I’ve been thinking a lot about sending greeting cards online lately and I have to admit that it seems a whole lot more efficient and fun. And faster, when you think about it. If I send something snail-mail, like a birthday card, and I don’t send it a week in advance, it could arrive late. With the online option, I can forget right up to the day of a person’s birthday or other special event, and still have a card arrive “on time” for the special occasion. Just seems better, at least to me. But I digress; we’re about Torah here, really, so while I don’t have a Torah commentary for this week’s parashah of Chukat, I do have something better: my second-ever full-length sermon. The theme is appearances vs. reality. Read and enjoy! Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Some time ago, I had a chance to do a character study on David. As many of you may realize, David is not only an ancestor of the Messiah Yeshua, but his life in many ways is a shadow of the Messiah’s. There are many parallels between the life of David and the life of Messiah; but I’m not going to go deeply into David’s life today, because the passage that has always jumped out at me and most impressed me comes early in the history of David and is so life-changing, I felt compelled to share it today.

The passage comes to us in the book of I Samuel. Let me set the scene for you a little bit here. The L-RD has just rejected Saul as the king of Israel, and though Saul still sits on the throne, the L-RD has taken His anointing away from Saul and desires to anoint a new king. So the L-RD orders the prophet Samuel to go the Bethlehem and seek out Jesse and his sons, for the one the L-RD will anoint is among them.

Not sure which son the L-RD has chosen, Samuel obeys God and seeks out Jesse and his sons, and that’s where we pick up our reading for today. The key passage comes to us from:

I Samuel 16:5b-7
Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the L-RD’s anointed stands here before the L-RD.” But the L-RD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The L-RD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks at the heart.”

Now, let’s talk about Eliab for a moment here. Eliab was the oldest son of Jesse, and he was by all accounts a man who looked like a king. He was tall, strong and apparently the most handsome of Jesse’s sons. He was the sort of fellow who, as it might be said in casting a Hollywood movie, looked the part. He looked like someone who could be king, and this is something even the prophet Samuel recognizes when he says to himself, “Surely this is the L-RD’s anointed.”

Yet God immediately corrects Samuel here, and his words to the prophet will be the focus of our study here today. “The L-RD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks at the heart.”

The tension here in the text is the difference between appearances and the inner life, or perhaps it’s better to say, the inner reality. I’m sure we all can think of examples where, going on appearances, we’ve all held one impression of someone, but on getting to know that person better, our impressions were radically changed.

One of the earliest examples I can remember of this came just prior to my teenage years. Around the area where I grew up, a group of us all listened to the same rock-n-roll radio station, and our favorite DJ was a woman who had a very pleasant-sounding voice. Listening to her and sometimes briefly speaking with her on the request line, many of us built up an image in our minds of what she must look like.

Certainly, we thought, someone who sounds like that on the radio must be energetic and attractive, someone who would be very impressive face-to-face. Then, one day, our class got to go on a field trip and one of our stops for that trip was the radio station where this woman worked. All of us guys were excited to finally have a chance to catch a glimpse of our pre-teen crush at work in the radio booth. And I have to admit, we were a little disappointed.

With the expectations we’d built up in our heads based on her radio voice, we were certain we were about to meet someone who looked like a movie star or a Solid Gold dancer. To our surprise, this gal looked more like someone you might live next door to, or pass in the supermarket. She had a very interesting voice, but in person she would have blended into the crowd. Now, she was not unattractive, but she just didn’t measure up to the mental image of our pre-teen crush.

That is what it can be like when we examine the sometimes radical difference between outward appearances versus the inner reality. The outward appearance doesn’t have to be physical attributes, either. Sometimes it can just be the public impression someone puts forward to gain acceptance.

