Have you ever been working on some sort of concept or a puzzle and you can’t find the answer, and it’s frustrating but no matter how many different ways you look at it, and no matter how hard you try, you just don’t get it, until suddenly all the pieces fall into place; the tumblers click and you realize the answer was there all along! For me it was those 3d stereograms that look like, well nothing really; until you focus your eyes in a special way and suddenly you see a 3d picture as plain as day in the middle of all the chaos. It’s maddening how people who can do it, so cheerfully tell you how, but until those all tumblers click, you won’t see anything but a mess on a page. For example, the shark in the bottom picture below is actually visible in the top picture if you are focusing properly.
The Trinity was like that for me also. I wasn’t raised in the church, so I hadn’t had a lifetime of “He’s three in one, don’t you get it? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You know, it’s like an egg with a shell, a white, and a yolk, or an apple with a peel, the meat, and the seed? Get it?” and I thought to myself, “I know what I’d like to get, but that wouldn’t be very Christian!” So I just nodded and said “Hmmm.” and thought “It’s not the same thing! Those are just different parts of one thing, but the three persons of God are each so unique, so different, that there has to be more to it; to Him!” and I kept searching for an answer I could live with.
Maybe He is more like water which can be a gas, liquid, or solid, and still be water, or maybe get even more mystical and say that He is like time: like time past, present, and future, but all time! Sounded great, but again it just didn’t satisfy. Then one day it came to me. I was fighting with Deuteronomy 6:4 which in the World Messianic Bible reads
"Hear, Israel: the Lord is our God. The Lord is one."
As I was growling to myself I began looking up the word “one” and suddenly those tumblers all fell into place! I read that in Hebrew there are two words that when translated into English, both read “one”.
There is the word yachid that is used when talking about an absolute single unit, like one apple or one of me. There is however another Hebrew word, echad, which is used when describing what is called a “compound unity” like, for example, America is one (echad) nation made up of fifty states, or as in Genesis 2:24 where marriage is described.
"For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one (echad) flesh."
Of course, the scripture is not saying that two people are fused together into one person. What is implied here is that two people are united and become one in terms of sharing the same goals, and dreams, and methods.
Getting back to Deuteronomy 6:4 we find some peculiarities in the verse. First, the word God is plural, and second the word God is not a name, it is a title like King, or Master, or Lord. Last, the word translated as one is not yachid but rather echad.
And there went the tumblers falling into place for me.
A more literal translation might read “Hear Israel, Jehovah our Gods (or Lords, Masters, Kings) are one (compound unity)”. Three distinct persons in complete unity as regards to intent, methods, values, goals, yet different persons with different attributes and ministries.
A wise Puritan wrote this of the Trinity. The quote can be found in The Valley of Vision at Banner of Truth Ministries.
O Father, thou art enthroned to hear my prayers, O Jesus, thy hand is outstretched to take my petitions, O Holy Spirit, thou art willing to help my infirmities, to show me my need, to supply words, to pray within me, to strengthen me that I faint not in supplication.
The Father sits on the throne, perfect in holiness, unapproachable by anything unclean. Jesus, His son, shed His own blood and gave His life as an offering for sin in order that man might be given an opportunity to enter into a parent/child relationship with the Father. Once He paid our ransom, He left Earth and went to sit at the right hand of the Father’s throne, and He sent the Holy Spirit to remain here, living with us, better yet living in us, assuming the role of our teacher, mentor, disciplinarian, encourager, healer and ever-present friend.
Frustratingly for us, one of the Spirit’s attributes is that He has no physical body, so we can’t see Him. This leads many to think that God is nowhere. Those with understanding know better than that. We know that not only is God far from being nowhere, He is actually now here! They just need to refocus, to adjust their sight like with the 3d stereograms.
But don’t give up. When you see Him, you will realize that He’s here for you, and just knowing Him and learning from Him is worth all the struggle and all the frustration and all of your best efforts. After all, He’s God too!
Opmerkingen