HEBREW WORD STUDY – FLEE – BARACH ברח   Beth Resh Cheth

Psalms 139:7: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

The word flee in Hebrew is barach which means to become independent from something or someone.  Now, who would want to be independent of God’s presence?  There are such peace and joy in His presence no one in their right mind would want to flee from that. Well, Jonah did. We see in Jonah 1:3: “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Notice it wasn’t God Jonah was fleeing from, it was God’s presence.  Jonah was in rebellion. He did not want to obey God and every time he felt God’s presence it did not bring joy or peace, but quite the opposite. He felt guilty always being reminded of how he was in rebellion against God. When I was a graduate student I spent my summers working as a director of a camp for teenagers who were in trouble with the law.

I remember a time I was making my way up that long hill to the staff house thinking how well things were going with this particular session of our camping program when I looked up and saw my co-coordinator, Ernie, standing by his car, with a smile on his face, waving with one hand and holding a brown envelope with the other.  Well, when you saw Ernie standing by his car, with a smile on his face waving with one hand and holding a brown envelope with the other; go on, get out of there, it is bad news.

I knew things were going too well and that Ernie was bound to show up with a new resident to mess everything up.  Ernie was excited, a new judge had entrusted this young man to our program and Ernie knew God had something special planned for this young fifteen-year-old. 

I reviewed the case study and knew we were about to enter into the great tribulation period. His name was Terek. He was a member of the black underground, sent up for attempted murder, robbery, assault, battery, etc. A special note was made that he hated whites and authority. I pointed to this note and said: “Uh, Ernie, I happen to be white and  in a position of authority.”  Ernie ignored my concern and only spoke of the great miracle God was going to do for Terek. I had hoped that Ernie would talk about the great miracle God would do for me, like survive.

Anyway, Terek was no disappointment. When he arrived at the camp I knew I had just met someone I had never encountered in my life. This kid just radiated hate. I looked into his eyes and I swear I saw a real fire in those eyes. It didn’t take long before the name Terek was on everybody’s lips, usually preceded by a colorful adjective.   

I put Terek in “Big Jim’s” cottage. Big Jim was a big old bear of a guy, with a fifth-degree black belt, and a heart of gold.  He prayed for Terek, fasted for him, and loved him and Terek repaid this love with all the hate he could muster. I knew it was wearing Big Jim down and I remember telling Big Jim that I was going to send Terek back to the institution. Big Jim became like a bear whose ulcer just flared up and told me in no uncertain terms that I would not send Terek back. He said: “Terek is me ten years ago and I know this is his time. I agreed to let Terek stay.

Big Jim gain control of himself and asked: “I never told you what made Terek so angry that he was going to run did I?” I replied he had not and so Big Jim told me: “I read the poem ‘The Hound of Heaven‘ to Terek and then I said, ‘Terek, I am praying for you and what that means is that God is going to follow you no matter where you go until you give your life to Him.” Well, just less than an hour later, God gave Terek a nice illustration as to what that meant by having the camp director following him through the woods.

One day Big Jim came running up to the staff house and said: “Terek is getting ready to run.”  I picked up the handcuffs and threw them to Big Jim and using his hand like a ping pong paddle, he bounced them back to me. Big Jim said: “I am not going to do it.  That is just what he wants. All his life people had told him they cared about him and loved him and everyone has let him down. He is looking for a reason to prove I don’t care and bringing him down will give him more than enough reason. You take him down, he hates you anyway.”  

As much as I hated to admit it, Big Jim was right. So, I made my way down to the cottage without the handcuffs. I walked into the cottage and sat down on a bunk. Terek was the only one in the cottage and was calmly packing his bags. I remember so clearly the cold chill I felt when around him and how he had a way of just shutting out the world as if you did not exist. It suddenly occurred to me I never even heard Terek speak. Somehow, he managed to disrupt our whole program without saying a word. I tried to speak to Terek, but it was as if I was in an alternative universe or maybe he was. I swear, if I stood in the doorway he would have tried to walk right through me. Once his bags were packed he calmly walked out of the cottage. I immediately got into step right behind him. 

As we walked into the woods I said: “Terek, I don’t care if you walk all the way back to  Pittsburgh, I going to follow you. The judge put you in my custody and that means I can not let you out of my sight. Wherever you go by law I must follow you and I cannot let you out of my sight.

So, I continued to follow Terek. He took me through the woods, pulled back branches and let them slap in my face, took me through the swamp, and the poison ivy and after about one hour I heard the first words I ever heard him speak: “I’m gonna go back now.”   

And Terek did return to the camp.  I noticed something was different with Terek. The fire was gone from his eyes and I think I actually saw fear. We sat down on the bench and I preached my number one best sermon. He remained quiet. I was halfway into sermon number 2 when he said: “I ain’t gonna run, can I go back to my cottage?” Knowing my sermons were falling on deaf ears, I let him return to his cottage.

About an hour later I noticed Big Jim and Terek running up the hill to the staff house. I also noticed a strange sight. Terek was laughing and smiling. When they reached the staff house Big Jim said: “Pic (Person In Charge), Terek has something he wants to tell you.” I looked at Terek and knew what it was. Terek said: “I’m giving my life to Jesus.” With that, this big radical once filled with such hate, especially for whites and authority, put his arms around this big white, authority and gave him a hug. 

That afternoon Big Jim was taking a break and we were sitting in the staff house talking about Terek. Big Jim asked: “What did you say to Terek?”  I asked what he meant and Big Jim said: “When Terek came back to the cottage, he was an entirely different person. For the first time he listened to me, he asked questions and was so open to inviting Jesus into his heart. What did you say to him.” I had to admit it was not anything I said. For all, I know he did not hear a word I said. Then Big Jim asked: “How did you keep him from running?”  Again, I said I didn’t, I just got behind him and followed him. He took me through the woods, slapped branches in my face, took me through the swamp, and poison ivy. With that Big Jim broke out laughing.  He laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair. I stood there, angry. “Well laugh will you, next time you go through the woods, get branches slapped in your face, walk through the swamp and poison ivy – I’m beginning to itch already.”

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