Hebrew Word Study – Grumble – Lavan – Lamed Beth Nun
Numbers 14:27: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me.”
The NIV says the children of Israel grumbled against God, the GWT says they complained, and the BBE says that they made an outcry. Bad Israel, how dare they grumble, murmur, complain or even make an outcry against God after all the mighty miracles he did for them. You surely can’t blame God for not being able to bear such an evil congregation. I know if I were God my patience would surely run pretty thin against a nation that would keep demanding more and more and then belly ache because they did not get enough.
Is it the fact that Israel was acting like a spoiled child that made God declare they were evil? What did he mean by “evil” anyway? Was God’s patience really running thin? Were the children of Israel really grumbling, complaining, murmuring, and making an outcry to God?
I read this verse and I think of a Bible study I once attended where they were going through a workbook. Everyone seemed quite excited over the fact that they were actually studying one of those obscure books of the Bible that nobody ever reads, the Book of Numbers. One of the blanks in the workbook to fill in was: “God called the children of Israel evil because__________? Well, that was an easy one, because they were murmuring against God. Some asked: “What does it mean to murmur.” Immediately the response was: “My translation says…” I thought, this is good, here is a group who really wants to think and dig deep. I was really pleased when I heard someone ask: “Why is it that after all the miracles would someone complain against God?” But the immediate answer: “Because they were evil.” started everything going downhill. The discussion that followed can be summarized as follows: “Of course we are Christians and we have more of a revelation today and, of course, we would never complain or murmur to God.” There was even the suggestion that now that we are living in the New Covenant, there was really no need to study the Old Testament. Oh Yeah?
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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First, let’s look at that word for evil It is one of the ra words. This one ends with a Hei. This evil is an evil of consumption. It is an evil that comes from letting natural desires consume you. It is an evil that comes from being so consumed with the needs of the flesh that you fail to hear the voice of God. This evil congregation is one that focuses on the natural needs to the exclusion of addressing the spiritual needs. I have to admit that I feel like a member of this evil congregation even if it died out 3,000 years ago.
This congregation tended to do a lot of murmuring. The word in the Hebrew that is used here is layan which basically means to remain or stay. It is a refusal to move forward out of lack of faith and receiving divine instruction. I would give this a rendering of worry or fretting. Worry is nothing more than a lack of faith and refusal to receive divine instruction.
Finally, we see that God could not bear it. Oddly, the word bear is not in the Hebrew. The phrase is literally “Until when will this evil congregation murmur to me?’’ In fact, let’s look at this whole verse in a literal way: “Until when or How long will this congregation be so absorbed or focused on their natural needs that they will continue to refuse to move forward to the promised land? I heard the Children of Israel worry and fret and they are fretting against me.” As Christians who belong to Jesus, when we worry or fret over our circumstances, we are fretting against Jesus.
I think before I pick up rocks and get ready to stone Israel, I should heed the warning of Jesus: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” In all my three scores and six years of walking this earth, I have never known God to fail me. He is the one person who has never let me down, who has never rejected me. Yet, when I worry and fret over my circumstances, I am taking all those years of faithfulness and throwing them back in the face of God saying: “I don’t trust you.” Yeah, me, the guy who is always talking about seeking the heart of God and I am breaking His heart in the cruelest way. After years of proving Himself trustworthy, in my worry and fretting I am literally saying to God: “I don’t trust you.”
You see, Hebrew is a language of emotions. The words al mati” (until when) are not an expression of anger, but a cry of the heart, a heart that has been broken. God is not expressing anger at the children of Israel for their murmurings, He is expressing a broken heart over having given so much to prove Himself trustworthy and then to be told he could not be trusted.
If you are sitting back worrying and fretting over your circumstances, pause just for a moment, look beyond the natural, and consider that you may be breaking God’s heart.
Andre Crouch once wrote:
When trouble is in the way,
I can’t tell my night from day,
When I’m tossed from side to side,
Like a ship on a raging tide,
I don’t worry, I don’t fret,
My God has never failed me yet,
Troubles come from time to time,
But that’s alright, I’m not the worrying kind,
Because I’ve got confidence,
God is gonna see me through
No matter what the case may be
I know he’s gonna fix it for me.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
Hi Chaim & Laura, is there a rhyme or reason as to why lavan does not include aleph twice for each of the two A’s? I’m starting to dabble a bit into the Hebrew, for the last two days, to see if GOD will give me a mind for it; btw this was a great devotional, and so is the one about the fragile vessels, just read it tonight =)
Hope you are not struggling as badly as I am with this suffering thing.
One day I’m hot for GOD, the next moment I’m a cold dead rotting fish.
Sometimes it seems like GOD will have to swallow us up in Sheol, like Jonah for not wanting to do what HE says. But I guess that is one way to die to self [double-quick], even Rachel died to do it her way [like Frank Sinatra sang it: “I did it my way”]
I hope GOD replaces our stoney hearts with a heart of flesh that is filled with HIM, not our carnal fears/desires. Seriously, last night I was stone-cold even under heavy blankets, today read some Jewish literature on how unholiness is linked to being empty & cold!
[a] By combining the kuf & reish, forming the word kar, קר,which means “cold.”
[b] Coldness represents unholiness & death; is antithetical to warmth, life & passion
Who is alive? “Every one of you who has cleaved to GOD your LORD is alive today.” One who is connected to GOD every moment of his life is perpetually warm & alive. On the other hand, coldness signifies an abyss—the severance of the connection
between man & GOD—and ultimate death. [Deuteronomy 4:4]
Torah is synonymous with water; without Torah, there is only poison & doom
Check out the story attached to this letter:
The Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, called for his shamesh [an attendant], Ben-Zion, and asked him: “Have you eaten today?”
