Better Homes and Garden

The last several newsletters have investigated the Torah’s ancient call to hospitality, not just a a nice thing to do, but as a vital preparation to inherit the Kingdom. Our hospitality study trail through the Torah, Prophets, Writings, and New Covenant started with Song of Songs 5:1, a restoration of the Bride and Bridegroom to the Garden of Eden:

“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”

This hospitality verse is thought to be one source for the traditional belief that the four rivers of Eden flow with milk, honey, wine, and balsam.

In past newsletters, we made the connection between hospitality to the needy and the righteous stranger and one’s preparation for to inherit, or even just enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 25:34-46). Entering the Father’s House, which was prepared for the righteous from the foundation of the world, is contingent upon preparing one’s own house. Yeshua will definitely knock on the door! The very light of the earth was sown for the righteous at the beginning (Ps 97:11), the light of the Word of good works for them to walk in eternally (Eph 2:10).

A better garden will be filled with the multiplication of human beings, the precious crown of creation created to fellowship with the Holy One Himself. Yeshua taught his disciples that the “rooms” of the Garden, their eternal home of inheritance, are being prepared for them, yet they also must prepare to inherit by preparing their own homes on earth. This would cause the Presence of the Creator to dwell comfortably in them. Better home, better Garden.

“Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the LORD loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” (Ps 37:27-29)

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The commentators to the verse in Song of Songs 5:1 connect it to Psalm 37:27-29 above in the Midrash Rabbah and write, ”The word yishkenu should not be translated as ‘they will dwell,’ but as a causative verb in the present tense, ‘They cause to dwell.’” “If only the righteous dwell upon the earth, what will the wicked do? Shall they fly in the air? Rather, the verse means that the wicked did not cause the Divine Presence to dwell on earth, but the righteous did cause the Divine Presence to dwell on earth.” (5§1)

In yishkenu, you see the root of shachan, “to dwell,” and the “Shechinah,” or indwelling Presence. The Presence of the Creator Elohim has always longed to have an intimate relationship with human beings. He did not appoint them to rule of the earth in order to be a distant, cold judge of their actions, but so they would administer on His behalf according to His will because His Word was alive in them through fellowship. They would be able rulers because of their daily walking and talking in the special abode, the Garden of Eden.

The Garden is thought to hover just above the Land of Israel, its centerpoint over Jerusalem. From there the Kingdom will be administered by Yeshua. The righteous are those whose lives are a home of hospitality to the Presence of Elohim. They CAUSE Him to descend for the fellowship He longs for with His creation.

Inheriting the Land of Israel, the administrative center of the entire earth, is a matter of preparation. Even in Revelation 21:2, the Bride is described as the inhabitants of New Jerusalem “prepared for her husband.” Prepared. Prepared. Who is the Bride? Those who prepared the better Garden, working the will of the Word in their lives, which affects what Yeshua prepares for them in the Third Heaven, or the Garden of Eden. Is there something in our hospitality study to connect us to this Third Heaven?

Yes.

The Upper Room.

An Upper Room is a characteristic of a Better Home preparing for a Better Garden.

This yishkenu is an important nuance of grammar. The righteous are those who cause the Presence of Adonai to dwell on earth. They understand that hospitality is not just a place to spend the night and move on. Hospitality is extending a home that is prepared for the righteous to dwell, even the Holy One Himself. Yeshua’s instructions to inquire about a worthy home to stay in as the disciples ministered wasn’t a random comment. It is a vital insight. They were looking for a sanctuary of reverence for Adonai.

Yeshua instructed his disciples to find a home prepared with righteous hospitality. The morally upright home will be part of the cause the disciples minister freely: teaching, immersing, healing, because they know they have a place to abide that is hospitable, compatible to their goals in that community. That house shares in the inheritance of that Kingdom being built!

Yeshua said, “If you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me.” In the context, he refers to the Jewish sages’ interpretation of inheriting the Kingdom by causing the Presence to dwell. They are royal priests, performing the Mishkan/Mikdash service by ministering to the world as the kohanim ministered in the Holy House.

Hospitality is a vital practice for the believer, an upper room. Jewish scholars made the connection, and Yeshua tied a double-knot on it in Matthew 25.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

Inhospitality and ill-will to the disciple of Yeshua is the same as inhospitality to Yeshua himself:

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,…as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting… (Ac 9:1; 3-5)

The guest is not there to re-arrange the furniture any more than pilgrims re-arranged the Temple. The guest accepts however much or little is offered and blesses the home. Elijah in 1 Kings 17 protected the widow and her son during the famine. Because she used the last of her flour and oil to feed the prophet of YHVH, she never lacked during the tribulation. She also hospitably gave him an upper room in which to dwell during the famine. In return, her son was resurrected from the dead. Because she ministered to the man of God during an apocalyptic famine, she received miracles of nourishment and resurrection.

It is not likely this woman was chosen randomly. Elijah chose her because the Holy One chose her. There was already something of hospitality in her life for him to be sent so far to her home.

Lesson? Prepare hospitality before the tribulation. A generous host who offers in a time of plenty is more likely to be generous in a time of scarcity. It is a resurrection preparation. A better homes-to-Garden habit.

And in Elisha’s “double portion” fashion, he performs two resurrections for the hospitality of the upper room. First, the barren Shunnemite woman is rewarded with a son, and then later the son is resurrected from the dead:

“Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.” (2 Ki 4:8-10)

Did you catch that? The Shunemmite furnished her upper room with the furniture of the Mishkan. She made a little House for the Presence to dwell over the daily activities of her lower rooms. Elisha, a righteous visitor, was the stand-in for the very Presence of Adonai.

What have we prepared in the Upper Room of our homes? It is the highest room of our home, a set apart place, yet attached to the rest of the home. What we furnish in the upper room blesses the rest of the home…or not. It can be where heaven meets earth…or not.

If we prepare an Upper Room in our homes of hospitality and service toward the needy and righteous ministers of the Kingdom, then the entire home will be blessed, for that is the deal. Literally the deal, according to Yeshua. A family who receives a minister of Yeshua is entitled to blessings of peace.

Is there more chaos, unrest, need, and warfare in your home than could ever allow you to think of it as a Better Home prepared for the Garden above?

Although it does not address all the home repairs necessary, there is one thing you can do today. Right now. This very instant. And it will begin to reverse the inhospitality to the spirit of shalom on your home. It will begin a sincere song of invitation, a “Shalom Aleikhem”, to the Presence of the Most High.

Begin preparing for a righteous guest next Shabbat. They have the spiritual authority to leave a blessing of peace upon your home. If it’s Shabbat today, just start planning. If it’s a weekday, start cleaning. Buy some groceries. Organize. Air out. Set boundaries.

A steady stream of righteous guests will make your home inhospitable to the chaos. They’ll bring some of the Kingdom with them each visit, a word from the Word, a song, a correction, an exhortation, a word of good counsel. The chaos will either shape up or ship out. Resurrect or retreat.

Try Him and see if His Word is not true.

Furnish your upper room, and see if the lower rooms don’t improve.

Yeshua will be knocking…the person just may not look like what you thought Yeshua looked like.