Pastor Stephanie
Both Joshua and Moses are called servants, but different words are used for them.
One is Sharath and the other is Ehbed.
The book of Joshua opens with a command from Yahweh to the new leader.
JOSHUA 1:1-2 KJV
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying:
Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
H5650 Servant
Original: עבד
Transliteration: ‛ebed
Phonetic: eh'-bed
BDB Definition:
SLAVE
The word servant used for Moses is EHBED and indicates OWNERSHIP.
It is often used as a term to describe a BOND-SERVANT or a SLAVE who has been set free by the owner but chooses to remain with his owner and serve him out of love and devotion.
The word SHARATH used for Joshua is very different.
The word here translated Moses’ minister also means servant
but refers to a high ranking servant who directly and personally
ministers to his master.
H8334 minister
Original: שׁרת
Transliteration: shârath
Phonetic: shaw-rath'
- to minister, serve
- to attend as a menial or worshipper;
- to contribute to:- minister (unto), (do) serve (-ant, -ice, -itor), wait on.
Ministry is serving
Joshua loved his master and served him
The first occurrence of Ehbed is in the first book of the Torah:-
GENESIS 9:22, 24-25 NKJV
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father,
and told his two brothers outside.
So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had
done to him.
Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be
to his brethren.”
Jesus became the curse for us
Today when we are treated like a slaves to our employers, we still follow.
It is a choice now.
Spiritually we are taken out from slavery
Choose to serve the old master or the new master
Servant of servants is Ehbed of Ehbed and shows us
that the consequences of the sin of Canaan will be that
he is destined to never again serve his true master Yahweh,
but instead will be forced to only serve other servants.
He will not choose to serve out of love and devotion but will be
forced to serve out of duty.
He will be the lowest of servants.
The mystery hidden in the pictographs
of Ehbed:-
Ehbed is spelled AyinBeytDalet.
Ayin is the picture of the eye and means to see, to know,
or to experience.
Beyt is the picture of the tent and indicates a family or a dwelling place,
and is the first letter in the Torah that identifies the Son of God.
Dalet is the picture of the doorway and points to a pathway, a gate, a place of decision, or a place where change can take place.
The pictographs which preserve the meanings of the Hebrew words over time show us in Ehbed that Moses could willingly choose to serve Yahweh because he had come to a place of decision and had not only experienced but had come to know God the Son.
Remember Moses authored the Genesis accounts of Abraham and Jacob meeting with God in the flesh in the person of Yeshua.
A physical man has to make a choice to go through this door
The first place Sharath is found in the Biblical Narrative is again in the Torah.
GENESIS 39:2-3 NKJV
The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man;
and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made
all he did to prosper in his hand.
GENESIS 39:4 NKJV
So Joseph found favor in his sight, and SERVED him.
THEN he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority.
The word served is SHARATH and tells us Joseph was a high ranking and trusted slave even though he was in a foreign land.
The grace Joseph enjoyed tells us he must have served with a good heart.
The same whole-hearted devotion is found of Joshua towards Moses in
Exodus Chapter 33 verse 11.
EXODUS 33:11 NKJV
So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
And he would return to the camp, but his SERVANT JOSHUA the son of Nun,
a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
Joseph served with love but not as a slave
Joshua stayed close to Joseph out of love and devotion
Joshua waiting upon Moses
H8334 servant
Original: שׁרת
Transliteration: shârath
Phonetic: shaw-rath'
to minister, serve, minister to
to attend as a menial or worshipper to contribute to:- minister (unto), (do) serve (-ant, -ice, -itor), wait on.
Wherever Moses went, Joshua was there to serve him.
What can the pictographs of Sharath reveal to us?
Sharath is spelled Sheen ReyshTav.
Sheen is the picture of teeth and means to destroy or to press and
is the one letter God uses to identify Himself.
Reysh is the picture of the head and stands for the leader, the highest,
the most important, or the prince.
Tav is the picture of crossed wooden sticks and symbolizes a covenant,
a sign, or a cross and can mean to seal.
So the pictographs of Sharath show us just how DEVOTED
Joshua was in his SERVICE to Moses.
Remember Joshua is a type of YESHUA.
Joshua SERVED with the same LOVING DEVOTION that the
Son of God would show God the Father as He went to the cross.
Jesus has taken up the servanthood and submitted God's will as His will at the cross
It is our free choice to serve or not to serve
One of the names we learnt was Abba Father
He chose to obey
Joshua was in the presence of Yahweh in the Tabernacle with Moses.
The mystery preserved for us after all this time is that Messiah would in loving devotion to His Heavenly Father willingly go to His death on the cross.
The SERVANT MESSIAH would by doing so FULFILL the FATHER’S PLAN of SALVATION for all those under the curse of sin.
The Hebrew letters are also numbers.
The letter Sheen is the number 300 and signifies the final blood sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God.
The letter Reysh is the number 200 and balances the complete sufficiency of God with the insufficiency of man.
Tav is the number 400 and stands for a divinely ordained period of time that will bring about deliverance and renewal.
Here we the complete sum of the plan of Yahweh:
the BLOOD SACRIFICE of YESHUA, the Lamb of God, -
will be sufficient to DELIVER fallen man from the bondage of sin -
and BRING us to a NEW LIFE in HIM.
There is one final mystery we can now understand.
The last three letters of the 22 letter Hebrew Aleph Beyt make up the word Sharath.
Powerful story!
