HEBREW WORD STUDY – WITHIN YOU – BETOKAM בתוכם Beth Taw Vav Kap Mem

Exodus 25:8: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”

As I started to prepare for my Weekly Torah Portion Study for this week, I was disheartened to find it was all about the tabernacle. I was not looking forward to all the cubics this and gold here and copper there. It is basically meaningless jibber to most Christians. I think most will agree that God had some purpose for each specific item and measurement but ultimately we just think: “Who cares?” After all we are in the age of grace not law so why bother with all that tabernacle stuff.

Well, when I started studying about the tabernacle in the Midrash Rabbah, Talmud and Jewish commentators, I discovered a storehouse of information that is applicable to my personal Christian faith.

First, let me address the Hebrew word betokam form the root word tavek. I have spoken many times how people claim to be fact-checking me. They will say they could not find the definition that I used for a word anywhere and therefore I made it up or embellished meaning to make it say what I want it to say. Such individuals obviously were using a BDB Lexicon or simply checked out the back of their Strong’s. They may have even used Vines Word Study or another Word Study book produced by a Christian source. You really won’t find many more sources available simply because they are not available. After one or two Lexicons/Dictionaries have spoken what other sources would there be? Sort of like going to Webster’s dictionary and maybe the College Dictionary and after that whatever other dictionaries you may find are simply repeating what Webster said.

I have devoted my life to sources beyond the BDB, Strong’s and Vines thus if you wish to proof check me you will need to go to Jewish sources such as the Talmud, Misdrash, Targum and other Jewish commentators. Granted these sources are not the inspired text but neither is the BDB and Strongs.

So why do Jewish sources go beyond our Christian sources and give meanings to Hebrew words that are not found in our Lexicons and Modern translations of the Bible? Mainly because for 2,000 years Christians have shunned Jewish teachings and scholarship. After all, the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah so what have they to teach us? They apparently left God and only we Christians arrogantly declare that we have the truth. It is now the Jews who must come to us rather than we go to them. Forget about Zechariah 8:23: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days [it shall come to pass], that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard [that] God [is] with you.”

I believe the time for the fulfillment of this verse has come which another thing I have dedicated the remaining years of my life to and that is to encourage Christians to examine Jewish Literature. I am not saying I accept everything I read, just those things that the Spirit of God quickens in my spirit. Like, for example, Exodus 25:8.

Up until probably 50 years ago or less you average Christian never bothered to study Hebrew, most did not even know the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, nor did they care. They just entrusted their understanding of the Hebrew text to a handful of Christian scholars who translated the Bible from the original. Even these scholar’s knowledge of Hebrew was not that extensive. To be sure there were and are some real Hebrew scholars out there but many of these scholars have recognized what I found out and that is the Jews are the guardians of the Hebrew language. They have an understanding of the Hebrew and its grammar that is far superior to ours. They have been at it for over 3,000 years. They teach their children from the age of 3or 4 the Biblical Hebrew so they can study the Word of God for themselves in the Hebrew. The Jews do not trust modern English translations because it is so easy to translate your own doctrine, theology, and personal bias into a translation.

What I discovered after studying Hebrew in Bible College and Seminary (both highly reputable schools in the Christian community) is that there is a world of understanding among Jewish Hebrew scholars that has not even been tapped.

This brings me to my study today on the word tavek. All your Christian resources will tell you the word means among, in the midst of or the middle of. Well, that is what we Christians think about the tabernacle which is a dwelling place for God. In the Old Testament God dwelled in the tabernacle and not in the hearts of men. Oh, a few of the prophets had the Spirit of God come upon them, but their bodies were not the dwelling place of God. Yet read closely what Paul says about our bodies being the temple or dwelling place of God. I Corinthians 6:19: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” That phrase in Aramaic “What? Know you not?” It is a rhetorical question. In other words, the answer is very obvious. Paul was stating something that was obvious to all Jewish believers. He was not introducing a new concept. The Jews believed all along that the Holy Spirit dwells in you. What is surprising to the first century Jew would be to learn that the power of the Holy Spirit also dwells in you. That came at Pentecost. But before that it was understood that God dwelled in you and that the tabernacle or temple was merely a figure of the human body.

Now I will go into all that on Saturday during our Weekly Torah Portion Study which will be recorded and put up on our All Access site so you have a chance to sign up and listen to this amazing study on the tabernacle, at least for me it was an amazing study.

But back to tavek. Tavek in ancient Hebrew does not mean to dwell in the midst but inside or within. Hence this verse reads: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell within them.” It does not read “and I will dwell within it” but “I will dwell within them.” You see God dwells within those who are redeemed. Redemption is not a New Testament thing but it was very present in the Old Testament. God does not live in time. The Jews looked forward to the redemption of a Messiah as we look back to the redemption of a Messiah but all were saved the same way from the beginning of time, through the sacrifice of a Messiah.

So why a temple? As I said the temple is a picture of our human bodies and how our bodies are really the temple of God. God wants a dwelling place here on earth and the temple, our bodies, was and is His dwelling place. As one orthodox rabbi put it so nicely, “The temple is the model and prototype for all subsequent homes for God.” That, as Paul points out, is our bodies.”