Understanding And Overcoming The Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination)
By: Lope Columna
INTRODUCTION
Why is mankind so advanced in the field of science and technology, and yet so backward in religion and morality?
We are continually dazzled by the continuous development and production of new technologies and devices today that can be considered miracles. We are amazed by numerous electronic devices, cellphones, computers, robots, laser discs, video games, flat-screen TV’s, bullet trains traveling faster than the speed of sound, etc, etc. Inventions can almost do anything.
On the other hand, why is it that mankind is so backward when it comes to the field of religion and morality? Thus, crime, violence, sexual immorality, government and business corruption, religious deceptions and commercialization, and so many kinds of human perversion are also exploding. WHY?
The answer is: APPLICATION OF GOD’S LAWS!
WHY IS MAN SO ADVANCED IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY?
Mankind is so successful in science and technology because he applies God’s physical laws very diligently. Countries and big corporations are spending billions of dollars just to understand God’s physical laws. The billions of dollars spent on Research and Development have just one objective: understand God’s Physical Laws and apply them for their own benefit. Of course, they don’t include God in their researches.
This is because the true motives of these scientific and technological researches are selfish: either to acquire monetary benefits and/or power, control, and prestige over their competitors. Once they understood an aspect of how the physical creation works, they put to work those principles of science to produce advanced technologies, electronic devices, and machines.
Thus, we can see that those high-tech devices are nothing more than just the products of the meticulous applications of God laws of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, etc. Here, man is rigidly applying and reaping the amazing benefits of God’s Laws. And the nations treasuring these physical laws were greatly blessed materially and economically. They became the superpowers and economic giants of the century. Starting from the Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s, man is able to know and benefit from the myriad of Physical Laws of God. This is because God Himself allowed them, or revealed to them His Creation Secrets.
...because the thing which may be known of God is clearly revealed within them, for God revealed it to them. (Rom 1:19 MKJV)
Many proofs of these revelations are recorded in the history of man’s scientific discoveries, as many scientists admitted that they discovered many of those vital theories and laws by accidents. Were they really by accidents? No, these just showed that it was God who guided them, and God showed His secret laws to them.
Sometimes God showed them His secrets by means of dreams, just like He did in the prophets. One example of these is the configuration of the atomic structure presented by the great physicist Niels Bohr which he admitted he saw it in his dream. Niels Bohr’s model of the atomic structure became the foundation of classical physics, nuclear physics, and quantum mechanics.If God did not reveal those secrets, then man can never know. This means that if this is the case, then there are no cellphones, no cheap computers, no Internet, no airplanes, no nuclear plants, no nuclear medicine, etc.
Can you by searching find out God? Can you perfectly find out the Almighty? Heights of the heavens! What can you do? It is deeper than hell, what can you know? The measure of it is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7-9 MKJV)
Man has so many great reasons to thank God for all these wonderful revelations of His Laws and Creative Principles that benefited each one of us!
THEN WHY IS MAN SO BACKWARD IN RELIGION AND MORALITY?
On the other hand, man is a complete failure in the field of religion and morality. Why? Because man stopped his research and study at the physical revelations of God. He was satisfied with the resulting earthly power and financial benefits, and they have fallen into the comfort zones of the material world.
The revelations include both the aspects of the Physical and the Spiritual/Mystical. But man is interested only at the Physical level. Man did not go the higher plane to receive the most important blessings of all: the Spiritual and Divine benefits.
IF YOU DON’T KNOW KABBALAH, YOU KNOW NOTHING AT ALL!
The religious people of various synagogues and churches may claim to have the spiritual revelations from God. But if they did not reach the Holy Kabbalah Wisdom level, all those claims just remain as Claims.
There are 4 levels of Bible Study called PaRDeS in Hebrew. These 4 levels correspond to the 4 levels of Bible Knowledge, the 4th of which is the SOD level called the Kabbalah Wisdom. These 4 levels of Bible knowledge correspond to the 4 Worlds. These in turn, correspond to the Tetragrammaton – the 4 Hebrew letters signifying the LORD’s Hebrew name transliterated YHVH.