Just as the first three letters Aleph Beyt Gimel stand for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and begin our story, the last three show us there will be a Servant who will finish the story for us:
the Son Yeshua will be Sharath to the Father and will finish the plan of salvation at the Tav, the wooden cross.
It will be very sad ending if Jesus did not become Sharath at the cross
He submitted His will to the Father to die for us and therefore we have wonderful ending
Years ago there was a television show called Family Affair where the British actor Sebastian Cabot played Giles FRENCH, a Gentleman’s Gentleman.
He would just bristle when someone referred to him as a butler or servant.
He was a gentleman’s gentleman, a personal valet attending to all the personal needs of his employer.
He took great pride in his role.
It was not a job, it was not duty, it was a profession, a privilege to serve his employer.
He just did not do the things he was told to do like an ordinary servant an ‘abad.
He looked for things to do, he looked for ways to help his employer and he did it with dignity and grace.
If he ever brought any shame to his master he would die of humiliation.
He would serve his employer putting the needs of his employer above his own.
That is the sharath, the service we have for God, we are God’s gentleman’s gentleman.
Take pride in serving Him
ISAIAH 56:6-7 KJV
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD,
to SERVE him, [SHARATH]
and to LOVE the name of the LORD, to be his SERVANTS, [EBED]
every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them JOYFUL, in my house of PRAYER:
their burnt OFFERINGS and their SACRIFICES shall be ACCEPTED upon mine altar;
for mine house shall be called an HOUSE of PRAYER for all people.
They are the ones who joined to the Lord
Serve Him out of love and devotion
When we come before the Lord to serve Him and love Him than we become His servant
We have joy! Rejoicing!
He has done us the greatest favour! Not we do favour to Him
Joy fill the Father's heart. He loves a cheerful giver
An acknowledgement that He is my Source
You have given your life, your will, your love and things of this world
When we serve God as a SHARATH we are not serving him out of duty or fear of punishment, we are serving Him out of love.
We serve Him GLADLY and JOYFULLY and with that comes perks and priviledges.
NOT only are we to be the trusted, beloved servant but the SLAVE as well.
That would be almost contradictory except that this word ‘abad is preceded by the words to love the name of the Lord.
The word love is ‘ahav.
The word name represents the reputation and the work that God does.
If we love his work and reputation we would willing to become slaves to God.
We know we have the Servant of the Lord
There is no need to keep any reputation of our own
In a sense Mr. French was a slave to Mr. Davis.
He was on call 24/7 and Mr. Davis could at any time terminate him from his employment.
The word ‘ahav rendered as love is a human love, it is really the best we can produce in love.
Thus if we really ‘ahav God, then we would have no problem lower ourselves to the level of a slave for the sake of the God we ‘ahav, love.
It was not enforced on him, it was his choice.
More than that.
A sharath is a high level servant, with lots of perks.
An ‘abad is the lowest level with few or no perks.
To be JOYFUL in the house of prayer we must not only consider ourselves a SHARATH one of God’s gentleman’s gentleman with lots of perks and privileges
but we be willing to SERVE God as an ‘ABAD where we may not get paid so well, in fact we must be willing to throw that ten dollars in the offering plate and not get a hundredfold return, maybe no return at all.
In many parts of the world there are those who are ‘abad’s who are tortured and die for God.
Yet we all have one thing in common, we all ‘ahav love God.
When our world collapses, we GIVE EVERYTHING AWAY for the NAME of GOD
and we GET NOTHING in RETURN and we may MOVE from a SHARATH to an ‘A BAD,
there is one thing that will never change, our love for God.
We love Him back and willing to become a slave
ROMANS 1:1 NKJV
Paul, a BONDSERVANT of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated to the gospel of God
G1401 bondservant
Original: δοῦλος
Transliteration: doulos
Phonetic: doo'-los
Thayer Definition:
a SLAVE, bondman, man of servile condition
one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
DEVOTED to another to the disregard of one's own interests
He chose to be the slaves of the Lord Jesus
ROMANS 1:1 MSG
I, Paul, am a DEVOTED SLAVE of JESUS CHRIST on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim GOD’S WORDS and ACTS.
I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends.
Inside you is the new creation, the new born again person
You belong to Someone, that Person dictate your life. You do whatever that Person tells you
ISAIAH 53:2-3 AMP
For He [THE SERVANT of GOD] grew up before Him like a tender shoot (plant),
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has no stately form or majestic splendor That we would look at Him,
Nor [handsome] appearance that we would be attracted to Him.
He was despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief;
And like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.
We grow up to maturity than can serve. Baby don't grow cannot serve.
Following Him is our whole life where we identify ourselves with Christ
He has called us and we are chosen and belong to Him
ISAIAH 53:4-5 AMP
But [in fact] He has borne our griefs,
And He has carried our sorrows and pains;
Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken,
Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated
[by Him].
But He was wounded for OUR transgressions,
He was crushed for OUR wickedness [OUR sin, OUR injustice, OUR wrongdoing];
The punishment [required] for OUR well-being fell on Him,
And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.
Punishment for us to receive the well-being of a new life fell on Him
By His stripe, we are healed
This is our Saviour, choose and decide we want Him to be our Lord
We love Him because He first loved us
The devoted slave of Father God
Our choice, we choose. For what He has done for us, is it a difficult thing to give your life that is no more yours to the one who bought your life and gave you life.
This so connected with Adonai. It is our choice to acknowledge Him. We will then have all the perks.
We don't need to fear and vindicate ourselves.
He has always seen to it, vindication, provision
He becomes Adonai to us.
Comments