Hebrew Word Study – Ten Thousand – Revavah רבבה  Resh Beth Beth Hei

Psalms 91:7: “A thousand shall fall by your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; it shall not come near your.”

Well, September 23. 2015 was marked on my calendar.  I wasn’t sure what was going to happen but I figured Psalms 91:7 would be put to good use on that day. However, that day came and went and it was business as usual, no disasters. Wait, I take that back, my internet provider had a crash and I had to go almost six hours without internet, now that surely qualifies as a real bona fide disaster.   But I didn’t despair, there will be other Blood Moons and Shemitah years to contend with and that might be good for a couple of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  I have September 7, 2021, marked on my calendar which starts the next Shemitah year but hopefully, this book will be in print during that time so I can’t report on the catastrophes that will come at that time. Of course, the Shemitah year of 2015 with the added attraction of the Blood Moons  ended and the stock market was still steady. But as someone said, “Give it time, if God caused the stock market to collapse on the day the Shemitah ended then it would look like God operates on formulas. Uh, pray to tell, wasn’t that what this was all about, a formula?  No, I am not trying to mock the teachers who built platforms on their predictions, I am mocking the Christians who let this scare the living pudding out of them. I am mocking the enemy who has tried to use these predictions to scare me and other believers. 

You know what?  Even if no major drama plays out by the end of September 2021, I will be the last one to say that these prophets or teachers of the Shemitah and Blood Moons somehow missed God’s voice.  If it turns out to be another Y2K or December 2012, a prophetic bust, it stills serves a vital purpose in our spiritual lives.  I take you to Deuteronomy 13:1-3: “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, (2) And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; (3) Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God tests you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”  In my life, all these prophetic warnings and talk of doomsday give me a chance to test how much I really believe in God’s Word in passages like we find in Psalms 91. It is a test as to how strong my love is for God and His love is for me.  I’ve read every book by these teachers who saw a great drama playing out at the end of the Blood Moons (I am a speed reader), I used up my precious gigabytes watching them on YouTube.  I was cheering them on: “Come on guys, do your best, convince me a great drama is about to play out by the end of this month.  Try to scare me to death so I can prove to myself that my trust is in God and God alone, that I can go to bed every night in September and sleep peacefully because no matter what happens I am sheltered in the shadow of His wings for I have Psalms 91in my mind and heart.

So, are you ready to join me in defiance against the enemy who wants to put the scare is us?  Are you ready to stick out your tongue at him and say: “Sorry, you have to do better than that?”   Because I am just about to share with you the most profound statement of all in Psalms 91:7  A thousand may fall by my side, ten thousand by my right hand, and yet none will come near me.  Oh, they may reach my body, but they will never reach my soul. My soul is safely in the hands of Jesus. 

In Psalm 91:7 the Psalmist explains the reason behind his (and my) fanaticism.  The word thousand is aleph. That little letter carries quite a load, not only is it the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet but as a noun, it also means a friend.  It is someone with who you are familiar. When the threats or bad news comes or the Covid hits in another more powerful form or layoffs are threatened, and a thousand, or those with whom you are familiar are speaking words of fear, their words will fall by your side.  The word side is sadad. Yes, this comes from the same Semitic root that the Arabic word Saddam comes from and means an adversary.  The word carries a Mem in front of it which is the preposition from. So, this is read from your side or from you will flow words in opposition to those coming at you with the threats, words, or plagues and they will fall.  The word fall in this passage is the Hebrew word naphel which is in a Hiphil form.  They will be caused to fall, terminated, or drop.  

Ten thousand at your right hand.  The word in Hebrew for ten thousand is revavah which simply means numerous,  The word also has the concept of leadership.  The Resh and double Beth indicates those in power or leadership who strike at your heart.  This is even a greater threat than negative words from friends or those you are familiar with. For these are negative words coming from someone in leadership or who can exercise power over you, like a boss or governmental official or (forgive me) even a pastor, Christian teacher, and Christian book.  If they are words that threaten our peace, or our security in God, then these words will not come near us.

The words for come near us is ‘eleyka lo yigash.  ‘Eleyka comes from the root word ‘ale which has the idea of actually entering into something.  The word lo is no.  Whatever evil is out there and appears to be approaching us it will not enter into us, our soul.  The word ‘eleyka is from the root word negash which is the word used for sexual intercourse or intimacy.  I believe these words are speaking of our spiritual state and not so much about our physical state.  We may be harmed physically but that evil will have no effect on us spiritually, it will not enter into an intimacy with our spirit.  Now I am sure some of you will not like that. You would like to think that God will protect us physically and not spiritually.  But stop and consider the thousands, yea millions of believers throughout history who claimed this verse and were still struck down physically. Yet, they stood tall spiritually. Look at Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  It is you soul you need to worry about according to Jesus.  Yeah, the body is going to get killed, it is going to die, there is nothing you can do about that.  We have a promise, however, that no matter what happens to the body a thousand may die spiritually by our side and ten thousand may fall spiritually at our right hand, but our spirit will be safely in the right hand of Jesus and it will not fall and that is all I am worried about which means, oddly enough, I am not worried about it.  Of course, this old body of mine is not much to hang onto and some of you with younger and more beautiful bodies might struggle with this.  I understand, but one day you will get old and ugly, and then it won’t be such a struggle.

My point in all this is that  while all the doomsayers are still shouting; “Look out!”  I am shouting equally as loud: “Look up!”

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