WHY is man interested only at the Physical Level? This is because he is not willing to apply God’s Spiritual Laws.
WHY IS MAN NOT WILLING TO APPLY GOD’S SPIRITUAL LAWS?
A Kabbalistic explanation is necessary to answer this vital question. Inside every human being are two opposing forces or personalities: 1) The Yetzer Hara, known as the Evil Inclination, and 2) The Yetzer HaTov, called the Good Inclination. The two names are Hebrew words.
LET’S UNDERSTAND YETZER HARA (Evil Inclination)
God is the Source of all Good, pure Good. And Giving is that one thing that gives God fulfillment and happiness. In order for God to be a Giver, there must be a qualified Receiver. So Adam, the first man, was created by God in a pure state of good. Then he was placed by God inside the Garden of Eden.
Pure Good means the desire to receive in order to give or share. But God wants not only to give Good to man, He wants to give man the ultimate Good, so he will enjoy it forever. In order for this to happen, man must be given the power of free choice to decide whether to like or dislike this offer. So God planted the two trees in the Garden.
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree…the tree (ets) of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree (ets) of knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:9 KJV)
A TREE MEANS A CHOICE
According to Strong’s dictionary, the word “tree” is from the Hebrew “ets” which means a tree (from its firmness). Let’s set aside for the moment the common notion that a tree is the wood. Let’s go deeper than this.
The word “ets” itself came from a primitive root “atsah”, which means to fasten (or make firm), that is, to close (the eyes).
So when a person makes a firm choice, he fastens himself to that choice. That choice becomes his direction or way of existence. In other words, he is faithful to that choice, and he close his eyes and heart from any other choices. As time goes by, that firm choice became him! If he chooses pure Good (Life), then he will be good, and eventually given eternal life. If he chooses Evil, then he will be Evil, and eventually die. With this logic, we can see that a TREE really means a CHOICE!
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE (DA’ATH) OF GOOD AND EVIL
The word “knowledge” came from the Hebrew word DA’ATH. From Strong’s Dictionary, DA’ATH (H1847) means knowledge, cunning. This came from the word YADA (H3045), a primitive root, which means to know (properly to ascertain by seeing). So, Da’ath can mean Intimacy, Attachment, Application, Internalization. This is the knowledge that leads to intimate relationship and close interaction, as between husband and wife, as in Gen 4:1.
HOW DID YETZER HARA ENTER MAN?
Before the sin, the evil is outside of Adam. It only exists at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Etz haDaat Tov veRa). Therefore, the LORD God prohibited Adam to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil:
You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge (da’ath) of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die. (Gen 2:17)
Unfortunately, Adam did not listen to the voice of God. Instead, He listened to the voice of his wife, who listened to the voice of the Serpent. The Serpent injected to Eve the Yetzer Hara, or impure spirit, when she listened to the Serpent and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. When Adam listened to the voice of his wife (Eve), and also ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he contaminated himself with the impurity of Yetzer Hara causing him to sin and fall from his pure, divine state (Gen 3:17).
THE BIRTH OF THE HUMAN EGO AND PRIDE
The knowledge of evil entered into Adam. It infiltrated his flesh, linked itself in his soul, and was grafted onto his most basic drives and desires. The Yetzer Hara then manipulated man’s desire to receive into a desire to receive for the self alone.
Thus, the selfish human ego was born inside Adam and Eve. This changed aspect of receiving in a selfish manner is the “root of all evil.” Yetzer Hara became part and parcel of human nature. Adam now became a stranger in the Garden of Eden. This prompted God to drive him out of the Garden, into a world of pain, hard labor, sufferings, deception, and death.
WHY WAS ADAM EXPELLED FROM THE GARDEN?
Fallen angels were fallen because they develop evil in their character that they transformed themselves to become impure foreign objects in the presence of God. So they need to be expelled from the presence of God. As I mentioned before, evil means a distance from, or absence of God. Evil can also be defined as the disconnection from God. This is the same reason why Adam and Eve were also expelled from the Garden of Eden, where the Presence of God dwells. Only the pure can see and stand in the presence of God (Mat 5:8).
