HEBREW WORD STUDY – DID NOT SIN – LO CHATA’  לא חטא  Lamed Aleph   Cheth Teth Aleph

Job 1:22: “In all this Job sinned not, nor charge God foolishly.”  

Whenever I hear a preacher teach on Job and point his finger and say: “In all that Job did not sin, nor blame God.”  I could not help but wonder: What sin would Job commit and how could he not blame God, the Bible makes it clear that God put his stamp of approval on this whole thing?’

Some translations will alter the syntax and render this as Job did not sin by charging God with wrong doing. However, this is poetry and to do this would not be consistent with the poetic nature of the passage. I also believe that the translators were taking too much liberty with the Vav conjunction.  I do understand why the translators do this. The word for sin chata’ which is pretty open ended and needs some explanation. The following phrase “did not charge God” would give that explanation as to the nature of the sin.  If we examine this word chata’ we will find that we don’t need to sacrifice the grammatical directive of the Vav. The word “chata’” speaks quite plainly for itself, thank you.   

If you check your lexicon you will find chata,  refers to sin but also means to miss the mark, or to stumble or fall. That leaves the question as to what it is that causes you to stumble or fall.  The word itself has many possible combinations. The word is spelled Cheth, Teth and Aleph.  The total numeric value is 18. This has the same numeric value of da’ag which means to be afraid.  Fear can be the primary cause of stumbling. Note that the first letter is the Cheth which in it shadow form means to be incapacitated with fear. However there is something else that will cause you to stumble and we find that in the next letter Teth. This has a shadow of going the other way and ignoring the dangers and taking on a facile positive thinking attitude, sort of an “Oh, it’s all for the best.”   This too is wrong because you will overlook the dangers or not act to prevent further tragedy. Yet, there is a third way you can stumble while going through suffering.  This is found in the last letter the Aleph. The Aleph warns that suffering can cause you to find no sense in your existence. Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. In other words, “Why bother to go on living?” Or “why are you not curing God? He too all of life’s meaning away from you? There is no meaning to Aleph to overtake him.

In the midst of suffering Job did not sin or chata’. In other words he did become incapacitated with fear, nor did he take on a Pollyannaish Que Sera Sera attitude. He fully understood the serious nature of his situation.  He also did not allow his suffering to drive him to the point of feeling his life was worthless. 

Something else he did not do and that was to “foolishly charge God.”  The word charge in Hebrew is nathan which means to give, or it could mean to speak out loud. You could say that he did not give God any “lip.”  He didn’t accuse God or shake his fist at Him.   

When we consider the fact that this is poetry, we find there is something deeper, much deeper in the word foolish. The word in Hebrew for foolish is tipelah. On the surface it means improper, inappropriate, or foolish. But this word has a dual meaning.  The root word could be tipal or it could be palal, which means to judge. Job did not give judgment to God. He did not say to God: “Why did you do this to me?”    

Poor God, He gets it in the neck everytime.  How many times do we people say: “Why does God allow this to happen?”   I know when you hold yourself out as all powerful and mighty you are going to take some hits.  But surely with God’s record of faithfulness, caring and sacrifice, you could cut Him a little slack when your world collapses. When you stand in judgment against God for the tragedies that enter your life and you say: “Why did you allow this to happen?” God is likely heartbroken as He says: “What? Do you think I don’t have your best interest in mind?  You think I don’t care?  You think I don’t love you?”     

I have always been intrigued by Mark 4:38-39 when the disciples were in a boat in the midst of a storm and they woke Jesus up asking: “Master, don’t you care…?”   What always struck me was that Jesus did not say a word to them, he only rebuked the storm. When someone says something hurtful to you, you will often say something back, something sarcastic, or biting.   Yet, there is another level of hurt, a level much deeper.  This is a hurt that comes from someone you really care about, someone you really love.  When that person questions the sincerity of your love or caring, this hurt is so deep that you can not reply, you can only turn your head and grieve.  I believe that is why Jesus did not rebuke his disciples, He did not say: “Hey, haven’t I proved how much I care?   Haven’t I demonstrated my love?”  

When the disciples questioned Jesus love and concern, they most likely pierced His heart.  That would have been the cruelest thing they could have done or said.  That may have hurt Jesus more than the outright rejection from the nation of Israel itself. That may be why Jesus gave no response to His disciples, he went ahead and calmed the storm, but he was too heart broken to even give them a response. 

In all his suffering Job never passed judgment on God, he never questioned God’s love and caring.  Job had enough insight into the heart of God to know that to palal to pass judgment on God and question His love would have broken His heart and despite Job’s great suffering, he was still determined protect the heart of the God that he loved.