HEBREW WORD STUDY – RECKONED – CHASHAV חשב Cheth Shin Beth

Numbers 23:9: “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”

Among the Jewish people, particularly those who live in Israel, this verse has a very significant meaning. Those words “Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” are very chilling words for us Christians and we do well to give these words just as much due consideration as the Jewish people do.

It is very easy to pass over these words during your 15-minute quiet time as you try to read your quota of Scripture passages to get through the whole Bible in one year. Couched in the King’s English of the KJV and the intellectual words of your modern translations you really do not hear gist or the emotion behind these words or the powerful significance of these words. Israel since 1948 has harkened to these words and because they did they have not only survived this past generation, they have thrived to become a prosperous and powerful nation.

Two important words, alone and reckoned need to planted deeply, embedded into the souls and spirits of every born again Christian in this country and the world. We are living in a time, unlike any other time in this nation’s history. The word reckon in the Hebrew text is yithechashav from the root word chashav which means thinking, combining thoughts, and joining. This is in a Hithpheal (reflexive) form. This should be read as: “And they shall not cause themselves to combine their thinking or join themselves with the nations.” That word alone in the Hebrew text is badad. This is really powerful. Badad is a word used for hail or particles of ice. I was reading about the Lewis and Clark Expedition and in one of their journals a scouting party spoke of finding themselves caught in a rainstorm with no shelter nearby, it was just open prairie. Suddenly it started to hail the size of a fist and they were forced to abandon their supplies and run as fast as they could and seek some sort of shelter. Before they could reach the shelter a number of them had been knocked to the ground and a couple very seriously injured. I never considered the danger of a hail storm. Most of us live in urban areas where we can find immediate shelter if there is a hail storm. The rain we can handle and it is even necessary for crops to grow. Large hail that is mixed or separate from rain will destroy a crop and cause injury to animals and humans if they don’t find shelter.

You see Numbers 23:9 was spoken by Baalam, a prophet of evil, who was asked by Balak, King of Moab to place a curse on Israel. Baalam was fully capable of doing this. He welded many supernatural powers but he realized he could not use them against God’s people Israel. If Israel was in disobedience to God he had a chance, but they were not. You see they did not reckon or combine their thinking, their plans or their strategy with other nations. They stood alone, they were like the hail in the rain. They were the ones who had the power of God on their side and could wreak havoc against Moab.

Seventy-two years ago the people of Israel lost six million of their people in the Holocaust of World War II. The nations and the churches all turned a blind eye, the Jews were left alone in the world, as they have been throughout their history. They had no one to turn to but God. Despite the tragedy of the Holocaust they still retained their faith in God. God gave them their land in Israel, the United Nations voted to let them become a state but then turned their backs on them, left them with no weapons to defend themselves as to all the Arabs nations immediately swooped down to finish what Hitler tried to do. No other nation came to their aid. They alone had to fight the war as the world looked on not willing to gamble one shekel that after the smoked cleared there would be any Jews left alive let alone a nation. But History shows the experts were wrong and that tiny nation did what everyone thought was impossible and that was to come out victorious. More wars were fought and more humiliation fell upon Israel’s enemies. They did this alone with God. Yes, the United States helped with supplies that Israel insisted on paying for. They knew they could not depend upon any nation, not even the United States. They stood and continue to stand alone in the world. They know full well that the next election cycle in the United States could mean the end of what support they have from us. They will accept our help but they will not depend upon it. Israel exists under the assumption that if they are invaded, they will be left alone, it will be just them and God.

I remember watching a news media report when Israel was being criticized by the world for some action they took to defend themselves. A reporter cynically asked an Israeli soldier: “So, the world is really criticizing Israel for this action you are taking, what do you think about that?” For a brief moment, this Israeli soldier turned his head away from his task and snapped: “Who cares!” He then turned back to his task.

There are Balaams out there right now standing over the United States cursing this nation. I am very disturbed by what I see. Not the Balaams cursing us but the reaction of the Christians wringing their hands and murmuring; “Oh, what shall we do? They will take our freedoms away, they will not let us go to church, they are mocking us, saying that practicing our faith is not an essential service, they will force us to do things against our conscience and beliefs, they will…”

Let’s take a page from the playbook of Israel’s book (and ours for that matter) and take hold of the jacket of him that is a Jew and say: “We will go with you: for we have heard [that] God [is] with you.” Zechariah 8:23. Let’s stop our pity parties, shake our fist at those Balaams and say: “Who cares.” Most important let’s unite, not one denomination with another, but with others who love God with all their hearts, soul and might. Regardless of their doctrine, regardless of their views on the Trinity, baptism, gifts of her Spirit, music, worship style or all those other things. The Jews have many different beliefs about God, some have none. Some are reformed, some conservative, some orthodox and some belong to none but they are united in blood, they are all kin, they are all Jews, a family and when threatened they come together to defend their family with no expectations from outside sources.

I feel in my spirit the time is very near where we will either look to the Balaams and let them curse us or we will unite as a family of God through the blood of Jesus and look to each other, not a president, not a congress not a governor, local mayors nor to our economy, but we will look to our family, our Christian family united and the Balaams of this nation will say: “I see them from the cliff tops; I watch them from the hills. I see a people who live by themselves, set apart from other nations.”