Sid: God is so amazing, He’s an amazing God and that’s what I’ve been talking about all this week with SJ Hill; I’m talking to him at his home in Hawaii. For those that aren’t familiar with him he has taught at some of the most outstanding Bible Schools in America. Why are they so outstanding? Because they…not just Bible schools but they’re centered on the presence of God. He’s been on the faculty, the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, he’s a Professor Emeritus at Fire School of Ministry; he’s been on the staff of Mike Bickle’s Forerunner School of Prayer. But I am so excited about his newest book it less than a year old it’s called “Burning Desire” because it’s God’s burning desire to have a relationship with you; a love relationship with you. And on yesterday’s broadcast we were talking about what you call this sacred marriage proposal; SJ would you continue?
SJ: Yes, I wanted to highlight some things from the scriptures to enable people to really grasp this because I know we’re talking a language that’s foreign to a lot of people. Most people don’t see the Bible as an eternal romance. I mean they wouldn’t even use the word romance in the context of our relationship with God. Some may even think that’s a little sacrilegious but you know God uses certain kinds of language and I even believe He ordained the Hebrew language to really convey the passion and the poetry and this summitry of His love and what burns in His heart for human beings. And I love to view God as Father, I love the language that conveys God’s deepest feelings for me as Father. I love that word Father. But there’s something about bridal language even though we guys maybe get uncomfortable with it there is something about that bridal language that takes this whole thing of God’s love to another level; that’s why we kept stressing the fact that human history began with a wedding, human history is going to conclude with a wedding. You know when Yeshua came on the scene in Matthew Chapter 9 He referred to Himself as the coming Bridegroom. John the Baptist in preparing the way of the Lord simply refers to himself in John 3:29 as the “Friend of Bridegroom.” I mean of all the things he could have said about himself he simply referred to himself as the “Friend of Bridegroom.” You know I think John the Baptist has been given a bad rap I think that people look at John and you know he’s this funky prophet who eats funky food and wears funky clothes. And they think he was pretty hardnosed pretty hard core but I tell people as I travel around the world you know that John again like the prophets of old with the jealous love of God forerunner. With the jealous love of God for a wife who had lost sight of the beauty of her husband who had given her heart to other lovers and John the Baptist never addressed the common people the way he addressed the religious leaders of his day as we make that distinction because again John the Baptist was facing a religious system that was killing the future bride of Jesus. He was confronting the religiosity you know the religious spirit was having Israel more concerned about external issues than issues of the heart and God’s wife was getting ripped off and I could just feel the intensity in what John the Baptist said. And again it was all tied into the fact that John came to prepare the way for this beautiful bridegroom Yeshua who was going to pay the ultimate bride price so that His bride could live with Him and enjoy Him forever. As we get into Paul’s writing Paul again from his heart cries out and says “Oh that I could espouse you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” I mean the language is bridal Ephesians 5 the whole thing between a husband and a wife is to be a dim reflection of the passion, the intimacy, the transparency between Yeshua and believers. We get into Revelation chapter 3, again people look at this stuff and they think well, you know even Jesus in the book of Revelation looks pretty hard core but again when you understand the pure jealousy of Jesus’ heart for a lukewarm people then you can understand you know what He’s saying there. When He says “I would rather have you cold or hot don’t be lukewarm.” And you know as a husband I understand that, I don’t want my wife going through the motions, I don’t want her even responding to me intimately out of duty. You know I want her submission I want what she does for me to be a response of love. I want it to come from her heart and as we said yesterday on the broadcast Sid, you take this whole bridal thing out of the equation and you end up misunderstanding the Bible so much. And so I’m really thankful that you’re giving me this opportunity on the radio to really share my passion.
Sid: You know not only do most Christians not understand the bridal concept they are looking at the Old and the New Covenant through Greco-Roman eyes and it’s kind of getting our vision out of focus. For instance in your book you talk about the Greek view of the world and the Jewish view of the world and how different they were. Would you explain a little?
SJ: Yeah, as I said the other day the Greek view of God is so twisted that he’s aloof, he can’t be touched with feelings to the Greek view the human body was evil, it was the source of sin and the world was a place to escape out of.
Sid: Is that where that whole escapist view really got formed of well we’ll just spend our time here this is our penance so we can go to Heaven rather than a Kingdom view. It’s just let’s just get out of here quick.
SJ: That is exactly right and yet to the Hebrew way of thinking you know God was to be celebrated, life was to be enjoyed. There was no distinction between secular and spiritual to the Hebrew way of thinking; the body was not evil; marriage was ordained by God. You know a lot of the emphasis on celibacy that came up through the Catholic church you know came right out of a Greek World view. And you know probably even more than all of that Sid is the fact that you know in my research one of the things that I discovered a few years ago was that the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, translates Torah as law. And I think that’s one of the worst things that has ever happened to the church. Again I’m not saying the translators did it intentionally but you know when we come from a western world view and we see that word law what do we automatically think of?
Sid: Legalism.
SJ: Yeah, legalism, rules regulations and so we look at the Older Covenant and well, it’s all about rules and regulations. We look at the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai and again it’s all about rules and regulations and you hear this all the time. And you know years ago I was guilty of it myself so I’m not being critical of anybody but we hear so much about law verses grace. And you know I tell people now that they listen the Older Covenant was full of grace (Laughing) it was not…talk about law it was not about rules and regulations. In fact Paul says that one of the reasons why God gave the Torah was to show us, convincingly, that no man with all of his religious efforts can ever measure up to God. You know no man can win God’s acceptance, that’s why Yeshua had to come down to our level; He had to stoop and come down to our level so that we could be restored. But again you know the way it’s been preached, the way we’ve approached the Christian life. I was telling a Christian friend a few years ago I think that it’s so sad that we’ve taken isolated Old Testament passages judgment passages applying to an adulterous wife and we tried to make them applicable to sincere but immature believers. And you know a lot of our approach to preaching is still rooted in a Greek western way of viewing things instead of a Jewish-Hebrew way of viewing things. So this is one of my little you know pet peeves and again I’m not Jewish, but I just really want to see Jews and Gentiles awakened to the beauty of who God is and not misunderstand His intentions.
Sid: The whole paradigm is going to change when people understand and look at the bible through Jewish eyes rather than and Greco-Roman. For instance the Ten Commandments.
SJ: Yeah Sid my passion is to really have believers understand that what happened on Mt. Sinai was not about rules and regulations; it was not about law per say; it was about a sacred marriage proposal between God and this Hebrew nation that actually came to be His treasured possession. And I just burn with a desire to see this younger generation especially come to an understanding of the beauty of the God of the Old Testament so that they won’t try and serve Him out of cringing tormenting fear, but they would be so in awe of Him; that they would want to give their hearts to Him and that they were obedience would be a response of love.
Sid: Well, there are so many areas that God has just burdened you to teach on. How did you develop your original passion for God?
SJ: Well, you know being raised in a Christian home I grew up scared to death of God you know the legalism that was a part of our holiness movement really messed with my mind and I’m not playing the blame game Sid it’s just that..
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth