Hebrew Word Study – My People – ‘Ami עַמִּ֖י Ayin Mem Yod
Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou has rejected knowledge, I will reject you, thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
I consider these little studies a personal journey and not really teachings. I opened my Bible this morning seeking a Word from God. Sometimes I wish God would speak to me as openly and clearly as He does for others, but that is not my story. The only way I know how to hear from God is through His Word. No doubt He speaks to others through other means, but in my case I have to spend hours in His Word to find out what He is saying to me. This morning I needed to hear from God and I found myself in the Book of Hosea of all things.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” I read one commentator who said that if someone considers themselves His people they should know better. I like to think I am His people and I guess I should know better. I should know to just trust and rest in His lovingkindness which I am afraid I do not regularly practice. This follows with the fact that His people rejected knowledge. Am I really rejecting the knowledge of his lovingkindness by not trusting in it? Why can I not rest in his loving kindness? I feel like I am being destroyed and yet deep in my heart, I know better, I know He is in control and that He does love me.
Well that is basically all I get from a literal interpretation, which really doesn’t help much. I did get the feeling that there was a little more to the word people which led me to dig a little deeper into these words. The word for people is amam. Amam comes from a root found in most Semitic languages which carries the idea of hidden or concealed. In the Hebrew root the word has a double Mem, one open and one closed. God’s people are those who are intimate with his revealed and hidden knowledge. Yet, they are destroyed for a lack of that knowledge. I don’t know about you but that sounds a little contradictory to me. But soft, the word knowledge here comes from the root word yadah which in various Semitic languages is rooted in the idea of intimacy. So what God is saying is that His people may have His revealed and hidden knowledge, but they are destroyed because they lack intimacy with Him.
The word lack is balah which is a wearing down or a gradually withdrawal. So we could render this as “My people who have the revealed and hidden knowledge of me are destroyed by their gradual withdrawal from an intimacy with Me.” I have spent my life studying the Word of God and I am intimate with it, but if I withdraw from my intimacy with God, I will face destruction. The word destroyed is an unusual word to use here. It is nidemu which could come from the root word damam or damah. What we have here is a play on the two words which has the idea of being silenced, made still or defeated. The Nun at the beginning of the word puts it in a niphal form which is most likely why the translators use the word destroy but within this context it could more easily mean being in such defeat that you are unable to speak a word or to even move. Boy that really hits home. That is exactly why I needed a word from the Lord this morning because I just feel so defeated that I can not even move into any action.
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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Will that puts me in the position of the old Jewish prayer: “Lord, we know the problem, show us the solution.” The solution lies in the next word. The next word is sort of a clue or hint. It is the word rejected. First God says that His people lack knowledge and then He says that they reject the knowledge. That is a clue that there is something embedded in this word to give us a better understanding. The word for reject is ma’as which means to melt away. It is the picture of a candle as it melts down to just a blob of wax until the fire goes out. You see the problem is that we are not so much rejecting our intimacy with God as we are just letting the firmness of that intimacy gradually melt down until the fire goes out.
Still we have just the problem, but not the solution. The solution lies in how this word ma’as (reject) is spelled. The word is spelled with a Mem which represents drowning in worry and sorrow. The next letter is an Aleph which shows ambivalence toward God. The final letter is a Samek which tells us that we are depending too much upon a person or thing. There it is, by being too dependent upon the arm of the flesh we become ambivalent toward God and start to drown in the worries and cares of this world.
The letters in the word balah (lack) whispers something even more important and profound to us. The first letter of this word is a Beth which, in its shadow form, tells us that we are feeling spiritual superior to others. The next letter, Lamed, is warning us that we are trying too hard on our own. The final letter, the Hei, reveals that these feelings of spiritual superiority and working too hard in the flesh leads us to self-deception and self-pity. By feeling spiritually superior to others, being a workaholic, and feeling sorry for ourselves and deceiving ourselves into believing that we are doing God’s will, we will slowly melt away from our intimacy with Him.
So now we move to 5:15: where God says, “I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face, in their affliction they will seek me early.” It is then when with all this self-dependency and dependency upon the arm of the flesh that when the resulting affliction comes, we then seek God and acknowledge our offence. In such an action we then return to the path of intimacy.
Sometimes I would like heaven to just open up and for a Word from God to come booming out. But then again, I do have to admit that God and I had a really nice time together in His Word this morning and maybe spending a few hours in His Word to get a message from Him is not so bad after all.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
And so thankful that you freely share what you learn!!
