1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear it, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around them who respect Him, and He delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the person who trusts in Him.
9 O fear the LORD, all you his holy children: for there is no lacking for them that fear Him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, all you children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What person is it who desires life, and loves many days of life, that they may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking bitterness.
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are upon those who do right, and His ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to them who are of a broken heart; and saves such as are of a sorrowful spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers them out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of his servants: and no one who trust in him shall end in desolation.
Clearly this psalm is an invitation to come to the God of Israel. If we are those who would be trained to go into all the world to all nations and call all people to come to the God of Israel then it is good that we should have this psalm written deeply upon our hearts. How deeply? Deeply enough that it teaches us how to listen to the lost. Hearing the lost nations that they might hear the good news from us is our first assignment. How can this psalm help enable us to do this?
In verse 8 we read, Taste and see that the LORD - the God of Israel - is good. How can the lost nations hear this? How can they understand this? How can they do this?
Let's put Psalms 34:8 together with Deuteronomy 30:15. In giving to Israel the Torah of His will, God says, "See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil".
To taste of the God of Israel is to taste of His will, to taste of the life which He created, to find that there is in that life that which is worth saving. But how can the lost nations taste as fully of life as is needed for them to choose life and good and not death and evil? Paul describes them as being by nature without the Messiah of Israel, without the promise of him, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:12
Indeed, God listens to and hears the cry of the poor person. And there is no one poorer than the lost nations as described by Paul. We also, if we will hear the spiritually poor nations as God hears them will hear what it means to truly be without the ability to taste that life is good, and in the training that we receive from the Messiah of Israel we will learn to help him to bring the taste of the goodness of life even to the most lost of the lost nations of the earth.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
On Zechariah 1:20 (with verse 21)
From Rabbi David Kimichi's (Radak's) Commentary on Zechariah
"Our rabbis of blessed memory have interpreted the verse of the days of the Messiah, saying, " Who are the four carpenters ? R. Simeon Chasida says, They are Messiah, the Son of David ; and Messiah, the son of Joseph, and Elias, and the righteous priest. (Cohen Tsedek.)" [Trans. by Alexander McCaul]
This passage is found in the Talmud. Succah, fol. 52, col. 2, where Rashi says, in his Commentary, on the authority of the Bereshith Rabba, that " The righteous priest" means Shem, the son of Noah, who is there supposed to be identical with Melchizedek. [Notes of Alexander McCaul on this passage.]
This Passage Discussed By The Rabbis of The Talmud
In BT Succah 52b this discussion of the four carpenters/craftsmen is juxtaposed to the teaching that there "are four that the Holy One, Blessed is He, regrets having created. These are: The exile (of the Jewish people), the Chaldeans, the Ishmaelites, and the evil inclination.
By following the Talmudic discussion on this teaching to Micah 4:6 in reference to the Exile we can see the aspect in which these four are one.
In that day, says Hashem, I will assemble her that limps and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have harmed, Micah 4:6.
The Talmud brings the understanding that this is a promise that Israel will be delivered from having an evil inclination. It translates as follows:
"On that day, says Hashem, I will assemble the limping one and gather in the one who is driven away, and the one whom I caused to be evil…"
The Hebrew here conveys the thought that God has afflicted and harmed his people for their evil by doing evil to them. To cure them of doing evil He has brought evil upon them. The Talmud sees in this the hope of God's word that He will cure His people entirely of the evil inclination - which was entirely inherited by Adam when they chose disobedience.
Now, since this is the context of the consideration that God regrets (and therefore will ultimately rectify four forces), we can see also, as well as the evil inclination, the Exile and the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites in this light. The Exile is here in Micah 4:6 shown to be the agency of the rectification of the evil inclination in Israel. So as the evil inclination is "regretted" by God so is the Exile of Israel which would be necessary in the process of rectifying the evil inclination. In this way we can understand also the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites. We can understand the Chaldeans, from whom Abraham was originally brought out, as representative of all the nations among whom Israel has been exiled. We can also understand Ishmael, who is described as a thief and a robber, as representative of all the nations who have stolen the Land of Israel from God and His people.
When, therefore, the purpose of the Exile of Israel is accomplished and both the evil done to her and the potential to do evil is removed from her, this evil aspect of the Chaldeans and of the Ishmaelites will also be rectified. This is the meaning of the Talmudic discussion, that these things, the evil of the Exile, the evil of the Chaldeans, the evil of the Ishmaelites and the evil inclination itself do not have an eternal aspect.
