Hebrew Highlights 30 - In Your Midst

Shalom. This is Yuval Shomron, coming to you from Jerusalem. Today we are going to take a look at 4 words in Hebrew, based on one root, made up of the letters “Koof”, “Resh”, “Bet”.

Kerev - Korban - Karov – and Krav

First let’s read from ZEP 3:17, "The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

The word for “in your midst” is “b’kirbech”. It is used 79 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Sometimes speaking of being in the midst of a people, the earth, a generation, or the Temple.

The next word, “Karov”, or near, is obviously related, as we see in PSA 73:28, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Thy works.

We know that God is close, even in our midst, even to the point that He dwells in us by His Holy Spirit.

The next passage, in ROM 12:1, uses the word “Korban”, or “sacrifice”. “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” As we know from 1CO 6:19, “our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us”. So then we are able to present our “korban”, or sacrifice, to God who is “karov”, or near us, even, “b’kirbeinu”, or in our midst.

The last of the 4 words I am investigating, seems, at least on the surface, to be completely unrelated. Let’s read from PSA 55:18. “He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, For they are many who strive with me.” Here, the word “battle”, is the Hebrew word “krav”. What can the connection possibly be between the words “battle”, “midst”, “near”, and “sacrifice”. Let me offer a few suggestions.

When we go through spiritual warfare, we often find that the real battle, and yes, the real victory is within. If we can just overcome our mind’s fears, and protests, we can finally get to a place of faith.

We have to come near God to allow Him to fight at our side. Someone once said, “If you don’t feel near to God, guess who moved?” When we do approach the throne, it is good and acceptable if we bring a sacrifice, whether of Praise, or another offering which the Father will be pleased with.

Our enemy will always try to keep us from getting near to God, but he is already within us, a mighty warrior. He will save us! He will quiet our embattled spirits with His love, and then, He will rejoice over our victory with us, with Shouts of Joy.

Shalom, Shalom from Jerusalem.