HEBREW WORD STUDY – RE-ESTABLISH JUSTICE – NAKAM נקם Nun Qop Mem

Jeremiah 11:20: “O Lord of Host, That judges righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I revealed my cause.”

I grew up in a Baptist church and spent my life in the church and I have listened to thousands and thousands of prayers. Some were loud, some were soft, some were sincere, somewhere “listen to me ain’t I something.” Some were sweet and poetic, some were full of thee’s and thou’s and some were sort of like: “How ya doin’ old boy.” I have heard “anointed” prayers and non-anointed prayers. I, myself, have been called upon to open in prayer, lead in prayer, close in prayer. Now really who listens to these spot loyalty oaths anyways, if you were God would you? Most of the time the only thing I accomplished when I pray in public is to decide whether or not my shoes needed a shine. Yet, among the thousands of people I have heard pray, if I had my choice of any one of them to pray over me when I really need a touch from God, it would be a little lady known as Miss Betty.

I worked with Miss Betty in a mailroom. Now she was not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but she really loved the Lord and it seemed like when she prayed,

God would sit back, smile, and say: “That’s my girl.” One day I found the source of her powerful prayers. I came upon her during a break when she was reading a newspaper. This was at the time the president of the United States announced a plan for a manned trip to Mars. Miss Betty was livid. “Do you see this,” said a provoked Miss Betty, “What right have we got going to Mars.” I agreed and said: “None, that money could be put to much better use.” Miss Betty continue: “You don’t seem them coming down here bothering us, do you? We will just turn them into slaves. I say it is their planet, let them have it” “Right” I said getting into the mood, “ It’s their planet let them…Let who have it?” Betty looked at me as if talking to a child: “The Martians, of course. It ‘s their planet, we have no right to bother them. You don’t see them coming down here bothering us do you?” I had to admit I had not seen any Martians walking down Michigan Avenue lately. I realized then the secret to Miss Betty’s powerful prayers. Anyone who can believe in unseen Martians and care about their welfare has the kind of faith and compassion that I need when I want someone to pray over me.

I was recently reading an ancient Jewish take on Jeremiah 11:20 and I was amazed at how differently they handled the syntax than we do. We read this to be God examining the hearts and the motives of the people who opposed Jeremiah. The word “test” is bogan which literally means a watchtower. The word for “reigns” is kalah which is the inner workings or secret places. The rabbis would render this “O lord of host that closely guards His heart and makes a righteous decision from the secrets of His heart. The reference is to the secrets of the Heart of God rather than the heart of man. The words: “Let me see” is in an imperfect form and does not have to be cohortative. They are pointed the same in the Masoretic text but only the context will determine if it is cohortative (permissive) or imperfect (incompleted action). It could be rendered, “I will see.” Jeremiah will see the vengeance of God. The word vengeance sounds pretty bloodthirst. In Hebrew it is nakam. This really has the idea of re-establishing justice. This could either be through a sacrifice or destruction. Jeremiah is could be saying that he sees prophetically that God is sacrificing his people to their destructive passion, allowing them to suffer the consequence of their passions but without realizing it that he may be prophesying of a future sacrifice in the form of the Messiah bringing the justice he so craves.

The word “revealed” is galah which has the idea of laying bare or being in total subjection to his cause. The word “cause” is rayav which is more of contention or argument or disagreement. Once Jeremiah saw that is ra’ah a seeing either physical or spiritual, the heart of God and how it was grieved Him, any disagreement he had with God over God’s plan to let Israel suffer the consequences of their sin, vanished.

You see the rabbis use of the syntax here shows just the opposite of how we read it. We read, “God go get ‘em.” But instead, Jeremiah was praying on behalf of Israel, however when he saw God’s heart and the pain that it brought Him Jeremiah’s prayer turned to that of one directed toward the need of God and unknowingly expressed God’s heart to provide justice not through punishment but through the sacrifice of His only Son.

There are no Martians, Betty never saw a Martian, yet she felt compassion for something that she could not see, did not understand and that did not exist. Is it any wonder that she felt compassion for a God she could not see but does exist? She saw God through simple eyes like Jeremiah and saw a God with a broken heart. Thus, when she prayed, she prayed for that which would minister to the heart of God and not to what she wanted. That was the secret to the power in her prayers.

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