Deuteronomy 30:3, “That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.”
I was reading in the Talmud this morning in Megillah 29a and read something very interesting about his verse. It is so easy to miss these little gems. I remember when I was in the hospital recovering from surgery. I was in a lot of pain so they gave me a morphine pill. I mean that thing was about the size of a little bead, like the candy sprinkle you put on a cup cake. I said, “Hey, my pain is whole lot bigger than this little bead.” The nurse just assured me it pack a lot of wallop and it did, it practically knocked me out.
Unless you really study the Word of God like those ancient rabbis, sages and scholars you will miss these little beads that pack a wallop. In Deuteronomy 30:3 there is a little bead that is so easily overlooked and it is the word veshab (and he shall return). The Talmud points out that it is the word veshab and not veheshib (and he shall bring back). Rabbi Simon Yohai points out in the Talmud: “Come and see how beloved are Israel in the sight of God, in that to every place to which they were exiled the Shechinah went with them.” Oh the difference of what the elimination of the Hei makes.
When the writer of this passage left out the Hei in the word veheshib and simply wrote veshab what the writer was saying is that when God sent His people into exile He went with them. Yeah, I know, God is omnipresent and like Yogi Berra once said, “Where ever you go there you are.” Where ever we go God is always there. We know that, we have known that since Sunday School when our Sundays School teachers shook their fingers at us and said, “Now child Jonah tried to run away from God but you and I know we cannot run away from God.” As a little six year old child I remember shaking my head up and down saying to myself, “Gee, I am smarter than that grownup named Jonah, because I know what Jonah did not know and that is you cannot run away from God, He is everywhere. That Jonah is such a klutz to think he can run away from God.”
Well, what our Sunday School teachers failed to mention is that it was not God Jonah was running away from, he was smart enough to know that God is everywhere and you cannot run away from him. But if you look closely at the verse in Jonah you find that Jonah ran away milipani of God. He ran away from the presence of God. This word milpani is in a very strange Hebraic form. The word pani for the face or presence of God has two prepositions, the Mem for from and the Lamed for to. Literally you would render this as from the presence of God to the presence of God. Of course no translator is going to translate it this way as it makes no sense at all, they just render it as running away from the presence of God.
But hey, it does make sense in light of veshab (and he shall return). Jonah may have thought he was running away from the presence of God. He was getting as far away from the temple where the Shechinah resided only to realize that the Shechinah did not just reside in the temple.
Every other Sunday morning I am assigned to drive the disabled in my disability bus to mass and church services at various churches in the community. It is my job to make sure these people make it into the church safely without any incidents. So sometimes I actually follow them into the sanctuary. I watch a change come over my charges when they enter the church. They become quiet and very respectful. If they are able they will genuflect and make the sign of the cross before the host. After all, like Jonah, they feel the presence of God resides in the church and in that host at the altar. Yet, they are the same ones who tell me that they pray at home and sometimes even feel the presence of God at home.
There seems to be a part of us that just wants to believe that God is not always present in our lives, although we know He is. Yet when tempted to cheat a little on our taxes, watch a certain movie or look at a certain site on the web we like to forget that God is present. Or maybe there are times we feel we are in exile. We just don’t feel the presence of God and it seems God has abandoned us because he has not come to our rescue or answered our prayers. Yet, the Bible uses words such as veshab, he shall return (with us) rather than veheshib he shall bring us back (come and get us). Or the word milipani from to God and not mipani from God.
There are terms in our Christian vocabulary that suggest God is not always there like, “Let’s go to God in prayer.” I mean we do not have to go anywhere to get to God. A common one I hear all the time in full Gospel churches is “Let’s bring the presence of the Lord here.” The presence of the Lord is always there. How about saying, “Let’s bring our presence to the Lord.” If you are not feeling the presence of God, it is not His fault, which leaves only one remaining suspect.
You know it is a discipline to remind yourself that you are always in the presence of God. The orthodox Jews wear a kippot or yarmulkes to always remind them that they are in the presence of God and all they do they do as unto God. I am not Jewish so I wear a baseball cap as my form of discipline to remind myself that I am always in the presence of God and all I do I do as unto God. In the church I attend I am allowed to wear my baseball cap in the sanctuary. For me it is sign of respect to the presence of God as I am reminding myself that even in church I am in God’s presence. Our publisher sent a video crew to do a promo for our new book. If you see the promo when it is released, you will see I am wearing my baseball cap for even then I had to remind myself that I was in the presence of God and that promo was to be done as unto God.
For myself I need to practice milipani from and to God. It is a discipline. Maybe you are different, you are always aware that you are in the presence of God. If not you might also want to start practicing milipani – reminding yourself that you are always in the presence of God and whatever you do you do as unto God.
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