Psalms 130:4, “For with thee there is forgiveness (סלח), that thou mayest be feared.”
I remember as a child there was a little Sunday School we would sing, practically every Sunday.
Gone Gone Gone
Yes my sins are gone
Buried in the deepest sea
That’s good enough for me
Praise God, my sins are gone.
As a little kid that was a fun song to sing. But I never considered just what is this forgiveness that we get from God? I was hoping that my lexicon would give some deep insight into this Hebrew word salach which we render as forgiveness. All it tells me is that it means pardon or forgiveness. But what does that mean? Are our sins buried in the deepest sea, do they still exist somewhere? Does God’s forgiveness means that your sins no longer exist, are they just covered over, or are they really just forgotten by God?
The word for forgiveness is salach which has a Semitic root SL. That is Samek Lamed. There are a number of Samek Lamed words and often in a Semitic language words built upon the dual root are often related. Sort of like the building material of a house. A house has bricks, siding, wood framing etc. So let’s use a pretend or made up language and I will say the word house in my pretend language is SL. The word for the bricks used on the house would be SLA. The siding would be SLB, the wood framing would be SLD etc. Bricks, siding, and framing are all different words and exist independently and can have an independent usage, yet at the same time they all share a relationship to SL or a house which is their primary use. So let’s just look at the other SL words in Hebrew and see if it does not give us some insight into just what this forgiveness of God really means.
The first word we find is sala’ Samek, Lamed and Aleph. This word means to pay promptly, it also means to weigh against something. In ancient times you would weigh the value of something you wished to purchase against the weight of something you would use to make that purchase. Hence the old saying, he is worth his weight in gold. The devil owns us because of our sins. God cannot fellowship with us, own us or even face us because of His purity and holiness. He wants to purchase us back but the old Buzzard demands a steep price, a life. So God came in human form to suffer a physical death to purchase those sins from Satan so we would not die a spiritual death. Forgiveness then means that the price and penalty for our sins has been paid in full. The moment we confess our sins to Him he promptly pays for them. God now owns us and our sins, so what is He going to do with those sins?
The next word is salad Samek, Lamed and Daleth. This word has its origins in the swift pulling back of your hand when it gets too close to the fire. It has the idea of pulling back or separating. Forgiveness is God pulling all those sins away from us, separating from those sins so we will no longer get burned by them. As a good Baptist we could say it also means pulling those sins away from us so we will not get burned by the fires of hell. Sin may burn us, it may leave some scars, but by the time we get to heaven there will be no trace of any of those burns or scars. Forgiveness therefore means that we will not be consumed by the guilt and the consequences of our sins.
Let’s continue to follow the Alphabet here and see what is next. Our next SL word is salah Samek, Lamed and Hei. This word means to means to throw off, to shake off to remove from something. The first thing God does when he forgives us is to completely brush all those sins off of us so that the stain and disfigurement of sin will be removed so he can see His beautiful bride.
We see the next word in line is salal, Samek, Lamed and Lamed. This word means to toss away or discard. It is used to express the idea of tossing something away that is worthless or just plain garbage. Once God salah brushed those sins off of us through His forgiveness He then salal that is picks them up and discard them or toss them into a garbage heap and burns them away. Hell comes from the word Gahanna which was a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. God just cleans us up of all our sins and throws them and not us in hell. He does not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Our next word is salam, Samek, Lamed, and Mem. This is the word for a ladder or staircase that is used to take you out of a pit. In those days a ladder was commonly used by well diggers to get out of the pit that they dug. Sin has put us into a pit of shame, guilt and torment. God’s forgiveness is like a ladder that we can use to climb out of that pit of guilt and shame. Of course you don’t have to climb that ladder if you don’t want to, you can stay in that pit of guilt and shame. God is offering His forgiveness salach but we must first be willing to accept it and climb up that ladder salam.