If they are a celebrity, perhaps their outward appearance is based around seeming kind and approachable, but those who work with them know they are impatient and often quite rude to strangers. If they are a politician, perhaps their outward appearance is that of a thoughtful person of solid values, while those who know them understand that they are slow to understand issues and too eager to compromise. If they are a preacher or a rabbi, perhaps the outward appearance is that of a person of much study and prayer, while those who know them well realize they buy their sermons off a subscription service and spend more time watching old movies than they do studying the Bible.

Of course, sometimes the tension between the outward appearance and the inner reality can be the opposite of these examples. A couple years ago, I met a man whose body was riddled with skin cancer. He was stage four, a fatality in waiting, and he knew it. One could easily expect by his outward appearance that he might have reason to be bitter, angry and self-absorbed. Yet in the time he had left, he was always doing everything he could to help others. The day I met him, he had spent an entire weekend helping to clean black mold out of the basement of my mother’s home, because he felt she and my father were worse off then he was.

Whether the difference is for the better or for the worse, though, the point is that what we see on the outside is not always a good indicator of a person’s inner reality.

Another fine example of this can be found in the Talmud. This tradition, surrounding the life of one of the greatest rabbis in Judaism, Rabbi Yochanan bin Zachai, comes to us from:

Sukkoth 28a
“He never spoke an idle word; he did not go four yards without reflecting on the Torah and without the phylacteries; no one ever preceded him in entering the beit ha-midrash; he never slept in the beit ha-midrash, and was always the last to leave it; no one ever found him engaged in anything but study. On his deathbed his disciples found him weeping because he said he was about to face the Judge of all the universe, who could send him one of two ways in eternity–and he did not know which way he was going!”

This is another fine example of the disconnect that can sometimes be found between the outward appearance and the inner reality that only God truly knows. By all accounts, this was a rabbi who totally wrapped himself up in the study and worship of the L-RD, and yet his inner reality was that he was not sure he had done enough to gain favor in the eyes of God.

Of course, we know that we cannot gain God’s favor on the merit of our own efforts, but the point here is that it is not uncommon for people to be different beneath the surface than they may appear based on the external. So the L-RD is telling Samuel here that he does not judge on the external appearance, as we do, but on his knowledge of a person.

To underline this point, we read this in:

Isaiah 11:3-4
…And he will delight in the fear of the L-RD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

As this passage from Isaiah shows, God has consistently revealed Himself in this way; He does not look at the same things we look at to determine character or success or anything else. So, however impressive Jesse’s son, Eliab, may have been by appearance alone, God looked at him and saw something different, something inside that wouldn’t respond well to or fit with being named the king of Israel.

We also know that it is not the Torah alone that teaches that surface beauty or appearances can be misleading. We find it in the New Covenant writings as well, even at the most basic level. Here is what we read in:

I Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Of course, Peter here is simply summarizing what is taught in Proverbs 31 about the qualities found in a wife of good character. We read this in:

Proverbs 31:30
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the L-RD is to be praised.

So this is a consistent theme throughout all of the Scriptures, both the Tenakh and the New Covenant writings. Now that we’ve explored the basics of this theme, let’s dig in to the details. Again, the L-RD tells Samuel “The L-RD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks at the heart.”

We’ve covered some aspects of outward appearances; now, let’s look at what we are taught by the L-RD about the condition of the human heart.

In Western thought, we often believe that the self – our identity – is found in the brain, the head. But this is not so in ancient Judaic thought; there is a stronger tendency to view the heart, not the head, as the center of one’s being. So as we continue our study, keep in mind that when the Bible refers to the heart, it’s not always literally referring to the physical organ that pumps blood through the body alone, but also to the person’s being, their soul, their identity.

Let’s take a look at what Yeshua Himself said about the condition of the human heart. We read this in:

Matthew 15:17-20
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’;

This isn’t exactly a positive starting point, is it? Yet this is indeed how we are when we live our lives on our own terms and without Messiah. We all fall short of not only God’s glorious ideal standard, but God’s minimum standard as well. Our hearts are corrupt and wicked and self-centered above all, apart from the power of the Messiah Yeshua.