When Will This Be Accomplished and How Will It Be Accomplished?
The discussion in Succah 52b goes on then to speak of three verses that represent God, (as explained in the words of ArtScroll's elucidation in the Schottenstein edition), as "taking responsibility," so to speak, "for the sins caused by the evil inclination". These verses are Micah 4:6, as already given and Jeremiah 18:6 and Ezekiel 36:26.
Applying Jeremiah 18:6 to this subject of the creation and removal of the evil inclination in Adam and Israel, ("Behold, as clay in the hand of the potter so are you", etc.), brings us to understand that in all the exile and chastisement of Israel God is moulding her and therefore all Humanity/Adam toward the final form of creation that He desires. This introduces to us the truth of His sovereignty even over Israel's sins.
Applying Ezekiel 36:26 to this subject of the creation and removal of the evil inclination in Adam and Israel, ("I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh"), directs us to understand that God will not just take responsibility, so to speak, for Israel's sins and leave her in a condition where she can become a sinner again but will do this for the purpose of freeing her from the possibility of ever becoming a sinner again.
The language that the Talmud itself uses to speak of God, so to speak, taking responsibility for Israel's sin is this:
"Were it not for these three verses the feet of the enemies of of Israel would falter." The ArtScroll Schottenstein edition of the Talmud elucidates and explains that the expression here, "the enemies of Israel" is a euphemism for the Jews themselves. In other words, were it not for what is revealed in these three verses the Jews would falter when coming to stand before the judgment of God.
Why is this euphemism used here? It is in the sense that the Jews would not have the role of condemning themselves in God's courtroom, but rather the nations, the enemies of Israel would serve as their prosecutor. However, it is instructive to realize that when these three verses come to defend Israel by revealing that God Himself will take responsibility, so to speak, for Israel's sins, then the prosecutors of Israel are found to be seeking to prosecute God and not Israel.
At this point the expression becomes no longer a euphemism for the Jews but a literal expression that indeed means that the enemies of Israel come into judgment themselves - for seeking to prosecute God Himself. Nevertheless, the statement of the Talmud then stands open to being read in full as literal: If it were not for these three verses the enemies of Israel would falter. That is to say that even as Israel is delivered from condemnation when God takes responsibility, so to speak, for her sins, so her prosecutors are also delivered from condemnation for having sought to prosecute her. For they cannot prosecute God. So we see that when the evil of the Exile is removed when the evil inclination is removed, so the evil of the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites is removed.
This discussion began with reference to the statement of the Talmud that there are four (things) that God regrets. We might be reminded of the statement from Genesis 6:6. "And Hashem regretted that he had made Adam on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." This statement is a reference to the evil inclination in Adam, which they inherited entirely when they chose disobedience. That Adam was utterly dominated by the evil inclination through disobedience toward God is demonstrated by the need for God to erase Adam entirely from the face of the earth by the great Flood. Only for the sake of His sovereign grace was Noah preserved, together with eight souls. This was the grace of God through which He preserved a remnant of Adam in order to be able to create Israel for Himself, through which He would, in time, rectify the evil inclination itself.
This association brings us back to our passage under primary discussion, Zechariah 1:20 (with verse 21), where one of the four carpenters/craftsmen is said to be "the righteous priest," and it is explained to us that this is Malkitzedek, who is Shem, the son of Noah. While Malkitzedek is listed last as one of the four carpenters/craftsmen in the Talmud, we can understand that in the way that he represents one aspect of the removal of the evil inclination from Israel, so the other three who are named, Messiah the son of David, Messiah the son of Joseph and Elijah, represent three the aspects of the removal of the evil inclination from Israel.
We can understand that this passage from Zechariah is understood by the Talmud to have to do with the removal of the evil inclination from Israel in that it is set in the context of the lengthy discussion of the evil inclination that is found here in the tractate of Succah and specifically in the context of the teaching about the four things that God regrets and the three verses that deliver the "enemies of Israel" from faltering in judgment, as discussed above.
