it’s a title, not a name!

The Bible teaches us that we should study to show ourselves approved unto ‘el, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim.2:15). We should therefore have a dictionary, a concordance and other reference materials handy as we study our Bibles. Understanding what words mean, within the context of the passage and of the times, is crucial to our full understanding of what thus sayeth the Yehovah. In addition, we of course need the leading and guiding of the Ruach haKodesh to put it all together correctly. Our goal is to get understanding!

In pursuit of understanding, I have found word studies quite enjoyable over the years. Looking up a word and realizing the Hebrew and Greek references, seeing how it is used in other passages throughout the Bible, and how The Ruach will clarify what misunderstandings I had, is big fun to me. The exciting adventure of learning Yahh’s will is such an invigorating experience that I highly recommend it to both saint and sinner. A journey of discovery can only be a blessing!

Recently, along this path of discovery, I have been dealing with the fact that the Bible gives us the names of the angels who were directly involved in key moments in Yisra’el history. We meet the chief princes, Gabriy-‘el and Miyka-‘el as they deliver personal messages and interact with Yisra‘el. They are introduced to us by name. Cultural traditions have also given us Hebrew names of other angels, such as Rapha-‘el; who also bear in their name the suffix “–‘el”. A search of the Internet will give you a variety of Hebrew names, associated with angels, found in an assortment of spiritual disciplines. However, I am still searching for the name of the fallen one who roams our earth, stealing, killing and destroying. The archangel we have come to know as “Satan”, written with a capital S, continues to be an un-named entity to me. Maybe some one out there can enlighten me as to what IT’s name was in Heaven, but as far as I can see, IT has no name here on earth.

I understood from my studies that IT was never identified in scripture with a personal name. We see things that it is called, i.e. the snake, the serpent, the dragon, the devil, the adversary, the usurper, but never a personal name. We are told that it is called…but never see, whose name is, as we see given with the other angels mentioned.

So, Bible scholars out there in Internet-Land, I have been wondering, what is the devil’s actual name? Can somebody help me out? This inquiring mind wants to know.

Personalization (evident by the capitalization of the letter S) given to the title, satan, is mere tradition and is not substantiated as an actual name by the Bible. Scripture says, who is called satan, not who is named satan. I believe a lower case s should apply.

It then hit me, that as part of “the great dis!” inflicted upon IT, as IT was exiled down to earth, IT was cursed on top of everything else, with NO NAME. Whatever IT’s name was while in heaven evidently is none of our business and after being flung down to earth, we were not allowed to know what that name was. Here on earth, IT has no name.

In the Bible we learn that names are significant in Yisra’el culture. Names reflect who you are, your life mission. We have many examples of people who were blessed with new names.

I can see Yahh casting that disobedient arch out of heaven and inflicting it with the burden of not having anyone on earth to know ITs name. The serpent, the devil, the accuser of the brethren, the usurper, the dragon, the snake, etc., DOES NOT HAVE A NAME; IT merely exists with a description.

Yes I realize some of you call IT Lucifer, but isn’t that merely another tradition? Interpreting Is. 14:12 as a reference to the serpent of The Garden, instead of a literal ruler named Lucifer, just as we read of Darius or Nebuchadnezzar and other rulers who equated themselves with gods is a possibility you need to consider. As you probably know, that reference by the prophet Isaiah is the only time that name is mentioned. Line upon line and precept upon precept would lead me to believe that if that was Its personal name, we would see it used elsewhere in scripture, by somebody. In some religious circles, that name Lucifer is referred to by its Hebrew counterpart, as the proper name of the devil (i.e.Haylel or Halel). This continues to perpetuate the belief that Lucifer is the name of the serpent of The Garden.

So just as they want to believe that IT has a personal name, I believe I am safe in saying that IT is:

The threat that roams with no name!

I personally have become partial to the Hebrew word for
serpent (H5175).

The serpent that talked with Ame Chavvah (Mother Eve) from the event that made history and that got the ball to rolling is the word NACHASH:

Gen 3:1-KJV
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

We all are familiar with that conversation. The Hebrew word for serpent, in that passage, I think has a nice ring to it.

H5175
נחשׁ
nâchâsh
naw-khawsh’
From H5172; a snake (from its hiss): – serpent.

Notice that in the Hebrew the Concordance does not identify satan as a name, but merely capitalizes the S. The Concordance implies that that word is the name. The Greek portion of the Concordance likewise regurgitates the Hebrew position of making satan a name when it is merely a description.

Out of all the references to the adversary of ‘el’s people given in the Bible, the word satan was CHOSEN to epitomize the god of evil by making it a proper name merely by capitalizing the first letter.
Why not use the word Genesis 3 used: nachash, and capitalize the N. It is the Hebrew for the word that identifies the creature that spoke in The Garden of Eden and not some questionable name uttered by Isaiah many years later. It is a matter of prerogative as to which identifier we use to refer to IT as IT does not have a proper name as far as I can see.

H7854
שׂטן
śâṭân
saw-tawn’
From H7853; an opponent; especially (with the article prefixed) Satan, the arch enemy of good: – adversary, Satan, withstand.

G4566
Satan
sat-an’
Of Hebrew origin [H7854]; Satan, that is, the devil: – Satan. Compare G4567.

Soooooo, some final wisdom to help carry you into your 2012:
I remind you that there are consequences to every choice that we make. Acceptance or rejection of ideas and concepts has great impact upon the quality of life that you will experience in the here and now. Then there is the after-life.

from the inside out,
this is jayemichelle;
shalom!

A 2012 futurethought-

“ …not a war. A war suggests that each side has an equal chance of winning!”
(comment from the movie: X-Men 1st Class)

GET OUT OF THE BOAT AND WALK ON THE WATER!

