HEBREW WORD STUDY – WATCHMAN – TSAPHAR  צפר  

Habakkuk: 5:1, “I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”

The other day I was in my sitting in my car preparing for a speaking gig.  I was really troubled because I really had no idea what I was going to talk about.   I was alone, parked in my car fumbling with my I Pad when I accidental hit the start button on my iTunes and a song began to play. It was the piano rendition of Alley Cat, by Bent Fabric.  The song is made up of a short musical rift with a marching beat that keeps repeating.  At that moment, I looked out my window and a pigeon had just landed by my car and began marching back and forth. His head was bobbing to the beat and in perfect sync with each rift.  At the end of each rift he would turn around and begin his march again with that little head bobbing to the beat of Alley Cat. When the song finished my little entertainer just flew off. 

I would have laughed this off but I was immediately struck with the words of Habakkuk 2:1: “I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me.”  I pondered the word see in see what he will say. How can you see what someone says?  See the word ra’ah in Hebrew which means both a physical and spiritual seeing.  God rarely speaks to us in an audible voice, how do we know what He is saying?

Perhaps Habakkuk actually did look out through a watchtower and search for something physical.   The first word for watch in I will stand upon my watch is the word mishemarethi from the root word shamar which means to keep a watch or observe, but this is in a Piel participle form so it has the idea of keeping a close guarding watch.  This is like a bodyguard or secret service agent whose entire attention and focus are on observing things that everyone around him are not observing.  He is looking for any little subtle hint or movement which may signal a threat to his mission of protection.   Anyone else watching my little friend marches to the tune of Alley Cat would think: “How cute.”  However, if I am on a shamar I am looking for something more than a good laugh. 

Habakkuk continues by saying he will set himself upon a tower and watch to see what he will say unto me.  This second word for watch is tsapah which in a noun form means a watchtower, but in its verbal form means a focused watch.  You are not in a watchtower to enjoy the scenery or the view, but to watch for something very specific in order to see what He will say.  The word say is the word debar which is God speaking his heart cry.  God gave us his creation, all its beauty and majesty and all its creatures, even that little pigeon to express His heart.   Many times I will go to His creation to hear His heart.   I knew and understood that this little birds dancing before me to the tune of Alley Cat was showing me just what I was to do in the next few hours.  I was simply to let go of all my anxiety over what and how to speak and just enter into the heart of God and speak as I felt His heart speaking through me.  When I stood before those who would be so eager to hear something that would draw them closer to the God they loved, I was simply to sit in my watchtower, my tsapah, and tell them what I was seeing in God’s heart. 

I thought how in ancient times a watchtower was usually a free-standing tower located many miles from a city.   A city usually had a number of these towers built that were just in eyeshot of each other.   So if someone in one of the furthest watch towers saw an approaching threat he could signal the person in the next watchtower who would pass the signal onto another person in a tower closer to the city.  This person would signal a watchman in the city who would pass the warning on to the city leaders to prepare for the threat.  

After  I spoke that day I was feeling pretty smug and proud of all the compliments, That I was not annoyed at a stopped freight train with the last car blocking traffic. But I noticed a pigeon on the last car staring at me, turning his little head to the side, staring at me. My spirit was quickened and it was like God saying, you must always be that last box car if I am the engine that pulls the train. When I repented of my pride, he flew away.

I felt my little friend was a watchman on his watchtower signaling me of a threat.  People love to see that last boxcar while it is moving but when it stops to be admired and blocks the road it becomes an object of scorn.