Messiah the son of David is listed first and it is clear that he might be prophetically called a craftsman because he will rebuild the Temple. How can the building of the Temple be understood as an aspect of the action of overthrowing the four empires, the four horns (see Zechariah 1:21) of the nations which have scattered Israel and of the process of removing the evil inclination from Israel, as discussed above? Insomuch that the Temple below is a replica of the Temple Above and the Temple below cannot be built except as the Temple Above is built we can see that the building of the Temple does correspond to the removal of the evil inclination from Israel. God cannot fully dwell again with Adam, cannot live in a Temple with Adam, except through the complete removal of the evil inclination from Adam. To the extent that evil is removed from Adam and the inclination to evil is removed from Adam, to that extent God can once again embrace Adam. This is the work, then, of the Messiah the son of David.
The Messiah the son of Joseph is also said to build the Temple and in this way can also be understood to be called a craftsman, a carpenter. How do we see that there is an understanding of the Messiah in Scripture which is not fully revealed in the aspect of the Messiah as the son of David? A hint to this is already given in the relationship of King David and King Solomon. The first son of David and builder of the Temple is King Solomon. And yet King Solomon as the builder of the Temple does not build it without having been given the design and all preparations for its building by King David his father. This pattern of one anointed king building the Temple on the basis of the work of another anointed king who comes before him is not revealed in order to bring the focus of revelation upon King David himself alone but rather to show that as there is a revealed aspect of the anointing and the building of the Temple, so there is a concealed aspect of the anointing and the building of the Temple. For King David also himself received the revelation of the pattern of the Temple through the prophet Samuel.
It is also clearly understood that while the Temple pattern as revealed to David through Samuel and built by Solomon brought unique aspects of revelation to Israel, the basic pattern, as the pattern of the dwelling place of God with Israel, was the pattern of the Tabernacle, as revealed to Moses. Now the Tabernacle itself was not revealed except in association with the sin of the golden calf and the preservation of Israel in the face of that sin by the putting of the tribe of Levi in the position of the priesthood in place of the firstborn of Israel. The putting of the tribe of Levi in this position was made possible by the fact that Jacob had before selected Ephraim and Manasseh the sons of Joseph to be tribes to him "as Reuben and Simeon." It was possible for the tribe of Levi to be set apart in the position of the priesthood and yet there still be twelve tribes of Israel. And this was made possible before hand through Joseph's separation from Israel and his restoration again to him, as if from the dead.
So then, there is the aspect of the Temple being formally built and revealed which is represented by King Solomon and by the Messiah the son of David and there is the aspect of the Temple being prepared, as it were by the architect, which is a process that is mostly concealed from the world, which is the tradition received from Moses himself by King David through Samuel. And this is the aspect of Joseph and his son Ephraim, the aspect of Messiah the son of Joseph, the concealed aspect of Messiah.
We see then that whether in the aspect of Messiah son of David or Messiah son of Joseph, the evil inclination in Israel is addressed in the building of the Temple and that all comes from God, the God of Israel. And this is the testimony that we find is given by Elijah as the third carpenter/craftsman listed by this teaching of the Talmud.
We must ask how it is that Elijah built an altar to God on Mount Carmel, how this altar, which was not in the Temple of God was an aspect of the Temple of God and an aspect, therefore of the rectification of the evil inclination of Adam in Israel and therefore of the evil of the Exile and of the nations themselves. That Elijah should build this altar on Mount Carmel and sacrifice on a high place at the time of the prohibition of high places, and that this should be accepted by God was tantamount to declaring that the Temple was nullified and would be destroyed and rebuilt. In this was signified that in the spiritual architecture of the Temple itself was the aspect of its being destroyed and rebuilt. In this aspect the whole of the Tabernacle and the whole of the Temple was, as it were an altar to God, like the altar that Elijah built out from twelve stones, to signify that it was in and through the death and resurrection of Israel that God would dwell with Adam forever.
Elijah brought this work, which was the work of the Spirit of God, into the heart of Israel in order to prepare Israel to know and understand that the true God is the God of Israel, the only Power. And this work of the carpenter Elijah was to prepare Israel for the full Exile, the full chastisement, the concealed work of the Messiah that would lead to the revealed work of the Messiah in the final building of the Temple before the face of the nations.
At the time when Abraham retuned from his triumph over the four kings he was met by the righteous priest, Malkitzedek, the king of Salem. Genesis Rabbah teaches that this meeting is commemorated in Isaiah 41:7. On the first level it seems that Isaiah 41:6-7 speaks only of the gentiles constructing their idols. When we look harder we see that the reason for the interpretation of the Midrash becomes apparent.
