Eben

The word “stone” in Hebrew is the word eben (or even). Reading from right to left, it is spelled with three Hebrew letters: aleph, beit, nun. (Note: the middle letter, beit, can be pronounced as a “b” or a “v.”)

We find this word in Isaiah 28:16: “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken.’” (NLT)

We also encounter the word in Isaiah 8:14: “He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.” (NLT)

Paul references these verses when he writes, “God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, ‘I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced’” (Romans 9:33 NLT).

Again, the word “stone” in Hebrew is three letters: aleph, beit, nun. The first two letters together spell father. The last two letters together spell son. When you combine father and son, you spell stone.

So what is the “stone” that causes Israel and Judah to stumble? 

Jesus: “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30)

Coded Connections

As soon as I started to study the Hebrew alphabet, very quickly I learned that each letter has a numerical value. This idea dates back to ancient times. Here’s how it breaks down (remember Hebrew reads from right to left):

Meaning can be derived by adding up the letters of a word, or in a sentence. This mode of study is called Gematria. It may sound mystical to Western ears, but in Jewish circles, it is well known and accepted. Children in Yeshiva school learn Gematria right along with the alphabet. If you were to ask a student for the numerical value of a Hebrew letter, the student would tell you right away.

The ancient Greeks also used their letters to double as numbers. The pattern they used is exactly the same as Hebrew’s Gematria, except in Greek format. Numbers increase by ones, then tens, then hundreds. Here’s what it looks like:

There are number-lovers who take this study to the next level. They’re constantly uncovering amazing connections that are coded in the Hebrew and Greek text of Scripture. It reminds me that not only can the Bible be translated into the language of English, it can also be translated into the language of math. Let me give you a few of their findings:

The Greek form of Jesus (Ιησούς) equals 888. Isaiah 9:6 prophesizes, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Here is Isaiah 9:6 in Hebrew (reading from right to left):

The sum of every seventh Hebrew letter equals 888, the numeric value of Ιησούς!

Coincidence? Well how about another connection:

Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 are the Bible’s definitive creation verses. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.” Would you be surprised to learn that these verses are connected mathematically?

The number value of Genesis 1:1 is 2,701––which is the sum of all integers from 1 to 73. Picture this as a triangle, with 1 dot on the top row, 2 dots on the second row, 3 dots on the third row, then 4 dots on the fourth, five on the fifth. . .so on and so forth all the way down to 73 dots on the 73rd row. Such a triangle would have 2,701 dots total.

The number value of John 1:1 is 3,627––which is the sum of all integers from 74 to 112. In other words, John 1:1 is a continuation of the Genesis triangle! It looks better than it sounds:

I think Solomon said it best: “It is God’s privilege to conceal a matter, and a king’s privilege to discover it” (Proverbs 25:2).

"Reckoned" as Righteous

Ephesians 2:9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

There is a certain Hebrew word used in the Torah that compliments the beauty of this verse from Ephesians. Who knows––it may have come to Paul’s mind when the verse was written. The word in Hebrew is chashab.

It connotes the idea of being esteemed in some way. The first place it is found is in Genesis 15:6, which says, “And Abram believed in the LORD, and God reckoned it to him as righteousness.” The word translated as “reckoned” is the word chashab.

Now the events leading up to Genesis 15:6 cannot be overlooked. Before this, God had asked Abram to depart from his homeland on the promise that he would be blessed. Abram obediently did so. God had then asked Abram to walk the length and breadth of the land on the promise that it would be given to him. Again, Abram obediently did so. Chapter 15 begins and God tells Abram to “look toward heaven and number the stars, if you can number them, for so shall your offspring be.” Abram believes the LORD, and it is here that God reckons it to him as righteousness. Why here, and not earlier? 

Although Abram had certainly acted in faith before this moment, his acts of faith had always involved a component of obedience, a component of works. But here, looking up at the stars and pondering God’s promise to him, Abram is confronted with a premise that is all faith and no obedience. His faith must now transcend any deed he could possibly do. ...That his offspring would number as many as the stars?! There is nothing Abram, by his own doing, can do to make this a reality. He’s reached the cliff’s edge of obedience, so to speak, and yet God invites his faith to keep going. When Abram believes the LORD––when he accepts in total faith this gift of absolute grace––God marvels and reckons it to him as righteousness. 

