I never cease to be amazed at how the church, or rather church leaders are just so content to focus on the english word studies of Hebrew words translated from the Bible. I put it on the leaders because most believers will not study beyond what their pastors teach them. Gone are the days of those believers, who, like the Bereans were quoted as being notable people in that they studied daily, those things they were taught, to see if those things were so. Not say that of all believers, but there are indeed a great number who put their spiritual learning in the hands of their pastors. Again, that is not to say that everything their pastors teach is wrong, but there is quite a bit being shared across the pulpit that is seriously lost in translation. I’ve found that in most cases the level of congregational leaning is hinged on the leaders level of study as it relates to the Word of God. From my own personal experience, I can say indeed I find this to be totally factual. I recall a time that a former pastor was doing teaching on a topic and part way through it, he challenged the members to “fact check” him. I honestly can’t say if anyone did or didn’t take him up on it, but based on the fact that he issued that challenge numerous times, I can only assume that no one did, hence the multiple challenges. It was at that moment that I took him up on the challenge and “fact checked” him. To my surprise, he was actually wrong. I was shocked! Of course since it was a Sunday service, I didn’t stop him to correct him, but at the same time I was a bit frustrated. It bothered me because, like many other members, I put stock in what he taught as my pastor. From that moment on, I wondered how many other things might he have said that could have been mis-taught. I understand that like me, he is only a man, and prone to make mistakes also, but that moment caused me to want to begin to study for myself. This was during the beginning stages of me leaving the “Christian” church. Now when I say study, I do not mean merely reading the scripture in the sense of memorizing them, but rather digging into the context, asking myself just who the audience was, and why did the writer feel the need to address them as he had done. And what about the words, what did they to them in the original language. This is where the real change had come from. I came to understand that this Bible that I am reading from was written to an “eastern” culture and I am from a “western” culture. Not only that, but that the differences between these two cultures in terms of viewpoints is as far as east is from west, or better yet, night and day.
I came to understand that in both cultures, we have “nouns”, but we differ in how we see nouns. For example, in ur western culture, our nouns are simply person, place or things, but in the eastern culture it is the “action of” he person place or thing. An example of this would be in the description of a pencil. We, as in the western culture would give a visual description like “it’s long, yellow and has a lead tip”. However in the eastern culture, one would simple say “you write with it”. For us westerners, we would look at them like they are crazy for giving such a vague description, but by the same token, they would look at us the same way we looked at them. Anyway, back to my initial point. Understanding the culture sheds a totally new light on how we comprehend what is written. With this in mind, it takes me back to another incident in the church. My pastor was teaching about “worship”. As he asked the members about what it was exactly, I heard several really good answers, BUT, the problem was that none of it was biblically correct. I had previously done a Hebrew word study on worship and was amazed at my findings, so I decided to share it with them. It was at that moment that I realized that the church really didn’t know the difference between praise and worship. As he called on me, I told him that the Hebrew word translated as “worship” was “Shachah”. Keeping in mind that Hebrew words are understood in the actions taken when doing something, I went on to tell them that the word “Shachah” is understood as “bowing one’s self low to the ground, as if to present a gift, or to prostrate one’s self, giving honor to another”. Needless to say, this definition, though Scripturally correct in every sense, was not received well, in that it went against preconceived notions of what others felt it should mean. Don’t get me wrong, I am sooooo not saying that you cannot lift up your hands and bless YHVH, or shout HalleluYah and offer a hand wave or whatever else you might find yourself doing. However, I am saying that according to the Bible, NOT THE CHURCH, but the Bible, that this is NOT worship, but rather “praise”. Uh oh, I think I kicked over some sacred cows again.
When looking at the word “shachah”, it brings to mind how people reacted when a king or some other person of royalty steps in the room. Everyone immediately bows low in homage, (as if to present a gift), showing honor to him. The Bible records that Moses, the great deliverer of Israel, upon seeing his father-in-law, came before him and “shachah”. Hmmmmm, Houston, we have a problem! Moses worshipped a man as well as YHVH. Ok, I’m being a bit messy now. According to the Hebrew, “shachah” is used the same way in both cases as it relates to YHVH and to man. It is merely the act of bringing one’s self low before another to pay homage. That being said, there is nothing wrong with “Shachah”-ing man, apart from YHVH. The problem does come in when we translate “shachah” to the english word “worship”. The english word worship, in part of its definition, is connected to the way we present ourselves before a deity. This being said, it paints a “one sided” picture of what Scripture is really conveying. This can be evidenced in how most biblical translations will render “shachah” when relating to YHVH or an angel as “worship”, but then when relating to man towards another man, this same word is rendered as “bowed down”, or some other variation. If you wanted to be fairly accurate, the word “shachah” would better be defined as “bowed down” with no distinction between it as it relates to both God and man. This is where we mix up paise and worship. In giving an eastern cultured word a western cultured definition, and then basing this same word solely on our definition, we miss the truth of it. When YHVH says to worship Him, He want’s us to bow low before Him, however, while He is saying “bow before Me”, the pastors are saying “raise your hands, bless His name, shout to The Lord”. Can you see the difference? YHVH is calling for “shachah” (worship), but instead we give Him praise. Again, that’s not to say praise is wrong, because we are to praise Him at all times, but there is a difference between the two, and we need to know them. As it relates to YHVH, we need to become true students of His word. Don't focus merely on translated words but rather let the word tell you what it wants for itself and not from another's personal view. In many cases, when understanding for yourself, you would be surprised at what you may find out. Many things that are incorporated into the faith, I have found are more traditionally inspired than biblically inspired. That being said, I have backed way from many of them that I may be more inline with the word and not additions to the word. After all that, one might ask, “does it really matter how we choose to worship? I mean YHVH is being lifted up in both cases”. My answer would be simple, “yes, it does”! Because there is a difference between “praise” and “worship”, knowing how we are to do both are imperative. If we have Scriptural examples on how to do a thing, what need do we have to change it up? The key is found in understanding the word praise. To praise is to lift one up above yourself. A good example would be this, say your favorite basketball player has the ball with 10 seconds on the clock. You are down by 2 points. With a few seconds on the clock, he throws and impossible shot, and swish! All net. He makes it, and the team wins by one point. Everyone lifts him up above them, congratulating him, cheering, shouting. This is praise. Looks a lot like what do in church but only we label it a worship when indeed it is praise. Again, praise is good, but sometimes YHVH wants us to get low before Him.
It still may not seem like a big deal to some, and that’s fine, I mean we all have a right to have our own opinion, however, as a student of the word, I prefer to align myself with what the word says as opposed to me trying to make the word align with my personal beliefs. And as always, thank you for reading this blog. I pray it was a blessing to you. Please share and like it as well. Blessings!