When Adam ate from the forbidden tree of good and evil, the evil entered into him, and this became his dominant inclination. As the time goes by, and as people taste more the pleasure from evil, they become addicted to it. They then justify the evil deed. The point will be reached wherein people will be powerless to resist the urge and lust to do evil. Evil will ultimately leads to death, as it continually move farther and farther away from God — the source of life.
This is the intimacy between good and evil, which means that you will have a liking or have pleasure in doing good and evil. Now, this is confusing because good and evil are opposites, and yet you will have pleasure in both of them. Now, if you like to do good with the same liking to do evil, what is the result? Guilty conscience! This is what Apostle Paul said in Rom 7:18-19:
…For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. (Rom 7:18-19)
Speaking through experience, Apostle Paul gave the end result of the wicked influence of the Yetzer Hara, who enslaved us all.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)
EVEN THE BIBLE WAS GREATLY AFFECTED
The intimacy with evil that resulted from the first sin of man became the natural state of affairs on all levels of existence. Man is the epicenter of God’s creation, so his deeds affect all levels of reality. The Torah or Bible, the divine wisdom and God’s blueprint for creation, was also affected. The Bible then was lowered to relate to the world according to the level dictated by man’s knowledge of the mixture of good and evil. Many supernal truth were hidden and became secrets, as man is not ready to receive them at his fallen state. Thus, the Kabbalah — the Wisdom of Truth, was hidden and became a secret, which is now permitted by God the Father to be revealed. Thanks to Him, blessed be His Name.
FROM BLESSINGS TO CURSES
The blessings that God pronounced to Adam before the sin, turned into curses of his body and the ground from which it was made from. Adam’s cursed fleshly body is now “sold into sin’s power” as Apostle Paul said in Rom 7:14.
This means that Adam’s body is now under the control of sin, of the lust of the flesh (Yetzer Hara) which enjoys corrupted pleasure in sin via the 5 physical senses. The 6th sense that enables Adam and Eve to enjoy Divine Pleasure in the Garden was switched off or removed from them. So the first couple was driven out of the Garden of Eden.
Although every human being that came from Adam and Eve was given a pure and holy soul, once they are enclothed in the human flesh, that soul is now under control of the fleshly Yetzer Hara, or carnality. So, we can view man as basically good, but with the tendency and temptation to do evil.
So many people today are enjoying the corrupted pleasures of sin (illegal drugs, immoral sex, alcoholism, etc.). But as the Word of God says, they will surely die, even when they are still living (1Ti 5:6)!
But she who lives in self-pleasure has died while living. (1Ti 5:6 MKJV)
The Yetzer Hara is the power of the ego, the source of pride, and the instigator of everything selfish. If we allow it, this Yetzer Hara will deceive us not to believe in God’s pure Truth, and will make us enjoy unrighteousness or sin. So, Adam and Eve, and all of us, their offspring became slaves to sin. As the original sin went against the Words or Command of God, so the natural man today also has the tendency to go against the Word of God, which is Christ. And as the fruit of the forbidden tree tasted good and pleasurable, so is the lust of the flesh taste good and pleasurable today.
WE ARE IN THE SAME SITUATION AS ADAM AND EVE TODAY
As Adam and Eve were presented the two opposite choices to exercise their freewill, so God is also presenting each one of us the same choices today.
Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil. (Deu 30:15 HNV)
How do we choose the Tree of Life and Good? God also gave us the following methods to help us accomplish what He commands (Deu 30:16):
I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments (mitzvot) and his statutes and his ordinances. (Deu 30:16 HNV)
THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF MAKING THE WRONG CHOICE
But if we make the wrong decision of choosing the Tree of Knowledge — the Tree of Death and Evil, then there’s no one to blame for our sorrows, sufferings, pain, and destruction. We cannot even blame God, because it is our decision. We just became victims of the law of cause and effect.
But if your heart turn away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land...(Deu 30:17-18 HNV)
To greatly emphasize the importance of making the right decision to choose Life and Blessings, God motivates us farther by showing us the colossal and cosmological impact of our individual decisions and choices! So God calls the Heaven and the Earth to act as witnesses to our decisions. This means that we should not take lightly the decision we make. We must be very careful and sober enough to consider that even Heaven and Earth will be affected by whatever individual decision we make!
