Practice the Presence of Jesus: Maimonides on Angels
“Now you already know that it is very difficult for people to apprehend, except after strenuous training, that which is absolutely devoid of physicality… Because of the difficulty of this matter, the books of the prophets contain statements whose external sense can be understood as signifying that angels are corporeal, that they move, that they have human form, that they are given orders by God and that they carry out God’s orders…
[Rambam (Maimonides), Guide for the Perplexed, 1:49]
“All forces are angels. How great is the blindness of ignorance and how harmful! If you told a person who is one of those who deem themselves one of Israel’s sages that the Deity sends an angel, who enters the womb of a woman and forms the fetus there, he would be pleased with this assertion and would accept it and would regard it as a manifestation of greatness and power on the part of the Deity… But if you tell him that God has placed in the sperm a formative force shaping the limbs … and that this force is a “Mal’akh” … the man would shrink from this opinion…”
[Ibid. 2:6]
Says Merrimack Valley Havurah: "What Rambam was saying was that most “religious” people are prepared to believe in angels but are not prepared to believe that the forces of nature are the angels – the messengers of God through which the purposes of the Deity are effected. He explains that this is why the Bible, intended for a “mass readership,” accords angels the humanoid physicality that it does. He thinks that the perceptive intellectual will perceive beyond that."
I bear this in mind when thinking about God and Jesus and us. We are invisible and eternal forces. AN invisible, eternal force. And yet a person. Jesus is a busy guy. He is present with me, present with you, present with EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT INFINITY EVERY MOMENT OF ETERNITY. And yet he isn’t spread thin. HE IS A FORCE! He’s you, me, God -- we ALL are this force -- imagination, dream, consciousness, mind, thought, intelligence, spirit, or whatever you want to call it.
"Behold I am with you all the days, until the end of the universe, amen" (Matthew 28:20 Alexander). "Those who saw me . . ." went the quote I read not long ago, God speaking first person. All of the ineffable force consolidated into an individual primate human is precluded by the words 'son' and 'sent'. Just as not all of the Ineffable was the Beginning in Genesis 1:1, but only the Son (Aramaic: barsheeth), a son is not all of his father, and a sent portion is not all of its source. "If you see me, you see my father," in that we see the NATURE of the source. The effulgence of Its glory, Its NATURE, manifested in man in the end of the Season of Grace. The Temple was rebuilt in perilous times, and culminated in the appearance of THAT NATURE amongst them; culminates in THAT NATURE within us.
The Force is not just a vibration to be manipulated. It is a Person to be manifested, adored, and obeyed. When you are raising your vibration by assuming the good things you desire to be true, listen for the Guy Who is the Force. You'll know him when you hear him.
[Rambam (Maimonides), Guide for the Perplexed, 1:49]
“All forces are angels. How great is the blindness of ignorance and how harmful! If you told a person who is one of those who deem themselves one of Israel’s sages that the Deity sends an angel, who enters the womb of a woman and forms the fetus there, he would be pleased with this assertion and would accept it and would regard it as a manifestation of greatness and power on the part of the Deity… But if you tell him that God has placed in the sperm a formative force shaping the limbs … and that this force is a “Mal’akh” … the man would shrink from this opinion…”
[Ibid. 2:6]
Says Merrimack Valley Havurah: "What Rambam was saying was that most “religious” people are prepared to believe in angels but are not prepared to believe that the forces of nature are the angels – the messengers of God through which the purposes of the Deity are effected. He explains that this is why the Bible, intended for a “mass readership,” accords angels the humanoid physicality that it does. He thinks that the perceptive intellectual will perceive beyond that."
I bear this in mind when thinking about God and Jesus and us. We are invisible and eternal forces. AN invisible, eternal force. And yet a person. Jesus is a busy guy. He is present with me, present with you, present with EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT INFINITY EVERY MOMENT OF ETERNITY. And yet he isn’t spread thin. HE IS A FORCE! He’s you, me, God -- we ALL are this force -- imagination, dream, consciousness, mind, thought, intelligence, spirit, or whatever you want to call it.
"Behold I am with you all the days, until the end of the universe, amen" (Matthew 28:20 Alexander). "Those who saw me . . ." went the quote I read not long ago, God speaking first person. All of the ineffable force consolidated into an individual primate human is precluded by the words 'son' and 'sent'. Just as not all of the Ineffable was the Beginning in Genesis 1:1, but only the Son (Aramaic: barsheeth), a son is not all of his father, and a sent portion is not all of its source. "If you see me, you see my father," in that we see the NATURE of the source. The effulgence of Its glory, Its NATURE, manifested in man in the end of the Season of Grace. The Temple was rebuilt in perilous times, and culminated in the appearance of THAT NATURE amongst them; culminates in THAT NATURE within us.
The Force is not just a vibration to be manipulated. It is a Person to be manifested, adored, and obeyed. When you are raising your vibration by assuming the good things you desire to be true, listen for the Guy Who is the Force. You'll know him when you hear him.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
1:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home