As I ponder the word believe, I am impressed
with this word as the central point in the scriptural necessity
for salvation and access to the Grace of God. After all, is not
this an action of the mind? Consider how powerful this word is
which derives form a source called “faith” given to each person.
We read in Hebrews chapter eleven about all those who died
without having received the promise, such as Abraham. Our access
to God’s grace is modeled from and is a result of Abraham’s
belief in God’s promises. In fact, Abraham’s belief is the
single thing that was used by God as criteria for judging
Abraham a righteous man.
I know what you are thinking, “it is not that simple”. I must
point out that it indeed is not simple in execution. I also must
tread upon a widely held concept that the only thing you have to
do to obtain salvation is to “believe” or accept the existence
of God in Christ and the Word of God (well, maybe parts of it
anyway, according to some). There is a religious proclivity in
our age for the fast and simple solutions which are more
digestible for a microwave society that prefers a diet of
lightweight over the more important and thought provoking and
life changing aspects of reality. God’s word is a deep, deep
source of the most powerful and life changing information on
this planet we call Earth. It is a source of folded knowledge
where the revelation of the truth is a function of the Spirit of
God working through us as we read its pages of reality. After
obtaining a kernel of knowledge from a passage of scripture, we
are sometimes surprised that another period of prayerful
contemplation brings new insight into the meaning and relevance
of that same passage. People nowadays want the condensed version
of the Bible.
Let me provide a set of words that are derived from the Hebrew
word aman translated in
the Old Testament. This word “believe” is an abstract word,
which is not a function of the five senses. All Hebrew concepts
are derived from concrete concepts that are a result of an
action or thought from the five senses. Aman is a
parent root verb that means to support and is translated in
various places as:
believe, assurance, faithful, sure, established, trust,
verified,
steadfast, continuance, father, bring up, nurse, be nursed,
surely,
stand fast, and trustworthy (or trusty).
And bring your younger brother
to me and he will
be a support (aman) for
your words and you will not die and they did this.
Genesis 42:20
My mercy will guard him forever
and my covenant
will support (aman) him.
Psalms 89:28
And I will fasten him as a nail
in a sure place (aman);
and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Isaiah 22:23
The word nail in this passage is translated from a Hebrew word
for tent peg and means literally,
faith.
A tent peg supports the tent even in a strong wind when it is
planted in hard ground. In this way, Abraham supported God:
And he brought him forth
abroad, and said, Look
now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them: and he said unto him, So
shall thy seed be. And he believed (aman) in the
LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
While this appears at first to agree with a modern Greek concept
of believe, it begins to be apparent that believe has a
different meaning in the context of the different applications
of the word aman, particularly in support of God.
If we examine this promise of Abraham repeated to Isaac,
Abraham’s son, we see what is implied by the word believe:
And I will make thy seed to
multiply as the stars
of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these
countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham
obeyed (shama) my voice,
and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Gen 26:24,25.
This word, shama, is a
child root of the word aman and is used as a synonym. It
literally means to hearken and it is used in this passage to
indicate that Abraham heard and responded to God’s voice. It
means to pay heed and react or respond to what is heard. In this
sense, the word for believe is a synonym to the word obey or
hearken. This is a literal synonym, as is shown in another
passage which relates them via the classical Hebrew literary
method of repeated statements with synonyms for emphasis:
And Moses answered and said,
But, behold,
they will not believe (aman)
me, nor hearken
(shaman) unto my voice:
for they will say, The
LORD hath not appeared unto thee. Exodus 4:1
It is obvious that what Isaac was told defines Abraham’s belief.
Abraham hearkened unto the LORD and obeyed his voice and kept
his statutes. Believe is a verb that implies an action other
than a mental impression that God is real. The Hebrew mind uses
the word believe to imply a lifestyle of actions that suggest
that a person travels a path given by that which is believed in,
and supports the perspective of that which is believed in. The
word believe in God means to support with your actions.
Since belief comes from faith, the passage describing the tent
peg is giving us the definition: To be fixed in belief as a nail
driven in the hard ground. This is why Paul writes from a
reference in Habukkuk 2:4:
Behold, his soul which is
lifted up is not upright in him:
but the just shall live by his faith.(
emunah to be set firmly
in place).
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith: as it is written. The just shall
live by faith. Romns 1:7
The Hebrew concept of faith is to be a strong fixed support:
But Moses' hands were heavy;
and they took
a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon;
and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one
on the one side, and the other on the other side;
and his hands were steady (emunah) until the going down
of the sun.
So Paul writes:
Watch ye, stand fast in the
faith, quit you like men, be strong. I Cor 16:13
When we believe, we live as the scripture demands: a holy life
that is sanctified ( set aside or purchased with a price for a
special purpose) by the Spirit. Holiness is a product of
believing, and the Love of God is a manifestation in our life of
salvation. Easy "believism" that does not require or manifest a
change in how you live after salvation has done nothing to
support God. You must learn the traditions of the Word that
produce a way of life that others will recognize in you. They
will be able to watch your actions, words, and decisions and say
"they are believers in God".
John 3:16 is a very general statement that summarizes what
happens to a man who becomes a believer in Jesus:
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I end this dissertation with these words from Paul that
summarize for me the meaning of believing in God through faith:
But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren,
stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word, or our epistle. II Thes. 2:13-15
Believe the Word by living the life. Live to show faith by the
works of your life.
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