We now arrive at the word sala’ which is spelled Samek, Lamed and Ayin. This is the word for splitting a log into splinters or shattering a rock into pebbles. So we come to God with this big weight of sin and He just brushes it off of us and then takes a big sledge hammer, gives it a good whack and turns it into a pile of worthless harmless little pebbles that He sweeps up and tosses into the garbage dump of hell.
Let’s move on to the next word which is salap spelled Samek, Lamed and Pei. This has the idea of passing away or to bring something to naught. When God forgives us then our sins lose all value and influence on us. The enemy hates salap. He loves to catch you just as you begin to worship God and then he whispers in your ear, “Just who do you think you are to worship God after that sin you committed, shame on you.” Of course the fools that we are we just stand there, scratch our heads and say: “You know you’re right.” But we have salap, God’s forgiveness making that sin totally meaningless in His sight and all the enemy has are lies making us believe they still separate us from Jesus. We just point our finger at the enemy and say, “You are a liar, by the blood of Jesus Christ that sin you like to harp on is nothing but salap, it has no meaning to Him whatsoever so shut up you mouth.”
This is followed by shalaq spelled Samek, Lamed and Qop which means to remove. Once that value of our sins is brought to naught, God just flicks it off of us and removes it His sight, He just sends it back to hell for the old goat to play with. That sin is no longer there to spiritually disfigure us so we can be God’s beautiful bride.
Finally we arrive at the last word, spelled Samek, Lamed and Taw. This is the word for the finest and purest flour, often used for the most luxurious food like pastries. This is like comfort food, you do not eat it for nourishment you eat it just for the pure pleasure of eating. It is like a good Big Mac, no nutritional value whatsoever but heck with nutrition I just want it to be a part of me because it taste so good. In other words God does not just forgive us for our sakes, but he has a personal agenda as well. He needs to forgive us so that we become pure enough for him to just enjoy our presence and companionship, so He can feast on our fellowship with Him. We are God’s Big Macs, our nutritional value to Him is limited but oh can we bring Him pleasure.
Psalms 130:4, “For with thee there is forgiveness, that thou mayest be feared.”
I remember as a child there was a little Sunday School we would sing, practically every Sunday.
Gone Gone Gone
Yes my sins are gone
Buried in the deepest sea
That’s good enough for me
Praise God, my sins are gone.
As a little kid that was a fun song to sing. But I never considered just what is this forgiveness that we get from God? I was hoping that my lexicon would give some deep insight into this Hebrew word salach which we render as forgiveness. All it tells me is that it means pardon or forgiveness. But what does that mean? Are our sins buried in the deepest sea, do they still exist somewhere? Does God’s forgiveness means that your sins no longer exist, are they just covered over, or are they really just forgotten by God?
The word for forgiveness is salach which has a Semitic root SL. That is Samek Lamed. There are a number of Samek Lamed words and often in a Semitic language words built upon the dual root are often related. Sort of like the building material of a house. A house has bricks, siding, wood framing etc. So let’s use a pretend or made up language and I will say the word house in my pretend language is SL. The word for the bricks used on the house would be SLA. The siding would be SLB, the wood framing would be SLD etc. Bricks, siding, and framing are all different words and exist independently and can have an independent usage, yet at the same time they all share a relationship to SL or a house which is their primary use. So let’s just look at the other SL words in Hebrew and see if it does not give us some insight into just what this forgiveness of God really means.
The first word we find is sala’ Samek, Lamed and Aleph. This word means to pay promptly, it also means to weigh against something. In ancient times you would weigh the value of something you wished to purchase against the weight of something you would use to make that purchase. Hence the old saying, he is worth his weight in gold. The devil owns us because of our sins. God cannot fellowship with us, own us or even face us because of His purity and holiness. He wants to purchase us back but the old Buzzard demands a steep price, a life. So God came in human form to suffer a physical death to purchase those sins from Satan so we would not die a spiritual death. Forgiveness then means that the price and penalty for our sins has been paid in full. The moment we confess our sins to Him he promptly pays for them. God now owns us and our sins, so what is He going to do with those sins?
