There
is a wonderful Yiddish word, hutzpah.
It stems from the Hebrew root word hatzaf
(חצף)
which is a verb that means “to bare”. Perhaps
the best descriptions of hutzpah are insolence, impertinence or in proper English,
cheekiness because it brings out a
physical aspect of what is being defined. Today its meaning often times has an
aggressive, pushy or arrogant connection (i.e. not really a good thing). Hutzpah
is often portrayed as a passionate, persistent, won’t quit, “in your face” type
of an attitude or characteristic. Its root can also be connected with faith(fullness). 1 It is also a word used in many pieces of Jewish literature such as
the Mishna, in Masechet Sota, and the Talmud.
The Masechet Sota, 9:15 states that, “in the messianic period [the kingdom] hutzpah will prevail” (בעקבות משיחא חוצפא יסגא). In the Talmud (Masechet Sanhedrin 105a), it
also is stated, “hutzpah, even against
heaven, serves some good” (חוצפא אפילו כלפי שמיא מהני) and “hutzpah is
dominion without a crown” (חוצפא מלכותא בלא תאגא היא).
Though
we don’t find the word directly stated in the New Testament, we do find the
attribute. The Scriptures as well show many places where various men “contend”
with God, the Master of the Universe. Passages such as Jeremiah 20:9, “But if I say,
"I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name," then in my
heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of
holding it in, and I cannot endure it.” You can feel the intensity and the
passion communicated; this takes hutzpah.
Perhaps this may be considered inappropriate or politically incorrect in our
twenty-first century Christian mindset of who God is and what He desires, but
could we be possibly mistaken?
Abraham
was an obedient man and did whatever God asked of him. Because of his obedience, God declared
Abraham righteous. In Genesis 13, God tells Abram that He “will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see”…and
that He would make Abram’s “offspring like the dust of the earth, so
that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be
counted.” In Genesis 15 God then
speaks again and Abram in so many words demands, “where’s my kids you
promised!?” Abraham displayed tremendous hutzpah.
Can you imagine doing this?
We
don’t know how much time lapsed after God’s promise of children, but we can
tell it had been on Abram’s mind. Abram
was not young to begin with and God barely had spoken when Abram blurted out
his contention. There are other examples
as well, but a favorite is when the Lord tells Abram He is going to destroy
Sodom. Abram steps up and speaks his mind to the Lord (Genesis 17:23-25), “You could
not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating
the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won't the
Judge of all the earth do what is just?" Do you get what he just said?
“You should do what is right God, you
should know better!” Abram then goes through an elaborate bartering process
for the sparing of the “righteous” (aka “Lot”- 2 Peter 2:6-9) found in Sodom.
Abram is interceding and has the “guts” or huztpah to tell God “you can’t do that”.
Jacob,
the grandson of Abraham had left Laban and was going to meet his brother. Here we find an interesting scene depicted.
Jacob wrestled with an unknown individual for some time and when the man was
not able to defeat Jacob, the man struck Jacob's hip socket. Morning was
dawning and the man demanded to be let go. Even with the hip issue Jacob said,
“I will not let you go unless you bless
me." The man asked Jacob his name, and proceeded to rename him Israel, meaning the one who “contends”
or “wrestles” with God and prevails. That took some huztpah! Why does God honor
this type of “contention” or hutzpah? What does God want out of us?
Elijah
was a man with intense passion, or full of hutzpah. He is the mold for passionate individuals and
in one sense “set the bar” for all those who would follow. Unless we put
ourselves in his "sandals" and immerse ourselves in the story, it
becomes just that, a story.2 When Jesus asked, "Who do people say that I am?", he
was given the response that some thought he was Elijah. Why would people think
that? In the mind of the Jewish people,
Elijah was the model for intense passion and commitment. What does that tell us
about Jesus?3
Elijah
knew his Scriptures and he knew that God had said numerous times to “be careful not to let yourselves be seduced,
so that you turn aside, serving other gods and worshipping them. If you do, the
anger of ADONAI will blaze up against you. He will shut up the sky, so that
there will be no rain. The ground will not yield its produce, and you will
quickly pass away from the good land ADONAI is giving you” (Deut 11:16-17). Elijah prayed in
harmony with the scriptures against all the abomination that was being
committed in the land of Israel and he was even attacked for this: “When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him,
"Is that you, you destroyer of Israel?" Elijah replied, "I have
not destroyed Israel, but you and your father's house have, because you have
abandoned the LORD's commandments and followed the Baals (1Ki 18:17-18).
Elijah
now demonstrated more hutzpah when
proposing a contest of monstrous proportions between the pagan prophets and the
God of Israel. He suggested that they each prepare a bull and “you call on the name of your god, and I will
call on the name of Yahweh. The God who answers with fire, He is God." All
the people answered, "That sounds good.” Was this
putting God to the test? Was it not Jesus who said this should not be done? Was
Elijah testing or partnering with God to show the world that there was “a God
in Israel” who was above all other gods (1
Kings 8:60, 1 Sam 17:46)? Elijah
gave every fiber of his being to this contest.
After his proposal, he climbed a huge mountain (Carmel, which is about a
2400 ft climb), harassed the prophets of Baal, built an altar with giant
boulders, killed and prepared a bull, prayed and when fire came down, went down
the mountain and destroyed the prophets.
