WORD STUDY – STUMBLE AND GROW
WEARY
Hosea: 14:10: “He who is wise will consider these words; He
who is prudent will take note of them. For the paths of the
Lord are smooth; the righteous can walk on them
But the sinners will stumble on them.
There are four words in this verse that really stand out to
me. They are the words path (Derek), smooth (ysahar), walk
(Halakah), and stumble (kashol).
There are about six different words the writer could have used
in the Hebrew for path to express the many different types of
paths that exist. There is a path to success, the path to a
relationship, the path to knowledge and so forth. The writer,
however, chose the word derek which in its Semitic root
represents an adventurous path. We often talk of the rough,
rocky road we walk. Yet in Jesus, the road is never rocky or
rough, it is a smooth path. The word in Hebrew for smooth is
ysahar, which literally means a straight and a direct road.
However, it is only smooth and straight when you walk or
halkah. The word halkah refers to a righteous walk or walking
in the path of righteousness. For a Christian that is walking
in the steps of Jesus, walking in the center of His will, he
has the promise of God to make his way smooth (Isaiah 26:7).
As far as the sinner is concerned, well they just go ahead and
stumble. The Hebrew word here is for stumble is kashol which
means to stagger or grow weary.
In other words the sinner
will grow weary trying to live a righteous life because his
heart is focused on the things of the flesh and he longs for
the things of the flesh. However, if ones heart is focused on
God and truly loves God, then living a righteous life is no
burden, it is a derek, a path of adventure and a ysahar, a
smooth, straight and direct walk to the light of God.
Yeah, I know what you are thinking, because I am thinking the
same thing. The road I am walking is anything but smooth. I
am staggering, stumbling and growing weary. So what gives?
There is an old Rabbinic tale of a man who was in a tavern and
gulped down his usual share of wine. Suddenly, he began to
scream, “Jews! Save yourselves! Run from this bar to the
dining room for the barroom is about to collapse.” Everyone
ran to the dining room and then the man again screamed, “We
must run out side, for the whole building is about to
collapse.”
So they all ran outside and again the man
screamed, “We are doomed, for the whole world is about to
collapse.”
By this time the crowd began to wonder about this guy and a
spokesman asked: “Why do you think the world is about to
collapse?” The man said: “Every time I take a step, I stagger
– sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. This is a
clear indication that the bar, the dinning room and world is
unstable and on the verge of collapse…”
With that the crowd broke out laughing: “The spokesman said:
“My friend, see for yourself, we are walking straight without
stumbling, the reason you stumble is because you are drunk.”
Because of the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, He has
made our way ysahar, that is straight and smooth.
If we
stumble and stagger (kashol) on this road of life, it is not
because it is unstable and rocky, it is because we are too
full of the wine of this world rather than the Spirit of God.
But does that not contradict Matthew 7:14 which reads,
“Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The word
narrow in the Greek is thilbo, which means to suffer
tribulation. In the Aramaic the word for narrow is qeten which
means something that appears to be worthless. So often our
thilbo or struggles seems to appear to be qeten worthless or
of little value. But Jesus said that this is the way to life.
It is interesting that the word for way that is used here in
the Aramaic is the word oruka which comes from the Semitic
root for the word light. In Aramaic oruka literally means the
lighted road or the road that leads to the light.
The ancient sages that lived centuries before Jesus’s time
used to teach that the letter Hei represents the presence of
God. The Hei (‫ )ה‬if you will notice has a little break in the
left hand corner. The ancient sages taught that this was the
narrow gate and the open space at the bottom was the wide gate
and few there were that could climb through the narrow gate
that leads to the presence of God.
So does this teaching by Jesus indicate a contradiction to
Hosea that to follow the path of God through the narrow gate
is one of difficulty and tribulation? Not if you consider the
Semitic root of the word derek (way),which is a special type
of way, it is an adventurous way. An adventure is filled with
struggles and trials because that is what makes it an
adventure. It is a divine video game so to speak. You are
safe and sound as you play at the controls of the game and you
navigate through one trial and tribulation after another. At
the end of all those trials and difficulties, you reach your
goal and you stand up and say: “That was fun.”
I remember a
father telling the story of how he laid on his back and was
throwing his toddler son up in the air and catching him. At
one point he misjudged and his son fell on the floor. The
father gasped thinking, “What have I done?” He picture the
police and child welfare coming to his door to arrest him for
child abuse when all of a suddenly his son jumped up and said:
“Gee Dad, that was fun, let’s do it again.” Now if this same
child so much as trips on the carpet on over his own two feet
and falls, he would be crying like the world is about to
collapse. When you go through a struggle or trial with God
and He sends the cavalry in at the eleventh hour to rescue you
what do you do? You stand up in front of your Bible study
group or church group give this wonderful testimony, “Gee God,
that was fun, let’s do it again.”
When we are in the center of God’s Divine Will, we are never
in any danger, so we walk through all life’s trials and
difficulties experiencing an adventure (derek) with Jesus,
watching him knock off the bad guys. However, step out of the
center of God’s will, well then we kashol begin to stumble and
grow weary and scream like the world is about to collapse