Fruit Inspector
“So I will choose their punishments And will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight And chose that in which I did not delight.” Isaiah 66:4 NASB
Punishments – Jeremiah tells us that God rewards according to the fruit of our deeds (Jeremiah 17:10). The word used in that passage is ma’alal (deeds or practice). Isaiah uses a derivative from the same root (‘alal) to suggest that God’s “reward” is often “punishment.” We don’t like that. We want reward to mean things that prosper us. We want God to give us the good life. But the predominant use of ‘alal and its derivatives suggests something else. TWOT reminds us that the thirteen occurrences of the root “cannot be consistently translated with any one word. . . This word speaks of relationships. It is used to indicate the exercise of power over another person, generally in a bad sense, hence meaning ‘to maltreat.’ It signifies some great achievement, generally malevolent.”[1] In Isaiah’s divine proclamation, the word is ta’alulehem. God will choose “bad things” for this disobedient people.
We can understand that. After all, justice will prevail. If you do bad things, you will get bad things. You will reap what you sow. But this word isn’t quite so sanctified. It really suggests acts of mischief. We find it in Exodus 10:2 and 1 Samuel 6:6 where it appears that God jests with people by acting ruthlessly toward them. TWOT says, “While the thought of mocking is startling, both the contextual and the etymological situation demand a negative type of treatment.”[2] Now we have a problem. Does God really mock people? Does He act is vengeful ways? Is He playing with us?
No one likes to think that God’s character involves such actions. But there is the word, ‘alal. What are we to do with it? We can’t deny its application when God is the subject of the verb. We can’t ignore it. We can’t pretend it is a theological mistake. On the surface, everything justifies Schultz’ claim that the word “demands a negative type of treatment.” Perhaps there is some amelioration in the fact that Hebrew is a phenomenological language. It describes things the way they appear. And sometimes it does appear that God is playing with us. Sometimes it looks as if God is simply making a joke of our lives. Sometimes we feel as if God does bad things to us for no apparent reason. It appears as if ‘alal applies to God.
If your theological box doesn’t allow for things like this, then you will have a difficult time with Hebrew. Hebrew isn’t theological. It is the language of experiencing divine interaction. It’s the language of how we feel, how it looks to us and how we live with it all. Theology is a second order set of problems. Hebrew problems are more like, “What in the world is God doing now?”
Can you live with that? Or do you need a God-box that makes everything fit your idea of who He must be?
Topical Index: mischief, ‘alal, ta’alulehem, phenomenological, Isaiah 66:4
[1] Schultz, C. (1999). 1627 עָלַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (671). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
Perhaps the Jewish people themselves can help us with this. A Jewish friend of ours would say every now and then, when considering the paradoxes of life, “I have a bone to pick with God.”
Context. God is saying this to a people who have done everything possible to ignore, rebel and even blaspheme this same God who has them as the Psalmist says, “in derision”. These same people were murdering widows and stealing from orphans and committing horrendous acts with other gods. To suggest God deals in this matter of mischief with his obedient children who stumble about is a miscarriage of God’s character in every possible way.
I mentioned the uses in Exodus 10:2 and 1 Samuel 6:6. Here’s the TWOT comment: The crucial passages in this area are Ex 10:2 and I Sam 6:6 where the Lord is the subject of this verb and the Egyptians are the object. Is it proper to suggest that the Lord makes sport of anyone? Did he deal ruthlessly with Egypt? The ASV has chosen in these two instances to give a neutral rendering “wrought” and “wrought wonderfully” while allowing in the margin for the translation “mocked.” While the thought of mocking is startling, both the contextual and the etymological situation demand a negative type of treatment. God treated the Egyptians severely because, as the Philistines noted, they hardened their hearts. It is clearly within God’s power and perogative to punish and discipline but he never acts in jest; hence the RSV translation “made sport of’ can be misleading.
Schultz, C. (1999). 1627 עָלַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (671). Chicago: Moody Press.
While context does determine the meaning since this word has many different translations, at some point we have to deal with the fact that ‘alal is about mocking. We can theologically exonerate God but linguistically we still have the problem. For example, if God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, then why is this word used about God’s interaction with Pharaoh? So I appreciate your effort to remove God from the implications, but I am not sure they are etymologically justified. Is it really so impossible to believe that God is the author of both good and evil? Or does our theology DEMAND we read the text according to the box, not the words?
This shows this word used in multiple contexts and shows God’s dealing with people and people with people. It sounds like someone getting cleaned out (like the Egyptians) – http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5953&t=KJV
As for Pharaoh, God gave him many opportunities to not harden his own heart and this is according to the Hebrew. Finally, as he hardened his own heart, God took over. This is seen in the Proverbs as well – Proverbs 3:34.
So context demands God to be seen as he is. I usually paint him bad on my own. I wouldn’t need scripture to help me do that. Of course, if you can show me that God mocks his trusting children in some word or another, I’ll pay attention to that.
I’ve been thinking about this some more today. I wonder if we don’t automatically filter the character of God according to our theological speculations about Him. I wonder if God is truly sovereign how WE can determine what that means. Perhaps what we need to do is recognize that God’s revelation about Himself is all we really have to work with and if He uses words that shock us, we are in no position to remove them. After all, if the Hebraic view is correct and GOOD is defined by what God does, then the use of ‘alal is His choice no matter what it might imply. Of course, we have all the other verses that demonstrate His faithfulness and uprightness.
Jer. 6:19 “Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.”
Isaiah 30:15, 16, 18, 19 “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flees upon horses; therefore shall ye flee; and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift… And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy unto you; for the LORD is a God of judgment; blessed are all they that wait for him.