This returns us to the word chashab. Knowing the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself, where else is chashab found in Scripture? And what insight can it give us into Genesis 15:6?

It is found again in Genesis 38:15, in story of Judah and Tamar. This is among my favorite stories in the Bible, in part because of its oddity. Tamar is Judah’s daughter-in-law, but her husband (Judah’s oldest son) is killed by God for his wickedness. She is given to Judah’s second son, but he is also put to death by God. Judah is afraid that his third son will also die, so his third son is not given to Tamar in marriage. Thus, Tamar is left childless in Judah’s house. That is, until she dresses up as a prostitute and waits by the roadside for Judah to approach her. Genesis 38:15 says, “When Judah approached her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.” Long story short, Judah gets Tamar pregnant, and Tamar eventually gives birth to twins. The word translated as “thought” in Genesis 38:15 is the word chashab! It’s when Judah reckoned Tamar to be a prostitute.

We find the word another time in 1 Samuel 1:13. Here we encounter Hannah, a woman who is childless and being harassed by the other wife of her husband. Greatly distressed, she prays to God year after year for a child. One day in Shiloh, she is praying silently, speaking in her heart. Now in those days (and even today in Jewish culture), a person is supposed to pray aloud. So when Eli the priest sees her lips moving but hears no voice, it catches his attention. 1 Samuel 1:13-15 says, “...Eli thought she was drunk. Eli said to her, “How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.” But Hannah replied, “No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit; I have neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD...” The word translated as “thought” in 1 Samuel 1:13 is again the word chashab! It’s when Eli the priest reckoned Hannah to be drunk.

Looking at how the word is used in Genesis 38:15 and 1 Samuel 1:13, we glean an insight into Genesis 15:6. Note: Tamar wasn’t really a prostitute, but Judah treated her as such. Hannah wasn’t really drunk, but Eli treated her as such. Now we apply the pattern to Genesis 15:6: was Abram really righteous? No. But God treated him as such!

Here’s the key difference: Judah was fooled, and Eli was fooled, but God cannot be fooled. God knows the truth full well. Even so, He reckoned it to Abram as righteousness! This speaks volumes of His grace! Despite all of Abram's failings, God still treated Abram as a righteous man. Connect this with Genesis 50:20; when Joseph is speaking to his brothers, he says to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God reckoned it for good, to bring to pass the saving of many lives.” The word here is chashab! You see, what the brothers did to Joseph by selling him into slavery was an evil deed, but because God reckoned it for good, He treated the event as if it was good. He used their evil deed as a passageway for good. In the same way, God used Abram as a passageway for righteousness because He reckoned it to him as such.

What this means is that righteousness comes by God's reckoning on account of our total belief in Him. Our righteousness is a gift of grace, not the result of our own doing! In fact, it is a gift that comes when God sees a quality of faith that leaps beyond the realm of works. It is then that God credits it to a person. At some level, this is what is being taught by the word chashab, and being echoed by Paul in Ephesians 2:9. 

In short, it is God’s gracious reckoning that makes a person righteous, and brings to pass the saving of many lives.

The (Real) Lord of the Rings

Our God is truly the most thoughtful and creative of all Bridegrooms. Within each covenant He makes with man, a ring is presented. A ring serves as a sign of commitment, a symbol of intimacy, and a promise of protection. A ring is exactly what we have in the sign of each covenant, designed to remind us that all of this is really an epic love story between God and His bride. To begin...

God enters a covenant with Noah and his descendants, Genesis 9. The sign of this covenant is the rainbow (9:1-17). Every rainbow is a ring. When viewed from ground level, rainbows do not appear to be circular because the world prevents a person from seeing the whole picture. When viewed from above (from a heavenly perspective), the truth is revealed: the rainbow forms a complete circle, a ring made entirely by light. 

God enters a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, Genesis 15. The sign of this covenant is circumcision (17:10-11). In the act of circumcision, the blade follows the circumference of a ring. The cut itself marks a permanent ring around the male organ.  

