Hebrew Word Study – Third Warrior – Shaleshim  שלשים  Shin Lamed Shin Yod Mem

I Samuel 4:7: “And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp and they said: Woe unto us! For there hath not been such a thing heretofore.” KJV

I find this verse very remarkable in that the Philistines declared that God had come into the camp of Israel.  Yet, in verse 3 the people of Israel declared that “it” (referring to the ark in its proper syntax), would save them.   The people of Israel said the ark would save them and the enemy, the Philistines, said “God” would save Israel.  You know, I think sometimes we Christians do not give the world enough credit.  There are occasions when they can see things that we just don’t see.

Israel represented a faith, one that was feared and respected by the Philistines, yet as events unfolded, it was shown that they may have represented a true faith, but they had no faith at all. They did not walk the walk or talk the talk and were soundly defeated. 

That last phrase: “Woe to us for there has not been such a thing heretofore” is a very curious statement.  This is a very difficult passage to translate as we have no real English word to plugin here.  Consequentially, every translation will render this phrase a little differently but with pretty much the same meaning, i.e., nothing like this has happened before. But something like that had happened before. Literally in the Hebrew, it says: “Woe to us for she has not come as this yesterday three days.”   What the duce does that mean?  Yesterday is an adverb and is correctly rendered as heretofore. 

It is this three days that I don’t get. I went to ancient Jewish literature to find insight into this phrase. I found this is an ancient Semitic idiomatic expression. What is interesting is that the Philistines use a feminine pronoun to represent God. This was not unusual as ancient Semitic languages had only two genders, male and female and there was no neuter gender. In studying ancient pagan religions, I found it strange that many of these pagan gods and goddesses demanded an end to gender identity. Priest of goddess religions had to be castrated, rendered gender-neutral and homosexuality was encouraged.  It was almost as if the enemy behind these pagan religions was trying to decrease or end the human race.  But that is another I would rather not attempt for I am sure someone others have seen the similarities to ancient paganism and the gender-neutral movement we have today. So, I will leave that for those who have a better background in ancient pagan religions. 

So, I want to concentrate on this word  “thing” in our study verse which is the word shaleshim in Hebrew and really means “three days” but carries the idea of a third element entering an equation. What Philistines are saying is that this is the first time the third warrior or the ultimate warrior has come upon the scene or joined the Hebrew ranks.  Perhaps the use of the feminine pronoun would bear this out because this idiomatic expression pictures this ultimate warrior as a mother fighting to protect her young.  This Semitic idiom has its roots in the picture of picking up a baby bird (the first warrior) and then facing the wrath of the daddy bird (the second warrior).  You can deal with baby birds fairly easily and daddy bird might be a little more difficult, but you can handle him.  It is the wrath of momma bird you don’t want to face.  She will fight you to the death to protect her little chick. Go near a nest of young birds and it will not be a daddy bird, but momma that takes after you, even though you are 50 times bigger than mamma bird, she will take you on and I guarantee you will run. I had a nest at my doorpost and in the spring I had to sneak out of my apartment and run to my car as momma bird would chase me all the way to my car and once in my car she would fly around: “Squawk, Squawk, Squawk.”  I was no threat but she perceived me as such.  

When Israel first faced the enemy they were nothing more than a mere chick (first warrior). They were easily defeated by the attacking armies of the land.  Then God would raise judges and they would lead a powerful army (second warrior). What they didn’t realize but what the enemy knew was that the Hebrews had a Shaleshim, a Third or Ultimate Warrior join their ranks and they recognized when He did and they cried out in terror.  For they knew Momma Bear had shown up to protect her cubs. 

We face difficult situations, we face the enemy and we are defeated, so we run to the church and join forces with Christian friends (second warriors), but the enemy will still approach and defeat us.  It is when the appearance of that third warrior, Shaleshim, who goes by the name of Jesus (our momma bird) that suddenly the enemy is fleeing in terror.  There is nothing wrong with a first warrior’s attempt to defeat the enemy nor with a second warrior, God expects us to confront our enemies, but our ultimate victory comes when we allow the Shaleshim, the Third Warrior, Jesus Christ to join our ranks that our victory is really assured.  The fact is that we can call upon that third warrior anytime we want.  We may not see the power behind our Shaleshim but the enemy sure does and he will flee in terror at the very sound of the name of the Third Warrior. 

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