WORD STUDY – BELA בנא

Genesis 36:32: “And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city [was] Dinhabah.”

Actually, this verse should literally reads from the Hebrew as: “And the King of Edom was Bela the son of Beor and the name of his city [was] Dinhabah.” Yeah, I know what you are thinking, “Who cares who the King of Edom was and what the name of his city was, let alone that he was the son of Beor.”

If you are on that kick about reading through the Bible in one year, this is likely a passage you will read just to say you read it so you can brag that you read through the whole Bible. My gosh, they make it seem like it is a real chore and an accomplishment to read through the whole Bible. Sort of like an endurance test. Then once finished they expect some kind of blessing from God: “Oy, such dedication struggling through My Book, come, come let me bless you with much riches.”

I saw a documentary yesterday about people down on their luck who were forced to take their families and live in a motel. One single mother, who never even finished high school, carried a novel that was every bit as thick as the Bible and every chance she had she was reading another chapter. She did not need a flyer laying out how she could read through that novel in one year, nor did she need a Read Through this Book in One Year edition of the novel. She got through the whole thing in one week.

Why people find the Bible boring and need to discipline themselves to read through it in one year is because they do not understand how the Bible is laid out. It is like a Charles Dickens novel with stories within a story. A Charles Dickens novel is fun to read and each of his novels have about as many words as the Bible.

The only reason Christians, who loves God with all their hearts, will find the Bible such a boring book, beyond the exciting Bible stories, is that they are not aware of the many stories within the story. Many times they don’t even know the story behind a book like Isaiah. If they would take time to check a commentary and find out the story behind Isaiah and put it in a timeline that alone will add a little more excitement to reading the Bible. Most of the time Christians just pick out key verses like Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength…” and are not even be aware of the story behind that verse, nor of the cultural symbolism found within that verse. Once you start looking at it in the context of the story and its cultural context, it becomes a very interesting read.

We get to the book of Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy and most people give up their attempts to read through the Bible in one year as all you find are a bunch of names, numbers and statistics. It’s like reading the credits at the end of a movie. Who cares who the gaffer was and what is a gaffer in the first place? I still do not understand what a producer is, what he does and should I care who his is? But there is his name right above the all important title of the movie. Yet, unlike the credits in a movie, all those names, numbers and statistics in the Bible tell a story. So these names are not given to feed the ego of some Biblical character like the credits in a movie. They are there to tell a story, an old, old story.

Take for instance today’s study verse. We find a man named Bela is the King of Edom, He was the son of Boer and his city was Dinhabah. There is a whole story in this verse. First thing to understand is that a Semitic story teller often did not use a person’s real name but gave him an allegorical name. Remember Pilgrims Progress? This was an allegory and the names of the characters told a story. You have the main character names Christian. Right there you are introduced to the story about someone on the journey of a Christian. He meets someone named Evangelist who leads him to the Lord. As he continues his journey however, he encounters a couple characters named Obstinate and Pliable. I don’t have to tell you the influence they had on Christian, their names says it all.

So too with Scripture. Was this king of Edom really named Bela or is the name allegorical referencing a King of Edom that was a bela. I believe there was a king of Edom who had a name, perhaps a number of names. Names in those days were not like names today. Names identified people’s vocations, personalities and characters in those days. Parents often gave a child a name in hopes he would become what his name meant. If he became something else his name changed during his life. Often today names are given to people which are not their birth names. I read about a pro football player who was named Too Tall Jones. Obviously his parents did not give him that name but you know something about this guy from his name. If you purchase any of my books you will find the author’s name is Chaim Bentorah. That is not the name I was given at birth it just tells you something about me, that I found life through the Son of the Law (Jesus).

So Bela means swallowing and gluttony. He swallowed or consumed everything in his path to satisfy his gluttony. This tells you what kind of king he was, he was a king that acquired many things, things that amounted to junk but loved things as a gluttonous loves food and most likely just took from his people whatever he desired. His father was Bo’er which means stupid, dull hearted, unreceptive, cruel, inhuman and barbarous. So Edom had a king who was brutal and heartless to his people who were succeeded by his son who stripped the people of all their possessions to satisfy his gluttonous life style, even to the point of seeking to conquer other lands. As a result his city was Dinhabah which means to be given over to judgment. For such sins this king was given over to judgment.

In this simple verse that Christians will read and give no further thought or meditation, we find a story of morality that if you live a life of satisfying your fleshly hunger you will one day face judgment.