II Chronicles: 33:12: “And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,”
This morning I was reading in the Talmud Sanhedrin 101 a-b. Just to digress, I once paid a visit to a pastor friend of mine in his office. I started to share with him something I discovered in the Talmud and he admonished me and said, “You know you should really spend more time reading the Bible rather than some Jewish book.” I noticed on his desk was a copy of the Matthew Henry Commentary open to a specific passage of Scripture. I pointed to the commentary and said, “You know you should really spend more time reading the Bible rather than the opinion of one man. At least I am reading the opinion of thousands of Jewish sages and rabbis who have commented on the Scriptures for over three thousand years.” Just so you know we laughed because we were both joking with each other. The fact is I do read Christian commentaries all the time as it does help give me a fresh perspective on a passage of Scripture and serves as a launching pad into my personal study. I also use works of Judaism such as the Talmud, Mishnah Rahbab, Midrash and the Targums (Aramaic translation of the Old Testament) as well as using our Christian commentaries.
The Jews are the people of the Old Testament and the masters of the Hebrew language. The Bible teaches that they are the chosen people. Some are put off by this as it suggest that the Jews are closer to God than others. Yet in Jewish understanding the closer you are to God the more humble you become. In human terms the closer you are to a king or the President of the United States, let’s say, the more significant and elite you are and thus you have a tendency to become more arrogant. Yet, the closer you are to God the more insignificant you become. The closer you draw to God the more He bursts your bubble as you begin to see just how sinful you are and all your delusions of your petty self importance falls away. My pastor is a member of the Assembly of God, a denomination. I see him as a man who is close to God because he is humble, not full of himself, not prideful nor arrogant. I know right away it is God He is close to and not the denominational leadership. I have met pastors who are close to their denominational leadership and invariably they are speaking the party line and are filled with a sense of self importance. My point being that this is the idea of the Chosen People, a nation of individuals who have been given the opportunity to sense God’s closeness, hear His truth and relay His message to the world. No one will dispute that it was the Jews who introduced the world to monotheism, a system of ethics and morals and helped to shape our modern view of life and purpose. The very fact that the Jews have survived to this day despite the attempts by the enemy to destroy them throughout the ages attest the eternal values of their teachings about the nature, heart and love of God. One rabbi once told me that I did not to convert to Judaism to become one of God’s chosen, I just had to be willing to draw close to Him and have my bubble burst.
So even though the Jews have not accepted Jesus as their Messiah, I do not believe their mission on this earth as the Chosen People has been withdrawn. We Gentiles can be grafted into Judaism, even if we do not have the Jewish gene. We can still retain our Christian identity. Yet by simply drawing close to God and being willing to have our bubble burst and become, as I heard a Messianic Jew Sid Roth say, one new man, we too can know that closeness to God. Yet, since the Jews are the original Chosen People I like to know just what they have to say about God, His love and His nature. So I study the works of Judaism along with the works of our Christian fathers and I retain my identity as a Christian who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So back to the Talmud Sanhedrin 101a-b where I read a Jewish commentary on II Chronicles 33:12. Mannasseh was twelve years old when he because King of Judah and reigned for fifty five years. In all those years he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord (II Kings 21:1). We learn in II Chronicles 33:11 that the Lord caused the Assyrians to capture him and put a hook through his nose (ouch!), bound him in bronze shackles, dragged him through thorns and briers and took him to Babylon. Clearly, the Lord not only allowed this to happen but Scripture actually teaches God instigated this torture. We learn, however, in verse 12 that this affliction caused Mannasseh to greatly humble himself before God. According to Jewish teaching his affliction drew him closer to God and the closer to God he came the more he saw the great significance of God and how insignificant he was. As a king he was arrogant and full of himself, but in his affliction he sought God and sought to draw close to God and as a result he was greatly humbled before God.
The word in Hebrew for humbled is yikana’ which is in a Niphal form making it reflexive. He humbled himself. God didn’t humble him, he humbled himself. The Talmud teaches that it wasn’t his affliction that humbled him, it was drawing close to God and seeing what a great and mighty God He was that humbled this prideful and arrogant king. Before God he realized he wasn’t such a hot shot after all. The word yikana’ (humble) comes from the root word kana which is an old Akkadian word used by hunters when a bird folds his wings. It is at that point the bird is most vulnerable and likely to be capture. When you humble yourself before God you fold your wings, so to speak, and allow yourself to be capture by the hand of God. When you are filled with pride your wings a moving and you are just likely to fly away as God reaches out to touch you.
In Sanhedrin 101a-b the story is told of a great rabbi who fell ill. Four elders came to him and sought to encourage him. One elder declared that the great rabbi was more valuable than the rain, for the rain only serves this world but not the next where this rabbi served not only this world but heaven as well. The second elder praised the rabbis by saying he was more valuable than the sun for the same reason. The third elder said he was better than a father and mother for parents only serve this world and not heaven, but he serves both this world and heaven. The fourth elder simply said, “Suffering is precious.” With this the rabbi arose and demanded all the elders except the fourth leave, for he wanted to hear the wisdom of this fourth elder. The rabbi then quoted II Chronicles 33:12 and said: “Because of my affliction I sought the lord and grew close to Him and as I grew close to him I humbled myself greatly before the God of our fathers.”
If you want to draw close to God you have to be willing to let Him burst your bubble. That might be a painful hook in the nose, such as a job lose, health issues or an accident. But for your affliction you would not have sought the Lord, but when you do seek Him and draw close to Him you are yikana, humbled and you begin to see just how insignificant you are and all that you have, do and say is meaningless in light of what He can give you to have, do and say.
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