Hebrew Highlights 150 – Mishpat
Shalom, this is Yuval Shomron coming
to you from the
PSA 119:52, “I have remembered Thine
ordinances from of old, O Lord, And comfort myself.”
The word in Hebrew translated here as
ordinances is “mishpat”.
It is translated using 50 different
words in English. Among the more popular
are “judgments”, as in PSA 119:137, “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, And upright
are Thy judgments.”; and “justice”, as in PSA 119:121, “I have done justice and
righteousness; Do not leave me to my oppressors.”
The simplest translation is
“sentence”, which is how you most often hear it in modern Hebrew. A court in
This should not be too foreign an idea
to those of us who are English speakers, as the result of a trial in English is
also a “sentence”.
So what is behind this interesting
Word in the spiritual realm? Well, let’s
just say that if God said it, it is law.
If he spoke a sentence, he ordained the idea.
In short, whatever God says, goes!
You may remember that God’s first
recorded command was, “Let there be light!”
And what happened? “There was
light!” And so it continued throughout
the 6 days of creation.
God’s first recorded commandment to
man is recalled in GEN 3:3, “but from the fruit of the tree which is in the
middle of the garden, God has said,' You shall not eat from it or touch it,
lest you die.'" And of course, they
did eat it, and we all do die.
When will we ever learn?
Maybe in our modern days we need a
verse we can understand in computer language.
PRO 2:7-8, “He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to
those who walk in integrity, Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves
the way of His godly ones.”
God has given us an enormous hard disc
full of wisdom. If we walk in integrity,
he surrounds us with a fire-wall. Of
course, if we download files from the devil, we may get viruses. Then he guards the paths of our sentences,
and preserves our ways. One of the more
frustrating error messages which comes up on our computer screen is, “Path Not
Found.” Where did that file I worked on
all morning go?
Well, if we download our spiritual
antivirus updates from God’s word everyday, our wisdom will be intact, and our
database will continue to grow.
By the way, if there are a few of you
left who are troubled by any references to computers, please don’t be. Even a pencil can be evil in the wrong hands. Or a computer can be a wonderful tool in the
right ones.
I compose these Hebrew Highlights on
my own PC, using all the available Biblical resources and programs.
Now here is another interesting little
proverb which uses our word of focus today, from chapter 13 and verse 23, “Abundant
food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice.”
Now the poor seldom own their own
land, so we can assume that this is an allegorical saying.
We can readily rephrase it thusly, “The
ability to prosper is built in to the poor, just like anyone else, but it is
held back by discouraging sentences.”
Now these sentences could be badly
written laws, which discriminate against the poor, or they could be literal
sentences, such as: “You’ll never make
anything of yourself.” Or “You don’t stand a chance of getting that job!”
Do you realize that it is not only
God’s prose which is powerful, but men’s as well?
We can easily cause someone else’s
face to read, “Path not found!”
I’ll start winding down today’s lesson
with a little verse from ECC 5:8, written about 2800 years ago, but still
applicable today, “If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and
righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight, for one official
watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.”
The poor are at the bottom of a
pyramid of bad sentences or laws. It is
no wonder they are oppressed.
Of course, a few chapters later, in ECC
Yeshua says something parallel in MAT
12:35-37, "The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is
good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. "And I say to you, that every careless
word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of
judgment. "For by your words you
shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned."
Why not let every word, and indeed,
every sentence which comes from our mouths be encouraging and edifying.
We have a wealth of wisdom in storage
to draw from. Let’s stop forwarding
viruses!
Shalom
Shalom from