Sinat Chinam (Part 1)

Thank you very much, Jamie. A beautiful song. Excellent words, excellent music.

Performed quite well. We certainly do very much appreciate that. I'm trying to get my audio here set before we go. As I said before, I apologize. I am going to end up running over a little bit today.

Do what I can to try to keep it as close to the hour as possible, but I can tell you right now, we're going to run long. So, dig in, buckle up, as they say, and off we go. So, we're going to be talking today about a topic that is one that I've been developing for some time, and it's one that I've been working on for a little while. And frankly, it's a challenging topic to develop, because it's one that needs to be done right. It's one that needs to be done in the right way. It's one that needs to be not just spoken in the right way, but taken in the right way. And it is a topic that I think is important to us in the church today, as it was important to the Jews during the time of the fifth century, as well as the early first century. This past Tuesday, July 21st, at sundown, marked the beginning of the Jewish month of Av. Now, it's a noteworthy date for the Jewish people, because it marks the beginning of a countdown that is known as the nine days.

Now, the nine days that follow the beginning of the month of Av mark kind of the final nine days of a three-week period of national fasting and mourning, which began on the 17th of Temuz.

17th of Temuz this year in the calendar corresponds to July 9th. And these nine days represent an increasing intensity of mourning as they build toward the culmination of this entire time period, which is a nationwide day of fasting and mourning on the ninth of the month of Av, a day known as Tish B'Av. The Tish B'Av simply means the ninth of Av. The ninth of Av is set aside as a date in the Jewish faith as a day of great national suffering. It's a day of mourning, it's a day of tragedy, it's a day of fasting, of sackcloth, of ashes, of repentance, of self-reflection, and it's designated as such because of the number of national tragedies that have occurred to the Jewish people on this date throughout history. So the ninth of Av has been recorded throughout Jewish history as a date which a whole lot of horrible things happened to the nation of Israel. A couple of examples. The Jewish people record that after the Israelites received the false report of the spies that went into Canaan, they rebelled against Moses and Aaron's leadership, and that date was the ninth of Av, which resulted in their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and the death of that generation of Israelites before they could ultimately enter the promised land. On the ninth of Av, Solomon's temple was destroyed by the armies of the Babylonians in what's believed to be 586 BC. 657 years later, the Romans broke through Jerusalem's walls on the 17th of Tamuz, hence the beginning of the time of fasting, and they razed the temple to the ground, entering its holy of holies and destroying it on the ninth of Av in 70 AD. The Romans put down the Bar Kokhba Rebellion, an attempt by the Jewish people to overthrow Roman rule in 133 AD, when the remaining rebels were butchered on the ninth of Av in the Battle of Bataar. One year later, on the ninth of Av, 134 AD, the Romans plowed over the site of the Temple Mount.

1290 AD, the Jews were expelled from England on Tishbaw, and a couple of hundred years later, on the ninth of Av in 1492, they were banished from Spain as well. Now, in addition, as if that weren't enough, you know, issues that the Jews have faced over the years with regards to the ninth of Av. In addition to all of those events, on the ninth of Av in 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia about one month after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist on...or Serbian nationalist, about a month later. July 28, 1914, was the official date, which was the ninth of Av. A number of historians consider World War II to simply be a continuation of ongoing tensions that remained after the declaration of armistice, kind of just simmering in the background while all the sides rebuilt their military forces, but that has led the Jewish people to believe and to conclude that the Holocaust truly began...the events that led to the Holocaust, I should say, truly began on Tishbaw in 1914.

Now, we might conclude, ultimately, that that last one's a little bit of a stretch, but the events of Tishbaw throughout Jewish history have led the Jewish people to conclude that God Himself has set this day...not today, but Tishbaw, the ninth of Av, next Wednesday aside for the Jews as a day of national suffering. Tishbaw this year begins at sundown this coming Wednesday night, which means that this Sabbath is the final Sabbath of the three during the three-week period known as Shabbat Chazan. This is the Sabbath where they read from the hafterer portion for the Torah...after the Torah service, they read what is known as the third rebuke. We're going to turn over there today...I apologize, my throat's acting up...we're going to turn over there today to the book of Isaiah, which is where this third rebuke is located, Isaiah 1, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in Isaiah 1. Pardon me. Isaiah 1. And while we're turning there, I want to make it abundantly clear, as we're doing this, and as we're undergoing this particular exercise, I want to make it abundantly clear we are not Jewish. We're not doing this today as some sort of an exercise in fulfilling any kind of requirements of the Jewish faith. We're examining this today because God chose Israel as His special people. He revealed to them His law. He sent them His word to preserve. He gave them the oracles. He sent them His prophets. He sent them the Messiah. And as a result of this, through God's plan to work with all of mankind, there are a great deal of parallels between what we refer to as physical Israel, the 12 tribes that ultimately descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and the Zion of God, which is spiritual Israel, you know, those whom God has called at this time. So when we look at Scripture, there are pitfalls. There are land mines that we run across. There are parallels. There are analogies, all of which we as members of spiritual Israel can take note of, we can learn from, and those things can ultimately help us to grow in our own faith and our understanding of God. And so I want to be clear. We're not doing this today because we're Jewish. We're doing this because there are parallels and analogies and pitfalls and land mines that we as spiritual Israel can learn from during these times. Isaiah 1, and we'll pick it up in verse 1. Once again, this passage is the final of the three readings that are known as the Three of Rebuk. The first two Sabbaths of the three-week mourning period, beginning on the 17th of Tammuz, read selected passages and selective readings from the first four chapters of Jeremiah. Then the final of those rebukes is found here in Isaiah 1, 1 through 27, which is read today on Shabbat Corazon. We'll begin in verse 1. We're going to read through verse 27. It says, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, here are O heavens and Gevir, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. He says, Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evil doers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. Why again, or why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. Even from the sole of the foot to the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. It says, verse 7, Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land in your presence, and it's desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city, unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant we would have become like Sodom.

