Francis knowing his affinity for
animals and asked if he could help. St. Francis went to the
wolf and had a little conversation with the wolf and then
reported to the town leaders that the wolf was just hungry and
if they would feed him he would not attack. Thus, the town
sort of adopted this wolf as a result of St. Francis’s
conversation or yiredu with the wolf.
Perhaps it is my fault for Daisy missing out on this little
blessing from God, perhaps I should have told her I prayed to
God and called the little bird to be there for her but I
didn’t want her to think I was crazy. Does it sound crazy?
Maybe to us in our scientific, technological world, but the
ancient Semites who had a very holistic view of the world and
God’s creation, it did not sound crazy and once more that
actually communicated with animals themselves. In ancient
times hunters actually called the animals to them and then
asked the animal’s permission to provide nourishment to his
family. If the animal said that this was his purpose on earth,
then the hunter brought home dinner.
In Genesis 2:19 God caused the animals to pass by Adam so he
could ‘azer kenegedo to determine which ones could be before
him. Our English translation use the word help meet. An ‘azer
kenegedo is a gateway, or one who helps you find your way. In
this exercise Adam was searching for an animal which would
help him understand the reason for his existence to know how
to love God. Eventually only by creating a woman could Adam
really understand.
But look close at the Hebrew wording
here. Our translations say the animals came before him to see
what he would call them. Actually, the word for call yiqera’
is in an imperfect form and is followed by the word lu to
him. It is not what he would call them but what he call to
them to him. There is a very strong argument that Adams spoke
with the animals. Not is a vocal language but with his heart.
God created two important beings for man to help him
understand his relationship with God, a woman and the animal
kingdom.
Jewish teaching never taught that a man was to
dominate a woman only to be in a headship role. Yet for 2,000
years of church history women have been given a secondary role
inferior to men even through the Bible clearly teaches we are
all equal in God’s eyes. The enemy so perverted the leadership
role of men that they have not been able to benefit from the
role that a woman was created to perform in the first place
and that was to be a gateway to understanding the love of God.
On top of that God created all living
expression of His nature, His plans, and
we consider ourselves as those who would
kingdom for our own benefit and abuse the
creatures to be an
His loving care but
dominate the animal
creation of God when
they were really created to teach us something about our
relationship with God, if we only come down to their level.
Ok, that little robin may poop on your porch. Poor little
guy, he can’t help it but if that is all you are focused on,
if the animal kingdom exist just for our sport, slaughter, and
abuse then we have done the same thing with God’s gift of the
animal kingdom as we have done with God’s gift of a woman we
let our arrogance and pride blind us to the role of these
helpers who will help us understand and know what the love of
God is really like.
I don’t know what language Adam spoke in the Garden of Eden, I
like to think it was Hebrew. If it was then Adam gave a very
appropriate name for the dog, in the Hebrew the word for dog
is Kalav which means like your heart. You want to learn about
yiredu, start with Sparky your dog, come down to his level,
look into his eyes and see the loyalty, affection, desire to
be with you and the unconditional love and ask yourself, “What
does that tell me about His creator?” Old Sparky just gave you
an important lesson about your relationship with God.
Next time you see a little bird on your porch singing and
dancing don’t worry about his poop. That can be cleaned up,
don’t miss out on that little message that God is sending to
you. Before long, once you overcome your feelings of arrogance
and superiority over the animal kingdom you just might be
praying to God and calling a little bird to come and cheer up
your neighbor. If the little bird does come, offer to clean
up his poop for your neighbor so he will not have that
blinding him to God’s little message.
Devotional Exodus 11:7
Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Exodus 11:7: “But against any of the children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that you may
know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel.”
An Internet news service just recently released what they felt
were the most moving photos taken during 2011. Among the top
most emotional photos taken during 2011 was the photograph of
the casket of a fallen Navy Seal and laying before the casket
was his service dog who accompanied him in Afghanistan.
