WHERE SECRETS COLLIDE
Moses indicated that it is the secret things that belong to the Lord, but those that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. What Moses was referring to taps the foundations, the gateways that bridge the seen world with the unseen world.
In our discussion of Jewish business secrets and how Jews think, there is a dimension that goes back to Abraham. It is where these “secret things,” so foundational to the Jewish ways of business-thinking and life collide. It involves faith, identity, one’s spiritual DNA and destiny.
Jesus told the story of a woman, a widow, who had a legal issue that a corrupt judge would not address. Yet, despite this judge refusing to help her, she continued to approach the judge and plead her case until in frustration the judge, who was described as neither fearing God nor having any regard for man, gave her what she wanted, just to get her off his back.
At the conclusion of this story, Jesus asked the question: When He, the Messiah returns, would He find faith on the earth?
This is a very Jewish question. Faith is the substance of our response to God and the actions we then take in life. Faith addresses these responses by approaching that which is not as though it were. Faith is the basis of creativity and change. So, when the foundations are aligned, it is the bridge between the seen world and the unseen world.
Long after God made His covenant with Abraham, it is written that the Lord said of Abraham, “I have chosen Abraham because he will instruct his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord.” This adds an identity and spiritual DNA to the faith of Abraham, upholding a higher dimension, a trans-generational destiny and purpose.
The Foundations of Spiritual DNA and IdentityBecause of his faith, Abraham holds a place in the history of God’s people. He is the father of not just the Jews, but all who would believe in not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but,
those who over the generations, have been a reflection of the spiritual DNA and destiny of the children and household of Abraham.
Like the word the Lord spoke concerning Abraham, faith incorporates hearing God’s voice and not only acting on it, but persevering. Like the widow with the corrupt judge, faith is where the “secret things” collide and become the catalyst for that which is not, becoming reality. It is a mystery to the natural mind. Yet, it has been written that God’s ways are higher than ours. It is where faith bridges the gap into the unseen to change the reality around us.
The Destiny Gap-StandersAbraham’s great-grandson Joseph was a spiritual man. He was the long-awaited first-born of Jacob’s beloved Rachel and the eleventh son of Jacob. As he approached adulthood it was a time of turmoil in which his brothers had taken deceitful and dishonorable actions in their response to the people around them that had triggered judgment. God’s standard for His own is higher. His intent is that those known by His name might extend His blessing to those who would bridge the unseen world and recognize His reality.
Joseph, unlike his brothers had a pure heart that hungered for God. He had not lost the honor tied to the mantle given to his great-grandfather Abraham. He feared God and had regard for those around him. His mantle was to bridge the judgments unleashed by the defilements of his brothers and restore the heritage extended by God to Abraham’s lineage.
However, the spiritual contrast Joseph reflected was an affront to the lives being lived by his brothers, who were already jealous of the favor shown Joseph by their father. During this time, God gave Joseph spiritual dreams to prepare him for what was ahead. Eventually, as we’ve previously related in this series, his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery.
Yet, it is written that God was with Joseph and gave him favor with his captors. Amazingly, despite them not believing in the God of Israel, his captors recognized the reality of God operating in Joseph. He was a disproportionate achiever. Everything he did turned out well. His integrity was such that when he spoke a word, it was found he was not only prescient, but could be trusted. So, despite his status as a slave, Joseph was put in charge of the household of the man who had bought him.
As such, Joseph honored God and those he served. He acted with the faith and spiritual DNA of his great-grandfather Abraham. As he did so, it is written that everyone saw the reality of God operating through him. His identity, along with how he conducted himself clearly mirrored his faith in the God of his fathers.
What was happening in this first stage of Joseph’s tenure in Egypt was through his influence and anointing. He was bridging that gap between the seen world and the unseen world and changing the spiritual climate around him.
The Heritage of the Descendents of AbrahamThis is very significant in the heritage of those who are the descendents of Abraham. It incorporates a role of restoration in this destiny being played out in Israel today. It plays into the eternal cosmic struggle between good and evil. It draws from the spiritual DNA and destiny of Abraham’s descendents, through whom all the nations on the earth are to be blessed.
Joseph’s surroundings was a land that worshipped idols. Monotheism was a completely new concept to the Egyptians. However, whenever the dark forces that rule a land that follow after idols are challenged, spiritual backlash can be expected. This is what happened to Joseph.
So, as the favor of God was being recognized in Joseph’s role in the household of Potiphar, Joseph experienced spiritual backlash and was thrown into chains and jailed. Yet then again, Joseph’s response to and faith in God resulted in trust being extended him by the jailer.
It was this faith and his prophetic wisdom that Joseph applied which extended his influence. It eventually not only resulted in his release from prison, but the promotion that made him second only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt. From that point, Joseph’s strategic actions brought blessing to his adopted land in a time of severe turbulence, but also restoration to the mantle of the lineage of Abraham.
The Dynamics of Destiny that Transcend TimeYears later, Moses would prophesy that this anointing would extend to the destiny of Joseph’s descendents and would penetrate the peoples to the ends of the earth. The power this describes is spiritual DNA.
