9.1.25 ~ Live Life as a Real Hero

Good morning!

Within our study of the judge, officers, priest, king and prophet, in the Torah portion Shoftim/judges, my mind couldn't help but move to the opposite side of the spectrum, anti-heroes.

According to AI...

"An antihero is a fictional protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities like nobility, courage, and integrity, instead exhibiting flaws, questionable motivations, or unsavory methods to achieve their goals. Unlike a traditional hero, an antihero's character is often morally ambiguous, more complex, and can sometimes seem "a little villainous" or self-serving. Despite these flaws, antiheroes are popular because their relatable imperfections make them compelling to audiences"

If you’ve watched many movies over the decades you’ll find that these antiheroes have self-centered motivations and their morality is all but absent yet we cheer them on. Unlike most Hallmark or Pureflix movies, we have our modern day heroes like Jack sparrow, the punisher, Deadpool, Iron man, The Great Gatsby, Jack Dawson, Sam Spade Or even Huckleberry Finn. Obviously the list could go on and on.

Why are they so popular in storytelling? because fans identify with them. The incorruptible hero that always saves the day has gone by the wayside: Captain America’s, the Roy Rogers, Count of Monte Cristo, And who can forget the Farmboy of the Princess Bride (lol).

Anyone who doesn’t teeter on moral collapse has been seen as too perfect to be real, a shallow and plastic imitation of the real thing. This mindset has crept into the religious wold also: we are just sinners. We can't help it. That's just who we are. Consequently, this makes following a “perfect God“ a challenge Because so many people feel they can’t identify with Him. Which puts us in a conundrum with verses like Deuteronomy 18:13 or Matthew 5:48.

You should be perfect with the Lord your God (Deut. 18:13)

“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matt. 5:48)

According to most modern thinking, the "we're just sinners" mentality is what God expected of His people prior to the coming of Yeshua. Once Yeshua went to the cross, however, Grace was poured out, and God's standard of righteousness was removed. According to this line of reasoning, God knew that no one could actually do what he required them to do, so He sent His son to die so that they wouldn’t have to obey his rules anymore. To emphasize this position, many point to Yeshua's teaching in Matthew five where He makes a series of contrast between what appears to be the way people understood a particular commandment, and the impossibility of truly keeping that commandment. He uses the phrase, You have heard it said… But I say to you… To make each of his points. For example, he says:

You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent, has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:27–28)

Since keeping one’s heart free from lust seems impossible, many people believe Yeshua must have been showing the lost sheep of Israel that the bar was so high they could never reach it on their own. They could never be “good enough“ to merit their salvation, so they mine as well quit trying to follow the “law“. Hence, the only thing they could do was to rely on Yeshua's righteousness and not their own. According to this line of reasoning, excluding many Scriptural superheroes like Joseph and Abigail, God expects perfection and the only way we can be perfect is by accepting Christ.

Inquiring minds want to know: Can we be perfect/tammim or teleios? Can we be perfect like God? Can we be perfect like Noah (Gen. 6:9), Abraham (Gen. 17:1)? Or live out Deuteronomy 18:13 (above)? Or the 2nd generation that went into the Land (Josh. 24:14)? Or King David (2 Sam. 22:24)? or the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2:6)? Or for every disciple of Yeshua (Col. 1:28; 4:12)? Or for the 'strong meat' eaters (Heb. 5:14)...I think you're getting the picture :-)

What could have caused this faulty mindset? I think if we were to look at the definition more accurately, we would see that perfection (tamim or teleios) has to do with making a better decision than I did the previous time. It means avoiding intentional sins and if I do "goober", I’m quick to repent from that error and I'll make a better decision the next time. In other words, I’m constantly getting better, one decision at a time, by making better decisions than the time of failure.  Too many people believe that their bad habits and poor behavior are simply a constant way of life.