We would have become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.

Give ear to the Lord, or give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I've had enough burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls and goats, or blood of bulls or of lambs and goats, I should say. When you come to appear before me, verse 12, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? It says, Bring no more futile sacrifices, incenses, and abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They're a trouble to me, I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you, even though you make many prayers. I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Verse 16, he says, Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evils of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Verse 18, he says, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord is spoken.

He goes on in verse 21 to say how the faithful city has become a harlot.

It was full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. Says they don't defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

Therefore, the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies, and I will turn my hand against you. Thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all of your alloy. I will restore your judges as at the first, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterwards you shall be called the city of the righteous, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. That's pretty powerful words. You know, God lays out in many ways his case against Israel, the fact that his children are rebellious. He states they don't know him. They're sinful, they're laden with iniquity, they provoke him to anger, and he asks the question almost rhetorically, but what good would it be to strike you again? You know, when you're getting the attention of your children, when you're raising them up, often there's a degree of discipline that occurs. God says, what good would it do? Your whole being is sick. Your sores are unbound, they're infected, they're gathering flies, they're putrefying, the land's desolate, it's burning, there's strangers devouring the land, and they've overthrown it. He goes as far as saying if it weren't for a small faithful remnant, that Judah, much like Sodom and Gomorrah, would be destroyed.

He tells them of all the things that they do, their assemblies, their prayers, their offerings, their sacrifices. He says they're loathsome to him. Instead, he gives them instructions, and in verse 16 is where he gives those instructions. He says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away your evil, cease from doing evil, and learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor.

Defend the fatherless and plead for the cause of the widow. He gives them encouragement. He says, even though your sins are like scarlet, they'll be white as snow. I'll forgive them, he says.

And he says, if they're willing and they're obedient, that they'll eat the good of the land.

But if they rebel and if they do evil, they will be devoured by the sword.

He informs them the city of Jerusalem has become a harlot.

She was once full of justice and righteousness, but not anymore. No, now it's full of murderers. He says the silver has actually become entirely dross. There is no pure metal remaining. It's all dross. It's all to be thrown away. You know, the princes are rebellious. They don't defend the fatherless or hear the cause of the widow. And God says, because of this, I will rid myself of my adversaries and I will take vengeance on my enemies. Says those who are in opposition to him. He will turn his hand against them. He will purge the dross, purge the alloy, and will restore judgment and justice, making Israel and Jerusalem once again righteous and faithful.

But the transgressors and the sinners and those that forsake the Lord, he says, they will be consumed. So coming into this national day of fasting of Tishbaw this coming Wednesday, when the Jews mourn the destruction of the temple and they think about all these other national tragedies that have occurred on this date through history, this passage and the words of God that are contained within it are the last scripture that was read to them before that day at the Sabbath services. It's in the back of their mind and it's in their thoughts. Why did God consume Jerusalem with the sword? Why did he destroy the temple? Because the whole entire body was sick. Head and heart. Now we get a more complete picture from corroborating all the other prophetic accounts. We won't take time to do that today. You know, you've read through the prophets, both major and minor. We know that God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to his people, and more or less, they didn't listen. You know, God said they wouldn't stand up for the fatherless, the widow. They wouldn't cleanse themselves of their sins, you know, sexual morality and idolatry, and they wouldn't learn to do good. They didn't seek the justice. They didn't rebuke the oppressor. Instead, they perverted justice. They became oppressors of their own countrymen. They continued in their sins. They were companions of thieves. They took bribes. They took advantage of orphans and widows. They killed the prophets. They shed innocent blood, and they largely refused to repent and turn to God when he sent his prophets with that message of repentance. But it's interesting to consider those actions didn't stop with the destruction of the first temple. Jerusalem went into captivity in Babylon. Eventually, they returned to their homeland. More or less, Scripture is pretty quiet during the inter-testamental period. But when the curtain rises on the land of Israel in the first in the early first century, we see that very little has changed. They're still oppressing the fatherless and the widow. Christ says they are devouring widows' houses. In fact, they're not seeking justice. They're putting burdens on their brethren that they wouldn't themselves bear. They were looking for ways to break out of their oaths. They were paying out bribes and blood money. They were perverting justice. And did they cause the shedding of innocent blood? You bet. Yes, they did. This coming restoration of righteousness, this city of Jerusalem becoming a city of righteousness in a faithful city, has that happened yet?

