HEBREW WORD STUDY – EYES FAILED – THIKELENAH “ENENU עינינה תכלינה Taw Kap Lamed Yod Nun Hei Ayin Yod Nun Yod Nun Hei

Lamentations 4:17: “As for us our eyes yet failed for our vain help, in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.”

The sins of the people of Judah have finally reached their climax. For almost four hundred years the nation of Judah went through periods of idolatry to the destruction of the idols and worship of God and then back to idol worship again. It was not that they totally abandoned God at any one time. The temple still existed, the people still celebrated the many feasts, and the priest still offered their sacrifices. But it was mainly for appearance’s sake or to fulfill a sense of duty. They were religious people who had no heart for God. They worshipped God but they also had another God. The God of prosperity, comfort, security, and national pride. There is nothing wrong with these but when they become you focus, what you live for and what fight for then somewhere you cross a line from worshipping God to worshipping your comfort. As a result, God has to take you out of your comfort zone.

When Jeremiah would give God’s warning of coming destruction, the people would mock him and say: “Oh, come on Jeremiah, people have talked about destruction for years, and look, we are still here, the temple still stands. Look at the temple, we are the people of God, do you honestly think God will destroy this building constructed in His honor? Look at our prosperity, our security, and comforts. Do you think God would give us these things only to take them away? Yet, overnight everything changed. We have experienced that to some degree in this country. Overnight we found that a disease has robbed us of our freedom to meet with others, worship together, attend entertainments together. Overnight it robbed us of what thought were secure jobs and ongoing health. Then in the midst of that, we watched the frustration of people poor out into the streets in violence. Many say it is a different world we live in than it was a year ago.

Is it possible that like in Judah God is showing us where our hearts really lie, what it is that really worships? In Lamentations 4:17 we see where the hearts of the people laid. The Assyrians were ready to march on Judah and instead of turning to God for help, they looked to the nation of Egypt to deliver them. Yet Egypt had their own problems, they would not come to deliver Judah. The people placed their hope of salvation in the arm of the flesh. Christians are worried sick over the next Presidential election. Do they honestly believe that the election of one person will turn things around and bring us the peace, comfort, and security we long for? History has shown over and over that only God can bring about that peace.

The words “our eyes yet failed for our vain help in our watching” is a very sad picture. A clearer rendering would be “our eyes became exhausted watching for the help that never arrived.” We vainly watch the media for signs of hope and help to deliver us but it only brings more bad news, we are becoming exhausted watching for help that never seems to arrive. The word failed is kalah which has many possible meanings from a bride to destruction. In our Hebrew Workshop on our Learning Channel, we will be discussing the procedure to discovering which English word to use for a word like kalah which has multiple usages. So I will not go into detail as to how I decided to use the following rendering. Kalah here has the idea of becoming exhausted after putting every part of your being into something. The word vain is haval in Hebrew which is a word used for a vapor. It is like a cloud, you can see it but when you walk into it, there is really nothing substantial there. The word for watching is sapah which is watching and waiting. It is not just a watch like being on guard duty, but it is a watch filled with hope and anticipation. This is the picture of the people facing sure destruction but clinging to the last bit of hope until the last minute when they believed God would send the Egyptians riding up to rescue them. The Egyptians never came. The Egyptians owed them, they were there to help the Egyptians in their time of need. The Egyptians had promised to help them. But such is the nature of trusting in the arm of the flesh.

To the very last moment the people pinned their hopes on the arm of the flesh, but the phone never rang, Their last hope of escape that they could see in the natural, never materialized. We can’t be too hard on Judah, are we not doing the same, hoping for a vaccine created by man that will end the pandemic, an election that will swing in our favor and if it never materializes what will happen. When the arm of the flesh fails, where will we turn? Sure, we are the people of God, look at all the beautiful church buildings we built and support surely God will not allow us to be destroyed, surely at the last minute, the arm of the flesh will rise us and save us. We have resources, contacts, talents, or whatever to fall back on to deliver us. Yet, all these are the arm of the flesh and they can fail us.

God would have used the Egyptians to deliver Judah. There was any number of ways that God could have delivered Judah. That is the problem, we decided how God should save us. Perhaps we should consider a move like Jehoshaphat who gathered the people together and fell before God and declared “His mercies endure forever.” When Jehoshaphat die it God stopped the advance of the Assyrians. Many have tried to do that in this nation, they just don’t seem to be able to rally the support of God’s people, too much infighting and criticism. That seems like a sure sign that people are not sincere about joining their hearts with God. They seek God only with their minds. They figured God would use the Egyptians to deliver them and so they pinned their hopes on what they could see and not on what was unseen.

Jehoshaphat had no idea who God would use to deliver them. He knew God said they would not have to lift a sword. Perhaps Jehoshaphat felt that God would send some friendly army down to destroy the three kings. I am sure he did not expect God to cause the three kings to fight against each other. Jehoshaphat set his eyes to God.

Maybe we should stop telling God how we expect or would like to be delivered and just trust Him to come up with the solution.

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