While studying the Feast of Sukkot or Tabernacles, the word that stood out to me the strongest was the word “dwell”. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelite born shall dwell in booths: Leviticus 23:42 (KJV) When we look at this same verse in the CJSB, it reads: You are to live in sukkot for seven days; every citizen of Isra’el is to live in a sukkah.
Webster’s Dictionary defines dwell as “to make one’s home; reside”, and its synonyms include live, inhabit, stay, lodge, stop, settle, remain, live in, live at, continue, go on living, rent, tenant, have a lease on, make one’s home at, have one’s address at, keep a house, be at home. In looking at our own English definitions, we can see that both scripture translations are capturing the same idea. The sukkah was to be their home for that week, and they were to live, and dwell there.
When I began looking up the word dwell in the Hebrew, I went back to the Hebrew Word Pictures and saw this word in an entirely new light, and it has changed the way that I look at us dwelling with Him, Him dwelling with us, the idea of Him inhabiting or sitting down and dwelling our praise, but even more so, the idea of repentance. A word that is made up of five letters in English and only three in Hebrew is more vast than we can even imagine.
Yashab is spelled with the Hebrew letters yud (י), shin (ש), and bet (ב). Yud means hand or work, shin means teeth or consuming, and bet means a house. When we put these three letters together, the meaning becomes “the work of returning”, or “to have a house”. This provides a pretty clear view of our meaning of the word dwell. Psalm 27:4-8 provides a beautiful picture of dwelling with Adonai. [4] Just one thing have I asked of Adonai; only this will I seek: to live in the house of Adonai all the days of my life, to see the beauty of Adonai and visit in his temple. [5] For he will conceal me in his shelter on the day of trouble, he will hide me in the folds of his tent, he will set me high on a rock. [6] Then my head will be lifted up above my surrounding foes, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, sing praises to Adonai. [7] Listen, Adonai, to my voice when I cry; show favor to me and answer me. [8] “My heart said of you, ‘seek my face.’” Your face, Adonai, I will seek. I can not help but envision the beauty of the Feast of Sukkot encapsulated into everyday communion with Adonai when I read these verses.
Psalm 91 in its entirety is another beautiful picture of dwelling with Adonai. Verse 9 says, “For you have made Adonai, the Most High, who is my refuge, your dwelling-place.” Adonai is not just where I dwell, (to have a home), He is my refuge, my place of safety. I suppose that you can look at “refuge” as a safe room in your home. In the time of trouble, you run to that safe room and are provided protection from the enemy, the storm, from trouble.
Within the word yashab, dwell, is a word that unless you understand or study Hebrew or make a point to do word studies on Hebrew words that you are not going to see. Isaiah 57:14-15 reads, [14] Then he will say, “Keep building! Keep building! Clear the way! Remove everything blocking my people’s path!” [15] For thus says the High, Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy: “I live in the high and holy place but also with the broken and humble, in order to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the hearts of the broken ones.” Verse 14 is speaking of clearing away the evil inclination of your ways, removing the stones and stumbling blocks that will cause you to trip, it is speaking of repentance.
As we saw earlier, yashab is made of the letters yud, shin, and bet. In its original spelling, shin and bet spell the word shoov, which means repent or return. Shin again is teeth or consume, and bet a house, so when we put these images of what the letters mean together, we find this word means “Destroy the house” or “leave nothing behind.” I was taught repent means to turn around and go the other way. However, when we look at what the Hebrew says about it, it is more than going the opposite direction. It means to destroy the old house we lived in, along with everything in it. I pictured in my mind a house catching on fire and everything within consumed. With the old house destroyed, I cannot go back to it, because it no longer exists. Just like our sins when He casts them as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12) When that old life is burned away, and we return to Him, it says in Isaiah 61:3, [He will] provide for those in Tziyon who mourn, giving them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness planted by Adonai, in which he takes pride. I don’t know about you, but before Yeshua, I had a heavy spirit and was weighed down by the cares of this world, but when I destroyed that old house, I was given a cloak of praise, I was given the oil of gladness, I was given a new life!
As I was meditating on all of this, that when we destroy the old house, and we dwell with Him in the new, the scriptures that talk about how we are now the temple, the house where He dwells and some specific scriptures from the book of Matthew came to my mind. [12] Yeshua entered the Temple grounds and drove out those who were doing business there, both the merchants and their customers. He upset the desks of the money-changers and knocked over the benches of those who were selling pigeons. [13] He said to them, “It has been written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it into a den of robbers!” Matthew 21:12-13 I started thinking about myself as the house of prayer and the ways that I have often turned it into a den of robbers. I went back to the Old Testament to where Yeshua quoted this from. It is found in Jeremiah 7:11 Do you regard this house, which bears my name, as a cave for bandits?
I started thinking about myself, looking at the scripture, and how I regard myself. I bear His name, because it is only by the name of Yeshua that I am saved, but how do I live my daily life for Him? Think about any day of the week, except for the day you go to church. How do you fill your day? How much time do you spend with God throughout your day? When you wake up in the morning and get ready for work, go to your job, to the store, fixing dinner, household chores and yard work. By the time all the “have to do’s” are taken care of, is it “me time”? How much time do you spend on your phone, scrolling through all of the different forms of social media out there, playing the most current instant gratification game from the app store, catching up on the hours and hours of DVR’d shows that you haven’t made it to yet, or decided to sit down with a book? How many things do we do all day long that we don’t include God in? How many people do we talk to on any given day, and then how many minutes do we spend talking to Him? How many things are we letting turn what it supposed to be His temple, into a den of thieves? What robs us of our time with Him? Understand, I am not saying that we can’t do any of these things. What I’m saying is, He wants to be a part of all that we are doing. We can talk to Him, praise Him, thank Him as we do all of the different things throughout our day. He wants to dwell with us, and for us to dwell with Him. It’s why He created us! I for one, do not want to go back to the burned house and look through the ashes of that old sinful life. I want to walk forward and live in the new house He has created for me through Yeshua and live more abundantly. [16] Let the Word of the Messiah, in all richness, live (dwell) in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts. [17] That is, everything you do or say, do in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:16-17
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