It appears that sometimes there are so many connections in a verse, that I can’t go beyond a focus just on one word. Today, we will look at this word, and hopefully eventually be able to put it into context.
⦁ Genesis 25:5-6
5 And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. 6 But Abraham gave gifts (h4979. מַתָּנָהmaṯânâ) to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.
You will likely see that several of these blogs will be talking about “our perceptions” and how they are different from the perception of God. At all times we must keep in mind:
⦁ Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
⦁ Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
⦁ Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
- All else must revolve around this statement. Things we may see as evil may well prosper us, not harm us, give us hope and a future. To me, Jeremiah 29:11 connects very well with 1 Corinthians 10:13.
⦁ 1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No resting has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able, but with the testing will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Let’s talk first about the idea we were discussing with Midian, by way of Jethro/Yitro, which is that we get from our family, those in whose house/tent we dwell, and especially our parents, a large portion of who we are to become, our traits, our character. The entire idea was focused on in the Genesis 18:19 discussion,
⦁ Genesis 18:19
19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
- Children and household have instilled within them the traits of the parents, and others in the household. These influences, be they positive or negative, are the molding hands of the LORD upon us. We begin to see things in those around us that we want to emulate, and things we want to avoid. The reason the parents are so very important is that their influence begins on day one. Things we cannot even bring to conscious memory shape us. Recall our investigation of mother and father, seen in the Appendices.
- That idea was expanded and reinforced in our Tent discussion last time with Shem, Japheth, and Canaan playing roles. Shem and Japheth learn something by seeing Canaan serve, as well as influencing one another, all in close proximity. Canaan is shaped not only by the oath placed upon him by Noah, but by how he is treated by Shem and Japheth.
The next approach, for our “multiple witnesses,” will be to look at the different potential perspectives within the Hebrew itself, the actual lettering.
Genesis 25:6
6 וְלִבְנֵ֤י הַפִּֽילַגְשִׁים֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לְאַבְרָהָ֔ם נָתַ֥ן אַבְרָהָ֖ם מַתָּנֹ֑ת וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֞ם מֵעַ֨ל יִצְחָ֤ק בְּנוֹ֙ בְּעוֹדֶ֣נּוּ חַ֔י קֵ֖דְמָה אֶל־אֶ֥רֶץקֶֽדֶם׃
The word is מתנה. The plural is מתנת.
From Appendix 5 – ● Where מ reflects נ ● – One of the entries is:
㉓
H5414. נָתַן nāthan verb (to give, to grant, to put, to hand over)
⇕
H4979. מַתָּנָה mattānāh fem. noun (gift)
- This occurs because נתן is one of those “weak” verbs, and the initial נ is dropped. And recall that מ is p.299 that which emanates from an object or person.
נתן shows up often simply as תן.
There are different kinds of gifts:
Could be מה “what?” + תן as above
Sometimes people, in my experience, do question “giving,” wondering if there are expectations that come with the giving.
And another combination would be ת “the mark of” + מנה, which totally fits thiscontext.
I will share with you one more combination. As a preface, I will simply point out that that a “gift” can be seen from the perspective of the receiver or of the giver. We will walk through some Scriptural examples. It may be interpreted differently in different contexts, through different eyes. We are going to call this one “pain of death,” מת + נה. I show מתה and נהה, but look at the variants as well:
Hopefully by the time we’ve discussed, you will see why I called it what I did. And you might certainly interpret otherwise.
- If we look from the perspective of one giving, the Scriptural message is that a true gift is one that really “hurts;” it is sacrificial. That is the basis of the some of the offerings, “giving” to God. It takes from something meaningful to you and gives it away, voluntarily. We spoke of this before when covering the Tabernacle. Notice “gives willingly with the heart:”
Exodus 25:1-2
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering.
- The example seen in the Greek Scriptures that helps clarify the picture.
Luke 21:1-4
1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”
- From the perspective of the receiver, and not saying every gift is such, but see these thoughts with examples.
- Gifts have a tendency to lead to our own personal excesses. We’ve spoken many times of Solomon/Shlomo. He asked for understanding and discernment.
