Just a reminder that this will be the last week that the Hebrew Word Study Devotional books will be available for purchase. After March 1st they will be taken off the market for good :( except for a limited amount of softcover books that will be made available through our website until sold out. This is your last chance to buy the books and with the e books priced at .99 they would make wonderful gifts for friends and family…even a “Hi, just thinking of you…be blessed” kind of a gift :-) here’s our stores link https://www.chaimbentorah.com/store/ Since we are a grassroots type ministry, we really do appreciate everyone spreading the word!
Also, due to a great response we’ve extended the 20% off sale on the Hebrew Word Study Manual however this is for a limited time so if your interested in learning how to do your own word studies, this would be a great time to buy. The manual is an 80 page spiral bound book and comes with teaching cd’s that follow along with the chapters. We also include an additional teaching cd by Chaim, a free Lexicon/Interlinear on cd and a bookmark with the Hebrew alphabet and their meanings. Lastly, we will be offering a Webinar this spring/summer to help all those who purchase a manual with their studies. Blessings, Laura
Proverbs 18:12, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
Something caught my attention as I read this verse this morning. The writer is saying that it is the heart of man that is haughty. The word haughty in Hebrew is gabah which means to be high or exalted. Yet, there is another word in Hebrew which means the same thing, to be high or exalted and that is ga’on. With only 7,500 words in the Classical Hebrew you are not going to find it full of synonyms like in English. Thus, we need to drill down much further into the word gabah to see how it is distinct from ga’on. Both words could mean arrogance as the context of this verse would suggest. Yet, there is little more to this arrogance.
In Proverbs 16:18 we learn that a haughty gabah spirit ruch brings about a fall but pride ga’on brings about destruction. Here the word for pride is ga’on. In Proverbs 29:23 we learn that pride ga’on brings a man low. Proverbs 11:2 tells us that pride ga’on brings shame. So there seems to be a difference between gabah haughty and ga’on pride, although both can bring about destruction. Destruction is the word shavar in Hebrew. This word is an old Akkadian word which is used in the rock quarries where a rock is broken into pieces.
Gabah, haughtiness is found both in the heart (lev) and the spirit (ruch). Ruch is also used for breath, wind and air. It is there, you can feel it but you can’t really see it. It can represent that hidden part of you. Gabah haughty comes from the same Semitic root as locust. In the old Persian it has the idea of collecting and multitudes like an overpowering army. The idea is not so much as feeling pride and arrogance but feeling that you have the advantage over another person. This often results in pride and arrogance. I believe the difference between gabah (haughty) and ga’on (pride) is that pride ga’on suggest self importance, taking yourself too seriously, Thinking you are of more value than you really are in a situation. It is common sign of someone who has a poor self image and they are given a position of some power or authority they blew it all out of proportion and think they are really special. I see it all the time in ministry with ministers and leaders taking themselves too seriously, thinking because they have that title before their name they are someone special and should receive special treatment and honor. One day they come face to face with a situation where they suddenly realize that they are not all they are cracked up to be and end up being shamed.
Haughtiness gabah are for those who really are superior in their spirits. They have confidence and assurance of their capabilities and are capable. They are not those with a poor self image who try to create a picture of themselves as something they really are not. These are the professional athletes, the successful executives and the powerful politicians. They are who they say they are and they laud it over everyone else. They have power and they know it and they expect you to bow down to them and do their bidding if you want to share in the benefits of their power. Gabah is not applied to one who has power, but to the one who misuses that power to cause people to serve him rather than using his power to serve others. Such individuals who abuse their power will end up being shavar, broken into pieces.
I was talking with someone the other day who spent three years in a Federal penitentiary. He said that is was very different than a state penitentiary as everyone in the Federal penitentiary seemed to be professionals, officers of the law who committed crimes, doctors convicted of drug charges or patient abuse, lawyers convicted of abusing the law, politicians wrongly using their power by taking bribes and offering favors and even clergy who took advantage of their congregations. All were people of power who accepted that power to serve mankind and instead used it to their own advantage. These are gabahs (haughty) who were shavar destroyed, their power shattered into pieces. Shavar is a heavy boulder which when dropped on your foot will break your foot. But when it is shavar it is shattered into pieces and you barely feel one of those pebbles as it touches your foot.
Many of us are given positions of power and influence, even if it is just to be a Sunday school teacher, you are still put in a position of influencing another person. You can either become a ga’on pride taking yourself too seriously, thinking you are just so all important because you have that title of manager or supervisor to your name and expecting people to treat you according to the status you think you deserve or you can be gabah and use that status that you really do have to your own advantage rather than as a service for which that status was entrusted to you.
Either way the Bible teaches that one day you will face your shavar, whatever power you have will be shattered into pieces. No matter what position of power or authority we are given we must always remember that the reason we have that power or authority is so that we can more effectively serve, not be served.
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