I mean, temporarily, maybe you could make the argument that there was a resurgence during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. But as a whole, no. That restoration of justice, that restoration of righteousness is something that is still coming. It's a time in the future when these things are fully restored to the way that God intended it. So these words that Isaiah spoke in Isaiah 1, they're applicable in the fifth century. They were applicable when he spoke them to the kings of Judah and talking about the condition of Judah at that time. They were applicable in the first century AD when Christ was conducting his ministry, giving the condition of Judah then. And frankly, brethren, they are applicable today. As we, you know, look forward to that restoration that they hint at in the tail end of Isaiah 1 and the, you know, good portion of Isaiah 2. But interestingly enough, if you take the time to ask a Jewish rabbi the reason why the second temple was destroyed, they will quickly reply with two words. They will tell you the temple was destroyed because of Sinat Chinam. The temple was destroyed because of Sinat Chinam, which is senseless or baseless hatred. Title of the second split sermon today is Sinat Chinam, and that's S-I-N-A-T-C-H-I-N-A-M. Sinat Chinam. And this is going to serve as a part one of probably three.

I may be able to wrap it up in two, but to be perfectly honest, it'll probably end up being three. Sinat Chinam as a concept references a hatred that is baseless. It's not based on anything. There is literally no rhyme or reason for its existence, and yet it is there. Let's go over to Matthew 5 real quick. Matthew 5. Matthew 5, and we'll take a look at a passage here that kind of helps us to begin to build this concept. Again, I want to bring this particular passage out as a kind of way of developing this. We've been through here recently. We took a look at, you know, Beatitudes, and we talked a little bit about, you know, the Sermon on the Mount within the last couple of months. But Matthew 5 and verse 21, we'll go ahead and pick up that passage. Christ is instructing those that are gathered and listening, you know, kind of amplifying the law. He's teaching additional aspects of it that really weren't in circulation much at that point in time.

And Matthew 5 verse 21, he says, you've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, but whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. This was the teaching that they were familiar with, and he's adding to it, you know, adding another layer, several layers to be perfectly frank. But verse 22, he says, but I say to you that whoever's angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool, she'll be in danger of hellfire. Now, in terms of full disclosure, there are a number of early fragments and manuscripts that don't contain the words without a cause in verse 22. So its addition is disputable, and scholars go back and forth on it pretty regularly. But there are a number of early church writers that reference that passage and include that phrase without a cause when they reference it. So that seems to lend some credence to its existence in the original manuscript, but it is disputed. I just want to make sure we address that, because we're going to operate on the assumption that that is in the original manuscript. Because it's there in our scripture, we can see it in front of us. New King James Version, the one I'm reading, has it in there. So do we see this passage, this passage that we see, we see Christ teaching his disciples what murder really looks like? It's not just taking the life of your brother at all. It looks like anger without a cause. It looks like judging the value of your brother based on their actions.

The word that's translated fool in verse 22 has a really interesting root in Greek. It's the word mora, m-o-r-e, and is g-3-4-7-4, g-3-4-7-4, and it is an adjective that comes from the word moros, which means foolish, stupid, or fool. Moros is a value judgment that is placed upon a person and where we get the English word moron from. The word moron comes from moros, g-3-4-7-4.

Why is it so dangerous, and why is a person at risk of eternal death in the lake of fire, as opposed to simply the council, when they call someone a fool versus calling them raka?

It's because that word had a greater meaning in Greek. A few passages earlier, if you look just back just a little bit, Matthew 5 and verse 13. Christ gives the similitudes. He's providing a couple of analogies, you know, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. As to what the believers should be like, using things that people at that time period would have fully understood. Now, to a certain extent, we're a little further removed from those things, and so it takes a little bit of extra work for us to get the context to understand why those things are the way they are. You have to understand, in those days, Morton Salt didn't exist. You know, Morton Salt, that we go down and buy, you know, Morton Sea Salt, is pure sodium chloride. It cannot, it will not lose its flavor. You know, it might be iodized, there might be some iodine added in there, but that container of mortons that we run down to the store and grab, that'll remain salty for years and years and years and years and years and years. It can be stored, honestly, almost indefinitely. But the salt that they had at that time in Judea were mineral deposits that they found in and around the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Salt of the earth, they were mining it from the ground in many ways. These deposits that they came across, they weren't pure sodium chloride. There was lots of salt in them, you know, plenty of salt to be able to enhance the flavor of foods and preserve things, but it wasn't pure. It wasn't pure sodium chloride. So of the compounds in those various deposits, sodium chloride, out of all of them, was water soluble. So with time, that moisture, the ground-up, you know, mineral deposits, moisture would bond with the sodium chloride, and eventually, you would lose the sodium chloride out of all those other mineral deposits, and you'd end up with something that literally, gradually, as time went on, lost its saltiness. It lost its ability to preserve. It lost its ability to enhance flavor. And so as time went on, you know, the saltiness lost its flavor. He uses this understanding to explain a point in verse 13. He says, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? So this is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. He says, look, you can't make the salt salty again. When the flavor's gone, it's gone. Salt at that point, as salt, is worthless.

