30 November 2010 (Shleshi/Bikkurim)
Day #259, 5934 AM
Judge Righteous Judgment
And Stop Recommending Yourself
"For we do not presume to count ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise" (2 Cor.10:12, ISRV).
I like what Paul writes here. When man is his own standard, he is a fool. "He who boasts, let him boast in Yahweh" (v.17). Therefore let us exalt the Name of Yahweh, "for not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom the Master commends."
Oh, what heavy, profound words. We are back to Jonah, Job and David again. Moreover, we are back primarily to the personhood of Yahweh and not to the principles of Truth He has established by which we are to measure. Torah does not - cannot - exist by itself. Without the giving of the Person, it is dead letter. Odd, isn't it therefore, that Paul should write of his critics [who said of him]:
"His letters are truly weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech amounts to naught" (v.10).
But is it so odd, really? Or perhaps it is the wrong mode of perceiving:
"Let such a one take this into account, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such we are also in deed when we are present" (v.11)
Aha. We are what we are, but you just can't see it, you blinded people. Same problem with Yah'shua - exactly the same:
"For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or splendour that we should look upon Him, not appearance that we should desire Him" (Is.53:2, ISRV).
Not 'classy' enough, not 'cool', not 'seductive'. But His words - oh my, what a Man they reveal! That hidden, yet not so hidden Persona of Deity! We are not supposed to be desirable by the natural eye but by the spiritual:
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24, KJV).
If you judge by the appearance, your judgment us unrighteous no matter how "comely" or "uncomely" you may be. It is beauty of character that the children of Elohim judge by.
Time and time again we see that the children of Yahweh are 'hidden' - they are simply invisible to Babylon. All they (the children of Babylon) see is an outer form and judge wrongly. And so we suffer. Yah'shua suffered too. The children of Yahweh are simply unappreciated by the world because the world can never see them. Making peace with that inevitably goes a long way towards finding internal repose. Then, as with Yah'shua, so with us:
"He would see the result of the suffering of His life and be satisfied". Satisfaction and contentment. "Therefore," says Yahweh, "I give Him a portion among the great, and He divides the spoil with the strong because He poured out His being undo death, and He was counted with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (v.12).
The uncomfortable can become comfortable provided you are willing to surrender the wrong perspective. Do not hate yourself because you sometimes fail to make that offering, for that is even worse. Yahweh does not hate the one consciously striving to be penitent. When you judge yourself, be as merciful to yourself as you are to others - judge righteous judgment.
(From the Diary of Lev-Tsiyon, 4 October 2003, England)
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