Ben-Zion: “Yes,” he answered. “I have eaten.”
Rebbe SL: “Did you eat well?”
Ben-Zion: “Well? I am satisfied, thank GOD.”
Rebbe SL: “And for what reason did you eat?”
Ben-Zion: “In order to live.”
Rebbe SL: “And for what reason do you live?”
Ben-Zion: “So I can be a proper Jew & do what GOD wants me to do.” And then he sighed.
Rebbe SL: “Please send me Ivan,” the Rebbe concluded.
When the wagon driver appeared, the Rebbe asked him: “Have you eaten today?”
Ivan W.D.: “Yes,” he answered.
Rebbe SL: “Did you eat well?”
Ivan W.D.: “Yes.”
Rebbe SL: “And for what reason do you eat?”
Ivan W.D.: “So I can live.”
Rebbe SL: “And for what reason do you live?”
Ivan W.D.: “So I can have a swig of whiskey & fill my stomach.”
When Ivan had gone, the Rebbe turned to his children:
“You see, then, Ben-Zion eats in order to live, and lives in order to be a proper Jew
& do what GOD commands him to do. Not only that, but he lets out a sigh, too,
because he feels that perhaps he is not yet serving GOD as truthfully as he could.
As for Ivan, he lives for the sake of his whiskey & his food. Not only that, but he
smirks, too, because he’s picturing the pleasure he gets out of eating & drinking,
and it is for the sake of that pleasure that he lives.”
And then I read this bit about the design of the kaf can perhaps be described as a pipe bent in two places. The concept of bending oneself represents submission to a greater force & entity—the KING OF ALL KINGS, ALMIGHTY GOD.
Hey-yo! Talk about a slap & a kiss kiss
I literally was kept up all night, worry about who else had problems doing what GOD asks them to do..only came up with Jonah & Rachel, then John 21:18 came to mind…When you are older, you will be lead where you do not want to go. Cheers
Hi Joe, this is the type of question we answer on the All Access Learning Channel. We show very simple steps on how to do your own Word studies, Chaim has an entire course Hebrew 101 and Aramaic 101, we have weekly workshops and much more http://www.HebrewWordStudy.com
Thank you for today’s lesson.
We must be careful in what we write that it won’t be misconstrued as antisemitic rhetoric. Heaven forbid that should happen. We must always remember that Jesus lived His life as a very devout Jew. Paul stated that the Jewish people will be the first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven followed by the Gentiles that accept Jesus as the Messiah. I wonder does that mean that the Messianic Jews are still the true Bride of Christ? God always saved a remnant of His People that were devout.
This is odd timing on this specific lesson, I’m so conflicted. I’m in the middle of Jonathan Edward’s sermon, entitled:
Those Whom GOD Hates, HE Gives Plenty [Genesis 27:39]
In a way, I was going to share it with others in such a manner, I was casting stones at them for being so engrossed with the pleasures of this world.
[sports/vacations/fancy dinners, etc.]
But my problem is, I have been saying those very words too: “I don’t trust YOU!”
At least 3x in the last month or so, I was even planning on stopping all devotional studies until my circumstance improved. I couldn’t make sense of it, why am I worse off for spending so much time with GOD.
Here is the crazy bit, I covered this sermon by Edwards in the past, but my mind was not ready for the lessons in it.
And now that I’m looking at what you wrote, I am again confused after having felt vindicated from reading JE’s sermon a third time with fresh eyes a minute ago.
Here’s the conflict: You say GOD is only expressing HIS heartbreak, whereas Edwards says: It’s like the kiss of death from GOD. To be hated, is to be blinded to the joys of GOD & HIS spiritual blessings which are eternal. I was just getting psyched to know what GOD is doing by limiting earthly pleasures. JE essentially itemizes the various ways ppl crash & burn: [a] start hot, end badly, [b] delay/excuses, [c] never invited to the party.
[Quote]
This doctrine shows how much GOD values spiritual blessings—beyond temporal, for though GOD is willing to give those that HE hates a plenty of earthly things. [13:06]
Yea is willing to give them the best of them, the choice of things that the Earth can afford—yet HE never bestows upon them any degree of spiritual blessings. [13:14]
They have been purchased not with corruptible things as silver—GOD is willing to bestow a plenty of earthly things & the very best of them on those that HE hates.
And that HE has appointed as vessels of wrath & that HE intends for nothing but misery because HE knows that the best of earthly things can’t make them happy.
HE knows that they can’t make them no other than miserable; not the less miserable for them. HE knows that however taken some of them are with their portion—that yet they are miserable creatures.
That they are the more miserable…
If it be not eternal salvation, it is something else, some worldly thing—they that are secure in their sins, it is a world that lulls them asleep.
They thus that seek salvation in a slight unsteady manner—it is a world that is their hindrance.
They keep delaying & putting off, till hereafter promising that they will make thorough work of it, at such-and-such time. It is from some earthly enjoyment that they thus delay—they that have put their hand to the plow, & begun to look back. It’s because they harken after worldly enjoyments—as the children of Israel in the wilderness, look back towards Egypt, because they hearken after the fleshpots there. [18:09]
And as Lot’s wife looked back towards Sodom because she hearkened after what she had left behind.
Wow!! The Lord woke me up early this morning to sit with Him and to finally be able to get this study!! All day yesterday the second part wouldn’t load for me. This is one I have to print and keep in my journal. Thank you bear Brother.