Root Of Bitterness

 

Reading the Bible can be a “dangerous thing”.  What I mean is… I should be in bed.  I am exhausted, but while I was winding down with an evening coffee, I decided to read the Torah Portions for the week.  Well, let’s just say it’s two or three hours later and I just had to share with you what I learned / found!  It’s very cool.  I hope you think so too.

 

This week’s reading included Genesis 25:19-28:9, Malachi 1:1-2:7, Romans 9:6-16 and Hebrews 11:20, 12:14-17.  It was when I got to Hebrews that I was really struck.  Hebrews 12:15 warns against a “root of bitterness”.  Do you know what that refers to?  In my ESV there is a little number that led me a a verse / passage back in the Old Testament – Deuteronomy 29:18.

From the ESV:  ¹⁸Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. ²⁰The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

I’ve also been reading from the Complete Jewish Bible, which is a paraphrase of sorts.  Here’s what the CJB says, in the same passage:

18 So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from ADONAI our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. 19 If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, 'I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although "dry," [sinful,] will be added to the "watered" [righteous].' 20 But ADONAI will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of ADONAI will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. ADONAI will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 ADONAI will single him out from all the tribes of Isra'el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah.

The particular part that struck me was… “I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing”.  We have become a society who does what we want and have an attitude of “what’s right for you is right for you and what’s right for me is right for me”.  That’s WRONG!  The Bible INCLUDING the Old Testament tells us HOW to live, HOW to worship, HOW to be the people of God.

Before when I read Hebrews 12:15, I just figured I needed to steer away from bitterness.  But the ROOT of bitterness is so much more than that… it’s an attitude of doing what we want.  It’s an attitude of entitlement.  The root of bitterness referred to in Hebrews is a poison, and brings death.

 

Anyway, that’s my thoughts.

 

Still diggin',