WORD STUDY YOU ARE A חתנ ME HUSBAND OF BLOOD TO דמימ אתה לי

Transcription

1 WORD STUDY YOU ARE A חתנ ME HUSBAND OF BLOOD TO דמימ אתה לי Exodus 4:24-26: And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast [it] at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband [art] thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband [thou art], because of the circumcision. This is a rather strange story that covers three verses and then we hear no more about it. There has been much speculation as to what this is all about. As Moses and his family arrive back in Egypt he meets up with the Lord who seeks to kill him. Zipporah immediately takes a sharp stone cuts the foreskin off of her son and throws it at the feet of Moses and declares he is a bloody husband. As a result the Lord decides not to kill Moses. This is not exactly an account you want to include when you are teaching little children the story of Moses in Sunday School.

2 So why is this even in the Bible, did it actually take place? Well, if it is in the Bible then I believe it is a real event. Not only do I believe it to be a real event, but I also believe it carries a very powerful message for the church today. First we need to look at who Zipporah was. She was the daughter of Jethro who is in introduced in Exodus 2:18 as Reuel of Midian. In Islam Jethro comes under the name of Shuaib or Shu ayb and is revered as a Prophet of Isalm. It is believed that he is a descendent of Ishmael which is very likely as Ishmael was known to settle among the Midianites. This then would make Jethro a descendent of Abraham and would explain his empathy for the Jewish God Jehovah. I was reading in the Talmud Sanhedrin 106a that the Pharaoh consulted with Jethro, Balaam and Job regarding what to do with the Hebrews. Balaam said to exterminate them, commit genocide. Job sat on the fence and did not say harm or bless them and Jethro said to leave them alone. Because of Jethro s stand on behalf of the Hebrews his descendants the Rechabites were allowed to sit with the Sanhedrin in the Temple. Jethro was a good man and sought to follow God Jehovah according to the best of his knowledge. However after generations and generations of having no guidance in the ways of Jehovah syncretism, the mixing of various religions, took place. Exodus 2:16 tells us that Jethro was a priest of Midian. What that means is not altogether clear, however, it is safe to assume he mixed some of his belief in Jehovah with the pagan religion of Midian which is believed to be an early form of

3 Druze which is monotheistic and Abrahamic and eventually evolved to Isamailism which is a branch of Shia Isalm. The important thing to keep in mind is that there is an element of the true worship of Jehovah mixed in with all this. As the descendants of Ishmael had not religious training in the ways of Jehovah, a lot of pagan beliefs wandered into this religion as the generations formed. One basic element of the Hebrew religion that was initiated by Abraham was circumcision. By the time of Zipporah, however, circumcision was still practiced but it was done by the bride on her wedding night, yeah go figure. Who wants to be circumcised on your wedding night. So to make this more viable a belief arose that on one s wedding night a demon would come around to kill the new bridegroom To appease this demon the new bride would cut the foreskin off of her husband as a blood sacrifice and throw it at his feet as an atonement of sorts so that the demon would have no cause to take the husband s life. Somewhere in all that mish mosh you see an element of the original belief of blood sacrifice for atonement of sins. Anyway, the husband would be so grateful to his new bride for saving his life that he would then consummate the marriage, after a little time of healing for his wife s surgical procedure. But she would declare to her new husband chatan damim atah li you are a husband of blood to me. This is a colloquial expression meaning I saved your kester buddy so you had better be faithful to me. So come the wedding night of Zipporah and Moses as Zipporah gets his martial knife ready to save her husband from this demon that is to come around to kill him she discovers to her horror that the old boy is already circumcised. Now she lives in anxious watch, waiting and sensitive for this supernatural being to come around to kill her husband. They have their first male child and on the eighth day as Moses gets ready to have the Brit milah old Zipporah steps in and says Not on