1 Kings 3:7-14
7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
- This example works not only with understanding Solomon’s future excesses, but it also fits with our earlier discussion of expectations coming along with gifts. Here the expectations were spelled out. Shlomo’s failure to live up to the expectations AND his excesses, resulted in his nature being passed along to his son, Rehoboam, whose actions led to the division of the kingdom, as it remains divided today. The “pain of death” for many, many, both literal death, and the thought reflected in מנה of living on, yet in a state less than the former glory, which is one of those painful “weaning” transitions, “the pain of death” to our souls.
- Recall we spoke earlier of prayers that are answered even when they are not part of “the natural,” and we spoke of common examples being barren women and prayers for children. A good example is Elkanah, Hannah, and Samuel:
1 Samuel 1:4-11
4 And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7 So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.
8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
9 So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the LORD. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. 11 Then she made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”
- Hannah followed through on her oath
1 Samuel 1:21-23
21 Now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the LORD and remain there forever.”
23 So Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him. Only let the LORD establish his word.” Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
•••
1 Samuel 1:24-28
24 Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered a bull, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, “O my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the LORD. 27 For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of him. 28 Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.
•••
1 Samuel 2:18-19
18 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, even as a child, wearing a linen ephod. 19 Moreover his mother used to make him a little robe, and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
- While a beautiful example, Samuel having been a true blessing to The Hebrew people and to us, Hannah relived the anguish of giving up her son yearly at the time of sacrifice. A voluntary offering. Definitely from the heart, the “pain of death.”
- We could also make brief mention of Rebekah, but recall this is a very, very long history in the Torah and ongoing still today.
Genesis 25:19-23
19 This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac. 20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. 21 Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said to her:
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”
- The other thought to pass along as a “pain of death,” is seen in Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, and will be shared in regard to our opening verse, as well.
- First example will be again regarding Esau and Jacob. Read Genesis 25:29-34, and Genesis 27 in its entirety. See that all that was originally Esau’s by natural birthright ended up with Jacob. Esau ended with a blessing of sorts, a “gift” in some was similar to that mentioned of Abraham’s “other sons,” to a different “country” (h0776. אֶרֶץ ’ereṣ). This served as a “pain of death” to Esau, making him to feel in anguish. And he expresses that anguish as a sharing of the “pain of death” with his brother. (And don’t forget we learned from looking at Cain and Abel, we are our brother’s keeper.)
- In the Greek Scriptures:
Luke 12:13-15
13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
- It is our own hubris, our own covetousness that brings upon us the “pain of death.” It is the humbling, the humiliation in our eyes, of the “other” getting “more than me,” that is so painful to us, also feeling like we are “living on” as an insignificant person. This, this is the pain of death, even if we live.
- Shall we give a modern example? Our entire world has just come through a pandemic. Life may never be the same again as it was before the pandemic. Certainly that seems to be true in the U.S. we miss what we had before. We went through a painful weaning process. We lost loved ones; services are not the same as they were before; money does not buy what it did before. For some it was literally the pain of death, for some a death of a part of our soul, our desires, our satisfaction.
- But in any way that this pandemic has drawn us closer to one another, showing us that we are all in this boat together, it is a gift. In any way that it has drawn us closer to God, it is a gift, because that is our purpose in life, to love one another and to love God. Remember:
⦁ Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
- In the blessing given to Esau, in Genesis 27:37-40, the tenor of the blessing is that it will make him strong. Such is true with Abraham’s other sons. The “fatness of the land,” Scripturally and in life, tends to weaken us both physically and spiritually.
- But there is the other side of the coin we will need to talk about, regarding responsibility, mentioned before. The one with the greater portion is the one given the greater responsibility. We spoke of the firstborn getting the “double portion,” but also carrying the responsibility of carrying on the tradition. It is a burden (burden סבל we have yet to get to), a load to be carried.
Luke 12:48 (read context 12:35-48)
48 ••• For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
The “blessing” is a double portion and a responsibility. The “gift” is a feeling of insignificance, a “pain of death.” We must learn to see that each carries a pain of existence, and the pain of existence, the “pain of death,” should draw us closer together. The Log we must remove from our own eyes, rich and poor alike, greater and lesser alike, strong and weak alike. The gift of existence is the shared “pain of death,” each one looking somewhat different, yet all being the same in the end. As Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:18-19, “the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same.” We wither as the grass.
This should move us closer to our other topics, סבל, other parts of the referent verseGenesis 25:6, life circumstances, תמים, and Hagar הגר. And eventually, to the Holy Mountain.
Ⓒ copyright LogAndSpeck January 2023. Please cite if copying.