Hebrew Word Study – I Will Be –‘Eheyeh אהיה

Judges 6:15-16: “And he said unto him: ‘Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I serve Israel?  Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house. (16) And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

Gideon was called by God to save Israel from the Midianites and his response was that he came from a poor family and was the least in his father’s house.  The word used to express poor is aleph hadal.  The word aleph has many usages in Hebrew.  It is used to expresss a weakness, being poor materially, it is used for cattle for being docile and even for learning.  The word hadal is used to express the idea of being poor, weak, thin or of a lowly estate.  Within the context it is very difficult to believe that Gideon was excusing himself because he was poor materially as we learn later he had a number servants at his beck and call.  That does not sound like someone living in poverty.  Also, it would follow if his family was wealthy enough to have servants, then they must have had some influence. Some commentators say that this is just a sign of the humility of Gideon.  Perhaps, but I think this is just trying to find some explanation  for this seeming contradiction.  I think we need to look at some alternative renderings of aleph hadal.  One rendering for aleph is learning and a rendering for hadal is weakness.   I think old Gideon was using the same excuse many of us use today, I am just uneducated, unlearned how can God use me?

Then he offers up the further excuse, that he is least in his father’s house.  The word least is  tsaiyr which carries the idea of being insignificant, one who is easily ignored.  You know whenever the kids in the neighborhood were choosing up a ball team he was last to be selected.  Romans 9:21 talks of a vessel of honorable use and one made for dishonorable use.  Each household in those days had two clay vessels just inside the door for visitors.  One was for honorable use, this was a vessel that was filled with water for drinking.  It was usually the cleanest and newest vessel.  The second vessel was one for dishonorable use, that was the vessel where water was drawn to wash one’s feet.   This vessel was usually an older vessel which was not cared for, it was not scrubbed or cleaned and was filled with a lot of crud. This was because its use was only for washing the dirt from people’s feet.

I don’t know about you but looking over my life and all my failures, I am convinced I was one of those vessels made for dishonorable use.  Oh yeah, I have a lot of learning but I am no scholar. I can play the piano, but no one can sing along with me as I play, I have no sense of timing or rhythm.  I tried to fix the brakes on my car once – once, ended up taking it to a mechanic.  I tried to play football in high school, but the only reason I made the team was that they could not get anyone else to come out for the team.  We lost every game and I rode the bench, all the way up through my senior year.  All my life I just wanted to be good at something at least good at one thing.  I fear I am just a jack of all trades and master of none. Look I am not being humble, I have good solid facts and witnesses to back me up that I am not smart or talented. Really, I never scored above average on the intelligence test. I scored so low on the graduate record exam the dean had to go to page four to find my percentile.

I believe this is what Gideon was trying to say, “Come on God, if you want me to deliver Israel then why did you short-change me when it came to the talent and intelligence area.”  Do you ever feel that way, man I sure do?  I see my former classmates all with distinguished careers as missionaries, pastors, and educators, and me, well I don’t want to go into it.

After a lifetime of failures and getting the short end of the stick when I feel God calling me to write a blog or a book, I figure, what the heck, I can’t make more of an idiot of myself than I have already done. But I have learned one thing, if God is with me, then when I fall face down God and I will just have to share mud pies together.

But soft, look at those words, “I will be with you.”  Those are really loaded words.  God said that Abraham would walk before Him, but Enoch walked with God.  Enoch was no more, taken into heaven to be with God.  You see it is not that preposition that gets my attention, that is your simple preposition ‘im which is translated as with.  The word that really gets my attention is the word be.  The translators did not add the word be in I will be with you just to fill in a gap.  That word is eheyeh, which comes from the same root as the word YHWH.  It is the very being, the very existence the very eternality of God that is with me. The very thing that existed long before creation is with me and will continue to exist millions of years from now is with me.   When I look at it from that frame of reference, well, you know, it just doesn’t matter if God called me to clean up the mess after someone spills their cookies in the back of my disability bus or writes a book, it doesn’t matter.  In light of the fact that I have the eternal, God of the universe with me, what do I care if you can’t find my percentile on the GRE, I have the God of the universe the YHWH the being, the creator, the everything with me and one day like old Enoch, I will just be no more because I will be where it doesn’t matter whether I can sing, play the piano or play football, it doesn’t matter whether I am ever good at any one thing.  What matters is that I will be with my creator who created me just the way I am.

I know I come across like some brilliant, intelligent scholar, but just wait until Toto pulls back that curtain back and reveals this Hebrew wizard is just a friendly old man holding his empire together with a lot of bluff and bluster.

So, what does God say to all of us who are consistently on the bottom of the totem pole yet feel the call of God on our lives to accomplish something that we just do not have the talent or intelligence to accomplish? He is telling us what He told Gideon in verse 16, “Surely, I will be with thee.”  The translators translate the word ki as surely. That is misleading because the English word surely suggests some emphasis where ki is just a matter of fact. It is rightly rendered as because.   Gideon asked, ‘Just what makes you think I, this big-time untalented, average or below intelligence, the unathletic loser is going to deliver Israel?”    God says, “Because I am going to be with you. I have all power and creation at my beck and call and it is yours for the asking to accomplish the mission I have placed upon you.”