4 your life kiddo, you may have escape that demon for now, but no way are you going to endanger my son s life. He keeps his foreskin until he gets married. They argue, they fight over it and of course as men have done throughout the ages he eventually gives in to get some peace in the house. Only for Moses this peace came at the cost of disobedience to God. Now that Moses has entered Egypt and is ready to really move in the power of God, here he is about to declare a plague that would kill the first born of the Egyptians and his family is not in obedience to God because his wife is clinging to some pagan belief that her son would be protected from this angel of death through a perversion of one of the key commands of God, the rite of circumcision. Ironic, isn t it. Zipporah senses the presence of a supernatural being that is not at all pleased with the household and she is suddenly struck with the fear, This is it, that demon has come to kill my husband and he has no foreskin for me to cut off to save his life. In the Hebrew the phrase seeking to kill is yibaqesh hamitho which really means desiring for the death (of Moses). It does not mean God was seeking to kill him but only desired his death. The word death is moth which simply means an end to life. Paul said: For me to live is Christ to die is to gain, Philippians 1:21. If Moses was not in obedience to God he could not be used for this great task so his mission on earth was over, God was ready to take him home and hire someone else who was in complete obedience. So in desperation Zipporah cuts the foreskin from her son and tosses it at the feet of Moses and says, You are now a husband of blood to me. Moses and God simply says, You are now in compliance, let s get these Hebrew children out of Egypt already. I think there is a great lesson for us in this. I thought of this yesterday as my pastor shared with the congregation that

5 we all have a mission from God, God has called everyone of us to serve him in some capacity. So why is it that we are all not in that service or mission. Perhaps like Moses there is some form of disobedience in our lives and because of that God cannot exert his power through us to accomplish this mission. You really feel called of God, you have prayed over and over for God to bring this ministry about, but it has not materialized. Perhaps there is some foreskin that yet needs to be cut off. There is some disobedience in your life and home that is blocking the power of God. But cheer up, like with Zipporah, God has way of bringing you and your home into compliance. Zipporah was sensitive to a spiritual presence, she misinterpreted that presence when it came, but it still brought her into compliance. If you are unaware of what that disobedience might be just continue to pray, draw close to God and be sensitive to His spirit and He will make it know as to just what that bit of foreskin is in your life or home and Jesus can be a husband of blood that will bring the disobedience to an end. WORD STUDY A DATE NIGHT WITH JESUS

6 Psalms 17:3 Thou has proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night. The above passage was taken from the KJV. It translates the phrase thou hast visited me in the night in a perfect tense (completed action). I checked through every translation I could find and practically all of them translate this in the past tense. Is it just me or am I the only Christian who has ever celebrated a Sabbath evening with an orthodox Jewish family? I tend to think not. If you have ever celebrated the Sabbath evening with an orthodox family you will notice they leave their doors open during the Sabbath night prayers (or pray facing a door) to welcome the Shabbat Hamalka, the Sabbath Queen or Bride. In the Talmud the Shabbat is compared esoterically to a bride given to us by God, whom we long for her arrival (Shabbat 119a). Orthodox Jews don t like to tell us Christians about that because they know what we will do with it. I know what this Christian will do it with; I will immediately make an application of a visit from the Sabbath Queen to Jesus.

7 But let s take a look at Psalms 17:3. Thou hast proved mine heart. The word for proved is also in a perfect tense (completed action) from the root word bachan which literally means a watch tower. In a sense a watch tower is built so someone can look out over the land and prove or test his senses to determine if there is an enemy lurking around. Yeah, I know, that is stretching it to get the idea of testing from a watchtower, but translators do that and it is appropriate. However, do we really need to make such a stretch, why not simply call it a watchtower, someone to provide protection or to guard over a city? Hence this passage could be rendered: Thou has guarded or protected my heart. More literally, Thou has been a watchtower over my heart. Why does God guard or is a watchtower over the heart of David? So he can visit him in the night. This is where the Talmud gets the idea that what David is referring to in Psalms 17:3 is a visit from the Sabbath Queen or The Bride. This is a depiction of the feminine side of God. What the Talmud is trying to teach here is that we are encouraged to call upon God every day, but only once a week, the Sabbath, are we allowed to be in His presence. Sure, we are in God s presence every day, but the Sabbath is meant to be a special day to be in His presence. A husband and wife may see each other every day and be in each other s presence every day, but many couples will set one evening apart for a date night. A special night where they are not only together, but they forget all the problems of the day, they forget all their financial problems, problems in raising their children, struggles in maintaining a home and for one evening this time in each other s presence they just focus on each other, like young lovers and enjoy just being with each other, doing special things, things they enjoy. Such a practice can only be healthy to a marriage relationship. Just as such a

