We have just celebrated SUKKOT. The Festival of Booths and Tents. The festival of joy. And some would say: The festival of SEVENS: The seven-day feast in the second half of the seventh month—and depending on how one groups the feasts together, it may also be seen as the seventh feast of the year. And now that we have reached the end of the seven months of the year in which all the feasts fall, we begin again from the start, reading systematically through the Torah and other parts of Scripture. We look at one reading portion from the Scripture for seven days and then we continue with the next portion. Also for seven days, and so we shall continue the cycle, until next year, in the seventh month. And then we shall begin with a new cycle, once again.
Within this bigger picture, it is fitting that the name of the first Parashah of the year, starting in October, is “Bereshiet”. IN THE BEGINNING. You cannot reach seven if you have not started at the beginning. One mistake we have probably all made, at some stage or other, is that we have tried to reach perfection, even before we have struggled through the beginning phases of crawling, teething, dummy weaning, and baby walking – one little step at a time. The most remarkable thing is that even within this chapter named, IN THE BEGINNING, it still swarms with sevens. Perfection is the potential that Yahweh, the Creator, gave form and substance to, right at the beginning. 7 Hebrew words in the first verse. 7 times it is stated in chapter 1 that Elohim saw that what He had made was good. The word “Elohim” is used 7×5 times in the first chapter. What is chapter 1 about? About Elohim (אלהים) who created the heaven (השׁמים) and the earth (הארץ). If you add the numerical values of these three words together, the astonishing result is: 777! And in chapter 1 it is not just said that Elohim RESTED on the seventh day. It is also said that He COMPLETED His work on the seventh day. Because a work week is never complete if you have not rested. In Scriptures there is a command to work and also a command to rest. And the two cannot be separated from each other. It is only when you have rested on the seventh day that you can say: I have completed my work for this week.
We are looking at the theme: THAT WHICH STANDS BEHIND THE TEXT. Do not misunderstand me. It is the TEXT ITSELF that we should look at in the first place. The text and the context in which every text stands—the background, the central theme, the intention of an entire chapter or even an entire book. Some people build an entire ideology with questionable building blocks of what supposedly stands BEHIND the text. It was a joyful day this week when all the Israeli hostages were released by Hamas, even if it was in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom are proven criminals. Which of us can imagine the trauma and the intense emotions and the feeling of loss that many families have gone through over the past 24 months? People have tried in various ways to give meaning to this whole drama and someone pointed out to me a particular view out there, with regards to what a certain verse in the Scripture has to say about Hamas and Israel, today.
The verse in question is Isaiah 60:18. The verse is normally presented like this: “Violence will no longer be heard in your land—no devastation or destruction in your territory; but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.” Clearly a prophecy about the FUTURE. And it is directed at Tzion, or Jerusalem, which will be renewed and restored at some stage in future. This verse is about a time in future which, judging by what is written in the rest of the chapter, and what is happening in Jerusalem today, has not yet arrived. In the time this verse is referring to, the excellence of the nations will stream to Jerusalem (verses 6-13)—Jerusalem will not be seen as the outcast of the world, as it is today. Jerusalem will not be desolate and hated (verse 15). Absolute peace and justice will reign in Jerusalem (verse 17). The sun will not be Jerusalem’s light—Yahweh will be her Light (verse 19). And the people associated with Jerusalem will all be righteous (verse 21).
Clearly, this is not the Jerusalem we know today. And within this context we find Isaiah 60:18: “Violence will no longer be heard in your land…” And the word for “land” is “ha’arets”, which is nowadays frequently used to refer to “Israel.” And listen to this: the word for “violence” is “Hamas”—spelled in exactly the same way as the name of the notorious terrorist group, “Hamas”. The only difference: The meaning in Arabic is different from what it is in Hebrew (not “violence” but “strength” and “zeal”). It looks so tempting to search for a meaning BEHIND the text and apply it to the situation of today. Is Hamas not the personification of VIOLENCE? Don’t we all want to get to the point where the word “Hamas” is not even HEARD of in “ha’arets”? I think we would like that. But then again: Is this the proper way to interpret Scriptures? What happened this week is still very far removed from the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah 60:18. In Scriptures as a whole, the two words “ha’arets” and “Hamas” occur together in the same verse, no less than 13 times. And in not one of these 13 verses is there the slightest indication that “Hamas” alludes to the name of a terrorist group. Most of the 13 verses express criticism of the violence WITHIN Israel, by its own people—the kind of violence done to Yahweh and His Word, and the kind of violence with which one creature of Yahweh harms another creature of Yahweh. And I want to add here: As much as I love Israel as Yahweh’s chosen people, I cannot help but ask myself: What about all the violence that Israel has DEALT OUT, not just EXPERIENCED, over the past two years? Sometimes excessively dealt out? What about all the innocent blood that has flowed and the chaos that the war has caused in the lives of thousands of people who had nothing to do with October 7, 2023? The question is not whether a country is allowed to defend itself and its people. Any country and any army should do that. But I honestly do not think the leaders of Israel in this war reflected the character of the One in Whose Name they launched one offensive after another on the city of Gaza.
I know I am not singing the same tune as most evangelical and Messianic believers in the world today. After all, I dare to speak out against Yahweh’s people—against their leaders and against their military, which is considered the best in the world! But believe me, it breaks my heart to do it! I do not in any way share the hatred of the Palestinian flag-wavers toward Israel. However, for me there is a clear message BEHIND the text of the entire Scripture—from Genesis to Revelation. And this message is not written in code or in ambiguous language. Yahweh rejects illegitimate violence. He rejects it when it occurs among people and groups who have built up a reputation for themselves as perpetrators of violence. And He rejects it even more when it occurs among His own people. We should never condone illegitimate violence. Not even when it occurs among our beloved Jewish brothers. Especially not, when it occurs among them!
The reading portion of Genesis 1:1 to 6:8 begins with the creation of heaven and earth and then the climax, the creation of man, whom Elohim, according to verses 26 and 27, created IN HIS OWN IMAGE. And it ends with the statement that the wickedness of man on the earth was great and all his thoughts were only evil. That there was grief in Yahweh’s heart over the man whom He had made and that only NOAH found favour with Him because there was a different attitude in him. Should there not be a different attitude in us, too, than the attitude of the majority? Did Yahweh not give us a different spirit so that we can recognize and call out wickedness, violence, and hypocrisy by name? In Genesis 4 we hear that Yahweh himself intervenes for Cain, who killed his brother: “If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold (4:15).” Again the theme of seven. And it is about forgiveness and the rejection of violence. From the side of none other than the Creator of heaven and earth!
But the astonishing thing is that in the same Genesis 4, the seventh generation from Adam, someone emerges with the name, LAMECH, who totally distorts the words and the intention of the Creator towards Cain and makes a mockery of it. “Truly (says this Lamech), I kill a man who wounds me, and a boy who injures me. For Cain shall be avenged seven times, but Lamech seventy and seven (or: seventy times seven) times.” And so it was the violent attitude and the actions of Lamech, and people like him, that directly caused the Creator to REGRET that He had made man and to send the great FLOOD upon the earth. I have little doubt that when Y’SHUA said in Matthew 18 that we should not forgive 7 times, but seventy times seven times, He had Lamech in mind and highlighted an ETHICAL CODE that should be prevailing in the lives of each one of His followers: Forgiveness without limits and without counting, so that the senseless spiral of violence may finally be broken.
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