A midrash over Ephesians 3: 17-18:
"Also, I pray that you will be rooted and founded in love, so that you, with all God's people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height, and depth of the Messiah's love."
Rav Shaul (Paul) is writing this to the churches at Ephesus. We remember that Shaul was an envoy, a messenger, to the nations. He wanted the peoples of the nations outside of Israel to know that they were loved as much as the Israelites were loved by God. He included them in the vast flock of sheep which began with Jacob and his 12 sons. Abraham and Isaac being precursors.
How do we grasp the meaning of the 4-dimensional love of God? Why does Shaul use these expressions?
How would we describe the "breadth" of God's love? Another word is "width" or "How wide is God's love?" One example is the love of a father for his family. He knows that his eldest son and also, his wife have their own cars. He has his own car. So, to show his love, he might buy a house with a 3-car garage. That garage is a lot "wider" than a regular garage. Many times, a father will embrace his whole family with "open arms" when he wraps his arms around his family, he must open his arms "wide" to embrace them all.
Yeshua showed his love when he stretched forth his arms "wide" to receive the nails at Calvary. We can imagine symbolically the "arms of God embracing the whole world" and saying "I love you" as Isaiah said in 52:10 "And YHVH hath made bare his Holy Arm in the eyes of all nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the "Yeshuah" (salvation) of our God" and when He "laid bare" his Holy Arm, it is talking about Yeshua, who was revealed to the world. YHVH in human flesh.
What is the "length" of God's love? When we measure something horizontally, we say how "long" the object is. Yet an object has one end and the other end. Yet the love of God is from eternity past to eternity future. If we use a "line" a straight line has no end to it, but it does have a starting point.
Can we say that the starting point of God's "line" of love is Genesis 1:1?
What is the "height" of God's love? All objects have "height". The starting point of the "height" of God's love we might say started on Calvary's Hill. From there, there is no limit going upward. Or is there? We might say that the "height" of God's love is from "Calvary" to the "Heavenly City" called the "New Jerusalem" All believers follow that line upward at death and end up at the gates of the Holy City.
What is the "depth" of God's love? He loved us so much that he went down into the depth of the earth into the region of Sheol and "set the captives free" He took the keys of sin and death and rose from the dead. In the depth of the oceans are the remains of many saints who perished on the high seas. He knows where the remains of the bodies are and will make those bodies anew to rejoin their souls in Heaven. When we die, our bodies go into the depth of the earth, even if it is just 6 feet deep. We will be resurrected and those bodies transformed into the perfect body that God has in mind.
Perhaps we could even add a 5th dimension. "Time" is a dimension. His love is "timeless". He will love us "forever".
"Also, I pray that you will be rooted and founded in love, so that you, with all God's people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height, and depth of the Messiah's love."
Rav Shaul (Paul) is writing this to the churches at Ephesus. We remember that Shaul was an envoy, a messenger, to the nations. He wanted the peoples of the nations outside of Israel to know that they were loved as much as the Israelites were loved by God. He included them in the vast flock of sheep which began with Jacob and his 12 sons. Abraham and Isaac being precursors.
How do we grasp the meaning of the 4-dimensional love of God? Why does Shaul use these expressions?
How would we describe the "breadth" of God's love? Another word is "width" or "How wide is God's love?" One example is the love of a father for his family. He knows that his eldest son and also, his wife have their own cars. He has his own car. So, to show his love, he might buy a house with a 3-car garage. That garage is a lot "wider" than a regular garage. Many times, a father will embrace his whole family with "open arms" when he wraps his arms around his family, he must open his arms "wide" to embrace them all.
Yeshua showed his love when he stretched forth his arms "wide" to receive the nails at Calvary. We can imagine symbolically the "arms of God embracing the whole world" and saying "I love you" as Isaiah said in 52:10 "And YHVH hath made bare his Holy Arm in the eyes of all nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the "Yeshuah" (salvation) of our God" and when He "laid bare" his Holy Arm, it is talking about Yeshua, who was revealed to the world. YHVH in human flesh.
What is the "length" of God's love? When we measure something horizontally, we say how "long" the object is. Yet an object has one end and the other end. Yet the love of God is from eternity past to eternity future. If we use a "line" a straight line has no end to it, but it does have a starting point.
Can we say that the starting point of God's "line" of love is Genesis 1:1?
What is the "height" of God's love? All objects have "height". The starting point of the "height" of God's love we might say started on Calvary's Hill. From there, there is no limit going upward. Or is there? We might say that the "height" of God's love is from "Calvary" to the "Heavenly City" called the "New Jerusalem" All believers follow that line upward at death and end up at the gates of the Holy City.
What is the "depth" of God's love? He loved us so much that he went down into the depth of the earth into the region of Sheol and "set the captives free" He took the keys of sin and death and rose from the dead. In the depth of the oceans are the remains of many saints who perished on the high seas. He knows where the remains of the bodies are and will make those bodies anew to rejoin their souls in Heaven. When we die, our bodies go into the depth of the earth, even if it is just 6 feet deep. We will be resurrected and those bodies transformed into the perfect body that God has in mind.
Perhaps we could even add a 5th dimension. "Time" is a dimension. His love is "timeless". He will love us "forever".
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