Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
I decided to visit an old friend this evening, known as Proverbs 3:5-6. I taught advanced Hebrew in Bible College for thirteen years and each year we began the semester translating Proverbs 3:5-6 and a testimony to the depth of God’s Word, every years I learned something new from this verse. Even up to today I am still finding something new and interesting about this verse. For instance, I ran across something in ancient rabbinical teaching and recent archeological discoveries that I thought would have a good application to this verse.
You see the words lean not to your own understandings uses a rather strange word for not in lean not. It is the letters Aleph and Lamed. Normally your word for no is lo. Lamed and Aleph. Aleph and lamed (el) means to or towards. It is also a word used for God. If not for the vowel pointings inserted by the Masorites, you would almost have to translate this as lean towards your own understandings or On the God of your understanding you lean or rest. The Masorites inserted a pathah rather than a segel under the Aleph making the root word alal which means nothing. The word for lean is sha’en which means to rest upon. So literally this should be rendered. Upon your own understandings you are resting upon nothing.
That really hits home for me. I was sitting here this evening letting my own understanding run wild. My own understanding tells me to forget it, I don’t deserve any blessings from God, just let the hour glass run out, your reward (such as is) will only be found in heaven etc. etc. If I try to rest upon my own understandings, it is resting upon nothing. My only real rest comes from trusting in God.
Well, that makes sense but the use of the word el rather than lo for the negative, according to the ancient rabbis, is really a hint that there is something even deeper. I cannot say I fully understand how the esoteric rabbis arrived at their conclusion, their knowledge of the ancient Hebrew well exceeds mine, but their conclusion really made sense and would explain why Solomon used el here rather than ‘lo.
Anyways, see if you make some sense out of this. The word, el as it was in the original text without vowel pointings ultimately meant God. The Aleph is three lines next to a lamed which is pictured as a heavenly fountain. The three lines represent three pipes flowing from this heavenly fountain. The rabbis call the three pipes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but I call them the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The water of blessings, knowledge and wisdom that flows through these three pipes from the heavenly fountain are pure and clean. However, if we plug up these pipes with our own wisdom and knowledge the water that comes out will be impure.
Looking again at the Hebrew text, we find that the word el is in a construct state to the word byin (understanding) and with the word sh’en for resting or leaning. In other words the three pipes flowing from the Lamed or the fountain of heaven bring purity but when we connect those pipes to our own understanding and our own restings or resting in our own understandings, what flows from heaven through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit become muddied, or impure. To trust in the Lord with all our hearts therefore means that when we trust or are welded to God with our whole hearts, we connect those pipes to our hearts which are joined with God. As the pipes are not connected to our own understandings which are not connected to God, then what will flow from the fountains of heaven will be pure and not muddied. With those pipes connected to our hearts then the blessings, knowledge and wisdom of heaven will flow in purity. If those pipes are connected to our own understandings, what will flow will be polluted and impure.
Far fetched? Well, then you explain to me why Solomon used the word el and not lo. You see when Solomon built the temple, he also constructed and refined three water systems feed by the Gihon springs which were carved into rock forming tsinnors which is the Hebrew word for pipes. These systems were protected by shafts discovered by C.Warren in 1867 and known as the Warren Shafts. These narrow vertical shafts at the end of the systems was impenetrable from the outside, therefore making it almost impossible for an enemy to plug up or pollute the system during a time of siege. During such time the people of the city had to trust in these shafts to prevent the enemy from cutting off or polluting their water supply. Without water, the city would quickly fall. Most scholars believed that these shafts were manmade and the product of tremendous effort. Yet in the 1980’s hydrological studies revealed that these shafts were naturally form by karstic fissures in the rock and Solomon merely took advantage of this natural formation by adapting them into their water systems that feed into Jerusalem.
Perhaps Solomon had this in mind when he wrote this Proverb. In time of siege the people of Jerusalem had to trust in the natural shafts that God formed so that the waters that flowed from the fountains (Gihon Springs) through the three tsinnors (pipes) would continue to flow and not be plugged up or polluted by the enemy.
Right now the enemy has me under siege. I am receiving a constant supply from the heavenly fountain through the Aleph or three pipes. Yet, the enemy can pollute my own understandings with fears, worry and fretting and it can plug up that flow of blessing from God. In time of siege I can be like the people of Jerusalem and worry about the enemy plugging or polluting their water supply or just trust in God’s natural provision.
I can choose to worry what the enemy will do to my supply or I can trust in God’s natural provision to continue that flow of blessing from the heavenly fountains.
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