Deuteronomy 31:8 “And the LORD, he it is that does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: fear not, neither be dismayed.”
Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
As a small child my mother hung a small plaque on the wall of my bedroom, it really looked homemade as it had a sticker of a little lamb on it on the words beneath it from Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Many years later when I started doing advanced academic study of God’s Word, I began to doubt many of the things I had learned about God, Jesus and the Bible and I lost that simply childlike faith I once had. Through a series of events I returned to my childlike faith, never again doubting that the Bible was truly the Inspired, Inerrant Word of God nor that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who died for the sins of mankind. Returning to that faith I once knew and I again felt the presence of God like I once knew and lost only now it was in a deeper, richer way. I knew no writings or teachings of man would ever draw me away from God again. The first test of that resolve came when I shared my experience with a pastor friend who just smiled and said: “I know you are a realist and I don’t want to discourage you, but just remember you will not always feel this way. There will be times God will draw away from you and He will not always be there like He is now.”
I remember feeling terrified and getting back to my office I got on my knees and said: “Lord, is it true what this man is telling me, are you really going to leave me?” In that moment I saw a vision of sorts of that little plaque on my bedroom wall with the words beneath that little lamb saying: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I knew once again I had listened to the teachings man put in my mind and not the teachings God put in my heart.
I thought of that this morning as I read the words of Deuteronomy 31:8: “He that does go before you will be with you.” After forty years of studying Biblical Hebrew I know God does not put such redundancies in His Word. Obviously if He goes before me He will be with me. I took a closer look at these prepositional phrases lepanika (before you) and imaka (with you). Most preachers and teachers pay little attention to prepositional phrases and just go with the classic renderings of before you and with you without ever climbing to the summit of these mountainous words. I decided to climb to the summit of this prepositional mountain this morning and enjoy the view from its summit.
At the base of Mt. Lepanika Imaka (before you, with you) I see what everyone who reads in their English version which are the words before you and with you. I no sooner start my climb to the summit than I discover I am really climbing Mt. Pani (God’s presence) Amam (by reason of, in spite of). The Lamed before pani is really your preposition and causes the Yod to become quiescent, so rather than expressing a sense of time pani is expressing a sense of direction. This is how we derive the rendering of before from lepani and this idea is only strengthen with the pronoun ka at the end giving the idea of before you. That second Yod does not become quiescent and I would argue it should if we take the whole word lepanika to mean before you. I would argue that this second Yod would suggest another pronoun and this should be rendered as my presence before you. This would explain the seeming redundant use of the next word imka (with you). The Lord’s presence is not only before us but with us. Well that also seems to redundant for me so climbing Mt.Lepanika Imka I come to the root word amam which is often rendered as with. However as I journey further up this linguistical mountain I find that in its most primitive form amam has the idea of by reason of or in spite of. I would suggest that this is really the idea that the original writer intended which would avoid a redundancy. For we could then render this as My presence will come before you and in spite of you.
You see, He will never leave us nor forsake us even in spite of our failures to follow Him. I believe what God is telling us in Deuteronomy 31:8 is that His presence will always be before us, it may not always be upon us. We may sin and really blow it such that His presence cannot be in harmony with us and therefore not rest upon us but in spite of whatever sins we commit or how far we drift away from Him, he will always be before us in spite of ourselves. He will always be there ready to forgive and reunite His presence with and upon us.
So as I stand upon Mt. Lepanika Imka(before us, in spite of us) I can enjoy the view of God presence and feel the exhilaration of His presence because of what Jesus did on a cross 2,000 years ago to bring us in harmony with Him so His presence can be upon me. If I do not feel his presence, well that is just an early warning system to alert me to the fact that I have taken the wrong path up this mountain, but the gentle guide that God is, He will still be before me and journey with me even down the wrong path, ready for me to recognize the wrong path, confess my error and return to His presence. He never leaves me, but I do so very often leave Him when I depend upon man’s teaching to my mind and ignore God’s teaching in my heart.
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