Messiah: God’s Hidden Grace

Budapest Haskala Synagogue

My response to a rabbi who insisted that God hadn’t hidden His grace from Israel:

You responded:

• You stated: 'Scripture is purposely cryptic about the grace of G-d'? The Tanakh is full of verses relating HaShem's love for his people.

You are certainly right about this! Therefore, let me better try to illuminate what HaShem (G-d) has hidden. Firstly, do not be surprised that G-d does retain His “secret things”:

• Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

• Deut. 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

In fact, it seems that, above all other things, He has hidden the Source of all His grace – His Messiah:

• Isaiah 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me [the Messiah] into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.

• Isaiah 51:16 “I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand"

• Isaiah 52:10 The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Who is this “holy arm” who He had concealed:

• Isaiah 53:1-3 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

His “Arm” is the suffering and rejected Savior! Along with this, we find that G-d Himself would mysteriously make atonement for Israel’s sins, not the designated Levites, as if G-d was hinting to Israel that animal sacrifices could never cleanse their sins:

• Deut. 32:43 "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people."

• Psalm 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, for Your name's sake! (also Ezekiel 16:63)

How would HaShem provide this atonement? What price would He pay? Atonement requires a blood offering. Money would not do.

G-d had directed Abraham to give his son Isaac as a “burnt offering” (Genesis 22:3). However, before Abraham brought the knife down in the flesh of Isaac, G-d intervened and provided Abraham with a ram instead of his son Isaac. Strangely, Abraham then re-named Mt. Moriah:

• Genesis 22:14 “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

How strange! It would seem that Abraham should have named Mt. Moriah, “The Lord has provided!” Instead, Abraham (and Israel) had understood this entire trial as prophetic. In the future, God would provide once again, but this time something greater than what had already been provided. The name – “it shall be provided” – signifies the provision of something greater that would eclipse the burnt offering of Isaac. Instead of Abraham providing his son Isaac, God would give His own Son as a burnt offering!

He is very cryptic about the Messiah as paying the price for the sins of the world. Nevertheless, Scripture does give us many other indications of this. For one thing, the Messiah will bring a new covenant:

• Malachi 3:1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Actually, the Messiah is even more closely associated with this coming covenant than just as its “messenger”:

• “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6-7)

• This is what the Lord says— the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel— to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”  This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’” (Isaiah 49:7-9)

What does it mean for Messiah to be the Covenant? Covenant requires the shedding of blood:

• Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:8)

It seems unmistakable that the Messiah would provide the blood of this New Covenant. However, Scripture is even more explicit about this blood of the covenant. Ultimately, it could not be a matter of animal blood:

• “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire— but my ears you have opened [“a body you have prepared for me,” Proto- Septuagental Text; Hebrews 10:6-8] — burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:6-8; also Psalm 22 and 69)

• Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The Messiah would take the place of the animal offerings. Today’s rabbis insist, without justification, that it was the Jews who died for the sins of the Gentiles, as if the Jews were sinless and didn’t also require atonement. However, this is Isaiah’s testimony, and he speaks of “our iniquities” – the sins of his own people, not the sins of the Gentiles, as the rabbis allege.

Even in the center-most part of Israelite religion - in the “Holy of Holies” of the Temple itself - God had hidden another key to His center-most, most-cherished, and most-guarded secret about His plan for the world. The Mosaic Law – represented by the Ten Commandments located within the Ark of the Covenant - which occupies the bulk of the Hebrew Scriptures, was overshadowed by another object, the concealed “atonement cover.”

It was sequestered away in the place regarded as most holy by G-d Himself. The High Priest could only enter once a year and only after elaborate preparations, lest he die. The “atonement cover” was surrounded by the wings of the cherubim so that the priest could not see it. And when the High Priest entered into the “Holy of Holies,” he had to do so with smoke, further obscuring the “cover.”

• Exodus 37:9 The cherubim had their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the cover.

• Leviticus 16:12-14 [Only once a year] he [the High Priest] is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. (Romans 3:25)

Oddly, these passages do not indicate that the tablets of the law were so holy that they too needed to be obscured from sight. Instead, the Law was regularly brought before Israel and read for their edification. It was, in effect, the public property of Israel.

Rather, it seems that this “atonement cover” was more shielded from sight than the Ten Commandments and the Ark that it housed! It was hidden, enforced by the threat of death, so that even the High Priest would not look upon it. Nothing else in all Israel was so protected from sight, except the Messiah!

What did the “atonement cover” suggest? Many things! There was yet a concealed atonement, something that would transcend the animal sacrifices, which needed to be offered continually, signifying that they never adequately addressed the sin problem. This was symbolized by the fact that no mere Israelite could enter into the Presence of G-d. Nor did the Mosaic Law ever promise eternal life! This absence indicated that it couldn’t, suggesting that there yet had to be an atonement that would reconcile the people with their G-d, allowing them to enter into His Presence.

We are incapable of providing this payment:

• Psalm 49:7-9 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.