God enters a covenant with the Israelites and their descendants at Mount Sinai, Exodus 24. The sign of this covenant is the Sabbath Day (31:13). To the Jewish people, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai is very much a marriage ceremony during which God, the Bridegroom, gave His people the Sabbath Day. Significantly, the Jews think of this day as being a wedding ring. It sets them apart from the world; it makes them unique to all others. It declares to everyone, “I’M TAKEN!” much like a wedding ring does for a spouse. And even in a spiritual sense, the Sabbath is like this circular constant that crosses through linear time, completing its loop every seventh day. Really the Sabbath is a ring, but its essence is spiritual. Like the rainbow, one must view it from above to see its fullness.

God enters a covenant with Phinehas and his descendants, Numbers 25:6-13. 

The sign of this covenant is not explicitly stated, so we’ll have to examine the story closely. The story goes like this:  

Behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 

And the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas  has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”

Phinehas is the ring! Well technically his hand is the ring, but his hand is part of him. So also the ring is part of him. As Phinehas gripped the spear with his hand (as the text specifically mentions), the ring was formed. This ring was then brought against the adultery of God’s people. It was held up with zeal and intensity. Here we see not only the ring, but how deeply the bearer of the ring feels about the one with whom he is in covenant relationship. Since the ring is the hand of Phinehas, which is Phinehas (a living man with a lineage of children), he and his children become the sign by which to remember the covenant. 

In 1 Samuel 18, there is a covenant made between David and King Saul's son, Jonathan. It is worth mentioning because the covenant here pictures a much larger story. Saul (the father, the king) is a picture of God the Father, the King. Jonathan (Saul’s son) is a picture of Jesus, Son of the King. David is a picture of you, the righteous believer. Their covenant is a picture of the covenant that Jesus makes with you on account of your willingness to serve His Father, the King, in the face of giant opposition. This layer of meaning is heard when reading the following passage in 1 Samuel:

Saul watched David going out to meet Goliath . . . As soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, David was brought before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 

Certain phrases have been underlined so you can see that the covenant is connected to David’s killing Goliath. How did he kill Goliath? Well, David had in his possession a perfectly-tailored ring, a ring that David had come to know and make known––a lone sling swinging steadily its stone. Whirling around and around, can you see the ring the sling creates? 

The rest of David’s life––his kingship and all––would sound off from this pivotal moment, this defining act of bravery. Like a royal signet ring used to seal documents, God used the swinging sling to authenticate David in the eyes of Israel as one sealed with legitimate royalty. I conceive the covenant made with David later on in 2 Samuel 7 traces back to this event as well. 

God enters a covenant with his followers in the upper room, Luke 22:20. The sign of this covenant is not explicitly stated, so where is the ring? The ring is the cup! Specifically, the ring is the top of the cup, the rim their lips kissed as they drank the wine at the last meal. “The cup” is more than this, though, because Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane calls the whole event of crucifixion a cup. This cup––His crucifixion––was topped with a terrible crown of thorns. Note its resemblance to a ring, a ring decorated not with Eden’s jewels but with Earth’s curse. (Thorns = a direct result of Adam and Eve’s fall, Genesis 3:18.)

The exchange here is so meaningful. The inexpensive ring we offered Him––the one that He accepted––was a crown of thorns. Worn tightly, it drew out His blood. The expensive ring He offers us––the one that we accept––is a cup of wine. Grasped firmly, it pours out His blood. Through these rings His life finds its way to us. 

ONE FINAL NOTE: 

Genesis 1:14-16: God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark appointed times and days and years... And it was so. 

In Jewish thought, the sun is seen as the masculine; the moon is seen as the feminine. We see this dynamic in their respective roles: the sun initiates the light; the moon receives and reflects the light. There’s a giving and a receiving here, something expressed even by male and female anatomy. But if this is less than satisfying, the sun and moon's masculine/feminine dynamic is also found in the Bible. Genesis 37:9-11: Then Joseph had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 

Suffice to say, the sun and moon express a masculine and feminine dynamic in Jewish thought. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, "In those days,‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light...’ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven...coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory..."

"The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light" would seem to describe a solar eclipse, or should we say...

...A RING! 

A masculine and a feminine coming together!

A Bridegroom and His Bride! 

An appointed time––

a wedding banquet!

One Enormous Prophetic Week

On the prophetic calendar, a year is 360 days long. This is easy to remember because a year is one circle around the sun, and there are 360^o in a circle.

Since 1 prophetic year equals 360 days, 7 prophetic years (one week of years) would therefore consist of 2520 days. 

