June 9^th, 2002

     Dear Friends,

     Let us praise the Lord. Let us bless – to speak well of, to wish the highest good for – Him: “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD…who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Ps. 103:1, 2a, 4b).

     The King of Kings was gracious as He allowed us to hear the things of Him on yet another of His holy days. Having looked carefully at the meaning of “Bozez” the previous Lord’s Day, our main focus was the other “sharp rock,” as found in 1 Samuel 14:4 – “Seneh.” This Hebrew word meant “bush,” and was rendered as such in Exodus 3:2(x3) -4, and Deuteronomy 33:16. In each case the reference was to the burning bush, from whence God called Moses. What was the meaning of this “bush”? How does it denote that which we assumed to be the counterpart to “Bozez” – “fine linen”? If, indeed, Seneh were that which was antithetical to Bozez in meaning, why would it be that out of which God calls His servant, Moses? Since the Hebrew for “bush” was not used of God in any other place in the OT, we wished to find a passage contextually comparable to Exodus 3. Thankfully, we found Isaiah 9:16-19 and 10:16-19, both passages similar to each other as well as to Exodus 3. Further, the word “burn,” found in Is. 9:18 & 10:17, was a significant piece which served to link these passages to Exodus 3 (“burned,” vv. 2, 3). The point of note in Isaiah 9 was that the “briers and thorns” (the same Heb. Words as found in Ch. 10) are used as figures for people: “…shall devour the briers and thorns…the people shall be as the fuel of the fire…” (vv. 18, 19).

     In Ch. 10, the message of rebuke is against the Assyrians, referred to as “the rod of [God’s] anger” (vs. 5), and even the “axe,” the “saw” of the Lord (vs. 15). Under the glory of the Assyrians, we read in vs. 16, God declares that a “burning” shall be kindled, “like the burning of a fire.” God shall “burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day” (vs. 17). We can know who is in view in ch. 9: “…the Lord will cut off from Israel…The ancient and honorable…the prophet…the leaders of this people…they that are led of them…everyone…every mouth…the land…the people….” (vv. 14-17, 19). How about here in Ch. 10? Whose “thorns and briers”? The “glory” of whose “forest,” whose “fruitful field”? The context of Ch. 10 seems to point to the Assyrians’ (This poses a problem at first, but there is a biblical solution, both of which, Lord willing, shall be later discussed).

     As discussed in last week’s bulletin, at such a juncture as this, we must look to the NT for help. Acts 7:30, among other references, stated the following: “And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.” Would the usage of the Greek word rendered “bush” (batos) confirm or negate our assumption that Seneh be antonymous to Bozez? The four references where batos was rendered “bush” did not offer clear help. However, batos was also rendered as “bramble bush” in Luke 6:44, and paired with another interesting word:

For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns [173, akantha] men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush [batos] gather they grapes.

Following the trail of the newly introduced “thorns,” we came to Mt. 7:16:

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes [4718] of thorns [173], or figs [4810] of thistles [5146]?

Relating each out-of-place fruit to the “tree” in both Lk. 6:44 and Mt. 7:16, we could know that “thorns”/“thistles” were a pair (as trees not bearing “figs”), and as well “thorns”/“bramble bush” (as trees not bearing “grapes”). Interestingly, “thorns,” we saw, were referred to in both references.

     Now we were on the trail of “thistles,” the Greek word tribolos, made up of treis (“three”) and belos (“dart,” see Eph. 6:16). [This section was not discussed on the Lord’s Day] Three-darts? What do “thistles” have to do with three-darts? Did this somehow identify with 1 Samuel 2:13, 14a?

And the priests’ custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself.

The word “teeth” here is the previously studied word “sharp,” as in “sharp rock.” What was previously not mentioned is that the word “sharp”(teeth) comes from a word prominently rendered “sharp(-en),” “whet,” or “prick,” #8150. Let us look at one verse where we find this root word: “Who [the wicked] whet [8150] their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:” (Ps. 64:3). Just as men identify with trees, so the fruits of the trees with the words of men: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh [cf. Ps. 45:1]. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Mt. 12:33-35). In light of this, let us also note that “dart” in the Greek comes from a word most often rendered “cast,” “put,” and “thrust,” #906:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast [906] into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast [906] an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; (Matthew 13:47, 17:27a)

And he that sat on the cloud thrust in [906] his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. (Revelation 14:16)

The three bold words, “net,” “hook” and “sickle” all identify with the Word of God, or Christ Himself. This precisely parallels “three darts,” or the “fleshhook” with “three teeth,” which identifies with the “sword,” “arrows,” even “bitter words” (from Ps. 64:3 above). Just as the priest “struck” the “fleshhook” into the “caldron” to bring up the portion for himself, so the “net/hook/sickle” is thrust to bring in the eternal portion of Christ, the elect: “For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deut. 32:9).

     But how do “thistles,” unprofitable “trees,” relate to Christ, the living Word? The answer is again found in the fact that unprofitable trees very closely identify with profitable, fruitful trees, the chief of which is Christ Himself. They are both trees, both three-darted hooks, both “sharp rocks” (1 Sam. 14). This is why Hebrews 6 pairs “thorns and briers” in the context of describing those who fall away, after having come in contact with the truth: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened…If they shall fall away…that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned” (vv. 4a, 6a, 8). Let us not forget that Babylon is referred to as “the hammer of the whole earth” (Jer. 50:23), the “word” of God (Jer. 23:29). This is the reason why in Is. 10 the “forest,” the “thorns and briers” identify with the Assyrians, rather than Israel. You see, the “thorns and briers” are those who are of Satan. They go his pernicious ways. They are his emissaries and ministers transformed. But there comes a time when God actually uses them for His own perfect ends, and we are living in that time right now. They have become His “fleshhooks,” His “hammer” to smash and scatter the house of Israel, the caldron:

Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

                                                            Micah 3:3

     Finally, the “burning bush” has to point to Christ Himself Who became as one with the “thistles,” the unfruitful “trees,” the line of Cain, from whence ALL the elect come. The bush was burning, yet not consumed. So too, Christ burned under the perpetual wrath of God, having become the “bramble bush” for us.

     May the Lord be pleased to graft us onto the Tree of Life, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

     In Him,

     Zin Yi