On the next level we see that the context here is that of Cyrus the Persian, ("…who raised up the righteous man from the east…, verse 2), overcoming the Babylonians and allowing for the return of Judah to the Land of Israel. This is also one level of the interpretation of the vision given to Zechariah of the four horns and the four carpenters.
The four horns that scatter Israel are the same kingdoms, beginning with Persia which are used to destroy one another, and thus serve also in the aspect of carpenters to this degree. The only difference on this level between the horns and the carpenters is that the first horn, Babylon never serves as a carpenter to destroy the kingdom that comes before it and the final kingdom used as a carpenter to destroy the kingdom that came before it is Israel itself, which destroys the last of the four horns.
Therefore we see that this passage as a whole is also speaking of the very same prophecy as the overcoming of the four kings by Abraham and the time when he returns and is met by Malkitzedek. Now we know that it was not Lot who the four kings desired to take captive but Abraham himself and Lot was taken captive when it was found impossible to take Abraham captive. But when is it found to be impossible for the nations to take Israel captive? It is at the end of days, when God removes the evil inclination from Israel and takes responsibility, so to speak, for the evil inclination of Israel Himself. And this, therefore, can be seen on the deeper level to be the time to which Isaiah refers in his prophecy.
For on this next level we see that God has called the nations into His courtroom that it might be determined whether their gods are indeed gods at all. This is the final case to be judged in God's courtroom of history, the case for which Elijah has prepared Israel on Mount Carmel and through which he has guided them through the Exile to follow.
From this perspective, from the heights of Mount Carmel, as it were, we look back down on the first levels of understanding Isaiah 41:7 and we see that at the commandment of God the nations, the coastlands, the continents have come and have witnessed the salvation of Israel, the resurrection, as it were, of Israel from the dead, and they have trembled with fear and like Lot they have tried to understand but all their understanding is informed only by their knowledge of idolatry. Nevertheless, concealed within this very courtroom scene is a deeper truth. This is the truth that in the deliverance of Abraham and Israel from the evil inclination the nations themselves are also delivered from their evil and therefore from their idolatry.
The Chaldeans are delivered finally from their blood-guiltiness in trying to capture Abraham and refine him by fire, as though he were the idol that they could refine in fire and thereby please the gods. And Ishmael is delivered finally from the eternal liability of having holy property in his possession which belongs to another. Finally, being delivered from their enmity toward Israel through the salvation and defence of Israel by God, by the revelation of Israel as God's dwelling place in His world through the carpentry of Messiah the son of David and the drafting of the work by Messiah the son of Joseph, the nations become, as students of Shem, true children of Noah. They bless Abraham and are blessed by Abraham.
God called the nations, the continents, to His courtroom of history and "the continents saw" - Malkitzedek/Shem saw and feared Abraham and Abraham saw and feared Malkitzedek. Each feared the other because they saw that each was destined in the hand of God to bring about the chastisement of the other for the sake of removing the evil inclination from the world. Shem feared knowing that without God's grace toward Israel all the nails and boards with which he helped his father build the ark would be for nothing.
Thus his fear of Abraham was greater nails and greater boards than those that built the ark. And Abraham feared knowing that in destroying the kings of Elam he would be destroying the descendants of Shem, and if so would he prophetically not be destroying the whole line of Noah and Shem and therefore himself also. Would he not be destroying the hope of the world, the promise of grace preserved through Noah? Abraham feared for there was no hope at all except the resurrection of the dead, and who was there to presume upon the ways of the Creator?
Yet even as on this level, while fear could not save Abraham nor Shem but leave them only with the wisdom of their own understanding, the idolatry of their own thoughts, on a level the source of which they could not account for, their fear of one another was turned into love and "each one aided his fellow." Shem aided Abraham with blessings, and Abraham aided Shem with gifts.
"And the craftsman aided the refiner." Shem who had helped build the ark now crafted fear of Abraham into honour of Abraham and in so doing, like many gentiles would do after him, brought well-fashioned nails and boards unto the spirit of Messiah for the building of the Temple. And Abraham who was the one who was refined by God for the refinement of many souls, through the deliverance from the evil inclination, was strengthened by Shem coming to him and he gave a tithe unto Malkitzedek from everything. He gave to him a portion of the regeneration of souls which he received in overcoming the kingdoms of the world, just as it was said unto him, "All the families of the earth shall be blessed in you."
