Hebrew Word Study – Idols –  Taw, Resh, Pei, Yod, Mem

Zechariah 10:2: “For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.”

I don’t know about you, but the first thing that hits me when I read this verse is, are idols actually speaking. Not only that but the word for speak is dabar which is speaking from the heart. Do idols have a heart?  When I think of an idol, I think of what I learned in Sunday School, a statute made of wood or stone.  But let’s take a look at this word idol that speaks vanity.  Some translations will just transliterate the word and say terephim.  Other translations will simply say images.   

In the previous verse we find the prophet telling us that when we have a need we go to God.  In this case or context the people seeking God are in need of rain. The whole economy rested upon the latter rains.  Farmers would plant sometime in October and November (former rains) and harvest in March and April (latter rains).  Without the latter rains, people would starve. The nation would go into a deep economic depression and famine.  

The prophet is saying in Zechariah 10:1 to ask of God and He will supply your economic need.  But when we go into verse 2 we find the people are going to idols and diviners to meet their economic need or get economic advise.

The word idol in Hebrew is terephim.  There is a debate among Hebrew scholars as to what the root word is in this case. Many feel it comes from the Semitic root raphah which has the idea of forsaking.  Hence the terephim may not necessarily be a statute of wood or stone, it would be anything or anyone who causes you to forsake God like a teacher or a book written by some expert. You are manipulated into trusting in that rather than God.  The Resh is represented in a shadow form which pictures anyone who abuses power.  The next letter is a Pei which in it’s shadow form expresses talking too much. The final letter Hei in it’s shadow form whispers self deception.  Hence an idol is looking to someone who has power or an expertise and is abusing that power by telling you something you want to hear which leads to self deception.  Recently experts were all the rage during our pandemic, experts who told us to wear a mask and experts who told us the mask has not value. Experts told us vaccines were necessary and experts told us they were dangerous.  Experts told us to stay indoors and experts told us it was ok to continue normal activities. Literal fights would break out between those who listened to experts telling them to wear a mask between those who listened to the experts who told them not to wear a mask. This get even more dangerous when we listen to Bible experts who claim to have the truth and revelation from God regarding our eternal state. 

When looking at an idol in this respect, I think you can see how easily it is for us even in our modern society to fall prey to idols.  Of course, we do not have a stone statute in our home that we consult for our spiritual well being.  But we do have other things of people we consult. They come across with total confidence that they have the way, the truth and the life.  In fact the word con and con man comes from the word confidence and confidence man.  They win your confidence by speaking with such profound assurance that you believe them, even when it goes against own heart where the Holy Spirit might be telling you something different. 

In the days of Zechariah people needed rain.  They could not make it rain, that was totally in the hands of God. God said “just ask and I will give you rain.”   The word rain in the Hebrew is geshem which is often a metaphor for the natural or physical realm.  So, rain could represent any need within the physical realm.  When we pray we usually pray for two things.  We pray for spiritual strength, deeper walk with God or something that relates to the spiritual world.  The other thing we pray for is something related to the natural world.  Our daily bread, our health, etc.  Let’s say you have an illness.  This is in no way to suggest we do not see a physician for our healing.  Sometimes God will heal without a physician, like sending food or manna from heaven without the human element toiling in a field to grow bread.  Most of the time he simply sends the rain and one must toil in the field for his bread,  just as most of the time God will send the wisdom and skill to a human element, a physician  to minister to illness.  For one to say, I am going to trust God for my healing and not seek medical help is like saying I will not toil for my bread, God send manna.  God sent manna only because the people were on the move and could not toil in fields to raise their bread. He sent manna because it was not possible to obtain bread any other way except through the miraculous. 

But there is a flip side to this.  You can toil in the field all you want, but if you do not have the latter rain, you will starve.   You can have the best job in the world, the best doctors in the world, but are you trusting in that job for your economic support?  That job could be gone tomorrow.  Are you trusting in a human doctor for your healing?  He is just a human after all and can go “oops!”   We have to work for our bread, we have to seek whatever medical science has to offer, but ultimately it is God who sends the latter rain and then gives us the job to work and the skills to the physician  to operate on us.  

The question is: “Is our job an idol?  Does it make us forsake God?   Do we worship and serve the creature more than the creator. Idols can pop up in places we never expect, the enemy is very deceptive.  I don’t know about you, but it is very easy for me to lean on the arm of the flesh without even realizing it.  It requires a daily walk with God for me to discern if I am leaning on the arm of the flesh, an idol or something that causes me to trust it’s word and not the Word of God.

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