The Rabbis wrongly believe that we can achieve this through performing the commandments of God. Instead, an ultimate payment for our sins is what the New Covenant and the “atonement cover” promised. Not only would we be able to enter into His Presence, but we’d become so intimate with our G-d, it would be like a marriage:

• Hosea 2:16-20 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”

Hosea’s prophecy reflects all of the other prophecies portraying our reconciliation with our Redeemer - all the product of His unilateral and undeserved mercy.

Atheism’s Glorious Crusade

The American Atheists from Cranfield New Jersey decided to take a tour of  Bradford  County, Florida and were appalled at what they saw – the Ten Commandments on public property! It turned out to be just the thing they were looking for and they filed suit:

• “We have maintained from the beginning that the Ten Commandments doesn’t belong on government property,” stated American Atheists President David Silverman in a press release. “There is no secular purpose for the monument whatsoever and it makes atheists feel like second-class citizens. But if keeping it there means we have the right to install our own monument, then installing our own is exactly what we’ll do.”

“No secular purpose?” That now means “no atheistic purpose.” However, for any society to remain robust and healthy, it needs a common core – a rationale for its existence and survival. We have now lost that. Neither the Ten Commandments or even the Constitution are able to provide the common core – the thing that makes us all feel like we have a common goal, that we are brethren striving for the same values.

We still swear on these, but they remain little more than an empty tradition for most Americans. If we do not know who we are, we cannot know where we are going, apart from the next sexual encounter. This is tragic! It is also frustrating. We no longer speak the same unifying language – we have become strangers to one another - and we have no idea of the ramifications of this. None of us have any direct experience of a civil war, and therefore take our comforts for granted.

Can the atheists give us anything that looks or feels like a common glue? Evidently not:

• The group plans to place a 1,500 pound granite bench near the Ten Commandments monument, which will feature quotes from American Atheists founder Madeline Murray O’Hair, founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as well as an excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli. An area of the monument will also feature the ten Biblical punishments for violating the Ten Commandments, such as the death penalty for murder and adultery. http://christiannews.net/2013/06/02/americas-first-atheist-monument-to-be-displayed-outside-florida-courthouse/

The atheists cannot offer anything constructive apart from ridicule. They will recite the biblical punishments for the violation of the Ten Commandments, but have nothing to offer in its place. Although they might cite the Founding Fathers, none of these were known to be atheists, and they certainly weren’t promoting an atheist agenda. In fact, atheists almost uniformly admit that they have no beliefs about anything, even about atheism.

I wish someone would require an answer from them to these questions:

• What do you have to offer instead of the principles and beliefs that have made this country great? From what we can see, whenever atheism has come to power, they have always financed it with millions of corpses. Why should we believe that it will be any different this time?

Meanwhile, they complain that the public display of the Ten Commandments “makes atheists feel like second-class citizens.” Have they considered that their flagship communism has made many others feel worse than second class citizens! If “feeling like a second class citizen” is a sincere concern of theirs, they should also be concerned that they might be making others “feel like second class citizens.”

Did a Ten Commandment display in Florida make these New Jersey atheists feel like second class citizens? Of course not! Are they concerned that Christians in the military might feel like second class citizens now that they have been threatened with a court marshal if they proselytize? Meanwhile, there is no such threat against the promotion of atheism, a religion that has the murder of 100,000,000 people in its resume.

This is not an isolated faux pox by a group of renegade atheists. It represents their determined thrust. If you have any doubts about this, just scan the various atheist websites and Facebook groups! Almost all are devoted to scorn, without any fruitful vision for a healthy society, apart from the promotion of permissiveness.

They claim that “There is no secular purpose for the [Ten Commandment] monument.” However, if this criticism is to be taken seriously, the atheist must show a purpose for their agenda. However, it is only a negative one.

Not all atheists show a disregard for truth. Atheist Walter Balcerak writes, “As a secular humanist, I believe religions are mainly harmful delusions.” Surprisingly, he acknowledges that some good comes out of religion. Balcerak quotes the atheist professor of psychology, Jonathan Haidt:

• According to Haidt, religion does more than unite people. He says studies indicate that religiously observant Americans “are more generous with their time and money, especially in helping the needy, and they are more active in community life.”

• Research on 19^th century communes demonstrates the cohesiveness of religious groups, he asserts, because they were much more likely to survive than secular ones. Of the 400 communes studied, 20 years after their founding only 6 percent of secular groups had survived, compared to 39 percent of religious groups.

This again raises the question, “What does atheism have to offer us in place of the Ten Commandments?”

God’s Greatest Secret and why He Hides it

It should not be surprising that God’s greatest secret was hidden away within the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle. It was the place where only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

It was so secret that it wasn’t enough that it was sequestered away from the people. It was in its own room, covering the Ark of the Covenant, and itself covered by the massive wings of two gold cherubim. It couldn’t be seen. So protected was this “object” that its seclusion within its own private room, obscured by the cherubim, was not enough. When the high priest entered during that holiest day, he had to enter with great plumes of smoke generated by his incense censor. This was the one “object” – the only “object” - upon which he could not look without being struck dead (Lev. 16:2):

• "Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover [“mercy seat;” KJV] above the Testimony [the Ten Commandments which had been placed in the Ark], so that he will not die.” (Leviticus 16:11-13)

This provokes many questions. Why should the atonement cover – the mercy seat – be so carefully concealed, and why should seeing it result in death? The Bible presents us with no other object that will cause death if it is seen! Meanwhile, there are many verses that had informed Israel that they couldn’t see God without dying (Exodus 33:20). In essence, a mere object had been elevated to the status of God Himself by this threat.

