Romans Lesson 36: The Spiritual Butterfly Effect :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR7 Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

Chapter 12:9-21 

“9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

“17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. 20 Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Last week we compared the transformation that Jesus will do in us once we sacrificially surrender ourselves to that of the caterpillar transforming to the butterfly. One must die for the other to live. The human transformation is a bit more tedious and at times painful. But the process is no different; our old self has to die and the new self, in Jesus, comes to life. Now, in reality, the old self and the new self co-exist for a period of time until we die and then we become the completely new person that God intended. But it is possible to live less and less like the old self.

  • Don’t be two-faced, verse 9 

There is nothing more hurtful than to find that someone you trusted is two-faced. This is what hypocrisy is. It is the art of playing a role depending on who you are with or who you think is watching. Sadly, many Christians feel the need to live two-faced because they are not accepted as they are. Many of the apostles did not get some of Jesus’ teachings until long after the resurrection. They just kept working away. Some, like Peter, had a difficult time understanding Paul’s writings. But one of the things that should mark a Christian is authenticity. What you see is what you get; even the barnacles and flaws. Christians fail all the time.

I saw a devotion yesterday about the High Priests in the OT, and one of the things that the speaker pointed out was how often the High Priest had to offer sacrifices for his own sins. Even as religious leaders, they were sinful and required to offer sacrifices. Often the first sacrifice of the day was for themselves and their sins. One of the most destructive forces in the New Testament church today and forever is that there are too many two-faced people. Letting your guard down and being real may cost you a lot in the short run, but it brings lasting peace and less stress. Now, this does not mean that we are not to be seeking to surrender to the Lord; but don’t act out what you are not.

  • Learn to Hate Evil, verse 9 

Notice that we are called to stop something and then do something. We will never just hate evil and live in a vacuum. We must then learn to love what is good. Take time and read the scriptures, and you will see what God calls evil; these are the things you should hate. Likewise, He calls things good; these are the things we should love and hold on to. It sounds simple, and it is simpler than we make it out to be. Sadly, too many of us are not avid students of the scriptures, and we don’t know what God hates nor what He loves, and so we just float along following the crowd and not making personal convictions and choices based on God’s relationship to us and we to Him.

Take a look at the Ten Commandments to start; what are things that God hates? Idolatry, lying about a neighbor, covetousness, adultery, disobedient and unruly children, stealing, and on we can go. What if we started there and then moved on? As we explore more of Romans chapter 12, we will find some good things that we can cling to and add to our lives.

  • How do you treat your fellow saints? Verse 10-13 

We are called to love each other, serve each other and to humble ourselves around each other. We are called to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are to pray for each other, help each other as we go through the trials of life, and then we are to encourage each other and take responsibility for each other. We are not islands unto ourselves, and we do not live for ourselves. We are a family in Jesus, bought and paid for by His blood, and no one got in any other way. We all stand on equal ground at the foot of the cross. We got here by God’s grace, God’s love, God’s kindness, God’s sacrifice, God’s Holy Word, God’s Holy Spirit convicting us and God’s life given to us. NONE of us earned our way into the family. We are called to honor each other, consider each other and do all we can to not hurt each other.

  • Learn to Absorb hurts, verses 14-20 

I cannot tell you how often I have heard people drop out of the church because they ‘got hurt by someone.’ Sad really. Well, you don’t know what they said to me or did to me. I agree. What have you done to Jesus? And yet, He still loves you and forgives you every day. But He is God. Yes, He is. But we are to be made in His image. Jesus forgave the men who nailed Him to the cross. Stephen, in Acts 7, forgave the men who stoned him to death. Joseph forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery and looked out for their best interests and did not hurt them.

Here is a newsflash for you: you are going to get hurt in churches, in families, at your work, amongst your friends and anywhere you go. Part of maturing as a Christian, part of morphing from the caterpillar into the butterfly, is learning to absorb hurts. You will never grow in Jesus until you learn this. Until you learn to forgive without keeping score, you will not begin to look like Jesus. We have too many Christians who wear their feelings on their sleeves and are too touchy. The reality is that if you are that touchy, the Devil will find you everywhere you go. Someone in every church will hurt you. You will just flit from church to church and never grow up and never mature in Jesus. No Pain, No Gain; this is true in Christianity as well.

