Blog 134. What is Your Walk?

Sometimes we have to discern our purpose in life, that has been given to us by God. It is not necessarily the most obvious, but may require prayer, meditation, and observation, looking at the world around us. If you are a parent, Scripture makes it clear that there is large purpose in parenting (at least temporarily, if not forever) – we have discussed some before, including Blog 91. Parapet Around Your Roof, which shares some comments about parenting. There have been other comments about parenting on the website which you may just need to search for. 

Parenting is very important to the LORD (יהוה), and is made very clear in many places – three of which I will briefly mention here. 

First is Genesis 18:19  ESV

19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Next is the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22. (Please read – this is a passage about setting priorities. It is important in parenting to “be the parent,” to be strong in standing for God’s way, rather than giving in to the child’s desires.

And next is from “the Shema,”

Deuteronomy 6:4-15  ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Though we often think of our purpose as our job, it is not necessarily so. God certainly gives us purpose. Read the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30; God gives us talents and anticipates that we will use them. It is very worthwhile, therefore, to spend time in discernment. 

God has blessed me with SO many blessings and opportunities in life, many “gifts” or “talents,” that make me want to fulfill whatever purpose it is that he has for me. I have not been given any “official title” of “watchman,” but I have been extremely blessed to receive both education and resources and the LORD’s very discernible inspiration in getting insight into Scripture that I never had before. Therefore I feel some compulsion, because of the Parable of the Talents and because of the Watchman discussion in Ezekiel 33, to share what I am learning. Beyond my sharing, I must simply leave it up to you to interpret and accept or reject. My responsibility is to share what I am given. 

Below is a passage from Ezekiel focusing on cognate permutations of the Hebrew word הלך “to walk,” EDBH definition הלך p.59 walk; progress step by step toward a goal;; move piecemeal (A61). We are used to such idioms in English as “that’s in her walk of life,” or “his walk of life.” Understand that “walk” not only means the physical act of putting one foot in front of the other, but also one’s “manner of living” (Webster). It is also used interchangeably with one’s path, or road or way. We’ve shared before here the “Doctrine of the Road,” taught to us by our headmaster. Before followers of the Teacher were called “Christians,” they were known as followers of “The Way” (see, e.g. Acts 19:9). Followers of other religions may follow a “path of enlightenment.” We know these usages. So, as you think of “walk” be aware of different levels of meaning. Walk and purpose are related. Sometimes how we are “walking” may take us away from our purpose. Sometimes we walk in our purpose. Think of the relationship of these words. This is very much why the people we spend time with are so very important because they may sustain our true purpose or they may tend to lead us away from our purpose. This is the “way” to be thinking as you read the passage. One of the words containing a cognate permutation of “הלך walk” is “המלך the king.” 

“The king” might be an actual King, as King David or as King Louis XIV. But we also all know of people in our lives who are not really a king but carry themselves in a “kingly” way, treating others as if they are “better.” They like to be treated like “royalty.” This, in Scripture, is often the picture of haughtiness. You might think in the Greek Scriptures of the Kings Herod.

Before I dive into the passage, I just share my methods here. The initial wording is straight from NKJV. Next is a more nearly literal translation. The wording I use is over 90% from the Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) apparatus with Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, from the Olive Tree Bible Study application. BDB is generally well accepted as a very reliable resource. Some words (most obvious to you will be my substitution of “measure of striving” for the word “all”) are taken from my own work, based upon EDBH and other sources, including Clementson who had been quoted here before. The difficulty in reading in English is most often in the order of words from the Hebrew. The order shared here is required in the process of our hidden word searches, and brings much insight, in and of itself. For anyone who has watched Star Wars and gotten used to the wording of Master Yoda (Hebrew ידע – to know; acquire knowledge), it won’t be too hard. That is his speech.

In addition to reading in the order actually written, while comparing with NKJV, also please look at the highlighted words/phrases. In this particular case we are looking for the hidden words paralleling הלך “walk.” I have shared the method for that process in the past two blogs – still discerning one aspect, for which here I show three examples of alternative highlighting. (The initial explanation is in Blog 131.) I have come very much to trust the technique, but you are certainly free to accept or reject it. Not only does it seem to “work” practically, but it fits with Scripture passages specifically pointing to what is “hidden” (other witnesses – examples in Ps51:6, “in the hidden you make me to know wisdom,” and Mt13:45-46, “pearl  of great price,” and Dt28:12 “The LORD will open to you his great treasure”).