And yet, there is hope, even as there is judgment. Yeshua does acknowledge that some people – those who follow the L-RD and obey all that He has commanded – can do better than that, even though it is rarer than any of us would like to admit. We read this in:

Matthew 12:34-37
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

What I appreciate about this passage is that it demonstrates that those who obey the L-RD, who make Yeshua their Messiah, can indeed store up good, just as those who live apart from God store up evil. It offers us hope, and that hope is centered around the example of Messiah Yeshua.

But it also tells us how to recognize and discern what is in a person’s heart; all you need to do is listen to them, because “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” The passage underlines just how important are the words we speak. If we speak of good things, it can be an indication – not a guarantee, certainly, but an indication – that our hearts and centered on that which is good. If all the comes out of our mouth is grumbling, complaining, evil speech about others, well, then that’s an indication of where our hearts are at, too.

Some people may have a hard time with this. They consider beliefs to be an internal thing, not something spoken about – especially not outside of church. Yet the Torah and the New Covenant writings are full of examples of people being judged – for good or for evil – based on the words they choose.

Some believers can’t understand why Daniel, for example, had to go up on his roof to pray to the L-RD when he could have just cowered in his home and given no appearance of rebellion to the order of Nebuchadnezzar that people worship only him as god and king. “Sure,” they suggest, “Daniel could never have worshipped the Babylonian king as god… but once he went up on his roof, in public, and prayed to the L-RD where other people could hear him, why, he was just ASKING for trouble.”

Yet this is not how the L-RD sees it, and Daniel understood that; we can claim to be believers all we want, until our faces turn blue, but if all we do is talk about the failings of other people, about the ways in which we might do things differently if we were running things, or even merely talking about anything else other than what God has taught us, then what kind of believers are we? Is our faith in God and His promises? Or is our real faith, our inner reality, clinging more to the lies of the enemy, the pettiness of selfishness, the fears of “what if?”

You know, the best way to take your own spiritual temperature is to examine your own words. If your thoughts are centered on Torah and Messiah Yeshua, your conversations with others will reflect it. It will dominate what you talk about, because “from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If what you really believe is that God won’t come through, things won’t work out, you will fail – then that is what will dominate what you talk about with others, too, because, again, “from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

What we say over and over again eventually becomes what we believe. What we confess audibly is incredibly important to the L-RD. We read this in:

John 12:42-43
Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

In the passage from John, we see that simple belief was not enough for those Pharisees who believed; because they did not confess their beliefs, they are judged by the Gospel writer as loving praise from men more than praise from God. That’s hardly a, “Well done thou good and faithful servant,” is it?

If one doubts that confession is important, I especially like this example from:

Nehemiah 1:6-7
I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

In this passage from Nehemiah, the prophet himself takes on the responsibility of declaring aloud the sins of the people.

You know, some people’s idea of prayer is a moment of silence and I won’t say that there’s no value in that; there is value in that. However, it should not be the dominant form our prayer life takes. In order to combat the lies the enemy plants in our minds, we must confess out loud the truths God declares to combat those lies and rob them of their deceptive power over us. If all our prayers are silent, and all our words of worry, fear and doubt are spoken aloud, how long do you think your faith will remain genuine? How long do you think your faith will remain stronger than your fears and doubts?

Remember, it only took the children of Israel a couple of years in the desert to turn from obedience to rebellion. It can happen far more quickly than we may care to acknowledge.