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” – I Pet. 5:7(KJV)

It is December, 2011 and, in a few short weeks this Roman year will be over. Then some of us will be staring 2012 right in the face. Many of us saw that apocalyptic saga, 2012 (John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor), that told of a catastrophic event that caused the earth to experience change. As the story went, only the rich and affluent, who could afford the cost of passage on rescue arcs, priced in the euro-billions, were allowed to enter. The rest of mankind was expendable casualties. According to Hollywood, outside of the governments, only the rich and affluent should be allowed to live in the new world order. John and Jane World Citizen have no place in the world of the future. Even the scientist who made the discovery of the impending danger was left behind.

However, that is merely the Hollywood scenario. ‘el has a different plan in place for the future reality of mankind. Yes, there is a change coming. ‘el’s wrath will be poured out upon the earth and at its conclusion the earth will be very different. The price of a ticket to safety from His wrath is not based in euro-dollars. ‘el’s perspective is revealed in part in I Cor. 1:27 where we read –

“But ‘el hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and ‘el hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

The wise and the mighty of this world have established their own agenda to promote a system that encourages a life without a dependence on the eternal ‘el of heaven. A system that defines as foolish and weak those who decide to cast all their cares upon Yahh, knowing that He cares for them. But those same weak and foolish people are not fixated on the upcoming Roman year. They are not moved by the fables that abound to increase the fears already dwelling in men’s hearts.

It is so comforting and reassuring to know that the people of ‘el have not been given the spirit of fear, but instead have been given the spirits of power, love, and sound mind (2 Tim.1:7). As terror grows in the hearts of the general population, joy abounds in the hearts of a little flock, who await a grand and glorious day (Luke 12:32).

The spirit of fear is a powerful weapon. It can make a person do things that they would not ordinarily consider doing. There is a phrase that surfaces when a person acts out of fear to do something negative, bizarre and out-of-character: the devil made me do it! It is so true though. The devil did make them do it. However, they seldom realized that they were complicit in the deed. They do not acknowledge that they chose to cooperate. But fear can also be a catalyst for positive change and motivate a separation from the wiles of the devil.

There is an interesting and thought provoking experience shared with us in the book of Matthew-chapter 14 of the Holy Bible. We see a group of men, in a boat, out in the middle of the sea. The sea is tossing and turning. They look up and see someone/something walking on the waters toward them and they are afraid. After what they see identifies himself, they recognize that it is Yehoshua’ Mashiyach. He tells them to not be afraid. Peter, one of the men on the boat, responds to this command, receiving a burst of courage, and cries out.

Mat 14:28 – And Peter answering him said, `Sir, if it is thou, bid me come to thee upon the waters;

Mat 14:29 – And He said, `Come’; and having gone down from the boat, Peter walked upon the waters to come unto Yehoshua’,

Mat 14:30 – But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Yahh, save me.

Mat 14:31 – And immediately Yehoshua’ stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Matthew shares this event that illustrates a range of experiences for Peter; from fear, to bold courage, to a glimpse of the supernatural, back to fear, and culminating in a miraculous divine intervention. Remember, that there were still others on the boat watching this take place. I wonder what was going through their minds as they witnessed this event.

But if only for a few moments, Peter responded to Mashiyach’s command to not be afraid. He conquered his fear, did get out of the boat and walk upon the waters. It was only as he was distracted by the tossing waves around him that he allowed himself to again be afraid. He then began to sink…he did not plunge into the waters and drown…he then began to sink. Peter will always remember that he did walk on the water. To get out of that boat represented multiple levels of courage and victory for Peter. What an encouraging memory for the future trials, tribulations and testings he would face. What an encouraging memory for the other men who witnessed this event from the tossing boat.

Getting out of the boat threatens its stability. There is a chance that the boat will rock even more, tilt even further, or maybe flip over all together. Getting out of the boat jeopardizes the others still in the boat.

The average person does not want to rock the boat; they merely want to remain safely in it. To exit and stand outside the boat, separates you from those in it. Remaining outside the boat can open you up to a plethora of discomforting conditions, i.e. rejection and reprisal inflicted by those still inside the boat. You can imagine the barrage of questions from those inside who want to know why you are outside.

Life has shown us that fear of rejection and reprisal encourages people to participate in a wrong action rather than to stand alone to defend a right action. You yourself may have a memory of an experience where the pressures of others caused you to do something that you later regretted. Whether it was a commission or an omission, you realized, after the fact, that you had made the wrong choice.

Choosing to get out of the boat also means that a decision has to be made to choose one thing as a right action over something else. Making these kinds of choices relegates things into categories: good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative, pleasurable and dis-pleasurable, holy and unholy, etc. Choices-decisions have consequences-rewards.

However, the Holy Bible teaches that the whole world has been deceived by the devil; therefore, the whole world can identify something as right, when it is actually wrong, if viewed by a different standard. So just because everybody is in the boat, doing the same thing, dressed the same way, eating the same food, drinking the same beverage, does not make it right, by default. Hmm…Yes, everybody can be wrong, contrary to popular opinion.

An unpopular opinion-absolutes- says that there is a time-tested standard that is right, just because it is right! There is A Truth and then there is error. But you have to choose it as YOUR Truth in order to benefit from it. So, if The Truth is walking on storm tossed waters saying “come”, and The Truth is what you seek, you have to get out of the comfort zone of your boat to meet it head on, where it is, in spite of the wind and waves around you.

Like Peter, you have to recognize The Victorious Truth walking on those stormy raging tempests and decide that you too want to walk like that; even if for only a few short moments, this time. Who knows how long your walk will be the next time, and the time after that, and the time after than!

from the inside out,
this is jaye michelle;
shalom!

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