8 practice with God, to spend one day in each other s presence in a special way can only benefit one s relationship with God. Imagine just getting married and then having your bride go out on a business trip for 6 days a week. You make sure your presence is known to each other, you text each other tender little things like, How s my boopsie girl, or you send s relating to matters of business like, Did you pay the electric bill. You even will even call each other and talk making your presence known to each other. Yet, you can bet you will not use that one day when you are together at home to mow the lawn, or fix the roof. And you can bet you will spend the entire six days mowing the lawn and fixing the roof to prepare for the one day you will be in your bride s presence. That is the sort of expectation that the Sabbath was meant to create. For six days we work in God s presence, we send him little messages like, Sure need your help here, Lord, or How am I going to pay this electric bill? You may even send up little messages of praise and adoration during this time. But on the one day you call your date night or Sabbath you lay all these problems and struggles aside and you and Jesus just have a date night where you just focus on each other, hold each and simply enjoy being together. Some Hebrew scholars suggest that the word visit pakad is really in a prophetic perfect tense. Only in recent years have Christian Hebrew scholars began to accept the fact that there is a prophetic perfect in the Hebrew, which is probably why it is not evident in most translations. Admittedly there are still many hold outs who claim there is no such thing as a prophetic perfect just as they will claim there is no such thing as a paragogic in the Hebrew. However, I am inclined to believe the prophetic perfect does exist in the Hebrew. In a prophetic perfect we are speaking of an event that has not yet

9 occurred as if it has already occurred. The word for visit is pakad which literally means to visit, but has the idea of watch care (fits the watchtower idea), to nurture, to lie with, as well as all sorts of other good things. So this visit is just not a howdy do thought I d just drop over and watch the super bowl with you type of visit. It is a visit that provides protection. If this is indeed in a prophetic perfect tense, then what David is saying is that the Lord will visit him or provide protection but he is so convinced that his is done as God does not live in time and for God the event has already taken place such that David is saying God has visited Him or protected him even before it has happened. It is might be that David is filled with such anticipation of being in the presence of God on this date night that he is actually feeling the joy of the date night as he anticipates it. It is odd here that the bride is doing the protection. How does a bride protect her husband? In ancient times as even today a bride can protect her husband by fulfilling such needs that he will not be moved to lust, adultery, nasty little web sites etc. A bride can protect her husband from sin. This is the protection that David received from God. God watching his heart and then visiting him in the night, the Sabbath Night, where God satisfies his needs and longings so he will not fall into sin. When one is satisfied with his bride, then money, fame, accomplishments and all the trappings of the world, mean nothing. The world has little to entice us when we are totally satisfied in our bride Jesus. Women have no problem calling themselves a bride. But for a man to call himself a bride and Jesus as his husband, well

