 Joined: 6/28/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,030
Location: Palmyra, VA
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Icy, you are too funny: naqab means puncture, so it means to make holy? You crack me up. On a more serious note, I ran across this whole "unforgiven" thing again while working on the first chapter (not yet finished) of the second volume of The Owner's Manual. This may be of interest... Quote:(636) Do not arrogantly defy God or despise His Word. “But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on Yahweh, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.” (Numbers 15:30-31) There is sin, and then there is sin. The whole passage just previous to this dealt with what to do (in a ritual-symbolic sense) when an individual or the whole congregation came to the realization that they had sinned. Such sins (literally, missing the target) are characterized as being “unintentional.” They’re still sins, of course. They must be atoned for, dealt with, cleansed; but at least there is a remedy. For the fault spoken of in this passage, however, there is no remedy; it therefore behooves us to determine precisely what it is Yahweh is describing.
The keyword is “presumptuously” (translated “defiantly” in the NIV and NASB, and “brazenly” in the NLT). The Hebrew is two words: ruwm, a verb meaning “to rise up, exalt, be lofty, or lift up,” and yad, meaning “hand”, thus figuratively, “strength or power.” A direct translation would therefore be “high-handedly.” But the connotation is even stronger. The phrase speaks of arrogance, pride, a lifting up of one’s own position of strength in the face of (and in defiance of) Yahweh’s Law. It is saying, “I don’t care what God says; I recognize no authority but my own. I will do as I please, without regard to the Word of Yahweh. And I will never show remorse or entertain a sense of guilt for my actions.” Ruwm yad reeks of insolence and rebellion.
A different word is rendered “presumptuously” in this parallel passage, but the message is identical: “Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.” (Deuteronomy 17:12-13) Here “presumptuously” is the Hebrew word is zadown, a noun (the parallel verb ziyd is also used) meaning pride, insolence, presumptuousness, or arrogance. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament notes, “The basic idea is pride, a sense of self-importance, which often is exaggerated to include defiance and even rebelliousness…having pride in view as opposed to God, which is a major sin. Persons so characterized are parallelled with those who ‘work wickedness’ and ‘tempt God,’ and with ‘all who do wickedly.’ As a result, they will be burned like stubble in the day of God’s impending punishment. Frequently, such people are depicted as opposing those who try to do the will of God.”
Ordinary “sin” is missing the mark in the archery tournament of life—something even the best of us do. But at least we’re aiming at the target. The one who “acts presumptuously” is not aiming at the target at all, but is, rather, lobbing arrows at the tournament’s Judge. As we have seen before, those in Israel responsible for leading their fellow men to their spiritual deaths were to be executed. By tolerating such defiance of Yahweh, Israel was courting a deadly evil indeed. kp
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