{"id":3070,"date":"2023-10-13T07:38:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T11:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3070"},"modified":"2023-10-13T07:39:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T11:39:01","slug":"lord-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/13\/lord-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord, Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>
 
If you lived in Bible times and spoke Hebrew, you were compelled to say a lot with a very limited vocabulary.
 
Scholars have identified just 8,679 unique Hebrew words in the text of the Old Testament.  Compare that to the more than one million words available to modern English speakers.
 
Nor did Hebraic communication have italics, underlining, or bold-face type to provide emphasis. 
 
But they did have an idiom called \u201cdouble address.\u201d
 
About two dozen times, in both Old and New Testaments, someone\u2019s name is spoken twice.  Double address seems to have indicated special emphasis, force, or intimacy.  If you wanted to appeal to someone you knew well, with an extra degree of personal intensity, you might call out their name two times.
 
It\u2019s fascinating that some of the most famous texts in the Bible feature double address.  Here are a few of them \u2013 with an occasional bit of paraphrasing on my part. 
 
\u201cAbraham, Abraham!\u201d says the angel in Genesis 22:11, \u201cput down that knife and don\u2019t take the life of your son Isaac.\u201d
 
\u201cMoses, Moses!\u201d says Yahweh at the burning bush, \u201ctake off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground\u201d (Exodus 3:4).
 
\u201cSamuel, Samuel!\u201d says the Lord in the middle of the night to the young boy who will become one of Israel\u2019s key prophetic leaders (I Samuel 3:10).
 
\u201cOh my son, Absalom.  My son, my son, Absalom!\u201d That\u2019s David\u2019s lament for the death of his son, even though Absalom died while attempting to overthrow his father (2 Samuel 18:33).
 
\u201cSaul, Saul!\u201d says the Lord to the future apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, \u201cwhy do you persecute me?  I have an entirely new job assignment for you\u201d (Acts 9:4).   
 
\u201cMartha, Martha!\u201d says Jesus in Luke 10:41, \u201cplease stop counting the salad forks in the kitchen and come sit alongside your sister Mary\u201d (Luke 10:41).
 
\u201cSimon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.\u201d  Those are the words of Jesus directed to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32.  The first \u201cyou\u201d is plural \u2013 Satan clearly wants to mess with all the disciples \u2013 while the second \u201cyou\u201d is singular.  \u201cI\u2019m praying for you<\/em>, Peter, because all the others are definitely going to need you in the days ahead.\u201d 
 
\u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d  Jesus applied those agonizing words, originally spoken by David in Psalm 22, to himself while hanging on the cross (Matthew 27:46).
 
In each of these contexts there is a powerful personal relationship that is either being affirmed or implied.  Double address connotes something special.<\/em>
 
Which brings us to two places in the New Testament where people cry out to Jesus as if<\/em> they have a special relationship with him \u2013 but they are badly mistaken.
 
The first comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus declares, \u201cNot everyone who says to me, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u201d will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, \u2018Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?\u2019  Then I will tell them plainly, \u2018I never knew you\u2026\u2019\u201d (Matthew 7:21-23). 
 
Perhaps we\u2019ve fantasized about doing something spectacular for the Lord.  Wouldn\u2019t it be incredible to perform an exorcism in Jesus\u2019 name, or to help pull off multiple miracles? 
 
But the dream would become a nightmare if we were to hear Jesus say, \u201cYou missed the whole point.  I wasn\u2019t looking for miracles or exorcisms.  I was actually looking for you<\/em>.\u201d
 
Then there\u2019s Jesus\u2019 parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25.  Ten young women are invited to attend an important wedding in their community.  Five of them are prepared for the big event, having brought sufficient oil for their lamps to participate in the traditional candlelight procession.
 
The other five are caught off guard.  They have to run off quickly and buy oil.
 
When they return they find the door to the celebration has already been shut.  \u201cLord, Lord!\u201d they cry.  \u201cOpen the door for us!\u201d (Matthew 25:10)
 
These five would-be party crashers, having failed to prepare for the most important social event of the season, now boldly use the language of intimacy.  They summon the groom with double address.
 
Jesus is clearly the groom in the parable.  So what does it mean when the five young women without the oil cry out, \u201cLord, Lord\u201d?  They\u2019re saying, \u201cAren\u2019t we best friends, Lord?  Haven\u2019t we gotten really close to each other over the years?\u201d 
 
But saying that and living that are entirely different things. 
 
Look how the Lord replies in verse 12: \u201cI tell you the truth, I don\u2019t know you.\u201d  That doesn\u2019t mean, \u201cI don\u2019t recognize you,\u201d or, \u201cCould you please present two proofs of identify, at least one of which has a recent photo?\u201d
 
Instead, these words are how a rabbi would typically dismiss a student.  They meant, \u201cI am no longer associated with you.\u201d  Here endeth the lesson<\/em>.  You once were enrolled as my apprentice.  But now we\u2019re done with each other. 
 
These are among the most frightening words in all of Scripture.  They\u2019re also among the words most likely to offend modern people.
 
We\u2019re rebuffed by the idea of closed doors.  God\u2019s door is always <\/em>open, right?  Aren\u2019t we entitled to Total Access to God Forever, no matter how we choose to live?
 
According to Jesus:  No<\/em>. 
 
If you are reading these words, the door is still open. 
 
But a relationship with God cannot be faked.  We cannot pretend to know someone whom we have not actually taken the time to know.
 
Living as a follower of Jesus is not about pursuing our own agenda.  It means pursuing God\u2019s<\/em> agenda.
 
And doing so without becoming a \u201cLord, Lord\u201d disciple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you lived in Bible times and spoke Hebrew, you were compelled to say a lot with a very limited vocabulary. Scholars have identified just 8,679 unique Hebrew words in the text of the Old Testament.  Compare that to the more than one million words available to modern English speakers. Nor did Hebraic communication… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-3070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-commitment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3073,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions\/3073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}