It no longer does its intended job. It can't enhance a flavor. It can't preserve food. It's only good at that point to be thrown onto the Roman roads, filling ruts or on the side of the road to kind of build up the shoulder of the road or knock down weeds. So that's one layer of what Christ is getting at here. But the second layer of this, and why this is so important to this concept of baseless hatred, is the second layer is buried in the Greek. The word in Greek for losing its flavor or loses its flavor in Matthew 5 verse 13 is the verb moranthae, G3 4 7 1, which comes from the root word moros. Foolish, stupid, or a fool.

Now salt can't be foolish. That makes no sense. It can't be a fool. It can't be stupid.

What's it talking about? What's it talking about? A value judgment.

Salt that has lost its flavor has become worthless.

Christ's admonition as he continues to build this idea with his disciples is that whomever says rocka to his brother is in danger of the counsel. But if a person says you fool, they're in danger of the second death. If a person declares someone moros, they're in danger of the second death. Why? Because that person has concluded that the person that they're upset with has no longer a worth. That person has lost their flavor. They are no longer worth what they were created for. That person is considered that individual to be a complete and utter loss. Absolutely 100% worthless a lost cause. Not worth the time of day. They're not even worth redemption by their creator. They're only good for being tossed out like trash. Now, I certainly hope none of us have gotten to this level of our frustration, particularly with a brother. But have we ever looked at anyone else around us and concluded this?

Politicians, criminals, we see some horrific crime that happens, and we think to ourselves you know, death is too good for that person. What about people that disagree with us? People who think differently than we do? Do we ever make the conclusion that they're worthless? That they don't even have the worth that God created them to have as a member of potential member of his family?

Again, I hope we've never been there. But, frankly, brethren, as Christians, it's a thermometer that we need to keep an eye on. Which makes, kind of makes verse 22 really incredibly challenging, is that when a person sees that passage, you know, by verse 22, where it says, I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. What makes that really challenging is because when people read that particular passage, they usually give themselves a pass. There's always a reason for me to be upset with someone. For me to be upset with someone, I'm not angry without a cause. You know, I have a reason. I'm mad because this person did X, Y, or Z. You know, there was an offense. There was an issue that happened. There was this, or this was, you know, there was that. And there may well have been.

But what's the goal as Christ goes on in his teaching? He says in verse 23, Matthew 5 and verse 23, he says, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly.

While you're on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge hands you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Sure, at least in verse 26, he says, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you've paid the last penny.

So we see in Scripture, we've mentioned this before, God doesn't prohibit anger itself.

No, he encourages us to forgive and to resolve our issues quickly, not to let the the sun set on our wrath. Instead, forgiving other people, working it out. Scripture discusses the importance of being willing to take any number of offenses and turning the other cheek when we're offended. That scenario, when you talk about turning the other cheek, sometimes we look at that from a standpoint of physical attack, but it's not. If you think about the way that, you know, it's talking about it says if someone were to strike you on your right cheek, well, if you're facing somebody, their right cheek, most people are right-handed, is on the left side of their body. How would they strike you on the right cheek? It'd be a backhand. As it was an insult, culturally, at that time, to backhand someone like that. It's humiliating. Christ says, in those circumstances, turn the other cheek. Give them your other cheek to hit also when they're ridiculing you, humiliating you, and insulting you. Not when they're, you know, trying to beat you to death. That's not what it's talking about. Turning the other cheek means in scenarios of humiliation, in scenarios of offense, in scenarios of ridicule.

But, you know, in those sorts of scenarios, when we're offended, frequently, we're pretty upset about something. We're always, we're not always convicted that our anger is just simply anger. We often convict ourselves that what we're experiencing is righteous indignation.

We ask ourselves, what would Jesus do? And we conclude, well, flipping over the money changer's tables and, you know, beating people with a whip is definitely still on the table.

We're always convicted that our cause is just, that our reasons are just, and therefore we have every reason to be angry, just as Jonah felt he had every right to be angry, even to the point of death. And that anger continues to build. It continues to eat at us. It continues to gnaw at us. And before long, a root of bitterness has developed. What does God say instead? Instead, what does God say? Turn to Ephesians 4 and verse 26. Ephesians 4 and verse 26. You know, we have so many examples in Scripture of anger and the issues that have come from it. You know, anger in many ways cost Moses. You know, there's just so many passages that talk about these things. Ephesians 4 and verse 26 speaks of how we should approach our offense, how we should approach our anger.