In 573 BC, Ezekiel has a mind blowing vision where he sees the Messianic Temple. The vision is so grand that it fills the pages of eight chapters in his book (chapters 40-48). In these chapters, he describes the Temple from which the Messiah will reign as King of Israel. To date, this Temple has not yet been built, and it is often referred to as the coming “Third Temple.” Solomon’s Temple was the first; Ezra and Nehemiah’s Temple was the second (King Herod added onto it); Ezekiel’s vision in 573 BC describes the third Temple still to come.

In 1948 AD, Israel is reestablished as a sovereign nation. 1948 sees the first step taken toward the dawning of the Messianic Era and the coming of the Messianic Temple. What’s neat about this is that 573 BC and 1948 AD are separated by 2520 years! Counting each year like a day, the passing of one enormous prophetic week separates the first vision from the first realization.

But it gets even more interesting. 

As 2520 represents one week, 1260 represents half a week.

In Daniel 9:27, we find that an abomination is set up “in the middle of one seven.”

In the context of this enormous prophetic week that spans so much world history, what comes exactly in the middle of this seven? Well, 1260 years forward from 573 BC is the year 688 AD. 1260 years backward from 1948 AD is the year 688 AD. 688 AD is in the middle of one seven.

Construction for the Dome of the Rock starts in 688 AD!

Our Hands and the Ten Commandments

Certainly we can call the 10 Commandments God’s Top Ten List. But something worth noting is that, in a way, we are not dealing with a list of ten at all. We are dealing with two lists of five. 

This deserves some thought. Indeed, God could have written in smaller handwriting so as to fit all ten commandments onto one tablet. Or just as easily, God could have given Moses a stack of small tablets with a few commandments inscribed on each. But significantly, He gave Moses two tablets, each with five commandments. This was intentional on His part. And it should bring to mind your hands.

You have ten fingers, but really, you have two sets of five. Imagine for a minute if you had only one hand with ten fingers. It wouldn't serve you as well as having two sets of five. Bringing those sets together, you'll notice that one hand corresponds to the other. Each finger has its counterpart. The Ten Commandments share a similar symmetry, in that the commandments on the first tablet and the commandments on the second tablet correspond in a one-to-one relationship. Commandment 1 corresponds to commandment 6, and commandment 2 corresponds to commandment 7, and 3 to 8, 4 to 9, and 5 to 10. This is what it looks like:

Please note, the first two commandments are organized differently by Jews and Christians. Here they are arranged as Jesus would have encountered them (which is according to the Jewish way). 

You'll notice that the first commandment is not a commandment at all. It is a statement of faith. The Ten Commandments begin with a statement of faith. In effect, if you have enough faith to believe He is the Lord your God, then you're ready to hear the other nine commandments. Since your neighbor is made in God's image and likeness, then to murder your neighbor is to reject the first commandment, because you would not destroy a picture of the Lord your God. 

The connection between #2 and #7 is straightforward: the second commandment forbids idolatry, and idolatry is always spiritual adultery. 

The connection between #3 and #8 is also straightforward: the third commandment prohibits taking the Lord’s Name in vain. When a person uses God’s Name in vain, he is robbing God of His due glory. It is no less than theft. 

Commandment #4 calls us to keep the Sabbath day holy. It’s about setting aside a day to show the world that we don’t depend on a paycheck for our happiness, that the work of our hands is not our primary focus. The world would have us go, go, go––without ceasing. If our lifestyle is such as this, we bear false witness in that we talk about resting in the Lord and relying on Him, yet with our actions we betray those claims. Jesus calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath. To the degree we know rest, to that degree we know the Lord of Rest. To bear true witness of Him, we must be a holy people who know rest. 

Commandment #5 calls us to honor our parents. As children we grow up, and our first confrontation with God’s sovereignty is in realizing His selection of our parents. Realizing that for whatever reason, God matched you with your parents, and you never had a say in the matter. If you can accept His decision––not necessarily understand it, but accept it––then you have begun to submit to God’s sovereignty. If you can submit to God’s sovereignty, a natural outgrowth of this is that you won't covet what others have. You won't covet what God, in His sovereignty, has given others.