10 that can get a bit creepy. Matthew 22:30 suggest that there is neither male nor female in heaven, Jesus may have been male on earth but that does not mean he will be a male in heaven, particularly if there is neither male nor female. So if the Jews see the Messiah in a feminine sense what is to stop us from doing the same? If God is neither male nor female, why is it so bad to give God female attributes such as loving, nurturing, caring and satisfying our needs. Like David, we can see ourselves as a bride of Christ who adorns herself and makes herself beautiful for her bridegroom but we can also see ourselves as a bridegroom to Jesus our bride to whom we look forward to spending our Sabbath evening with. A bride who will give us such satisfaction that the sin of the world will not seduce us. WORD STUDY MASTER OR HUSBAND Hosea 2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. The English word master has gone through many changes throughout the centuries. It means many things to many different people. A slave owner is called a master, the owner of a dog is called a master. In the Western world we only use

11 the word master in a marriage relationship as a joke, yet in some cultures a husband is a master to his wife. The most recent issue of the National Geographic Magazine shows a picture of a forty year old man being wed to an eleven year old girl in a less developed culture. Such a thing is repulsive to our thinking but fully acceptable to the mindset of a culture where the male dominates the female and women are virtual slaves to men. I would like to focus on the word master as it is a word I hear repeatedly by Christians in reference to their relationship with God. As I said earlier, the word master can mean different things to different people. In its origins the word master expressed the idea of ownership in the sense that you have mastered or acquired ownership of a trade or skill. In education you go to undergraduate school where you are schooled in many different disciplines but after completion you then go on to obtain a master s degree where you specialize in one discipline and master that discipline. Yet, in our modern times we tend to use the word master to express the ownership of another person or an animal. In terms of people it is associated with the term of slave as a master to a slave. This is the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear someone call another person a master. We rarely use the term in relationship of a student to a teacher which was once a very common reference. A student would refer to his teacher as master, not because that teacher owned him or ruled over him, but because the student was recognizing that his teacher had mastered the disciplines that he sought to master himself. That brings us to Christians who refer to God as their Master.

12 Does God desire that he subject us to Him as a slave to a master? The only time in Scripture we have this relationship is when Paul speaks of himself as a bond servant. This is not a slave to master relationship where the master rules with a whip creating fear and intimidation, but a voluntary relationship where the master rules out of love and respect. I see nowhere in Scripture where God has to put us in chains and take a whip to us to keep us in line. In fact, Hosea 2:16 show very much the opposite of this. Hosea has now brought his adulterous wife back into his home. She must now remain in his home and perform her duties as a wife because she is bound by law to do so. Any violation is grounds for Hosea to drag her off to the Sanhedrin where she can be convicted of adultery and stoned. She lives with the constant threat of death as her motivation to perform her duties as a wife. She is a slave and her husband Hosea is her master. The word used here for master is ba al which means master in the sense of a slave to an owner. Indeed, Hosea had to purchase her, pay money for her to redeem her from her adulterous state. He could now do whatever he wanted with her for he owned her and by law she could not offer even a mere squeak lest Hosea could demand that she be put to death. There is another word in Hebrew rendered as master and that is rabbi. This is not a master in the sense of one who has life and death control and ownership but one that is respected for having acquired certain knowledge. That is why Nichodemus in John 3 refers to Jesus as rabbi which some translations render as master. Not that Nichodemus is subjecting himself to Jesus but that he recognizes Jesus as one who has mastered certain skills. The word ba ali comes from the root word ba al which is the general Biblical term for the many false gods worshipped in

13 pagan religions. It means to lord over, despise, possess, distain, to destroy and it also means to become a husband or wife in the sense of possessing someone. This is a marriage where the marriage is a marriage of convenience or an arranged marriage where there is no love. It is the marriage portrayed in the National Geographic Magazine of the eleven year old child being married to a forty year old man. There is no love there only a legal contract. Often this was the case in Eastern marriages where they were arranged and it was planned or hoped that one day this husband and wife would no longer be a ba al but an ishi. Ishi is another word for husband or wife, but this one does not carry the sense of lording over, despising, possessing or destroying, but one of mutual respect and love. This is a rabbi type of master one that shows respect and honor for someone who deserves and earned that respect, honor and love. Put into the English language of today what Hosea was saying was that his wife was calling him Ba ali or her husband, master because she was legally obligated to him, her life was in his hands and she faithfully performed all her duties as a wife because she was under legal obligation at the cost of her life to do them. Yet Hosea longed for her to call him ishi my husband, where she performed the duties of a wife, not out of fear for her life, but out of love. Many people become Christians out of fear of dying and going to hell and for their entire lives they call God master (ba al), always fearful they may cross some line and God may send some affliction, tragedy, disaster or even send them to hell. Yet, like in Hosea 2:14, God is constantly taking you out to the wilderness to speak comfortably to you. Old King James really played down that word, comfortably, for in Hebrew it is the words al lavah which means to speak your heart,

