The English word desert is a translation of the Hebrew term midbar. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance defines midbar as in the sense of driving; a pasture (that is, open field, whither cattle are driven); by implication a desert; also speech (including its organs): -desert, south, speech, wilderness. Midbar comes from the root word dabar which means to say, speak, be spokesman, subdue, talk, teach, tell. Learning from the root word dabar, to speak, and the word Bamidbar, in the wilderness, quickly shows that the Torah was spoken in the wilderness or desert! This lesson can be learned just from understanding the Hebrew word bamidbar or reading Numbers 1:1. Bamidbar or in the desert is the Hebrew name of the book of Numbers. Numbers is an English moniker derived from the Greek Septuagint and counting of Israel that takes place in the book. Why was the Torah given in the desert? To teach us that if a person does not surrender himself to it like the desert; he cannot merit the words of Torah. And to teach us that just as the desert is endless, so is the Torah without end, says one Rabbi. The desert is a place of desolation. Throughout the Bible the dangers of the midbar are mentioned. Hunger, thirst, wild animals and enemies lead to the midbar being described as wilderness, as land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, Yermiyahu / Jeremiah 2:6. YHWH took Israel through these dangers to teach them some lessons. Bnai Israel / the children of Israel had to learn to trust Abba, to obey His mitzvot, and depend totally upon Him. For YHWHs portion is his people; Yaacov is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, and beareth them on her wings: So YHWH alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him, Devarim / Deuteronomy 32:9-11. It seems that the midbar, the desert, is some type of training arena for the Almighty where He prepares them for The Promised Land. Wasnt Moshe too found in the desert? Did not Yshua spend time in the desert before His ministry began?
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:37:15 +0000
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