Aug 4

A Time To Rend

Submitted by on as 2024

Ecclesiastes 3:7 A time to rend…


Definition:

Rend - to separate into parts with force or violence:

             to tear apart, split, or divide: to pull or tear violently

             to tear (one's garments or hair) in grief, rage, etc.

             to disturb (the air) sharply with loud noise.

             to harrow or distress (the heart) with painful feelings.

 

   We are continuing our journey through Ecclesiastes chapter 3. We are studying that there is a season for everything. What we have studied so shows there are seasons for good times and bad times. Today we are going to look at "A time to rend”. On some of the studies I will put the definition of the word to make sure we put it into proper context. The word rend does not just mean to tear apart, disturb, split, divide, etc…, but to do so in a very violent way. The Bible has so many account accounts of rending. Today we will focus on just a few.

 

 The first account we will look at the story of Joshua and Jericho. This story is found in Joshua 6:1–27. To simply summarize, God Tells Joshua He has given him Jericho, but have very specific instructions to take it. After the instructions were carries out by, they way God commanded, the walls of Jericho crumbled and allowed the Israelites to take the city. The one thing we can get from this story, is in our lives, God will lead us into a direction that will have resistant. If we allow God, He will lead us and will give us the instruction to overcome the obstacles that would be in our way. Often times, it will not be in a polite manner, it will be in extremes, and we will have to trust God in that.

 

Exodus 14:14  The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

 

In Exodus 14, Moses is telling the people that the Lord will fight for you. We know that this is the time that God is separating the Israelites from Egypt, and this process was a very violent one when we study the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Think of the death and destruction that took place during this separation. Though God wants us to be peaceful, He Himself will do the work. He will move the obstacles that need to be separate from us. We only need to be willing vessels to allow Him to work.

 

Deuteronomy 32:43  Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

 

Isaiah 66:15  For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

 

 

 We can see in these instances; rending can be in the form of obstacles or people.

 

Matthew: 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

 

  We find in Matthew probably the most significant example of rending in the Bible. This is when Jesus was crucified and when He Cried out and died, the veil (curtain) in the temple Split from top to bottom. So, what is the significance of this? When you go back to the Old Testament when God instructed about how the temple was to be built, the veil is what separated God’s presence from the people. Only the High Priest was allowed to pass beyond the veil into God’s presence once a year. So, to put is simple, not just anyone could experience God’s presence.  So now we see the veil being rent at Jesus’s crucifixion, there would no longer be a separation from God and man. Remember God cannot look upon sin, so in the Old Testament the priest had to be sure he did the correct protocol to enter into God’s presence or he would die. You can read about this in Leviticus 16. Now that Jesus is crucified, the last sacrifice of covering sin has been made, we ourselves now have access to the Most High. We can directly approach the throne of God. There is no longer a separation of God from us. Let’s go back to the verse in Matthew 27:51. It also says the earth quaked and the rocks rent. Can you imagine the spectacle for that to take place. Think of the noise, the violence the earth went through. This separation was so we could be close to God.

 

Psalm 73:28  But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

 

We can be assured that in rendering in our lives, it to draw us closer to God


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COMMENTS


[ posted by Cindy, 08/06/2024 03:41 PM ]

Mike has given us examples of rend. Such as in war, battles, destruction, breaking away, etc in the rending of things. Can be God's way of making way for whatever God has in plan next, rending away the obstacles.
In the original Hebrew language it is " kaw-rah" was defined as to separate, split or tear. 
The Bible speaks of rend also in the way of (also defined by Mike above) the way of "tearing" like ones garments in anger, mourning, devastation, shock, horror.
In those days it was normal to see someone rip apart clothing under those circumstances. It was one way to show an outward gesture of that emotion.
It was also used as chastisement and repentance of sin.
2 Kings 22:11
There are many, many verses in the Bible of people tearing their clothing/garments during certain events and circumstances. I will use  a couple.
* note: rent is the past tense of rend
Gen 37:29 " And Reuben returned unto the pit; and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
Gen 37: 33 "And he knew it, and said, it is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him: Joseph is without doubt: rent in pieces."
Gen 37:34 "And Jacob rent his clothes, and put on a sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days."
If you need a refresher on this story, Joseph was one of Jacob's sons. He had 12 sons, but Joseph was his favorite. The other brothers were jealous of him and conspired to sell him. They told his father he surely must be dead as they brought back pieces of his coat that had been dipped in goats blood. The coat of many colors, if you recall, was given to him by his father. He was sold to the Ishmaelites (or Medianites) who take him to Egypt.
We have 3 examples of rend (or rent) in the above verses: 
Reubens behavior when he goes to find Joseph and he is gone from the pit. ( shock, despair)
The use of being torn to pieces, literally. ( response to horrible death, shock, extreme sorrow)
The deep sorrow and mourning of losing someone.
*It has a good ending if you want to go back and read more.
Job 1:20 "Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and saved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped."
Job 2:12 " And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven."
 In biblical terms "to rent his mantle" means to be unclothed, to barely anything, to be humbled.
These two verses are about the rending of clothing as sorrow, grief,( and repentence.) Job has lost everything, yet he does not blame God, he blames himself as if he had sinned.
His friends were so horrified as to his appearance, they also rend their clothes as a sign of respect to him in his sorrow and loss and they sit with him. The throwing of dust in the air above their heads is custom to do while grieving or mourning.
 
So what about to rend our hearts? 
Joel 2: 12-13 " Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments."
Rend our hearts from the things that take us away from God.
Tear away those things: sins, habit, behaviors, words...from our hearts!
When God rends our hearts he does this: makes us see our sin and what it does to Him and our relationship with him; and we see it's a choice we make to violate His law for our behavior and the life He wants is to live.
When we sin, why don't we feel that fervent need to repent? To rend?
In the early biblical days they sure did. 
Why do we take sin as so trivial? How does God see it? Do we reflect on our sin? 
We need to rend our hearts from sin ( not our clothes...unless you choose to!) Sometimes those big stumbling blocks and detours and tragedies in life are indeed God's rendering of things He chooses to happen.
When we repent with sincerity, we should be thankful to have a God that continually gives is mercy and grace daily. 
We will never be perfect, and He knows that.
 Rom 3:23, Rom 5:8, 1 Tim 1:15-16, 1 John 1:9,
Psalm 103: 10-12, Matt 6: 14-15
But we are to try and live the way He has intended for us as a Christian.
Don't let sin rend your heart in pieces that pull you away from God. Sometimes the hardest thing to say is "I have sinned."
Pharoh said it. Ex 10: 16
Judas said it. Matt 27: 3-4
Now Pharoah was still being hard hearted after saying it, and Judas was feeling condemned for betraying Jesus.
I don't know about you, but I don't need a bunch of plagues to encourage me to confess my sins! It was rough back in those days! But, God has ways....like bringing you to the point you will rent your mantle.
So let's remember that we need to repent and rend ( tear out) the sinful ways in our hearts and lives.

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