Such things, as the destinies of a people of God that transcend time are where the secret things collide. They are the foundations revealed to Moses as the secret things revealed, belonging to the descendents of Abraham forever. So it has been observed with the heritage of those uniquely motivated to return and restore the land given to Abraham and his descendents.
David Ben-Gurion, as a founder of and the first Prime Minister is known as the father of modern-day Israel. In his “Memoirs” he writes: “To be virtuous, it isn’t enough merely to avoid evil. One has to take a further step by making a positive contribution to the human condition.” With the complexity of a personality who changed history, Ben-Gurion’s “Memoirs” give keen insight into the Jewish soul and the foundations and the faith from which these secret things collide and the destinies foretold converge.
While making the claim of not being religious, one of Ben-Gurion’s chapters is titled “The Bible is Our Mandate.” His thoughts are foundations that link the generations from the time of Abraham and almost mystically engendered the faith of those who became the modern-day pioneers of this process. It represents the faith, the actions taken, that have restored the land promised to Abraham and his descendents into becoming, against incredible forces of adversity, the State of Israel.
Ben-Gurion wrote: “The Bible has imparted to them [the Jews] that divine discontent leading at its best to initiatives such as a pioneering life, at worst to persecution by their fellow man. It has never been them as a people to enjoy for long comfortable mediocrity.”
The Psalmist wrote: “Remember the works He has done, His wonders and the judgments He has pronounced.” Words recorded of what God spoke to Abraham centuries ago are now being fulfilled as the continuity driven by the spiritual DNA of the descendents of Abraham compels them and makes them unique.
Ben-Gurion continues to explain that the Bible has endowed the Jews with a mission as thinkers, questioners, formulators. Even as they journeyed across the earth, they yearned for their home in Israel, in the manner of their prophets asking difficult questions. In other words, they challenged the status quo. The result was disproportionate achievement on the one hand, persecution on the other.
Ben-Gurion in explaining the standard behind the uniqueness of the Jews concludes: “All [of our people] speak the language of Moses and even the freethinkers study deeply in the Book, the
source of inspiration, the foundations of a past and vision for the future.” This observation represents the faith that began with Abraham. It is written that Abraham believed God. His response to God and His promise to him collided with and overcame the constraints of the seen world. It is a faith resident in the descendents of Abraham that has triggered change over the course of the generations to this day.
This faith and what Ben-Gurion alludes to as the calling and the destiny of the people of Israel converges with the heritage of the Land promised them through their forbearer Abraham. It is where the secret things collide between the seen and unseen of this amazing calling and even more amazing faith that acts as the transforming agent to becoming the reality of their destiny.
Pioneers, Entrepreneurs and Tz’dakimSo it has been that over the centuries, the descendents of Abraham have been pioneers, entrepreneurs and tz’dakim.
Entrepreneurs in their purist sense emulate the very DNA of God: to create and to bring increase. So it has been with the Jews. Yet, it is far more than a higher standard of virtue, although it certainly is that, but rather the foundations and changes brought about by the examples and acts of a people by which the peoples of the earth would come to recognize the reality of God. It is the very soul of a people who have not only influenced the societies of which they were a part, but have outlasted these societies that have come and have gone, as civilizations.
Tz’dakim is Hebrew for “righteousness” but it is more than just virtue. It is a community dynamic that gives back and benefits those around them. Tz’dakim is central to the Jewish soul. It is at least partly captured in the Hebrew word, amsagolah, with which Ben-Gurion describes the “uniqueness” with which Jews are described as God’s own in the Bible. It is a uniqueness with a higher level moral purpose that drives them and connects them to their destiny.
It has been almost two decades since Carol and I made our first venture to Israel. As has been the case in our subsequent trips, the purpose was not for a tour, but rather to launch an initiative. It was an initiative that since that time until now has been designed to bless the people of Israel. However, on that first trip, on our evening journey from the airport to our hotel in Jerusalem, we each experienced the same, almost overwhelming sense that we belonged in that place.
This deep sentiment is what Ben-Gurion has tried to describe in his “Memoirs” and has been the inner promptings across generations of those with this spiritual DNA who have returned to the Land and who have paid the sacrifice to make the contributions to build it. It is more than just being there.
Ben-Gurion writes: “Everything we are as Jews, including our drive occasionally to grope beyond traditional bounds, comes directly from the Bible. In size we are nothing as a people. I do know, however, that the regaining of our land was due to an extraordinary act of collective virtue to themselves and amid the skepticism, even derision, whereby others too often attempt to deny great undertakings.”
He relates that the creativity stressed in the Bible finds its true foundation in the Land of Israel, among those who possess the faith engendered by Abraham. His admonishment to Jews is to come to Israel where they can find their true identity and destiny. He points out that the Land has been conquered incessantly and incessantly abandoned. Only the Jews have loved the land for itself, worked it, improved it and made it theirs through their care for it. Only through the Jews has the Land come to life and thrived and when it does, so it has been with those who have made the sacrifice. Pioneers, entrepreneurs and tz’dakim.