Abraham is "the sledge hammer" who smote all the kings of the world at one time when he rescued Lot, the idol worshipper, who worshipped Mammon and not God, and brought him back and overcame his own evil inclination by the power of his Saviour, whom he recognized accordingly as the Saviour of Lot also, and he acknowledged this when he saw Shem coming to him and understood therein the prophecy of the nations saying, "It is good to cleave, like cement to Abraham's God rather than to serve Nimrod's idols."
Thus it is that Abraham and Shem together turned the evil inclination of fear and its understanding, the idolatry of the human heart and mind, into fellowship and worship of the true God. Therefore it is written, "And you, Israel My servant…do not fear for I am with you."
"Our rabbis of blessed memory have interpreted the verse of the days of the Messiah, saying, " Who are the four carpenters ? R. Simeon Chasida says, They are Messiah, the Son of David ; and Messiah, the son of Joseph, and Elias, and the righteous priest. (Cohen Tsedek.)" [Trans. by Alexander McCaul]
This passage is found in the Talmud. Succah, fol. 52, col. 2, where Rashi says, in his Commentary, on the authority of the Bereshith Rabba, that " The righteous priest" means Shem, the son of Noah, who is there supposed to be identical with Melchizedek. [Notes of Alexander McCaul on this passage.]
This Passage Discussed By The Rabbis of The Talmud
In BT Succah 52b this discussion of the four carpenters/craftsmen is juxtaposed to the teaching that there "are four that the Holy One, Blessed is He, regrets having created. These are: The exile (of the Jewish people), the Chaldeans, the Ishmaelites, and the evil inclination.
By following the Talmudic discussion on this teaching to Micah 4:6 in reference to the Exile we can see the aspect in which these four are one.
In that day, says Hashem, I will assemble her that limps and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have harmed, Micah 4:6.
The Talmud brings the understanding that this is a promise that Israel will be delivered from having an evil inclination. It translates as follows:
"On that day, says Hashem, I will assemble the limping one and gather in the one who is driven away, and the one whom I caused to be evil…"
The Hebrew here conveys the thought that God has afflicted and harmed his people for their evil by doing evil to them. To cure them of doing evil He has brought evil upon them. The Talmud sees in this the hope of God's word that He will cure His people entirely of the evil inclination - which was entirely inherited by Adam when they chose disobedience.
Now, since this is the context of the consideration that God regrets (and therefore will ultimately rectify four forces), we can see also, as well as the evil inclination, the Exile and the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites in this light. The Exile is here in Micah 4:6 shown to be the agency of the rectification of the evil inclination in Israel. So as the evil inclination is "regretted" by God so is the Exile of Israel which would be necessary in the process of rectifying the evil inclination. In this way we can understand also the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites. We can understand the Chaldeans, from whom Abraham was originally brought out, as representative of all the nations among whom Israel has been exiled. We can also understand Ishmael, who is described as a thief and a robber, as representative of all the nations who have stolen the Land of Israel from God and His people.
When, therefore, the purpose of the Exile of Israel is accomplished and both the evil done to her and the potential to do evil is removed from her, this evil aspect of the Chaldeans and of the Ishmaelites will also be rectified. This is the meaning of the Talmudic discussion, that these things, the evil of the Exile, the evil of the Chaldeans, the evil of the Ishmaelites and the evil inclination itself do not have an eternal aspect.
When Will This Be Accomplished and How Will It Be Accomplished?
The discussion in Succah 52b goes on then to speak of three verses that represent God, (as explained in the words of ArtScroll's elucidation in the Schottenstein edition), as "taking responsibility," so to speak, "for the sins caused by the evil inclination". These verses are Micah 4:6, as already given and Jeremiah 18:6 and Ezekiel 36:26.
Applying Jeremiah 18:6 to this subject of the creation and removal of the evil inclination in Adam and Israel, ("Behold, as clay in the hand of the potter so are you", etc.), brings us to understand that in all the exile and chastisement of Israel God is moulding her and therefore all Humanity/Adam toward the final form of creation that He desires. This introduces to us the truth of His sovereignty even over Israel's sins.
