HEBREW WORD STUDY – SLEEP – YISHENAH  ישנה  Yod Shin Nun Hei

Song of Solomon 5:2 “I sleep but my heart is awake, it is the voice of my beloved that knocks.”

This very romantic phrase carries very deep spiritual insight.  The lover may be asleep but her heart is awake waiting for that knock at the door.  Or it could mean that if she and her beloved are sleeping together, she may be off in the land of the nod, but if her beloved knocks on the door of her heart, it will open and even while asleep their hearts will still embrace. 

Viewed from a spiritual angle, this can get pretty profound,   When you look up the word sleep in the back of Strongs and your lexicon, it will tell you that the Hebrew word yishenah means sleep.  That is not profound.  However, when you examine this word in its Semitic root you find it has the idea of receiving a revelation of the peace while asleep.

That ancient Jewish sages teach that God does not live in time, He lives in the past, present, and future.  This being the case if His presence were to embody us completely, we would know the past, present, and future.  The past and present we can handle, but could we handle the future?  That would be a problem, so God can not completely be joined with us in our waking hours but in our sleep He can come into that complete union with us for although we are not conscious, our heart is always awake and in our sleep, our hearts can be joined with him in that complete unity.  Of course, when that happens we share His knowledge and that is why we dream and why our dreams come out in symbols.   When we and God share our hearts during the sleeping hours our hearts may discourse over past, present or future events.   As some of these things would be too painful if directly revealed, they come out symbolically.  The sages teaching that during our time of sleep we make a connection to heaven so that our relationship with God comes into completeness.  

Our hearts are awake when we sleep. The word awake is ‘er.  This is from the root ’vr which had the idea of being awake, alert, watchful and laid bare, naked.  When we are asleep our hearts are open to whatever comes knocking.  The word knock in Hebrew is interesting.  It is daphaq, Daleth, Pei, and Qop   This is a strange assortment of letters and has the idea of standing at a doorway, knocking, speaking and calling. 

Your heart is awake and it is getting a lot of callers at night.  It may be fear, doubt, worry, etc. or it may be Jesus. He comes a calling every night.  He wants to come in and show you a few things from the past, present, and future.    

One-third of our lives are spent sleeping.  I often wondered why, if our time on earth is so short, why did God create us so that we end up wasting one-third of it in an unconscious state.  Perhaps that one-third part of our lives is the most important part in terms of our relationship with God, for it is that one third that He can have us completely.  But soft, our beloved comes a knocking.  Jesus, just like all your nightly visitors, comes knocking at our heart’s door every night.  It is up to us who we will open our door to.

So, how do we open the door to our nightly visitors?  David seems to have figured that one out in Psalms 1:2: “In His law doth he mediates day and night.”   How can you meditate on the Word of God at night if you are sleeping?  Apparently, if you are meditating on the Word God as you go to sleep, your awakened heart will continue the meditation when Jesus comes to a calling, your heart will open its door to Him.   Of course, if you are meditating on fear, lust, etc. that is what your heart will open it’s the door to at night.  Your heart will open to your beloved. Whatever you fill your heart with before you go to sleeping will determine who your heart will open itself to when you are asleep.  If you meditate on God’s Word, go to sleep praising and worshipping Him, while you sleep, your heart will be awake to the voice of your beloved who comes knocking. You may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night praising God or praying to Him.