God, Yahweh, and the Fire: The Holy Trinity

Moses had escaped from his elevated status in Egypt into the Wilderness of Sinai to forego Pharoah’s wrath for murdering an Egyptian taskmaster, and there had become Jethro’s son-in-law. Jethro was the Midian High Priest. Moses seems to have lived and worked with Jethro for 40 years before being sent on his mission back to Egypt to lead the Hebrew people out of captivity. I believe it was during this era that the Essenic movement was created, by Jethro and Moses; God’s holy line of true priests.

Yahweh was sent by God to deliver His people from bondage because the children of Israel groaned and cried out to God due to their difficult lives in Egypt. Their cry came up to God and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob and He acknowledged them. God sent Yahweh to save them in the form of an angel, and this angel called to Moses in the midst of a fire of a burning bush.

But as valuable as Moses was to God, God would not allow him to look at the Holy Spirit.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 

Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover, He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. ~Exodus 3:1-6

Yahweh was officially introduced into the biblical narrative in Exodus Chapter 3.Yahweh is the I AM WHO I AM. Yahweh in the Old Testament is Jesus in the New Testament. Yahweh is the living word of God.

Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’ ~Exodus 3:13-15

The Holy Spirit is unofficially introduced to us in Exodus Chapter 3 as well, as the fire in the burning bush that was not consumed. Other places where this sacred fire existed are as a pillar leading the Hebrews through the Red Sea and the Wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. ~Exodus 13:21-22

After the miraculous feat of the parting of the Red Sea, and the ever-constant presence of the Holy Spirit fire and cloud; God told Moses He wanted to meet with him on Mount Horeb in the Sinia Peninsula. The purpose of this was to give the Hebrews a law to live by so that they could serve Him righteously as His people.

God said: “For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people”…Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord (Yahweh) descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. ~Exodus 19:11; 16-20

God gave His people the law as a placeholder until Jesus would come and fulfill the law, replacing the law with faith in Jesus, Yahweh. Jesus had not yet come to the earth, but existed with Almighty God ALHYM as LORD Yahweh, and usually appeared with fire, the Holy Spirit. Moses received the Law in the form of the 10 Commandments from the Lord GOD whom the Apostle Paul would expound upon 1400 years later:

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ~Galatians 3:19, 23-25

And, the law was a placeholder for Christ.

You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ~Hebrews 10:8-10

God has been giving us the guiding and comforting force of His Trinity from the beginning. If we seek Him, we shall find Him. Yahweh was Jesus in Spirit. The fire and breath of God are the Holy Spirit. Neither ever changes. They both appeared to men in the Old and New Covenant days to protect, guide, and deliver God’s chosen ones, such as when Daniel’s companions were thrown into the Fiery Furnace, and when tongues of fire rested on the Apostles on the infamous Day of Pentecost. The difference is that after Jesus became the living lamb of God for those who receive Him, the Holy Spirit is able to penetrate believers so as to make them literally the holy temple of the Lord. Before Jesus, the Holy Spirit was always outside of man. After Jesus, the Holy Spirit can indwell man.

Coming of the Holy Spirit

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they (the Apostles) were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. ~Acts 2:1-

Jesus is a free gift. Once He is received, He sends the Holy Spirit to the person. Like his own private angel. Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?

Is it God or is it Hammurabi?

Originally posted on August 22, 2013

 

The Old Testament Law concerning violence:

“But if any lasting harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”  ~Exodus 21:23-24

Is a paraphrase of Hammurabi’s Code written in or around 1750 B.C.:

“If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be knocked out. If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth shall be knocked out.”

We know Abraham, the father of Judaism, came from Ur in Mesopotamia on or around 1800 B.C. The influence of the land of the Babylonians extended far, and would have likely influenced Abraham and the Patriarchs, either before he ventured westward, or after.  Polytheism eventually gave way to monotheism in Babylon (1500 B.C.) and Egypt (1400 B.C.) for a time, and this was after the Code of Hammurabi was written because when Hammurabi’s law was circumscribed (!) at the top of the stele, which was erected (!) around 1750 B.C.,

File:Code of Hammurabi.jpg

Hammurabi refers to his ‘God’ but the relief depicts him standing before the sun god Shamash, god of law and justice, who extends a rod and ring to Hammurabi, as a symbol of his royal authority; and not his later favored god, Marduk, the ‘solar calf’, whom would come to replace all other gods of Babylon in a streak of monotheism, by mid-century:

File:Milkau Oberer Teil der Stele mit dem Text von Hammurapis Gesetzescode 369-2.png

“Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak…”

The Patriarchs of Judaism were undoubtedly influenced in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and/or Canaan by the rise (and fall) of monotheism.  But what are we to do about the source of the Law?  Can the oldest epic material in the Torah be the Word of God, but also have been predated by a polytheistic ruler?  Did the Patriarchs adopt it, along with other traditions and weave it into their own epic story, attributing it to their one and only God??  Did the ancient Hebrews come up with the law first, as an oral tradition, to be quickly followed by Hammurabi stealing it and engraving it on his stele 750 years before the Israelites could even start recording their story?

All important questions to be answered.

Love,

~Mary