Hebrew Word Study – Sabbath and Rest – Shuv שוב Shin Vav Beth

Deuteronomy 30:2-3: “And (you) shalt return unto the Lord thy God,”

James 4:8:  “Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.”

There is one striking similarity between all these verses that talk of returning to God or drawing near to Him and that is that it is us who must make the first step toward God.  The syntax of Deuteronomy 30:2 suggests that returning to the Lord is a separate step from obeying His voice. In other words, the first step is to return to the Lord. 

There is an interesting play on words for the word return. The word used for return is shabata. Looks familiar?  It should it come from the same root as the word for Sabbath which means to rest, except that the Masoretes in the seventh century AD put a Pathah (short a) under the Shin rather than a Qames (long a) making the root word shuv which means to return or restore. The original Hebrew was written without these long and short vowels so it is debatable as to whether this word could come from the root word shabbat or the root word shuv and I believe the intent was both in order to have a play on words. Thus, we are to return to our resting upon God and not the arm of the flesh. 

Note we must do this with all our hearts and souls. The word heart in Hebrew is lavav and the word soul is nepesh.  I explained yesterday that the word nephesh or soul means breathe and thus references your physical life as your physical life would not be possible without your breath.  The word heart or lavav represents the emotional and intellectual part of us that part that is not visible but exists nonetheless.  When used together means both your intellect or understanding and your passions and your physical being.  We can return to God with our intellect but not with our passions, or we can return to God with our passions but not our intellect. We can return to God with our bodies in church and engage in Godly activities, but our hearts may not be in it. God is saying we must return to Him with our entire being mental, emotional, and physical.   

The passage also says that we are to return to the Lord your God. In the Hebrew, this is YHWH (your) Elohim. The Talmud explains that the word YHWH is in a feminine form and the word Elohim is masculine. The feminine represents the caring, nurturing, and loving nature of God. The Masculine represents the disciplinary, protection, and provision aspect of God. I find a real division among Christians. Some see God as just all loving and caring the YHWH but overlook his discipline and correction. Others go to the extreme that God is just Elohim, ready to send lightning bolts on you if mess up.

As a pastor and Christian worker, I met numerous single parents who described how hard it was to perform both roles of mother and father.  Without exception, they said that they were failing in both areas.  God never designed for a child to be raised by one parent.  I believe he wanted to have two parents involved in the raising of a child to show the distinct role each play so that we could understand that God plays two distinct roles with us and that we can love him in both roles.  A child can love his father because his father sacrifices and works to provide for him and he can love his mother because she nurtures him.  I find many Christian who love only God Elohim because he provides things for them. Yet, they totally overlook God YHWH who just wants to love and nurture them.  Thus when we are commanded to return to God we are commanded to return to both Elohim His protection, provision, and discipline as well as YHWH his loving, caring, and nurturing nature.  

When this is done then the Lord God will return to us. There is just one issue that bothers me. This business of returning seems very ambiguous.  How do I really know that I have returned with all my heart and all my soul? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the verb return is in a Qal (simple verbal) form and not a Piel (intensive verbal) form.  This return with all your heart and soul is the best you can give even if it falls short. God is not demanding a complete return, which is virtually impossible in our natural state, but He is demanding that we give him the best that we possibly can.  If we come to Him in the best possible way that we can, offering our heart and soul to him as best we can, that is enough.   

James tells us that we just need to draw near to God and he will then move into action to draw near to us. We just need to start the process and do our best. The Lord will take care of the rest.

There is a story in the Talmud on which Jesus based his story of the Prodigal Son on. It was about a king who had a disagreement with his son. The nature of this disagreement was such that the son left home to live in another kingdom.  After a time the father sent a messenger to the son with this message:  “Please come home.” The son sent the messenger back telling his father: “That is too far for me to come.” The Father then sent his messenger back with this message: “Then come as far as you can and I will meet you.” The son returned and met his father and was reconciled. God only wants you to come as far as you possibly can come and He will meet you and take you the rest of the way. However, when Jesus told the story and the son returned and the father, the provider (Elohim) met his son before he even arrived home, but when he did He then hugged (YHWH) his son.  When we come back to the father both YHWH and Elohim He will not only restore us with His provision, but He will also hug us.

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