Summary: The Bible consists of many ancient idioms; figures of speech that are sometimes misinterpreted by readers. This series will cover some of these idioms and bring forth a more accurate understanding of what is being related to its audience.
Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
I do have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com. I post prophetic words, visions, dreams; ancientscrollsonline.com.
Shema Deuteronomy 6
Shema, O Israel, the LORD God, the LORD is One.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Numbers 10:35, Psalm 68:1
Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered; and let those who hate You flee before you.
Father YHVH,
You are the King of the Universe, King over heaven and earth. We continue to pray for Your righteousness and justice to permeate the earth. We pray for the exposure of the unjust in the high places of this nation; those that hold public offices, those that loathe Your name in these positions of power.
We pray for great exposure—shock and awe, if You will, of these evil people! Oh Lord, that their deep wickedness will be exposed; that all the nations will see their nakedness, all the nations will see their sins, their deceptions and murder. We pray those exposed, their names will live forever in infamy, forever disgraced. Permit complete destruction of the cords of wickedness that surround this nation, completely annihilate the works of evil doers.
We pray life over President Trump, and protection from the forces of evil, from witchcraft and hired assassins. We pray Your enemies will fall to his left hand and right hand.
We are near to the end of this situation in this nation and we are praying for deliverance of this nation from the clutches of murder, of child sex trafficking, oppressing the poor, COVID 19, drug addictions, idolatry, witchcraft, Jezebel, the spirit of gender confusion that has been cast upon our children, sexual perversions.
Send Your Spirit of revival and restoration. We pray that hearts will be sensitive to Your Spirit, prepare hearts to receive Your Word.
We pray in the name of Yeshua. Amen.
So, today I am recording this program which is Thursday. The election was Tuesday and it has certainly been a tense week. It may take several weeks before we know who the president is. For me I have been greatly concerned for this nation, for God’s people, when I say that I mean persecution besides other political issues. We had been shown some things this year, some more recently that has caused us to experience some grave concern for the president and the nation as a whole. This year has certainly been an eventful year. This situation that we are in right now with the presidential election will be resolved eventually. We are sort of bracing ourselves on what other events may follow that. We are praying and have been praying against the evil forces that have risen up to devour this nation, its freedom, and its Constitution.
Today I am going to speak on idioms in the Eastern culture that will aid in understanding what can be viewed by some as puzzling passages in the Bible. The Bible is in ancient text that possesses an ancient culture and an ancient perspective on life. A minister once said that the Bible is something like 40 per cent idioms. I am hoping I am remembering that correctly. The next couple of programs I will focus on some of these ancient cultural idioms.
I came across a book called Eastern Customs and Idioms of the Bible: The Teachings of Orientalisms. The author is Bishop K.C Pillai.
The book is not copyrighted so I am going to take some liberties with it.
Idioms; so, everyone has used at one time or another figurative speech to describe certain situations or experiences. Idioms are often exaggerated expressions that are non-literal in meaning.
A couple of examples: someone may exaggerate the weather by saying it is raining cats and dogs. Someone who is nervous may say they have butterflies in their stomach. We know that kick the bucket means death. If one buys something quite expensive, they will say they paid an arm and a leg for it. There is an idiom I have heard in Uganda, when one becomes a pest by begging continually: You have become stones in my shoes. That conjures a painful image in our minds of that person.
Ok, so I am going to pull out a couple or three idioms or words, phrases that will be different than the meaning we attach to them when we read the Bible.
Where shall we begin?
Let’s look at Hosea 4:16
16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
These lambs are above one year of age. Sheep are not put together with lambs of the first year. The first year male and female lambs are taken care of near the shepherd’s home by the shepherd’s children who prepare special grass for the sheep, they remove the land of stones, thorns, thistles; everything is taken care of. The lambs are given a pond and grazing land near home. They eat the grass and drink the water; no other animals are near. These lambs of the first year are chosen for Passover, a male of the first year without bruise or blemish. That is why they are so well cared for. That is why there can be no stones and rocks where the lambs walk during their first year. Nearer to home, they have plenty to eat and drink, plenty of security surrounds them: there is no lack, no drought, no fear–everything is just right for them.
But the rest of the lambs, not chosen for Passover, go into the wilderness wandering here and there to look for water and grass. After the first year, they are looked upon as sheep. They may fall in a pit and break their neck, or be eaten by a tiger. All these fears confront them. There are lots of dangers and no longer any certainty. That is a “large place”—a place where there may not be water or food, and may be danger of tigers and lions. If we refuse to walk with Yeshua, bear His yoke, and do His will, we are a lamb in a large place (the wilderness, the wicked world) where there is no peace, certainty, surety, and freedom.
God says that because you have refused to walk with Him, and have compromised every step for fear, and have not done those things that you have promised Him; you will suffer defeat, frustration, agony, misery, poverty, disease and crisis. The LORD will feed you as a lamb in a large place where there is no security, nor certainty of water or food; in a large place as opposed to the first year lambs’ confined to the rich grazing area.
We bear needless pain because we fail to adhere to His Word. Those who want freedom from fear and insecurity and lack, must turn from their strayed ways unto Yeshua; ask forgiveness for failing to bear the light yoke of Yeshua, and being burdened down with the yoke of the devil. Christ would lead us like lambs of the first year into green pastures; not in the large place which is the wilderness.
Here is the next one to do with agriculture
Matthew 13:24-30
25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
29But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Every parable Yeshua used was factual in the life of the people. Yeshua used existing incidents to convey a message through it. In the East, when the farmers sow wheat or barley, if they have enemies, they hire some men to watch the field day and night. If a man wants to take vengeance on you, he will wait for you to sow seed in your field. Within three days following the sowing of the seed, the enemy will come to sow tares on an unguarded field. Tares must be sown with three days of the wheat in order to be effective. If he sows tares with three days of the planting, they will come up before the wheat and destroy the wheat; but if later than three days, it won’t work. If they sow tares after three days, they will have no effect. A tare is a seed that looks like barley or wheat. It is not a weed, although it looks like one; it chokes off the roots. To avoid tares in his field, the sower will employ some men to watch his field for those three days. They set fires at different places around the land and they watch.
The servants are not supposed to sleep. During the night, some of them will fall asleep. The enemy waits and watches for these servants to go to sleep. Once they fall asleep, the enemy comes to sow tares, and then goes their way. This is an actual occurrence in the East.
We should watch and pray at all times. When we watch and pray, we are awake and have confidence in God. When at peace, aware of God, constantly watching and praying, and speaking in tongues; we do not sleep nor have tares sown. When we are sleeping spiritually, when we are not alert; our enemy will sow tares of temptation and negative thoughts that create fear, or doubts. The enemy seeks to uproot the Word of God. As the actual tares are a foreign element with the wheat, so are the negative thoughts against the Word of God. If we watch and pray always, the enemy has no chance to plant temptation and negative thoughts in us that are contrary to the Word.
This one concerns animals dedicated to the Lord
Mark 11:1-3
Some in the western world are critical of this passage because they believe that Yeshua is teaching His disciples some bad manners and that His disciples should have asked permission in taking the donkey. In the East, everyone gives the firstborn of their animals to the Temple. These animals are tied around the temple and are cared for by servants waiting to be used in the Lord’s service. They belong to God. Most of the time, the temple was at the entrance to the village. If these animals go and do something bad at a shop when loosed, people cannot abuse them because they are the Lord’s. Sometimes they lie in the streets and eat fruit in the market. If there are loose animals in the streets, they are walked to a shelter.
These animals are taken through the town to go grazing early in the morning; later in the evening, as the cattle and men return to the temple, they also retrieve the animals on their journey back to the village. So Jesus said to get the donkey. The colt did not have a private owner—it belonged to the Lord and this is why He did not need any one’s permission. Anyone who claimed the animals for the service of God could take them.
So, it sounds like they had an excellent honor system then.
When I read this, I understood that no one had ever ridden this donkey mentioned in Matthew because it had been reserved for Yeshua.
I found in the Torah the first born of unclean animals were to be redeemed or sold and the price given to the priest.
( Leviticus 27:11-13 Leviticus 27:27 ).
Leviticus 27:27
- And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.
The word redeem means “buy back.” If a family’s firstborn donkey was critical to their livelihood, they could buy it back from God by offering a lamb in its place.
What was the purpose of giving the first born of the animals to God? It was the action of acknowledging that everything they had come from God.
http://www.beingjewish.com/cycle/exchange.html
I am at the end of the program.
If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spots, wrinkles and blemishes. Love God and love your neighbor.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.
