Archery Practice

So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear YHWH. 2 Kings 17:28

Taught – Lions were eating people.  Not a very pleasant thought.  But in Near Eastern thinking, this isn’t about lions.  It’s about offense.  The question is not, “How did these lions get there?” or, “Why are these lions man-eaters?”  The question is “What does this mean?”  And what it means, according to the people who lived there is this:  we have offended the God of Israel.

What is the solution?  Build a fence?  No.  Hunt down the lions and kill them?  No.  This is not a scene from The Ghost and the Darkness.  The solution is to send a priest to these people to instruct them how to shoot straight.  The Hebrew verb translated “taught” is moreh.  It means to  shoot or throw.  But in this verse, it is about instructing the people in the straight way that will hit the target of pleasing YHWH.  The priest taught them the proper way to worship, the way that was acceptable to God, the way that shot the arrow right into the bull’s eye.

This verb, moreh, is derived from the root Y-R-H.  It is the same root that produces the word torah.  To shoot straight is to practice Torah.  To hit the mark is to follow Torah.  If you want to be spiritually accurate in your life, line up with Torah.

The incident in the history of Israel is remarkable.  A priest is sent to foreigners in order to instruct them in Torah so that the danger to their lives will pass.  This is a clear case of Hebrew evangelism, but it’s unusual because a foreign king (Assyria) sends the priest, the priest lives with the people and the people are given Jewish religious instruction.  Each one of these actions is unexpected.   Foreign kings don’t send Jewish priests.  Jewish priests don’t live with Gentiles.  And Gentiles don’t get Jewish instructions.  By the way, the lions stop eating people.

Y-R-H (Yod-Resh-Hey) is the pictograph “What comes from (or “behold”) a person’s work.”  Do you want to know the character of a man?  Look at how he shoots his arrows.  Look at his aim.  Look at his target.  Forget all the vocabulary and concentrate on the flight of his efforts.  What comes from a person’s work is the Hebrew understanding of character.  It’s the verbs, not the nouns.  Isn’t it interesting that Torah is derived from a verb about the target and path of our arrows?  Does it help you to grasp the Hebrew idea of instruction in life (Torah) to see the picture of an arrow in flight?  Suddenly it’s not about rules, is it?  It’s about the artistry of directed flight.  It’s about the feel of the tension on the bow, the adjustments for wind and geography, the stretch of the string, the delicacy of the feathers, the razor-sharp point and the connection between eye, hand and target.  Torah is the art of shooting straight.

Sometimes it takes a priest to show us how.  I don’t know anyone who learned archery by reading a book.  They had to go into the field, string the bow, pull the line and practice many, many times before they could hit the target.  Torah is an art that requires experiential involvement.  So, how’s your aim?  Do you need some help from an instructor?

Topical Index:  torah, moreh, instruction, arrow, 2 Kings 17:28