If you know what your car engine sounds like when running normally, you will instantly pick up early signs of mechanical problems. If you know the sound your baby makes when he’s hungry, you will immediately recognize a cry of pain. Departure from pattern is a warning sign.
In forensic accounting, false expense submissions are often picked out because the culprit tends to make up numbers randomly. However, in the real world there are predictable patterns regarding the occurrences of various digits (The interested can pursue this phenomenon by exploring Benford’s Law). Departure from predictable patterns alerts us to something possibly significant.
The Lord’s language, Hebrew is a beautifully precise language, often conveying not only the meaning of the word but also the emotion behind the meaning.
Consider, for instance, the word “perhaps”; on the surface, a simple word. It indicates that something may or may not happen.
Now consider these two sentences:
Looking at the man she loved, Jane wondered to herself, “Perhaps he will propose to me this evening.”
Tom ruefully contemplated his dismal sales reports and realized that perhaps he faced termination.
From the point of view of Tom and Jane’s emotions, those two underlined words mean two very different things. Jane hopes that something wonderful will happen while Tom dreads the possibility of something awful happening.
However, in Hebrew, there are two different words for perhaps. The word ULai is used in circumstances when the speaker devoutly wishes for the event to occur, while the word PeN is used when he hopes it won’t.
Perhaps (ULai) there are fifty
righteous people in the city [of Sedom]…
(Genesis 18:24)
…now let us go there, perhaps (ULai)
he’ll tell us the road…
(I Samuel 9:6)
And from the tree in the middle of the garden, God said you shall not eat of it or touch it, [or else] perhaps (PeN) you’ll die.
(Genesis 3:3)
Come let us deal wisely with him
[or else] perhaps (PeN) he’ll multiply and
when war comes he will join our enemies…
(Exodus 1:10)
Once we understand this difference, we can be alert for any examples in Scripture when it appears that the wrong word is being used.
When Abraham dispatches his Chief of Staff, Eliezer, to find a bride for his son, Isaac, we spot such an unexpected usage.
Abraham directs Eliezer to travel to his birthplace and bring back a bride. Eliezer reasonably inquires what is to be done in the event of a problem.
…perhaps the woman will not be willing
to follow me to this land…
(Genesis 24:5)
Since this would be a most undesirable outcome, we’d expect Eliezer to have used the word PeN. Yet, inexplicably he says ULai.
This informs us that deep down, Eliezer desired his mission to fail. He subconsciously hoped that no girl would come back with him to marry Isaac.
Why? Ancient Jewish wisdom teaches that Eliezer had a daughter of marriageable age. He was harboring the hope that his master, Abraham, would say, “Eliezer, you have a lovely daughter, I have a wonderful son…”
When Abraham didn’t suggest this, Eliezer forlornly held one remaining hope. Perhaps no woman would be willing to accompany him to Canaan. Perhaps then Isaac would marry his daughter.
Abraham’s next words dashed his hopes by making clear that Eliezer’s daughter was not an option for Isaac. It is to the credit of Eliezer that after this big disappointment, he nonetheless carried out his mission faithfully and successfully.
Once we know the general rules, any departure from those rules attracts our attention like a flaring Fourth of July firework rocket arcing through a dark night sky.
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