QUICK WORD STUDY – REPOSITORY – ‘AHAL  אהל Aleph Hei Lamed

Genesis 18:10: “And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him.”

I was reading in an ancient rabbinical work which noted that there was no preposition in the original text before the word door.   Rabbi Shimon in this ancient text translated this as “Sarah heard the opening of the tent (dwelling place).”  The word tent is ’ahal.  This basically means a dwelling place only this is not the usual word for a dwelling place.

The Aleph, Hei, Lamed (‘ahal – tent) indicates that this is the dwelling place of God or a repository which in this context would be the repository of divine information.  What Rabbi Shimon is putting forth is that what Sarah heard was not the opening of the tent flap, but that she heard the Shekinah, the opening of a portal into the divine realm. 

In Acts 2:2 we learn that there came a sound from heaven.  In the Aramaic, it is literally translated as: “And suddenly there was the calm from heaven and a sound as a violent wind.” Now to use the English word calm would be contradictory to its description of a violent wind. The word calm is shali’a in the Aramaic, it comes from the root word salah which means to pause or have peace.  The Aleph at the end of the word could be an article which would mean that shalah, in this case, is a noun and one way to express this as a noun is to say the one bearing calmness or peace.  We learn from this passage that this is the Holy Spirit.  The word sound in the Aramaic is qala’ from the root qol which means a loud voice or noise or it could be from the root qalal which means swift or rushing.  It would seem that the Holy Spirit brought peace like a rushing mighty wind.  You know that whoosh sound when you open a can of soda on a hot, thirsty day and then drink in the contents?  That is the picture.  It is like the opening of a portal or gateway giving a distinctive sound as the Holy Spirit brings peace.  There is an old Gospel song that best describes this:

There came a sound from heaven

As a rushing mighty wind,

It filled their hearts with singing 

And it gave them peace within. 

The point here, however, is that the message of Sarah having a child was clearly a message from heaven and yet she found it hard to believe.  That is quite amazing.  She is 90 years old.  After all those years of walking with God and seeing his miraculous work and care, she still questions the reality of a miracle even when it is confirmed through the portals of heaven opening with a distinctive sound.

There is the story in Luke 1 of a man named Zacharias who was a priest.  He was a man of God who faithfully served God. He and his wife prayed for years for a child, but it never happened.  One day as Zacharias was alone in the temple, preparing incense, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him.  He must have been some sight as Zacharias was filled with fear.  Yet the angel assured Zacharias that all was ok, in fact, he had good news, he would soon be a father, he and his wife’s prayers would be answered.  However, Zacharias and his wife were beyond the childbearing years.  So here we have the glorious  Archangel Gabriel appearing before Zacarias and telling him his wife will have a child and what is Zacarias’s reaction.  It is not a praise alleluia or even a yippee, he responds by saying: “Give me sign so I know it is true.” The angel responds: “I’m Gabriel for crying out loud, I came right from the throne of heaven.  A sign he wants, so what am I, chopped liver?” You know Christians would not recognize a sign from God if it knocked them in the head.  Come to think of it, sometimes He literally does.

I was facing a monumental problem this week, a seemingly impossible problem to resolve. I had given up such hope that I even prayed and asked God if this ministry was really a call from Him or did I just call myself into it.  I found myself asking God for some sort of sign. I don’t usually do this but this was a pressing situation.  I found a little spare time so I thought I would check on something I was putting off. Well, won’t you know, I found the solution to my massive problem.  But instead of saying praise alleluia I asked God: “Is this a sign?” So here I am doing a study on Sarah and Zacarias. God is opening His ‘ahal and my first thought is  “just a coincidence.” 

Then I read something in the Talmud “A person is shown only what is reflected by his mind.”  Berakhot 55b,   Sarah, Zacharias and I were being given something that seemed impossible and because we would not let our minds go beyond the natural realm, we failed to be shown the true wonder that God would perform. We could only be shown what was reflected in our own minds.  We are approaching a day; perhaps it is even now when God is ready to do something that seems impossible in our natural minds.  But unless we allow our minds to move beyond the natural world, God will not be able to show us the greater work that He plans to accomplish.  Sometimes we just have to believe God for the impossible.  He may give us a promise and years can go by without a fulfillment.  Then like Sarah and Zacharias when we have given up all hope and it seems impossible for God to fulfill that promise, that is when He will fulfill it.