HEBREW WORD STUDY – WHAT’S
THE BIG DEAL?
Deuteronomy 7:12: “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye
hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the
LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy
which he swore unto thy fathers:”
Every promise in the book is mine
Every chapter, every, verse every line.
-Tradition Sunday School chorus-
This morning is Thanksgiving day and I woke up singing this
little chorus that I sung so often in Sunday School,
children’s church and VBS when I was child those many years
ago. I grew up attending a Baptist church on Waveland and
Damen Avenue in Chicago. My family and I attended that church
almost every day of the week and twice on Sundays. That was
home and the people in the church were an extended family who
taught me to love God and His Word with all my heart. My
fondest memories of childhood all revolve around that Baptist
church. The memories of white gloved ladies admonishing me to
“not run in the house of God” and Herman Bell dressing up as
the Duke of Paducah. I woke up this morning on Thanksgiving
with thanksgiving to God that I have these childhood memories
to cherish and that I still cling to the faith that was so
instilled in me as child by those people who loved me and
trained me in my faith.
It was, after all a fundamentalist Baptist church where we
were taught that dancing, drinking, smoking and theater
attendance was sinful. Well, after all those years I still
cling to two of those taboos.
I mean I cannot
help but
appreciate the art and skills of dancing and there have been
some pretty good movies lately with a strong Christian
message. So I guess I did slack off from a little bit of
that training. However, there are certain things that were so
instilled in me as a child that I will never let go of, that
are more precious to me than life itself and that is my belief
in the fundamentals of my faith.
I can still sign that
doctrinal statement from Moody Bible Institute without
flinching. The key line in that statement is “ARTICLE II The
Bible, including both the Old and the New Testaments, is a
divine revelation, the original autographs of which were
verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter
1:21).”
Note is says, the original autographs not the
English version that we have. With over 120 modern English
translations and paraphrases of the Bible it would be
impossible to say that they are all the inspired Word of God
or that any one of them is the inspired Word of God. Yet, in
a wonderful way, they all really are the inspired Word of God
because the original language that it was written in is too
ambiguous to render in a word for word translation. Therein
lies my lifelong passion, to study not only every chapter,
every verse and every line, but to also study every word and
letter of the Bible for I believe that every word and every
letter as found in the original autographs are inspired by the
Holy Spirit and I have become obsessed with studying as many
words and letters of the Bible that I can during this life
time.
Let me give you an example. In Deuteronomy 7:12 the second
word in this verse in Hebrew is eiqev which is rendered in the
KJV as it shall come to pass. Some modern English translations
render this as, listen, pay attention, obey, after you have
heard, it shall happen, it has been, to name just a few
renderings. The word itself means because or on account of.
All the renderings by our many translations are correct. The
translators may render eiqev with different words but it all
means the same thing. The message remains unchanged.
Now here is what the Jewish rabbis and sages do that we
Christians do not do. We honor the Masoretic text and use it
as the basis of our translation, but we do recognize that the
Masoretic text, written 700 years after the birth of Christ is
not the inspired autograph. The inspired autographs no longer
exist or have not yet been found. We do know, however, that
Hebrew writing, at the time of the original autographs had no
vowels, it only used consonants. Three of these consonants
were used as vowels but that hardly offered us the precise
expression that the Masoretic text gave us. The Masoretic text
developed a series of dots and dashes to express the finer
grammatical points of the Hebrew language. These finer points
help us to distinguish whether the three consonants for eiqev
found in ancient text (Ayin, Qof and Beth) express a noun,
conjunction or an adverb. Oddly, the Masoretic text puts a
qammets underneath the Ayin and not a sere’. The ‘sere makes
it an adverb which would then render this as because, on
account of, pay attention, listen etc. But the qammets, which
the Masoretic text uses makes it a noun. This is the same
root from which we get the word Jacob. It means in its noun
form a heel or the hoof of a horse. In its Persian and
Akkadian form it means the rear of an army.
