Forgive

These are the days between the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The other day, I heard the question in my spirit, "What does "forgive" mean?"

When I am asked a question by the Asker, I know it is something I am supposed to look into and learn. Because the question was asked of me in the first place, I know I'm going to be in for a surprise, and I was.

In English, the origin of the word from the Old English/German has the meaning of "give before". From this, I can learn that forgiveness is something given before a wrong is even committed, or a debt incurred. When I think of scripture, this makes sense because Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Before man ever committed the sin, the provision for forgiveness and atonement was already in place.

Sometimes I feel very noble and "Jesus-like" when I say to myself that I have forgiven this person, or that incident. However, if I really want to be true to the real meaning of the word both in fact and in Spirit, then the forgiveness should have existed before the wrong act against me. There would be no need for me to have to stir up my "holy" attitude after the fact. If I am to forgive others as I have been forgiven (Mt. 6:12, Lk. 11:4), then it must be "given before".

The hurt and feelings of offense that come when a wrong is committed against me, may come because I have not given this forgiveness gift before, as God has. Perhaps it's why we always go back again and again, remembering the wrongs done, even though we say we have "forgiven". They haunt us, and stir up feelings of hurt and anger all over again. Just the other day, a memory of a wrong from my childhood popped up. I hadn't thought of it in many years, but, evidently, it is still there. A small thing like that came back before my eyes again. Perhaps this is why the internal question about forgiveness came up to begin with. I am going back now and forgiving before it happened so long ago, not only for the sake of the child involved, but for my own sake as well. I am saying, "It was already forgiven before it happened."  If I can learn to "give before" in this little thing from the past, perhaps it will train me for those larger, more difficult things that have happened, and will happen in the future. Starting small is better than not starting at all!

The word "forgive" in Hebrew is also very interesting. It is the word nasa. It means "to lift, to bear up, to carry, to lift up, to bear, to support, to endure, to be lifted up, be exalted, to rise up, to be borne, to be carried, taken away, carried off, swept away, to bear continuously, to marry, to magnify, pardon, honorable, respect, armor-bearer (person who carries the armor or weapons of a warrior)". This awesome meaning has very little similarity to my previous understanding of forgiveness. However, it immediately stirs up a connection to something else.

The Hebrew meaning creates an image for me of Jesus carrying His own cross, and being lifted up upon it. This forgiveness was borne from the foundation, and carried, lifted up and exalted, at the cross. Jesus was the armor-bearer who carried His Father's armor and weapons of forgiveness, the cross. It is our armor and our weapon, as well. This forgiveness might have even been the power behind His resurrection (see nasa above: "to rise up").
The letters of nasa are nun (heir to the throne, son, faithfulness), shin (devour, consume, destroy, point of a rock), aleph (ox head, leader, power, authority, first, teach, Adonai). The Son has the power and the authority to forgive:
"But that you my know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" - He said to the man who was paralyzed- "I say to you arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."
                                                                       Mt, 9:6, Mk. 2:10, Lk. 5:24)

The gift of forgiveness was prepared and given to me before I was born, and I accepted it thankfully through Christ. Now I have to learn to prepare and give forgiveness the same way as my Father did for me - from the foundation.
The gift was already prepared and given, and needed only to be accepted. I will now try to give the gift to others in the same manner.

Our Father prepared and gave us forgiveness before we ever knew Him.

"Via Dolorosa"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67XrqXXTceM


 



 

Kingship

I heard something amazing this week. New York City has erected a re-creation of the Gate of Ba'al that stood before the Temple of Ba'al in Palmyra, Syria. Another replica will be in London. The original was destroyed by ISIS. Ba'al was a horrible counterfeit of the one true God. Ba'al worship mercilessly demanded the sacrifice of children burnt in fire. Israel was drawn away from the worship of God to the worship of this false god. Jezebel, the woman who married Ahab, a king of Israel, killed the prophets of God, and established the worship of Ba'al in Israel. Her name means "married to Ba'al". In modern times, her name has become synonymous with everything horrible that a woman might be.
When this replica of the Gate of Ba'al in New York City was announced as a warning by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in an interview, the host asked in a fearful way, "If they did this stupid thing in New York City, the judgment of God would fall on New York, right? The rest of the country, like St. Louis, or Greenville, North Carolina wouldn't have to fear judgment because of something New York did, right?"
I wondered at this reaction to this sad day in the spiritual choices of NYC. Should our reaction really be that so long as the judgment hits and stays in NYC, the rest of us can relax?
When the Prophet Isaiah was sent by the LORD to King Hezekiah to tell the king that his days were numbered, the king turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly to God (Isa. 38:3). Before Isaiah even left the palace grounds, the LORD had him return to the king with the word that God had heard the king, and He was giving the king fifteen additional years of life. 
However, when God informed Hezekiah a short time later that Israel would be overthrown by its enemies after the king died, this same king thought, "So long as it happens after my death, it's OK."
This same king who had wept so bitterly before the LORD upon hearing of his own imminent death, basically shrugged his shoulders when hearing of the coming destruction of his nation at the hands of its enemies:
"So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" For he said, "At least there will be peace and truth in my days."  Isa. 39:8
King Hezekiah said this after the LORD, through His prophet, gave a vivid description of the terror of the coming destruction:
"Behold the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated, until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left", says the LORD. "And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."  Isa. 39:6-7
This king had begged the LORD to let him live to have a son, and yet, he is unmoved by the pitiful future of those descendants.
Is that our attitude when hearing of the judgment of God? "Well, they deserved it." or "So long as it doesn't happen to my city, or in my time." Like Hezekiah, we are to be kings, and also priests to our God. God is a King. His Son, Jesus, is very much a King. What is God's reaction to coming judgment? What is Jesus' reaction?
When Hezekiah is indifferent to the coming judgment of God upon his nation, the LORD spends the next twenty-six chapters of Isaiah, from Ch. 40-66, interceding on behalf of His people, and His nation. He starts by saying, "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!", says your God. "Speak comfort (to the heart of) Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended...".   Isa. 40:1-2
The LORD starts crying out prophetically to Jerusalem before Hezekiah, its earthly king, can even finish shrugging his shoulders in indifference. The interceding prophetic word is so powerful, that not only is judgment spoken as part of it against these attacking enemies of Israel, but the LORD reveals the coming ministry of John the Baptist (Isa. 40:3-8), and the redeeming ministry of His Messiah (Isa. 52-53). In His intercession, the LORD even reveals His new heavens, and His new earth:
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy."  Isa. 65:17-18
Now that's a King! And those are the pronouncements and decrees of a King.
"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods."      Ps. 95:2-3
The LORD is indeed a great King!
Jerusalem was about to kill its Messiah, its King, its Son of David, the One sent by the Father in heaven to save them. He was about to be killed in a ravenous, unspeakable way. They would show Him no mercy. They would leave none of Him untouched by their fierce hatred, resentment and anger. Yet, Jesus, her King, when He looked upon the city that would soon suffer in judgment, wept on its behalf (Lk. 19:41).
Something terrible has just happened in New York City, and also, in London. Something monstrous has defiantly and proudly been rebuilt. Yes, cry out, and weep St. Louis and Greenville, North Carolina. Don't shake your heads, or shrug your shoulders. Weep for yourselves (Lk. 23:28), your city, and your nation. Intercede on behalf of an arrogant New York City and London, because your sons and your daughters may also be carried away by an evil that knows and shows no mercy.

Our Father shows His Kingship.


"O, Come Let Us Sing for Joy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IvTyGdR11o

Gate of Ba'al in NYC