HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE SUN ALSO ARISES – ZARACH HASHEMESH   זרח השׁמשׁ  

Ecclesiastes 1:5:  “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”

Let me share with you something very profound spoken by the wisest man on earth through the inspiration of God.  “The sun also rises…”   Isn’t that amazing?   Here all the time you thought Ernest Hemingway made that up for his novel.  Not only that the sun also goes down.  If not for King Solomon we would probably never know that.  

Throughout Scripture, we find God is telling us things that are very obvious.  Why would God waste precious time telling us things that we already know?  I mean God is only opening Himself up for attack with that statement as we already know that the sun does not rise nor does it set. Science shows that the sun is stationary and it is the earth that causes the illusion of a sun rising and setting.  I mean that is big or was big for the church in the Middle Ages and caused all sorts of havoc, just ask Galileo.  Galileo had the Arch Bishops of the church look into his telescope to prove the earth revolved around the sun and not the sun around the earth.  The Arch Bishops saw in the telescope the revolving moons around Jupiter  proving that not all heavenly bodies revolved around the earth and the Arch Bishops said; “Yeah, we see it but everything still revolves around the earth because that is the way the church interprets the Bible and the church is never wrong.”   

Actually, there are many usages for the word rise in Hebrew, zarach.  Zarach could also mean to appear, the sun simply appears in the morning.  Use that word and there is no argument if the sun rises or not. Of course, church tradition teaches the translation should be rise and therefore even faced with evidence it doesn’t they would not back down, it was after all dogma. The same goes for the sun going down which is the Hebrew word bo and has all kinds of usages, including the idea of being brought in or disappearing. 

So if this obvious statement in Scripture was not to establish some dogma, why make it.  True, it is serving as an illustration and perhaps that is all.  However the Jewish sages teach that when Scripture teaches something that is so obvious like the sun rising and setting, then it is a remez, that is a hint that there is a much deeper meaning than the surface meaning. 

The word sun is shemesh which also means glittering, shining, battlements, westward,  window and of course the literal sun that is in the sky.  Shemesh is also a symbolic expression. Symbolically among ancient Hebrews, the Sun was a symbol of the Father, the Moon the mother and the stars the children.  The sun was used to express a governmental leader, a king or a general or commander.  In other words, someone who assumes a leadership role.

I read something very interesting in the Genesis Rabbah 58.  Here the sages teach that the deeper or hidden meaning, the remez, of the sun rising and setting is speaking of our religious leaders. When a religious leader arises he becomes very powerful in his teaching but he will eventually fade away and when he passes another leader will arise to replace him and carry on.   The message of this verse is very powerful.  Once a great leader passes away he is practically idolized.  Suddenly all his teachings are enshrined and after many years they are considered doctrine and dogma.  The message here is that we are not to enshrine our past leaders, for God will bring forth new ones to give the same message.

I think of Billy Graham.  Will there ever be another Billy Graham?  According to the esoteric understanding of Ecclesiastes 1:5 the answer is “Yes.”   However, times have changed and such evangelistic efforts may not take the form of crusades.  It might come in ways through modern media that will be just as powerful as Billy Graham’s media.   I recall reading in Time Magazine many years ago where a group of powerful organizers were interviewing men to find one that they could back financially and with their powerful influence to replace Billy Graham after he passed away.  Of course, they failed in their attempts.  I mean, really, man is going to determine who is the “anointed”  one to take over what Billy Graham was specially called by God to do?

I think Ecclesiastes tells us more than we realize how certain people become powerful instruments of God.  Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”  No pastor can call their son or daughter to take over his ministry, nor can he appoint some trusted friend to take over his work.  Only God controls the zarach and the bo of the shemesh. Now that is profound.