To a Height above the Storm!

Distinctly I remember a time on my long-distance travel, the aircraft was buffeted by strong turbulence, when passing through the storm. The pilot took the plane around 300 feet high, and peace and calmness were restored since we were flying above the storm. The storm and lightning were raging below us, but the aircraft was in a different height and so does all the people in it. That height was the safest place we could be. Storm could not touch us, when we rose to such an altitude!

The metaphor above, not only does bring a picture of God surrounding us and protecting us, but also of Him lifting us up and carrying us away from all the problems and stresses that have been bound. (Chaim Bentorah, Revealing the Heart of God, Hebrew Word Study, 2016). This is what the Hebrew word Sagav ( שָׂגָה) or “refuge,” refer to. 

The term “ oppressed is from the Hebrew word adah ( אדה), which means “to be crushed under affliction” or “to have a heavy weight on top of something.” The word for “trouble” is tsarar ( צָרַר), which means “to be bound up”; it could also come from the root word batsar (בָּצַר), meaning “a pruning” (Chaim Bentorah). 

God is a refuge for us from those who seek to crush us or to hold us down, or from those who have us bound up in fear. The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble, Ps. 9:9 (KJV). Time and time again, when the storm of life threatens us, we may think our shelter will be found in the arm of flesh, by our ingenuity, brilliance, inventiveness, creativity, imagination, resourcefulness, cleverness or by our insight. Our raging creative thoughts in our fallenness were often humbled by God’s protection and He is able to make us inaccessible to the storms. 

When we are lifted to the height above the storms, we can look down in peace and know we are in God’s protection, to a place of ultimate safety. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, Ps. 91:1(KJV).

The word is “sagav” which means to be high. The picture is a refuge in the heavens or outer space, a place that is inaccessible. More Hebrew words for refuge. noun מִקְלָט. shelter, asylum, haven, sanctuary. noun מִפלָט. escape, retreat, haven, shelter, asylum.[1]

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[1] How to say refuge in Hebrew - Thesaurus and Word Toolshttps://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the/hebrew-word-for-cdc93d65384e9644...

 

Wrestle: ‘Aveq (אָבַק)

 

Hebrew Base Word: אָבַק Part of speech: Verb Usage: Wrestle Definition: To bedust, i.e., grapple. Detailed definition: (Niphal) to wrestle, grapple (get dusty), bedust. 

       And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him; Gen 32: 24-25 KJV. 

 “It does not say that he wrestled with the man, but ‘there wrestled a man with him.’ We call him ‘wrestling Jacob,’ and so he was; but we must not forget the wrestling man, — or, rather, the wrestling Christ, — the wrestling Angel of the covenant, who had come to wrestle out of him much of his own strength and wisdom.” (Spurgeon)

“I suppose our Lord Jesus Christ did here, as on many other occasions preparatory to his full incarnation, assume a human form, and came thus to wrestle with the patriarch.” (Spurgeon)

i. Sometimes we feel man really can contend with God. A man or woman in rebellion against God might seem to do pretty well. The match seems even in appearance only. God can turn the tide at any moment, and He allows the match to go on for His own purposes.

ii. It isn’t hard to imagine Jacob working so hard and feeling he is getting the best of his opponent, until finally the Man changed the nature of the struggle in a moment. Jacob must have felt very defeated. (Enduring Word, David Guzik).

I believe that this wrestling match is more of a mind and heart battle than the physical one. This can be related to what we as humans would do when facing an extremely difficult situation! The metaphysical aspects of man, the intellectual property endowed to man by God is very complex, intricate, compounded, complicate, unfathomable, and not easy to analyze or understand fully by humans. 

Agonizing over the decision we would make, while thinking about the pros and cons seems to be very norm! This could be related to rolling in a dust, while most of the battle is in determining God’s will. Possible Jacob was rolling in the dust, wrestling with many things (such as thought, reasoning, judgement, will, design, affection, love, anger, hatred, courage, fear, worry, anxiety, joy, sorrow, and life itself- the issues of the human heart and mind), trying to absorb a little of God’s wisdom, and to know God’s will for his life, as he was running away from his brother Esau! Most likely Jacob knew what was God’s will, or he knew God’s heart, but has difficulty accepting God’s will and decision, and hence wrestling through the night, with the struggles of submitting to God’s will.