Chaim,
This reminds me of the scriptures in Revelations 2:4-5 that say …you have lost the love you had at first. 5. Therefore, remember where you were before you fell, turn from this sin, and do what you used to do before. Seems their love had melted away.
You are such a Gift from Above!
Shalom
Wow…. This is a posting I will need to be re-reading, several times over. Parts of it stirred very deeply and I pray for more personal inner revelation by Ruah for my walk with Abba Love.
Thank you.
I often wonder if I am spending too much time studying the written word of God and not enough time to simple talk to God as if He were my Beloved Fathers which He is. We so often hear about the fact that He loves us and this is also very true ,but y et we very seldom hear about how we should show our love for Him. Studying His word is certainly very good,but loving what He loves is what I’ve been told to do. Spending time with Him and.His creation is also important. I stopped studying for a moment and just listen for the voice of God and I have heard His voice loud and clear!
I thank God for your obedience to him…I really appreciate you teaching, helping us to understand what God is saying….
Thank you for this posting. It is literally hard to articulate the depths this strikes. A lack of intimacy leaves us destroyed. This is perfectly true, and stirred my heart (and voice) to groaning in desire for knowing Him – which as the Word tells us IS eternal life. Praying for you and blessing you in Jesus’ almighty name from Oregon; thank you again for sharing this with us all.
This goes with what I shared.
Should be pretty simple to recognize the deception that has impacted every nation and how we weren’t created to provide for our families using money and the short time we have to get our houses in order. Approx 5 years until the Mark of the best is fully in effect and is tied to our tax identification numbers.
Daniel 4:17
Zechariah 8:16
Revelation 17:1
John 20:22-23
1st Corinthians 6:2-3
Psalm 149
24 elders that bow before the throne and day and night relentlessly pouring out praise over the heavenly courts. These 24 hours in the day and while I may not be established in the ways that may seem slack and amiss being the 34 year old I am. Not finished with this race set before me as my steps are being ordered and surrendering my will over to life because of freedom and the most precious substance.
Human will is immortal.
Over the last 2025 years. Christians have persisted.
Even though so many have perished at your hand oh Babylon.
Jesus will, lives on in our hearts.
The fact that human will still remains, is enough to prove that life cannot be suppressed.
Though you choose to dismiss it. Jesus Christ lives in us and with us forever.
Our refusal to dismiss the atrocities you’ve committed.
Our disdain for taking the lives of the innocent. That feeling that burns within our hearts. Is eternal.
Make no mistake. No one has forgiven you. Not a single soul, even after the thousand year reign will.
Divine punishment does exist within us. You stepped on the cats tail. Time and time again. And have now incurred the wrath of the Father.
Normally speaking, they would have stayed asleep, but you have awakened them.
They’ve had their eyes on you, vowing to not let you escape. Standing and possessing your gates.
Even if you were to kill me, it wouldn’t make any difference to the Kingdom in which our flesh cannot inherit.
We are but many parts that make up a whole and are being restored.
You see?,
The feelings created by bonds that fuel us humans, are things that you would never understand. Babylon. Since you and your kind are bound together.
If you were to perish all darkness would flee and we get to live in tiny bubbles with the ways life burns within us.
It’s my technology skills lol. Authentic though.
“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.”
Job 12:7-8 KJV
“Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard.”
Psalm 19:2-3 KJV
“if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;”
Colossians 1:23 KJV
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
Romans 1:20 KJV
“But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, Their sound went into all the earth, And their words unto the ends of the world.”
Romans 10:18 KJV
It’s like this:********************
Every exchange we make in some way shape or form. Think of proverbs 31. Not just the part of the woman but my dear son Lemuel. Oh son of my youth.
Male and female energy and all differently possess different natures of both. But equally given the full picture of both sides and just one place we see this infinite reality.
Picture job 29:7
Mixed with proverbs 31:23 part of how our good daddy explains us His plans and purposes drawing all creation back to Him.
Just like the “72,” Jesus sent His disciples to the places He would Go.
He goes before us and comes after us. Following Jesus with every fiber in my being and sent to be a beacon of hope, faith and love Lord help me.
Thank you Heavenly Father that there is no I in team.
I’d rather say 5 words in a meeting with those of understanding, His righteousness, “Come out of her Tabernacle.” Revelation 18.
That was wonderful, again, your breakdown and realizations you share. Very sweet conclusion. Loving these daily word studies. Thank you.
Big Hugs !
And Thank You !
🤗
Thank you for this word.
Awesome Word. Thank you Holy Spirit for revelation