A Paradox - The Echad of Elohim? · Mini Manna Moments

The first 3 words of the first book of Genesis are: B’resheet bara elohim. – In the beginning God

אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם אֱלֹהִ֑ים בָּרָ֣א בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית

אֱלהִים Elohim (el-o-heem’) is a plural word IM. There are various interpretations of the word Elohim but this is not the main focus this post; however to briefly recap. One meaning of Elohim/elohiym is God, or because its plural in the Hebrew text, it reads gods.

Strong’s Concordance number: 430. the (TRUE) God, הוא האלהים Yahweh is (the) God. Deuteronomy 4:35,39

First Bible reference: Gen. 1:1 and over 2300 times. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, KJV)

’Elohim is the plural of ’Eloah.

It places more emphasis on God’s strength, might, and power.

Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative. KJV Usage: angels, (gods) divine (1), divine being (1), exceedingly (1), God (2326), god (45), God’s (14), goddess (2), godly (1), gods (204), great (2), judges (3), mighty (2), rulers (1), shrine* (1).

Paleo-Hebrew Amazing Meanings of Letters in Bereshyt!

The mystery here is that in the Hebrew language, when we see a plural word, ending in IM, it is telling us there is something deeper behind the nouns and the verbs used in the text.

It’s telling us there is something profound about the reality behind the word itself.

(If this is your first time on mmm click link below for more on IM’s in scripture.)

https://www.minimannamoments.com/the-mysteries-of-im/

Important note:

All the subjects and content are all so far reaching they cannot be fully covered within the limits of a single post. Rather they are all tips of the iceberg and designed to encourage further personal study and all are encouraged to dig further into the word of God for themselves and to check out the validity of what is discussed. It’s not a matter of being right or wrong but of seeking the truth: who is the express person of Jesus/Yeshua. The whole of scripture points to Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ the anointed son of the living God.

It’s often hard to find a stopping point and as always some details have to be left out. As everything is so interconnected, it is only as Ruach Hakodesh gives inspiration, can the posts flow and reveal patterns within texts, with which we are so familiar and thought we knew and understood. It’s not that what we knew, was, or is, wrong; it is the line upon line, precept upon precept thinking of the Hebrew mind, that there are levels of understanding. All are correct, it is always the Father, adding to and revealing more of Himself in His Word.

This post is no exception and many have questioned. How is God one, yet three at the same time? The Trinity is a common reference to the image of a triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit.

Here is a look at a possible way to understand this concept.

These are some thoughts to ponder and stir our hearts to know Him in a more personal and deeper way, everything is to direct us to the Father in Jesus/Yeshua’s Name by the power of His Holy Spirit.

No apologies for repeating some pertinent statements, as that’s the way we all learn; and not least because this may be the first post for some, and will make little sense if previous ones have not yet been read. So please bear with seeming repetitions.

His ways are not ours and this is most relevant in our western ways of thinking and doing. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel and is the God of the Hebrews so we should look at the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith.

Studying the Hebrew culture to understand the Bible better. Holy days, manners, thinking, concepts, customs, and daily life at the time of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua.

Here we need to understand that not only is Gods way of thinking and doing not ours, but our Greek western mindset and how we perceive things, is also at odds with the Hebrew mindset that came from the Father. This being the case, it would behoove us to gain a little insight and get some understanding of what HE IS SAYING if we are to begin to obey. Get wisdom get understanding.

The wisdom is not based on the worlds wisdom and common sense as James 3 states:

15. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

However, on the wisdom of Ruach HaKodesh.

‘But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.’

James 3:17 The wisdom from above. He noted that, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, can wreck any relationship, including those in a family, however he was equally convinced that true wisdom comes from above, and that divine wisdom will surely shape our souls in ways that create peaceful, generous living. Full of Shalom.

A brief look at the way the Greek mindset is at odds with the Hebraic mindset. For we are to renew our minds not in accordance with the ideologies of the Greek, Hellenistic world, but with the Word of God. Rom.12:2

Briefly, our old thinking and old behavior has to change. Let this mind be in you .. renewed by the washing of the word.. then we will have the mind of Messiah, for He was the Word made flesh.

Hebrew Concept of Knowledge is:

Right Acting Leads To Right Thinking.

