#35. Romans 1:28-31 – The Hebrew Crash Course Concerning Unrighteousness, Part 4
Part II: The Conduct of Humanity
And according as they do not test God, to have Him in recognition, God
gives them over to a disqualified mind, to do that which is not befitting, filled with all injustice, wickedness,
evil, greed, distended with envy, murder, strife, guile, depravity, whisperers,
vilifiers, detesters of God, outragers, proud, ostentatious, inventors of
evil things, stubborn to parents, unintelligent, perfidious, without
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful…
Mem/Outragers
The thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “mem,” and makes the ‘m’ sound. This letter, in Paleo-Hebrew, represents water. Water, in scripture, carries two meanings. First and foremost, water is represented by the Word of God – Christ (John 1:1, Heb. 4:13.) Water in scripture is most commonly correlated with the Jewish custom of baptism (which is the word baptizo, and even carries the elements of “DIP-izing.” To dip. God’s funny.) One would be cleansed through water. No, not literally. This was a ceremonial observation due to one’s spirit being unclean. I cover the term more thoroughly in a future article concerning Romans 6:3, so I won’t seek to prove the position beyond a citation now, but a literal baptism, the dipping into clean water, was itself a metaphor for the spirit being cleaned by Christ’s declarations (Eph. 5:26.)
The
second figurative use of water is secondary, but no less identifiable. It is through
the Word by which the waters of the earth were cohered and
transposed to form dry land (2 Pet. 3:5.) When we go back and
observe Genesis 1:1-2, we read that
In a beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. As for the
earth, it became a chaos and vacant, and darkness
was over the surface of the abyss. And the spirit of Elohim was vibrating over
the surface of the waters.
With this verse, we have a clear correlation between chaos and water. Sure enough, the first earth, the one mentioned in Genesis 1:1, which cohered out of water and through water, per Peter’s claim, is chaotic by nature. This earth was then flooded (2 Pet. 3:6,) causing it to fold in upon itself (as chaos does.)
This earth, the earth that we are living on now, carries a mixture of the water and the land, for man to traverse. This is the period of time where water runs through and around the land, continually irrigating it through the condensation cycle.
Let me return to that thought in a moment. This entire idea fits perfectly with the theme we are currently considering in Romans 1, that sin is a backdrop for the evangel. Chaos dominates over our lives, and this humbles us (Ecc. 1:13.) The problem of evil is resolved when we take a bird’s eye view to God’s timeline of events, as well as His ultimate goals. To us, this chaos, this indignation that we are studying throughout Romans 1, is unsolvable. As you’ve read through this series, I’m sure you’ve slowly begun to observe much of Romans 1 throughout your everyday life, both internally and externally. There’s no way for us to perform a race-wide purge of this irreverence.
Not one can, of their own volition, choose to stop worshipping dying things. Just ask the Christian religion, who believes that Jesus is God. Yes, their god literally died on the job.
Not one can, of their own volition, reverse the irreparable damage that has been done to the heart of the race – the female. The woman’s natural use has undeniably been twisted beyond all recognition, reaching all-time lows by December of 2024.
And we, as a race, have no ability to eradicate the twenty-two vices which Paul lists here. There are many of us who do not even care, and in fact enjoy many of the twenty-two vices Paul considers.
Yet the truth is there, all along, guiding the discourse. “They are made stupid,” in verse 22. “God gives them over,” in verses 24, 26, and 28. “The deception must be,” in verse 27. God uses this chaos. He employs it – and why? Because of the very concept we were considering earlier in Romans 1:14-16 – that this sin is the necessary backdrop for the good news that God would like to share to be displayed! The stage had to be set for the actors. Their directionless manner is secretly organized by God. He needed a foil to refute and challenge His will. Like any good storyteller, God used the second earth (2 of 3, by the way) to display the conflict between righteousness and unrighteousness.
And what good this will inevitably produce! Rainstorms are dreary, but melancholy. Rainbows are its outcome. Dewey fields. The wonderful ozone smell. Everything becomes brighter. The soil becomes more fertile. Nature is brought to a better place when its environment is soaked (okay, not everywhere on earth, you New Orleans readers, but you’re kind of the exception that proves the rule. Everything is necessarily contrasted and balanced like this. Whatever! You get the figure.)
With
the rain, we see that the chaos is temporary – which is exactly
what God says concerning this earth! It passes by (Matt. 5:18, Mark
13:31.) Peter tells us that the earth is ready to combust, being stored
with fire 2 Pet. 3:7-12!) We also read from Peter that a new earth is
on the way (2 Pet. 3:13, Is. 65:17.) This earth is finally given some
imagery in the last two chapters of the Bible – Revelation 21 and 22.
And what is the first detail that John provides for us concerning the
new earth?