14 speak of the tender, longing loving feelings you have. It is with the hope that Hosea speaks al lavah to his wife in hopes that one day she will speak al lavah to him, that one day she will no longer call him ba ali (my master) but ishi (my husband) and she will perform her duties as a wife not because she fears retribution but because she loves him. So too, God longs for us to move beyond the fear of hell and calling Him ba ali (my master) because you fear you may go to hell if you don t obey and follow his rules, but that you will call Him ishi (my husband) because you obey and follow his rules out love. Every day He is taking you out to the wilderness to listen to his al lavah (words of His heart) in the singing and dancing of His birds, the colorful leaves of His trees, the glory of His flowers and majesty of His clouds and skies hoping, always hoping that you will speak al lavah (words of your heart) to Him and no longer call Him master, but my Husband. Word Study: Crown/Diadim Nezer WORD STUDY CROWN Revelations 2:17: To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receives it. Crown Hebrew: nezer gemstones of a diadem, to make unique, to separate, to make special The Hebrew word for crown may give us insight into

15 Revelation 2:17. It is the word nezer which is not so much a crown, but a diadem or, more specifically, the stones in a diadem. The various gemstones in a diadem were considered more than symbolic in ancient times, it was believed that these stones carried powers to protect, heal and bring about stability. Hence the ancient Egyptians wore these stones around various parts of their bodies to offer protection, healing or stability. Areas that needed protection were the wrists, neck, head, fingers, and ankles. Today we wear such gemstones for decoration purposes and no one, except some fringe elements, actually believe that these stones offer such powers. The king s diadem would have a white stone set among many other stones. The white stone had his name engraved on it. If he were to remove that stone and give it to someone, that would represent the ultimate authority a king could give to someone. Later the white stone took on new meanings. By the first century A.D., the white stone became an engagement stone. In modern times it took on the form of an engagement ring with the white stone being represented as a diamond. However, in the first century the groom would give his bride a white stone and engraved on the stone would be a special name, a pet name. As lovers do today they would give their beloved a name like Sugar Babe. Such names were often embarrassing and thus were kept secret between the two lovers and used only between themselves. Only one person in the world could call a woman by that special name, and that would be her husband, her beloved. Another practice with the gemstones would be that the king would remove a stone from his diadem to give as a gift to a special servant. It could be a red stone which represents a certain amount of royal power being bestowed upon this servant, or it could be a green stone, representing his restoration, or a blue stone representing wealth or riches. When a subject received a gemstone from the kings diadem, it would represent the power inherent in that stone descending from the king to the subject to join that subject with the king in a common enterprise and the stone would be a tangible

16 object of this bond which could be seen with the naked eye. Not that I expect to wake up one morning and find a bunch of gem stones by my bedside, but I believe Revelation 2:17 is a metaphor showing us that if we overcome God will share the gem stones in his crown with us and give us a special pet name that only a beloved will share with us. Devotional I Kings 11:2 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim: I Kings 11:2: Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel; You shall not go in to them neither shall they come in unto you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their god. Solomon clave unto those in love. Yesterday in a Bible Study we looked at this verse. The last phrase caught my interest. Solomon clave unto those in love. In English what caught my eye was the word love. Because Solomon loved foreign women his heart was turned away from God. In Hebrew what caught my attention was the word clave. In the Hebrew this word is devak It is where we get the word Devekut. Devekut is often used to express the ultimate in closeness to God. When one enters into a Devekut with God he is joining his whole heart, his being, his desires and intentions with God and becomes one with God in purpose, desire and expression. His heart and the heart of God becomes one. There have been reports in history of rabbis who have entered into this deep meditation and closeness to God and have died while in this state. They call it the kiss of God. It is believed to be the state Enoch was in when he was taken to heaven. He was so close to God that he did not

