Living a Double Life

Last week in the Shabbat livestream, we looked at the human relationship to two types of commandments, the “Yes,” or you shall commandments, and the “No,” or you shall not commandments. In general, human beings like to hear yeses instead of nos. The challenge is that many of the commandments are given as nos, or the “you shall nots.” At least half of life is managing the nos, the boundaries, and the good fences that preserve our lives.

If life is at least half no, then fostering a great relationship with the no commandments is the key. We can discipline ourselves to engage the nos with as much enthusiasm as the yeses, which really, is what makes a disciple. Just like Yeshua told Peter, we are transformed from a person who always wants to be in charge to one who is willing to be led of the Ruach HaKodesh in every circumstance, even down to the time and way we die.

Some disciples discipline the nos faster, and some not so fast. It is important, though, for if we cannot engage the simple commandments of yes and no, then how will we hear the more subtle still, small, voice of the Ruach HaKodesh is our daily dilemmas that don’t come with a chapter and verse attached to them?

This week, let’s look at another “commandment principle” of life: the possibility of living a double life. It starts with the first commandment given at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20:1-5:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them…’

The commandment is not to put another created entity as an “elohim” in front of Elohim, the only Creator. The idea is that there is nothing else created that could possibly be Elohim. By definition, Elohim is the Creator of all things, and a created elohim (judge, appointed ruler) is not. It is merely another created thing originating from Elohim. All other things go behind Him. He is the first, and there is no second to compare to Him.

Sometimes a glance at a more literal Hebrew helps. “You shall have no other gods before Me” is:

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or

You will not be to yourself another god on My face.

When a human being fabricates an image from wood, stone, or other substance, or attributes the Ruach Elohim to an existing created substance such as a tree, water, cloud, etc., then the human has put a “face” on Elohim. The urge is so strong that this is the first commandment, a “yes” paired with a “no.” Yes, He is Elohim, and no, do not tamper with Him by fabricating an image to put a face on Him, for it will be inaccurate and a product of human imagination.

A philosopher once said that “imagination is man’s most God-like characteristic.” We can also say that based on the primacy of the first commandment, imagination is man’s most god-like characteristic, his primary place of vulnerability to idols.

The moment we put a face on Elohim, we become susceptible to idolatry, looking to that object for intervention on our behalf: success, health, sustenance, good, peace, prosperity, comfort, joy, etc. For instance, rather than partner with Elohim for our life-path of prosperity, prerequisite to putting His Kingdom first, we forge our own ideas about how much wealth we need and when we need it without regard for our spiritual discipline and agreement to put Elohim first in all things.

In ancient times, people sought out gods of prosperity, fertility, strength, war, and so on. Rather than partner with Elohim, “who teaches my hands to war,” (Ps 18:34) they consulted principalities and powers and made war. Because the worship of these entities requires the imagination, effort, time, and faith of the human being, the powers of the entity reflect the human who turns to it, not the true created ability assigned to that power by Elohim for it to manage its particular realm, whether in the heavens above or earth below.

Are there other powerful spiritual beings and human organizations in our universe? Yes. Are they the Creator and worthy of our time, attention, and resources? NO!

These entities are not ours to petition or order around. In selecting the attributes of certain entities, we put a human, animal, or other physical face on Elohim. While He is often hidden from human beings, He does not need a mask of our choosing. We desperately need to believe that so that we don’t live a double life, claiming to worship Elohim while putting our trust in other created entities. That is done today not so much by worshiping an object, but by putting faith in the leopard’s spots.

Remember our lessons on the beast kingdoms? The leopard was Greece. The spots were its organizations: medicine, art, philosophy, education, drama, military, government, politics, sports, music, etc. The Romans took those organizations and expanded them, and even when the Roman Empire fell, those systems are disseminated all over the world to influence and control human beings. Now human beings are conditioned to look to those organizations to supply every human need. When we put faith in them, they become a god on Elohim’s face.

They are to be used lawfully, not trusted.

We are in Babylon, the whole earth. The golden head of Babylon is still attached to the whole image: Babylon’s golden head; Medo-Persia’s silver chest; Greece’s bronze abdomen; Rome’s iron legs; and those organizations mixed with all humans made of clay are standing on the whole earth. When King Messiah, the Stone, smashes the feet of the world’s organizations being worshiped, then it will also tumble the cumulative effect of the whole image, and Babylon will be fallen once again.

Can we use these systems? Go to a doctor? Vote? Write and paint? Play sports? Defend our country? Receive an education? Absolutely! We are in Babylon, but we are not OF it. “Come out of her” is a yes commandment, but we can’t come out of the world itself without also saying some nos. Those iron and clay feet are everywhere. The key is don’t participate in Babylon’s sins:

“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;’” (Re 18:4)

Being in the earth and its systems is inevitable; participating in its sinfulness is not. The Ten Commandments are the Cliff’s Notes of how to master the yeses and nos of the Word. Inevitably, all those organizations will be destroyed by King Messiah Yeshua. They are each being exposed even now. While they meet many needs, just like a created power in the heavens above or earth below, they are not Elohim.

