Lethal Nothings

And do not turn aside to go after worthless things which do not profit  and do not deliver, for they are worthless.   I Samuel 12:21

Worthless – Let’s consider one of the strangest and most difficult words in the Hebrew Scriptures.  You might think you are quite familiar with this word.  After all, it is found in one of the Bible’s most famous passages.  It occurs in Genesis 1:2 – “and the earth was without form and void.”  In Hebrew, this is tohu wabohu.  Tohu occurs only 39 more times in Scripture.  To this day, scholars are unable to clearly identify its etymology or exactly specify its meaning.  But this much is clear.  Tohu is antithetical to any living thing.

Tohu generally describes five related conditions.  These are: trackless wasteland, desolation, lifelessness, futility and worthlessness.  The common thread behind tohu seems to be a sphere that is alien to all life.  It is an ominous, chaotic, desolate, dark, destructive opposition to created order.  Consequently, it is filled with peril, menace and foreboding.  It is the negation of God and His creation.  If there were ever a word that described a place where life is sucked out of you, then tohu is that word.

Are you frightened?  Don’t dismiss this horror as ancient, near-eastern mythology.  There is something else about tohu that should send a shiver up your spine.  In the Bible, tohu is contagious.  Spend enough time around tohu and you will become infected with the very essence of life-denying terror.  Touch it often and you will feel its effect, sucking vitality out of you.  Chase after its seductive ploys and you will find, perhaps too late, that you are among the walking dead.  That’s Samuel’s point.  Once you turn away from God, you turn away from life – no matter how attractive the prospects seem to be, the end is always tohu – waste, futility, desolation and death.

The opposite of tohu is not peace, prosperity, happiness or health.  The opposite of tohu is God, for God is order, fulfillment, satisfaction, well-being and life itself.  So, do a little tohu checkup.  Are you turning aside to the things that do not profit and do not deliver?  Are your days directed at accumulating those things that have no future over the horizon of your life?  Are you living the “spend it now” plan?  Tohu awaits all who serve short-sighted ends.  If your dreams and desires can be achieved this side of the grave, you might be infected already.