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The Untranslatable Word That Has Huge Meaning Pt 2

by | Wed, Aug 25 2021

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We started to look at the untranslatable word that is found in the Hebrew Bible but not in the English or other language translations. It’s a tiny little two letter word, את – ‘et’ which basically is referring to the alphabet, the ‘A to the Z’ is how we would likely express it.

So before God created anything, He created ‘et’ or as it’s been understood by Jewish sages and teachers, God created language, His Words and then using those words He created everything.

We read from Hebrews 1:3 that says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word.” We mentioned briefly that Jesus is the agent – the Word – that brought all of creation into being.

John 1:1-3, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being.’

In other words, Jesus our Messiah, the Word made flesh was the agent at the very beginning of the natural creation that brought it all into being. He was already with the Father, but the Father breathed the Word – the ‘et’ and then came the creation itself.

As the world seems to be being shaken, we can hang on to the fact that God is in control. He has not abandoned us, forsaken us, or disappeared. He has not forgotten His creation, but deeply loves with what He’s made, and doesn’t take His eyes off us for a second. We can become confused as to why He makes the choices He seems to be making, but the fact remains that the universe belongs to Him. If we believe the Bible, we can also hang on to the fact that He is perfectly good and perfectly wise. He knows exactly what He is doing, even though there may be times when we might not understand or agree with Him.

He is often called the LORD of hosts in Scripture. In Hebrew that literally means the LORD of armies. There’s a rabbi who pointed out that ‘army’ means “a large group assembled to carry out a purpose, aligned together and acting together to accomplish a task.” He said that is what atoms and molecules do. When we think of the LORD of hosts, we can think of the One who created and knitted all of life together to function in the way that it does – not only for battle, but for simply perpetuating creation. The starry hosts – and the hosts of all creation. It was all perfectly made and designed to work together beautifully, by our ingenious and creative Father. He made it all, He orchestrates it, and He owns it. The whole kit and caboodle – the ‘A-Z’, the Aleph to the Tav – the ‘et’.

We could say that in the beginning God created… את: α-Ω (Greek letter, ‘Alpha’) – the beginning and the end: time itself “Don’t be afraid” says Jesus in Revelation 1:18. “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

The Almighty God who always has been, and who always will be, holds the keys of eternity. Time exists, but only because God made it to exist for us. It has a beginning and end, and in between is HIS story. He and He alone knows how it all really began, and He and He alone knows how He reconcile all things to Himself at the end. He has told us a lot about the beginning and the end, but they are some of the hardest parts of the Bible for us limited human beings to grapple with. But God is not struggling to grapple with these weighty issues – they are firmly within His grasp. He wrote each day before one of them came to be. He is in no doubt at all about how the world came to be, or what will happen on and after judgment day.

He is the author of time. He is the ancient of days. He has power over life and death, and He knows very well that this fallen and broken earth is not all that there is. He has planned so much more. But we know from His word that things will get much worse before He wraps all creation up like a scroll and brings in the new heavens and the new earth.

Daniel is told in chapter 12:1-4, “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.”

What a mighty God we serve!

Next time you read that opening sentence of the Bible, you can know that there is an invisible little word in there, full of meaning. God created את the power of language and speech, He made את all that there is and owns every atom, and created את both the beginning and the end of time. The ‘First and the Last’, the ‘Alpha and Omega’, this God is willing to stoop down and ask you and me, as Jesus asked His disciples and blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?”

 

Shalom

Mandy

 

 

 

[1] http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/aleph-bet.html

 

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