31 Chashab & Yâkach

Thought and reason, Chashab & Yâkach, great ways to end the week last week AND great ways to launch the week this week!

Thought

Hebrew, V. châshab (Strong’s #2803). “( . . . from the mental effort) to think, regard, value, compute; make account of, conceive, consider, count . . . devise, esteem, , find out, forecast, hold, imagine, impute, invent, be like, mean, purpose, reckon . . . regard, think.”

Reason

Hebrew, V., yâkach (Strong’s #3198) to “argue . . . dispute . . . reason (together) . . .”

The self of the person of the Godhead begins to appear because of these ancient words. In fact, as we look through some of the verses from Blog #30 collected to demonstrate God’s thought processes and commitment to reason, His commitment to good reason stands out like a monument.

Evidence of thought and reasoning (with good as the standard of preference) in the Godhead:

Genesis 2:18: And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (NKJV)

And the Lord God means that God finds it reasonable to reveal and identify Himself as an authority figure and therefore as competent to reason rightly.

Said means, in this case, that God talks to Himself, converses with Himself when inwardly reasoning.

It is not good means that God is a thinking and reasoning being who discloses the results of His inner reasoning process in which He engaged to determine good from not good.

I will make him means that as a result of further thought and reasoning, God finds additional effort to be reasonable and good.

A helper comparable to him means that God reasoned through the qualities necessary for a good remedy before choosing.

Dear Reader! These are awesome things! The Lord our God holds Himself to the highest standard or reasonableness and thoughtfulness! He has a train of thought and a dedication to examining his thought and decision-making processes in a timely and thorough manner. When He comes to the table, He comes prepared.

Genesis 2:16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (NKJV)

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying means that God once again understands (finds it reasonable) the necessity of establishing credibility before proceeding to make commands.

of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat means God reasoned through in His inner self the nutritional (whether physical or soul) value of the various edibles in the garden He had created, determining their fitness for consumption for the man He had created to inhabit the garden, and found all good except one.

For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die means that God reasoned that explaining himself was part of reasonable (understandable) communication with others and would be protective to the man, preventing him from poisoning himself in this case.

Look closely here, dear reader, we have a serious, caring, thoughtful, reasonable person behaving with innocent good intent here. He is sensitive to His position as He who started this whole shebang and is serious about being accountable for it. He is genuine and concerned in the extreme though he certainly could be justified in not understanding why someone would want to eat something poisonous anyway. He could even think that someone would be grateful to be warned of potential hazard so that someone could avoid the POTENTIAL HAZARD. (Sort of like from Lost in Space when the robot shouts “Warning, Will Robinson, warning! Danger, Will Robinson!” Such info can be a big help in the nick of time, don’t you think?)

Next.

Genesis 18:16-33:

Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

Here we have God reasoning out loud to the men (probably angels) He is in company with. He is concerned about keeping His intentions hidden from Abraham and acknowledges how He has preferred Abraham and intends to honor him and others through him—a big deal! He acknowledges that He has already invested a lot of privileged information in Abraham and EXPLAINS why. Through Abraham a lot of others will have access to God’s privileged info that will prosper one-and-all in this huge, sprawling and unknown thing called life that He has started.

And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

In this passage, God reveals that He listens when people address Him. And He is caught by what they say. If what is said is true or could be true, if it is a threat to goodness, He shows that He will put it upon Himself to follow up and investigate (personally) to determine the truth and threat.

Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Now, here, Abraham has the temerity to challenge the goodness of God. Giving Abraham due credit, he has noticed that God reasons through things all the time, so he chooses to challenge God through a reasoning process, challenging both His logic and His values.

So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

God exhibits great forbearance and responds reasonably to Abraham’s proposal.

Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: “Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five:”

Abraham senses how fortunate he is that this awesome being has not swatted him like a bothersome fly for importuning upon Him. Still he retains enough confidence in God that employing protests of unworthiness he ventures more challenge toward God.

So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

With unflappable calm, God is readily agreeable. Abraham is emboldened.

And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”

Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: “Suppose thirty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”

Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more; Suppose ten should be found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. (NKJV)

Well, to be the Lord God of Everything, God was certainly easy-going with Abraham, don’t you think, reasonable reader?

Why was He like that? you wonder, dear reader. Because . . . because . . . God is a thinking and reasonable being TO THE CORE. And because Abraham was revealing how much he treasured the Lord God—His thinking and reasoning, His goodness, His merciful ways with people. Abraham thought a lot of God and God knew it.

Chashab & Yâkach—great words brought to us by our Great God.

To be continued . . .