And I perceived a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven
and the former earth pass away, and the sea is no more.
Wow. The sea is no more. The ocean will not be. Why? Why is this so important to tell us first and foremost? What’s God’s beef with sailors, huh?
The water here represents chaos, in relation to the earth. It will be no more. We will, at last, be in the third act of God’s story – the resolution. At the beginning, the entire earth is made out of and through water. Yet by the end, the entire earth has no ocean. The land reigns, and New Jerusalem can be established in all its glory.
Let’s go back to the “mem.” The mem is a powerful letter, then, for it establishes not only the word of God, but the first fact from Paul’s letters that He chooses to teach on (lamed,) that we must learn (lamed) in order to apprehend this evangel: that God is the One telling the story, not our individual wills. He is using the chaos to lead us to a better place – which we will consider when we reach the “tav.”
How may we contrast this from Paul’s list? With outrage, of course! We detest God, remember? We do not heed the teaching of His authority over evil with any sort of decency. We immediately assume that it either means He enacts/loves evil, or that He’s “not able” to defeat evil. We think God has it wrong. Evil is emotionally taxing for us, so we assume that, if God controls evil, that He is like a kid boiling an anthill. We don’t see its positive impacts on our spirit in the long run, so we shamefully spite God instead of hearing Him explain Himself through Paul’s evangel. Worse still, many men have come to straight up deny God on the matter, removing His authority over evil entirely to rationalize the hardships in their lives.
This
is entirely emotional reasoning, simply because they do not maintain the
specifics of the bigger picture, simply not seeing the purpose in
conflict (Luke 18:31-34 is a great on-topic example of this.) Not that I can’t
understand, of course (I’m stuck in the matrix too, guys, and I’m learning
right along with you.) But these are indeed the facts of the matter – God has
given men over to outrage at the truth, as they are unable to
understand life’s value (Gen. 3:22-24.)
Nun/Proud
The “nun” is the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and makes the ‘n’ sound. In Paleo-Hebrew, this letter represents life, and is shaped like a sperm (this is interesting, as the ancient Hebrews had no ability to actually see the microscopic sperm cells.) We see this letter begin the phrase “living soul,” found in Genesis 1:20 – the very first use of the term, speaking of the abundance of life created in the atmosphere and the water.
This letter’s connection to Christ is clear – Christ brings life. This letter also connects with the previous one, being that this life is brought forth through the Word of God. We will be considering the life that this One brings throughout chapters 5-8 of Romans. Romans 5:1 begins by telling us that we are able to appreciate the truths in the following portion of the letter because we have been justified (kaf.) We can see, then, the truth taking its course through the believer, as they are unfolded to him or her. We will see, when studying this portion of Romans, exactly how this truth brings gratitude and humility in our lives.
We can contrast this “nun” with the fourteenth issue from Paul – proud. This one’s easy as well. Its elements are “OVER-APPEARING,” or, “appearing as more than you really are.” Every use of the term in scripture paints this picture – man is proud of himself, which is the mind’s trick to convince them that they, themselves, have achieved or done more than what they really have done.
In this sense, it’s rather self-inflicted, and accomplishes nothing. It’s not life-giving, but life-abusing. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most prominent themes concerning our fleshy conduct in life. Men are proud – that is, falsely confident in their perceived accomplishment – of literally anything. Did you open a restaurant? Proud. Did you impregnate your wife? Proud. Did you beat a videogame? Proud. Did you pass a class? Proud. Did you give money to the church? Proud. It’s virtually inescapable in any avenue of life; I’d be wasting my time trying to explain the obvious to the rational folk out there.
Some may argue that these accomplishments are not worthwhile if you don’t get to experience this proud attitude afterward. But I will rebut that feeling accomplished is not the same as feeling proud, falsely correlates success with achievements, and sets billions more up for failure and low self-esteem. God is not saying to remove the sense of accomplishment, but to recognize Who is enabling you to accomplish anything, which is Him. It’s a realization that the accomplishment is happening, while the One accomplishing receives the credit.
Pride is an over-appearance for this very reason – you act as though you actually accomplished what would be impossible apart from God, Who gave you the ability to learn, grow, or conquer your goals.
Unfortunately, we are living in an era where this will not be understood, and fought at every turn. I attribute this, in part,S to the relative fact that almost every bloody advertisement plays on this very insecurity in man! The goal is to get you to become proud (not confident, or at peace with, but proud,) of their product, their product, and their product – so much so that you would be less “proud” without their product. The lack of product generates the want, so that you can get that “proud” feeling. The advertisers don’t care for your well-being – they fight relentlessly to ingrain your mind with this concept.
