WORD STUDY TAKE AWAY MY קח נפשׁי LIFE

Transcription

1 WORD STUDY TAKE AWAY MY קח נפשׁי LIFE 1Kings 19:2-4: Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do [to me], and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw [that], he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which [belonged] to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers. In verse 3 we read: And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, I find this word saw to be quite important with regard to my own personal journey to the heart of God. Elijah is responding to Jezebel s threat to lop off his head within 24 hours. I have heard many preachers say that Elijah was

2 afraid, he took off running as a defensive matter and to get alone with God, but the passage does not say he did it out of fear. Some translations will say he became afraid and ran and some translations say he became aware of the threat and ran. The problem arises in the word: yara. It could come from one of two possible roots, either yarah which is to fear or ra ah which is to see. The Masoretic text added the vowel pointings which would direct you to the root word for ra ah to see. It is said that they did this because they did not want to show any weakness in Elijah s faith. Let s assume the Masoretic text has it right and Elijah ra ah saw what the messenger said. This word for seeing could mean both with physicals eyes or the eyes of the spirit. with spiritual eyes. Is it possible he saw what Jezebel had planned for him in the spirit and ran as a defensive action? There is evidence that Elijah had a spiritual gift of being able to see what was going on in the spirit world. Note when he was taken to heaven and his assistant Elisha asked for double portion of what Elijah had. 2Kings 2:10: And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: [nevertheless], if thou see me [when I am] taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be [so]. Why was just seeing ra ah the only condition as to whether he would receive this mantel from Elijah? I did some research at the University of Chicago where they have a tremendous library in Archaeology and Semitic

3 languages. I discovered something interesting. In the Phoenician language there is the story of a man on a journey who is seeking to enter the realm of his god. When he comes to the entrance he is greeted by his god and the son of his god who welcome him into portal where he passed from this natural world into the realm of his god. Now before I proceed, let me strongly point out that I have not written an academic paper on this and sent it out for peer review. As such I probably should not even be sharing this with you so I only give it to you for your consideration, but please understand this is not a work of scholarship simply the musing of an old Hebrew teacher. However, I found very similar language in the story of Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire to that of the story written in the Phoenician language. I wonder if maybe we could the story of Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire as really a story of Elijah seeing an open portal into heaven where God and His Son are greeting him. If this were the case, however, then what Elijah was saying as a condition that he would step into the role of the prophet was that he could see into the supernatural world and see this open portal. So if Elijah could see into the supernatural, see what was really going on in the world of the spirit, what was it that made him so discouraged that he wanted to die? You know I don t think he was referring to a physical death at all, this glimpse into the world of the spirit created another desire in Him. Elijah did not necessarily ask God to take his life. For one thing the word take is not your usual word for take, it is the word laqach which is the word used for taking a bride. This

4 has the idea of taking something to join yourself with it. If he asked to take his life he would have used the word chai (life) or his ruch (spirit). Instead he asked God to take or join his nephesh or his soul to Him. This word, like many other Hebrew words, have a wide range of meanings. Sometimes it means one s physical life but this is rare more often it is a reference to one s free will, that part of you that often rebels against God. It is that part of you that brings about sin. Perhaps Elijah had reach the point of finally giving up his will to God and asking God to take complete control or to join Himself with his nephesh that central area of his emotions and passion and will so all his passions will be joined with God. Ok, I am biased, I feel God has led me to render this passage the way I do because of my present condition. I can feel the father of that Jezebel spirit pointing his finger at me and saying: Look at you, you really messed it up royal this time, what s going to happen now, you will starve, you will be homeless, nothing but a broken old man standing on the street corner with a McDonald s plastic cup (large size) begging for enough change to buy an Egg McMuffin. I find myself running in fear and finally when I sit under that juniper tree in despair, not over the looming threat, but that I am not trusting God. After years and years of seeing God s faithfulness, of God not letting me down, I am no better than the children of Israel. When I am ready to enter the Promised Land, I encounter a giant of financial concerns, failure and all those other things that cause me to crumble in fear. Like Elijah I cry out: It is enough, take and join to yourself laqach my will, my desires, my hopes, my dreams, my very soul because I am so tired of living in this fear and this lack of trust in you.

5 My grandfather used to tell the story of an old Indian who became a Christian. Someone asked him what it was like. He said: It is like two dogs inside of me fighting, one good and one evil. When asked which one wins, the old Indian said: Whichever one I feed the most. Elijah had two dogs fighting inside of him. At first the Arabians fed him, then a widow woman, but now He was fed by God Himself. For so long I let the arm of the flesh feed me, but now it is time to let God feed me direct. There are two dogs fighting in me, one of fear and one of trust. The one that is fed the most will win.