The ‘Grover Principle’
Heb 10:22 Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Last week’s parasha we explored
the greater meaning of what it means to ‘draw near’ as defined by the
title ‘Vayigash’ from the word Nagash. There we observed the
changes that brought about restoration to family and the stop to sibling
rivalry and jealousy. Thinking about such things drew my attention to the Qahal,
or assembly at Ephesus in the book of Revelation. There Yeshua declares to them
“And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my
name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember
therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of
his place, except thou repent.[1]”
There are three things Doctor
Yeshua prescribes for this Qahal. He tells them in verse five ‘to
remember, to repent, and to do’, because they had ‘left their first love’.
Left their first love? Not to overstate the obvious, but in order to leave
something means you had to have been close to it previously. He tells them to ‘Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen’. The Complete Jewish Bible translation says it
this way, “Remember where you were before you fell, turn from this sin, and
do what you used to do before”. Remember where you were before you fell—and
turn.
Remember Whence You Fell
To remember where you fell comes from the Greek
word ‘ek-pip'-to’ and it means to drop away, specifically be driven out
of one’s course. Any amount of time on this planet makes you a card carrying
member of having been driven off course. Stories abound, some bitter, some
sweet but ask a friend or older relative and they will share dreams in waiting
and plans not pursued. In the Strong’s Septuagint cross-reference there are
numerous cognates, but the one of specific interest comes from the word ‘soor’.
It can be spelled with either a Shin or a Samech and is followed
by a Vav and a Resh, but it hails from Strongs #5493 and it means
to turn off (literally or figuratively), to decline, to depart, leave
undone, pluck away, put (away, down), to rebel, remove (to and fro), to revolt,
be sour, to turn (aside, away, in), to withdraw, and to be without. When
examined in the Paleo Hebrew we find its roots in the two letter root word Sar;
comprised of a Samech and a Resh the Samech means to turn, while the Resh means
a head, thus ‘to turn the head. This also gets its meaning found for ruler as
the ruler turns the heads of the people.
But I find it fascinating that the word used for
fallen in the Greek traces back to the word for ruler in the Hebrew. We find
this word used in the Tnk in this upcoming week’s parasha Vayechi when Yisra’el
was blessing Yosef’s sons. We read
“And when Joseph saw that his father laid his
right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his
father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.[2]”
When Joseph went to remove his Father’s hand from atop Ephraim’s head he in
essence was attempting to change who would rule. The mechanics of the word so
powerfully demonstrate Messiah here. Sur, defined as to turn the
heads of, as a ruler turns the heads of his people, we find it is also the
root word for Prince. You may have already recognized it. The book of
Isaiah prophecies of Messiah, calling Him the ‘Sar Shalom’ or Prince of
Peace. Beloved, could it have been that in the diligence to do what was right, Ephesus
had lost the real meaning of ‘why’ they were motivated to do what they did?
Allow me to use myself as an example. If I saturate myself with Torah study,
learning all the beautiful meanings behind what it means to follow Yeshua and
walking it out in a way that pleases The Father, yet never leave my room to
demonstrate it by way of being a real servant to my family, what have I done?
If I spend countless hours preparing a message of experiencing God’s peace and
then create chaos under my roof because I choose to allow fear or pride or
anxiety to rule in my heart instead of Yeshua, what have I done? There’s a
disconnect here, isn’t there? But how can that be? Because I’ve left something,
what was it?
The answer is found in a concept I’ve endearingly
titled, ‘The Grover Principle’. If you’ve ever been exposed to any
children’s programming over the last 40 years then in all likelihood you have been
contaminated with the furry friends that live down on Sesame’ Street. You or
your children or even your grandchildren may have their favorite character, but
for the sake of this teaching the one I want you to focus upon with me is a
blue straggly haired nerd of a puppet called ‘Grover’. Remember Grover? Grover
taught us the concept of near, and far. Yes, I can almost see some of the
smiles on some of your faces as you read this, because like me, you too
remember the skit and you remember the ‘tap-shoe’ footfalls that echoed as he
lumbered, arms flailing back in the distance and shouting, and then trotted
with such clumsy drunken style back front and center of our television sets. Little
did we know that Grover was teaching deep theology rooted in the elementary
concepts of distance. When Grover was far he was small and difficult to hear.
But when he came near he was easily recognizable, easy to hear—and even easier
to reach out and touch. Judah and Joseph demonstrated the Grover Principle in
last week’s parsha study.
Too many congregations in our day have abandoned
The Grover Principle for something else. Something else has become their ruler,
and like it or lump it we’ve allowed something else to turn our head and steal
our attention. We, like the Qahal at Ephesus do many things well. We study the
Word, we divide it rightly and do for the most part an outstanding job of using
the Word to point out flaws in others. But rarely do we use it to draw near?
Teshuva
So we’ve remembered. We
remembered what it means to draw near. But before we can do it we have to,
repent. This is the second caveat Yeshua declares for the assembly at Ephesus. The
word in the Greek is met-an-o-eh'-o, and it means to think differently
or afterwards, that is, reconsider.
“If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD
thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this
book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul.[3]” The word in Hebrew is ‘Shub’.
Shin, Vav, and a Beit and it means ‘to return’.
Pictographically it means ‘to press in to the tent’. To press into the
tent is figurative language for entering into the family, i.e. being grafted
in. And there it is—drawing near. Family is all heart—and our Heavenly Father
is all heart.
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water.[4]”
Shamar
We
draw near with a true heart beloved. Remembering our Messiah has redeemed us
and restored us because YHVH ‘so loved the world that He gave His only Son’.
That should spark within us a remembrance of that first love. It was that first
love that inspired YHVH to make man. It was that first love that caused Him to
draw near to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and to us. Mercifully, we’ve
been grafted into covenantal relationship, being brought near into intimate
relationship with and holy worship of Our Father and Creator. Remembering and
repentance stirs us ‘to do’ the first works again, not from rote, which
is memorization lacking understanding—but from a heart overflowing with the
indwelling Holy Spirit. In fact one of the septaugint cross-reference words for
repent in the Hebrew is the word banah—meaning to build, stemming from the
word ‘binah’, which means to get understanding. Once we have turned and repented
and gained under-standing we will do. ‘Do’ in the Hebrew comes from the
word Shamar, and it means “to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect,
attend to, beware, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep, mark, observe,
preserve, regard, reserve, save, wait (for), watch (-man).”
In closing mishpocha, Let us
draw near, understanding that to draw near is to do the first works, returning
to our first love, Messiah Yeshua. Today as we consider, as we strive to
remember, to repent and to do, let us not become so caught up in the study that
we forget why it is what we do. Let us practice the ‘Grover Principle’,
drawing near, by loving our spouse, our children and the greater family of
Mashiach in practical ways of sacrifice each and every day. Shalom.
