Studies Page

  Shalom
  to you,

Wellsprings of Torah,  www.TorahWellsprings.org
Rick Wills - Messianic Elder,  Mishareth@TorahWellsprings.org

Holiness
by Rick Wills

    When I think about Holiness, I always think about beans and the beanery. But before I start, I should affirm that I like beans. I like them a lot. Whatever more I say, I want you to remember that beans have an important place in my life. Beans are a household item for me. My wife has grown beans in her garden. She buys beans from the grocery stores. We are always eating beans. Sometimes we eat them simmered with onions. Other times we put them in salads. Occasionally they’re in an omelet. We eat them baked, boiled, pickled, but we never eat them raw. Beans are great, but they're not so good when raw.

    Although I like beans, I can't compare them to very many things. For instance, a bean is nothing like a peach ... except that they are both roundish. Even then, their shapes are quite different. As I eat a peach, I wonder what the Lord might have been thinking when he created it. Maybe he was thinking, '...Mmmmm, sweet and watery!" Whatever he was thinking, I know that he was not thinking about anything else. He made the peach, and he was satisfied. After that, he went on to make an orange and an apple. Perhaps, making that peach had provoked some good ideas.

    I can't say that about the bean. When he made the bean, he must have been distracted. I assume this because he wasn't happy after it was done. After the first bean, he had to make a different bean, and then another, and another. There must be a hundred different kinds of beans. There are black beans, red beans, green beans, lima beans ... and beans that most of us have never heard about. It seems as though he couldn't quite get it right. So he and kept trying it, over again.

    I suppose that I should give him more credit. He might have simply liked beans more than peaches. Maybe he thought that one peach was enough. Surely no one would want a hundred different kinds of peaches. We might think that, if we didn't know that the Lord who made the peach, is also only one of kind. From all creation, he is the only thing that looks, talks and moves like himself. I know this because of what the Prophet Isaiah saw in a vision. He said he saw him in a lofty place above every creation. There he sat in majesty and splendor. Around him were flaming Angels, and beneath him were the Heavens and Earth.

    Isaiah could not express what his heart was feeling, nor what his eyes were seeing. He said, "I am a man with common lips, and I live among a common people with lips like my own." We know that at least the lips were different. And what he saw, his own lips could not describe. This is because the Lord was different. Different from anything he had ever seen or dreamed. In like manner to how Isaiah was feeling, the Angels surrounding the Lord kept saying over and over, "Qadosh Qadosh Qadosh Adonoi Tzava-ot Melo Col Ha-aretz Cavodo." These were words that Isaiah understood. These were Hebrew words, and they mean, "Different, different, different ... is the Lord of forces and powers ... as he fills the whole world of his Glory."

    You've heard the words before ... it’s Isaiah 6:3, "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty, filling all the earth with his Glory." I have translated the Hebrew words in a way that Isaiah might have perceived them. The word for Holy is Qadosh, and it means "to be separate, or to be distinct ... and different." There is no other like him. Where it says, "he fills the earth with his Glory," can be understood as distributing his characteristics among his varied creations. Together, they are "as" or "like" his Glory. So the Angels are saying that he puts fragments of his glory in different proportions throughout the world.

    You might be thinking, "That doesn't make a bean-hill of sense to me!" If so, that is my point ... we’re not talking about a hill of beans ... we’re talking about what is "peachy keen." If something is said only once, then it must be said perfectly. If something must be said many times over, then there are many opportunities to acquire perfection. Here, it takes many kinds of beans to be as perfect as a peach ... although both are getting the job done, because they are both very tasty.

    My whole point is to show you ... your own self. Are you odd? Is there anyone else like you? Do you come short of comparisons before you have adequately described yourself? If so, that is because of the perfection of your soul. Your uniqueness is not a flaw. It is a majestic quality in the eyes of God. Your soul is approaching the very likeness of the Lord himself ... who is not like any other at all.

    Yet you might say, "My oddness has caused others to not like me, and some to make fun of me." To this I say, "If your oddness is not made from sin, but is the happiness of your soul, then you have obviously chosen to be odd." You are comfortable with yourself, but your "discomfort" is with the choices of others. The "others" are like those beans. There are many of them because they are not comfortable with their own oddness. You are more like the peach, and when the Lord made your soul he said what he said about that peach, "...Mmmmm, this one will be good all by itself!"

    The prophet Isaiah was saying, "I saw the Lord, and he is like a peach, but I am like a bean among a people of beans!" Then, an Angel carried a fiery coal to Isaiah. He touched it to his lips saying, "You are no longer a bean! This vision will change you, like this flaming coal has changed your lips. You will become a peach, and you will say to the beans, 'Become a peachy people, for the Lord is a peach also!"'

    That is the meaning of the Lord’s words in Leviticus 20:26, "And be mine alone, as Holies (a multitude of harmonious differences), for I am the Lord, who is also Holy (singularly different), and I distinguished you from all people (the beanery) to be uniquely mine (peachy).

    How do you respond to his words? With the words found in Psalm 86:2, "Guard my soul ... for (with it) I am faithful. Restore your servant ... you are my power ... I throw myself upon you alone (and I do not trust in the beanery)."

    Baruch Hashem.