  • Stop waiting for someone else to be good, verse 17-21 

You live right! Stop holding grudges. Stop wanting to get people back. Stop hurting those that hurt you; often you hurt the ones that did not hurt you. Seek peace with everyone, even your enemies. Do not repay bad behavior with bad behavior. God knows what is going on. He knows that whole story. Maybe, just maybe, God needs you to absorb some pain as a help to a brother or sister. He needs you to show His unconditional love and grace; He needs you to be kind and patient in the midst of hard things so that the person He is trying to reach can see Him in you. You do the right thing proactively. We all want the other guy to do right first. Love the unlovable, serve the ungrateful, be kind to the hurtful and patient with the demanding.

This is some hard stuff, but it is called adult Christianity. We need some of God’s people to put on their big spiritual pants and step up. This is the spiritual butterfly effect; let the old you, the caterpillar die. Let the new you, the butterfly, live and set the example for others. Lead and serve, humble yourselves and step up, stand out and let Jesus live in and through you to the hurt and hurting around you. Let Him teach you how to absorb hurt and forgive others all the time, just like He forgives you and me all the time. This is how we cling to the good.

I leave you with verse 21 once again; be an overcomer and help others be overcomers.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Worms, Maggots, and Trees :: By Jeff Van Hatten

Published on: by RR7 Category:General Articles

Are you ready to go fishing? If so, then you are going to need some worms, some Hebrew rimmah or some Greek skolex. But if you are looking for salvation, then you are going to need an entirely different worm, a tola’ or tole’ah Worm. Yup, you guessed it, Hebrew has several distinct words for the English equivalent.

The Rimmah / Skolex Worm [H7415 / G4663]

Job 7:5 – “My flesh is clothed with rimmah… my skin is broken, and become loathsome.”

Job 21:26 – “They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the rimmah shall cover them.”

Mark 9:44-48 – “Where their skolex dies not, and the fire is not quenched.”

The rimmah / skolex worm is the fishing kind of worm, also known as a maggot. This worm is a cause and sign of decay. This is the same worm that caused Herod to become sick, to be eaten by worms and die (Acts 12:23).

The Tolaʽ or Toleʽah Worm [H8439]

Isaiah 41:14 – “Do not fear, you tola’ Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you, declares Yahweh.”

Jonah 4:7 – “When dawn came up the next day, Yahweh appointed a tola’ that attacked the bush.”

The tola’ or tole’ah Worm is the female ‘Coccus Illicis’ worm, which the Hebrews used to make the red dye used in the coverings of the Tabernacle and the clothes of the priests. It is known as the crimson worm because of this color.

The Yeshua Tola’ or Tole’ah Worm

Job 25:6 – “How much less man, that is a rimmah and the son of man, which is a tola?”

Psalm 22 – “But I am a tola’ and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.”

Job 25:6 uses both Hebrew words for worm, calling man a rimmah and the son of man, Yeshua, a tola’. As Yeshua is being crucified, fully aware of Job’s quote, he then quotes from Psalm 22 (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).

Psalm 22 and Job 25:6 both prophecy about the Messiah, and this is why Yeshua applies the word tola’ to himself. The death of the tola’ worm takes place as follows:

  • the tola’ worm, or crimson worm, climbs into a Hermes Oak tree,
  • the tola’ worm attaches itself to the tree and forms a protective shell,
  • the tola’ worm lays her eggs and hatches her children, who feed off her body to stay alive,
  • the tola’ worm oozes a red stain for three days which stains the tree red, and which also permanently covers its children,
  • the tola’ worm pulls its tail up to its head, forming the shape of a heart,
  • the heart-shaped tola’ worm then turns into a snow-white wax and flakes off.

Isaiah 1:18 speaks of this saying – “Says Yahweh: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Application

1 Peter 2:24 – “Yeshua bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

Yeshua likened Himself with the Tola’ or Tole’ah Worm – a perfect picture of the Messiah.