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed. (Deu 30:19 HNV)
THE TREE OF LIFE: The Antidote to the Tree of Knowledge
The Apostle Paul asked,” Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). So whether Paul realized it not, he is talking about the problem that originated in the Garden of Eden. Sure enough, God’s word to Adam, in Genesis 2:17 stands up to be true, and all the other human and serpentine ideas and opinions are false.
Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die. (Gen 2:17 HNV)
So what is the antidote to the death effect of the poisonous Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil? The answer is: The TREE OF LIFE!
Who or What is the TREE OF LIFE? The answer is revealed in the New Testament, and it is no other than our Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST!
The Tree of Life is the Knowledge of God — the Source of Life. This is NOT the knowledge ABOUT God, but rather the Knowledge of God, that is, the Knowledge that came from God Himself! This is the divine and supernal Kabbalah knowledge! This Kabbalah knowledge will bring man close to, and be of intimate relationship with his Creator and Father (John 17:3)!
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent — Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)
So, eating from the Tree of Life will result in having an intimate relationship with Christ and God the Father. So it is no wonder that the first command in the Garden is the positive command to eat from the Tree of Life. (Gen 2:16)
WHAT HAPPENED IF ADAM EAT FIRST FROM THE TREE OF LIFE?
If Adam ate first from the Tree of Life, then man would have known God the Father first and in the process be able to develop a very close and intimate relationship with Him at that early stage of creation. Then Adam will reach that highest intimacy with God, which when achieved will embed the image and likeness of God to the entirety of Adam’s personality and character (Gen 1:26).
When this happens, Adam will be totally and completely at one with God, and God will be at one with Adam. At this point, Adam can be allowed to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. At this highest level of Adam’s Divinity, the evil can not do any harm, as it will be totally overshadowed by the Tree of Life, which is pure Good and Life. Also, Adam will be able to procreate children in the side of the Holy Spirit, and not from the aspect of the Evil Inclination. Then Man is now qualified and ready to be the partner of God the Father in the continuing operation, maintenance, and management of the several universes that are now existing, and the creation of myriad of worlds that the Father is still contemplating. This is the purpose and the intended process of the full and complete creation of man, without the pain, sufferings, destruction, and death.
THE PROPER SEQUENCE OF OBEYING GOD
But sadly, what happened in the Garden of Eden is the reverse. Man had chosen to go the other path by eating first from the Tree of Good and Evil. And because of the sin of Yetzer Hara that saturated man, he has to be purified from that sin. So, Man has to undergo the various processes of sin purification: pain, hard labor, exile, diseases, sufferings, sorrows, poverty, deception, destruction, and finally death. According to Kabbalah, the purification process for a spiritually stained soul is either a person’s own sincere repentance, or the Divinely ordained punishment that comes in its place.
After eating from the forbidden tree Adam tried also to eat from the Tree of Life. But this is not the right sequence. The damage has already been done, and Adam at this early history, fresh from the sin, is now disqualified to eat from the Tree of Life. So, God forced Adam to get out of the Garden, and assigned a Cherubim with revolving sword of flames, to prevent access of Adam and his offspring to the Tree of Life. (Gen 3:24)
… the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. (Gen 3:22 KJV)
YETZER HARA MUST BE TOTALLY ELIMINATED!
While the Yetzer Hara is a very strong negative force, a person is commanded by God to overcome it.
If you do right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it. (Gen 4:7)
It is now the mission and duty of every man and woman to overcome Yetzer Hara and purify themselves of this impurity. This is an inside job to refine and transform our selfish desires to selfless desires. In other words, to revert back to the original design of God in man: the ability to receive in order to give and share.