It’s everywhere, man. Social media, almost every business, every school, every country, and more. This is poison to our veins. It effectively destroys genuine, healthy living (“nun,”) replacing it with a foundation of dissatisfaction and need (led, if you recall, by greed, the “dalet” of man.)
We may connect the previous word, outrage, with pride in another simple connection – we are all familiar with becoming outraged toward things which we cannot control. It is so easy to become proud of… well, any accomplishment with such outrageous odds against us as a race. I mean, honestly, who doesn’t appreciate a good underdog story? The Empire was outrageous, so Luke was not only accomplished, but proud when one torpedo decimated their superpower. The matrix was outrageous, so Neo was not only accomplished, but proud when he learned how to step outside the box.
Christ’s attitude toward “life-giving” is the opposite – instead of a proud, boastful attitude, He was thankful. He did not bring Himself back from the dead, as the already-proud communities would tell you He did. There are plenty of verses which do not attribute Christ with His own resurrection (for He would not be able to resurrect Himself if He were not alive.) He is resurrected by the Father, God (Acts 2:32, Rom. 6:4, 8:11, Gal. 1:1, 1 Pet. 1:3, 3:18.) Not once does the Bible say that Jesus raised His own spirit from among the dead. In John 2:19-21, Jesus does say that He raised His body up (which one does when they are, get this, standing up,) but nowhere is His spirit’s return considered to be His own deed.
The Son is not proud, instead attributing everything to the Father (John 5:19, 10:29, 14:28.) The Father, in return, gives the Son all (John 13:1-2.) The point is humility. Humility is pride’s antidote – to recognize that your success is a blessing, as is your failure, for your growth. This humble disposition is proof of life (Phil. 2:5-11,) whereas pride is proof of imminent destruction (Prov. 16:18, Rom. 1:32.)
Samekh/Ostentatious
Our fifteenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is “samekh.” This letter makes the ‘s’ sound in Hebrew. In Paleo-Hebrew, this letter is usually pictured as a pillar or column. The letter itself, as you can see on the left, is circular. The pictures alone give us an image of protection or support. There are terms in Hebrew, such as savav, “surround,” and saviv, “all-around,” which begin with the letter “samekh,” to highlight this point.
Another letter which highlights the complement between believers and Christ – Christ can protect, but this quality is useless if there is no one to protect. When we reach Romans 6, we will receive the great truth that we are joined to Christ’s spirit – which imbibes us with His allotment (which, in case you don’t know, is all – John 13:3, 1 Cor. 3:21-23.) It is this joining to Christ’s spirit which provides us the proper protection. This theme is further highlighted for us in Ephesians, where we read of our sealing with the holy spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13-14,) and the armor of God, which we are to “put on,” documented in Ephesians 6.
This is contrasted well with Paul’s fifteenth gut punch: ostentatious, or boasting. Yes, the issue of being proud of yourself leads to this… ugly demeanor. Yeah, we all do it. Yeah, it sucks. It’s pretentious, coming across as a compensation for something we did not effect. When we falsely attribute things to ourselves, ostentatiousness will ensue. The pride leads to vain boasting.
And this too parallels distinctly with the Hebrew alphabet! This vain boasting is a defense mechanism, designed to protect our fragile egos. We support our dying flesh with our vain boasts, expecting success therein. Some employ this better than others, but it’s icky either way. It’s our wall – built around us, to protect us from harm. We believe, by boasting, that we are magically
Ayin/Inventors
of Evil Things
With that, we reach the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet: the ayin.
This one is silent. It makes no sound – its letter is highly introspective. In Paleo-Hebrew, this letter is represented by a big ass eye, representing awareness – experiencing something. We can see this well in the calligraphy to the side – our two eyes are each point on the letter, and the connecting lines beneath it are the optic nerves which connect them to our brain. Of course, this is not how the ancient Hebrews, who had no knowledge of such things, perceived the letter, but the “eye” of the Paleo-Hebrew is still designed to represent awareness, and this figure, as with the others, is easily adapted to Christ in the scriptures.
We can infer, then, in being aware of God, the Creator of His chosen Hebrew language, that Deity knows what man does not. Our lack of knowledge provides the great foil for God to practically reveal Himself.
With its shape, the letter invites you not only to experience, but to discover the meaning of the experience – the root of a matter (2 Cor. 5:18, Rom. 11:36, Eph. 1:9-11.) We’re looking at a letter which shows the connection between the brain and the physical body part. The brain tells the eyes what the eyes are seeing. When this occurs for us, physically, it is an imperfect process. Oftentimes, our eyes are lying to us. Anyone who sees optical illusions, or has stared at the center of one of those striped, spinning circles, or has taken shrooms, or watches CNN will tell you that the eyes are hardly to be trusted at all times, and can deceive the brain by giving it false information. The brain generally cannot handle this, and as a result we interpret information differently.
