21 October 2010 (Chamashee/Teruah)
Day #219, 5934 AM
Loving and Hating
Understanding the Hebraic Perspective
I think I have solved the mystery of one of Yah'shua's more difficult sayings; wherein He says that our love for our family should seem like hate in comparison with our love for Yahweh. How I have the evidence that this is the correct interpretation, scripturally-speaking.
After David defeated the rebellion led by his son Abshalom and learned of his son's death, he mourned his son but did not praise his supporters. For this Joab rebuked him, saying:
"Today you have put to shame all your servants who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines, by loving those who hate you, and by hating those who love you. For you have made it clear today that you have neither commanders nor servants, for today I know that if Abshalom had lived and all of us had died today, then it would be right in your eyes" (2 Sam.19:5-6, ISRV).
I do not believe for one moment that David "hated" his people with resentment and a murderous spirit; rather, his love for Abshalom blinded him to true loyalty and love. 'Hatred' here is therefore to be understood as an absence of care and thoughtfulness and grattitude - shere indifference. Yah'shua's insistence that we "hate" our nearest and dearest is clearly to be understood in a similar way - obviously our love of Him with the kind of passion that is required will seem like indifference and a lack of care for our loved ones. I know my mother often feels that way and was mortally wounded many years ago when I told her that Yahweh would always be my first love. That must have seemed like "hate" to her.
Being demoted from #1 to #2 - or indeed any demotion - must occasionally seem like hate, lovelessness, or coldness. And yet the irony is, the more you love Yahweh through Yah'shua, the more you love #2! This is one of the mysteries of echad love in Holy Echad Marriage - though quantity (in terms of time) may sometimes decrease, quality is always on the rise. Has my absence from home for a month to give my mother almost exclusive attention meant that my love for my family has diminished? Of course not! In fact, the reverse has happened - I desire and appreciate them even more.
Distance always gives you a perspective that you can never have close up. When you are at a distance you see more of the whole person. What's important - as always - is reality and not what we imagine. I do not believe that when Scripture says, "love covers a multitude of sins" (Prov.10:12) we are supposed to distort reality with love, but [rather] we are to view it in the same way that Yahweh views us when He sees the blood of Christ: it means there is jurisdictrional and real-time love. When we choose to love the loveless it does not mean we deny the reality of their darkness - it means simply that mercy softens the redemptive process. Sanctification is still required - that, however, is their responsibility. We are simply to love - with the appropriate walls and fences in place to preclude loving in the wrong way (e.g. adultery): for there is one type of love in marriage and another one outside it. To love means not to crush those in sin:
"A crushed reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench, till He brings forth right-ruling unto truth" (Mt.12:20, ISRV; cp. Is.42:1-3).
(From the Diary of Lev-Tsiyon, 20 October 2003, England)
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