PROPER DEFINITIONS OF GOOD AND EVIL
And to be successful in mastering or overcoming Yetzer Hara (the power of sin), we must be very sure of the correct definitions of Good and Evil, of Right and Wrong. Our definitions must be in accordance with God’s definitions, not according to human definitions. We must be sure about this, because the Yetzer Hara can deceive us, making us think that good is evil, and evil is good. (Isa 5:20)
This is where the the Bible comes in. We need the Bible as the only authority in defining good and evil, of right and wrong. It is best if we have access to Hebrew-based definitions. Any human authored dictionary, like Webster’s must not be relied upon.
According to the Zohar, wsdom and blessings from the upper world can only illuminate our lower world when our Evil Inclination is conquered and our character transformed. As long as our negative aspects remain within us, the Angel of Death will prevail over our physical existence. The Zohar continues to say that if we fail to overcome our ego, and we study the Bible, the Evil will cleave to all the parts of our Bible Study. This is because if a person is not worthy, the Bible becomes to him a deadly poison.
MAN IS POWERLESS TO RESIST THE YETZER HARA!
The Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination) is like a deadly cancer that is spreading to the whole body of a person. If allowed to continue then the person will die. It works in subtlety, and is a very strong force, such that a person is powerless to resist an evil thought or deed even though the person knows that it is evil, and he wanted to do good.
For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. (Rom 7:15)
Every person is automatically controlled like a puppet by the Yetzer Hara to entertain evil and resist the supernal truth from God the Father. The Yetzer haTov (Good Inclination) is present but it is of no match to the Yetzer Hara because it is clothed by the flesh which is weak (Rom 8:7).
For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. (Rom 8:7)
WHY IS MAN NOT ABLE TO SUBMIT TO GOD’S LAW?
It is because God’s Law is primarily spiritual, while man’s natural mindset thinks only about the things of the flesh.
For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power (Rom 7:14).
For those whose lives are according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh… (Rom 8:5)
The Apostle Paul continued to explain the battle between the Yetzer Hara and Yetzer HaTov within every human being as he experienced it himself (Rom 7:18-19).
...For the desire to do what is good is with me,but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. (Rom 7:18-19)
If Apostle Paul is powerless to resist the urge to do evil, in spite of his desire to do good, how much more the carnal man who doesn’t resist the urge to sin, but even takes pleasure in doing it? Then expect all kinds of immorality and perverse human behavior.
WE MUST ADMIT AND SAY: What a wretched man I am!
Anyone who wants to be saved must first look at his inner self, and say,
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)
In other words, each one of us must humble before the Father, repent of our sins, and then accept Christ as our personal Savior. This is because true repentance will get rid of the Yetzer Hara. Then we can approach the merciful Father to receive His grace and forgiveness.
Then we are given a fresh, clean slate. Next, we start and continue keeping God’s Commandments, Judgments, and Statutes. This is very vital to ward off the uncompromising Yetzer Hara attack. Otherwise, we will again fall victim to the returning enemy. If we continue to hold on and overcome, then the Yetzer Hara will vaporise, and in place of it, the image and likeness of God are formed in us. Then at the return of the Bridegroom, we will become part of His BRIDE, and eternal Life is granted to us, and we will be with the LORD, forever and ever!
LET’S THANK GOD THE FATHER!
The target of our thanksgiving is God the Father — the God of all grace and mercy. The channel of it is Christ as our Savior and Mediator.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!…(Rom 7:25)
SALVATION PROCESS IS NOT ONLY FOR DISCUSSIONIT MUST BE EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY!
The subject of salvation should not be handled as mere topics or questions for Bible studies, sermons, discussions or debates. We must treat them as our personal experience. We must go an in-depth analysis and investigation of the indwelling of Yetzer Hara in our psyche, and then break into the cry of, “O wretched man that I am!”
Then we should acknowledge our serious need of Christ’s sacrifice, death, resurrection, and mediation. Next, we should be relieved and thank God the Father with a prayer of, “Thank You Abba, Father, for giving us Christ our Lord, our Savior”
Only then will Religion and Morality catch up and surpass the advancement of Science and Technology. And Science and Technology will also be purified and raised to the highest level, glorifying the Creator God of the whole multiverse! There will be no need for a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to search for the God Particle! The Creator God Himself will teach and show them the secrets of the universes.
Copyright 2009 © Lope Columna
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