Applying Ezekiel 36:26 to this subject of the creation and removal of the evil inclination in Adam and Israel, ("I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh"), directs us to understand that God will not just take responsibility, so to speak, for Israel's sins and leave her in a condition where she can become a sinner again but will do this for the purpose of freeing her from the possibility of ever becoming a sinner again.
The language that the Talmud itself uses to speak of God, so to speak, taking responsibility for Israel's sin is this:
"Were it not for these three verses the feet of the enemies of of Israel would falter." The ArtScroll Schottenstein edition of the Talmud elucidates and explains that the expression here, "the enemies of Israel" is a euphemism for the Jews themselves. In other words, were it not for what is revealed in these three verses the Jews would falter when coming to stand before the judgment of God.
Why is this euphemism used here? It is in the sense that the Jews would not have the role of condemning themselves in God's courtroom, but rather the nations, the enemies of Israel would serve as their prosecutor. However, it is instructive to realize that when these three verses come to defend Israel by revealing that God Himself will take responsibility, so to speak, for Israel's sins, then the prosecutors of Israel are found to be seeking to prosecute God and not Israel.
At this point the expression becomes no longer a euphemism for the Jews but a literal expression that indeed means that the enemies of Israel come into judgment themselves - for seeking to prosecute God Himself. Nevertheless, the statement of the Talmud then stands open to being read in full as literal: If it were not for these three verses the enemies of Israel would falter. That is to say that even as Israel is delivered from condemnation when God takes responsibility, so to speak, for her sins, so her prosecutors are also delivered from condemnation for having sought to prosecute her. For they cannot prosecute God. So we see that when the evil of the Exile is removed when the evil inclination is removed, so the evil of the Chaldeans and the Ishmaelites is removed.
This discussion began with reference to the statement of the Talmud that there are four (things) that God regrets. We might be reminded of the statement from Genesis 6:6. "And Hashem regretted that he had made Adam on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." This statement is a reference to the evil inclination in Adam, which they inherited entirely when they chose disobedience. That Adam was utterly dominated by the evil inclination through disobedience toward God is demonstrated by the need for God to erase Adam entirely from the face of the earth by the great Flood. Only for the sake of His sovereign grace was Noah preserved, together with eight souls. This was the grace of God through which He preserved a remnant of Adam in order to be able to create Israel for Himself, through which He would, in time, rectify the evil inclination itself.
This association brings us back to our passage under primary discussion, Zechariah 1:20 (with verse 21), where one of the four carpenters/craftsmen is said to be "the righteous priest," and it is explained to us that this is Malkitzedek, who is Shem, the son of Noah. While Malkitzedek is listed last as one of the four carpenters/craftsmen in the Talmud, we can understand that in the way that he represents one aspect of the removal of the evil inclination from Israel, so the other three who are named, Messiah the son of David, Messiah the son of Joseph and Elijah, represent three the aspects of the removal of the evil inclination from Israel.
We can understand that this passage from Zechariah is understood by the Talmud to have to do with the removal of the evil inclination from Israel in that it is set in the context of the lengthy discussion of the evil inclination that is found here in the tractate of Succah and specifically in the context of the teaching about the four things that God regrets and the three verses that deliver the "enemies of Israel" from faltering in judgment, as discussed above.
Messiah the son of David is listed first and it is clear that he might be prophetically called a craftsman because he will rebuild the Temple. How can the building of the Temple be understood as an aspect of the action of overthrowing the four empires, the four horns (see Zechariah 1:21) of the nations which have scattered Israel and of the process of removing the evil inclination from Israel, as discussed above? Insomuch that the Temple below is a replica of the Temple Above and the Temple below cannot be built except as the Temple Above is built we can see that the building of the Temple does correspond to the removal of the evil inclination from Israel. God cannot fully dwell again with Adam, cannot live in a Temple with Adam, except through the complete removal of the evil inclination from Adam. To the extent that evil is removed from Adam and the inclination to evil is removed from Adam, to that extent God can once again embrace Adam. This is the work, then, of the Messiah the son of David.
