Sacrifice and Disappointment

March 16, 2013 ~ Nisan 5, 5773

Torah Portion #24 Vayikra (He called) 

Torah – Vayikra (Leviticus) 1:1- 5:26 cjb p 109

Haftarah – Yesha’Yahu (Isaiah) 43:21 – 44:23 cjb p 503

B’rit Chadashah – Mark 7:1-30; Romans 8:1-13; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 10:1-14;  13:10-16

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Sh’ma

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Sacrifice and Disappointment

Today’s title is because Today we start the book of Vayikra.

It is about instructions for the priests…

It reveals how to be in relationship with YHWH…

 – and that is through sacrifice.

Sacrifice??  Hmm….

--“By observing HIS instructions… man can pull himself up the ladder of holiness… By ignoring them… he not only contaminates himself, he gradually builds a barrier that blocks out his comprehension of holiness….”

Tehillim (Psalm) 22: 1- 9  cjb p 808

Tehillim 22:6 “They cried to you and escaped; they trusted in you and were not disappointed.” 

“Disappointed” in CJB is also commonly translated as “ashamed”. 

That word there is Strong’s #954 and means =

= To be ashamed; to be disappointed or delayed (be, make, bring to, cause, put to, WITH ) shame.  Confounded – become dry, delay, or to be long. 

In Hebrew it is pronounced –“bu wsh”   It is a bet – vav- and a sheen.  And it means = being disappointed. 

Related family words are disappoint, deceive, act negatively, shatter, scatter, soften, despise. 

BUT the most interesting thing about this Hebrew word we translate as “disappointed” – is that it is a future tense… so it means IN THE FUTURE!

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Going back to Tehillim 22…

The first part as we read through verse 9 – things are pretty bad…

Tehillim 22: 10- 22 – this is clearly disappointment!!!

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Now why would I be talking about disappointment when I am supposed to be talking about sacrifice??....

… hmmm….  What is a sacrifice… 

Well we could be talking about an animal… killing it….  That is a sacrifice….

But there is more than that… If I ask you to give up something that you have – that doesn’t come with out sacrifice – unless you don’t care about that “thing” at all.

But sacrifice is also making different decisions… 

Choosing to not do the easy thing…

It is a sacrifice to change a habit – or a way of dealing with things….

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Let’s do an exercise…  Pastor David taught me….

I want each of you to close your eyes and imagine a puzzle piece.

….A piece to the puzzle of your life.

The piece might represent a day….

I am not good at finding pieces that fit – by shape…  I am much better at it by color. 

When most people do puzzles –

Most of us at least sort out the pieces by the colors…

Well in part of the puzzle of our lives… there is a dark spot.

This dark spot covers over the color underneath…

Another way to look at this is like a time line…

You know – with past on one end and future on the other….

Throughout that time line of  each of our lives… there  are a various assundry of  dark spots.  They cover over important things underneath..

This dark stain that shows up over and over again… on the line and in the puzzle….

…. Could be defined as…

DISAPPOINTMENT.

Disappointment…. 

 Think of (and we are not sharing these things!) a time in your life when you have been disappointed…

Everyone have one??

It probably wasn’t too difficult to recall a time when we have been disappointed…  because that is how people work … we save them up… keep them….

Besides that…. In this world – disappointment happens all the time!!

In fact, if you are at all like I have been… 

…you keep a well-guarded,

 beautifully written…

well tended to,

and maybe …..often-reviewed

LIST of disappointments in your life.

After all, they weren’t fair….   Justice is sure a huge issue!

So what I do is…. 

Disappointment happens….

(Remember that poisonous frog of offense that we learned of a while ago – that we can  pick up that poisonous frog of offense… we can hold it dear to us when we are offended… and let it poison us….)

I want to give you a picture of disappointment and response to it….

So disappointment happens… and I pick it up and hold it tight….  And I pack it in to a glass jar…. 

And I proceed to carry it around….  Allowing it to erupt out of the jar periodically – you know – every once in awhile… when something triggers it…  and when something happens that “isn’t right”.

It blows up… and….  Then I stuff it back into my jar after my reaction is way to big….  There it is, packed in, until the next time….

Because I have a right to hang on to that disappointment – it really happened and it wasn’t fair.  After all – someone must remember that it happened and be sure it gets “righted”….

BUT – it isn’t this simple… this disappointment … well when I pick it up –

…I own it … I take charge of it… I carry it …  I nourish it….  And a seed begins to grow in my life….  A seed of a tree of bitterness…. 

So emotionally – I am very upset … my emotions are on overload…. Just trying to survive…

There is injustice everywhere in this world….

So now as the tree grows – I am allowing it – the bitterness- to take root in my life…. 

And  what happens is… I start looking at this tree….  Focusing on this… it is vitally heavy to carry around with me….

But never the less – I carry it  -- at all costs … back pain, illness, anger, rage, miserableness, depression, hopelessness, despair…  oh my….  At great cost to myself.

It takes a lot of energy to hang on to all this stuff in the jar… and to feed /nourish that tree of bitterness….

So – how do I deal with it???????…

This is sooo simple… so simple , so easy, I thought…
“That’s all?”  “That can’t be all – this tree is huge!!!”

I give it to him…. That is what I do – I give it to Him.

 What??  How do I do that??

Instead of owning it and stuffing it in the jar and having a tree of bitterness grow – I give the disappointment to Abba.

I break the jar as I renounce that I have been owning disappointment and building my life on it….

PRAY…..

“In Y’shua’s name – I renounce  that I have chosen to own disappointment in my life and I have nourished it and protected that tree of bitterness. I am turning away from this reaction.”