For more symmetry between the tablets, see this short video: 

Seeing Layers in the Ten Commandments

Naf'shov

As the story runs, Jesus says to Peter: “Go and catch a fish. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a shekel. Take it, and go and pay the Temple tax for me and for you.”

What is going on here? To begin we have to go back to Exodus 30, because this is where the Temple tax has its origins. Reading Exodus 30:12-13, God instructs Moses to “take a census of the Israelites to count them; each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his soul at the time he is counted. . .they shall give half a shekel, every one that passes among them that are numbered.” It’s this phrase “his soul” that we must zoom in on. In Hebrew, the word for soul is nefesh. Nefesh is spelled with three letters: nun, peh, shin.

In this particular verse, the Hebrew word is conjugated differently because it says “his soul.” This adds the letter vav to the end of the word, making nefesh “naf’shov,” spelled nun, peh, shin, vav.

Look in any textbook about the Hebrew language and you will see that each Hebrew letter represents something. Taking into account what the letters represent, this word––nun peh shin vav––tells a story. The first letter (the letter nun) means fish. And when he caught the fish, Peter was to open its mouth. The second letter (the letter peh) means mouth! And what was Peter supposed to find in its mouth? A shekel. The first Hebrew letter of shekel is the letter shin. (It makes the “sh” sound.) And how was he to catch the fish? With a hook! The last letter (the letter vav) means hook!

This is either God hinting at an event that would take place thousands of years later, or it’s Jesus designing a miracle that would illustrate the letters of this word in this verse of the Torah. Or both. I go for both. What an amazing thing!

Now certain rabbis have asked, why does God require a half shekel? Why doesn’t He request a whole coin of a lesser value? Like, why not a whole beka? Why does it have to be a half of something? 

They’ll say one of the reasons is because none of us are in this alone. We have to be partnered with others. So if I’m giving a half shekel, that means someone else is giving the other half. The one whole shekel brings two people together. The lesson is all of us individually are halves of a whole. And service to God requires others. We need to be in community with others in order to fulfill His commandments. 

As true as this is, Jesus is adding a special emphasis. Jesus instructs Peter, “...take this coin and give it to them for me and for you.” Why is this so insightful? Because the coin was paying the Temple tax, and the Temple tax kept His Father’s house functioning. Still today, in service to God, there are things required of us that we must give. But for everything we give, Jesus comes alongside and gives the other half. He completes the whole. Conversely, everything we do without Him is halfway incomplete. Therefore Jesus says to each one of us, “Here’s what you do––when you give, what you give is half for me, half for you. And together, we will accomplish this task.”

Of note, Jesus does not catch the fish for Peter. Jesus gives the instruction. It is then Peter’s responsibility to go and catch the fish to get the coin. God will provide the fish, and God will miraculously set the coin in the fish’s mouth, but nevertheless, Peter has to bait the line, cast the hook, catch the fish and reel it in to get what needs to be given. The action is Peter’s. That is Peter’s half. Jesus will cover the other half. And it’s in this way that the task is accomplished together. Our faith and action––coupled with Jesus’ instruction and provision––keeps our Father’s house on earth functioning.

A Mass Movement

According to the book of B'midbar ("In the Wilderness") (aka. Numbers), there were 603,550 Jewish men in the wilderness. We can double that number if we want to include women. Now we're looking at a sum of ~1,200,000 people. To include children, I think we can safely add 800,000 to the total, bringing us to 2 million people. Of course, the census did not include the Levites (the Levites had been tithed to God so to speak). If we include the Levites, we can add in another 100,000 people (men/woman/children). But we're not done yet. Now we've got to account for the great mixed multitude. Back in Genesis 41:57, we read that the entire world underwent a severe famine. In response, people from all over the earth went to Egypt to get food. (Joseph literally saved the world.) Naturally, many of them stayed there, and had families. Suffice to say, when it came time to leave Egypt with the Israelites, the mixed multitude that joined them included people from all over the world. I believe that every language and people group was represented in that group. 

Accounting for the great mixed multitude, we can safely add another 500,000 people to our count, leaving us with a total of at least 2.6 million people. 

Consider it! 2.6 million people walked through the Red Sea. The manna from Heaven fed 2.6 million people. Water from the rock nourished 2.6 million people. The cloud above them during the day shaded 2.6 million people. The pillar of fire by night warmed 2.6 million people. 5.2 million sandals never wore out. 

