Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Genesis 3:24: “He drove the man out, and stationed East of Eden the Cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Here is a mystery. How long did the Cherubim have to stand guard? Was there some point in history when the tree of life finally died out and the guard was not needed? Wouldn’t it get a little tiring to twirl a flaming sword for centuries and centuries? Guarding the way to the tree of life? Did that mean there were walls around the garden and a gate to guard? Otherwise you just need to walk around the Cherubim? Well, you can go on and on with the questions and with each question you begin to realize how absurd the whole idea is that an angel with a flaming sword is standing guard over the tree of life.
The “tree of life,” “ stretching our with the hand,” “to eat,” and then “live forever,” are all interesting words and phrases in the Hebrew and the Talmud and Jewish oral tradition has much to say about this. If we are indeed living in last days, then these are things for which we should seek out the descendents of David, grab hold of them and say: “Please lead us into the deeper knowledge of God.”
However, I would like to focus on the “ Eth lahat hacherev hamithehapeketh” (fiery ever turning sword). True we can translate this as “fiery ever turning sword” but this particular usage of these three words are later usages and in it’s prime state they were used from something quite different.
“Lahat” or fiery was used in it’s prime state to represent the creation of an illusion, an enchantment or a delusion, seeing something that is not there. People often mock us conservatives who believe in a fiery hell. How can you suffer from fire if you are a spirit and not in a physical body? Easy, when the enemy creates the illusion of burning in fire. A non-believer will spend eternity in the illusion that he is burning in flames, all the pain, and torment as if he were burning in a physical body. If you ever had a burn, you know that is one of the most painful injuries. It is not God who does this. No man can serve two masters we are taught in the Holy Scriptures. You either serve one other the other. If you serve the enemy, then when you die you belong to him and he will do whatever he wants. He is just evil enough to torment you in the worst possible way. Well enough of my Baptist evangelism. Yamon Ki Yesepar have chosen to follow a different loving Master. Yet, our Master can create illusions just as much as the enemy, even better.
What is this illusion? It is a cherev. Sword is just one usage of this word. It is most often used for desolation, emptiness, not there. This is followed by the verb “Haped” which indeed means turning, but turning in the sense of ever changing. It is used in a Hithpael form. In other words the Cherubim are assigned to cause the Garden of Eden to constantly change itself, creating the illusion that it is not there. Yet, it is still there. The Talmud teaches that it is still there today and so is the tree of life, but we can not see it. There is the illusion of invisibility.
My kid brother who was a Wycliffe Bible Translator in New Guinea tells the story of a witch doctor who tried to put a curse on him. The chief of the Amana village where my brother worked was amazed. Not that the witch doctor failed in his attempts to put a curse on my brother, but that my brother could see him. When the witch doctor would put a curse on someone, he would make himself invisible, yet he could not do it with my brother. You see the enemy created the illusion of invisibility but greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and he could not create that illusion with my brother.
My brother tells this story in very fundamental churches that do not believe miracles are for today, yet they have no problem believing the enemy can create an illusion, but suggest that God can make a believer invisible, well then, that just does not happen.
There is a story in Jewish oral tradition, which is given as a actual event, of a rabbi who studied the mysteries of God. As a result, many signs and wonders followed him. His congregation spent many hours in Torah study, The noble man who hired the Jews as workers found his Jewish workers were spending too much time studying Torah and were distracted from their work due to this rabbi. The nobleman landowner threatened that when he caught the rabbi alone he would kill him.
One day the rabbi was visiting another nobleman, one who son was healed through the rabbi’s miraculous ministry. While in the garden the nobleman received a message that the landowner had come by for a visit. Knowing the threat against his rabbi friend, the nobleman excused himself and went to his house to see if he could get the landowner to leave before he discovered the rabbi was there. Just as he was talking to the nobleman the rabbi walked into the room and announced that since his friend had another guest he would now leave and bid his nobleman friend goodbye. The nobleman looked at the landowner in horror but the landowner seemed not to notice the rabbi. To keep the landowner from following the rabbi home, the nobleman invited the landowner to stay for dinner which he readily agreed to. During dinner the nobleman asked the landlord why he did not appear to notice the rabbi? The landlord in shock asked: “He was here?” “Standing right in front of you” replied the nobleman. The landlord turned pale and said: “I did not seem him, God must have made him invisible and now God will judge me.” The next Sabbath the landowner walked into the synagogue and before the rabbi and the congregation vowed to honor and protect the rabbi and God’s chosen people.
God does create illusions. Remember the story of the three leapers who were trying to surrender themselves to the enemy and God created the illusion of a great army approaching? Remember how God created the illusion of a great army out of 300 men for Gideon? God will also give His Yamon Ki Yesepar a “fiery sword,” especially if we are living in the last days. How do you appropriate this? As the sages teach: “It will be there when you need it.”
Recent Comments