O M G, MY Lawmaker and Judge, I have learned so many worthless and unprofitable things. I have put myself and other lawmakers and judges in Your place and have not served you as I should. O Yehovah, please forgive me; humble me and help me to know that You are first!
It was while I was preparing a Sabbath lesson on Genesis 3, the fall of man, that I noticed something interesting.
After Satan had told Chavvah (Eve) “You will not surely die.” He said these words:
God (Elohim – THE lawmaker and judge) knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become as a lawmaker and judge kind, to know good and evil.” (Gen 3:5)
It is only THE Elohim, THE Lawmaker and Judge, who can discern between good and evil. I really like the word Elohim, as opposed to God, because it helps me remember that He is my only Lawmaker and Judge. Using the word Elohim helps remind me to follow the spiritual nature in Whose image I was created instead of deciding for myself what is good and evil according to my own senses and my lower, fleshly, nature.
Elohim is a plural word, but few people understand that Hebrew is the only language that has two different kinds of plurals. Jeff Benner in his book Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible describes the two plurals this way. (Note: Since Word-press does not render the ancient picture language font correctly I have substituted a modern-day Hebrew font.)
Nouns are made plural by adding the suffix ים or ות. Generally the ים is used for masculine nouns and ות for feminine nouns. In some cases masculine words, usually very ancient words, will use the ות suffix. The Hebrew words אב (av – father) and אור (or – light) are masculine words but are written as אבות and אורות in the plural. In all modern languages the plural is always quantitative while in Ancient Hebrew a plural can be quantitative or qualitative. For instance the word “trees” refers to more than one tree (quantitative), while in Hebrew the plural word עץים (etsiym – trees) can mean more than one tree (quantitative) or one very large tree (qualitative). An example of this is the word בהמות (behemot or usually transliterated as behemoth in Job 40:15). This word is the plural form of the singular בהמה (behemah), meaning beast, but refers to a very large beast rather than more than one beast. One of the most common uses of the qualitative plural is the word אלהים (elohim) which can be translated as “gods” (quantitative) or as “God” (qualitative).
This misunderstanding of the difference between the quantitative and the qualitative plural is the reason why we add words such as “us” when talking about THE ELOHIM, the Lawmaker and Judge, who in speaking to Israel, spiritually born men, says:
“You are My witnesses,” says Yehovah, And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no Elohim (lawmaker and judge) formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am Yehovah, and besides Me there is no savior.” (Isa 43:10-11)
An elohim is a lawmaker and judge. A lawmaker makes statutes and a judge makes Judgments. We, because of our rebellion to Yehovah and His ways, have chosen / made many other elohim; but THE LAWMAKER and JUDGE (the qualitative Elohim) tells His people over and over to follow HIS statutes and HIS judgments if a man wants to live.
Yehovah Was Meant To Be A Man’s Only Lawmaker And Judge
So let’s continue with our story in Genesis 3. Because the man listened to his woman and chose to disobey Yehovah, THE Lawmaker and Judge of the whole earth, the Creator supposedly said these words:
“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.” (Gen 3:22)
The words “like” & “of us” are supplied or added words and are not in the manuscript. But the real kicker is this. The word “one” is the word “echad” which is often rendered as “one” in the scriptures but is not limited to that word. Another way that it is used is as the word “first.”
“God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first (echad) day”. (Gen 1:5)
What Yehovah THE Lawmaker and Judge is saying in Genesis 3:22 is that man has made himself and his ways first instead of Yehovah and His ways.
A better rendering of this verse in my opinion and in light of this chapter is this:
“Behold man is become first of his kind to know good and evil.”(Gen 3:22)
And a man who makes himself and his way first can not be with Yehovah, the only true Lawmaker and Judge, and live forever. Verses 22 through 24 continue like this:
“And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Therefore Yehovah, THE LAWMAKER and JUDGE, sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 3:22 – 24)
Yehovah, THE LAWMAKER And JUDGE, Is First
But now this story is just getting good! Always remember that Yehovah reveals His message to His servants line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Sometimes the things that we repeat the most, we understand the least. One example of this is what so many refer to as “the Lord’s Prayer.” It was Yeshua who said:
“Our Father which art in heaven”,
This is not just any father it is THE FATHER of those men who left the kingdom of their first birth and have come into covenant with Yehovah at Passover. Yeshua continues,
“Hollowed be Thy name!”,
Yeshua said hollowed be Thy name, not my name. What is His name? Yehovah!
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Mat 6:9-10)
What is the big picture that Yeshua is giving Yehovah’s people? I believe he is saying to make Yehovah, THE LAWMAKER and JUDGE, first in our lives!
With all this said, let’s now read what Moses says concerning Yehovah and His big picture:
“Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our Elohim, Yehovah is one!” (Deu 6:4)
Again, this word one is the Hebrew word echad. This is a broad road interpretation of this verse. It is an effort by the Trinitarians and the Binitarians to reunite their pagan gods back together as “one.” All the teaching I have ever heard concerning the word echad was filled with mysticism. But Yehovah is speaking very clearly when He says through Moses:
“Hear and obey, O Israel: Yehovah is our LAWMAKER and JUDGE, Yehovah is first!” (Deu 6:4)
He said the same thing in His first (echad) commandment:
“You shall have no other elohim existing before My face.” (Exo 20:3)
Then Yehovah tells us how to make Him First!
“You shall love Yehovah, your Lawmaker and Judge, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deu 6:5)
My video “Loving Yehovah Elohim 101” tells us how to love Yehovah with all our heart (lavav), all our soul (nephesh) and all our strength (meod). In that video we see that we must do it just as Josiah did it; according to the Torah of Moses!
“Now before him (Josiah) there was no king like him, who turned to Yehovah with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.” (2Ki_23:25)
Next Yehovah says:
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deu 6:6-7)
What are these words that are to be in our hearts? To find out we must go to verse 1. Remember, it is all about the context:
“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which Yehovah, your LAWMAKER and JUDGE, has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear Yehovah, your LAWMAKER and JUDGE, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.” (Deu 6:1-2)
It is all very clear in the context of Genesis 3, the Prayer Yeshua taught and right here in Deuteronomy 6 that the lifelong process of becoming holy as Yehovah is holy is the process of giving the number one spot as our LAWMAKER and JUDGE back to Yehovah. By turning from our ways and our elohim (lawmakers and judges), back to only Yehovah’s statutes and judgments, we make Him echad!