According to the 2013 census, the population of Houston Texas was 2.2 million people. So, to imagine this scene in the wilderness, we have to go bigger than Houston Texas. We have to go so far as to imagine Chicago Illinois (coming in with a population of 2.72 million people). God brought Chicago out of the land of Egypt! Or, we could say that He brought both Phoenix Arizona and Dallas Texas out of the land of Egypt. I mean the Jewish men alone numbered as many as Las Vegas.  

Praise God! "I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?"

The Serpent Speaks

The first recorded words of Satan in the Bible are revealing. He says to Eve, “Did perhaps God say...” We see this phrase translated into English in various ways, but returning it to the Hebrew, here are his first two words to mankind:

“Aph kiy...” he begins. These words are phonetically identical to our term “off-key”. It’s a linguistic coincidence but nevertheless instructive, because everything Satan says is a measure off-key.

When an instrument––a piano, for instance––is played by itself, it may sound perfectly in tune when actually it is off-key. This is because the instrument is tuned to itself, meaning each string inside the piano is tuned relative to the other strings inside the piano. Therefore our ear is betrayed into thinking it is properly tuned. The truth will be heard, though, when the piano is played alongside an orchestra performing at concert pitch. Concert pitch is the standard pitch to which all musical instruments are tuned for a performance. It is the universal frequency or note at which all instruments are supposed to play. As the other instruments tuned to concert pitch begin to play, the piano––which once sounded so lovely––will sound painfully out of place with the orchestra.

And so it is with the Serpent’s words. His mouth is his instrument of choice, and if we hear this instrument in isolation, it may sound in tune with truth. But when brought before the absolute truth of God’s Word, the disharmony is abruptly obvious. 

Separated from this standard, the Serpent’s words sounded attractive to Eve. Notice everything he told her was factual. He said, “You shall not surely die . . . God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as God knowing good and evil.” Upon eating the fruit, her eyes were indeed opened to knowing good and evil, and in a sense, she didn’t die! She went on living for hundreds of years afterward. So the Serpent's words were factually accurate. This is one reason why the enemy’s deception can be so convincing, because he laces his lies with facts. But as we see here, facts can be misleading and off-key. Facts can be untruthful.

In truth, the forbidden fruit brought death into Eve, for the process of death began that very day. Her eyes were in fact opened to good and evil, but in truth her eyes were closed to the spiritual realm, to God and His tangible Presence, to the very light which emanated from her body. The enemy didn’t mention that her entire perception of the world would itself become off-key to the heavenly reality she had known in the Garden. In truth, her eyes would be more shut than opened, and she would surely die. 

Look again at those first two words, “Aph kiy.” Loosely translated, this means “Yeah, but...” This subtle phrase is epic in that it’s served as Satan’s opening words to everyone else he’s ever spoken to throughout history. A person––any person––goes along having learned some truth, then the enemy comes up and says, “Yeah, but...” Here’s how it works:

A boy learns in Sunday School “Thou shall not steal.” He thinks, “Okay, if it doesn’t belong to me, I don’t take it. That makes sense.” Later, he’s going along and sees something he really wants, something nobody will really miss because the item’s not really expensive. But “Thou shall not steal” he thinks to himself. Suddenly a lone voice says, “Yeah, but... does that really apply here? Is it really ‘stealing’ if no one’s going to miss it anyway?” 

A husband is shopping at Walmart. He comes across a new video game that he really wants to buy. He remembers a conversation he had with his wife earlier that week, when he promised to spend less time in front of the TV and more time with her. “I better not,” he tells himself. “Yeah, but... she will understand. You’ve been waiting for this game for a long time. You deserve it.” 

A pastor is at home cleaning his garage when the Holy Spirit prompts him to visit the nursing home a few blocks away. “Yeah, but... for days you’ve been wanting to get this garage cleaned. Your family’s running errands, so this is your opportunity to get it done without interruptions. Go later; it’ll be fine.”

You and I have heard this voice ourselves. It echoes forth from the Garden. The enemy's “Yeah, but...” should sound an alarm that we’re about to hear an off-key remark. Our work, then, is to diligently train our ear to the concert pitch of God’s Word. The sooner we can discern the Serpent’s instrument, the sooner we can cut his mic so as not to distract from the orchestra.