My understanding of the Hebrew language is not that of a translator. It wasn’t my calling from God to take that path. Instead, I was led to understand Hebrew as the expression of how Hebrew minds operated. I studied the language as a whole, approaching it from the philosophy and cognitive science angle.
A fundamental assumption of the Hebrew mind is that this world is inherently false. Not in some simplistic way, but that much of what we experience in life can mean more than one thing at the same time. Any particular experience is good and bad together. The forces of nature and reality are not divided out link Yin and Yang, but it’s a matter that the distinctions we make can be arbitrary and subjective. The Hebrews didn’t take themselves too seriously, only their roles and duties.
The inherent ambiguity of our existence shows up in Pageau’s The Language of Creation. This book is a masterful examination of the balance between space versus time, of land versus water, of building versus dilapidation, etc. Everything in this world is temporal in nature, so to find meaning requires that we reflect on things not of this world. A thing is only so good as it manifests for humans the moral certainty of our Creator, and even then, it’s always contextual.
I’ve said this repeatedly: In Hebrew, words don’t carry meaning. Rather, words are like flags or signposts indicating a path for exploration. Meaning is in the context; meaning is not something that stands on its own. Truth is a Person. It is not a fixed anchor existing in this reality. It must move with the intentions of our Lord, following Him around and doing whatever He requires.
Thus, the expiration of this life is both good and bad at the same time. In one context, death is our enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Yet death is certainly acceptable if one has invested the moments of this life in glorifying the Creator. That’s because life and death are both bound up in the mortal existence itself. It’s a single package. The mortal existence is both good and bad. It’s bad because it’s mortal, not what God intended, not what we started with in the Garden. It’s good because it’s a string of opportunities to glorify God.
Throughout the Old Testament, we see plenty of evidence that facing death nobly in pursuit of God’s glory is always a good thing. Fear of death is for those who have failed to live up to God’s calling. That phrase, “I go the way of all humanity” is the voice of equanimity in facing the inevitable expiration of the flesh. In the end, we are all powerless against the conditions in which we exist.
Yes, we sorrow over the loss of those we love. However, there is no sorrow for someone who died, as if they lost anything valuable. Life is not a precious possession in itself. It’s only value is in how well it’s used. We are but vessels; even a chamber pot can serve well.
Death is ultimately in the hands of God. It can be punishment or reward. It’s is not an unalloyed bad thing. It simply is. The Hebrews never failed to understand that this fleshly body is not the real person; it’s just the conveyance we use while we are here. There will most certainly be a resurrection into a completely different kind of body for those who belong to God.
