top of page

UNDERSTANDING the HEBREW WORD, "ANAVAH ענוה" - [Sermon Note]

Pastor Deborah





AYIN

The Meaning of Ayin

The word Ayin means "eye," "to see," and by extension, to understand and obey.


Ayin further represents the primeval light, that is, the spiritual light of God mentioned in Gen. 1:3 (in distinction to celestial lights mentioned in Gen. 1:14-18).


According to Jewish midrash, this divine light is far greater than the light that emanates from the sun and stars.


Though concealed in the Torah, the spiritual eye can behold the presence of this radiance, but only by means of inner eye given by the RuachHaKodesh.


Ayin (like the letter Aleph) is a silent letter.

It is said that Ayin "sees" but does not speak, and therefore represents the ATTITUDE of HUMILITY (or ANAVAH).


Anavah begins with an AYIN, as does the word for service (avodah) and yoke (ol).

On the other hand, Ayin can represent idolatry (avodah zara) as well as slavery (avedut), both of which are born out of the heart of envy.


NUN




Nun is also a seed. a sprouting seed


The Mystery of Nun

According to the Chaz'l (sages), Nun is said to represent both faithfulness and the reward for faithfulness.


Moses is seen as the paradigmatic humble servant of the LORD.


The word "Nun" itself is spelled Nun-Vav-(final) Nun and looks as follows:

It is said that this orthography suggests that the one who is humble before God will stand upright in the final day.


In the olamhazeh (present life), this means that the tzaddik (righteous man) will simultaneously affirm: "I am nothing but DUST," and "the world itself was made for my sake.”


JAMES 4:10 AMP

Humble yourselves [with an attitude of repentance and insignificance] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up, He will give you purpose].


JAMES (JACOB) 4:10 TPT

Be willing to be made low before the Lord and he will exalt you!


There is no way standing straight before God, it was Him who gives us the position to talk to Him This body came from dust of this earth


Yeshua and the Letter Nun

In Aramaic, the word Nun means "fish," a symbol of activity and life.


EXODUS 33:11 KJV

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.

And he turned again into the camp:

but his servant Joshua, the son of NUN, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.


Joshua, the one who succeeded Moses and was able to enter the Promised Land, was the "Son of Life" - a clear picture of Yeshua our Messiah.


A symbol of activity and life


H5126 nun

Original: נון נוּן

Transliteration: nûnnôn

Phonetic: noon

NUN = "FISH" or "POSTERITY"


Strong's Definition: From H5125; PERPETUITY; Nun or Non, the father of Joshua:- Non, Nun.

Notice that the form of the Nun represents a bent Vav (suggesting a

humbled man) crowned with glory (the three tagin on the head of the letter).


From the Messianic point of view, we see that Yeshua came as a man (Vav),

was honored by His absolute humility while upon earth (as indicated by the

crown of thorns),

and is now exalted as the Righteous One who wears the Golden Crown of God

upon His head forever and ever (Rev 14:14).



Nun, which represents humility, is the vessel for all of G‑d’s blessings.


Intellectually, when one is humble, one acquires the fiftieth (and crowning)level of understanding;


on a material level, one attains abundant material wealth through his ability to “multiply like a fish.”


In humbling oneself we will be blessed both materially and spiritually in Christ.


When we are humble, we are able to see God's leading.


VAV


Vav is the power to unite everything that is separated in creation.


Literally Vav means hook or peg and the Hebrew letter is a vertical line ו .


It represents the Kav, the vertical line extension of the Creator’s perfection into the created world, in order to constantly direct it, guiding the cycle of existence step by step, until eventually the perfect Oneness of the Creator which underlies all of creation is revealed.


Vav is related to the Orr Yashar, the direct light of the Creator.


HEY

The letter “hey” is the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.


The Hebrew word picture for the “hey” is raised arms showing praise.

In ancient Hebrew the “hey” indicated “behold.”


Another way is when the “hey” is the last letter of a word it can indicate direction, i.e. toward or to something.



Hebrew Word "ANAVAH " ענוה


Life, Vav connecting, and we are able to behold

Humility


GENESIS 18:27 AMP

Abraham answered, “Now behold, I who am but dust [in origin] and ashes have decided to speak to the Lord.


GENESIS 18:27 EASY

Then Abraham spoke again. He said, ‘I have been brave enough to speak to the Lord.

