“Pe. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Ps. 145:16, NKJV)
In the teaching of Day 1030 a mystery surrounding the manna in the desert is explained by referring to the Jewish rabbis and their Midash Rabbah (p. 303), specifically where it speaks of the book Exodus, commenting on Ps. 145:16 and pointing out that this verse does not state that “every living thing” is satisfied with food, but instead that their desires are satisfied.
If one looks at this verse in the Bible one notices that it is preceded by the Hebrew letter pe, as Ps. 145 is a poem with a specific Hebrew verse form, namely the acrostic. J.A. Motyer explains the lemma “Acrostic,” in The New International Dictionary of the Bible (p. 12) as follows: “In the common form of acrostic found in Old Testament Poetry, each line or stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. This literary form may have been intended as an aid to memory, but more likely it was a poetic way of saying that a total coverage of the subject was being offered — as we would say, ‘from A to Z.’”
I believe that this is more than a mere memory bridge in oral poetry, and that the richness of each Hebrew letter acts as a pitchfork of the wider spiritual resonance of the verse. In the light of everything that was said in the teaching of Day 1030 about this verse, the implications of the letter Pe is particularly insightful. Remember – we found a clear typological link between the manna in the desert and the Bride’s rhema words (and thus her corporate anointing), and this verse was used by the rabbis to explain how God satisfies all the desires of those who are in position in Christ. (Also see the previous teaching).
The letter pe is pictorially represented by a mouth, and is symbolically associated with the following concepts: “word, saying expression”, specifically then the rhema-word (Arndt & Gingrich: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament). In Matt. 4:4 we find the following: “But He answered and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” In Deut. 8:3 a direct link is established between the rhema-words and the manna: “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Why is this important to us? Remember the immensely important statement Jesus makes in Matt. 26:64: “Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’”
Jesus sits at “the right hand of the Power”. We know that God does not have a physical right hand, as He is Spirit (John 4:24). The metaphor of God’s right hand can be explained as that in which his authority is nestled (Ps. 45:9; 60:5; 80:17; 110:1; Isa. 28:2). But here it is stated explicitly – the right hand of the Power. The word for power here in Greek is dunamis, which means “force, miraculous power”, also “ability, abundance, meaning, might” (Strongs). [Compare to the Scripture at the beginning of this teaching.] In the New Testament it is usually used to point to the working of the Spirit of God, as it appears in the well-known Scripture of Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …” (also see, for instance, Luke 4:14 and Rom. 15:13). The Spirit brings forth power, akin to the dynamo (which is of course derived from this Greek word), which starts moving and generates light. The Spirit is akin to a dynamo that generates power; the power is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Source of the power, but is not the power itself.
But the word dunamis is not only used for the working of the Spirit. In Matt. 6:13 we learn that power belongs to God; the kingdom of God comes by power, not by words (Matt 11:12; 1 Cor. 4:20); someone like Elijah moved in this power (Luke 1:17); power is something which you have, and which moves from you (Mark 5:30; Luke 6:19), thus ANOINTING; this power removes demons (Luke 4:36); it brings healing (Luke 5:17); it brings about that nothing can harm you (Luke 10:19), it brings about signs and wonders (Acts 6:8); all works of faith are made complete by power (2 Thess. 1:11); it brings about everything that leads to the life of godly fruit (2 Pet. 1:3); the talents are meted out according to the capacity of your power (Matt. 25:15), and more. In short – it speaks of God’s open hand, satisfying our desires!
This “power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16) is something that everyone in the Bride should have. But apart from the fact that we know that we receive it through the working of the Spirit of God, what exactly is it?
We know that power comes from “on high” (Luke 24:49), in other words from the spiritual realm. Rom. 1:16 then provides this secret key: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God.” In the teachings of Day 518-520 and 575-577 (which is repeated here to some extent, for the sake of necessary context) we lifted the veil a bit, discussing the Bride of Christ who had been chosen before the foundations of the earth were laid.
The Name Jesus, or then Yashua, means Saviour, and this was the reason Jesus was created: “and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). When Jesus then asks his disciples who they think He is, the following happens: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said to Him, ‘You are the Christ.’ Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.” (Mark 8:29-30).
The “Christ” can be translated as Messiah, or then, Anointed. The concept of anointing in relation to the position of king (or prophet) in the Bible is always accompanied by the anointing of the head (Ex. 29:7; 2 Kings 9:3 & 6). If John the Baptist’s head – as prototype of the “greatest” figure of the Old Covenant – Matt. 11:11) had to be removed (Matt. 14:10), it was so as to grant Jesus, the Head of the Body, his rightful place (Eph. 4:15; 5:23). It is important not to separate Jesus and Christ, but to differentiate between them. Jesus is the Son of God made flesh; Christ is Jesus PLUS the Body – the Head is anointed and the anointing flows over the rest of the Body (Ps. 133:2). Christ = Jesus + “the corporate Bride”.
If we then read in 1 Cor. 1:24 that Christ is the power of God, it adds a completely new dimension to the Scripture we are currently examining: “Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” We could thus read it as follows, in the light of our current discussion: From now on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the anointed Christ of God.
This is not a strange way of stating it. In Luke 9:20 Peter spells it out as follows: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered and said, ‘The Christ of God.’ This echoes the prophecy of Ps. 2:2: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed … ” Dan. 9:25-26 also prophesies about this Anointed/Christ of God.
To conclude: the Son of man [=Jesus] sits at the right hand of the anointed Christ of God! Indeed: He “raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, EMTV). Back to the opening Scripture and the Hebrew letter pe: The Christ metonymically not only becomes the mouth of God, but also the hand of God on earth. Through the anointing the desires of all living things are satisfied.
- Selah: Explain the concept of the Christ to someone.
- Read: 9-15.
- Memorise: 9:3.
