HEBREW WORD STUDY – TO PRESSURE SOMEONE – NAGASH נגש Nun Gimmel Shin
Genesis 18:23: “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”
Reading from the works of Rashi, a medieval Jewish commentator I found he made an interesting observation which would be of great value to Evangelicals today. It seems obvious that we get the term evangelical from the word evangelism. Evangelism is at the very core of the Evangelical movement. Evangelicals believe that a person must surrender his life to God believing that Jesus came to earth, died and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins so that simply by receiving Jesus as your Savior, that is repenting of your sins, asking Him to cleanse you of your sins through His shed blood, you will not suffer eternity in hell but live with Him in heaven. As an Evangelical who is a born again Christian our mission earth is to bring others into repentance and receive this Salvation from Jesus.
I grew up in this environment and I still do cling to the tenants of an evangelical. The only thing I modified is that I do not participate in an aggressive evangelism where I take the four Spiritual laws and grab a person off the street and get them to say a sinner’s prayer. We refer to that as personal evangelism. This is not unlike the Jehovah Witnesses who go door to door in their evangelism or sit by a kiosk on a street corner. I spoke with a couple Jehovah Witnesses about why they do this. I am not sure this is their teaching but the ones I spoke with said that this is in obedience to God and to get eternal life.
I remember growing up in the Baptist church and I experienced the same implied teaching that if you are really a born again Christian you would be out there winning souls, bringing them into the church to increase the size of the church and the pastor’s salary. If you had no desire to win souls it was a sure sign you were not born again. So, I practiced personal evangelism or witnessing. I hated it, but like my Jehovah Witness friends, I did it because I felt I was obeying God, doing the right thing and I needed to prove to myself I was truly born again and on track to heaven.
Today I probably engage in more personal evangelism that I ever did in my life but I do not go out searching for people to witness to, I let them come to me through the Holy Spirit. One definition of the word Holy – qadesh is invitation. When the Invitation Spirit of God touches a person heart and prepares them, I come in for the final kill.
In other words I take the Abraham approach and not the Noah approach. According the Rashi, Noah preached to the people about a coming judgment and after over a hundred years of preaching against the evils of the world and the coming judgment he entered the ark with no coverts. Abraham, however, sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day when he should have been inside the cool shade of the tent. Genesis 18:1. The Talmud teaches he was waiting for travelers to come so he could offer them a place to rest and give them food and when they thanked him he would tell them, “No, thank Jehovah for He is the one who provided the rest and food.” He would cause them to speak the name of God. He would warn them not to return to the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah and many did not and were spared from the destruction. When Abraham was told of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah he did not go to the cities and start a street ministry preaching destruction if they do not repent, instead he pleaded with God to spare the people. In other words he prayed for them.
When God told Abraham about the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah the Bible says “He drew near (to God)” and began to plead or pray for the people. The words drew near is one Hebrew word yagesh from the root word nagash which means to approach or draw close but with the idea of drawing close to exert pressure on something or someone. It is like using your body to force a door that is stuck to open.
Literally, Abraham drew close to God for the sole purpose of pleading for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. You see, he knew many of these people as they were guest in his home, he shared the love of God with them and encouraged them to speak name of God. He honestly felt he was getting through to them and if they just had a little more time they would embrace God as their God like Abraham did. He felt surely there were at least 50 people he ministered to that were on the brink of denying their pagan way if just given a little more time. Basically God said if there were 50 like that He would spare the city, but apparently Abraham felt God saying there not 50. Well there had to be at least 45 that he ministered to that were ready to embrace God, but no not even forty five and Abraham kept lowering the bar.
The implication is that Abraham was heartbroken over the sinners who would not repent. Noah was not, he just warned the people of Judgment but did not pray for them, plead for them or suffer a broken heart for them. In the words of Rashi: “Noah’s efforts on behalf of others derived solely from his sense of what he ought to do for them, as opposed to a true concern for their well being. This was the extend of his love – his own need to do the right thing.
I used to witness to others, not out of a concern for their well being but my own need to do the right thing. The sages teach: “One’s motives must be pure, words that come from the heart, enter the heart.” Deep down, a person will always sense whether you truly have his interests at heart or you’re filling a need of your own by seeking to change him.”
Judaism does not practice evangelism but they certainly give us good advice in our attempts to evangelize. If you seek to bring others to God, be sure of your motives, people will know if you are just trying to earn a way to heaven by witnessing to them or getting another spiritual scalp or another notch on your Bible to show off to you brethren.
The Bible has been called many things, a blue print for how we are to live, a love letter, it’s all about Jesus, a jigsaw puzzle which creates a picture, etc. After reading Chaim’s literary achievements I believe there is an important book that needs to be written which could be titled “The Missing Story Of God.” Because within the revelations of this teacher there is a new story, hidden if you will below the surface of the knowledge of God which he has been giving to us in snapshots if you will. While we are satisfied to stare at the immense beauty of the ocean from the shore, Chaim courageously dives below the surface to share the wonders of what we have been missing through the loss in translation between God’s story and ours.
Interesting way of looking at what that conversation between Abraham and Adonai was really about
There is no recorded teaching in the Bible as far as Abraham teaching about Adonai
But it is great probability
Personally I see Abraham was pleading for Lot
And I think Abraham and Adonai knew that there were not even 10 righteous there
Otherwise Adonai would be glad to save the whole city as Abraham asked
The conversation also ends ubruptly
Adonai finished speaking with Abraham 🤔
It is all about saving Lot in my opinion