I know that I am NOTHING more than DUST and ASHES.


GENESIS 18:27 MSG

Abraham came back, “Do I, a mere mortal made from a HANDFUL of DIRT, dare open my mouth again to my Master?


He knows his place.


JOB 42:1-3 EASY

Then Job replied to the Lord. He said this: ‘I know that you can do all things.

You can do anything that you want to do.

Nobody can stop you.


You asked me, “Why do you ask questions about my wisdom, when you do not understand anything?”

It is true.

I was speaking about things that I do not understand.

They are things that are too wonderful for me to know.


When we question God, we are saying You don't know, i know more than You


JOB 42:4-6 EASY

You said to me, “Listen carefully to what I will say.

I will ask you questions and you must answer them.”


In the past, I had heard about you from other people.

Now I have SEEN YOU for myself.


So I AM ASHAMED of the things that I said.

I SIT HERE (repent) in DIRT and in ASHES to show you that I am very sorry.’


When you see God as who He is, and you will see yourself nothing but a dirt


if you really seen God, you will be like Abraham, Job and Moses


God don't owe us anything


Moses tells the Israelites that God led them through the wilderness and cared for them for forty years “to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments” (Deut. 8:2).


Wilderness is desert, to humble them


DEUTERONOMY 8:1-5 MSG

Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll LIVE and PROSPER and ENTER and OWN the land that God promised to your ancestors.


Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, TESTING you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not.


Rapture could happen anytime, but God delayed till very end.

Once raptured, holy spirit already go up with the believers


The restrainer of sin, holy spirit, will go up.

The anti Christ will rule this earth, and thank God we will not be here.


Prosper means to progress and grow

Enter into the promise land


DEUTERONOMY 8:1-5 MSG

He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry.


Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents

knew anything about, so you would LEARN that men and women don’t

live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth.


Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years.

You LEARNED deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways

a father disciplines his child.


God describes the process of allowing them to hunger and then feeding them with manna as designed to -


HUMBLE THEM and help them UNDERSTAND THEIR PLACE —

THEIR INADEQUACY and GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE and CARE for them.


Without Him, we are nothing


The Tower of Babel is a macro example of having a distorted perception of your place in the world.


The people wanted to build a tower that reached heaven, allowing them (in their mind, at least) to approach God on their self-serving terms as though they were equals (Gen. 11:4-9).


They think they can be equal with God

They think they have the ability to go up to heaven to God's place


They don't know their place


A more micro example is in Genesis 4, which starts with Eve giving birth to Cain and saying “I have created (qanah) a man”.


The nuances here are easy to miss in the text, but after being banished from the Garden she is basically putting herself on par with God in her ability to create a human being and give life.


After Cain’s murder of Abel and subsequent banishment, the chapter ends with her giving birth to Seth and saying “I HAVE RECEIVED this FROM THE LORD”.


Her view of herself and her capabilities had been adjusted through her experiences, and she shows a more humble attitude toward God.


When your heart keeps on transforming, first by the renewing of your mind through the word of God and also by seeing Him. The more we are transformed, the more we see Him


King Saul is another cautionary tale about this quality of anavah, or humility in the bible.


When the prophet Samuel first came to anoint him as king, Saul protested that he was least in his father’s house, which was least in the tribes of Israel.


Fast forward a few years and Saul found himself justifying why he had to disobey God’s direct commands.


Samuel laments how Saul’s inward orientation had shifted away from God and toward himself, saying, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel?” (I Sam. 15:17).


From this day forward, God rejected Saul and his line as king, though He did not physically remove him from kingship for many more years.


This should be a sobering reminder to us, both the need to remain “little in our own eyes”, but also that we may not immediately see consequences if we begin losing our humility—it’s not like God automatically zings us.


We need to be examining our heart and motives on an ongoing basis,

and asking God to show us where we’re falling short in this area.


Remember at the start of this section we talked about God using the Israelites’ hunger and the manna He provided to highlight their own inadequacy and God’s omnipotence and care for them.


That’s really what this is about, for us today as well.


But we are meant to understand the flip side of our inadequacy,

and that is the amazing blessings and future that God has designed for us.


He has created an entire plan to eventually bring all of humanity into His family.


It is insane and mind-blowing if you stop and think about it for a minute.