A man I first met in the late 1980s left just such a legacy in Israel. Not unlike the deep sentiment experienced by my wife and myself on our first trip, he immigrated to Israel also with a passion to help the people, as one called alongside. Ken Crowell was a forerunner and prototype among committed Christians in Israel. Through his many sacrifices, he founded and built a global manufacturing company that at one point employed over 360 Israelis. They created a design of mini-antennas that were ahead of their time and eventually became the standard for mobile phone technology. He took care of his employees in ways many employers don’t. I’ve eaten in the cafeteria that provided wholesome meals for their employees at no cost. He eventually received the highest award the Israeli government gives to a non-Jew for his contribution in helping Israel. Ken Crowell was a pioneer, an entrepreneur and a tz’dakim.
It is the uniqueness of the spiritual DNA and faith that has made God’s people to be pioneers, people of change who push the threshold. Ben-Gurion notes Jews as being thinkers and formulaters bringing influence and blessing to the societies of which they have been a part, but continually longing for the homeland promised them through their ancestor Abraham. Indeed the words of Jesus that as God’s people we would be in the world but not of the world is an incredibly deep Jewish premise: of being a culture within a culture.
It bears on the word of the Lord to Abraham that: “Through your descendents all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” It is the spiritual DNA that makes the descendents of Abraham to be people of discovery, who are the head and not the tail. Yet, there is the dimension where secrets collide that is the continuity to the future.
The Colliding Secrets of this GenerationDuring the days in which King David brought the House of Judah together with the House of Israel, there was a tribe of Israel known Issachar. They were the smallest of all the tribes, but within their group lay the wisdom and strategy for the times. As advisors for David. they were described as understanding the times that all Israel might know what to do.
Again, the secret things belong to the Lord, but those that are revealed belong to those who would believe God and act and extend that faith to their children. Within the great heritage of secrets that have come from Judaism are ones tied to this current generation, that until more completely revealed, we simply recognize and wait for their unveiling. Each relate to the fulfillment of the promises God made to Abraham and his descendents. Each involve the restoration of a piece of the mysteries, a colliding of the secrets incorporated in the Jewish heritage.
One of the most amazing fulfillments, we have already discussed, has taken place during the course of my own lifetime. It is the restoration of the State of Israel. With this phenomenon has come the beginning of the return, the mobilization of the descendents of Abraham from the four corners of the earth, with an expectation of the secrets, the prophecies yet to be fulfilled.
One of these unfulfilled secrets bears on the words of the prophet Malachi, that before the great day of the Lord, Elijah would return and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. It suggests a multi-generational dynamic that will come into play releasing a unique power during the course of a significant time of this prophetic destiny yet still before God’s people.
Another relates to the Jewish prophecies regarding the restoration of the lost tribes from the House of Israel. Some consider this to have had its beginnings with events of the early church, when
Barnabas and Paul began seeing miracles happen as they shared the realities of this Jewish sect with Gentiles. The leaders of this movement concluded that the door opening to the Gentiles was the beginning of the restoration of the Tabernacle of David, which had fallen down. This prophetic reference of the Tabernacle of David relates to when David brought the House of Judah together with the House of Israel.
Still another is the coming of the Jewish Messiah, of the lineage of David as the catalyst of the restoration of all things.
The foundations, where the secrets collide, are triggered by the dimension of faith. It is the faith that is empowered by this strange dynamic of spiritual DNA that impels it bearers with the courage to act. Joseph began his tenure in Egypt as a slave, but that wasn’t his spiritual DNA and his faith would not be restrained. He was a pioneer, entrepreneur and tz’dakim. Where secrets collide is triggered by a faith that is unrelenting in the face of overwhelming adversity. When applied, as a people of God, in the way Moses instructed, it is the faith that becomes the catalyst that sets in motion a dynamic that transcends the generations and results in disproportionate achievement.
It represents the substance of the discovery and change we describe as beyond chance expectation, as miracles and wonders. It incorporates the fundamentals in our response to who we are and what we are here for, from which the ordinary becomes the extraordinary, from which those who know their God do exploits. It is the faith that responds to God that taps the secret things mixed with one’s spiritual DNA that unveils and releases the secrets that change the course of history.
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Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner and spokesman for the higher dimensions of business leadership since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation and designer of the God’s Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program, Mr. Ruddick imparts hope and equips economic community builders to be blessed to be a blessing where God’s light is dim in diverse regions around the globe.
He is author of “The Joseph-Daniel Calling;” “Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;” “The Heart of a King;” “Something More;” “Righteous Power in a Corrupt World;” “Leadership by Anointing;” and “Mantle of Fire,” which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders with destinies to impact their communities. They are available in print and e-versions from www.Amazon.com, www.apple.com/ibooks andwww.BarnesandNoble.com.
Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts are enabled by the generosity of a remnant of faithful friends and contributors whose vision aligns with God’s heart to mobilize economic community builders imparting influence and the blessings of God. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to PO Box 370291, Denver CO 80237 or by credit card athttp://strategicintercession.org/support/
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