Christ, however, is not parted. As we know, Jesus Christ is our “Brain,” and we are His “body.” The two are one, spiritually. In this, we yet again find the meaning of the letter through the inseparable bond between Christ and His body. With Christ, there is no such miscommunication between the Brain and the body parts (1 Cor. 2:14-16.) This is a spiritual joining, as we have been noting throughout Romans 1, and not a literal, physical joining. In Christ, we can perceive through His eyes (metaphorically speaking – Rom. 8:9-16.) We receive His experience of suffering (Rom. 8:17-18.)
In this, we receive His silence – a
measure of His shame and humiliation in the innocence procured by God’s grace.
We begin to understand Christ’s shameful charge, prophesied in Isaiah 53:7…
Hard pressed is He, and He Himself is humbled, yet He is not opening
His mouth; like a flockling to slaughter is He fetched, and as an ewe is mute
before her shearers, He is not opening His mouth.
…and fulfilled in Matt.
26:59-63–
Now the chief priests and the elders and the whole Sanhedrin sought
false testimony against Jesus, so that they should be putting Him to death, and
they found it not. At many false witnesses approaching, they found it not. Yet
subsequently two false witnesses, approaching, said, “He averred, ‘I am able to
demolish the temple of God and, during three days, to rebuild it.’”
And, rising, the chief priest said to Him, “Are you answering nothing?
What are these testifying against you?”
Yet Jesus was silent.
In this, we see the humble awareness of our Lord in His silence – just as the letter “ayin” conveys. By imparting measures of His sufferings, God demonstrates the power of this moment by keeping us in Christ in lowly and helpless positions on earth (1 Cor. 1:22-25, 2:6-7,) whilst simultaneously enlightening the eyes of our hearts (Eph. 1:18) by giving us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the realization of God (Eph. 1:17.) In this, we too are conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:30,) learning meekness in the face of humiliation, and honesty in the face of shame.
This level of honor, this lack of defilement, was likely surreal. But it is only in these terrible moments of silence that we may experience the true power of His protection (“samekh,” the prior letter.) He is not merely protecting us on a physical level, but, because of His spirit in us, the spiritual powers that be cannot lay claim to our place. We are free from these powers, and they are much greater and darker than any force on earth.
How dark? Well, let’s contrast the sixteenth letter here with Paul’s sixteenth headache: inventors of evil things. Isn’t that sweet? The destructive creator produces destructive objects, unable to save them from time’s corrosion. This decay is present in every one of our creations, for they are made of impermanent materials. Inevitably, our inventions and innovations deteriorate.
You might tell me that there are plenty of good inventions created by mankind. And I agree! There have. Planes get us from point A to point B at a much faster pace. So do vehicles. Videogames are entertaining. Buildings are impressive and tall! And the refrigerator is one of the most convenient innovations known to man. On a more serious note, advances in medical practices, technology, and engineering preserve more lives than at any other point in history.
But we must realize that we are speaking on a large, large scale. We must set up elaborate systems that only last a few hundred years, and only benefit a minority. This is nothing compared to the grand kingdom of God, which spans two earths and ends in peace and tranquility over all (Matt. 5:18, 1 Cor. 15:22-28, 2 Pet. 3:7-12.) Our machinery breaks down. Our medical advances don’t restore life to our dying flesh – the curse has never been reversed, and our destination is still the grave. We haven’t solved our core issue with our inventions.
Since we are dying, our inventions are imperfect. An imperfect thing cannot generate a perfect thing. There may be care to or for the thing, a sentimentality that gives it meaning, or a gift made out of love for others. These are indeed true! But we cannot act as though these gifts are eternal. We cannot pretend that we are perfect, strive for it as we might. This is an attribute of God alone.
(Side note: this is part of the reason God must save all of mankind. If the life that He created does not survive, then His creation, too, is an evil invention, for it successfully destroyed the life which He created apart from His intention; that is, creation is out of His control.)
And that’s kind of the point of the “ayin,” isn’t it? To point out that we should be aware of things beneath the surface level? On their surface, our modern inventions are beneficial for our flesh. But many have swiftly proven themselves corruptible (the blue light on our screens destroy our eyes, YouTube algorithms have decimated our attention spans, and modern technology has enabled more abuse than ever before.) And still others simply fall away, no longer useful or necessary. The memory of their value becomes their only feature. Their practicality, over generations, is lost.
In Christ, we receive a spiritual insight into the fact of
the matter: life in Christ is the only lasting blessing.
It is the only object which blesses us perpetually, and is the only way to
righteously appreciate all other blessing in its proper place (Rom. 6:8-11, 1
Cor. 3:21-23.) Apart from Him, we would be left in a decaying world of our own
relative design.
(to be continued)
- GerudoKing
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