He then went back up the mountain and prayed, then once again, came down
the mountain and ran an eighteen and a half mile marathon ahead of a horse and
chariot to Jezreel. That is hutzpah.
Moses
was also a good example of huztpah.
He stood in front of the people when God was ready to destroy them and in
essence said, “Why are you so angry at
the people that you brought out of Egypt?
Do you want to give the Egyptians the right to say ‘their God took them
out to the mountains in order to kill them all’? Don’t do this! Change the plans
that you have mind! Remember the promise
that you made swearing to our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel by telling them
they would have children as many as the stars in the sky, and the land was ours
as an inheritance forever”. That took some serious huztpah. Was Yahweh really
like this, or was he looking for some participation from Moses? Maybe God wanted
this old man to use some hutzpah and thus be a reflection of His own nature of
compassion that would later be further revealed in the “prophet like Moses”.4 Perhaps there is more to
having a relationship with God than we realize.
The
following parable that Jesus told illustrates this further. Jesus’ disciples
had just asked him to teach them to pray. He proceeded to tell the following
parable in Luke 11. “A man had a friend who came over at midnight
with this request, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread because my
friend has just come off the road to my place, and I do not have food to set
before him." But from inside he answered, "Do not make it difficult
for me. The door has already been barred for the night and my children are all
bedded down with me. I cannot get up and supply you." I tell you, even if
he will not get up and give it to him on the basis of friendship alone, on the
basis of the man's undaunted persistence, he will get up and give him as much
as he needs. Moreover, I say to you: Ask, and (what you need) will be given.
Seek, and you will find. Knock, and you will get an opening. For everyone
asking receives, the seeker finds, and the one who knocks gets entry.” The
actions taught in this story are akin to much of Jesus’ message; asking,
seeking, knocking.
In
our way of thinking today it might seem inappropriate to question or “confront”
God. However, in this parable God is the
Father already in bed and because of the “undaunted
persistence” (huztpah) of the
“friend”, God grants his request. This is not to suggest that the parable is to
be taken as the complete character of God any more than other parables.5 But this parable is
clearly to be seen in context with the disciples request for Jesus to teach
them how to “ask” of God.
There
was a woman to whom Jesus said, “your
faith has healed you”. This happened as he was in a crowded place and this
woman grabbed his tassel.6 There is no doubt that her
grasping at his hem/corner/tassel was an expression of her belief in Jesus as
the “sun of righteousness”, but there
is also the sense that her “faith” is expressed in her willingness to be
shameless, persistent and not quit until she had grasped onto that for which
she strove. Because of this, she was made well.
Another
example is found in a meeting Jesus had with a foreign woman (Matt 15, Mark 7). She begged him to
help her daughter. Jesus explains that he was sent to the house of Israel, and
he does not want to overstep the mission God gave him. She falls down before
him and continues to beg for help. He tells her that it is not right to give
her that which is meant for another.7 She agrees but still continues to persist until he
relents and helps her. Jesus commended her and said that her “faith” was great, and at this her
daughter was healed. Was Jesus referring to her great theology and
understanding of deep mysteries of God? How about her regular attendance of the
regions synagogue? I don’t think so. If she would have quit after Jesus’ first
response “I was sent to the house of
Israel”; would her daughter have been healed? Or what about his second
response that the “little dogs are not to
be given the food intended for the children”; would her daughter have been
made well? Her hutzpah, the
persistent drive and passionate exercise of faithfulness to see her daughter
made well is what Jesus credits this act of healing.
God
desires us as His people to come to Him with persistence, confidence and
passion. For what other reason would the prophet Isaiah say in relation to the
restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, “You,
who remind the LORD, no rest for you[DON’T QUIT!]! Do not give Him rest until He establishes and makes her Jerusalem the
praise of the earth” (Is 62:6-7).
God wants His people to show persistence and even wrestle with Him. This is not
an exercise, but merely a result of passionate people as viewed in the
Scriptural story of our patriarchal forefathers. This is probably the backdrop
for the statement the book of Jacob (James) gives us, “The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful. Elijah was a man
with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and
for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed
again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit” (James 5:16-18).
How
badly do we want wisdom from God? How often do we ask? How much do we plead
with God and remind Him of the promises He made that are left unfulfilled? How
much do we know about what He promised? Are we ready to stand in the Name of
Yahweh like Elijah? Do we have the hutzpah
to wrestle with God?
Notes:
1.
For more on this, see The
Parables, Jewish tradition and Christian Interpretation by Brad Young, pp.
45-65
2.
John the Baptist was a man
who came in the “power and spirit of
Elijah”, so you can imagine what how intense and powerful of an individual
he would have been.
3.
Additionally, the prophet
Malachi prophesied that “Elijah” would be sent “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD” (Mal 4:5). That is a good indication that Jesus stood
out for his intensity and passion alone, not to mention his teaching and signs
4.
Deut
18:18-19
5. Such as the parable of the Rich
man and Lazarus used to support a “heaven” doctrine.
6.
Matt
9:20, 14:36 The Greek
word used is kraspedon that is
translated hem, fringe, border where the tassels were to be sewn (Num 15:38, Deut 22:12). This is the
word in the Septuagint that is translated from the Hebrew kanaph (corner, wing) which is the imagery of the prophet Malachi
when he says, “the sun of righteousness
will rise with healing in its wings (corners, where the tassels were sewn)”
Mal 4:2.
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