HEBREW WORD STUDY – NO SUBSTANCE – MAVEN – מון   Mem Vav Nun

Deuteronomy 4:12: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire,  you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only you heard a voice.”

My personal definition between a cult leader and a pastor is that a cult leader will tell you: “You cannot understand this passage of scripture without me. Let  me show you what it means.”   A pastor will say: “You cannot understand this passage without the Holy Spirit, let me pray with you so you will clearly hear His voice.”    Of course, by my definition, a whole lot of churches in American would be a cult.

We clearly speak of depending upon the Holy Spirit to reveal all truth to us, yet rather than dig into the Word of God ourselves, spend time in meditation and prayer on the Word of God we go to a human teacher or pastor to tell us what the truth is rather than to seek confirmation from this teacher or pastor on what we have learned through our study. People want to make sure their conclusions line up with party line and such pastors are more than willing to explain the party or denominational interpretation.

Hearing the voice of God has been a lifelong passion of mine.  I am just never really sure if it is the voice of God I hear or my own imaginations.  After twelve years of searching for the heart of God, I am learning just how regimented our English translations of the Bible really are and as a result how some important knowledge can be hidden from us simply because our English translations lack the flexibility that is inherent in the Hebrew Language. Deuteronomy 4:12 is one such example.

We have the passage: “And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire.” The word in Hebrew for fire is ha’ash.  Except for the article attached to this word this is the standard word for fire and a Bible translator will rarely give it a second thought.  However, if you are seeking a personal revelation from God you might want to consider some out of the box possibilities. You see ha’ash can also be interrogative or an adverb.  Ok now I know the English syntax would not call for an interrogative or an adverb and my former Hebrew professors would throw salt in the air over such a suggestion, but I met some good orthodox rabbis who would just smile and nod.

If I were to do such an Unchristian but Jewish thing and go against conventional wisdom in my personal translation, I would have: “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of what is it?”   Or I could say: “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of there is or there exist.”   I know it sounds awkward in English, but it is really quite poetic in Hebrew.   Let’s put this in context with the rest of the verse:  “You heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude,  only you heard a voice.”  There are a couple of interesting things here in the Hebrew.  First, the word similitude is mavan which means form or fashion.  It is specifically speaking of something substantial, natural, something that you can see, feel, hear, taste and touch.  Take a close look at this phrase: the voice of the words or the qol of the devar. Qol can be a voice or sound and devar is a reference to words from God’s heart. Then the passage says a very strange thing: “only you heard a voice.”  The word for hear is not shama which is the word for hearing a sound, and the word saw is ra’ah which is the word for seeing. How can you see a sound?  This word ra’ah can also mean spiritual sight.  This could be a dream or a vision.   

Here is the thing that gets me.  The word spake at the beginning of this verse is devar. The word devar often carries the idea of words flowing from the heart or a portal to the heart. In this case the heart of God.   I can render this verse as: “The words from the heart of God flows from something not seen, felt, heard, tasted or touched and then you saw this manifestation.  Yet. The word devar is in an imperfect form and should be rendered: “The words from the heart of God is continually flowing but you cannot see it, feel it, touch it, taste it or hear it, but you know it is the Word of God.”

Ok, I admit, I am not walking in lockstep with mainstream Christianity, and any seminary Hebrew professor will accuse me of sermonizing. But I have to face it, this verse means nothing to me from the way it is normally rendered. I mean I have never heard a voice from a fire and I have not really met another Christian who has.  Yet, every Christian I met will say that they have experienced the voice of God.  It was mavan or it had no substance that you could experience with your five senses, but yet, you knew it was the voice of God because he demonstrated it. That I can relate to.  God speaks no differently to us today than he did back in the days of Israel.

Yet, like the people of Israel, God was ready to speak to them personally, but they said: “Moses you go in the cloud and tell us what God says.”   God will speak to us personally. But like the people of Israel, we go to our pastors or teachers asking them to tell us what God is saying rather than listen to God ourselves and go to our pastors and teachers not to find out what God has told us, but only to seek confirmation. 

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