HEBREW WORD STUDY – A NET –  RESHETH רשת     Resh Shin Taw

Psalms 25:15: “Mine eyes [are] ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

Practically all commentators agree that when the Psalmist says that the Lord will pluck his feet out of the net, that this is clearly a picture of a hunter who is snaring a bird or capturing it with a net..  I agree with the commentators, however, I wonder why the Psalmist did not use the word pachacah which is also a net or snare. The pachacah is limited to the hunter or fisherman. Sometimes such entrapments are used for purposes other than food.  In our study passage we find the word used for net is  resheth. A resheth is also a net or snare but is not always to snare prey for  the purpose of food.  Resheth has a broader meaning.  Nets and snares can be used for other purposes than just hunting. They can be used for fishing. In some instances a net was used as a satchel for carrying perishable items like fruit which needed to be aired out. There you would use the word resheth for a net rather than pachacah which is strictly for hunting. 

 This word resheth comes from the  Semitic root word yaresh which means to take possession of something or an inheritance.  Thus this resheth, the word used in this verse is a net or snare that serves the purpose of taking possession of something.  Still the net or snare is always used for some type of  entrapment that allows the hunter, fisherman or shopper to take possession of his prey or product like to entrap fruit or other perishable to keep them from falling out of a bag.  Thus this net in our study verse is meant to  entrap us for the sole purpose of taking possession of us. 

As indicated a resheth is not always used  to capture food, but serves other purposes. The word resheth is a good word to use here to show  how the enemy operates.  Just as the hunter would drop the net over the bird. The bird would be terrified and start to struggle. The  more the bird struggles in the net, the more entangled it becomes in the net and its chances of escaping become less likely as it struggles.  The  hunter has to calm the bird down so he can release it from the net.  But that release does not necessarily mean freedom.

Jesus said in Matthew 10:29:  “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” A farthing is an old English coin worth about one half a cent.  The translator’s of the King James Version tried to use an English word comparable to the Greek  word assarion which was a Roman coin.  Contrary to what preachers like to say the assarion was not valueless, it was a coin but the lowest denomination of a coin, like our penny.  Still we cannot grasp the full understanding because a penny today is almost worthless, but a hundred  years ago it had quite a bit of value.  If we were to look at an assarion by today’s standards we would compare it to a common laborer in Jesus’s day who earned about 400 assarions a month.  An average wage for a common laborer today is around $12.00 an hour or $2,000 a month if we round it off.  So, if my math is right one assarion is worth about $5.00 in today’s money.  Of course that is really variable and maybe worth less, but still it is of some value. 

Jesus clearly says the two sparrow sell for a farthing which about $5.00 in today’s money. Why would someone purchase a sparrow in the first place.  Sparrows were not desired for food nor used in sacrifice. If they wanted it for a pet, they could easily catch one. Why would anyone pay good money for a sparrow, what use were they?  Not only that why two? Well sparrows did serve a very important role in ancient times.

Hunters did not always catch the birds for food.  Some birds, such as doves and sparrows, had homing instincts.  There was a market for sparrows and doves to use as a first century GPS system, a guide while traveling. We often us an expression that a destination is so many miles as the bird flies. In other words birds do not use a specific path or road.  In ancient times the roads or paths between towns were often very dangerous, filled with robbers and bandits.  It was often desirable, especially when one were  forced to travel alone or in a small number, to not take the normal path or road to avoid the bandits. However, by not following the road one can easily get lost in the desert.  What a traveler would do in such a situation would be to purchase two sparrows as a minimum.  They would release one of the sparrow, who with its homing instincts, would fly to their destination and they would just follow the sparrow.  When the sparrow would land to rest as they often did the traveler would stop and wait for the sparrow to fly off again. If he flew over a mountain or hill and they lost sight of  him, they would just reach in their bag and release another bird. At the end of the day they would toss a net over the poor beggar and entrap him once again for the night and then release him the next day.  The poor thing did not realize that it was a captive bird even when set free. Normally you need at least two sparrows, one to get you there and the other for the return or a spare in case you lost track of one or one died. 

Note that Jesus says the Father sees the sparrow fall. The travel keeps a close eye on the sparrow as that little, seemly valueless bird is serving a real purpose to the traveler. That traveler knows when that sparrow falls to the ground.  He really cares if the poor fellow is resting, injured or died because that little bird is very important to that traveler.  That little bird may be of no value to anyone else in the world, but to that traveler while traveling; that little, seemingly insignificant bird is his prize possession.

Now back to Psalms 25:15.  This is sort of like the way the enemy entraps us.  He tosses that net over us and we panic and struggle and the more we panic and struggle the more entangled in the enemies net we become.  Sort of like an addiction on drugs or alcohol and the addict struggles and struggles only getting more entangled in the addiction. He will go to counseling and detox and feel he is free but that is only the enemy letting him lose for his own purpose and before long he falls right back in the addiction net, over and over.  Many will continue this cycle of entrapment and alleged freedom and then back to entrapment until they die.  This is what often happens to the fragile little sparrow during the process of leading its captors home. The captors just dip into the cage, net or bag and  release another sparrow to take its place. They are after all cheap.

When the enemy has a hold on us and has us entangled in his net, when he uses us for his advantage and carries us away from home, when we struggle to get back home only to be recaptured, the Lord is there to pluck us out of that net and takes possession of us – resheth.  We then become His most valued possession.

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