“Father, forgive me for these things…”

“I choose to break the jar that I save them in… so I have no where to store them and I choose to take an ax and chop down that tree of bitterness.  This day I declare this habit broken and that tree and even its roots gone from my life.”

“Now Father, teach me a new habit… b/c the truth is… Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light…and mine has been way way too heavy for way way too long.” 

AMEIN.

The kicker of this is… that this means I am choosing to TRUST Him to take care of it – I don’t have to fix it, I don’t have to deal with it, I don’t have to even remember it… b/c HE has it… it is taken care of!!

Trust –

Did I mention sacrifice??

When we decide to work at changing our habits – it is a sacrifice…

TRUST is very hard…. 

But we have to give it to Him… and let it go.  We have to break the jar that held disappointment and chop down the tree of bitterness.

And trust that HE will take care of us…

Trust that HE knows and that is enough.

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If you find you need something more concrete to do this…. – “person with skin on”- support…  when  you are disappointed – write it down, and go to someone you trust and tell them the disappointment and ask them to agree with you – that it is disappointing and it wasn’t right….  It is unjust and then give it to Father and completely destroy the paper it was written on.

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Tehillim 22   cjb p 808

Remember we had read  the first part – and David is miserable – he is disappointed …  he is crying out….

Tehillim 22: 20- 32

          And now there is much joy –

David’s focus is not the miserableness, the disappointments of his life… but YHWH and all He has done for him!!

Look what happens… he moves from a place where he can’t seem to find hope – to a place of hope and joy.

It is easy to choose miserableness and own disappointment…

It is sacrifice to give up my right to own that thing… and to let go and give it to Yah…

It is sacrifice to break the jar that I stored them in and it is sacrifice to chop down that tree of bitterness…

….this is  Sacrifice that HE honors… 

And then…

As Yesha’yahu (Is) 61   cjb p 533   says…

“… to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, to let out into light those bound in the dark…”

We step into freedom b/c we are no longer burdened like slaves to hasatan…  we are free.

Let’s change gear a moment because this will take us deeper…

…. And talk about some word meanings according to Brad Scott:

Four – cognate / family words… all have same parent meaning…

Sometimes they will be right next to each other in one verse, but they will be translated as different English words so we don’t see the connection in the English.  Yah puts them next to each other to paint a word picture

Nahal = nun hey lamed

Nachal = nun  chet  lamed

Nacha= nun chet hey = basic parent word

Nahar = nun hey resh

All share the parent root and the parent root meaning of all four of these words is to flow downward – something that starts at the top of something and flows downward.

Nahal = to lead

Nachal = to inherit

Nacha = inheritance and a brook in a valley

Nahar = a river, to guide in a river

In Hebrew, leading and guiding, and brooks and valleys, and inheritance…..are all the same word. – they are all very related!

The fundamental route of inheritance was something that started in the beginning and was passed down …. From the mountain top.

Nacha = Exodus 13:21 – leading – flowing downward – flowing to the open sea… 

Tehillim 31:3 – Nacha – lead me and guide me…  lead me = Nacha, and guid me =  Nachal

Tehillim 104 :10 streams – Nachal

IS 35:6 – streams in the desert = Nachal “to inherit”

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So are you getting this??  If we just look at four Hebrew word and a few of the scriptures they are in…. .we are finding that over and over again YHWH is giving a very clear message…

… “even in the miserableness of the desert, -( or in disappointment)… I will give you streams of refreshing”… and where do they come from – the top of the mountain…  and what comes from the top of the mountain – the Torah…..

… It all goes back to Torah.  It all goes back to His instructions….

So we can look at the Word and see – yes – in the desert (geographically speaking) – there are streams….

But we can understand deeper… and know that in hard places…. HE is there…. Always.

Get this!  - this means we have HOPE – no matter where we are!!

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Tehillim 69:36 – inherit –

Tehillim 78:20 – streams – Nachal

Tehillim 23:2 – leads – Nachal –

Micah 4:1 cjb p 750– what comes from the top of the mountain – people are doing to flow into the top of the mountain and Yah is going to take them back to the top of the mountain to the inheritance.

What we inherit from YHWH, is everything that began at the top of the mountain.

What is on top of the mountain = Torah!!!!

Is 2:2  cjb p 438– His life leads and guides

Matt 25:33-34 – inherit … 

(Hebrew terms always go back to the beginning – as HE declared the end from the beginning!)

I Corin 6:9 – not inherit

Yochanan 7:38 – rivers of living water

Deut 18:18 – the nature and character and attributes of Messiah = He will speak the words of the Father.

Rev 22:1-2 – tree in middle of river

Rev 7:17 – lead them into living fountains of waters…

Rev 21:5-7 inherit

Hebrew associates ---leading with fountains of water and with His son…= relationship, and inheritance!!!

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So the question becomes then… what kind of inheritance do you want… b/c Torah is the top of the mountain…

And Torah says….

Mattityahu 11: 28-30 cjb p 1237  “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

Understanding this  – is part of the mountain top… the inheritance from  Yah… this is freedom… this is not carrying around anything to keep things I should not hold on to in.

This is NOT continuing to nourish the tree of bitterness and taking an ax to its roots….

This is a sacrifice – letting go of my old habits and on purpose

…choosing to trust YHWH…  with my disappointments…. 

Being sure that HE knows and that is enough!

I don’t know about you – but I want the inheritance of freedom…

I want not just what flows down from the mountain top – I want the mountain top  - I want His Word – His Torah… b/c I want freedom and I don’t want this burden any more.  It is so hard – so very difficult to let go….

BUT….

From now on…  I know I don’t have to carry disappointments any more… and I no longer have to feed the tree of bitterness… it has been chopped down …

…

…. I have been broken…

….I am the sacrifice…..

… and I am free….

Amein.