Psalms 71:5: “ For thou [art] my hope, O Lord GOD: [thou art] my trust from my youth.”
I don’t know about you but somehow I cannot see David hoping God will come through. Our modern concept of the word hope implies a sense of uncertainty. In other words, “I hope the Chicago Cubs win their opening game.” I mean we can say with more certainty than uncertainty the Cubs will lose, all we have left is hope that they might pull it off. Yet, we define faith as a certainty, a surety that God is there and will act on our behalf. So why did the Apostle Paul say in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is the substance of things hoped for when faith is supposed to be a feeling of certainty by its very definition yet Paul is saying it is something that is uncertain. Paul was not saying something contradictory or implying some mystery, he was only speaking with a Hebrew mindset, one whose native language was Aramaic and not Greek although he was fluent in Greek and most likely wrote this epistle in Greek, he carried a Hebrew mindset.
The word in Hebrew and Aramaic for hope is tikevati which comes from a Semitic root kavah a place of collecting, a reservoir. In the ancient Middle East, water was more precious than gold and it would be collected in a reservoir so that one would readily have it available when you needed it and in a desert you needed it often, at least two or three quarts of it. Without it you would die so water became one of your primary concerns and when collected in a reservoir it was that reservoir that you put your confidence and expectation in.
Another use of the word kavah (hope) in the Akkadian language is for a cord. It is a measuring cord. I noticed one of Chicago’s finest the other day pull out a little cord and measured the curb to the tire of a car that was parked by the curb. In some of our Chicago streets every extra inch provides added hope that you will make it through that street without taking out a few side view mirrors. Our city guardian was making sure we got that extra inch and was ready to leave a little gift for the owner of the car if he did not provide that extra inch. That cord was a kavah it was adding certainty and assurance that there was enough room to drive a bus through. A measuring line gives a person a certainty and assurance that you have the exact proportion measured out and that the end result of whatever you are building, designing or making will come out as expected. Embedded in this word kavah is the idea of a certainty in the outcome. It is the idea that the fix is in and you are a winner. Al Capone used to feed all the dogs in a dog race steak before they raced, except one dog. Thus, Al Capone had a kavah, a certainty which dog would win the race that the others betting on the race did not have. The others only had hope that their dog would win while Capone and his friends had a certainty their dog would win.
However kavah (hope, certainty) is meaningless if you cannot imagine the outcome. In extra Biblical literature I have found that kavah is used to express the idea of imagination. There are really two words in Hebrew for imagination. One word is zamam which has the idea of plotting evil, it is used to express a negative imagination as one imagines the evil he will do before doing it. The other word for imagination is kavah which is imagining a positive outcome, it is a positive imagination. Hence when the Apostle Paul said that faith is the substance of things hoped for, he was not saying faith is gritting your teeth, clutching your hands together like when you are at Wrigley Field hoping upon hope the Cubs hit a home run. Odds are they won’t but you just hope it happens. But if you have kavah you are imagining that the Cubs have already hit that home run and you are collecting your bet from that White Sox fan back at the office. Faith is the substance of things that have not yet taken place but you are imagining and rejoicing in that future event that you know will take place. Faith is the substance of your positive imagination. God created the world using His imagination. He imagined it and it came to be. Just as a designer imagines a dress or a car before it is even made or built. That dress or car is literally created through the designer’s imagination. Skilled workers just follow the imagination of the creator to make the dress or build the car.
The Talmud teaches that God did not end creation on the sixth day, he merely passed the creation process unto man. We are distinct from all other animals in the animal kingdom as we have an imagination and we create from imagination. Animals operate by instinct, we operate by our imagination.
Thus, in 21st Century English, the word hope is no longer a proper word to use for kavah as that word has taken on the meaning of an uncertain outcome which is really the opposite of kavah. David saying that God is his measuring stick that makes sure everything is the way it should be. Just as my friendly neighborhood law enforcement officer makes sure I have enough room to get my bus down that street, it is still up to me navigate that beast down that street. I have all the confidence in the world that the man in blue has made sure I have enough room to get that bus down the street, it is my ability to navigate it down that street without taking out a side view mirror that worries me.
David goes on to say that God has been his trust since youth. The word trust in Hebrew is batch which means to adhere to or melt into. Today we would use the word weld. When you weld something you are literally melting two pieces of metal into each other. The substance of each piece of metal mixes with each other. A welder will tell you that those two pieces will break everywhere on that metal before it breaks at the weld. David had melted himself into God and God into him since his youth so that when his positive imagination is what God imagines and what God imagines, he creates. Faith is the result of your positive imagination when it is welded to the substance of the thing not seen – God Himself. As Jesus told the woman healed of her issue of blood, “Your faith, your positive imagination welded or mixed with the substance of God made you whole.”(Matthew 9:20-22).
The more I drive that bus down that narrow street the more I can do it without thinking or worrying about taking out a side view mirror, because I have confidence our guardians of the law made sure there was enough room to navigate that beast of burden down that street. So too has our Heavenly Guardian made sure the road we take is passable and the more we exercise our faith the more we are confident in our ability to use what God has given us.
Recent Comments