Ephesians 4 verse 26 says, Be angry and do not sin. So it is capable to be upset and still not sin. Do not let the sun go down in your wrath. In other words, quickly resolve the issue. Don't let it go days and days and days and days and just build and fester and eat at you. And why not? Because in verse 27 it says, Nor give place to the devil. Because when you do, when you allow that to go beyond overnight into the next day and then the day after that and the day after that, eventually you get so upset and so angry and so bitter that Satan has a path right up your walls. He can get his feet in the alcove. He's now got a foothold and it's not long before that anger proceeds into sin. So where does this anger come from? Where does anger and hatred and these issues come from? Often anger is rooted in our lack of control of a situation. We see something occurring. We think we have the ability to control the outcome. So our brains, wonderful brains that they are that God has created us for, but they're created for us. Those brains provide us with a mental picture of what the end result should look like. And so we have this beautiful picture in our brain of what everything should look like, but then sometimes it doesn't happen that way.

It happens a very different way. And we can conclude sometimes, hey, this isn't how I think I should be treated. This isn't how I think this scenario should happen. And when those two things are dichotomous like that and when they're kind of in conflict with one another, we get angry.

We get angry with our kids because we have unmet expectations. We get upset with our children because they haven't lived up to the expectation that we have. Frankly, often those expectations are unrealistic. But yet we get angry anyway. We get angry with politicians because they don't agree with us and they don't do what we want them to do. We get upset with other people because they're not responding in the way that we saw them responding in our heads. And that anger and that frustration comes from realizing that we don't have control over the situation and that we can't control other people's responses. And that can be so incredibly frustrating. But brethren, we've never had control over the external forces of our lives. We've never had control over the external forces.

The only thing we've ever had control over is ourselves and our response to those external forces and how we work within those external forces. So anger then is a result of unmet expectations and the frustrations that come as a result of our lack of control over the situation. Give an example. We've all been cut off in traffic. Frankly, if we're honest with ourselves, we've probably all cut someone else off in traffic. You're driving along. You get a particularly aggressive driver or maybe somebody that's absent-minded and not paying attention. They whip right in front of you and you slam on your brakes. Narrow miss. You know, it's frustrating. It makes us angry. We throw our hands up and... right? Maybe we say something we shouldn't say. Why did we do that? Why was that our reaction? Because we had a different expectation in our head. We expected to be driving along peacefully without having to slam on our brakes to avoid a potentially life-threatening scenario. Now we've had to jam on our brakes. We're angry about their stupidity, their carelessness, their aggression. And we have a choice at that point.

We always have choices. You know, we have a choice at that point. We can let it go or we can make a decision to take further action. Now we've all seen people respond in certain ways to these events. Maybe they speed up, whip around the person, and cut them off. Take that! You know, as they go by. Or they speed up and they ride three inches off the person's bumper for the next 10 miles, creating an even more dangerous scenario. Sometimes you'll see videos shared online of somebody who follows that person long enough, follows them home sometimes. And they'll get out of their car at a stoplight or in front of the person's home and drag them out of their car and beat them senseless. In other extreme situations, sometimes the person pulls a gun and kills someone as a result of being cut off in traffic. Each of these responses are leveled, if that makes sense. You know, does the person who got cut off have a right to be upset? Sure, they could have been killed. Are they therefore angry without cause? Well, no. I mean, there was a cause. So where's the senseless hatred? Where's the Sinachinam? One of the better explanations that I came across of Sinachinam spoke of the level of response as compared to the incident itself.

If you're cut off in traffic and there was no accident, there was no lasting damage, I mean, maybe you had to push your brakes in for a minute and you lose two seconds of your drive time. Yeah, maybe you're scared. Maybe you've been inconvenienced a little bit.

If there's not been an accident, there's no lasting damage.

Maybe that's deserving of a level one or a level two anger spectrum response. You look at that person and you think, wow, that person is not being very cautious. I'm sure glad I was paying attention, but he really could have hurt somebody. Shame on you, pal, you know. But if your response is thermonuclear, chase the guy down, you cut him off, you stop his car, you jump out of the car, you rip his door open, pull him out of the car and give him a piece of your mind. Is that response equivalent to the lower level of fraction? I mean, you're screaming in at a nine from something that deserved a response of one or two. Would it change our perspective if when we ripped that car door open with our level nine response, we saw the man's wife giving birth in the front seat? Or an unconscious blue tinged child in the back seat? Would it change our perspective if we saw the man who cut us off slumped over the steering wheel of his car in the middle of having a heart attack? You know, we don't always know the context behind people's actions. We don't always know why they do what they do. But we as humans, I'll tell you what we are very good at. We as humans are really good at filling in the details with our own assumptions. We're really good at crafting the story that we want to hear and that lines up with our own personal interpretation of what happened. Now you hear these examples and you might think to yourself, come on, Ben, I would never do something like that. I wouldn't go through thermonuclear like that in my anger and go jump out of my car and rip someone out of their front seat and read them the riot act. And you're probably right. Most people wouldn't. Typically, it's the actual physical expression of that anger that stops most people. They might think it. They might even let it play out in their brain a bit. Or, you know, some will yell at their windshield as though they were. You know, maybe that's a little bit cathartic as they drive down the freeway, but you're right. Most people wouldn't follow through on it. It's a rare individual that takes it to the level of jumping out and dragging someone out of their car. Most folks manage to take that thought captive and not follow through. But brethren, there's an interesting phenomenon occurring in the world around us. While a person may never consider physically following through on their anger like that, many people feel emboldened by the relative anonymity of the internet. And they will frequently say things that they wouldn't say in a million years to someone in person. But they don't often think twice about a disproportionate anger response in their online communication. Someone comments something on a thread that's deserving of a 2.

