GOOD ENOUGH FOR DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS BUT NOT FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DEEPER MEANING OF GOD’S WORD

 The letter a is made up two other letters - the c and the bent letter, I. 

If you look at it carefully, doesn't the letter a look like a 'c' attached to the slightly bent 'I'? This letter a is what God uses to remind us that with Christ, especially when we are willing to let go of our ego, we will be the 'a' grade disciples of Jesus. Or, rather the 'A' grade followers of Christ. After all, the capital A looks like a ladder that goes upwards into the gate of heaven.

This is good enough for a simple devotional thought that we can share as long as we do not stretch it too far. Thankfully, no one has ever used this illustration to interpret the English Bible.

Honestly, it holds no water as far as biblical interpretation is concerned. Neither can we make it up as though the letter 'a' has a hidden meaning which God has only now revealed through me. 

I feel it is the same with the Hebrew Bible text. We should be studying God's Word as God's Word, and not look for mystical meanings behind each letter of the alphabet.

Let's look the example of Genesis 1:1 commonly used by people. I have watched an entire video on this:  

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

Some Rabbis have spent hours debating why God chose to use the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet בְּ instead of aleph א. Countless of reasons have been proposed. I would say, "Wow!" to some of these reasons, but the bottomline is, I think they are just being rabbinic in their reading of Scriptures. 

For example, one of the rabbis says that Aleph can only be used for God. Yet, others give some more convincing answers. How ever this may sound interesting, I think we have to look at the language in its entirety. 

What Do I Mean?

By this, I mean, who cares whether the Bible starts with the first or the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet? I do not think God cares, too. 

I would tend to agree more with someone who came out with this more interesting explanation which is more consistent with the use of the Hebrew language. 

The word, בְּרֵאשִׁית he says, is spelt as 'be-re-shit' instead of 'ba-re-shit'. So, what is so is so interesting about this?

Now, if you ask any Hebrew native speaker, they will be able to tell you that the syllable בְּ refers to 'in' without the definite particle 'the.' I repeat, if literally translated, it should only be 'in beginning' (without the definite particle 'the' in the English language).

With the definite particle, it should be:בָּ (or literally translated as 'in the...') replacing the need of using the prefix  'hey' ה. 

Therefore, the word 'be-re-shit' should be literally translated without the definite particle 'the', but 'ba-re-shit' is to be translated as 'in the beginning.' 

In short, what this teacher is saying is that, when God created the world, there was no definite time when the world was created. 

Now, what about אֵת?

I have also heard that the word אֵת is a reminder of God as the Aleph א and Tav ת. But, is this really what it is saying? 

While it is true that God has introduced Himself as the Aleph Tav, I do not think this word which occurs 11563 times in the Old Testament (and another 10944 times as  אֵת־ actually refers to God as the Aleph Tav. It is simply a word that appears frequently in Hebrew text just like any other words. The word is used simply mark the direct object that follows its usage.  

Trust me, the word אֵת exists twice in Genesis 1:1 and it certainly does not mean that God is a plural God. Neither was God trying to emphasise the importance of the word אֵת by repeating it two times. 

Beware of extra-biblical teachings

Now, let me mesmerize you. 

Next year will be the year of tsade צ which has a gematria of 90. The word Tzaddiq צֶדֶק begins with צ; therefore, next year, 5781 will be a year where righteousness reigns. And if you plus all the digits in the year 5781 together, it is a total of 21. This number is just five short of the gematria of the Tetragrammaton, but it is getting closer to the number 26 -- what an illustration that, as the Day of the Lord approaches, the mouth of the righteous will become more visible.

Tzade has a gematria of 90. And if you take away the 0 from 90, you will get 9. When you deduct the number 9 from 90, you will get 81. Wow! And next year is the year 5781 in the Jewish calendar! Taking away the zero from 90, when is no one (or zero person) willing to speak up for righteousness, although the gematria of Tzade is supposed to be 90, the year 5781 will become a year of unrighteousness when people are not willing to speak up for righteousness. 

Wow! What a warning for all of us in the year 5781. 

Where in the Bible does it say the year 5781 has any significance? Or, where in the Bible does it say that righteousness or unrighteousness will prevail in 5781, depending on whether people will speak up for righteousness in that year or they just prefer to remain silent? 

While gematria exists in the Hebrew alphabet (example, seven has always been a unique number to represent perfection), we can sometimes stretch the gematria too far beyond our own imagination, especially when we think we have understood the hidden meanings of everything in the Bible. But, is it taught in the Bible?

Although this 'hidden meaning behind the Jewish year 5781' is a far-fetched illustration, it goes to show that with just a bit of imagination, we can go astray after some strange teachings not taught in the Word of God. 

We have been cautioned against adding anything to the Word of God. While I would use such an illustration with a disclaimer that this is strictly my own views, I would not say this is God's Word or some hidden meanings that I discovered in His Word, to encourage you to speak the words of righteousness. 

Just because there are co-incidences when someone speaks up for righteousness in year 5781 does not validate my "teaching." In any other years, we have countless of people who would speak the word of righteousness in a time that badly needs it!

Putting Into Perspectives

While it is good for us to philosophise, theologize and look carefully into the details of the Hebrew consonants to give it new meanings, we have to be careful not to use this method to interpret the Bible. 

Hebrew, like koine Greek used in the New Testament, is for sure not God's mother tongue. We learn Hebrew so that we can better understand the original meaning in the Hebrew text, without depending too much on the translations.

Reformers like John Symthe, for example, would never preach a sermon without using the Bible in its original languages. Much of the European reformation also began when people started reading the Bible in either Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament).

The Bible must be interpreted with care, based on the way how it was written, to whom God's Word was originally spoken to, looking at the historical, cultural, geographical and economic backgrounds (or the context). 

There are a lot of truths hidden in the original Hebrew Bible which, have unfortunately, not been easy to translate directly into the English language. See an example here. 

I sometimes love to listen to the way how some teachers make Hebrew more interesting by bringing pictorial images. However, I take this as just pure devotional thoughts. 

Like I gave the example of the alphabet 'a', anyone can sit down and come out with some nice devotional thoughts, but let us keep this pool of knowledge as just some beautiful devotional thoughts. 

To stretch the meaning too far could only lead to some false teachings unless we are careful.