The next word is salad Samek, Lamed and Daleth. This word has its origins in the swift pulling back of your hand when it gets too close to the fire. It has the idea of pulling back or separating. Forgiveness is God pulling all those sins away from us, separating from those sins so we will no longer get burned by them. As a good Baptist we could say it also means pulling those sins away from us so we will not get burned by the fires of hell. Sin may burn us, it may leave some scars, but by the time we get to heaven there will be no trace of any of those burns or scars. Forgiveness therefore means that we will not be consumed by the guilt and the consequences of our sins.
Let’s continue to follow the Alphabet here and see what is next. Our next SL word is salah Samek, Lamed and Hei. This word means to means to throw off, to shake off to remove from something. The first thing God does when he forgives us is to completely brush all those sins off of us so that the stain and disfigurement of sin will be removed so he can see His beautiful bride.
We see the next word in line is salal, Samek, Lamed and Lamed. This word means to toss away or discard. It is used to express the idea of tossing something away that is worthless or just plain garbage. Once God salah brushed those sins off of us through His forgiveness He then salal that is picks them up and discard them or toss them into a garbage heap and burns them away. Hell comes from the word Gahanna which was a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. God just cleans us up of all our sins and throws them and not us in hell. He does not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Our next word is salam, Samek, Lamed, and Mem. This is the word for a ladder or staircase that is used to take you out of a pit. In those days a ladder was commonly used by well diggers to get out of the pit that they dug. Sin has put us into a pit of shame, guilt and torment. God’s forgiveness is like a ladder that we can use to climb out of that pit of guilt and shame. Of course you don’t have to climb that ladder if you don’t want to, you can stay in that pit of guilt and shame. God is offering His forgiveness salach but we must first be willing to accept it and climb up that ladder salam.
We now arrive at the word sala’ which is spelled Samek, Lamed and Ayin. This is the word for splitting a log into splinters or shattering a rock into pebbles. So we come to God with this big weight of sin and He just brushes it off of us and then takes a big sledge hammer, gives it a good whack and turns it into a pile of worthless harmless little pebbles that He sweeps up and tosses into the garbage dump of hell.
Let’s move on to the next word which is salap spelled Samek, Lamed and Pei. This has the idea of passing away or to bring something to naught. When God forgives us then our sins lose all value and influence on us. The enemy hates salap. He loves to catch you just as you begin to worship God and then he whispers in your ear, “Just who do you think you are to worship God after that sin you committed, shame on you.” Of course the fools that we are we just stand there, scratch our heads and say: “You know you’re right.” But we have salap, God’s forgiveness making that sin totally meaningless in His sight and all the enemy has are lies making us believe they still separate us from Jesus. We just point our finger at the enemy and say, “You are a liar, by the blood of Jesus Christ that sin you like to harp on is nothing but salap, it has no meaning to Him whatsoever so shut up you mouth.”
This is followed by shalaq spelled Samek, Lamed and Qop which means to remove. Once that value of our sins is brought to naught, God just flicks it off of us and removes it His sight, He just sends it back to hell for the old goat to play with. That sin is no longer there to spiritually disfigure us so we can be God’s beautiful bride.
Finally we arrive at the last word, spelled Samek, Lamed and Taw. This is the word for the finest and purest flour, often used for the most luxurious food like pastries. This is like comfort food, you do not eat it for nourishment you eat it just for the pure pleasure of eating. It is like a good Big Mac, no nutritional value whatsoever but heck with nutrition I just want it to be a part of me because it taste so good. In other words God does not just forgive us for our sakes, but he has a personal agenda as well. He needs to forgive us so that we become pure enough for him to just enjoy our presence and companionship, so He can feast on our fellowship with Him. We are God’s Big Macs, our nutritional value to Him is limited but oh can we bring Him pleasure.
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