King David meditated on this very idea:


“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained.

What is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?…


You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:3-4, 6)


Before honour is humility

Understanding, wisdom


PROVERBS 15:33 KJV

The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom;

and BEFORE HONOUR is HUMILITY.


PROVERBS 18:12 KJV

Before destruction the heart of man is haughty,

and before honour is humility.


H6038

Original: ענוה

Transliteration: ‛ănâvâh

Phonetic: an-aw-vaw'

BDB Definition:

humility, meekness


Strong's Definition: From H6035; condescension, human and subjective (modesty), or divine and objective (clemency):- gentleness, humility, meekness.


Humble first, God will honour you


H6035

Original: עניו ענו

Transliteration: ‛ânâv ‛ânâyv

Phonetic: aw-nawv'

BDB Definition:

poor, humble, afflicted, meek

poor, needy

poor and weak


Strong's Definition: The second form is by intermixture with H6041; from H6031; depressed (figuratively), in mind (gentle) or circumstances (needy, especially saintly): - humble, lowly, meek, poor`. Compare H6041.


To be humble is to recognise, I need You, God


PROVERBS 22:4 KJV

By HUMILITY and the FEAR of the LORD are riches,

and honour, and life.


By…: or, The reward of humility, etc


If God promotes you, no one can put you down


We choose to depend on Him


This one comes from the root anav, which denotes a condition of character—DEPENDING on GOD due to internal, spiritual orientation rather than external factors.


The root of this word also indicates that RELYING on GOD is a CHOICE, not merely because you physically have to.


Acknowledge Him


Have you ever been humbled by nature?

Have you ever walked through a field of tulips or watched a sunset and been reminded how incredibly awesome God is and how small you are by comparison?

It’s humbling.


Rely on God is a choice. You choose, you choose to trust Him


We worry because we trust ourselves


If we can make so much money, than i don't worry.

But God is saying trust Him, one day at a time.

Live your life today, hearing from God, obeying Him and doing His will.


What pleases God?


Anything that is done, believing in Him, is faith


Put your future in His hands and that is faith

Just believing Him

When we tithe and offer, that is faith


The Hebrew word ANAVAH is what we translate as “HUMILITY,” but the literal

definition of ANAVAH is


TO OCCUPY YOUR GOD-GIVEN SPACE in the world—

to NOT OVERESTIMATE YOURSELF or YOUR ABILITIES,


but to NOT UNDERESTIMATE them either.


A humble person is not afraid of people see their weaknesses, because he is weak in himself but strong in Christ

God gives us the privilege to co-creation


The robot can think and even has flesh, but no spirit.


Humility is not talk as if we are not worth one cent.

Not overestimate and underestimate


JOHN 12:24-26 MSG

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground,

DEAD to the WORLD, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.


But if it is BURIED, it SPROUTS and REPRODUCES itself MANY TIMES over.

In the SAME WAY, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life.


But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.


“If any of you wants to SERVE ME, then FOLLOW ME.

Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.

THE FATHER will HONOR and REWARD anyone who SERVES ME.


May humility be the main trait of this ministry

We were nothing but dust

But God gives us the chance to reflect Him and save souls

He favor us not because we are talented, we are nobody, but God can use us.


We were just ashes. He will give us beauty to replace ashes

He gives us this beauty. He gives us a destiny, a future, a purpose where we can serve with His integrity


We can humble ourselves


We don't try to die, the old person is dead

Nothing will take us away from worshipping the Lord


Thank Him for what He is to us


We want to be together in the presence of God


The Father will reward us who serve Him

One day our rewards come from Him


Let us be the righteous man, 50 also means fullness of life. 90 is the one who has lived the fullness of life


The number of Jubilee, freedom! We choose to live for Jesus


To be humble before the Lord and before men

Occupy your God's given space in this world


Seeds die and will bring forth harvest


Seth was born and Eve said she has received from the Lord

instead of saying she has created man


The very life itself is given by God


Jesus humbled Himself and today we can choose to humble ourselves before God


Self praise is international disgrace


Let someone praise you, but not you yourself

If you need to boast, boast of the Lord

What He has done for us


Out of the nothingness in our lives


He in His goodness loves you


God wants to promote, blessings are coming our way

God teaches us all these so that we remain humble when blessings come


God entrust you with people

52 views

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page