From: Action – Reflection – Embodiment – Mentoring – Modeling.

We often end up with new thinking and old behavior blending the Greek mindset and not depending on, thinking our way into a new way of acting, because the Greek concept of knowledge is:

‘Right Thinking Leads To Right Acting’ and everything comes from the Academy,(Academia/Education), Information, Ideas, Conferences and Books.

For the Greek mind, new thinking and new behavior comes from the action of learning – as opposed to the Hebrew mind which as a disciple who is ‘doing’ first, vs. the Academy WAY (academic).

Yes, we need to study to show ourselves approved but to be Hebraic, it must be action first. Hear and DO.

The Hebraic thinking is: we act our way into a new way of thinking!

In Hebrew, our Education begins with knowledge of God.

In Greek, knowledge of man.

In Hebrew, the Essential quality is holiness of God; (set-apart to Him).

In Greek the aim is transference of knowledge.

In Hebrew, Education is for all the people.

In Greek it’s for the privileged, the wealthy and for leisure classes.

In Hebrew, Education’s purpose is to develop the whole person.

In Greek it’s focus is on personal aptitudes and talents (self-improvement like body beautiful, etc.).

In Hebrew the reason why we learn, is to revere God.

In Greek, we learn just to comprehend with no further action.

In Hebrew the object to learn, is to know God and submit to the authority of His Word.

In Greek the object is to know thyself!

Rom.12:2 is saying, don’t copy the behavior and customs and the WAYs of the world, but let God transform us into a new person; (a new creature 2 Cor.5:17), by changing the WAY we think.

This is truly only possible, if we are thinking with a Hebrew mind – like Jesus/Yeshua. (No wonder some of the scriptures are hard to both understand and emulate!)

One interpretation is that the word, ElohIM, is revealing that no matter how much we think we know of God there’s always more. There is no end, He is infinite and beyond amazing, more than wonderful, more than beautiful, more in every way. He is Avinu, Yeshua, Ruach HaKodesh and yet He is ONE – Echad …

How is that possible?

How can He be One of many?

The Echad of Elohim – seems like a paradox!

The Bamidbar of Echad, the number of one.

Perspectives of Echad – equations and dimensions.

Echad – Is God’s ‘oneness’ explained BY a math equation? …What???

Debarim – Deut. 6:4; Mark 12;29.

A definition of ECHAD…

Oneness and strength derived from twisting and binding together.

An example is seen in the threads of a rope. Although varying in size and thickness, when twisted together they form one single continuous rope; which derives its strength from it’s fibers, twisting against themselves.

The tzit tzit of the Tallit is an example too, especially with its meanings.

https://www.minimannamoments.com/life-on-the-fringe/

Hear, understand and obey Israel, Yahveh is your God, His majesties. Yahveh is echad (one) Deuteronomy 6:4

The roots of our faith are undoubtedly in the land of Israel. Jesus/Yeshua, was a Jewish man of Israelite descent and of the line of David and Judah. God was of course His father, Messiah Himself told us to love the Lord our God. He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;” and “your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

We are not required to become Jewish or to convert to that faith, in doing so one would have to deny Jesus/Yeshua is the Messiah.

Jesus/Yeshua said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Matt 22:37

It all begins with our heart/leb or lev. When our heart is turned away from the Lord by sins such as are subtly disguised by the enemy in preoccupations, and love for worldly things; our heart is covered by a veil, and we can’t see or reflect the Lord. When we turn our heart to the Lord within us, the veil is removed, and we can see the glorious Messiah.

Click Link to more on the Heart.

https://www.minimannamoments.com/because-9/

To Love God with All our Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength means to make Him our greatest treasure. This gives us the desire to value our relationship with Him, over and above anything and everything else in our lives.

Jesus/Yeshua was quoting Deuteronomy and the 10 sayings or 10 commandments. (Which were a list incorporating other guidelines for living a holy -kadosh- set apart – life).

This portion of Torah is a declaration of faith. It is a call to love the Lord your God and have no other gods before Him.

It is contained within a short prayer, said daily by most Jews. It’s called the SHEMA and is taken from the first word of the prayer meaning, hear, in Hebrew.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is ONE.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”

Hear O Israel the Lord is our God the Lord is ONE. Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.

Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai ECHAD.

It’s a unifying statement that conveys loyalty to God, the Torah, (Bible: first 5 books), to Israel, and to all the principles, values and commandments in the Bible.

As the Jewish Bible does not include the New Testament there is no specific mention of Jesus/Yeshua here, just God.

Shema means; hear, listen and obey. It is pronounced shem-ah’. Strongs 8086

Echad pronounced ekh-awd’ means ONE, alike, alone and it can mean unique, unit and united.

Strongs 259 God is ONE God here.

The Hebrews reverence the name of God very seriously and they do not pronounce it or say it flippantly and mostly never at all. The letters YHVH or YHWH (Yaweh) are said to not be known in how exactly they should be pronounced.

The name was only spoken one day a year by High Priest and now no one is certain how to pronounce it. Maybe that’s a good thing as we say god, so many times and so loosely, even reducing it to letters o m g. (It’s questionable as to which god it is referring?)

Two extremes, one group won’t voice the name due to deep reverential respect and often simply saying the words ‘the name’ which in Hebrew is ‘ha shem.

The other group texting in slang with 3 letters. Our glib use and disrespectful references show a lack of understanding concerning the ONE whose name we invoke. Small comfort to true believers is that the god to which they refer, is probably not the same God that we do.

God is ONE however. Referred to by Himself and other places in the scriptures, where His attributes and character are described, e.g.

Here in Deut. 6:4, God is Echad – One. He exists as ONE and yet He exists as 3… so how can 3 be1?

He is one being yet 3 entities that are connected through the Lord by the Lord in the Lord. (Here are some dimensions.)

1+1+1 we know as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.

Avinu – Yeshua – Ruach HaKodesh

and they do not exist independently of each other. Jesus/Yeshua, was very clear on that point: I and my father are ONE/ECHAD. John 10:30.

He also promised, when I go I will send the comforter. John 16:7.

Ruach HaKodesh comes when Jesus/Yeshua goes.

I can do nothing of Myself but the Father that DWELLETH in Me, He doeth the works. John 5:19.

Rather they exist BY the other.

They co-operate, co-exist, are ONE unit but 3 compartments.

Wisdom, ruach and Yeshua were present with the Father at creation the Word says they have always existed.

There was a moment, (and the only one instance recorded), in the New Testament. Here all 3 – ECHAD – were manifest at the same time. This is my beloved SON in whom I am well pleased..

and the RUACH came down on Him.

Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:32.

God is spirit, light, energy, like electricity. (People tell of tingling sensations and feeling heat when receiving prayer – like the effects of electrical power.) Pulses of light energy flow constantly from Him, He is the life force of the universe.

Revelation 4:5 tells us that lightning comes from His throne, the place of His presence. And…

Rays of light [stream] from his hand. That is where his power is hidden. And a brightness appeareth as the light; Rays hath He at His side; And there is the hiding of His power.

His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power. Hab. 3:4

So as a being of light and energy, He can easily be everywhere all at the same time. Omnipresent and omnipotent.

Omni means all; of all things: “omniscient”

Word Origin and History for omni – word-forming element meaning “all,” from Latin omni- , combining form of omnis “all, every, the whole, of every kind,” of unknown origin, perhaps literally “abundant,” from *op-ni- , from PIE root *op- “to work, produce in abundance”

Existing BY each other

In mathematics, the word BY is represented as an X sign. The symbol that means, times or multiplication and not represented as the plus sign (+ addition).

So to reveal the mystery, we need to change the ‘math’ and the equation of

1+1+1 which =3

1x1x1 which is = to 1!

Have we simply made the mistake of adding God up to 3??

(my ways are higher than your ways)

and if so, then we make another math mistake of adding God together with us – meaning 2 separate lives 1+1=2 giving the picture of living side by side; co-habiting kind of living. When we should apply the same x principle and God x us is to say 1×1=1 – Echad. We are so blended with Him we are ONE.

However the scriptures speak of living IN – ABIDING IN – the Lord.

1 Cor. 8:6. Abiding has the Hebrew thought of make to abide, continue, cause to, make to, dwelling, ease self, endure, establish, fail. A primitive root; properly, to sit down (specifically as judge.)

