Hebrew Word Study – Search – Dresh – דִּרְשׁ֥ Daleth Resh Shin

Isaiah 55:6: Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”

If you are a Baptist, you most likely grew up with this verse. An invitation for salvation would not be complete without its quoting. Many a saint will testify that God used this verse to bring them to the point of their commitment to God and I for one will not condemn it’s use in such a context.  

Yet, there are times when we use a verse so much in one particular context, we fail to realize that there is an entirely different context that a verse was used. Isaiah wrote this at a time when Judah was very prosperous. The idea of the nation falling into the hands of another kingdom seems remote. Aside from being prosperous, they were very religious.  There is that human tendency to not really pursue God when things are going well.  Then when disaster hits, one begins his “Oh Lord”  

Things in Judah were moving towards destruction. However, so long as the ax had not yet fallen, there was still hope. Judah could still repent and stave off future destruction.   However, if they failed to repent, God would lift His hand of protection and the Babylonians would overrun Judah. When that happened, it was too late.The disaster had taken place and all that was left was to pick up the pieces.  

Such is the context of this verse. However, as the verse is written, it is very troubling as it suggests that there is a time when God is close and a time when God is far away.  If you are not on the ball, you may miss your window of opportunity. Sort of like NASA waiting for the right moment when Mars passes closest to our planet so they can send out a probe. 

Looking unto Jesus is not just looking at him but making yourself transparent to Him as he makes Himself transparent with you. It is like a bride and groom looking at each other as they commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. At that moment they become transparent, sharing something with each that they will not share with anyone else in the world.

The wedding motif actually carries on through this entire verse.  Jesus endured the cross and the shame associated with the cross for the joy that would result from it.  He did it not only for us but for the joy that the sacrifice would bring to Him.  Just as the bride and groom sacrifice their personal lives and their singleness for the joy of being together.   Yet, that word joy is an amazing word to use here in this passage. It is the word chadotha in the Aramaic.  This is the word used for the joyful dancing at a wedding.  This again carries that wedding motif. The vows have been said as we and Jesus gaze at each other sharing our vows.  We tell Jesus that we are giving Him our lives and our hearts and now we enter that wedding feast where there is a wedding dance. In the traditional wedding dance couples line up opposite each other. Depending on the culture and whether traditional orthodox or not either men and women face each other or members of the same sex face each other, the symbolism still remains the same. They then move toward each other and then back away, always chor, gazing at each other, never taking the eyes off each other. Each time they back away, they move back to each other only this time drawing closer to each other.  This is to declare that the bride and groom will have times when they will struggle in their marriage and they will momentarily separate from each other, but as they look chor or gaze at each other they will be drawn back to each other only this time a little closer. This is what the Apostle Paul is describing in this wedding motif that we will dance this wedding dance. It is a joyful time of expressing our commitment with Jesus and He with us.  Even though we may sin and draw away from Jesus, He will always keep His gaze on us and we will be drawn back to Him only each time we return we will be drawn closer to Him.  Jesus will use our human frailties that the enemy would seek to use to draw us away from Him only Jesus will use it to bring us closer to Him.

So we have the wedding ceremony where we gaze at Jesus in transparency leading us to the joy of the wedding dance and now the groom takes his place at the right hand of the Father at his daqurasih in Aramaic from the root word quras which is a chamber with an upholster chair or a divan, what we call a love seat, that is a chair made for two people to sit closely together. It could also be a bedroom and the way the syntax word suggest we could read this as the bedroom in His Father’s house.  This is where the groom Jesus would take us His bride to consummate our marriage to Him.

So next time you hear this verse, stop and consider that the Apostle Paul might be sharing something even more intimate than we the surface understanding of this verse indicates. It is also speaking of our marriage relationship to Jesus and the intimacy that He longs so much to have with us that he endured the suffering of the cross in order to obtain it.

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