Isaiah 30:21: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.”
Yesterday I was pondering who or what this moreka (Master Teacher) is. This morning after further mediation on the following verse I have reached a conclusion as to the identity of the moreka, but I could be wrong. So I will just share my thoughts and let you decide on your own, after all this is my personal journal and if you don’t like you don’t have to read it.
When you look at verse 20 you find that our eyes shall see the teacher and then in verse 21 we are told our ears shall hear a word behind us. We see the teacher before us but the word is spoken behind us. Rabbinical teaching would suggest that this is a picture of the God’s Spirit (the Master Teacher) surrounding us. We see Him before us and hear Him behind us and He is also on our left and right.
There are two mistakes that good Western thinking Christians will make here. The first is to look at the word for teacher and say: “Ah ha, it is plural.” I know I said it was singular yesterday, but used as a participial noun it could be plural. So why do I say it is singular? Also, someone wondered by I call moreka (teacher) a Master Teacher when it does not say Master Teacher in the Lexicon or in the back of Strong’s. For one thing I am no slave to the Lexicon or Strong’s. Secondly, I call it singular because I believe it has a Messianic message. I call this singular for the same reasons the rabbis would call Elohim in Genesis 1:1 as singular. When I was teaching Hebrew to future pastors and Christian leaders in Bible College, I noticed a very common college phenomenon taking place in my classes. There would be some students who would fall asleep during my lectures. Some, deciding that would be disrespectful, would just cut class and go to the dorm and do their sleeping. Either way I have heard many preachers and Bible teachers who must have fallen asleep in their Hebrew class or cut class during the lecture on the Hebrew plural. These pastors and teachers are easy to spot because they have enough training to know that im at the end of a Hebrew word means it is plural, but not enough to know that plural in Hebrew is far different than the plural in English. They are the ones who say: “Elohim, which means God, is plural and therefore must refer to the trinity. Such stupid rabbis that they do not see this.” The rabbis would just roll their eyes and say: “Such stupid Christians, reading Hebrew like they were reading English.” Just because a word is plural in Hebrew, does not indicate it means more than one. A plural in Hebrew may mean a higher rank or privilege. Hence, the plural form here could be translated as Master Teacher rather than just teachers. Exegetically, Master Teacher would be a better fit.
Thus, your spiritual eyes will recognize the Master Teacher and your ears shall hear (ve’azeneka tiwhema’enah). This expression denotes either an audible or a spiritual (or both) hearing.
What you hear is the second mistake a Western thinking Christian will make. You hear a word which in Hebrew used the word devar. Indeed, we could render devar as “a word. But it is not idiomatic in Hebrew as it is in English. Did you ever hear a preacher say he would like to share a word with the congregation and then preach a whole sermon? Obvious, he wanted to say more than just one word. That expression a word in English is an idiomatic expression indicating that someone would like to deliver a short message. That is an English idiom and not a Hebrew idiom. When the Hebrew says a word. It means a word. Thus, what is this word? Well it can’t be: “This is the way, walk ye in it.” That expression has more than one word. The word zeh (this) is a demonstrative pronoun and would not fit with the Hebrew word devar. Walk ye in it is a verbal phrase and would also not fit with the word devar. What does fit with the word devar is the word that is used in the Hebrew text which is haderek or The way. Did not Jesus say: “I am the way” (John 14:6)? And who is it that reveals Jesus as the Messiah? In Matthew 16:16-17 we find Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus answers by saying this was revealed to Him by the Father. Could this not be the voice you hear behind you?
So can we not say that the Master Teacher (moreka) is the Holy Spirit, and the voice is the Heavenly Father who is telling us a word. That word is The Way or His Son Jesus Christ and we are to walk (halakah, a righteous walk) in Him.
Yeah, I know, that interpretation is just so, so Christian.
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