Oh, they come in loaded for bear right at 9. We've all seen it.

A person responding with a degree of vitriol that is not warranted.

Drawing conclusions about that individual and their motives, their thoughts, putting words into their mouths, or narrowly categorizing them into their own kind of self-defined categorizations.

Turn with me please to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24, speaking of the conditions here of the end times. Matthew 24.

Matthew 24. Christ tells His disciples to beware of a great number of things. He tells Him to watch out for tribulation, for false prophets, diseases, famines. But in verse 12 He speaks of something that would abound, that would increase, that would multiply, and that would grow at the time of the end. Verse 12 of Matthew 24 says, And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24. You know, when you look at that passage, and when you think about that passage, I think we can all agree that if you look in society around us today, especially, lawlessness abounds. Our country selectively applies laws. You know, some people are impacted by this law, other people are not. People of our country have an attitude of only certain laws are actually really valid, so, you know, not all of them are valid. And I mean, hey, we're guilty of the same thing. You know, I have laws that I look at and I go, I don't like that law.

But, you know, we have this thing where we have an attitude that only certain laws are valid. And ultimately, when you look at society around us, and when you consider the rioting and the violence that we've seen in some of our major cities right now, there is a spirit of disobedience that is in the air. Lawlessness most definitely abounds. And as we get closer to the time of the end, that lawlessness will continue to abound. It'll continue to grow. It'll continue to increase. It'll continue to multiply. And as a result, what does the Scripture say? As a result of that lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. What is law? At its core, what is it?

Law is a system of rules which have been officially recognized by a country or a community of individuals that regulate the actions of its members. And at times, those laws can be enforceable by imposing penalties as need be. I mean, in other words, I mean, you get the in other words, law is what governs our behavior. Now, we recognize there are physical laws, there are spiritual laws. We know that the transgression of the spiritual law is absolutely sin. You know, God made that abundantly clear in Scripture. Often the transgression of physical law can be sin, too, because it's rooted in a spirit of disobedience. But not always. When those laws are contrary to the law of God, we obey God rather than men. But it is law that ultimately governs us and ultimately governs our behavior. In many ways, whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not, God's law, for example, is not up for negotiation. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you want to be under that law or not, it doesn't matter. You are still subject to it. And while it's really easy for us to take a look at society around us and identify the lawlessness of society, it's always easier to point the finger outward and say, look at them, rather than turn the finger inward and ask the question, what about me? What about me? Let's go to James 4. James 4.

You know, James writes his epistle from a standpoint of this patient perseverance in the face of trials. He talks of tribulation, and throughout the letter he's encouraging the readers to live in the manner in which they've been taught that they should at all times be firmly grasping the Word of God and aligning themselves to it. In James 4 and verse 11, speaking earlier in this about pride and conflict and strife, talks about the importance of humility a few passages prior to this and how humility cures worldliness. In James 4 verse 11 he says, do not speak evil of one another, brethren.

He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

There is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy that says, who are you to judge another? Some translations say, who are you to judge? Another man's servant. The word used for judge here, Greek word for judge, is krinos, which speaks less of discerning right and wrong and a whole lot more about condemnation. The speaking of evil against our brother, condemning them, making that value judgment that we talked about earlier, that they have therefore done this, therefore... James states that doing that makes us not a doer of the law, but instead a judge of it.

And he goes on to write that there's only one law giver who's able to make that determination and it's not us. That condemnation, that eventual condemnation, that judging is reserved for Christ. Now, he grants authority in that process. We know that we will judge in the millennium, but Christ knows the heart. But even though Christ knows the heart, even though at times we think we do, I venture a guess that all of us, myself, I will absolutely say myself included, have ultimately committed this level of lawlessness. Times where we've taken it on ourselves to condemn the actions of someone else without actually knowing their heart, without giving them the benefit of the doubt. Instead, we assume their motives. We apply that condemnation to the story that we wanted to tell ourselves in the process. And brethren, in doing so, we have committed Sonat Chinam. See, Sonat Chinam is not always something that's overt.