Now we as Christians just look at the word, say it is an
adverb, praise the Lord,
let’s move on. Not so with the
Jewish sages and rabbis, they believe every word is inspired
by the Holy Spirit in all its grammatical forms. “Ok,” some
ancient sages may say, “It is an adverb, we got that, but
what is God trying to tell us when this word is used as a
noun. Huh? Hey? One dimensional Western cultured Christian,
did you think about that?”
“Ridiculous,” we say, “In our
Bible colleges and seminaries we teach that the word heel or
horse hoof or even the rear of an army has nothing to do with
keeping the judgments of God. Come on, don’t be so unacademic
and reading into or sermonizing this text.”
But you see the sages and rabbis didn’t care about academics,
they cared about what God was saying, they wanted to know
every little bit of detail in what God was trying to say.
Some ancient rabbis teach that the heel, the horses hoof, the
rear of an army are not given much attention yet we are to
apply God’s ordinances even to those areas of our lives to
which we pay little attention. Perhaps God is saying we are
to trample the ordinances with our heel that is to break them
down into its finest detail and examine it piece by piece. Or
perhaps, like the heel is insignificant to other parts of our
body we are still to pay attention to for without the heel we
would not be able to walk. Perhaps God is saying we should pay
attention to even the seemingly insignificance parts of his
ordinances, for without them we would not be able to walk with
God.
I can see the sages shaking their fist at us Christians
saying, “Just an adverb indeed, mashugana, God inspired His
Word without vowels because He has a message for us with his
Words being used as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions
and nouns, modern Hebrew syntax – a pox be upon you.”
Oh, just a footnote here. One rabbi actually counted all the
Hebrew words in the ten commandments and then calculated the
numerical value of the word eiqev and both came to 172. I
know, big deal, no message there, God didn’t design it that
way, just a coincidence, we’re sermonizing again. Right!(?)
{Word Study}
“Lakach”
Take,
Seize
WORD STUDY – TAKE, SEIZE
I Samuel 4:3: “And when the people were come into the camp,
the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us
today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the
covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it
cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our
enemies.”
Take, Seize – Hebrew: lakach – Take, fetch, to seize control
or take possession of something that is not yours.
In the Hebrew the nation of Israel is asking: “Why did God
defeat us? ” Israel was shocked that God had let them down.
I am surprised too, the only sin that is mentioned is with the
house of Eli and his corrupt sons running the worship
services. Is God punishing the whole nation because of the
sins of the religious leadership? Their sin was not in their
acts but their hearts. Perhaps the next move by Israel is a
clue as to the heart of the nation which shows they were no
better than their leadership.
The elders said: “Let us take the ark of the covenant of the
Lord out of Shiloh unto us.” The word for “take” or “fetch”
is “lakach” which is taking possession or control of something
that is not rightfully yours.
They then added the word:
“elinu” which is rendered “unto us.” Using this form suggest
a play on words for “our god.”
In other words they were
saying they would seize control of the ark of the covenant to
be a god for them. Then they said “that it might save us.”
Some translations will say that “he might save us.” Indeed
there is no neuter pronoun in Hebrew, but the syntax does
suggest that the elders are saying “it” the ark of the
covenant and not “He” or God will save us.
Think about it. The most sacred object in the land, the object
where the very presence of God rested became an idol, a god.
They knew enough to know that the ark could only be carried by
a priest and they either bribed or forced the sons of Eli to
carry the ark into battle. However, they did not know enough
to know that it really didn’t matter for apparently the
presence of God was not going to manifest itself at this time
on the ark. The midrash suggests that the nation of Israel was
to consult the ark. Apparently, they did not need to carry
the ark into battle, only consult with God as to what to do in
battle. In other words, the elders had the right idea, but
the wrong approach.
In my own life when I enter into battle and get defeated and
crawl back licking my wounds, I begin to ask: “God, why did
you let me down?”
Then just like Israel I go and seize the
Ark.
I start to carry my Bible around, I make sure I read it
every day, I play only religious music and spiritual songs. I
begin praising and worshipping because I have heard that
brings the power and presence of God. I listen to testimonies
of others who were victorious and try to follow their steps to
victory. I am then ready to go back into battled. I now have
the Ark with me and I am certain that “it” will save me, yet
I end up suffering even a worst defeat. So what went wrong?
