Hebrew Word Study – Rod of Blessing – Natah נטה Nun Teth Hei
Leviticus 26:26: “[And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.”
I read an interesting article by Rabbi Menachem Feldman who is a rabbi in a Chabad in Connecticut. A Chabad is made up of orthodox Jewish rabbis who see their role as the chosen people as being chosen to bring knowledge of God to the world. Hence, they are Biblical scholars who devote themselves and their lives to the study of God’s Word. Rabbi Menachem Feldman gave a commentary on Leviticus 26:26. In this article he said that there are multiple layers of understanding for every verse in the Bible. That is a little hard to take in our Western culture as we are a technological society and there should only be one precise meaning to each verse. Hence there should be only one interpretation of a passage of Scripture. But that is a cultural demand, I don’t believe it is a demand of God. I agree with Rabbi Feldman, there are multiple layers of understanding to each passage.
Rabbi Feldman points out that Leviticus 26:26 is on the first layer of a curse. That if you disobey God your supply of bread will be cut off. It is curious that the writer uses the word natah for staff to indicate a supply of bread. Actually, he should use the word tsedah which really means a supply of food. Natah simply means a staff or rod. How do we get the idea of supply from a rod or staff? The word is used only time in the Old Testament as a supply and that is in this verse.
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Note this is in the Book of Leviticus, written by or during the time of Moses. Ancient man saw magical powers in a rod. In fact, that is where the magician gets the idea of a wand. Wave the magic wand and a rabbit appears out of a hat. Egyptian sorcerers had rods, and magicians had rods and performed all sorts of wonders with them. Moses raised his rod over the Red Sea and it parted, he held the rod over his head during the battle with the Amalekites and so long as the rod was lifted the Hebrew people were victorious, Moses put a serpent on his rod and the people were healed and Moses struck a rock with his rod and water came. It got to the point where people saw the power coming from the rod and not God. Finally, when the people needed water before entering the Promised Land God told Moses to take his rod but to only speak to the rock to bring forth water. He wanted the people to know it was He and not the rod that created the miracles.
The use of this word natah leads us to the second layer of understanding which is a blessing. Rabbi Feldman sees the bread as the Word of God and the more you study it or eat it the less satisfied you are. I see the Bread as Jesus who is the Bread of Life. The more you love Him the more unsatisfied you are with His love, you just want to love Him more and more and for Him to love you more and more. Ten women shall bake in one oven. We will gather together with others who love Jesus and share in the one oven of His love together which will bring some satisfaction, but we will still hunger for Him. We will just hunger more and more for Him until our lives here on earth end and we will then find the satisfaction of His love resting in His arms for eternity.
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Having taught sociolinguistics for many years, I concur with your “multiple layers of understanding for every verse in the Bible.” Multiple layering is a component in varying degrees of every known language. With that sensibility, it behooves us to implore the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to guide us through the complexities of translations and transliterations.
“when I have broken the staff of your bread”….indicates that something is broken and God broke it. How does this become a blessing in this verse?
The only thing I can think of is when God reveals something to us by His Spirit He leaves us wanting more. In other words what He revealed to us becomes less than what He will reveal to us in the future? He keeps breaking up our fallow ground maybe?
Well, there you go. People making conclusions based on observations… the rod must be the cause. Isn’t that the scientific method? Ha! So, science has its limits and stumbling blocks! The human element rears its ugly head. Great entry today! Love it!
I had never understood the business of Moses hitting the rock being such a bad thing. Excellent comment about the scientific method!
I sure find this true for me. It’s quite sad, though. It leads me to a question. If we can’t be satisfied by Jesus on this side of heaven, why did Jesus say “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” and “whoever drinks from me will never thirst”, and “those who eat from this Bread will never go hungry”?
It may be saying if we are disobedient to God then that will happen. Starting at Leviticus 26:14 it says these things will happen if they do not obey Him. So it seems it’s saying that if you do not obey Him then you will not be satisfied. There are some people who declare to follow Christ, read the word, go to church etc but are not actually obedient to Him. Therefore when it comes time to be obedient to God they do whatever they want and find no satisfaction in Him. They are not turned to Him but they turn away from Him.
It’s a blessing, becuz, our wanting more and more keeps us plugged in. We then abide in him, rather than come Sunday or come trouble. We won’t be moved. Unlike the oil of the 10 virgins that could carry extra oil, we cannot,
we consume our supply and and crave more and more until, like Jesus, we learn to stay connected, abide. All the time is GodTime.
Recently God directed me to read Matthew 16 where Jesus and the disciples are crossing over the sea and it’s says in verse 5, “the disciples had forgotten to take bread.” And Holy Spirit asked me, “Who forgot to take bread?” It reminded me of the similar story where Jesus tells the disciples, “I have bread of which you know not.” Jesus was constantly communing with God: His bread. The disciples were still learning how to do that on a moment to moment basis as they observed Jesus’ life. I just felt like Holy Spirit was saying, “Don’t forget to take (eat) your bread.” Not just reading scripture, but communing with the Lord, and even taking communion with Him. Thanks, teacher!