The Messiah the son of Joseph is also said to build the Temple and in this way can also be understood to be called a craftsman, a carpenter. How do we see that there is an understanding of the Messiah in Scripture which is not fully revealed in the aspect of the Messiah as the son of David? A hint to this is already given in the relationship of King David and King Solomon. The first son of David and builder of the Temple is King Solomon. And yet King Solomon as the builder of the Temple does not build it without having been given the design and all preparations for its building by King David his father. This pattern of one anointed king building the Temple on the basis of the work of another anointed king who comes before him is not revealed in order to bring the focus of revelation upon King David himself alone but rather to show that as there is a revealed aspect of the anointing and the building of the Temple, so there is a concealed aspect of the anointing and the building of the Temple. For King David also himself received the revelation of the pattern of the Temple through the prophet Samuel.
It is also clearly understood that while the Temple pattern as revealed to David through Samuel and built by Solomon brought unique aspects of revelation to Israel, the basic pattern, as the pattern of the dwelling place of God with Israel, was the pattern of the Tabernacle, as revealed to Moses. Now the Tabernacle itself was not revealed except in association with the sin of the golden calf and the preservation of Israel in the face of that sin by the putting of the tribe of Levi in the position of the priesthood in place of the firstborn of Israel. The putting of the tribe of Levi in this position was made possible by the fact that Jacob had before selected Ephraim and Manasseh the sons of Joseph to be tribes to him "as Reuben and Simeon." It was possible for the tribe of Levi to be set apart in the position of the priesthood and yet there still be twelve tribes of Israel. And this was made possible before hand through Joseph's separation from Israel and his restoration again to him, as if from the dead.
So then, there is the aspect of the Temple being formally built and revealed which is represented by King Solomon and by the Messiah the son of David and there is the aspect of the Temple being prepared, as it were by the architect, which is a process that is mostly concealed from the world, which is the tradition received from Moses himself by King David through Samuel. And this is the aspect of Joseph and his son Ephraim, the aspect of Messiah the son of Joseph, the concealed aspect of Messiah.
We see then that whether in the aspect of Messiah son of David or Messiah son of Joseph, the evil inclination in Israel is addressed in the building of the Temple and that all comes from God, the God of Israel. And this is the testimony that we find is given by Elijah as the third carpenter/craftsman listed by this teaching of the Talmud.
We must ask how it is that Elijah built an altar to God on Mount Carmel, how this altar, which was not in the Temple of God was an aspect of the Temple of God and an aspect, therefore of the rectification of the evil inclination of Adam in Israel and therefore of the evil of the Exile and of the nations themselves. That Elijah should build this altar on Mount Carmel and sacrifice on a high place at the time of the prohibition of high places, and that this should be accepted by God was tantamount to declaring that the Temple was nullified and would be destroyed and rebuilt. In this was signified that in the spiritual architecture of the Temple itself was the aspect of its being destroyed and rebuilt. In this aspect the whole of the Tabernacle and the whole of the Temple was, as it were an altar to God, like the altar that Elijah built out from twelve stones, to signify that it was in and through the death and resurrection of Israel that God would dwell with Adam forever.
Elijah brought this work, which was the work of the Spirit of God, into the heart of Israel in order to prepare Israel to know and understand that the true God is the God of Israel, the only Power. And this work of the carpenter Elijah was to prepare Israel for the full Exile, the full chastisement, the concealed work of the Messiah that would lead to the revealed work of the Messiah in the final building of the Temple before the face of the nations.
At the time when Abraham retuned from his triumph over the four kings he was met by the righteous priest, Malkitzedek, the king of Salem. Genesis Rabbah teaches that this meeting is commemorated in Isaiah 41:7. On the first level it seems that Isaiah 41:6-7 speaks only of the gentiles constructing their idols. When we look harder we see that the reason for the interpretation of the Midrash becomes apparent.
On the next level we see that the context here is that of Cyrus the Persian, ("…who raised up the righteous man from the east…, verse 2), overcoming the Babylonians and allowing for the return of Judah to the Land of Israel. This is also one level of the interpretation of the vision given to Zechariah of the four horns and the four carpenters.
The four horns that scatter Israel are the same kingdoms, beginning with Persia which are used to destroy one another, and thus serve also in the aspect of carpenters to this degree. The only difference on this level between the horns and the carpenters is that the first horn, Babylon never serves as a carpenter to destroy the kingdom that comes before it and the final kingdom used as a carpenter to destroy the kingdom that came before it is Israel itself, which destroys the last of the four horns.
