Hebrew Word Study – By Chance –  Qari – קְרִי Qop Resh Yod

Leviticus 26:27-28: “And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; (28) Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.”

Well, at least the KJV is a little more gentle than other versions which say that if you walk in hostility of God he will walk in hostility with you.  The word for contrary and hostility that is used here is qari from the root word qarah which could mean hostility or contrary that is used for the rendering in this verse just does not fit the context. Israel was not walking in hostility with God but they were doing something else which we tend to do all the time. The Jewish sages render the word qarah as happenstance. Rabbi Samson Hirsch, a 19th century linguist and Hebrew master, renders this word as chance upon. In other words, a coincidence. 

Recently, I have been going through a matter that would change my life completely.  Then  at that proverbial eleventh hour I realized had I the courage to speak to a couple people involved in this matter earlier I would have saved myself a lot of grief. At this point of realization I grabbed hold of myself and admitted I was just too scared to talk with these people. I was yellow, a coward as I did not want to confront these people face to face.  So, I gathered myself together and said: “Come now, we shant be afraid.” So as I was trying to build up my courage I found a piece of paper underneath others papers I was looking for.  On that paper was the phone number of one of the people I needed to talk with. I really did not need to talk with these people face to face. It would be easier to talk with them on the phone and a simple phone call would resolve half my problem. I picked up my phone and talked with that person who resolved one of my most pressing issues and he said he would talk to the other person involved which he did and by one o’clock this other person called and she resolved the other half of my problem and then within two hours of my deadline I received an email confirming all was resolved. 

I started to pat myself on my back congratulating myself on my newfound courage: “Yes, Chaim old boy, you really came through on that one alright.”  Now get me wrong,  I mean I thank God for His strength, care, guidance and all that but I was like some self absorbed celebrity receiving the Academy Award and thanking everyone behind the project just so he would not appear self absorbed and was oh, so humbled. 

But by yet another in a series of coincidences I just happened to be studying Leviticus 26:27-28 and realized that my real thinking was that for me the bottom line was that there was no miracle, just me taking the reins and dealing with my fears.  

I put this passage under my linguistical microscope and discovered that God was not telling Israel that if they were hostile to him he would be hostile to them in fury and chastise them seven times.  He was not talking about hostility, he was talking about Israel not giving credit to God and glory to God for His interventions. If they did not acknowledge that God intervened then God would leave the next problem to arise to happenstance and well, you can guess how that would play out. 

I read a story about a man who drove to the downtown area of his city for an important interview. He was running late and he could not find a parking place.  He cried out to God to help him find a parking place.  Just as he was finishing his prayer a van pulled away from his parking space opening it up for our hero to pull into.  He then said; “Never mind, Lord, I found one myself.” Ok, that may be an extreme case but stop and think  about it.  Are there not times you do the same thing? Coincidences seem to happen all the time. The question is, is that really what runs through your mind?  

Was it a coincidence that I happened to find that phone number, that I  happened to find the courage to even call.  How about the fact that I was able to find the right people before my deadline. When I think of the whole experience I could list a number of coincidences. Someone once said we should not call something a coincidence but a God incident.

You see, God created us for a purpose, we each come into this world with a mission. When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are turning our lives, all events of our lives over to Him. Even if it is just one coincidence we need to acknowledge God in that incident. If we don’t we may bring the curse of Leviticus 26:28 down upon us and the next coincidence will be just that, God will not be in it and – well – good luck with that because that is what it will be – just pure luck.  

In this morning’s Torah Study we will be discussing this passage of Scripture in more detail. The video recording with be up later this morning  Join us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com

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