Strong’s Hebrew: 3427. יָשַׁב

(yashab) — to sit, remain, dwell

(yaw-shab’) יָשַׁב

Signifying progressively to “await,” “remain,” “lodge,” “sojourn,” “dwell,” “continue,” “endure”.

Abiding in Christ/Messiah, is not a feeling or a belief, but something we do. (The Hebrew mind-set).

It means to “remain” or “stay” and entails far more than the idea of just continued belief in the Savior.

We are to dwell in the secret place, this will cause us to be/remain stable in the place of hiding. See post

https://www.minimannamoments.com/the-season-of-our-hiding/

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

BY the Lord and Through the Lord and He By us and through us.

It’s not us that produces fruit, but Him in and through us. We cannot do it and we cannot produce fruit of the spirit; only He can. And that’s how people see Him in us, not us doing the works. This is where we stumble and get it wrong and strive to do things, when we need to get out of God’s way. That’s the dying to self and to our works, our flesh and what we think we are doing FOR Him – that’s not what Jesus/Yeshua taught.

Again we need to go back and find out what did Messiah actually tell us to do? Shema – listen and obey.

The thing with the Shema and ONE God, is that it really, logically and mathematically, is correct. 1x1x1=1

1 by 1 by 1 = 1

1 God x 1 Jesus/Yeshua x 1 Ruach haKodesh are all part of the same 1. He is ONE – Echad

Could the secret of the life of victory be in a mathematical symbol? Simply change the equation from + to x?

It’s all a matter of perspective. We are trying to live, next to God, when we should be living BY and through Him and Him BY and through us as ECHAD/ONE. We are simply a channel, we are to employ His existence in order to truly exist. To live BY (X) and through His life/lives- Chaim.

Both natural, (physical) and spiritual, coexisting, just as Yeshua/Jesus did.

He came to show us how to live BY, (X), His life and to move in His moving BY, (X), the power of the spirit and to love BY (X) His love and it’s how we shall become ONE – ECHAD – BY Him.

Not by adding Him, (+), to us but by multiplying 1×1=1.

It’s Him in us. It’s Him merged, melded, blended together with us. So much so, that people do not see us, they see Him.

It’s Him loving BY and through us – doing the work in, BY and through us.

Yeshua/Jesus understood, He said, I and the father are one/echad. John 14:6. John 10:30. He does the works. I must be about my fathers business; (not His own business). Whose business are we occupied with?

Why are we trying to do it some other way, usually our way? ‘God understands’ we say? Jesus said my sheep hear (and obey) My voice. They come in the door, BY Me and not by another WAY. He came to teach us, to show us how and so often we miss it and it may explain why some things seem so hard?

Are we still trying to to do things FOR God instead of BY God? Could this be a reason for the statement He will make… I never knew you? We did all these things in your name! Yes we did – and not the Father in/by us, x, doing the works. If we are yielded vessels then He can use us. He promises that if we lose our life we will find it.

If we can get hold of the ‘math’, and live with 1x1x1 = Father, Yeshua, Ruach – the Echad of Elohim in us, through us and BY us, we will live By the x. And x usually marks the spot!

A little more perspective reveals that this is possibly the dynamic of miracles. 1×1 His power BY us = His power x us.

He is the original mathematician – numbers are in the Genesis of His creation. Bamidbar.

He is the original scientist, physicist, engineer, electrician, etc. etc. He is the genesis of omni and He is echad. He is chaim – with Him and X Him we are one /echad.

And its how we reconnect to the source of chaim/lifes. This is the secret to the victorious life of a believer for if all things were made BY Him and nothing was not made other than BY and FOR Him then if we do not resist His presence, we cannot fail. For He cannot fail and we are in Him from the beginning – Genesis – B’resheet -בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית

1×1 The dynamic of miracles, His power BY us.

Bringing us full circle! Alef to Tav! Genesis to Revelation – Beginning to End.

Yeshua/Jesus gave us the WAY, we just need to have our eyes opened and see what’s been right in font of us the whole time… ‘and seeing they do not see’.

We need to stop looking with the natural eyes, and look instead with the eyes of our spirit, for it is said, real eyes realize real lies and truth opens the eyes of our understanding – our leb/heart.