Later verses in Isaiah 30 talk about eating the bread of adversity and the drinking the waters of affliction. For many years I wandered in my wilderness, doing just that. When I got brave enough to challenge my Creator to show me WHY I had been so sick, and life had been so hard, I ended up with these verses. I saw that, even though my ACTIONS may have been virtuous, and my INTENTIONS may have been all for love, the REASONS for my choices in the bottom of my heart had to do with the fact that, because of devastating fractures of relationship early in life, and to the extent, also, that I had not been nurtured and taught properly what love really was, I had ended up with a huge trust problem.
I BELIEVED that I had been deserted, that it was all up to me. Because I believed that, everything I did was performing for love, essentially, because I thought that I was not worthy of it. The fact that there was no one around me that was able to love me just the way I was, just reinforced it. So my whole life was one huge reaction to feeling abandoned and rejected. Even though I was virtuous and acted in the best way I could to love others, I was acting from a place of deficit.
I suffered decades of chronic fatigue, with a lot of other chronic associated ailments, and ended up on my back, totally finished. Exhausted, I finally confronted my Maker and was challenged to break these verses down. I saw that, because I believed lies about love, I was using fear to push myself to perform. The harder I pushed, the faster calamity fell. I was not being saved from my exhaustion because I was not turning around and resting in the confidence of my God. My false beliefs and faithless actions gave Him no room to be gracious; I was angry, and felt grieved. I was not exalting Him, so He had no room to have mercy on me. It was a trust problem. I was afraid, and the fruit of my thoughts- which were all performance out of fear that I was not worthy to love and be loved- were my illnesses and calamities. Chronic stress is a disease maker!
When I repented for the fear, and promised not to ‘use’ it to drive myself to perform any more, He graciously removed it from me. When I made a decision to believe Him and act in trust, I prayed for myself, and He healed me. Halleluah! The curses may have come slow, but, I can testify that the blessings came fast! My endocrine system is now completely functioning because I no longer let fear have dominion over me! The Son DOES set us free! May I live for all eternity so that I can PRAISE HIM!
Thank you sharing your heartfelt testimony Laurita! I will reflect on this in my own fear/lack of trust struggle..
Laurita,
Thank you for sharing about your life. You described my life — fractures, fears and illnesses. I think you’ve diagnosed my problem and given the prescription for healing. Thank you, thank you.
I love what you have said! It reminds me of what John Eldridge has to say about the lies we believe and the vows we make because of them. One of mine was ” you are not ____enough to be loved.” As a result, I spent decades trying to prove I WAS (smart , talented, tough, amazing, successful) enough to be loved . Didn’t really work…. I found freedom from that lie in my Abba’s unfailing love!!
Proverbs 1:25 ff is another example of what Skip is teaching here. Prov. 1:25 ff is speaking about those who disdain God’s counsel. They rebel against His counsel. Verse 26 says when “terror” and “calamity” comes that God will “mock” and “laugh” at us. This is not what you typically hear from the pulpit today. Yet it is exactly what happens practically in the life of God’s people when they rebelliously disobey God.
Yes. I see that. It’s scary to rebel or even be stubborn against God.
With the merciful, you are merciful;
with the champion of purity, you are pure;
with the honest, you are honest;
but with the crooked you are cunning.
2 Samuel 22:26, 27
Amen Laurita, you are thinking the way I am! I’ve also been dealing with childhood trauma. And looking at the verse today, I immediately thought of what God has been doing for me. I too have suffered around performance but even more so with rejection. Having dealt with rejection early on, its an area of my life that I have needed God to heal. Well, guess how He has chosen to heal me? Rejection. He has allowed me to be rejected by many in the religious community. But, what is beautiful of our Lord is that He gives understanding. Like Laurita, I am learning to develop trust and reliance in Him which because of trauma, I have had a hard time trusting people. Who would have thought the Creator of the Universe would use the very thing that has kept me trapped to set me free? How does that work psychologically is what I always ask? But, He knows us better than we know ourselves and what’s more important is that I am learning to anchor that trust that “He is the Lord, my God, I shall have no other gods before Him.” Everything has been a process of letting old idols (lies) go so that I can see Him as the only source of Truth. Praise Him because He knows what He is doing! On the other hand, there will be people in similar circumstances who when God “feeds” them what they need to be healed and restored to Him, will instead, reject and rebel against Him and they will receive the punishment due.
Ms. Laurita Hayes – thanks for this word of hope!
תַּעֲלוּלִים ta’alulim wantonness, caprice, vexation, delusions
Mainly, it is for the reason/s that we did not CHOOSE/CHOSE that which He delights, so, we reap what we sow in a natural process.
We ought to know what we are sowing, to look with expectation to what would be produced.
“..do you need a God-box that makes everything fit your idea of who He must be?” No, rather, we need to fit into the box of Who YAH is, and what is required of us. And it will be for our own good.
Well said, Ester. I think that is completely what our search for Hebraic understanding is all about — learning to fit ourselves inside the “box” of what Adonai has created here for us. I think we’re both using “box” as a structural reference for lack of better concept, but I’m pretty sure neither you or I mean box as traditionally understood. 🙂
Suzanne, shalom!
I was quoting Skip ; -) , and we often times place ABBA into our paradigm ‘box’
restricting Him in our narrow set minds.
Very thankful for Skip’s ministry at restoring true Hebraic paradigm, and for the community here who appreciates his teachings and the liberation he has given us women, to rightfully be warriors in our walk.