BLOG

Sonship in the Hebrew Alphabet

In my web log from February 17, I wrote how the word "man" (male) in Hebrew is ish, which is derived from esh, the Hebrew word for "fire." There are two words for "son," the first being ben, which is a "son" in the sense of a "builder" of the family name. The other is bar, which means "son" in the sense of an heir. Bar also means "grain" and is the root of our English word "barley."

BEN = House of Life

Ben is written with two Hebrew letters, beth and noon. Beth means "house" and noon means "fish" and indicates teeming with life. So a Son (ben) is quite literally a house of fish or household of life. The sign of the fish in the early Church was more than the Greek acronym of "Jesus Christ God Savior" (Ichthus, or "fish"). It also carried a prophetic link to Jonah, who was the "son of the fish" and sent to preach to Nineveh, the "City of Fish."

Jesus taught His disciples to be "fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19), in order to bring people into Sonship, the "household of fish" that is full of resurrection life. They were to go into the whole world and make disciples, even as Jonah was sent to Nineveh, the great fish pond.

Those of you who have read my book, The Laws of the Second Coming, know that Jonah is a type of Christ in both His first and second comings. Jonah means "dove," and he represents both doves needed to cleanse lepers (mortals) as recorded in Leviticus 14. Jonah's adventure with the great fish represented the first work of Christ, which involved death and resurrection; Jonah's second call to preach to Nineveh represents Christ's second coming and work, which is to preach the gospel and bring about the conversion of Nineveh (the world).

BAR = Head of the Household

Bar has two Hebrew letters, beth (house) and resh (head). It literally refers to the "head or leader of the household." It does not refer to membership in the family, but in the position of authority over the household. This is not the usual word for "son," but it does appear occasionally in Scripture, such as in Psalm 2:12,

"Kiss the Son [bar], lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!"

Bar is also the Hebrew word for "grain," as used in Gen. 41:49,

"Thus Joseph stored up grain [bar] in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure."

This is a type and shadow of the seed of Jacob-Israel, as we read in Gen. 32:12,

"For Thou didst say, 'I will surely prosper you, and make your descendants [seed] as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude'."

The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel were to be like the seed of grain (bar). This is the true Joseph ministry, which pre-figured the second work of Christ, even as Judah pre-figured Christ's first ministry. In the second work of Christ, the "seed" (Sons of God) are gathered in abundance, even as the entire city of Nineveh was converted in Jonah's day.

This also refers to the barley company in the first resurrection, as I explained in my book, The Barley Overcomers. The three main feast days have application on both the personal level and the corporate, historical level. Each of us is meant to experience Passover (justification), Pentecost (sanctification) and Tabernacles (glorification) on a personal level.

But on the corporate level, those who come into the full maturity of sons FIRST are the barley company, and hence, they are "the first of the firstfruits" (Ex. 34:26). These are the ones who will reign with Christ in the Tabernacles Age to come (Rev. 20:6). They will form the New Creation Man, who will be the "head of the household" (bar).

Strong's Concordance (#1250) tells us that bar means grain "in the sense of winnowing." He says that the word is derived from #1305, barar, which means "to clarify (i.e., brighten), examine, select." In the KJV it is translated in various ways: "make bright, choice, chosen, cleanse (be clean), clearly, polished, pure, purge."

To winnow grain is to cleanse or purify barley from the chaff that forms its outer shell. That outer shell represents our bodies, which form our own outer shells. When the barley company inherits the first resurrection, the outer shell of this Adamic body will be winnowed away, so that the grain can be purified, purged, and cleansed.

I have written in past articles how God is raising up an AMEN people, even as Jesus was the Amen of God (Rev. 3:14). He did only what He saw His Father do, and said only what He heard His Father say. The Sons of God are called to do the same today and will be fully successful at this in the Age to come.

Rev. 3:14 also tells us that the Amen is "the beginning of the creation of God." When Isaiah speaks of the Amen in Isaiah 65:16-18, he links it to the creation of the New Heavens and the New Earth, along with "Jerusalem," which by extension is the New Jerusalem. The New Creation Man, this AMEN company, with Christ as the Head and the Sons of God as His Body, will be the ones who will CREATE this New Heavens, New Earth, and New Jerusalem.

For this reason, the Hebrew word for "create" is bara, which is the word bar followed by an ayin. "an eye," which indicates seeing or manifestation. In other words, bara literally speaks of "the manifestation of the sons." They are the New Creation Man, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:17,

"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature [i.e., a new creation]; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

This gives us a word picture, not only of the personal character of the Sons of God, but also of their ministry in the Age to come. This defines the second work of Christ. Many are under the impression that the second coming of Christ will be the day that they retire in that great nursing home in the sky, so that they can learn to play a harp. But the fact is that this will be just the beginning of a great work of re-creation of New Heavens and a New Earth, as the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached by word and by example to the whole world.

This will not end until all things have been placed under the feet (authority) of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:27). The reign of Christ in the Age to come will continue "until He has put all enemies under His feet" (1 Cor. 15:25).

The Sons of God will fulfill the Abrahamic calling, to be a blessing to all families of the earth (Gen. 12:3). The Hebrew word for "blessed" in this verse is barak. Barak is a bar ("son"), followed by a kaf("open palm, to cover, open, allow"). The open palm indicates the heart of giving, by which the Sons of God bless all families of the earth.

I have done studies of Who is a Jew? and Who is an Israelite?, but a third question is Who is a Hebrew? The word for Hebrew is Heber, which uses the same letters as bara, except that the ayin("eye, to see or manifest") is at the beginning of the word instead of the end. The word-picture is thus the same. A true Hebrew is a "manifested Son" (ayin-bar).