Many people have found a deeper understanding of God through
the faithfulness of their pet dog. They see how a dog will
love unconditionally, regardless of one’s race, occupation or
appearance. He doesn’t question who or what you are, he will
just love. It is said that a dog has a sixth sense. They
believe that a dog can sense when someone is dying, is aware
of impending danger, and can almost read their master’s
mind.
Sometime ago soldiers were testing a dog’s ability to
navigate a minefield.
They strapped a radio receiver around
the neck of the dog while his master stood on hill almost a
mile away and observed his dog through a telescope. He
whispered directions through a radio. The dog obeyed each one
of his master’s command to turn, back up, move forward etc.
When the dog returned they discovered that the batteries had
failed on the receiver. There was no way the dog could have
heard his master’s commands except through some “sixth sense.”
This is likely how the Hebrews communicated with the dogs in
Exodus 11:7
There is a sort of love/hate relationship between Jews and
dogs. Some aspects of Judaism view dogs as dirty, scavengers
and others give great honor to dogs. Many orthodox Jews today
so honor dogs that they will feed their dogs before they feed
themselves. This respect for dogs is the result of this verse
in Exodus 11:7.
In Matthew 15:21-28 we have a story where it appears that
Jesus is insulting a Canaanite woman by calling her a dog when
she comes seeking help for her sick daughter.
Actually the
Greek word used here is not the word used for outside dogs but
puppies that were domesticated and household pets. And when
she said that even dogs would eat the crumbs that fall from
the table she was making a reference to how the Jews would
honor a dog my letting some of their food fall off the table
before they would eat.
Jesus marveled at the faith of a
Gentile woman who would have studied the Torah so well that
she knew this passage in Exodus and the little bit of trivia
involving the practice of allowing a dog to eat first in honor
of their not barking when the Hebrews fled out of Egypt.
Exodus 11:7
tells the story about
the time that the Jews
fled Egypt.
You see the Jewish men who worked as slaves
under the Egyptians numbered up to 600,000. In order to keep
the slaves in line the Egyptians employed guard dogs. If any
slave attempted to escape the dog would bark out a warning or
even attack the slave.
What happened at the time of the Exodus is explained in Exodus
11:7. The Lord was going to show the difference between the
Egyptians and Israel by the fact that the dogs would favor the
Hebrews and not their masters, the Egyptians. They would not
bark out a warning or attack the Jews when they sought to
escape from the Egyptians. The Talmud teaches that the Jews
were actually able to speak and have a conversation with the
dogs and the dogs listened and followed their instructions.
In Genesis 1:26 God gave man dominion over the animals. As I
explained in an earlier devotional , there is a debate over
this word dominion here.
Christians say the root word is
radah which means to subdue. The sages. However, teach that
the root is yadah which means to come down to. They believe
the ability to speak to the dogs comes from this understanding
of yadah, that you come down to their level, their world.
There is also a spiritual understanding here. The ancient
sage Chazal, which is really the initials for three sages
Chochmenu, Zichrona and Levaracha, teach that the Holy
Scriptures were given without any vowels and thus you are
allowed to assign each vowel as you wish according to the idea
behind your dresh.
You
For
dog
the
see the word for dog is Kalev. This is a play on words.
Kalev also means “like a heart.”
The pashat is that the
would not wag his tongue or bark out a warning and thus
Jews could escape from slavery. The dresh is that like
their heart was their tongue.
The difference that God showed
between the Egyptians and Israel is that their heart was like
their tongue. What they said with their speech was what was
in their heart.
The Egyptians speech was filled with
falsehood and unbelief.
This led to their destruction.
Israel’s speech was filled with truth and faith, this led to
their deliverance. When one’s speech is filled with truth and
faith, judgments are eliminated. By the way, I think many dog
lovers can appreciate the play on the word “Kaley” as meaning
both “dog” and “like a heart.”
Anyways, the sages try to teach that to exercise yadah over
a dog, one’s speech must be as ones heart. Let’s just say I
won’t try this on your local junk yard dog. But it a go with
Fido. Just keep in mind that stuff about one’s speech being
filled with truth and faith – that is worth consideration.
