Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Luke 17:20- 21: “He answered and said: The kingdom of God is not coming with observation, nor will they say; ‘Look, here it is or There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Being in a closed closet with the Lord for more than eight hours every day can be, at times, unnerving. You begin to ask God some strange questions like: “So what is it you really want? You want me to stand here for 8 hours every day saying: ’I worship you, I adore you, I love you etc? You want me to worship you, I want to worship you, but what is worship for crying out loud. Whatever you want you’ve got it, I just need to know exactly what it is you want.”
Earlier in the day my study partner and I were discussing doubt and how at times we stop and wonder: “Is this really all true, is God really out there or have I spent all these years living under some delusion?” I thought of Thomas (you know, that guy from Missouri just South of Jerusalem) who could not believe that Jesus rose from the dead until Jesus appeared to him and said: “Ok, I’m showing you.” Yet, it was Thomas who paraphrased the Words of Jesus in Luke 17:20-21 in his writings in the Book of Thomas Login 113: “You won’t be able to see the coming of God’s sovereign rule. People will not say: ’Look, here it is!’ or ’Over there!’ On the contrary, God’s sovereign rule is right there in your presence, but people don’t see it.” When Jesus told Thomas: “You have seen and believed, blessed are those who have not seen and believe,” those words must have been ringing in his ears as he wrote this. The passage in John 20:27-29 does not say that Thomas did touch the nail prints and the side of Jesus, it only tells us he said: “Ho, kuios mou, Ho Theos mou.” “My Lord and my God.” Some liberal theologians have tried to dismiss that last phrase as an exclamation, ie., “My Lord and oh my gosh.” That is because they are quite of aware that Thomas spoke the phrase in Hebrew and it would have been “adoni alei.” This would be tantamount to declaring Jesus to be God Jehovah. A good Jew like Thomas would not utter the sacred name but by saying “adoni alei” that would be the closest he could come to declaring Jesus as God without calling Him Jehovah.
However, “adoni alei” is a term rarely used in the Old Testament, except in the Psalms where David uses it quite frequently. This is a term of endearment. Sort of like a husband calling his wife “Sugar Babe.” He is the only person in the world that can this woman “Sugar Babe.” You, try it and you could end up with a black eye, not only from him but from her as well. So too is the expression “adoni alei” a term of endearment. That moment before Jesus, when Thomas had the complete awareness that he was before God Jehovah Himself, and the love and acceptance he must have felt at that moment coming from Jesus must have so overwhelmed him that he uttered those words of endearment like a lover would do the moment her beloved asks for her hand in marriage. That intense moment of love and acceptance caused Thomas to speak words of complete submission. Thomas would never have forgotten that moment when he stood before Jesus and was first made aware that he was before the almighty God. Three years He walked with Jesus but until he knew Jesus as God Jehovah, could he say: “adoni alei.“
You see Jesus’s ministry focused on God’s sovereign rule, a region where God’s dominion is immediate and absolute, although not observable. Jesus was asking Thomas as he is asking us to look to two ultimate questions: what is the purpose of creation and why is each of us here. In that moment before the resurrected Jesus did Thomas understand that his purpose was to be one with his Creator as a wife is one with her husband.
With this in mind, I went back to a study I did 30 years ago on the Hebrew word “shachath.” Actually, it was a study in the Ugaritic which predates the Hebrew language and from which many words were borrowed into the Hebrew language. Ugaritic has an identical word, “shin, cheth, taw” which pictures an intimate, sexual relationship between a mortal man and a goddess named Anat. The goddess came to him in the form of a cloud and entirely encompassed him. One use of the word “shachath” means to overflow, to swim as to be entirely surrounded by water.
The picture of “shachath” which we translate as worship is a picture of standing or bowing before God in a state of complete obedience and purity so that in His purity He can completely encompass us like a cloud. It is not just us giving all to Him, but also Him giving all to us. The words we speak: “I love you , adore you etc.” is not worship, that is the result of worship. Like Thomas, those are words spoken in the heat of passion, True worship comes from within, giving yourself totally and completely to God, allowing the blood of Jesus to cleanse and make you pure so a Holy and Pure God can totally encompass you and experience that pleasure of being one in harmony with you. You do not enter worship by clapping your hands, singing a song, saying: “I love you” and staging a pep rally. You can not say here is worship or there is worship for true worship comes from within. You enter worship in total surrender to the will of God and the cleansing blood of Jesus. If a pep rally follows, that is merely the climax of shachath.
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