As
soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the
Baals and made Baal-berith their god.
- Judges 8:33
An
amazing aspect of the Word of God is that there is always more meaning within
the text than what we have learned or have had revealed no matter how studied
we are. It will never be exhausted. We can read through a passage
many times, be very familiar with it, and one day learn something new from it
as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.
But
there is also this fact, as far as the Old Testament is concerned anyway: it
was originally a Hebrew text written for a Hebrew audience. Many things written would be readily understood by that audience in that culture. I learned
several years ago from a lesson by one of my often referenced teachers, Ray
Vander Laan, of a difference in thought between eastern and western
cultures.
Thought
in an eastern culture, like the Jews, is more concrete and picturesque.
You will be familiar with some of the terms used that describe God: living
water, my fortress, my shepherd, my rock. All of these create an image in
the mind that is easily related to.
In western (or Greek/Hellenistic)
culture, thought is more abstract. We like definitions and
lists with bullet points. We tend to describe God in ways such as:
omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, merciful, forgiving, and love. Those are
absolutely correct, but you can’t form a mental picture of them.
As
a result of that lesson, I began looking for certain things in the text when I
read. In particular, parts of names of people and places. Unlike
names we are familiar with today, names once meant something. Remember Adam called his wife "Eve, for she is the mother of all living". Recall when
God renamed Abram (meaning: exalted father) to Abraham (meaning: father of multitudes),
or when He renamed Jacob (meaning: supplanter) to Israel (meaning: God
prevails). Remember when Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending on the stairway which reached up to heaven, and he called the place Bethel (house of God). When
Rachel was dying in childbirth, she named Jacob's youngest son Benoni
(meaning: son of my sorrow), but Jacob renamed Benjamin. (I'll leave you to research that meaning).
My
method, however, is not entirely accurate because transliteration from Hebrew to
English is complex. But, with that in
mind, let’s look again at our focus passage:
“As
soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the
Baals and made Baal-berith their god.”
We
see time and again throughout the period of the judges how the Israelites began
straying from God and worshiping false gods. We see in a later story
when the people of Judah were ruled king Rehoboam, they followed the examples
of the Canaanites, and the Amorites, and the other nations that God drove out
of the land by observing their customs and manners of worshiping false gods with altars
and Asherim poles on the high places.
For
they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every
high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes
in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the
Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
- 1
Kings 14:23-24
The
portion of the story we are looking at in Judges 8 relates that Gideon had many wives and
seventy sons. He had one son named Abimelech by a concubine in Shechem. Abimelech
conspired with his Shechemite kinsmen and slaughtered the other sons of Gideon except
for the youngest, Jotham, who was able to elude the killers. The text
says that Jotham went up to Mount Gerizim to confront the leaders of Shechem.
Let’s
look at a few things that we have just from this part of the text
already.
First,
a hill or mountain is obviously considered a high place. We saw a moment
ago that high places were where the altars to false gods and the Asherim poles
were erected. God had commanded the Israelites that once they entered the
land He was giving them, they were to destroy the idolatrous altars and the
Asherim poles.
You
shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God)
- Exodus
34:13-14
While
not a word that we’ll focus on, a bonus nugget is the Hebrew word for hill
or mountain is har.
The
first translated word we will focus on is Baal. Baals were the group of
false gods worshiped in the high places. Baal translates to lord.
Next
is the Hebrew word, berith. As we saw in earlier posts on Blood Covenants, the word berith translates to covenant
with implications of cutting. [Blood Covenant: Part 1, Part 2]
Of
final interest is the location: Mount Gerizim. Gerizim means cuttings
or cuttings off.
Taking
the total sum of these items, we can deduce that Jotham knew where and when the
leaders of Shechem would be. The text says “Israel turned again and
whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god”. That place would
be the high place (har) of cuttings (gerizim) in order for worship of a lord of covenant (Baal-berith).
They
turned away from The God of the covenant, the one who brought them up out of
slavery in Egypt, led them in the wilderness, and established His covenant with
them. They instead chose to follow a god they called a lord of covenant,
a god made by the hands of man, with eyes that do not see, ears that cannot
hear, and a mouth but cannot speak.
The people made the wrong choice.
But
it doesn’t end there.
Jesus,
mocked and beaten, is standing before the crowd and before Pilate.
So
when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release
for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”
- Matthew 27:17
The
text says that with them was a notorious prisoner, bound, whose name was
Barabbas. Further, it explains that at the time of the Feast (Passover),
it was customary for a prisoner to be released. Though not necessarily an
innocent man, or a merciful man, Pilate did not find fault in Jesus and posed a
choice of releasing one of these men: one he knew to be innocent, and one he knew rebellious and
fiendish.
And
the people demanded the release of Barabbas.
They
cried out again, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now, Barabbas was a robber.
- John 18:40
He
released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder,
for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.
-
Luke 23:25
Barabbas
has through the years been primarily known as the name of the man released
instead of Jesus at the insistence of the Jews under the instigation of the
Jewish leaders. But Barabbas is more than a name; it is a title. It
is the combined words bar - derived from Aramaic meaning son, and abbas
– meaning father. Bar-abbas thusly translates to: son of a
father. *
Just
a few days before this trial, the people had hailed Jesus as the expected One
as He rode into Jerusalem, and they exclaimed “Hosanna!” – a plea for salvation.
"The
thief comes to steal, kill and destroy...
- John 10:10 - While this is speaking of Satan, it fits Barabbas
perfectly by description. He was a robber (John 18:40). He was a
murderer (Luke 23:18). He was a rebel and insurrectionist (Mark 15:7).
...but
I come that you might have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
-
John 10:10b-11
And the crowd cried out for Jesus to be crucified. The people turned away from The Son of The Father and preferred to receive to
themselves a son of a father. They shunned the One innocent and sinless
and craved the one guilty of murderer and robbery.
"He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."
"He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."
-
John 1:11
The
people made the wrong choice again.
- - - - -
Here are a few things that I watch for in the text to help flesh out what I'm reading. Again, not every English translation rendering that use these combinations will be related to these, but they are often worth checking out. Perhaps you will find this helpful and help the Word come alive for you in a new way as you read.
Blessings!
Hebrew: EL - reference to God
Example: Samuel - God is salvation
Hebrew: JAH - abbreviated form of Jehovah
Example: Elijah - God is Jehovah
Hebrew: IAH - abbreviated form of Jehovah
Example: Isaiah - Jehovah has saved
Hebrew: EN - fountain or spring
Example: En-gedi - fountain of the kid
Hebrew: BETH - house
Example: Bethlehem - house of bread
Hebrew: - BIN/BEN - son of
Example: Benhadad - son of Hadad (a false god)
Hebrew: BAT/BATH - daughter of
Example: Bathsheba - daughter of an oath
Hebrew: AB - father of / my father is
Example: Abimelech - my father is king
Hebrew: AH - brother of / my brother is
Example: Ahimelech - my brother is king
Hebrew: AM - people or tribal group
Example: Eliam - god of the people
Hebrew: IM - as a suffix, plural form of the word
Example: seraphim - two or more seraphs
Greek: BAR - son of (derived from Aramaic/Hebrew)
Example: Barabbas - son of a father
- - - - -
* An alternate translation for bar-abbas is bar (son) abbas (God-given), which would again simply highlight the erroneous choosing between the true God-given Son and a false god-given son.
[Originally written: November 14, 2017]
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