HEBREW WORD STUDY – GROWING CORN – QOM קום Qop Vav Final Mem

James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

There are few Christians who do not know this verse by memory. As to whether they know it by heart, that is debatable. What does it actually mean to resist the devil? Every modern English translation renders this as resist. Webster defines our English word resist as to withstand, strive against, oppose, to withstand the action or effect. Well, that explains it all, do we really need to go into the original language for more? What more could there be? If we submit ourselves to God all we have to do is oppose the devil. Maybe there is more to this than we realize.

First, let’s look at the word submit. In the Greek it is hypotagete which is to rank or place oneself under a specific plan or arrangement. Thus, we can only resist the devil when we place ourselves in God’s plan, the center of His will. In a sense, the safest place we can be is in the center of God’s will. In the Aramaic, the word used for submit is ‘evad, a word used for enslavement. We are to enslave ourselves to the will of God. When the enemy finds out who really owns us, he will not hang around.

But I think there is another reason he will not want to be around us. When we resist him what are we really doing? In the Greek the word resist is antistete which means to set against, to withstand, to take a complete stand against, refusing to be moved. That is cool but I don’t feel that is enough to get the enemy to move.

Take a look at the word for devil. Why does James not use the word hasatan which is not a proper name but we use it anyways as Satan. Scripture does not even dignify the old buzzard with a name. The Hei in front of the name shows you this is not a proper name. Nonetheless, that word is not used here, at least in the Greek or English. Why not Lucifer? Why not, the dragon or any other name or title associated with the old goat? Why use the word devil?

The word devil in Greek is diablo, bet you are familiar with that word. It means slanderous or accuser. In the Aramaic, it is the word hasatan which means slanderous or accuser. So, what are we resisting? It is the enemy’s accusations against us. It is his slander, accusing us of things we are and are not guilty of. He loves to slander us and fill us with false guilt.

Have you ever called upon God to help you, to protect you, heal you or any other request and then you hear a little voice in your head that says: “Who do you think you are? Do you honestly believe God will answer that prayer or even listen to you after what you did? Be reasonable man, you don’t deserve that answer to your prayer.”

You know what we do, we don’t resist that thought, we scratch our heads and say: “You know, you’re right. I don’t deserve it.” What we should do is point our finger at the devil and say: “You are right, I don’t deserve it, but you are also a liar, because Jesus shed His blood, died on a cross and rose again and all those reasons why God should not answer my prayer no longer exist, they are washed away in the blood of the Lamb.” We do that in the center of God’s will and he will flee from us. That word flee in Greek is pheuxetai which means to escape, shun or flee. But that is not the whole story. Why does he try to escape or shun us?

In the Aramaic the word used is ‘eraq which means to be in pain and torment. He will flee from us in pain and torment. But why will he be in pain and torment from us just from antistete standing up to him, resisting him?

The Aramaic word used by James, the native language of James and most likely what he was thinking about when he used this word that we translate as resist. It is the word qom. It means to stand against something like antistete, but its Semitic root tells us much more. It is used for growing maise. It is a sort of corn that the people of Egypt and in the Mesopotamian area used to feed their livestock. We call it Indian corn. Almost 50% of the crops in the Middle East during the first century was maise. It was easy enough to grow because there was a lot of sunlight and maise needs sun, a lot of sun to resist the pestilences that would attack it. It will not grow in shade or in the shadows, well it may but it will not be as strong.

You see, just resisting the accusations of the devil will not cause him to flee in pain and torment. We must be in the center of God’s will and we must stand in the light of God. That is what the devil hates, God’s light and he knows that the blood of Jesus is what gives us the benefit of that light. With sin in our lives we cannot endure the light of God just like the enemy and the enemy has us right where he wants us. But if we are cleansed, washed clean of all our sins, the light of God will shine upon us and it will cause the enemy pain and torment. The devil was once the light bearer and he lost that position, it now belongs to us, that is why he hates us so. For now he cannot even stand to be in the light of God, so he will flee in torment and pain when God cast his Light upon him through us, His Light bearers.