HEBREW WORD STUDY- CREATING A FOG – HAVEL הבל Hei Beth Lamed

Job 27:12: “Behold, all of you yourselves have seen (it), why then are you altogether vain?”

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in your own eye.” Matthew 7:3

“If the judge should say to the man, ‘Take the splinter from between your eye.’ He would reply: ‘Take the beam from your eye.’” Talmud Baba Bathra 15b.

“There are only two perfect people in this world, thee and me and sometimes I wonder about thee.” Quaker saying.

Job’s friends, I suppose like all of us good church people, loved to give advice to someone who was facing some struggle. It is rare for me to attend a small fellowship (prayer group, Bible study, etc.) where someone doesn’t end up sharing some personal struggle and suddenly it is like sounding the opening bell on the stock exchange. Everyone has some advice to offer which are often just your common Christian sound bites like: “Just trust God,” “Pray about it “ or “God is faithful.” Still, I would not totally discount these little sound bits as there are little bit’s of wisdom wrapped up in them. It is just each sound bit has to be accompanied by a little sermon which doesn’t show much original thought. It tends to be a repeat of some internet or TV preacher they listen to rather than from their own relationship with God.

I remember a freshman student at the Bible College I taught asking me what textbook I used in teaching a certain Old Testament class. I told him I used the Bible. He replied: “Yeah, I know that but what textbook, who is the author of the book we will be studying from?” I said: “The Bible and the author you will be studying from is God.” It seems originality and personal experience with God just doesn’t count anymore.

Yet, we all like to think we’ve cornered the market on truth and then we list all the church fathers and popular teachers we have studied under. In our Aramaic/Hebrew Workshop this week on our Learning Channel I will be discussing the 70 Faces of Torah and how it is important that we hear from the Holy Spirit ourselves and not from someone who claims to have heard from God.

Job’s friend was no exception and after hitting Job with all their wonderful words of wisdom, Job responds by asking: “What, are you altogether vain?” In the Hebrew, these words are one word, havel, repeated twice. The first time as a noun which means nothingness, transitory, temporary or worthless. The second time it is used as a verb in a Qal imperfect second person masculine which literally means: “you are worthless.” He is basically saying in this verse: “You have nothing to offer and your advice is worthless.”

Job mentions that they all have seen it. The word seen in Hebrew here is chazitem from the root word chazah which means a vision, deep spiritual insight, or a prophecy. What Job is literally saying is: “You have a prophetic word. You have word from God.” But what happens? “You speak a havel worthlessness, nothing.” The repetition of the word havel creates a double meaning and a play off each other. Havel is also a word for vapor or a fog. Something being a vapor, mist, or fog is not clearly defined. A prophecy or vision is often in symbols and it’s meaning is not readily apparent, it is like looking at the truth of it through a mist or fog. Another use of the word havel is to express foolishness or uselessness. Just as a fog or vapor seems to have substance, but when you walk into it, it doesn’t have the substance that it appears to have from a distance. Thus, Job is saying: “You have a prophetic word, but it lacks clarity because of your motives behind sharing the words making you look foolish.”

How has it made his friends foolish? Let’s look at the letters of this word havel. The letter is Hei represents self-deception. Couple this with the next letter Beth which represents feeling spiritually superior to others and the final letter the Lamed which means self-importance and you have a good description of Job’s friends. They may have had a word from God but they were deceived by their feelings of superiority and self-importance and they ended up turning the word they had from God into foolishness. Of course, you and I are never guilty of such things. Although like the old Quaker would say: “Sometimes I wonder about thee.” I remember someone shared with me what they felt was a word from God. The word initially made sense to me but then the person had to havel it or cloud it with her explanation as to what she thought it meant. That left me totally confused and questioning if it was indeed a Word from God.

It is interesting to note that this word havel has a numerical value of 37. The Hebrew word for “a prophets word” also has a numerical value of 37. If you ever feel you have a word from the Lord for someone, it is best you first examine yourself to be sure you are not deceived (Hei), by feelings of superiority (Beth) and self-importance (Lamed). If you don’t do that self-examination you may end up like the Talmud warns and Jesus Himself reaffirmed that by pointing out the splinter in someone else’s eye, they will turn around and point to the beam in your own eye.

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