The Life You've Always Wanted: Part 4
February 26, 2023Pastor Patrick presented "Patience" as the next Fruit of the Spirit in our current series, "The Life You've Always Wanted." A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
Patience in Biblical Hebrew is usually a translation of at least two Hebrew words: savlanut (סבלנות) and arek ruach (אָרֵךְ רוּחַ).
Salvanut is from the root meaning pain, suffering, etc. It's where we get long-suffering. In Hebrew, though, it's an act, something you do, as opposed to not doing anything at all like simply not resisting. It's an active taking account of the situation and looking to resolution. It also refers to the feeling one gets when being patient.
Arek ruach literally means "long breath/wind/spirit." It's from here we get "slow to anger," as in take a deep breath. This is a descriptor for God, as Moses says, using arek with aph (nostril, nose, face; as in long/slow to flare one's nose), in Exodus 34:6 and repeats in Numbers 14:18. The double word (with ruach) is used in Ecclesiastes 7:8, "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."
Joseph, while not patient at all in his youth, demonstrates much patience in adult life in Egypt for 20-some years. He endures false imprisonnment and his revelation of himself to his brothers is slow and methodical - and effective. It's no accident that Joseph is also described as "wise" in the Torah (Genesis 41:39). Patience is seen as an element of wisdom.
While none of these words or phrases for "patience" is used, Jacob certainly demonstrated patience as he waited and worked for Rachel for seven years which "seemed to him as days because of her love" (Genesis 29:20) and then being given Leah instead had to work another seven years for Rachel.
Here's a good one from Psalm 37:7, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." Seems quite appropriate for today. FYI, another word entirely is translated here as "wait patiently." The verb means to whirl, dance, or writhe depending on context. This has a "wait longingly" feel to it.
Overall, Patrick's statement, "patience and persistence go hand-in-hand," is very applicable to the Old Testament understanding.
Interesting note... While "patience is a virtue" is true and beautiful, that phrase is not Biblical. It comes from a 5th Century text called "Psychomachia" written by the poet Prudentis.
Another interesting note... While hunting around for info on today's topics, I stumbled onto this article about the world’s oldest Hebrew Bible going up for auction this May. It's called the Codex Sassoon. Sotheby expects it to go for $30-$50 million.
Bonus
The Glory of the Lord - Ezekiel's Vision
This is a long Bonus story, but I promise it's worth getting to the end...
Fina and I were chatting in the car and she mentioned that her choir was doing two spirituals at an upcoming choir competition. I asked which ones and she said "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" and "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel." Being fairly familiar with the Jericho story, I asked her instead what Ezekiel's wheel was all about. She didn't know, I didn't know, so this became a project...
At the risk of stepping out of the Torah into unknown Old Testament land, I started chasing down this Ezekiel story. Did you know Ezekiel is the 4th longest book of the entire Bible (across OT and NT)? Nearly 30,000 words!
The story covers a period of time from about 593BC to 573BC with Ezekiel in exile in Babylonian-controlled land at Tel Aviv ("Hill of Spring", you might recognize aviv or abib as the root of Avril, April in French, and Abril, April in Spanish).
The name Ezekiel comes from two Hebrew roots/words, chazaq and el. Chazaq means strenthen and el is God (as in El Shaddai, El-Roi, Beth-el, etc,; click here for a list). So, Ezekiel means "God strengthens." Ezekiel is one of the "latter prophets," but remember, a more accurate descriptor would be "spokesman" rather than prophet.
And God strengthening Ezekiel is what his "wheel vision," his first vision of six, is all about. Ezekiel is "seeing" first hand the glory of the Lord in order to be strengthened for a tough mission that God has in store for him (the rest of the book). Here's a 15-minute summary of the entire book with narrated cartoon drawings in two parts: 1 and 2.
What Ezekiel saw in his first vision is described in Chapter 1 of Ezekiel. In the last verse of chapter 1, Ezekiel says, "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking."
The phrase "glory of the Lord" is somewhat common throughout the Bible. It starts with Moses asking to see God's glory at the Burning Bush. It's a phrase used in an attempt to capture all of God's nature, characteristics, powers, etc. This includes such things as omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotentence, justness, compassion, mercy, self-sufficiency, wisdom, faithfulness, goodness, loving, holiness (set apart), etc. The word glory is kabod (כָּבוֹד, long o). It's used about 200 times in the OT. In the New Testament, the glory of the Lord is revealed in Jesus.
Two more examples: a similar "glory" is seen at Mt. Sinai and in Psalm 19, "the heavens declare the glory of God." And, in Handel's Messiah, "And the Glory of the Lord." (If you're a Handel's Messiah fan, you'll notice the similarity of the ending here and the ending of the Hallelujah Chorus.)
As for Ezekiel's first vision with the wheel... It's much bigger and more intricate than just a wheel. And it became the subject of our weekly Family Dinner (I think of them as Shabbat/Sabbath) this past Saturday evening. I introduced the topic, gave some Ezekiel background (as above) and then we got busy on the vision itself. I described all the elements of the vision, paraphrasing from chapter 1, including the caveat that the text uses "as" and "like" a lot, meaning it wasn't exactly these things, just like these things. All the while I reminded them that the big takeaway is the strength of God's glory; make it brilliant and radiant! Here are the items in the vision as I described it:
- Clouds, thunder, lightning
- Wheels, four sets, each set with two wheels at right angles
- Angels (cherubim), four, each with four faces (ox, eagle, lion, man)
- Angels' wing tips touched, stood back-to-back, forming a square
- Platform supported by the angels
- Throne on the platform
- God on the throne
- Brilliant
- Radiant
Having gone through this paraprhased description, everyone attempted to draw the vision on a blank piece of paper based solely on my description. They could ask me any questions they'd like. Then, I gave each person a black-n-white drawing I found on the internet to make brilliant and radiant with color. You'd be amazed the images you'll find on the internet - all manner, all colors, some parts, different parts, and on and on. Try this search.
Below are photos and scans of the drawings that were made! Everyone picked up on what was clearly wrong in the line drawing, can you?
Yes, that's Jamie's famous cheesecake (upper right)
Not bad at all.
Note the two wheels at right angles in each wheel. Hard to draw! But an important feature along with the four cherubim each with four faces and each facing a different compass direction. This suggests that God can pay attention in all directions, and move in all directions, without changing his own position/attitude.
Always the out-of-the-box Omer (Odyssey of the Mind). Brilliant!