When those organizations begin to exercise sinful power, influence, and control over human beings, especially because human beings WANT them to do so in order to derive the benefit, just like ancient idolatry, THEN they begin to function like a face on Elohim. It is our responsibility to never let these things replace our faith in Elohim as the Lord of Armies, the Healer, the Provider, the Creator, and the many names of Who He is to His Creation.

“To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.” (Dt 4:35)

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Ain od m’ilvado.

There is no other beside Him.

There is nothing more than His oneness.

This week a rabbi explained the first commandment to have no other gods. He said it is to be double-minded! To think that any other power or force on earth is our source rather than the One who created us. That reminded me of something I memorized in high school:

James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (Ja 1:1-8)

Now that I’m older, I can read the contextual and symbolic phrasing.

The letter is written specifically to disciples of Yeshua in the dispersion, not in Judea. These believers are among the nations, not in the defined land of Israel itself. Emphasizing this, James (Ya’akov) describes them as being in a place the sea where “wind” tosses. The sea alludes to the nations, and the tossing wind is “ruach,” those created spiritual entities that rule them, such as the Prince of Persia. Each nation has its assigned ruler until it is shaken down just before King Messiah returns to set up his government on earth.

Wisdom, or “chokhmah,” is the first of the seven spirits of Adonai listed in Isaiah 11:2, the Holy Spirit. They are seven manifestations of the ONE Ruach HaKodesh, for the menorah was hammered from one piece of gold. James is giving believers an exhortation from the first commandment: There is only one Elohim; believe it!

Being among the wind-tossed sea of nations is to be vulnerable to those who have made spiritual powers into their gods by believing they had power independent of Elohim’s will, or they have created organizations to accomplish the same goals as those who worshiped idols of their imagination from ancient times. Indeed, those “princes” are responsible for their assigned territories, but they do not report to nor heed another created being. Only Elohim. There is none other. James knew we’d need this reminder not to absorb the nations’ reliance on their systems instead of our Creator Elohim.

An idol is nothing but an inaccurate, pathetic, self-serving, figment of the human imagination placed like one of many faces on Elohim. In these lands of exile among the nations, we are to turn to the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of Elohim, Who is One, to meet all our needs in His time, not ours. In His quantity, not ours, When we begin to “work the system” apart from His perfect will in our lives, we’ll be double-minded. Like the Israelites, we will fall into fear and uncertainty. Although they said “We will do and we will hear” at the mountain,” there was still some double-mindedness.

Could they really do the yes and not do the nos? Even the first commandment, to believe Elohim created all things and would provide all things…even their perfection at the resurrection, was so unbelievable that they thought they’d die. They asked Moses to talk directly to Adonai and relay the messages and their answers. It is difficult to judge them. After all, do we really believe that we can be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”?

We have no control over the fact we’re in the exile and Babylon. What we do have control over is sin! Before we get past ten commandments to 613, we examine our hearts toward Elohim and His people:

Hear, O, Israel. YHVH our Elohim, YHVH is ONE.

You shall love… And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In our hearts, we must accept that there is none other. First, Elohim is Creator. He created everything that is BEHIND Him, including our neighbor. Ain od m’ilvado. Once we accept that, then we can hear the Ten Commandments without dying. After that, we can learn the details of all 613 in the “seas,” the wilderness of the nations, our dispersion.

Elohim’s pre-eminence is the key to coming out of Babylon, to not placing our faith in human systems. We must evaluate whether any of those systems is influencing us or coercing us to sin. If so, the Word of the commandments will provide the answer as to whether we are being double-minded. Gradually, like Peter going to his own cross, we stop living a double life and thinking with a double mind. We quit placing our masks on Elohim.

Worry is evidence that the Ruach HaKodesh is still working on the second mind-mask whispering that Elohim is not fully to be trusted to be our Creator, Provider, Healer, Protector…and even the One Who will resurrect us to life when our worst fears come true. And isn’t that the key to not fearing? May Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. One mind. The worst fear, death, is our greatest hope. Ain od m’ilvado. No human being, principality, power, or human organization can resurrect us from the dead to live in the Presence of Elohim forever. Only ONE can and will.

The ONE we believe…and our doing is evidence of our believing…will bring us to perfection by His Ruach HaKodesh. What if we’re not entirely perfect when we die?

We’ll leave at least a few things not perfected. Otherwise, we’d be Messiah himself with the power of resurrection, but we’re not. We are depending on Yeshua’s sinless life to raise us sinless from the dead, not the other way around. Yeshua is the Living Word. The Word is the Torah. The Word is the Commandment. The yeses and the nos of Torah are life from the dead.

So next time we’re worried about the economy, war, family, disease, politics, and every other care of the world, we have an opportunity. The Ruach HaKodesh is giving us an open window to put Elohim first. The imposter mind is being exposed as a fake! The person worrying is not us. It’s just a man-made image-ination trying to put a distorted mask on our Deliverer. We need only a single mind in every trial: Ain od m’ilvado!

There is none other than Him!

Perfect.