Jeremiah 2:2: “Go and cry into the ears of Jerusalem and saying, Thus said the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in land that was not sown.”
Some years ago I had an elder friend named George. He was a Greek teacher for many years and was ordained as a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church. I consulted with him on numerous passages in the Greek New Testament. One passage we spent considerable time on was John 1:1. My Jehovah Witness friends like to translate this verse as The Word was a god. As we pondered the grammatical reasons why this verse should be rendered: The Word was God, I suddenly had an epiphany. I realized the importance of why John put the predicative nominative before the nominative (bet that really impressed you). I mean I knew this, you know this, we all know this, but do we really KNOW it.
If the later manuscripts are correct and the Jehovah Witnesses are right and this is really saying the Word was a god, then what you have is God the Father sitting up on His throne drinking his Mogen David wine while Jesus is being whipped and tortured and thinking: “OOO! I bet that really smarts.” But what John is saying is that the very essence and being of Jesus was God. That means that every whip lash was felt by God the Father. When the nails were driven into the hands of Jesus, God the Father felt that same pain exactly as Jesus felt it. When Jesus fell under the weight of the cross, the God who can juggle the earth and other planets like a circus troubadour fell under the weight of the cross. God loved us so much, He wanted to feel what we feel when we suffer. He wanted to know what it was like to cry out in pain as we do. He wanted to walk our road. He did this through His Son Jesus Christ. I am not a theologian so don’t expect me to explain the trinity. I cannot do that. I just believe it because the Bible teaches it and is enough for me even if I can’t explain it or understand it.
So anyways with this little bit of insight I took a look upon Jeremiah 2:2 with new respect. In this verse God’s love is pictured as that of a rejected lover remembering his beloved and her love during her espousal. The word in the Hebrew for espousal comes from the root word kalah which means a bride. He is remembering what it was like when Israel had practically nothing wandering in the wilderness and how Israel loved God loving her new husband during this time. Now that Israel has grown comfortable, rich, and no longer living on manna every day or needing that daily miracle, their love has grown cold and yet God remembers that time, He remembers and longs for that love again.
The thing we miss is in that word remember. What is God saying when He says that he remembers? The word in the Hebrew is zacar. It is spelled Zayin, Kap, Resh. I kind of wish I were in my office with my Daleth and Looking Glass so I could step behind and see what Zayin, Kap and Resh are up to. But here I am sitting in my disability bus waiting for my passenger to finish up at the local food pantry. Suddenly I hear someone calling my name. I look around but my I know it is not my 99 year old client, no way has he picked out his supply of tuna and canned ravioli by now. I hear my name again, it is coming from a park bench in front of a beautiful garden near the church where my client is picking up his groceries. I get out of my bus and walk to the bench and who should I meet but my old buddy Resh. He is sitting on the bench looking out over the tops of the flowers (Resh means top or head) in this beautiful little garden the Town maintains. I sit down with Resh and admire the flowers in this garden and think of a beautiful garden or conservatory I visited a few weeks ago in Rockford, Illinois. I know those flowers are in full bloom right now but they over sixty miles away. I try to remember what it looked like when I visited the park the couple weeks ago with the crazy idea of going to that park when I had some spare time to study.
As I tried to remember suddenly Zayin and Kap appear and my buddy Resh jumped off the park bench and joined them in formation to spell the word remembrance. “Yes,” I told Zacar, “I am trying to remember what the Lilacs, Tulips and other flowers were like but I can’t picture them.” Sadly, I stepped from the porch and back into my disability bus hoping my client has not yet appeared only it wasn’t the interior of my bus. I was in some sort of park, but certainly not the Conservatory in Rockford. This park was filled with weeds covered with thorns and thorn bushes. There were no colors, no beautiful flowers.
As I walked through these thorns, I knew I had somehow passed through my Looking Glass and I was in Hebrew Esoteric Land. Of course Hebrew Esoteric Land has no time like we know time nor geographical location to my Looking Glass so I discovered long ago that by just imagining my Looking Glass I am able to pass through it.
I called out to Zayin, Kap, and Resh who I knew had entered this land just before me: “Hey you guys, you have to help me here, these thorns, the shadows, the darkness it is so depressing. I am losing my joy and peace in the Lord.” Suddenly, Zayin appeared. Zayin looks a little like a sword and one of his meanings is that of a sword. Zayin suddenly started slashing away at the thorns and thorn bushes clearing a path and allowing sunlight to come in. I looked at my hand and there is Kap resting in my palm. Actually Kap means palm as in the palm of the hand. Kap also means heart. I looked up and I saw Resh. Resh is shaped like a path that makes a sharp left turn. Resh is directing me to walk in the path that Zayin just cut but he made a sharp left turn in that path and I cannot see the end or where that path may lead. As I follow the path directed by Resh and made clean by Zayin, I suddenly come upon a beautiful Lilac Bush. Kap whispers to me: “It’s ok, take the Lilac into the palm of your hand.” As I did, I placed it over the Kap which also represents my heart. Suddenly when I pressed the Lilac into my heart, I found myself back on my disability bus and it was sunny out and I could see off in the distance the Conservatory in Rockford. No it is my imagination that I see it and now I could remember its beauty. Kap said: “You see it now because you have embraced into your heart. Zayin and Resh had to make the way for you to find the source for your remembrance.
I went back to the park bench with Zacar who then snuggled up to me as I heard Zayin say; “You know I, as Zayin, carry another meaning, it is a binding with God.” Kap then said: “I too have another meaning, I represent God’s heart.” Then Resh said: “Remember too, that I, the Resh, represents the Holy Spirit.” Then Zacar said: When you think of God remembering you, think on our deeper meaning in the word Zacar remembrance. For you see when God remembers zacar you He is binding you to His heart through the power of the Holy Spirit as kalah, his espousal or bride.”
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