So, with that, I leave you to read and interpret. I very much encourage you to make an interpretation for yourself. I will give my 2-cents’ worth at the end, but do not simply go by me. 

Ezekiel 17:11-21  NKJV

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 “Say now to the rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon. 13 And he took the king’s offspring, made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land, 14 that the kingdom might be brought low and not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand. 15 But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered?

16 ’As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke—with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. 17 Nor will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in the war, when they heap up a siege mound and build a wall to cut off many persons. 18 Since he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and in fact gave his hand and still did all these things, he shall not escape.’”

19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “As I live, surely My oath which he despised, and My covenant which he broke, I will recompense on his own head. 20 I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and try him there for the treason which he committed against Me. 21 All his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken.”

• A more literal translation:

• Some individual vocabulary words for הלך “walk” ⦿ 
• אלי to/toward me
• מלכה her king
• אליו to/toward him
• המלך the king
• מלוכה kingship/royalty 
• לקח take/took/receive
• מלאך angel/messenger/
• קהל company/assembly/and LXX equivalent of church/ ἐκκλησία
• איל ram, deer, hart, oak/terebinth, strength

⦿ Think of this as “my walk” being similar to these words. How is your “walk” defined? What does it say to you?

😉 I took this on one of my ”walks.”

This next verse from the Psalms is important, I think, in trying to understand God’s “walk,” his major role. It is not that he is not also a God for us as individuals, but in his position of sitting on the throne of the universe, and for our world, he must attempt to maintain order by way of the nations. He chose Abraham to be a father of many nations and gave direction. The cycles, the rise and fall of nations, follow the same cycles as we see in Genesis 8:22. It is part of his design. There are built-in stopping points and restarting points. These are affected by covenants. We see these in passages we have covered before, Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and many more, the waxing and waning, kings and nations. 

If our country is seen as having been based upon a covenant with God, and our prosperity has been increased by his sustenance, have we maintained our side of the covenant, as is seen in our introductory passages, or have we failed as many of the kings in TaNaKH did? Will we reap the repercussions of “the curse” because we ignored/despised the curse, saying it was not real? Each covenant carries with it a blessing and a curse. Have we already begun to see the effects of that in turning away from the LORD? Is there any way to reverse that trend? These are not questions for me to answer, but for each of us to answer. We must seek answers in God himself and in his Word. Are we a “rebellious house?” Can we break a covenant and escape? God’s role as “parent,” both over us as individuals, and over nations, requires a level of “toughness.”

Who we are, our purpose, we might see in some of the roles, “walks” listed above, may be able to have some impact, if we fulfill our purposes, which means first discerning the “manner of living” that we find ourselves in. This is the LogAndSpeck moment, when we must discern the logs in our own eyes. When we walk through life, are we a haughty king or are we a servant king? Are we “takers לקח,” or do we give? And, as stated in the introduction, if we are parents, there is a very clear defined purpose in Scripture. My own personal interpretation (accept or not) is that anyone raising children in this current age had better be raising children with two thoughts in mind, first, very strong children because as I interpret the above, and much of Scripture, it is likely to get worse before it gets better; and second, servant children, ones willing to wash another’s feet. Feet are for walking. One major purpose for many of us is “parent.” I have updated the Appendices (9&10) for parents, “Mother” and “Father” because of ongoing insights. 

For “Father”

פח/אב cognate permutations (Lovingly instill restraint; hide/reveal)

For “Mother”

מה/אם cognate permutations were combined with חן/נח cognate permutations with resultant (positioned for influence; direct to/target goal)

These roles must function together for children to become effective adults.

God’s, of course, includes both parental roles.

Is there a “national purpose,” as well? Is a nation a haughty king or a servant king? If a nation has been blessed by the LORD, do they have the obligations, as do parents, being positioned for influence, to lovingly instill restraint? Have we at all done that, or have we let our desires drive us? Do we think so highly of ourselves that we believe we can break the covenant and escape? God’s Creation does not work that way. The cycles were God’s way of lovingly instilling restraint rather than wiping out civilization with a flood once again. If we have no self-restraint, we will be restrained, gently or not-so-gently. Babylon is potentially in everyone’s future.

See a follow-up in Ezekiel 36:22-29. It is not good to profane the name (character) of the LORD. Our purpose should be to project his character rather than to profane it.

That is my sharing what I see. Your choice whether to accept or reject.

Ⓒ Copyright LogAndSpeck May 2023. Please cite if copying.