Hebrew Word Study – Rebellion – Marah – Mem Resh Hei

I Samuel 15:23: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”

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No matter what I do I keep coming back to this Scripture. Is God telling me that I have rebellion in my heart? Where have I got rebellion? Rebellion seems to involve disobedience and I can’t imagine where I have been disobedient to God.  The problem seems to be that I am really not certain I am following God’s leading.  I would have no problem obeying God if I knew what I was supposed to obey in the first place. 

You can really light my boiler fire? If I ask you what I am supposed to do, why am I struggling and you respond by asking me: “What is God saying for you to do?” Well, Bunkie, if I knew what God said, I would not be asking what to do.  I hear Christians all the time saying: “Oh, I was just walking down the street and God told to me go inside that building, someone is stuck in an elevator and needs your help.” Well, God doesn’t speak to me like that.  I wish He did.  I do get these “impressions” or “leadings” but generally it ends up that the elevator is working just fine when I check it out.  

If I get this strong impression to get on a bus and start preaching, I will likely not do it because I am not sure I trust those impressions.  Now if an angel appears before me and says: “Hey, God told me to tell you to get on that bus and preach I would use my lunch money to pay the bus fare and grab the first bus and that is not even God telling me personally, but coming from one of his messengers albeit non-human messenger. 

Well, I have been getting the strong impression that I have rebellion in my heart. Now, I assure you I am not going to be rebellious by not doing something about my rebellion but I am still not absolutely sure God was speaking to me about rebellion. But then maybe I would be rebellious by not at least considering that God was speaking to me about rebellion. After all that would be pretty arrogant to say there was no rebellion in my heart and then I would be guilty of arrogance and I would need to repent of arrogance. Am I making myself clear? 

Ok, so I have a strong impression there is rebellion in my heart. Now I need to walk down that road a bit and see if it is just my imagination, my lack of sleep, or maybe that leftover whatever it was I found in my refrigerator last night.  Do I really indeed have rebellion in my heart? Half the reason I feel God is telling me I have rebellion is because I have been stuck on I Samuel 15 for over a day now and I cannot leave this passage alone. So, I will just do what I do best and enjoy doing and that is deconstruct this passage and break it down into its Hebraic origins. 

Saul did not commit adultery and murder like David would eventually do. Yet God forgave David before he even asked God to forgive him. The only problem with Saul was that he was just disobedient and it did not really seem that bad.  He was supposed to have destroyed all the livestock of the Amalekites as well as the Amalekites, men, women, and children and then execute the Amalekite king Agag. Well, he had no problem killing off the Amalekites including women and children but he did not destroy all the livestock, nor did he execute the king. 

The Bible is not clear as to why Saul did not follow through with the command of God. Initially, he denied any wrongdoing.  It wasn’t his fault that the people kept back some of the spoils, but at least they were using it as a sacrifice to God.  Yeah, like a big deal. The people would not have to sacrifice any of their own livestock as a thanksgiving offering to God for their victory. Not only that they would get to feast on the meat at no expense to themselves, while at the same time, God gets His sacrifices.  Talk of a win-win situation. Of course, it supposedly did not cross King Saul’s mind that if a sacrifice doesn’t cost you anything is it really a sacrifice? To King Saul, the sacrifices were nothing more than a religious ritual, to pamper God and stay on His good side. What difference did it make whether it was an Amalekite lamb or a Hebrew lamb?  A lamb is a lamb for heaven’s sake.  Why slaughter a perfectly good lamb when you could save yourself the expense of sacrificing your own lamb?  The Amalekites were dead, they didn’t need those lambs anymore.   

As far as King Agag goes, why put him to death? He was no longer a threat.  He would remain a prisoner to King Saul for the rest of his life. He would be kept under guard and dress in some clown suit or any way King Saul orders and appear at King Saul’s parties as the stooge to be mocked, ridiculed, and humiliated. He would be as good as dead, only King Saul will get to have some fun with his enemy first. 

So where is the rebellion in all that? It is not unlike using money set aside as a korban or offering to God and then using it to purchase new tires for your car.  After all, you need your car to drive little children to Sunday School on Sunday so it is being used for the Lord’s work.  And so what, if you promised to minister at a nursing home but stayed home to watch a football game instead? You will go to the nursing home some other time. Is that really rebellion?  

The word rebellion is mari from the root word marah which means to disobey or to oppose.  It is also a word used for shaving. To shave something you need a razor to get a close cut. In organized sports, there is something called point shaving. Gamblers would not so much bet on which team would win but on the difference in scores between the two teams, a point spread.  Then they would collude with the star player to miss out on making a few points in order to win the game by not too much or too little. In other words, to keep the score within the margins of the spread without changing who wins. It is a very deceptive subtle maneuver that only experts would be able to detect and the star player is not blowing the championship and making a few needed bucks for his next beer bash. It’s a win-win situation, and also illegal. 

There is an old fable printed in 1858 in which an Arab miller allows his camel to stick its nose into his tent, then other parts of its body, until the camel is entirely inside and refuses to leave. The moral of this little parable is that it is wise to resist the beginnings of evil.

Rebellion starts with a little marah, shaving, of your obedience to God.  Before long you find yourself in a situation where you really need to hear God’s voice.  You really need leading from God but you find silence from heaven. You may end up like King Saul who turns to witchcraft to get some direction.  Thus rebellion, mari, is as the sin of witchcraft. The word witchcraft in Hebrew is qasem which means soothsaying which is foretelling the future. 

Maybe God is telling me that the old camel is sticking his nose in my tent.

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