Aramaic Word Study – A Violent Storm  Alala Raba   עלעל רבא Ayin Lamed Ayin Lamed Resh Beth Aleph

Mark 4:37-39: “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. (38) And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? (39) And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (40) And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”

Jesus just finished an exhausting round of preaching, teaching, and healing and was asleep in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is known for its violent storms which can come up suddenly and be life-threatening. These violent storms are caused by the location of the lake in the Jordan Rift with steep hills on all sides.  The cooler air masses from the surrounding mountains collide with the warm air in the lake’s basin causing almost hurricane-type conditions.

Why was Jesus asleep during this violent storm? He was tired, exhausted from preaching to crowds. Speaking to crowds is not exhausting in itself. I paid my way through college as a ventriloquist.  Sometimes I would do one show, hop in my cargo across town to do another show and I could do as much as three shows on a Saturday or Sunday.  Sometimes I would do a show in a Sunday school, then do another show for a children’s church, another show later that day for a youth group, and maybe even a fourth show for the evening service. I wasn’t a bit tired and usually went back to my dorm room and stayed up late studying for my classes the next day. But this was just entertainment. My programs were set routines that I had done many times, so many times I did them without thinking.

However, when I would minister in preaching or teaching I would often not use notes or a set routine, but follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. I would preach from my heart. After thirty to forty minutes of speaking from the passions of my heart through the Holy Spirit, I was exhausted.  I recall how one time I was a guest speaker at a conference where I spoke three times, twice in the morning and once in the afternoon, and by the end of the day I went to my room where I just collapsed in exhaustion.  A hurricane could not awaken me from that sleep.  

We learn in this story that Jesus was asleep in a boat when “there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.” The words for great storm alala raba. Alala is a word used for a hurricane or a whirlwind, tornado. Yet, Jesus was so exhausted that he slept through it.  

Here is God incarnate who never sleeps nor slumbers (Psalms 121:4) but in a human body, he had to sleep. In fact the human body suffered such exhaustion from ministering that his body was so worn out He was actually able to sleep through a hurricane. Yet, He was still God, He was still in control and as He proved a little bit later He put a quick end to the storm. Now there are many lessons we can learn from this story but I want to share with you a lesson from this story that you may not have heard.  

Jesus was God who had a human body. Why did He come to earth in a human body? He knew a human body gets hungry.  As a Spirit He does not have to eat so He does not know what hunger is like. He had to fast 40 days to experience hunger.  He did not know firsthand what it was like to grow weary and tired so he had to have a human body to know and understand what we go through when we are exhausted. As a Spirit, He did not know what pain was like, so He had to have a human body to experience pain.  He taxed that human body to its limits so we could never cry out to God in weariness, pain, or hunger: “God you just don’t understand what it is like to suffer pain, exhaustion and hunger.  If you expect us to suffer such things then why don’t you come down here, take on a human body and find out what it is like.”  And that is exactly what He did. 

For those of us who minister, as all believers should do, do we really minister to the point that Jesus ministered where he exhausted that human flesh to the point that it was so weary that it slept through a violent storm?  Have you ever preached, taught, ministered from your heart to someone that it drove you to complete exhaustion?  Jesus gave us an example of what the physical cost of ministry can involve for he drove himself to complete exhaustion just preaching and teaching. 

I recall an art historian tell of an encounter with an art museum curator in France. The curator told him that he once met Claude Monet when he was a little child. He told how one cold morning when it was about 20 degrees below zero his father took him for a walk along the Rhine River.  His father said that he expected to meet Claude Monet. Sure enough they came upon a lone figure sitting on a stool in the middle of the Rhine River before his wooden art easel sketching out a painting. When they came upon Monet he stood up to greet them and when he did he took off his hat.  This curator, even as a small child, marveled that in 20 below zero weather steam rose from Monet’s head.  Monet was that intense in his art that even in 20 below zero weather he was sweating. 

If Claude Monet was so intense in his creative work, just how intense can we be in our service to God?  Are we even willing to work up a sweat for God?  Jesus was willing to work up a sweat for us, He even drove Himself to the point of exhaustion that he was sleeping through a violent storm in the middle of the sea. Think of that next time you teach, preach, visit the sick, the prisons, nursing homes, or whatever your ministry takes you. 

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