I hope one day you discover that “repent” doesn’t mean “say sorry or I won’t forgive you.”
Repenting is about restoring what was, and bringing about that which was always meant to be.
It means to come home.
Repent and trust that God is good.
This is the right order. If you reverse it, you are trapped in soulless religion.
Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Genesis 20:7 (NKJV)
When “prophet” is first introduced, we are shown the prophet’s role:
1. To restore relationship
2. To plead on behalf of someone:
– a) So they may live
– b) So they may avoid destruction
The word “restore” is שׁוּב (shuv), and it’s the same as “repent” or “turn back.” It is a word that means to return to origin and start again. It is a word of healing and repair.
But restore back to what?
The phrase “man’s wife” is אֵשֶׁת־הָאִישׁ (ishet ha’ish). Literally “the wife of the husband.” These words bring us back to Genesis 2, when Adam first meets his wife, who is just like him, as though she’s made in his image and likeness.
And this points us back to Genesis 1: “Let us create mankind in our image.”
The prophet’s role is firstly one of restoration. To restore us to one anther, and to God. To bring us into oneness and wholeness and peace with God, like it was in the Garden.
And this is done through intercession, through praying on behalf of others.
Look at the words of life and death. God doesn’t say “if you don’t, I will kill you.” He says “if you do not שׁוּב (shuv), you will die.
In the hebrew, it is מוֹת תָּמוּת (mot tamut). “You will surely die.” (lit. dying-die)
Yes. The same words from the Garden.
In the first story of death, we were told if we ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, we would mot tamut. But here: if we do not restore, we will mot tamot.
Can you see it? Can you see God’s desire? God wants the restoration of relationships: Ish and Ishah, God and humanity, we and our neighbors… as it was in the garden. As it is in heaven.
This is the prophet’s prayer.
Because everything else is death, chaos, destruction, hopelessness, emptiness, loneliness.
Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and behold, he saw the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
Genesis 19:27-28 (NASB)
In Genesis 11, which covers the Tower of Babel, I wrote about the relationship between the bricks and the furnaces that made them, tying bricks and furnaces to human bondage. To Empire.
So when Abraham sees “the smoke of a furnace” (literally kiln), I wondered about the connection.
The word for “furnace” here is כִּבְשָׁן (kivshan), and it is not the same word used in Daniel for the furnaces in Babylon. That word is אַתּוּן (atun).
Both mean “furnace.”
The Babylonian furnace is tied to human bondage and enslavement. But what about the kivshan here in Genesis 19?
Perhaps kivshan isn’t man’s furnace, but God’s. Here in Genesis, it’s used to describe fire and brimstone from heaven, but later, it describes the very presence of God, descending on Sinai.
Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the entire mountain [a]quaked violently.
Exodus 19:18 (NASB)
This presence is tied to a different picture of “bondage” or “enslavement.” Here, we have the 10 Commandments that show up in the next chapter, followed by several chapters of laws and ordinances, which all culminate in the commitment made in Exodus 24. The whole time, and for the next 40 days, God is the Fire on the Mountain.
Then Moses came and reported to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”
Exodus 24:3 (NASB)
Kivshan, or “God’s furnace” as I’m calling it, has an interesting root: כָּבַשׁ (kavash) which means… bondage. Slavery.
But this isn’t slavery under man. In scripture, this word is most frequently used to describe ordered servitude under God, starting in Genesis 1.
I. to subject, subdue, force, keep under, bring into bondage
– 1. (Qal)
– – 1. to bring into bondage, make subservient
– – 2. to subdue, force, violate
– – 3. to subdue, dominate, tread down
– 2. (Niphal) to be subdued
– 3. (Piel) to subdue
– 4. (Hiphil) to bring into bondage
Strongs H3533 כָּבַשׁ: kavash
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28 (NASB)
This word is often used to describe land being subdued for God’s people, for God’s purposes, which makes the Exodus kavash so poignant: God’s presence is tied to commitment. That commitment is akin to being a “slave” for God.
It sounds quite awful, unless you know that God is Good.
But there’s something else here. In Micah, we read that God, in His great compassion, will kavash our iniquities. Capture it, subdue it, wrestle it down and cast it into the depths of the sea.
He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19 (NASB)
So what we learn is that the furnaces of man (Babylon) are a corruption of the furnace of God, because slavery under the boot of Empire is not like slavery under God who loves us.
The furnace of God is God’s own presence among us, wiping out our sin and cleansing us.
1. You can forgive them and teach them how to live rightly.
2. You can harm them, exacting vengeance on them so they experience your pain.
Which do you choose?
This is a story of Noah.
Here is the setup:
There are Four Characters
There is Deception
There is Nakedness
There is Shame
There is a telling (Who told you that you were naked?)
There is Curse and Covering / Covering and Curse
Genesis 3 and Genesis 9 include these same elements in almost the exact same order
In Genesis 3 we have FOUR CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve & the serpent. There is DECEPTION, causing disobedience which leads to seeing their NAKEDNESS. They are ASHAMED. There is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS: who told you?). God CURSES the serpent & the ground, and then COVERS Adam & Eve.
In Genesis 9, we have FOUR CHARACTERS: Noah, Shem, Japheth & Ham. There is DECEPTION (Proverbs 20:1 links deception to wine) which leads to seeing Noah’s NAKEDNESS. He is SHAMED by his son Ham to his brothers as there is a (TELLING OF NAKEDNESS). The brothers COVER Noah, and then Noah CURSES Ham’s son.
Rabbi Marty Solomon, quoting Rabbi Fohrman sees a clear link here. He suggests Noah was familiar with the story of Genesis 3, and he could have learned the lesson: God cursed a wicked thing and forgave the ones who disobeyed.
Instead, Noah curses the one who shamed him, even after the brothers cover him.
In this view, Noah is even reminded about the covering by his sons before he launches into vengeance. He had every opportunity to stop and remember God’s handling of Adam and Eve. He could have forgiven them and covered their shame.
But he choses violence instead.
I’m tempted to fault Noah here, but given the power to forgive, taking the pain on myself or the chance to exact vengeance where I can inflict my pain back on them (7-times? 77-times?), how often do I fail to forgive?
This is a story about all of us. And here, we are shown the consequence of what happens when we fail to forgive.
By cursing Canaan, an entire people are subjected and enslaved. This curse is so great that Israel’s suffering is largely because of the generations of Canaan that live in the Promised Land.
Perhaps generational curses are the result of unforgiveness.
Perhaps forgiveness changes the world.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)
Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 4:23-24 (NIV)
Perhaps it’s a story of a fresh start.
“I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions, for my own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.
Genesis 43:25 (NIV)