Hebrew Architecture

After these things, the word of YHWH was manifest to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you, your reward will increase greatly.” Genesis 15:1

Shield – As we all know, Hebrew is a language written only in consonants. Furthermore, it lacks any punctuation. That means that the nuances of the message are often communicated in changes in the structure of the text. For example, rearranging the word order often tells us what word is the most important. Sometimes a consonant is doubled in order to add something crucial to a word. Sometimes a particle (like na) is added to a verb to change its tone. And sometimes a word in one sentence is connected to a word in another sentence so that the reader can find a thought-relationship between the two.

The difficulty, of course, is that almost all of these subtle alterations are lost in translation. This is especially true when the translation uses different words that are not connected to each other like they are in Hebrew. For example, you will recall that the word translated “unashamed” (arom) in Genesis 2 is directly related to the word translate “cunning” (arum) in Genesis 3. The only difference is the vowels. But we would never see this connection in translation, so we lose the vital relationship between naked Adam and Eve and the naked snake.

You can think of Hebrew like the supporting structure of a building. The steel girders and the concrete foundation hold the whole building together even though, when the building is complete, you never see the supporting structure but everything hangs on it.

The use of the Hebrew word magen (shield) is one of the supporting girders. It is connected to a word in the previous story (which, of course, is not really disconnected by a new chapter). That word is miggen, a word that means “delivered.” When Melchizedek proclaims that it is God who has delivered Abraham from his enemies, the narrator picks up this word and uses a variation to show us that God Himself announces that He is Abraham’s shield. This isn’t the only connection. The same word that describes Abraham’s refusal to accept booty from his conquest is also used to describe God’s announcement of a great reward. Furthermore, Abraham’s allies are called ba’lei berit (14:13) and now, in this promise, God Himself becomes Abraham’s ally by making a berit (15:18). Hebrew architecture shows us that these two passages are built with the same girders. Unfortunately, you have to see the plans in Hebrew to see the relationships.

What application can we take away from this little lesson? We aren’t living in the time of Abraham. We might not speak or read Hebrew. But there is a lesson here for us. That lesson is the ability of God to connect one thing to another in ways that we could never anticipate or imagine. Who could have guessed that Abraham’s military rescue of Lot and his encounter with Melchizedek and his refusal to take booty from the king of Sodom would become the foundation of God’s eternal blessing of Abraham? Who could have foreseen what God would do with what appeared to be just an interference in an otherwise tranquil life? No one can anticipate what God will do with our ordinary experiences. But this we can be sure about: He is building a structure with the girders of our lives that we will not appreciate until the process is complete. Oswald Chambers said that when we get to heaven we will see how it all worked together. Until then, we’ll have to study the architecture. Right?

Topical Index: architecture, shield, reward, magen, miggen, Genesis 15:1

NOTE: There has been a lot of interest in the work on the Genesis story of woman.  Hold on.  More is coming.