From the Desk of Jeff King

The good Shepherd

There is no Savior besides Me (Hosea 13:4)

The minor prophet Zephaniah describes the Hebrew language as "pure." The Hebrew rendering for pure, barar, means to clarify, brighten and purify. The ancient Hebrew pictograph language, the one used by Moses to pen the Torah, does exactly that. It draws a picture to clarify what God is communicating to mankind, expressions sometimes missed in English Bible translations. Consider the word "savior" in the Hosea verse above. In our Greco-Roman, western mindset, the word is an abstract thought: redeem, defend, preserve. Pictograms represent an action, giving words a deeper and richer understanding. Here's how the the Hebrew word for "savior," yasha, looks in pictographic script (Hebrew is read from right to left):

Combined, the letters SHIN (teeth) and AYIN (eye) can be interpreted "the destroyer watches." According to Jeff Benner's Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, a shepherd watches over the flock and the surrounding area, always on the lookout for danger. When a predator attacks, the shepherd destroys the enemy. The first letter, YAD, means arm or hand. Collectively, the pictograms describe the role of our good Shepherd, Yeshua the Messiah: "With a strong arm the Destroyer watches." Yeshua guards His flock, whom He loves, day and night. The LORD declares in John 10:28, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."

Posted by Jeff King at January 1, 2009 11:08 AM