Truth and Trust

Our past few discussions could be summed up as “How we feel should not be the sole factor in what we do because there is a such thing as absolute values.” We discussed how we have so much anger motivating our society and we, the people of Adonai, need to be a calming presence. We discussed how there is an expectation of behavior for all people from their creator regardless of how they feel or believe about him. We also discussed how our actions particularly in matters of service to our creator should not be tied to our emotions.

If we look at all of this I think we can see all of this discussion about our emotions determining our thoughts and actions as well as the acknowledgment of a base level of behavior leads us to 2 basic questions. What is truth? What can I trust?

It is easy to use our emotions to determine truth and trust as literally we “feel good” about truth and trust. When we encounter a truth we “do not like or feel good about” it becomes easy to not trust it. As we have learned previously we cannot allow our emotions to be the sole determination in our trust or truth.

Let us discuss trust and truth for a moment, so that we all are of the same understanding.

In Hebrew the most commonly used word in the scriptures for truth is emet. Other words or meanings are firmness, constancy, faithfulness, certainty, and it is an attribute of Adonai. The first place we see this word emet used is

27 and he said, “Blessed be ADONAI, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His loyalty and His truth toward my master. As for me, ADONAI has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 24

27and he said, “Blessed be ADONAI, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His loyalty and His truth toward my master. As for me, ADONAI has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

In Greek the most commonly used word in the scriptures for truth is alētheia. I personally find this word really interesting. The definition of the word is truth, but not merely truth as spoken; truth of idea, reality, or sincerity. In other words aletheia means truth with or with out you. One perception does not affect the subject described. A good example of how this aletheia is used in the scriptures is found in

In Greek the word for truth is alētheia. I personally find this word really interesting the definition of the word is truth, but not merely truth as spoken; truth of idea, reality, sincerity. In other words aletheia means truth with or with out you. One perception does not affect the subject described. A good example of how this aletheia is used in the scriptures is found in

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 1

14And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015),

In these examples we see emet and aletheia both used in a consistent way, as a quality of Adonai. In Genesis Adonai did not abandon his emet or truth toward Abraham. In John Yeshua was filled with the Father’s alethia or truth.

Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), 12.

As Adonai is above all things and the creator of all things it is a reasonable assertion that truth, as an attribute of Adonai, is outside of all things. As such creation does not affect truth. To put it another way, we cannot change truth. That is not to say we cannot change things. Indeed we change constantly. Even as we sit here and listen we are changing. We do not change the attribute of truth though. We also cannot feel something is truth. It exists outside of our influence. This should bring us comfort for it means truth is not subject to the whim of anyone’s emotions or opinions.

So what do we do with this? How is understanding truth like this helpful? To answer these questions we must understand that other word trust.

If you are like me you probably expect trust and truth have similar words in Hebrew and Greek. In English they do seem very similar. One might even expect the words to have the same roots or origins. As well if you are like me you probably expect that the words have similar meanings as one usually trusts what is true. True being an attribute or quality and trust being how one interacts with that attribute. Turns out not at all. They do not have similar meanings to each other they do not have similar roots. Even in English they do not. Truth is an English word in origin but trust is a Scandinavian word in origin. This is just an example of why it is important to study grammar and etymology and not assume the language we are using is actually accurate especially since it can shape our thoughts and expressions.

In Hebrew several words exist for trust the most commonly used is batach. It means to be confident, to be bold, and to hope. I really like that definition. If I where to use the definition of batach in a sentence describing trusting my wife, I might say “Boldly, I am confident in hoping in my wife’s love for me.” Does any one doubt what I mean by that? The first time we see the word batach used in the scriptures is in

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 14

11ADONAI said to Moses, “How long will these people treat Me contemptibly? How long will they neglect to trust in Me—in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?

In Greek there is a single word for trust. I wonder if that says something about the ancient Greeks. The word is peitho and it means to persuade, to convince, and to obey.

In Greek there is a single word for trust. I wonder if that says something about the ancient Greeks. The word is peitho and it means to persuade, to convince, and to obey. An example of peitho used in the scriptures is in

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 27

43He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am Ben-Elohim.’ ”

Both uses of these words are specific in the ideas they are expressing. In both cases we can picture a mixture of hope and obedience.

So let us work through these understandings together. If we say something is truth or if we claim something is truth, we are claiming that something exists in a state regardless of anything else. For example if we say “Adonai is love” is a true statement then we are saying that it does not matter what anyone else perceives about Adonai he is love. In a very direct way we are expressing the idea, that even when we cannot explain it, or even when we cannot see it Adonai is love. What about other statements that we say are true? What if we said a true statement was “our neighbor is mean” in the same way. Then we are saying even when we cannot see it or explain it they are mean. Kind of an unfair statement to make is it not? It is as if we have not given them the chance to be any different or to change. Perhaps this is part of Yeshua’s warning against judging others.

What about trusting? When we say we trust “Adonai love’s us” we are saying we are confident to hope “Adonai love’s us”. What about when we say we trust our “Neighbor is mean”? We are saying we confidently hope our “Neighbor is mean”. Once again we are not expecting our neighbor to change and maybe even more than that we hope they do not change.

With this simple logical thinking exercise we can probably agree in most cases we should reserve trust and truth as descriptors for good things. We should probably reserve trust at least in description if not in our real actions and thoughts for righteous and worthy things. In like mind maybe we should reserve truth as a descriptor for those things that do not depend upon opinion or perception of man.

Another thing we should all realize now is a statement like “We trust in Adonai’s truth.” is a powerful statement. There is a ton of information and ideas expressed in the simple statement. To use the same language from before we could be expressing the idea “Boldly we are confident to hope in Adonai’s faithful sincerity.”

With this idea of trusting in Adonai’s truth we should read a few versus and see if they mean anything different to us.

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 17

17“Make them holy in the truth. Your word is truth.

Psalm 9:11 TLV

Sing praises to Adonai, who dwells in Zion. Declare His deeds among the peoples.

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Psalm 9

11Those who know Your Name trust You—

for You, ADONAI, never have forsaken

those who seek You.

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Psalm 9

11Those who know Your Name trust You—

for You, ADONAI, never have forsaken

those who seek You.

Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 1

13After you heard the message of truth—the Good News of your salvation—and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach ha-Kodesh.

Trusting in Adonai’s truth led to being sealed with the Ruach ha-Kodesh.

Finally one may have also noticed truth includes faithfulness. While trust includes hope. This is an interesting idea as well. This is not faith as emunah but it is similar. When we trust the truth of Adonai we are in a way saying we are hoping in his faithfulness to us. Since his faithfulness is the same as truth and we already stated that truth is not subject to opinion or the emotional whim of man, we can rest assured that Adonai’s faithfulness to his children is not subject to the opinion or the whim of man, but is a constant that no one can change. Let us aspire to have a trust in Adonai like he has a truth for us.