Therefore we see that this passage as a whole is also speaking of the very same prophecy as the overcoming of the four kings by Abraham and the time when he returns and is met by Malkitzedek. Now we know that it was not Lot who the four kings desired to take captive but Abraham himself and Lot was taken captive when it was found impossible to take Abraham captive. But when is it found to be impossible for the nations to take Israel captive? It is at the end of days, when God removes the evil inclination from Israel and takes responsibility, so to speak, for the evil inclination of Israel Himself. And this, therefore, can be seen on the deeper level to be the time to which Isaiah refers in his prophecy.
For on this next level we see that God has called the nations into His courtroom that it might be determined whether their gods are indeed gods at all. This is the final case to be judged in God's courtroom of history, the case for which Elijah has prepared Israel on Mount Carmel and through which he has guided them through the Exile to follow.
From this perspective, from the heights of Mount Carmel, as it were, we look back down on the first levels of understanding Isaiah 41:7 and we see that at the commandment of God the nations, the coastlands, the continents have come and have witnessed the salvation of Israel, the resurrection, as it were, of Israel from the dead, and they have trembled with fear and like Lot they have tried to understand but all their understanding is informed only by their knowledge of idolatry. Nevertheless, concealed within this very courtroom scene is a deeper truth. This is the truth that in the deliverance of Abraham and Israel from the evil inclination the nations themselves are also delivered from their evil and therefore from their idolatry.
The Chaldeans are delivered finally from their blood-guiltiness in trying to capture Abraham and refine him by fire, as though he were the idol that they could refine in fire and thereby please the gods. And Ishmael is delivered finally from the eternal liability of having holy property in his possession which belongs to another. Finally, being delivered from their enmity toward Israel through the salvation and defence of Israel by God, by the revelation of Israel as God's dwelling place in His world through the carpentry of Messiah the son of David and the drafting of the work by Messiah the son of Joseph, the nations become, as students of Shem, true children of Noah. They bless Abraham and are blessed by Abraham.
God called the nations, the continents, to His courtroom of history and "the continents saw" - Malkitzedek/Shem saw and feared Abraham and Abraham saw and feared Malkitzedek. Each feared the other because they saw that each was destined in the hand of God to bring about the chastisement of the other for the sake of removing the evil inclination from the world. Shem feared knowing that without God's grace toward Israel all the nails and boards with which he helped his father build the ark would be for nothing.
Thus his fear of Abraham was greater nails and greater boards than those that built the ark. And Abraham feared knowing that in destroying the kings of Elam he would be destroying the descendants of Shem, and if so would he prophetically not be destroying the whole line of Noah and Shem and therefore himself also. Would he not be destroying the hope of the world, the promise of grace preserved through Noah? Abraham feared for there was no hope at all except the resurrection of the dead, and who was there to presume upon the ways of the Creator?
Yet even as on this level, while fear could not save Abraham nor Shem but leave them only with the wisdom of their own understanding, the idolatry of their own thoughts, on a level the source of which they could not account for, their fear of one another was turned into love and "each one aided his fellow." Shem aided Abraham with blessings, and Abraham aided Shem with gifts.
"And the craftsman aided the refiner." Shem who had helped build the ark now crafted fear of Abraham into honour of Abraham and in so doing, like many gentiles would do after him, brought well-fashioned nails and boards unto the spirit of Messiah for the building of the Temple. And Abraham who was the one who was refined by God for the refinement of many souls, through the deliverance from the evil inclination, was strengthened by Shem coming to him and he gave a tithe unto Malkitzedek from everything. He gave to him a portion of the regeneration of souls which he received in overcoming the kingdoms of the world, just as it was said unto him, "All the families of the earth shall be blessed in you."
Abraham is "the sledge hammer" who smote all the kings of the world at one time when he rescued Lot, the idol worshipper, who worshipped Mammon and not God, and brought him back and overcame his own evil inclination by the power of his Saviour, whom he recognized accordingly as the Saviour of Lot also, and he acknowledged this when he saw Shem coming to him and understood therein the prophecy of the nations saying, "It is good to cleave, like cement to Abraham's God rather than to serve Nimrod's idols."
Thus it is that Abraham and Shem together turned the evil inclination of fear and its understanding, the idolatry of the human heart and mind, into fellowship and worship of the true God. Therefore it is written, "And you, Israel My servant…do not fear for I am with you."
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