HEBREW WORD STUDY – APPROACHABLE –  QARAV  קרוב   Qop Resh Vav Beth  

Isaiah 55:6: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”

I was meditating on Isaiah 55:6 today. I know I wrote about this not too long ago but there is more I need to say on this.  “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” I was always told this was for the sinner, God’s Spirit will not always strive with man and if you keep rejecting Him, He will no longer be near and you will not find Him. It makes perfect sense and I was taught not to question my spiritual teachers.  But in searchng this out I find that this is not the context. Still, many came to God in salvation through this verse, so why knock it?  I won’t knock it but maybe we are missing another message here.

But why seek Him in the first place. The word for seek is daresh also has the idea of visiting frequently and not so much in  trying to find something.  The word is spelled Daleth, Resh and Shin. The built in commentary suggest that the Daleth represents a gateway, a channel or portal.  The Resh represents repentance and Shin represents a passionate love.  The reason we make frequent visits to God is that through repentance we find a doorway to His passionate love and our hearts are then joined with His. That enough reason for me.

The words  while He may be found  is really something special in the Hebrew.  While He may be found is all one word: behimase’u. We can really play around with this word and not always come up with the standard translation.   This is a Niphal infinitive.  It has the idea of obtaining or finding knowledge. The infinitive form would suggest an overwhelming or abundance of knowledge can be found.  Many pastors spend hours studying and praying over their little half hour sermon.  It is filled with knowledge, questions and insights. Yet, how many Christians just walk out the door after a sermon excited to tell someone about the new pitcher for the Chicago Bears.  They may never get another chance to get that little depth of knowledge about the God they love.  They won’t discuss it, pray over it and allow the Spirit of God to expand it, because they want be the first to tell their friends the lastest in next year’s presidential election. 

We are to call upon him while he is near. I mean isn’t He always near?  Surely He can wait you finish that movie on Nextflix. He will still be near after that.  The word translated for upon is simply an inseparable pronoun expressed as prefix Beth which means in or on. Surely we could say call on him, but grammatically, to say that we would have to  use the separable pronoun, al.   I say we translate it, Call in Him.  The word call is  qara’ which has two meanings.  One is to call or shout.  Another is to fall into.  I like the idea of falling into him. I think that speaks more of God’s heart.  Fall into him while He is near.  Remember that seeking is a gateway to enter God’s heart.  Repentance will open that gateway or portal to His heart and when it is open we will feel a rush of his love and presence, but don’t stop there, fall into his heart while He is near.  The word near is qarav.  This word is very closely related to qara which is another reason I chose to translate the word qara as fall into rather than call, because it is making an obvious play on the word qarav which means to approach , be approachable and/or vulnerable. I would render this as fall into His heart when He is approachable.

Let me explain it like this.  A husband shares a candlelit dinner with his wife, they speak lovingly to each other and they express the inner secrets of their hearts to each other. They even touch each other.  Then when they have expressed their love for each other, holding each other close, the husband looks at his watch and says: “Oh my, it’s 12:00 I am missing the big game, he then runs over and turns on the TV and totally ignores the wife who just finished expressing her love for him and sharing the secrets of her heart with him.

Maybe I am wrong, throw rocks at me if I am, but somehow I just feel that is what we do when 12:00 hits on Sunday morning. After expressing our love to God and His to us, sharing in an intimacy, we look at our watches and race off to talk about the latest world events.

That husband may enjoy the football game but he missed a great opportunity with his wife who was behimase’u and to qara’ call upon her while she made herself garav, approachable and vulnerable.  

Next time after your Sunday service as everyone races out of the sanctuary, why not spend a few moments meditating and praying to a God who has just made himself garav, vulnerable or approachable to you.