By Another Light

 

Teva

 "The history of religion and philosophy is really the history of the profound human belief that we have faculties capable of responding to orders of truth which, did we apprehend them, would change the whole character of our universe; showing us reality from another angle, lit by another light."

Evelyn Underhill

     God uses signs, symbols, and stories to speak to His people... imagery of the invisible for visual people.

      In Genesis 6:14, God speaks to Noah, "Make for yourself an ark of Gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch." The Hebrew word translated 'ark' is teva, and is used twice in the Hebrew Scriptures: regarding the 'ark' of Noah and the 'basket' of Moses (Exodus 2:3). A teva is a sacred container, a vessel designed to protect and carry its contents. 

     Teva also means word.

Teva

    
     The three characters in teva- tau, beth, hey- remind me of a night in the life of Moses, the night called Passover.

 

     God instructed Moses to place lamb's blood on the posts and lintels of every Israelite home... forming a cross.

     The Children of Israel were thus protected from the Angel of Death on the night called Pesach- the feast of freedom, by the blood of the lamb.

     As I meditate on teva today, July 4- Independence Day- the characters say to me: 

"Behold, the house whose doorway is covered by the blood of the Lamb who hung on the cross and is the Word; that house is free indeed!"

A Poem by Evelyn Underhill

CONTINUOUS VOYAGE

At twilight, when I lean the gunwale o'er

And watch the water turning from the bow,

I sometimes think the best is here and now —

The voyage all, and nought the hidden shore.

Is there no help ? and must we make the land ?

Shall every sailing in some haven cease ?

And must the chain rush out, the anchor strike the sand.

And is there from its fetters no release ?

And shall the Steersman's voice say, " Nevermore

The ravening gale, the soft and sullen fog.

No more the cunning shoal, the changeful ebb and flow.

Put up the charts, and take the lead below,

And close the vessel's log " ?

Adventure is a seaman's life, the port

Calls but the weary and the tempest driven :

Perhaps its safety were too dearly bought

If that for this our freedom must be given.

For lo ! our Steersman is for ever young

And with much gladness sails beneath the stars;

Our ship is old, yet still her sails are hung

Like eager wings upon the steady spars.

Then tell me not of havens for the soul

Where tides can never come, nor storms molest;

My sailing spirit seeks no sheltered goal,

Nought is more sad than safety — life is best

When every day brings danger for delight,

And each new solemn night

Engulfs our whitening wake within the whole.

Beyond the bent horizon oceans are

Where every star

Lies like an isle upon Eternity.

There would I be

Given to his rushing wind.

No prudent course to find

For some snug corner of Infinity;

But evermore to sail

Close-reefed before the gale,

And see the steep

Great billow of his love, with threatening foam,

Come roaring home

And lift my counter in its mighty sweep.

Evelyn Underhill

1875-1941