Racism is an example of overt Sonat Chinam. It is a hatred of a person for no other reason than the color of their skin, and frankly, is something 100% prohibited in Scripture.

And while that is a demonstrably terrible thing, it's the subversive Sonat Chinam that is truly dangerous. Because it's not easy to see, it's not easy to identify, and it spreads like wildfire.

I'd like to begin to close today here by reading an article that came from ish.com. Ish is a Jewish website that has blog posts and things that kind of reflect a Jewish perspective. And when you want to look at Sonat Chinam, the Jews are the ones that talk about it. It's a big, big important thing to them. And so there's a lot of different interpretations of kind of what it looks like and different takes on it. I thought this was an interesting one.

I'd like to share this article with you. It's a little bit long. That's part of why I said I knew we were going to end up going long. But we should be done here in about five, six minutes. It says, the article is entitled, Baseless Hatred, and it's by author Karen Gottlieb. It says, when it comes to finding the negative qualities in others, our imagination becomes a veritable fountain of ideas, but finding the good in others takes so much thought and effort. She says, thanks to a good friend, I recently learned what baseless hatred in Hebrew, Sonat Chinam, is all about.

Not too long ago, I met up with Rudy, an old friend who happened to pass through my neighborhood. Rudy and I, Ruth, essentially, and I went to elementary school together. So we instantly started reminiscing about the past.

We spoke about our teachers, about when we used to act wild together, and how during recess we used to play Chinese jump rope. I reminded her about Doody, D-U-D-I, the boy who we both had a secret crush on. Rudy then reminded me of Fat Michael, the heavyset boy whom the entire class hated and ostracized.

He always showed up dirty to school. He was the weakest student of the class, and he used to ruin all the group activities that we would try to organize. When Rudy asked me if I thought our treatment of him was considered baseless hatred, Sonat Chinam, I immediately defended our behavior.

What do you mean? Don't you remember how annoying he was? How we used to bother us? How he used to ruin everything for us? That was definitely not Sonat Chinam. We had excellent reason for hating him. Rudy wasn't satisfied with my answer, but maybe we did hate him for no good. Maybe we or no good reason. Maybe we did it just to feel better about ourselves. Perhaps we thought that if someone else was ostracized, then that meant that everyone else liked us.

Perhaps our hatred towards him was just our way of making sure that we were definitely accepted by the crowd. Maybe we didn't try hard enough to get him to join our group activities, and that's why he felt a need to ruin them. What's with you, Rudy? I asked in surprise. Where's this guilt coming from? Rudy took a crumpled piece of paper out of her bag and handed it to me. An interesting article appeared in the paper not too long ago, which made me think about all of my past relationships.

She said, Take it. I have the original at home. Read it at home, and if you have any new thoughts, give me a call. That evening when I came home, I'd all but forgotten about the whole thing. I was sitting in front of the TV, tired, when all of a sudden I felt Rudy's article in my pocket.

I took it out, and I began reading. Said, Playing the Hate Game. A friend and I were sitting at the Tel Aviv central bus station waiting for the bus. It was a long wait. We were bored, so we tried passing the time by playing different kinds of guessing games and brain teasers. Soon enough, we were bored once again. Out of the blue, my friend suggested, Why don't we play the Hate Game? What? I asked. Don't you know the Hate Game? She asked in surprise, as if we'd been playing it since childhood.

Doesn't sound the least bit familiar. What kind of game is it? I'll explain it to you, she said, with renewed enthusiasm. It's the kind of game that's made for places like this.

We need to have a bunch of people around us that we don't know. You can play it at the restaurant, in the airport, or any public place. We simply have to select, randomly, someone who's in the line of our vision. She continued with growing enthusiasm, and the minute that we pick them out, well, we just have to start hating them.

I don't get it. I said, What do you mean, hate them? Why? Just anyone we don't know? What's fun about that? Said, Let's give it a try, and you'll see what I mean, she answered. Here, let's take this guy over there in the red shirt. She pointed in the direction of a young man who looked like he was in his early 20s.

Who in the world walks around with such a loud shirt, she said? Does he think he's so great he can wear whatever he wants, just ignoring all social guidelines? I don't think his shirt's so bad, I told my friend. Oh, come on, look at him. He's checking out all the passerby's to see if they're deserving of his Highnesses Association.

How arrogant. She goes, I don't, I don't know what you're talking about. He's just people watching, the same as everyone else is doing. But my friend went on. I don't believe it. Now he's lighting up a cigarette. I knew he was the type to smoke in public areas. He must cause everyone to choke on his smoke everywhere he goes. Yeah, I had to admit. Smoking really does make me sick, especially in public areas.

That's not right. Now look at him. He's taking a book out of his bag. You could tell a mile away. He doesn't read serious books. I'm sure he only reads the comics at home. I really hate people that don't give the proper respect to quality literature, I commented angrily. They think life's all about jokes and silly stories. You can tell from his face he's not serious about anything in his life, said my friend in growing outrage. The young man got up and walked over to a nearby kiosk.