17 want to move away, so God just brought him into his eternal state. This is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 where we learn that a man shall leave cleave to his wife and they become one flesh. However Scripture makes it clear that this devekut is to only be shared with a woman who is one in spirit with her husband and worship the same God. A man was created to share this devekut this intimate closeness with only his wife who worshipped God and with God Himself. When a man and woman enters into a devekut together or intimacy together, God must be a part of this intimacy. They are of so like mind in their relationship with God, that God becomes a natural part of that relationship. This is meant to make the relationship special, something that can only be shared with one person and God. Yet, here in I Kings 11:2 Solomon shared this with 1,000 women. He shared something that was only meant to be shared with God and the one woman that God created for him. Not only did he share this with many women, but it was also the women he shared it with that created the rift between him and God. These were foreign women who worshipped pagan gods. If Solomon became one with them they were to become one with his god or he would become one with their god. The Bible tells us that it was the latter. Last night during the study I tried to look at Devekut esoterically. The word is spelled Daleth, Beth, Qof. I knew the Daleth represented a doorway to the Beth or the heart as Beth represents, but I could not remember what the Qof represented. Try as I might I could not remember the meaning behind Qof even after the Hebrew Alphabet had been an imtimate part of my life for the last 40 years. I went to bed last night very disturbed over my lack of recall and fearful that dementia was setting in. In the middle of the night I felt something on my chest. I looked up and saw Qof dancing on my chest. He was singing a song:

18 You do not know my name How could you not, Oy Vy To not know, for shame My name from God it came And yet it is so tame. That my name will bring no fame, But you can guess my name just the same. I reach out to grab Qof and he just jumped off my chest taunting me. I jump out of bed and grab hold of Qof with both hands. I hear a little squeak and a weak voice say: I am so fragile and yet Christians are so rough. I break easy, and a Christian s disregard of me makes my stomach queasy. Just tell me your name and let s make this easy. I reply. Good grief I declare, You have me talking like you. I began to squeeze Qof harder demanding he tell me his name when he said in a strained, weak voice: I m, must separate myself from you. Suddenly there was a cloud of smoke and he was gone. But instead of the word Poof! appearing in the smoke, I saw the word: Kodesh which means separate or holy. Qof s name is holiness. Devekut or Daleth, Beth Qof means a doorway (Daleth) of the heart (Beth) which leads to holiness (Qof) or Qof s shadow which is to project our unholiness upon others or allow their unholiness to project upon us. Solomon by cleaving (Devekut) to foreign women caused them to project their unholiness upon him, turning him away from God. Devekut not only is projected on God, but it can be projected on a lover, money (the love of money is the root of evil) upon our job, our investments, our hobbies and even the spiritual image we attempt to portray. All these will turn our hearts away from God and cause us to separate ourselves from God.

