HEBREW WORD STUDY – INVESTMENT – PAQAD פקד  Pei Qop Daleth

Jeremiah 27:8: “If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I destroy it by his hand.”

I have a commemorative coin minted in Israel that has the image of the third temple that the Jews hope to build in Israel in some future time. On the front of the coin is an image of the Persian King Cyrus and President Donald Trump.  I am not making a political statement, I just want to point out that Trump is really beloved in Israel more than any other President.  They equate him with King Cyrus.  King Cyrus was a rascal, murderer, crook and a lot of things that went against the very nature and laws of God.  He did not even worship God Jehovah, He was a Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism parallels the worship of Jehovah, it is monotheistic, it believes in the ultimate good winning over evil, they worship the supreme being Ahura Mazda (like in Star Trek and the car)  which means Wise Lord in Persian. 

The close parallels to Jehovahism are really what make it’s the biggest threat to Judaism and Christianity as people can easily adapt their faith in God to the Zoroastrian religion.  The enemy would love to get you so close to the worship of God Jehovah, but not close enough to actually be worshipping God Jehovah.  Zoroastrianism is a fully pantheistic religion where man is capable of working out his own salvation.

King Cyrus was not a man who followed the religion of the Hebrews and yet the Hebrews honor him with his image on a coin because it was King Cyrus who sponsored the return of the Jews to Israel and helped them rebuild their temple. Hence the coin seems to be declaring Israel’s desire to rebuild the temple and putting President Trump on the coin alongside King Cyrus to suggest that he or the United States that he represents will aid in the rebuilding of the temple. I could be wrong about that, it is only a guess.  I plan to do further research on the reason for this coin. 

Still, when you think about it, it doesn’t seem to matter to the Jews that King Cyrus worshipped a pagan God, any more that it bothers them that a Christian nation led by a man who aligns himself with Christianity who may or may not be a rascal is helping them re-establish their nation.  In fact, Scripture seems to confirm that God uses pagan nations to accomplish his will.

In Jeremiah 27:8 Jeremiah is predicting that Babylon will conquer Judah and they had better buckle under and serve Nebuchadnezzar a Godless king who threw three men into a furnace for not bowing down to his idol.

In fact, God says he will punish the nation that does not put themselves in bondage to the Godless man. The word punish is paqad which doesn’t mean punishment unless you really stretch the word.  I am not saying it is wrong but I believe we need to examine this word a little deeper.  

Indeed it appears the result of God paqading is the sword, famine, and plague but is this a punishment as we understand the word punishment?  The word actually means to visit.  That does not really fit as God is omnipresent, He is everywhere.  A visit means you are not there and then you are there. In tracing this word to its Semitic origins it is a word used to pay a visit to a king with the intention of giving a gift.  The sword, famine, and plague do not sound like much of a gift.  Taking this to its roots we find the word is really used to come to a king bearing a gift with the intention of that gift being an investment.  Sort of like a businessman investing a million dollars in a politician’s campaign. It is a political gift, a gift with the expectation that if elected this politician will do a favor for the giver if he is elected.  I know – wink, wink, but who is going to deny that political gifts are not given with the intention of a returned favor.  We call it an investment.

If Judah and the other nations do not submit to Nebuchadnezzar, God will have to make an investment in these nations which will be famine, sword, and plague to ensure their submission to  Nebuchadnezzar so he continues as king to carry out God’s purpose, even though he does not realize it. 

I believe the lesson here is this. God raises up pagan nations as well as Godly nations for his own purpose. He raises up leaders, even if they are pagan or rascals, He still uses them to carry out His purpose.  We don’t know what God’s purposes are.  The last election in the United States created more emotion that I have witnessed in the political arena in my 68 years as an American Citizen.  It is very disheartening to see Christians really show angry and split over some political decision rather than pray for God’s will to be done and then accept the results as an answer to that prayer. 

I say we take a Jeremiah and even an Isaiah approach.  We pray for our nation, we fulfill our duty to vote as we feel led by God and we accept the results as an answer to that prayer, even if it is not the candidate you voted for  because if God can use a rascal like Cyrus, he most certainly can use whatever rascal we vote for. We then not engage in the anger and divisiveness which we have witnessed these last couple of years.  As Christians we pray together for God’s will, we accept God’s will as an answer to that prayer and we don’t turn each other into enemies.