Word Study: Dominion
WORD STUDY – DOMINION
Dominion – Yiredu:
To come down, descend, to lower oneself
Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness and let them have dominion over fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepth
upon the earth.”
As I look at all the Modern Christian Translations of the
Bible I find that without exception everyone of the
translations follow the common teaching that the word “yiredu”
comes from the root word “radah” which means dominion, or to
subdue, to rule over, to tread upon like in a winepress.
An
old esoteric rabbi, however, simply said that the root word is
really “yarad.”
When he told me that I instantly thought of
the story in Acts when the Holy Spirit “yarad” like a dove.
Seven hundred years after the birth of Christ the Masoretes
put a chireq (one dot) under the Resh making this the root
word radah which means to subdue. Had they put a tsere (two
dots) under the Resh they would have the root word yarad which
means to come down or lower oneself. The original inspired
Word of God had no dots and I believe this old rabbi was
correct in using the root word yarad (to lower oneself) rather
than radah (to rule over). In the original Hebrew the word
starts with a Yod (a heavenly messenger) or yarad (to lower
oneself) and not a Resh (to
rule over).
If anyone should understand “yiredu” it is should be Spirit
filled Christians. Yet, for some reason we insist on saying
the root word is “radah” rather than “yarad” and as a result
Christianity throughout the last 2,000 years, with notable
exceptions like St. Francis of Assisi, have missed out on a
special blessing and spiritual experience. If you read the
biography of St. Francis of Assisi he would go to the woods to
worship God with the animals. It is said that the animals wild
and tame would approach him. Not because of St. Francis but
because they wanted to be near their creator. That is why you
always see St. Francis of Assisi pictured with a bird on his
shoulder and/or in his hand.
Devotional Genesis 2:7
Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living soul.”
I remember attending a rather boisterous prayer meeting where
everyone was praying at once and out loud. There was one old
boy who was really wailing and repeating over and over: “Oh,
Lord, I am but dust…”
I suppose he was impling that “but
dust” meant he was nothing.
Well, I will admit “but(t) dust”
sounds pretty low but if he was referring to “’aphar” which is
rendered as “dust” in Genesis 2:7, that could border on
bragging. What we think of when we hear the word “dust” is
very fine particles of skin, dead dust mites, fine dirt, etc.
It is everything on earth that has been broken down to it’s
lowest component.
What is thought provoking is that God fashioned man out of
these dead broken down particles. If you check it out, you
find that man is the only creature to be made from the “Aphar
adamah” (dust of the soil). Genesis 1:24 tells us he made the
creatures of the earth from the “Ha’eres” not from the
“Aphar”(dust) or the “adamah (soil)..”
In the creation story we have a reference to the “Ha’eres,”
which is often rendered as land or soil, and the “Ha’adamah“
which also refers to the land or soil but is mainly a
reference to fertile land and soil. With man specifically we
have the word “Aphar” which we render as dust. All three mean
something different.
Looking
at
these
words
carefully
we
discover
a
major
difference between man and animals.
Animals were merely
formed from the “Ha’eres” which is a reference to everything
in the land, rocks, sand, soil, etc.
Man, however, was
formed from the “Aphar” of the “Ha’adamah.”
Ha’adamah comes
from the root word “adam” and is a reference to the life
producing soil and God breathed a spirit (nephesh) into man
and not into animals. However, we have other references in
the Old Testament where animals had a “nephesh.” So this is
not what sets man apart from animals. What does set us apart
from Riley the cat is that he was not made with “Aphar” like
man.
The question comes up as to what is this “’aphar?” Is it
just fine particles ground down into microscopic size and
blown in the wind? Is it the molecues or atoms or the Ha’adam
(soil)?
I have heard of Christians experiencing gold dust
falling during worship services. Analysis of these particles
show it is not gold. Maybe this is not gold dust but “aphar?”