So can we replace confession with just actions alone? Can we perform enough mitzvahs, enough good deeds and righteous actions that our lack of verbal confession of our faith no longer matters? I would suggest the answer is, “No,” since we read this in the book of:

Colossians 2:20-23
Since you died with Messiah to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

So that is what empty religion, devoid of genuine, confessed faith gets us. It’s not very helpful, is it? We fill up simple obedience to the words of the L-RD with all these extra rules and regulations – things designed to make us look holy, to make us look obedient. But without that inner reality being in agreement, which starts with our words – what we say and confess with our mouths – then none of our actions are of value to God. We have to say it out loud. That’s where it begins, that is why we are advised in:

Romans 10:9
If you confess with your mouth, “Yeshua is the Messiah,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Yet this goes beyond salvation alone. The tension between what is visible and what is unseen by all but the L-RD is a recurring theme in the journey of faith. Faith itself, after all, is trusting in that for which there is no observable evidence, a trust in the invisible and unseen. What is inside us is always what is true from the L-RD’s perspective; and what is visible to all is almost always an illusion. We get confirmation of this in:

II Corinthians 4:15-18
All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Even the rabbis knew this. Here’s a familiar tradition we’ve all heard before, but which bears upon our study today:

Babab Bathra 10a
R. Yosef b. R. Yehoshua said, He was sick and had an out-of-body experience (where the soul briefly leaves the body and then returns.) His father asked him, “What did you see [in your out-of-body state]? He replied, “I saw a topsy-turvy world; those that are on top in this world [respected for their wealth and power] are at the bottom [in the World to Come]; and those that are on the bottom in this world [the poor and downtrodden], are on top.” His father told him, “[You did not see an upside-down world] but an unconfused, sensible world.”

So what does this tell us? It tells us that this is about more than just individual issues of outward appearances versus inner realities and the position of one’s heart. What we are being clued into here by the L-RD is that there is a parallel between this appearance vs. heart issue, and the nature of the kingdom of heaven. This world is what we see; it is the appearance of things and it is the illusion. The world to come is what is invisible, what we trust in but cannot see and it is the reality from God’s perspective.

What God is telling us is that we can’t always trust ourselves and our senses to determine ultimate reality. Only he is able to see clearly and that is why we must place our trust in the L-RD, through the Messiah Yeshua, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world defines everything differently than the L-RD does. Yeshua’s ministry was filled with turning the teachings, understandings and expectations of people on their head, to return people to the truth the L-RD intended all along. In fact, there is a hint in the prophecies about Messiah in the Torah that Yeshua’s influence was not due to the measuring sticks we as people use, either. We read this in:

Isaiah 53:2
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.

Since we’re talking about Yeshua’s ministry, let’s take success in the ministry for example. In worldly terms, one can look at the size of a congregation, the opulence of one’s church building, the variety of ministries offered to attendees, and say that those who attract more people, worship in nicer facilities and outreach in more ways are more blessed by God than those who have smaller congregations, humbler facilities and few activities outside of the weekly church service. Yet what did the L-RD tell Samuel? The L-RD does not look at the things man looks at!

Let me tell you this: There are ministers who are popular and whose names are known far beyond the walls of their own congregational building. They travel and fill up stadiums full of people. And if they speak one time in agreement with something that is taught in a congregation like ours, it’s what everyone is talking about for weeks on end. It’s like that one-time statement of agreement forgives all the replacement theology they still cling to and the “feel-good” sermons they must stick to in order to keep attracting large crowds.

Yet could it be that the L-RD finds more merit in the hearts of those who faithfully preach His Word and only His Word, week in and week out, to a crowd of forty people or fewer, or a home-study gathering of a couple families, or an underground house church under constant siege and persecution in some far-flung country that knows no form of religious freedom, than in all the publicly praised and acknowledged teachings given by popular preachers? Does the worldly measuring stick apply to how God views the success of a ministry, or even a personal walk of faith with the L-RD?

Perhaps the answer lies in the words of:

Mark 12:41-44
Yeshua sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Yeshua said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.”

My friends, however we live out our walks with the L-RD, may we seek to have our outward appearance and our inner reality be in unity with one another, and if there is disunity, may the truth God sees inside us be the one that paints a kinder portrait of our walk with the Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: appearances, greeting cards online, reality