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John 17:22 The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one – This is the third time I’m writing about this subject verse. Rabbi Trail: I love it when the Lord wakes me up with thoughts of the next piece. That happened today, as I was meditating on the subject of “glory” from yesterday. I debated – with myself – over putting “glory” in quotes. It really isn’t needed, but I wanted to set it apart, so that no one would think the subject was glorious and not glory itself. End RT. The beauty of analysis (of any subject) is in taking a 360 degree look. You know, examine the subject from every angle. One of those “angles” is the opposite view. Then our question today is, “What would life be like if God had not given Yeshua glory that He then gave to us?” Said another way, “What if God’s glory was not there to bind us together?” Yesterday, we discussed the Hebrew word for glory, Kavod. Also, in Hebrew, we can reverse a word’s meaning by putting the prefix E in front of it. So Ef’shar (meaning possible) becomes E (say the long E) Ef’shar (meaning impossible). Consequently, Kavod (glory) becomes E-Kavod (without glory). You may know this word as Ichabod. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichabod Ichabod got his name from his mother because he was born on the day that the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and both Eli the priest and his son (her husband), Phinehas, died. 1 Samuel 4:21 Then she named the child Ichabod saying, “The glory has departed from Israel” – because of the capture of the ark of God, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. Truly, the glory had departed from Israel. 1 Samuel 4:22 So she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been taken!” Israel had sinned against God. They thought the Ark of the Covenant would save them. 1 Samuel 2:12 Now Eli’s sons were worthless men; they did not acknowledge Adonai. And Eli continued to allow them to minister in the error of their ways. Ultimately, the glory departed. Have we learned nothing? This describes the situation of much of the professed body of Messiah today. Isaiah 5:20 Oy to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who present bitter as sweet, and sweet as bitter! … 25a Therefore Adonai’s anger is kindled against His people. Spoiler Alert: If you are in the habit of reading these pieces to young children, you may wish to skip to the place where I end the “Spoiler Alert.” Specifically, (and I know this will make proponents of liberal theology sick, which is my intention) we cannot call good what God calls an abomination. Leviticus 18:22 You are not to lie with a man, as with a woman – that is an abomination. That’s clear enough, but the same thought is taught repeatedly in Scripture. Paul even identifies thinking this behavior will go unpunished as deception. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers – none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. It is bad enough the world is full of sin. The shame is that those who claim to follow Yeshua are embracing this sinful lifestyle, in the name of “love,” as if it is acceptable. The demand to compromise is knocking at the door. We must not “open the door” to compromise. End the “Spoiler Alert.” God wants to give us His glory. To receive it, we must follow Him. Those who follow Him are set free from sin. Romans 6:1-2,11-12,14-15,22 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? … So also continually count yourselves both dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua. Therefore do not let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its desires … For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! … But now, having been set free from sin and having become enslaved to God, you have your fruit resulting in holiness. And the outcome is eternal life. To be set free from sin is to come into an inheritance of the glory of God in His presence. Choose wisely my friends. [...]

The Upper Room Discourse 88

John 17:22 The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one – In this subject verse, we have “glory” that goes around and comes around. The word “glory” appears in the Greek as “Doxa” (and in the Delitzsch version – see RT below – as “Kavod” in Hebrew). We need to examine this by digging deeper. What is that “glory” being given, first by the Father to Yeshua and then from Yeshua to His disciples. Rabbi Trail: I love the Franz Delitzsch Version vineofdavid.ffoz.org/resources/dhe/the-delitzsch-hebrew-gospels/ of the Hebrew Gospels. Franz Delitzsch was a Jewish Bible scholar who accepted Yeshua as his Lord and Savior about 150 years ago. He then assembled a team to assist him in his work of translating the Gospel books into their proper Hebrew context (along with commentary). It is an excellent resource. I highly recommend it. (He went on to translate the entire New Testament into Hebrew.) End RT. The Greek word Doxa is described as “exercising personal opinion which determines value.” It is translated as good opinion (always good in NT), praise, honor, renown and splendor. Another amplification adds, “an especially divine quality, the unspoken manifestation of God.” Let’s stick with this to make these lofty words more meaningful. The Hebrew word Kavod is related etymologically to the first Hebrew word of the fifth commandment. “Honor” your father and your mother … Kabed Et Avicha V’Et Emecha. The connotation of the use of “glory” in these two languages is one of “value.” God puts value on His Son and His Son puts value on each of us, His disciples. But from where does that “value” come? How is it generated? What fuels it? The answer might surprise you. Glory is the blessing and benefit of obedience. Philippians 2:7-9 But He emptied Himself – taking on the form of a slave, becoming the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself – becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name. We also, are called to a life of obedience. We had this teaching from earlier in the Upper Room Discourse. John 14:23-24 Yeshua answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. What about grace? I’m glad you asked. Grace is the desire and ability to obey God. Note – God will never give desire without also giving ability. He loves us. If He gave desire without ability, that would be cruel. (End Note) Paul understood this truth when he wrote to the Corinthians … 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace toward me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than them all – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Peter wrote about this connection between grace and obedience. 2 Peter 1:2 May grace and shalom be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Yeshua our Lord. He connects both grace and shalom with the knowledge of God and Yeshua. To know God and Yeshua is always connected with obedience. [...]

Remember: You Were a Slave

Passover commemorates the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, which has contributed more to shaping the Jewish story than perhaps any other event in history. Those who know me, often think of me as socially confident and self-assured. Yet, I remember the shame and humiliation of bursting into tears during my 9th grade history class following a particular caustic bout of jeering from one of my classmates. Being bullied by a few schoolmates in my early teens were traumatic experiences. It caused real anguish and insecurity, taking me years to heal and recover my prior care-free personality. I really don’t like to think about those times, but they did teach me some valuable lessons—especially about how I wanted to treat people that were different from me. Read the full article here: Issue 33 [...]

Prayer & Action

So Joshua did as Moses said, and fought the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed … (Exodus 17:10-11 TLV) There is a vital relationship between prayer and action, which is essential for any kind of ministry which seeks to advance the Kingdom of God. Prayer needs to be a foundational component of the work that is done, and it needs to be ongoing to sustain the work of the ministry. John Calvin wrote about the necessity of prayer stating, “Therefore we see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from the Lord, which we are not also bidden to ask of him in prayers. So true is it that we dig up by prayer the treasures that we pointed out by the Lord’s gospel and which our faith has gazed upon.” Read the full article here: Issue 32 [...]

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