I'm in shock, said my friend. Just look at him getting a drink. He has to buy soda. Water's not good enough for him. He's so pathetic, living his life according to the commercials, has no mind of his own. He just buys whatever's advertised on TV. And that's nothing, she continued. Think about the fact that he cannot hold off on being satisfied for even a minute.

He's so thirsty he has to buy something to drink. Have some self-control. Think things out a little. Some self-respect wouldn't hurt him. Yeah, yeah, I sighed. It would be one thing if he only disrespected himself, but I'm sure he has no respect for his family as well, including his parents I volunteered. They're probably not so young and he won't even pick up the phone to call him and see how they're doing. Look, now he's taking his phone out. He's probably just calling another one of his clown friends. The entire crowd must be just like him, that's for sure.

I decided I was going to do something about it. I said, that's it. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. It's not right that his poor parents sit at home sick while he's wasting his time on silly phone calls to his lazy friends. I said as I got up from my seat in order to go over to him. And at that moment, my friend grabbed my hand as if losing interest and said, okay, okay, sit back down.

Let's move on to that lady over there with the white dog. She says I had mixed feeling feelings as I finished reading that section. On the one hand, I was amused. She said, I'm sure I'd be pretty good at this game and I could add some real original ideas of my own. But on the other hand, I felt a tremendous desire to immediately call Rudy to tell her how I finally understood what she was talking about.

After all, we had such a good time putting fat Michael down and hating him. It was so easy to ridicule him. And I had to admit that it was nice to always have someone to be angry with and to talk about.

I began to realize just how easy and just how fun it is to hate people.

The more I thought about it, the more I noticed that when it comes to finding the negative qualities in others, our imagination becomes a veritable fountain of ideas. But when we have to find the good in others, it takes so much thought and it takes so much effort.

I tried to imagine myself playing the opposite game, the love game, where you have to love a person that you don't know and give the benefit of the doubt to their every action. He's on the phone. He must be calling his parents to ask how they're doing. He's getting a drink. He must be very thirsty. How boring! Who actually has the time to think about other persons each and every action? It doesn't have near the glamorous fun of the hate game. But the understanding flowed beautifully with what I've already known about Judaism's perspective on this. In Hebrew, the word, ha'kavah, love, stems from the root kav, to give. In order to love, we have to give. Love is not something that flows in and of itself, rather it's something that we have to invest. It's only when we give that we love. Best example of this is the connection that parents have to their children. The effort-free love that's portrayed in the movies is nothing more than temporary infatuation.

In order to appreciate and to love someone, we have to make an effort. In contrast, in order to hate someone, we can simply go with the flow, and that's where the fun comes in. I began to think about whether I was guilty of synachinam in my everyday life. Obviously, I don't play the hate game on a regular basis, but is it possible that I could make up reasons for not liking certain people?

What about situations in which my friends are discussing a certain person and saying negative things about them? Can my listening in on the conversation be considered collaboration?

I thought about numerous times when I was drawn into synachinam, even if it was only considered the simplest kind of hate. For example, at work, all my colleagues enjoy hating on our manager.

I, just like everyone else, am always ready to publicize certain juicy tidbits about him, oh, or for example, the weird neighbor in our building. Seems that all the building's residents, myself included, are simply looking for ways to prove that he's dealing in illegal matters, despite the fact that none of us knows this to be true. I was able to easily think of many examples, too many, of when I failed in synachinam, baseless hatred, and small and meaningless aversions concerning various people. I recognized my behavior towards Fat Michael was, in fact, synachinam. I was guilty of playing a kind of hate game with Michael as our victim.

I needed to call Rudy to discuss all of this, but even more importantly, I needed to track down Michael and apologize for all those miserable years.

You know, it's a story that is powerful in many ways, because it is this subversive synachinam that has the potential to destroy relationships, to destroy fellowship, to cause distrust and suspicion, to pit brother against brother. It doesn't provide the benefit of the doubt.

Instead, it generates its own storyline and condemns a person based on hearsay and assumption.

With enough time, I mean with enough time and an unwillingness to confront it, it can result in the marginalization of whole classes of people and entire races and ethnicities.

It is this underlying hatred that the Jewish people focus on on Tishba'av as the cause of the destruction of the Second Temple, of the reason that God brought the instruments of his wrath on Jerusalem and upon Judah. Now, the Jews believe that they were perfectly observant to Torah at the time of Christ, and therefore it must have been something more that caused the destruction of their nation. Now, while they were not perfectly observant, Christ pointed that out repeatedly throughout his ministry. Sinachinam was a factor. In the next message, we'll examine the conditions on the ground during the time of Christ. We'll take a look at places where this Sinachinam existed in the first century Judea, and we'll start to consider the question of us, as spiritual Israel, and whether or not we also have a degree of Sinachinam in our own lives, which must be eradicated as well. Hope you all have a very wonderful Sabbath, and appreciate very much you being here with us.