19 Devotional Genesis 12:10 Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim: Genesis 12:10 There was famine in the land. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Samuel Taylor Coleridge Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I read in Jewish literature an interesting twist to this verse in Genesis 12:10. The word for there was (yehi) can also be rendered and he was becoming. Of course we do not translate it that way because it does not make much sense to say; He was becoming a famine. Or, then again, maybe it does. Jewish literature teaches us that this is a play on words. The passage is not only speaking in a physical sense but a spiritual sense as well. Sure there was a literally famine, a lack of physical food in the land, but suppose we also rendered this and He was becoming a famine in the land. This little play on words gives us a double meaning. Our Jewish friends did not overlook this play on words and in fact they come right out and said that not only were people suffering a famine for physical food but for God as well. The sages render this as: There was a lack of faith in the land. Today our pastor spoke on wanting more of God and it s relation to faith. My first reaction to hearing that was: Well, should it not be that God wants more of us? We already have all of God we will get. As he spoke on this topic, I began to realize that what he was saying is that as believers we become more and more hungry for God and His word and only faith not sermons can fill that hunger. I could not help but think of the word famine and as the sages teach in Genesis

20 12:10, a lack of faith. I, like most Americans, have never really experienced a famine. So the words in the Bible that speak of famine, have little significance for me, unless I give a verse like Genesis 12:10 it s optional rendering. And He was becoming a famine in the land. I thought about this. Could there be a famine of God in our land. Here I am sitting in church listening to a pastor who loves God and preachers his word. I am really getting fed, I should not be hungry. If that is not enough and I want more I will just pop in a CD, or DVD, or turn on the radio or television. I can hear the Word of God taught and preached 24/7. There is no reason for any Christian in this country to go spiritually hungry. Yet, you may be like me, starving for more of God and His Word. I can not help but think of the words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Water, Water everywhere nor any drop to drink. Here we are surrounded by all the preaching and teaching we can ever want, yet we are starving. Perhaps we look for our preachers and teachers to do what they were never called to do. Having been in the ministry myself, I know how people come up and express their disappointment that they are not being fed enough. Yet, as much as I studied and prayed, as a pastor there was a hunger that I could not meet. In Genesis 3:16 we learn that because of the sin of Adam God declared to Eve that her desire will be for her husband, but he will rule over her. I have heard it said that in the Hebrew this is putting a curse on a woman who will desire to rule over her husband but he will rule over her and thus there will be conflict in the home. I have always had a problem with that not only because I find it hard to believe that God would put a curse on the home to cause conflict but I believe the person who came up with this from the Hebrew was looking at

21 this verse from a very Christian perspective and using Christian principles of exegesis. Looking at it from a more Jewish or rabbinic understanding of the Hebrew language we find that what God is doing is making a statement of fact. Because Eve had chosen to seek that which was forbidden, rather than letting God meet the need that eating the fruit would bring, she will also do the same with her husband which will create a conflict in the home. In other words she will seek certain comfort, certain intimacy that her husband can not give her, she will seek from her husband only that which God can give her. She will reach out to her husband for that fruit that only God can give. When her husband is unable to give her that fruit, she will grow angry with him rather than realizing that what she is seeking is to come from God and not her husband. I suggest that this is the very same reason we have spiritual famine in this land. People are looking to their pastors and teachers to give them something that they can only find in their own intimacy with God. They grow so hungry for the Word of God or some experience that they fire the pastor or go to another church that really moves in the Spirit. All the time the problem is not in the church or the pastor, it is in themselves. They are too lazy to search the Scriptures on the own. They are too full of the flesh to ask, seek, and knock to search for God with all their hearts, soul and might. To them the church is nothing more than a spiritual restaurant. Christians want to pay someone to cook their own spiritual meal. Well, that may work in the natural, but in the spiritual a pastor, preacher or teacher can only be like the chefs you see on the cooking channel on TV. They serve up some delicious looking meals, but you can t eat them, you have to follow their recipe and cook it up yourself. There is no easy route to the heart of God. The Bible clearly tells us in Deuteronomy 4:29 that we will find God, He will feed us with spiritual bread that will satisfy that

22 hunger in us if we seek Him and search for Him with all our hearts. ALL OUR HEARTS. We can not fill that hunger, that starvation if we seek Him with half a heart, by listening to sermons or tapes. We need to spend time before His face and in His word personally. Otherwise to paraphrase Coleridge the Word of God and Sermons everywhere, but not a drop to sooth our parched tongue.