This is the dust God used to form man? It is a sign that God
has returned man to his original state before the fall.
Somewhere in the history of the church some scholars with the
right credentials examined the Hebrew word “’aphar” and
declared “aphar” to mean “dust” in English. These scholars
saw that such a rendering was good and therefore anyone to
suggest anything more from the word “’aphar” would be a
heretic.
Yet, there appears to be something special about “aphar” and
perhaps dust is not our best rendering, although I have no
idea what we could render it as.
Looking at this word
esoterically we find it is spelled “Ayin, Pe, Resh.”
Right
away I see “Mind (Ayin), Body (Pe) and Spirit (Resh).
The
dust gave man a connection with both the natural world and the
Spiritual word. This is something the animals do not have.
The Ayin speaks of the mind, or deep insight. It implies the
ability to reason and communicate.
Now we know animals can
communicate with each other and as a believer I believe they
can communicate with God. However, no matter how developed an
animal is in communicating, it can not form a language with
grammar and syntax to carry on a conversation. For man to
have a free will, he must have a language. This is the
difference between an animal and man, an animal does not have
a free will, it only acts on instincts. We are made from
“aphar” and animals are not.
Perhaps this dust, Ayin, Pe, Resh in Hebrew, really has a
“Resh” a spiritual element, a light, something that forms a
connection with the spiritual world and allows the Spirit of
God to dwell in us.
At the fall this capacity was closed,
but because of the death and resurrection of Jesus our bodies
can now be the temple of God as it was intended to be. Until
the redemptive work of Jesus, God could only dwell in an early
temple, but now, as both Jesus and Paul taught, our bodies are
the temple of God. An animal’s body can not be a temple of
God as it was not formed from this mysterious “aphar (dust).”
I have noticed, like you may have noticed, that sometimes an
animal will pause from his activity and look up at me. I have
studied the word “dominion” (radah) among rabbis. It is felt
by many that the root word is really “yarad” to come down and
flow” rather than “radah” which means to subdue. In others
when God gave us dominion over the animals, He did not mean
for us to subdue the animals but to come down to their level
and flow with the animals.
It is believed that this
understanding of the word “dominion” is how the angels shut
the mouths of the lions in Daniel’s lion den. Daniel came to
the lion’s level of worship of their creator.
The animal
kingdom longs to be close it it’s creator. Perhaps that is
why a squirrel pauses for a moment to stare at you. It is not
you but his creator that he senses.
I once made a business call on some clients.
I had never been
in the home of these clients. When I came to the door a rather
vicious German Shepherd threw himself against the screen door
barking like he was ready to turn me into dinner. Because I
had been in a meditative state while traveling to the clients,
I was not thinking clearly and I did a foolish thing.
I
opened the screen door and put out my hand to the dog. The dog
instantly became calm (I do not recommend this move, nor do I
plan on repeating it). The owner looked surprise and said:
“Oh, I guess it is ok.” He then went to his wife, whisper
something about the dog being ok and then led me to the living
room. As I sat on the sofa the wife suddenly addressed her
husband and said; “Honey look!” She pointed to their cat who
had entered the room and was just sitting and staring at
me.”
The man said: “That is really weird, every time a
stranger comes into the house our cat runs to the bedroom and
hides under the bed.
I can’t believe he is just sitting
there.”
As I said, on my way to the appointment I have been
in a meditative state, actually I call it a “Devekut” which I
explained in an earlier study. I was still coming out of my
Devekut and I did not realize that I responded by saying::
“Well he just knows who his creator is.” Boy did I have some
explaining to do on that one
However, I really believe that
being formed from the “dust” or “Aphar” we are a notch above
the animal kingdom giving us the privilege of carrying the
living, loving life of Jesus Christ inside of us and also
being given the duty of having dominion over the animals, or
to lower ourselves to the animal’s level so we can flow with
the animals and nature in praising and worshipping our
creator.
The animals know who their creator is.
(End of part I)