  • Like the Crimson Worm, Yeshua was also attached to a tree to die (1 Peter 2:24).
  • He did so willingly and died to give birth to his family, the Bride of Yeshua (John 10:17-18).
  • The beatings, tortures, and crucifixion turned his body red with the shed blood (Luke 18:33).
  • Yeshua rose from the dead after three days just as the baby worms leave the shell after three days (Matthew 12:40).
  • His shed blood covers our sins and turns them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

The Trees

Psalm 96:11-13 – “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before Yahweh, for He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.”

Scripture uses many Hebrew idioms that are symbolic of other things. The Sea and the Land are almost identical to the Heavens and the Earth – which often symbolize nations and their peoples. The Stars symbolize heavenly beings: angels and fallen angels. Trees frequently symbolize human beings. Understanding Hebrew idioms helps us to better understand the scriptures. Today we look at another usage of the “trees” idioms – the Green Tree is Yeshua Ha’Mashiach – but the Dry Tree is the wicked, unbelieving person.

The Green Tree

Luke 23:31 – “For if they do these things to the greenG5200 treeG3586, what shall be done to the dryG3584 tree?”

Most translations state this verse as: “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” The King James states it this way: “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”

The Hebrew is very explicit, and the actions taken are done TO, not “in” or “when.” The key to proper interpretation of this verse is that the phrases “green tree” and “dry tree” are Hebrew idioms, and the actions taken against either of these trees can only be done to the tree, not in the tree or when the tree is in a particular condition. Here’s why:

  • The Green Tree is a messianic title that applies to Yeshua – the only one who is righteous.
  • The Green Tree is an idiom for a righteous person, i.e., a person who has salvation in Yeshua and who has been given his righteousness…
  • The Dry Tree represents the wicked, unbelieving individual.

This is most clearly seen in Ezekiel 20:47 thru 21:7. In this passage, Ezekiel quotes Yahweh, who is speaking to the Negev forest – another name (Hebrew idiom) for Israel! Yahweh says: “I will light a fire in you; it will devour every tree in you, green and dry alike; a blazing, unquenchable flame that will scorch every face… I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off both the righteous and the wicked from you.” This is a prophecy about the people of Israel whose first part was achieved at the time of Yeshua’s crucifixion, and whose second part was completed at the Diaspora of the Jews when they were dispersed to all of the nations of the world.

Verses 21:6-7 tell Ezekiel to groan bitterly for what is coming. Yeshua, as he made his way to his crucifixion, tells those following him not to cry (groan bitterly) for himself, but for themselves and their children (Luke 23:27-28). He knows that the prophecy of Ezekiel 20:47 – 21:7 is in the process of being fulfilled.

Conclusions

1 Peter 2:24 – “Yeshua bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

Yeshua likened Himself with the Tôlâ or Tôlê âh Worm – a perfect picture of the Messiah. Like the Crimson Worm, Yeshua was also attached to a tree to die (1 Peter 2:24). He did so willingly and died to give birth to his family, the Bride of Yeshua (John 10:17-18). The beatings, tortures, and crucifixion turned his body red with the shed blood (Luke 18:33). Yeshua rose from the dead after three days just as the baby worms leave the shell after three days (Matthew 12:40). His shed blood covers our sins and turns them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). How awesome is our God to provide us with such an example, with so many coinkydinks! Awesome indeed.

Ezekiel 17:24 – “Then all the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, bring down the tall tree and raise up the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree bear fruit. I, Yahweh, have spoken; and I will do it.”

Matthew 13:23 – “The person who hears the message and understands it will surely bear fruit.”

Yeshua, the Green Tree, was “dried up.” Crucified, died, buried. And the dry tree, every individual who has been given salvation and who has been given his righteousness, is now bearing fruit to the glory of Yahweh and Yeshua (Matthew 13:23, Mark 4:20, John 15:2-8, Romans 7:4).

Website: https://raptureparty.net/

Email: jeff@raptureparty.net