THE LORD’S LAW IS A BLESSING NOT A BURDEN
Psalm 1
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
It is not only that Mother’s Day is today, but we are approaching the Pentecost Sunday as well, which is the feast of the receiving of the Holy Spirit. What is the characteristic of the Holy Spirit we should pray for?
On Mother’s Day, the Holy Spirit makes us recite the referring commandment which reads:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.”
It means, that all well being of a country, the health of the wholeness of the society, border security, depends on the observing of this commandment, that one particularly and all the members of the society in general must honor their fathers and mothers, in order to have at least a chance, to have a long enough life on a land which God gave to the society until they observe the commandments, and among them, You shall honor your father and your mother, and today, explicitly your mother.
When God told Solomon, that whatever you ask, I will grant your request, Solomon prayed for the Spirit of wisdom.
Once upon a time it happened during the reign of King Solomon that two women stood before his judgment seat. The one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
It happened the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also; and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.
This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it. She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while I slept, and laid it in her bed, and laid her dead child in my bed. When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore.
The other woman interrupted by saying, No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. This woman said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before Solomon. Then said the king, Get me a sword. They brought a sword before him. The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. This will be equal justice to both parties. The other woman said, it shall be neither mine nor yours; just divide it.
Then spoke the woman whose the living child was to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it. Then the king answered, Give this woman the living child, and in no way kill it: she is the mother of it. All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the spirit of wisdom of God was in him, to do merciful justice by the Holy Spirit.
Regarding the character of the Spirit we should pray for, the Gospel states, that Nicodemus, a Jerusalem city council member, a pharisee himself, went to Jesus during that special night, Jesus told him that nobody, but nobody will enter Heaven unless they will be reborn by water and the Holy Spirit.
Nicodemus was around seventy years old, and he was quite reluctant to get the idea of rebirth in general and in particular, like how he could reenter his mothers womb, as an old man?
The water, Jesus mentioned, that is supposed to be the water of the baptism of John, where the water represented an extraordinary, game-changing or rather life-changing repentance.
The ancient sages said, that we have to repent at least a day before we die.
However in the Gospel, John added, that I baptize with water, but Jesus baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus himself told Nicodemus that no one enters Heaven unless he or she will be born again by the water and the Spirit, aka the repentance and faith.
Being reborn by the Spirit, means that the word of God, as a seed falling into our fertile hearts, watered by repentance, a new spiritual life starts to grow in our hearts, which is the change of the heart, in the life-giving sunshine of the Love of God.
Being men or woman, does not matter, we must grow a spirit child from God in our heart which is a new birth, in order to enter Heaven in the Afterlife. As it is wonderfully written in the Gospel: 'One shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
May the Lord bless us with the repentance that turns away from all mundane ways of this world, to live an awakened new life with Jesus in our heart. May he bless us with perpetually burning enthusiasm toward the kingdom of God, to whom may praise be given, for ever, AMEN.
