Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Female): Stay tuned as we talk about Jehovah, God of the Valleys, today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick will be talking about how we can trust the Lord not only when we're enjoying those mountain experiences, but also when we're trying to find our way through the valleys of life. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now, here's our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of our program. I'm your teacher Gary Hedrick and it's great to have you with us as we continue this series of studies on Jehovah, God of the Valleys. Let's take a moment and talk about this name Jehovah. Let me start by saying right out of the gate that no one knows with absolute certainty how the divine name was originally spoken. In Hebrew, it's just four letters: Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey.

If you look at those four Hebrew letters, Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, it looks like the divine name might have been pronounced Yahavah or something like that, but we don't know for sure because ancient Hebrew wasn't written with vowels. The pronunciation was just common knowledge back then, so all they needed was Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey and they knew how to pronounce it. But with the passing of many generations and with the Jewish people being scattered all over the world speaking many different languages, Hebrew became what they call a dead language and the original pronunciation of Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey was lost.

Now, as you might imagine, the pronunciation problem wasn't unique to the divine name. There were other words where the pronunciation could be uncertain because all they had were the consonants to go on, no vowels. You see, those vowel sounds were not written down. I guess they figured it was a waste of time to worry about writing vowels because they didn't need them. They knew how to pronounce the words. All they needed was the context. If they knew how a word was used, they knew how it was pronounced.

But I suppose it never occurred to them that classical Hebrew would ever become a dead language, that is, a language no longer used in everyday conversation. During the Second Temple period, Jewish people all over the Roman Empire were speaking local languages and dialects, and most of them spoke Aramaic, but not conversational Hebrew. So in the first century, Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. We have direct quotes in the Gospels where Jesus is speaking Aramaic.

When he was dying on Calvary, hanging there, he cried out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? That was Aramaic. So Hebrew was a dead language for more than 2,000 years, but all that changed in the late 1800s with a man named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. He was a Zionist from Belarus and he led a revival of the Hebrew language that is really a significant part of the story of the modern state of Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda started with his own family.

They all learned to speak conversational Hebrew, even his little kids. In fact, in their home, that was all they were allowed to speak: Hebrew. If the children asked for something in Yiddish, which had been their language up to that point, the parents just ignored them until they asked in Hebrew. I guess you'd learn pretty quickly under those circumstances. That's how this man taught his family to speak the ancient language of their forefathers, and the Israelis speak it today. But that's why no one knows with certainty how the divine name was pronounced.

It's because Hebrew has no vowels. The vocabulary is all consonants. And without vowels, with only the consonants to go on, you're totally dependent on context for the meaning and pronunciation of many Hebrew words. Let me give you an example. Take the word in Hebrew: Dalet, Vav, Resh. In English we'd say DVR. So without vowel markings, the Hebrew word DVR could be read as devar, which in Hebrew means thing or word. DVR could be the verb diber, which means he spoke.

Or it could be dibur, the word for speech, or even dever, which in Hebrew is a plague. All of that from three Hebrew characters: DVR, Dalet, Vav, Resh. So how did they know which one was correct? By the context, how the word was used. If I say I saw someone write a DVR, Dalet, Vav, Resh, I know it's devar or word. It's not dever or plague. You don't pull out a sheet of paper and write down a plague. You see, that's why context was so important.

The only way to know the meaning of some words was by the context. And that's why even today, no one knows for sure how Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey was originally pronounced. And the Talmud says the Tetragrammaton, those four letters, the name of God, is not to be pronounced. That's to avoid mispronouncing the sacred name. So whenever Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey shows up in the Torah, the rabbis substitute the word Adonai. It's the plural form of the word Adon or Lord. And this is where the English word Jehovah comes from.

They took the divine name, Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, and then they took the vowel points, those little markings under the consonants from the word Adonai, and inserted them between Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey to spell Yahovah, which later became Jehovah. So it was just an invention, and we know there's no J sound in Hebrew, so the original pronunciation was probably something closer to Yahovah. Many scholars today favor another pronunciation: Yahweh. And they could be right, but again, nobody knows for sure. The pronunciation is guesswork; it's just an educated guess.

So when we say Jehovah, God of the Valleys, it's just as good a name as any other. I suppose we could say Adonai, God of the Valleys, or Yahweh, God of the Valleys, but the name Jehovah works because even if it's not a perfect match with that J sound, everyone knows who we're talking about. It's like the name Jesus, which started as Yeshua in Hebrew and then became Iesus in Greek and finally Jesus in English. We know who it's talking about. Well, enough about that.

Now what we've been doing in this series of studies is looking at the seven valleys that are mentioned in scripture and what each of those valleys represents because in the Hebrew Bible, our lives are often described in terms of geography, that is, hills, mountaintops, and then valleys. If things are going well, we are on the high ground. Sometimes it can be a mountaintop experience when things just could not get any better. If that's you, you should be grateful. You're on the high ground.

Because not everyone is sharing your experience. People all around us are making their way through valleys, one of the valley experiences of life. And the Bible mentions seven of them. That's what we're talking about in this series of studies on Jehovah, God of the Valleys. And listen, sometimes we hear people say when things are going well, they'll say, "God is good." And you know that's easy to say when you're on the high ground. God is good. But guess what? He's still good, even when you're in a valley.

God is good and he's with us no matter what. We are never alone. You are never alone, even when you feel like you're all alone, you're not. He's right there with you. So those are the valleys, seven of them. And last time we were talking about valley number five, which is the one most people are familiar with: it's the Valley of the Shadow of Death from Psalm 23. David says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

And when we ran out of time on the last program, we were talking about the fact that the 23rd Psalm was written by David, the shepherd king of Israel. And of course, David is often seen in the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible as a type or a forerunner of the Messiah. In Hebrew, one of the Messiah's titles is Mashiach ben David, Messiah son of David. So Messiah was to be descended from the tribe of Judah and the royal house of King David. So it's Jesus, Yeshua, the Davidic shepherd king of Israel.

Jesus himself said in John chapter 10 that he is what? The Good Shepherd. What does the Good Shepherd do? He does what any good shepherd does. He takes care of his sheep. He leads the sheep. He protects the sheep. He provides for the sheep. He even gives his life for the sheep. That's what Jesus said. And he's not only the shepherd of Israel, he's also the Good Shepherd of the church, the Kehilah, the body of believing Jews and Gentiles together in worship, together in unity, together in service.

So here in the 23rd Psalm, the Valley of the Shadow of Death was a place of provision. Even in the valley, he provides what we need, whether it's strength, endurance, guidance, comfort, assurance—whatever we need, he provides it. And he knows what we need even before we know what we need. What do you need right now, listening friend? Whatever it is, he can provide it because he is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Well, that's all we have time for today. We'll continue next time with Jehovah, God of the Valleys. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. If you've enjoyed today's program, you may be interested to know that this series of studies is available on compact disc for the suggested gift of just $6. Just ask for Dr. Gary Hedrick's series, Jehovah, God of the Valleys. Visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292.

Once again, our address is Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. Let me remind you that when you order the materials we offer here on the program, you're not only enabling us to remain here on your station, but you're also helping us take the good news of Yeshua HaMashiach to Jewish people and Gentiles all over the world.

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Guest (Female): Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the free-will contributions of our listeners in this area.