A Table in the Wilderness
Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing;
Can He also provide bread? Will He prepare meat for His people? Psalm 78:20 NASB
Provide – Here today, gone tomorrow. Life often seems to follow that sort of pattern, doesn’t it? Even the best of things pass. I have a small heart-shaped photo on the corner of my computer screen. It’s a picture of my two youngest children and me, in one big, tender hug. Michael was four or five. Rachel was two. I have carried that photo with me for twenty-five years. When I look at it, I almost weep. Those were some of the best memories of my life, times when I truly felt loved, when I truly belonged. But twenty-five years later, it’s just a memory, slowing fading with my age. The relationship has changed. Both children are now adults. There is no more sitting on my lap, deep hugs with little bodies, the innocence of childhood. They have suffered like I have suffered in a world where moments of sheer joy are slivered between aeons of effort.
After hundreds of years in captivity, the children of Israel find release, only to experience more hardship in the wilderness. Yes, they can be blamed if we’re in the business of blaming. They brought these conditions on themselves. But so do we all. Somewhere between redemption and demise faith falters. We look back and remember a time when life was so filled with joy we never wanted it to end. But it did. “Time and tide” stuff. What we are meant to learn in the process of process, in the inexorable change of chronos is the meaning of the Hebrew word כוּן (kûn). In this verse, it’s translated “provide,” but such a meager word hardly does it justice. Consider these comments:
The root meaning is to bring something into being with the consequence that its existence is a certainty.[1]
Five somewhat different connotations can be discovered in the usages of this root, all having basic theological significance. These connotations move from provision through preparation and establishment to fixity and rightness.[2]
1) As noted above, the word as used in Hebrew, rarely means simply to bring into being. So rare is it, in fact, that BDB and KB suggest that the root meaning is “to be firm” (KB also adding “straight”). However, evidence of the original etymology may be found in those occurrences where something is said simply to have been formed or fashioned (brought into existence) (Jud 12:6; Job 31:15; Ps 119:73; Ezk 16:7). In none of these is the idea of fixity or firmness in view, but rather of basic formation. Particularly in the second and third of these, God’s role in forming the human body is significant.
Probably this same basic idea is involved where the word is translated “to provide for” . . Especially in question here is God’s ability to provide food for his people and creation. At numerous points it is difficult to know whether certain usages should be translated “provide” or “prepare.”[3]
2) At any rate, however, it is clear that a very significant group of occurrences must be translated with “prepare.”[4]
3) As with the previous connotation, there is some ambiguity at the border between “prepare” and “establish.” This is especially true in God’s creative acts. While Prov 8:27 says that God “prepared” the heavens, Prov 3:19 has him “establishing” the heavens. Here come the special overtones of certitude. [5]
4) It is the divine king who then guarantees or refuses to guarantee human kingship. Some twenty-five times the word is used with reference to the establishment of a dynasty. [6]
5) The sense of well-being which results from being under God’s hand is best expressed in the final connotation.[7]
One word that binds them all, to use a Tolkien phrase. And one question sums them all. Can God provide? אִם-יָכִין Will He provide?
I am not in need of whole-grain, sliced bread. I live in a world where I can buy that basic nutrient at the store. I am in need of whole-spirit emotional tears of joy. No store sells this human essential because there is no price for its purchase. Only God can prepare, provide, establish, guarantee, and produce this crucial consequence. For twenty-five years my question has always been, “Will He?”
Topical Index: kûn, prepare, Psalm 78:20
And By The Way, Happy Birthday, Rachel. You are one of the greatest joys in my wilderness.
[1] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 964 כוּן. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 433). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