Although they may have trusted in Yeshua/Jesus for their salvation, they will continue to find certain desirable behaviors difficult to avoid. For some it's anger. For others it is Lust. For others it is drunkenness or envy or slander, etc. Consequently, all of these make the fatal assumption that our redemption is only skin deep and can never really truly transform who we are as a person into the perfect/teleios will of God (Rom. 12;1,2).

Reality, not man's opinion, tells us that the work of Yeshua, makes us a completely new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). He points our heart back towards his Father anytime it begins to stray. Yes, we (speaking of me, myself and I),  all have our shortcomings and periodically stumble into sin. But sin should be the exception in the life of the redeemed rather than the norm. If we are as prone to run to sin as much now, as before, we were redeemed that we need to reevaluate our commitment to Yeshua. Yeshua didn’t die and rise from the dead just so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven. His victory over death through His resurrection was so that we could have a new life released from the chains of our sinful behavior patterns (Rom. 8:3,4). Rather than justifying our sin by saying it’s covered by the blood, we can realize that Yeshua really could remove it from our life and it doesn’t have to be a part of our identity.

Being perfect doesn’t mean being plastic. It means being real, but not real in the sense of justifying hypocrisy.  it means we live up to our beliefs rather than making excuses for why we don’t. It means living by the Spirit rather than the flesh; dying to self so that the Messiah can live through us.

The final questions that inquiring minds are asking include: which life are you living? Are you living a life that glorify your flesh? Life of hypocrisy? Hiding from your sins from the public eye? Or is it a life that has died to itself so that the Spirit of God might live through you?

As we head towards the fall feast season, it’s not too late to make the transition. This month is a divine invitation and transition. It is commonly known as the time when the king is in the field and He's so close you can probably hear Him whispering.

Shalom!
Alan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.8.25

Good morning! Have you ever considered the meaning of the 153 fish that were caught by Yeshua's disciples in John 21:4-12? You remember the story, right? It's the story many of us have experienced too often in our journey...we've been 'fishing' all night long and NOTHING. Then, with a listening ear, we grab our nets one more time, and with a mighty heave we throw the net in a different direction over the boat, and...my oh my, the boat's about to sink because there are so many fish in the net; yet the nets don't break. What a story! What a miracle! What 'fish finding vision Yeshua had'! What obedience; especially after doing it for so long 'my way'. What an enigma that Yeshua already had fish cooking on the shore when the boys arrived! What wisdom he displayed in His instructions to the boys! Am I listening, acting, and throwing in the right direction? Are my nets empty (Matt. 4:19)? Have you ever felt like you're outside the camp, isolate...
Read more

3.20.25

Good morning! Yesterday, we learned some essential truths about how to 'be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46:10). Today, I want to ask you a different question based on life's ability to throw a wide variety of circumstances at us!  One of the most difficult situations is when we are threatened by someone or some circumstance. Have you ever been threatened?  Oh, maybe no one came up to you with a gun, or shouted at you with malice, or told you that you were going to be tortured or punished.  Maybe all the threat you ever had was the innuendo of rejection, or the social snub or something much less violent than jail time.  But my guess is that if you are traveling the road with Yeshua, living a Torah lifestyle, you know what it means to be threatened. Every time the circumstances of your life look as though they are about to cave in, you are threatened.  It might not be a threat from a physical enemy, then again...but we all know that in one form or another t...
Read more

3.22.25

Good morning! Shabbat shalom! Although the portion of Vayakhel/and he assembled is almost entirely focused on the construction of the tabernacle, it begins by reminding the children of Israel that no work may be done on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:2,3). Why does it begin here rather than jumping right into how to construct the Tabernacle? Enquiring minds want to know :-) By placing the topic of the Sabbath against the construction of the Tabernacle it's God's way of defining the boundaries of the Sabbath...that even the most intimate work for the Lord needs to be put aside for His 'Date Day'. However, upon further investigation, there’s another layer to understand that connects us back to the golden calf (Ex. 32). As we know, while Moses was up on the mount getting the instructions from God the children of Israel decided to make an object that would replace Moses, their deliverer; The object, later known as the golden calf, originally intended as a 'necessary' means to ...
Read more