The mercy seat, resting squarely upon the Ark, had been designated as the place where God would meet Israel (Exod. 30:6). It was there that Israel would inquire of the Lord and would seek His mercy. Before the completion of the Jerusalem Temple, the Ark along with its mercy seat covering – and both of these were covered - were brought into battle with Israel. It represented the presence of God.

However, it was the mercy seat upon which no one could look, and not the Ark itself. Why the distinction. The Law had already been revealed; mercy – the fullness of the mercy of God – hadn’t.

Proverbs tells us that our God conceals:

• It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. (Proverbs 25:2)

Moses informed Israel that the hidden things belong to God (Deut. 29:29) and there were many mysteries adjacent to the mercy seat that God hadn’t revealed. Although He ordained the Levites to make atonement for Israel’s sins, He also cryptically revealed that He will provide the ultimate atonement:

• Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people. (Deut. 32:43)

However, He consistently refused to disclose the redemption or atonement price:

• For this is what the Lord says: "You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed." (Isaiah 52:3)

Redemption always cost. What then would the atonement of God’s people cost? This disclosure is curiously absent. This takes us back to the question of the nature of the atonement cover resting upon the Ark and the Law it contained. Why the great mystery? Wasn’t the Law with its sacrificial system adequate? Evidently not! Lying on top of it was something additional - a secret guarded with cherubim, smoke and the threat of death.

Parallel with the mystery are the references to a “New Covenant,” signifying that the Mosaic was not sufficient. A New Covenant was also hinted at in other ways. Although God had been very explicit about the Mosaic Covenant, there was the allusion to another secret covenant that He’d reveal only to some - to those who “fear him”:

• The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. (Psalm 25:14)

Central to His purposes and even more hidden from sight was His Messiah who would initiate the New Covenant with His own blood (Isa. 42:6; 49:8):

• He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. (Isaiah 49:2; 51:16; 52:10; 53:1-3)

This brings us back to the mercy seat. Interestingly, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) translates the corresponding Hebrew word “kapporeth” as “sacrifice of atonement” or “hilasterion” in the Greek. This same Greek word is translated as “propitiation” (KJV) in Romans 3:25:

• God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement [“propitiation,” KJV] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)

Jesus had to die for us to demonstrate that God is just, and that His holy nature requires punishment for every sin. Jesus then is the mercy seat, the atonement covering. Jesus was the reason that the Father tolerated Israel’s sins. Even under the Mosaic Covenant, He was the secret source of grace. It was Jesus who lead Israel in the desert (Num. 20:16; Exo. 23:20-23; 14:19; 33:2-3, 14). It was Jesus who fed Israel (1 Cor. 10:4). It was Jesus who ultimately provided atonement for the sins of Israel (Heb. 9:14). But why couldn’t anyone look upon the mercy seat without dying? Why such a severe penalty for something – Someone – so glorious.

Clearly, the mercy seat represented the very heart of all history – the highest expression of God’s glory. Even though Jesus suffered greatly as the time of His crucifixion approached, He nevertheless talked about this event as the time of His glory:

• "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” (John 13:31-32)

But why should the Father have so carefully guarded this good news? Usually, we keep bad news a secret. My youngest brother became hospital-phobic at an early age. He had suffered at too many of them. Therefore, when my parents had to bring him in for additional treatments, they lied to him about going to the hospital.

However, having our sins forgiven and going to heaven would seem to be something to cry out rather than conceal. Why then did God so meticulously conceal this good news, even at the threat of death? I must confess that I can’t fully explain this. However, I will try to offer a partial answer. There is some knowledge that can destroy us if we are not ready for it. When I became a supervisor in the NYC Department of Probation, I determined to be as Christ-like as I possibly could. Foolishly, I thought that if I was totally transparent with my subordinates and demonstrated my commitment to justice and their welfare, they would reciprocate. However, they mistook kindness for weakness, and tried to get away with murder.

Consequently, I had to bring charges against them. Conclusion: They hated me and I hated them. I learned that many people are not prepared to receive total transparency. In fact, it will hurt them.

When Joseph’s brother came to him seeking grain during the great famine, he didn’t disclose to them his identity. Instead, he tested them in ways that appear cruel. In the end, he saw how they were willing to lay their lives down for their youngest and favored brother, Benjamin – the one they probably even envied as they had Joseph. At that very point, Joseph broke down and sent all of his Egyptian guards out of the room. They weren’t ready for his disclosure, but his brothers were (Gen. 42-45).

There is much – perhaps all - that our God wants to disclose to us, but we can’t handle it. However, John promises that there is coming a time when we will be able to understand:

• Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)