All my good religious practices were “elinu” for me, or a god
to me.
They were used to bribe God but not to consult God.
Sometimes the enemy can use even the most sacred thing in our
lives to deflect us away from the heart of God. That little
cross we carry in our pocket or around our necks become
objects or good luck charms to ward off evil things rather
than serving as a simple reminder of the one we love.
Devotional Genesis 9:16
Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Haymim:
Genesis 9:16; “And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will
look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is
upon the earth.”
Why are there so many songs about rainbows,
And what’s on the other side, Rainbows are visions
But only illusions and rainbows have nothing to hide,
So we’ve been told and some chose to believe it,
I know they’re wrong, wait and see,
Someday we will find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers the dreamers and me.
– Paul Williams-
performed by Kermit the Frog
The Muppets pretty well put me out of business as a
ventriloquist. I mean who wants to go and see a guy with only
two puppets when they can turn on the television and see many
puppets all with different voices.
But I hold no ill will
for Kermit and his friends.
I sing
“Rubber Ducky” when
taking a bath and I am reminded of the Rainbow Connection when
I read the lead article in last week’s Time Magazine. If you
had not noticed last week’s Time Magazine’s cover story was on
the changing view of heaven. The article was based upon a
book by a New Testament scholar, who is the same age as I am
and considered a representative of my generation.
He
presented a Scriptural view of heaven and pointed out that
when the Bible talks of heaven it is referring the place of
God and the earth as the place of man. As Jesus taught us to
pray: “My it be on earth as it is in heaven,” He was telling
us that our heaven is here on earth and not in the sky. The
Bible’s message of heaven has been distorted by various
cultures and our present idea of a kingdom city distracts us
from our true heaven which is on earth and our job is to make
it heaven.
I have to admit this old boy did his homework and I can not
deny his interpretation of Scripture. He may very well be
right except for one thing. If heaven is the abode of God,
then heaven is within me right now for Paul clearly teaches
that our bodies are the dwelling place of God (II Corinthians
4:7).
After God destroyed the world and all life except for the ones
in the ark he sent a rainbow as a sign of his covenant to
never destroy the earth by water again. It is so unfortunate
that the New Age movement claimed the rainbow as their symbol
and Christians are now afraid to use the rainbow.
The Bible does not call it a “rainbow’ but just a “bow.” The
word in the Hebrew is “qos” which means to be curved or bent.
This is really referring to a bending in the sky. Rainbow is
a modern term as it is a colorful bow in the sky seen after
the rain. We put the emphasis on “rain.”
Yet that is not
the emphasis here.
I learned in Sunday School that the
promise from God was not to destroy the earth again by water.
But the promise is really of a Messiah. When you look at the
Hebrew word for “rainbow” you find it is spelled “Qof, Vav,
Shin.”
The Qof speaks to us of a sacrifice, the Vav tells us
that this sacrifice will connect us to heaven and the Shin
teaches us that this connection will bring us the passion of
God. The writer of the article in Time Magazine covered all
his basis except one and that is the rainbow connection. I
have never been to heaven and for all I know it may be maybe
it will be here on earth, but there is one thing I do know,
there is a God out there who loves me and I love Him and when
two people love each other they long to be together. The
rainbow is nothing more than light diffused into it’s many
colors. Light is our connection to heaven and earth. Jesus
declared that He is the light of the world, He is our
connection between heaven and earth and the rainbow is only a
symbol of the beauty of that connection.
What is heaven? Where is heaven? I can not answer that any
more than the writer of the Time article could, but I do know
this heaven is where ever the God I love may be and I plan to
make that rainbow connection one day
Have you been half asleep?
Have you heard his voice?
I’ve heard Him calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound
That calls the young sailor? The voice might be one and the
same,
I’ve it too many times to ignore it, something I’m suppose to
be
Someday I will find it, the rainbow connection, a lover,
A dreamer that’s me.