Hebrew Word Study – Emptiness –  Havel – Hei Beth Lamed

Jeremiah 2:5: “Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

This verse is found in our Torah study this week.  It is actually found in the haftorah. That is a portion of Scripture from the prophets which is read in conjunction with the weekly Torah study. I probably read this passage many times throughout my life and never really paid much attention to it until I read a Jewish translation of this verse and the reality of what God was asking His people really struck me. The Jews translate this as: Listen to the word of G-d, O’ House of Jacob … What wrong did your fathers find in Me that they distanced themselves from Me and went after [gods of] emptiness and became empty themselves?  For the first time I captured the emotional context of this verse.  It is like God is pleading with His people like a rejected lover asking: “What did I do wrong, I had been faithful to you, I blessed you, I was intimate with you and then you distanced yourself from me went after other gods.”  

It is like a husband announcing to his wife that he is leaving her for another woman and she in her emotional distress cries out, “What have I done that was wrong, why was I not good enough for you.”  But God further adds that they went after emptiness and now they have become empty. Most our translations say you walked after vanity and you have become vain. Your paraphrases  capture the really emotion, “You went after worthless idols and you have become worthless yourself.” Putting it in plain English it is like the rejected wife saying: “You went after some bimbo and now you are no better than she is.”

What is interesting is that word for empty or worthless. It is the word havel in Hebrew which is a word for vapor or fog. Have you ever traveled down a highway in the early morning and run into a fog. A fog is a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface which restricts your visibility.  Like that husband who was seduced by another woman, his visibility was restricted like he was in a fog. He really could not see what he was doing beyond himself and his own desires or lust. 

What God is saying is that His people have exchanged God, His love, His faithfulness, His blessings for something that is empty like a fog.  It looks like it has substance that you can put into your pocket or a bag or grasp it in your hand. But when you reach for it, you are unable to grab it and hold it in your hand. Once you step out of the fog it is no longer there, you have nothing to show for it. 

If they exchanged God for something that was noble, an exalted philosophy or ideology you can at least understand why, as ridiculous as it may seem, someone would distance themselves from God.  They think they are finding something better or more fulfilling, but anything in this natural world that you reach for would only be temporary, it would have no eternal value. Like the old saying goes, “you can’t take it with you.”

How many times have you heard people say: “I just don’t understand old Bunkie, he had everything, a home, a wife, a family, financial security and he threw it all away for some bimbo.” Actually, the word bimbo means an attractive but unintelligent or frivolous young woman. I have walked this earth now for almost 73 years and I have seen many Christians throw away their faith for some bimbo, some attractive materialism.  It made no sense. Materialism for its own sake has no higher purpose, it is empty and temporary. Once obtained one discovers it is not satisfying, there is no substance to it. John D, Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men alive. His worth in today’s money would be around $340 billion dollars. A reporter asked him just how much more money did he have to make to be satisfied.  He replied; “Just a little bit more.”  He never got that little bit more. In fact, towards the end of his life he started to give much of his wealth away, just to find some satisfaction.  

The real issue here is not the emptiness of distancing yourself from God but what you do to God’s heart. You wound His heart; you break it. He has been the faithful lover, providing for you, guiding you, having your back, bringing you joy and peace and you throw it all away for something that is attractive but has no value whatsoever, in a word a bimbo. 

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