Ezekiel: 1:4: “I looked, and lo, a stormy wind came sweeping out of the north, a huge cloud and flashing fire, surrounded by radiance; and in the center of it, in the center of the fire, a gleam of amber.
The word Ezekiel chose for gleam of amber is chashmal. This word is used only three times in the Old Testament, all in Ezekiel all in the same context (1:4, 1:27 and 8:2) all giving a definitive description of what Ezekiel saw at the center of the manifestation of God which we Christians traditionally would interpret, Jesus. I am fine with the Christian interpretation, but I find the Jewish interpretation to be quite intriguing.
The Septuagint renders chashmal in the Greek as electrum. This word is used in Revelation 1:15 in the same context. This is where we would get the word electron and electricity. Thousands of years before mankind knew of an electron or electricity, that is what Ezekiel used to describe what he saw.
Electrum, however, is a modern term used to describe a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, whose colors range from pale to bright yellow like the sun. It was a precious metal used in ancient coinage. Today it is used as an excellent conductor of electricity. The Hebrews recognized gold to symbolize the light or glory of God and silver as His holiness. Both are combined in one element we call electrum.
The ancient sages, without understanding electricity, somehow understood the nature of electricity when formulating the word chashmal. Chashmal is really a compound word meaning silence (chash) and speaking milel.
I read something interesting in the Talmud Chagiga 13b. There is the mystery of prayer. For one to connect to the chashmal the electricity of God, one first must be silent chash to cut away mal. Mal is from the word milah which is the same root as milel. What you are cutting away is the kelipos. It is then that you can speak to God (milel) with your heart and with your heart you will hear the voice of God and with your heart you will see His wonders to perform.
The Talmud explains that kelipos means a shell and as Rabbi Yaacov Yosef characterized, kelipos are distracting thoughts during prayer. During prayer these kelipos distracting thoughts really contain divine sparks waiting to be redeemed and elevated. They are broken down by the silence releasing the divine presence or the Shekinah. Put into simpler words what the Talmud is teaching is that in silence before God this silence will crack the shell of these distracting thoughts and release the presence of God or the Shekinah Glory in us and when that is done we begin to milel or speak our prayers from our heart and it is from our heart that we hear what our ears cannot hear, we see what our eyes do not see and we can speak what our lips cannot speak.
What this means in a practical sense is this. Do you ever find it difficult to pray? You want to something to God but there are no words coming out? You thoughts begin to wander or kelipos sets in. The sages are teaching that we are not to force but to embrace this silence before God. Perhaps you need to just sit in silence for a while, sometimes for a long while. In the Toronto Blessing they called it soaking, the Jews call it devekut, just spending time embracing God, giving Him a hug. Sometime, when a person is going through a trial, say you are at a wake or funeral where a close friend or even your spouse has lost a loved one. You know, “Sorry for you lose” coming from a close friend is not what that person is looking for at least from a close friend or spouse. If you have a special connection with that person, then words are not what is important, more important would be a hug in simple silence. Let your hug do the talking. For in a hug, in that silence your special friend or spouse will hear the words of your heart. During this time of soaking, devekut or simply hugging God in silence you are breaking through the kelipos distracting thoughts to release the chashmal or electricity of God.
We live in a very hurried and noisy culture, we want everything now and we are quite boisterous when we don’t get it right away. This spills over into our relationship with God and we are hurried and very boisterous before God when we go to prayer. Sometimes we are just too demanding for things to happen quickly. I remember how Pastor Arnott described the process leading up to the Toronto Blessing. He and his associates just spent hours laying on the floor in silence, soaking as he called it. They did this day after day after day. Then one day something happened, that chashmal or electricity of God began to flow and revival broke out in that church.
I believe Pastor Arnott and his associates tapped into the deep hidden mystery of Ezekiel, a deep hidden mystery of a secret to prayer and vav la chahsmal that electricity of God began to flow. What they did was nothing new, it is as old as time itself. Pastor Arnott just stuck a modern word to it because we have no other word. He called it soaking. The ancient Hebrew called it devekut. Just being silent before God and giving Him a hug, soaking up each other’s presence. There are times God calls me to silence. I chronicle one such experience in my book Hebrew Word Study a Hebrew Teacher’s Call to Silence. In that book I describe how being silent before God, practicing devekut, giving God a hug, I began to experience the chahsmal or electricity of God.
The moral of the story is that when you go to God in prayer and you run out of things to say and yet you feel you must spend more time in prayer, then just move into silence and begin to give God a hug. No words need be spoken for in a hug your heart does all the talking. In silence your heart will speak what your lips cannot speak, your heart will hear what your ears cannot hear and your heart will see what your eyes cannot see and like Ezekiel, you may just experience chashmal the electricity of God.
Hebrew Word Study: A Hebrew Teacher’s Call to Silence (click on link for more information or to purchase) http://www.amazon.com/Hebrew-Word-Study-Teachers-Silence/dp/1490715401/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-3&qid=1371780135
Recent Comments