Gail Landgraf posted: " Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com THE AUTHOR IS HUMAN I must start this article by saying that I am only a human trying to understand the higher levels of God. I'm not so ignorant as to not know that it is often futile and impossible to do "
I must start this article by saying that I am only a human trying to understand the higher levels of God. I'm not so ignorant as to not know that it is often futile and impossible to do so.
However; for some reason beyond our understanding, God DID command this exercise of counting the days from Passover until Pentecost, (Leviticus 23) and I've found it to be extremely helpful and beneficial in my growth and walk with Christ.
My confession is I am simply a writer finding her way on the journey to The Kingdom of Heaven; and an ordinary layperson on this earth who is seeking to live in the best ways possible.
It is often humanly impossible to understand the higher ways of God, so when I share my thoughts with you here as we count the days until Pentecost; keep that in mind. I'm simply sharing my own perspectives on this journey so far.
ALWAYS LEARNING; ALWAYS GROWING
God may show you something totally different than He shows me. I have a friend that say "that's why God made chocolate and vanilla."
Yet; every year as I do this exercise He shows me a different point of view that I never knew before. That is why we call this time of counting a growing season.
Also know that I am looking at these aspects from a Christian point of view. All higher things in my world evolve from belief in Jesus Christ as Messiah and that He came to save us from ourselves.
MY PERSPECTIVE IS FROM A CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW
Now we are able to see dimly; but one day we will see clearly. All of that to say; I definitely am not a Jewish scholar or Rabbi, and am only seeking answers directly from God in this whole process of transformation.
I do see the counting as a good process of transformation though. It surely helps me to find my way through this season each and every year.
If you are a devout Jew and I stray from your teachings or theology; please try to bear with me in my own humanity. Try to exercise compassion and pray for me to have a better understanding.
TIFERET INTEGRATES WITH CHESED AND GEVURAH
So far in this journey of the counting, we have learned, tiferet is the force that integrates with chesed ("compassion") and gevurah ("strength, or judgment"). This integration with tiferet causes a harmonization between the acts of kindness and the acts of strength.
These two forces are, respectively, expansive in giving and restrictive with receiving.
Another way to express these qualities would be "giving till it hurts" or " deliberately denying yourself and your own desires for something higher or someone you love more than yourself."
SEPARATIONS OF POWERS
By looking at the Second day of Creation, we can get a picture of how God combined these attributes of power to separate the higher waters from the lower waters and make the firmament.
Sometimes water signifies kindness, chesed. The separation of the waters means that the infinite chesed of God, (the higher waters are symbolic of His strength) is separated from "the lower waters", which stand for finite chesed (the limited strength, kindness and love that is expressed by humans and animals.)
If chesed is finite (such as what humans and animals are capable of) it can permeate the lower worlds (or reach to evil powers.) To offset and avoid this happening; Tiferet merges the benevolent flow of chesed with gevurah.
This added attribute brings harmony and blends what is needed to produce beauty in an otherwise very ugly situation. With the proper mixture of these two attributes a bearable revelation of chesed to finite created beings is created.
THE BALANCE OF TIFERET
The Tiferet which harmonizes kindness and strength, brings compassion and mercy and balance into hopeless situations.
In other words, the addition of God's love to a situation can bring a whole new level of love that softens the aspects of hate and unrighteousness. This combination can result in forgiveness and mercy. Even we infinite beings become able to tolerate things that before seemed to be impossible for us to bear.
This type of attribute must be how prisoners bear their time in prison. It could be how a person with a terminal illness remains strong until the end. It seems to involve suffering; but the suffering is a teachable type of pain that results in making us stronger individuals.
HOW WE LEARN FROM SUFFERING
Have you ever had someone treat you very disrespectfully and hurt your feelings, then another person who saw the act came along and cheered you up?
This other person was demonstrating the combination of kindness and compassion through tiferet into a situation of gevurah (stark strength that had become unbalanced).
As we study these aspects I think of the love of God as He knew Jesus was being crucified on the cross for the sins of mankind.
THE SUFFERING OF CHRIST
The cross of Christ was brought about by an evil force that had to be endured in order to bring the world into a much higher state. Yet; because of the Chesed of God, (a much higher love than we humans will ever know) Jesus was able to go through what most humans would not have been able to endure.
He suffered willingly because of His great love. His love for us was excessive.
God's first inclination must have been to destroy everything that caused His Only Begotten Son to suffer; but He exercised restricted strength and He held back for our sake and in honor of the wishes of Jesus.
There is no greater love than this. It is unexplainable in every way from the human perspective.
THROUGH GOD'S LOVE ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
In the ways of men, things will often seem impossible to achieve. With the power of God's love though, all things are made possible.
This"possible" or what I usually call a "glorious impossible" requires an act of harmony of the emotions which only these particular attributes working together can bring about.
These connected attributes furnish humans with hope and help in our times of need. We are comforted as no human love would ever be able to comfort us.
Tiferet of Gevurah describes how this becomes possible.
CREATION ON THE THIRD DAY
In the aspects of creation this attribute speaks to us about how the vegetation that God added on this day brought balance to the earth.
It was the third day when God's creation of vegetation brought a new harmony between the water and the land. This harmony of the earth brought a way to sustain both the animal and human kingdoms. Everyone was able to have in accordance with their own needs. That thought definitely reminds me of another and much higher "third day."
Oh how thankful I am for the wisdom of God and His chesed love, in any form, combination or connection that He chooses to bring it to us.
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