As the fight progressed, it seemed Jacob was somewhat evenly matched against the Man, but the match was only evenly matched in appearance. The Man could have won easily at any time, using supernatural power, (Enduring Word, David Guzik). As Jacob, fully spread his fears before the Lord, (the angel) suffered himself to be conquered, to encourage Jacob’s faith and hope against the approaching danger, and in truth, he even imparted strength to him to maintain the conflict. I am confident that there is sizeable element of truth in this understanding.

Complicated Grief: Heart- rending

 

Rending means  tearing, so when something makes you feel deeply saddened.

Hebrew word study:

lev – לב means, heart-  which is defined as the seat of all passions.

ayakah/ AYEKAH – איכה means  “where are you?”

“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” - Genesis 3:9-10, (KJV).

Ayekah is an ancient Hebrew word that is still used in daily life today. It means, “Where are you?” It is used today when a person, parent, friend, compatriot wants to know about your inner world, the heart experience of you. 

Can you picture God wandering through the garden, weeping, and saying, “O woe is Me!”?..... If we believe we are created in the image of God, then we have a heart like His- a heart that can be broken. Haven’t you ever lamented over a broken relationship? Most Christians seem to have a hard time picturing God as weeping over His lost children. Hence, we use the more appropriate rendering  of “where are you?” But while ayakah is an interrogative,* it is also an expression of grief. So, what is causing this grief? Adam and Eve were not hiding from God; they were hiding from the presence of God. They had willfully separated themselves from His presence. God is grief- stricken because the sin has caused to hide one from His presence- the presence He longs to share with us. After searching for the heart of God and capturing a few glimpses of His heart, you may no longer see Him as a task master ready to whip you into submission to His will, but as a lover who has His arms open, ready to embrace you, to forgive you, and win you over to submission to His perfect will through His passionate love for you. - Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study- Revealing the Heart of God, (2016). 

If God had problems locating where Adam was hiding in some bushes, this does not inspire in me much confidence that God is watching over me all the time and protects me and knows my going out and my coming in! So, what is the literal rendering of the verse, Genesis 3: 9-10? The complicated grief which came out of original sin (peccatum Originale- Latin) is heartrending, and this is something that  rends God’s heart, rips it apart, like a tale of a terrible tragedy! Looking at the effects of Fall, ayakah- this rendering makes more sense, to me in my search for God’s heart!

Got the story all wrong?!

       Trauma is a sentence in the story- it is not the true story! We can always make anything in our lives the focal point of our stories! Pursuing wealth, perfect families around, one’s own perfect family, perfect marriage, perfect children, perfect fitness, and all of these have the capacity to move us away, and hijack us from the real story! Suffix to say, that trauma has the capacity to move one away from the real story!

Missing the profound opportunity to glory in the True Author of Life?

Get the narrative theme right in the heart, and nullify the sentence of tragedy, and one need not be hopeless and miserable! The painful reality of the death of Jesus Christ for humanity (recorded in the Gospels), the fallen world (Gen.3), privilege of being a part of God’s story (Psa. 139:16), man created for the glory of Another (Ps.147: 10-11), vanity of life without God (Ecc.1:14), God’s goodness and love (Psa. 136:1), Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus is Saviour (Jn: 3: 16), God works in all things even in tragedy to transform his own into children of glory (Rom. 8: 28-29), and our Savior is committed to the full redemption and healing of his children (Phil. 1:6, Jam. 1: 2-3) should be our focal point.  

The grandeur of the Gospel narrative, and of God’s wonderful, beautiful heart, in restoring all mankind to His bosom of love, and the unspeakable honor to relate to God cannot be hijacked by a mere sentence of horror/trauma in one’s life story. One cannot absolutely constrict their entire life and God- ordained purpose into a sentence , a moment, a season in their life, and miss the real story for their life completely!