Hebrew Word Study – Despise – Bazah  בזה Beth Zayin Hei

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Numbers 15:31: “Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity [shall be] upon him.”

Today I have a gentleman on my disability bus that I drove to the Veterans Hospital.  I really enjoy this passenger because he loves to talk about the Bible and God. Many Christians that you meet up instantly, want to talk about the latest football scores or current events.  They want to give their latest revelation from their favorite prophet or teacher as to why Trump lost the election and predict the time of his second coming to office. I try to steer the conversation to the Word of God and things more relevant about God and a relationship with Him but I am often not successful. I remember my brother and I were having a wonderful conversation about the Word of God and the deeper things in God’s Word.  My brother is a Wycliffe Bible translator.  This was really a wonderful time and things were just flying out of Scripture.  Then the doorbell rang and it was a friend of the family, a Pentecostal preacher. Boy, I was ready for fireworks. But when he said down and saw our open Bibles, he never thought to ask what we were discussing. Instead, he got right down to business to talk about his church and the number of people in the church, the latest programs they were doing, and to invite my brother to speak in his church. Then he talked about his daughter going off to college and the college she was attending and the Word of God stayed open, but never a word was spoken about it until after he left. 

I say that because it seems so many Christians and preachers never show the hunger for God’s Word than this military veteran on my disability bus. When he got off the bus he just radiated the joy of the Lord and declared for all to hear, “I feel like I have just been in church.”

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How would he know what it was like in a church?  You see, he’s gay. He hasn’t been in a relationship for years and does not desire a relationship simply because he is just too old and set in his ways, but he feels he must be honest about himself to his family and so he has come out of the closet and his Christian family totally rejected him.  He was not welcomed in church and on the rare occasions that he meets his family they make it a point to tell him he is going to hell if he does not change his — his what? How he feels?  They pray for his deliverance and even he even allowed them to pray over him. He still has those feelings. As a result, he has no Christian friends, no one to talk to about the Word of God and God. So, he looks forward to our bus rides together and loses no time in getting down to business to talk about the Word of God and Scripture.  He doesn’t seem to have a problem with me being straight.  He still feels he can talk with me. I figure if he is ok with me being straight then there is no reason for me to not be ok with him being gay.

I know that is not a proper Christian approach, I should be praying for his soul and trying to convert him. But, hey, I get so little opportunity to have a lively, sincere discussion about the love of God and His Word which I am just as hungry as he is to discuss. I’ve shared many times, about being diagnosed as on the autism spectrum with what is called Asperger’s Syndrome.  One trait of an Aspie is that they are a complete bore until you get on their subject. For some it is rocks. I drive one Aspie who is focused on Greek mythology. He has a grasp and knowledge of Greek mythology that puts this old professor with a Ph.D. in Archaeology to shame. However, if you try to talk of anything else, within minutes he steers the conversation back to Greek mythology. Just as if you try to talk to me about anything other than Scripture and God,  within minutes I’m saying; “That reminds me of Proverbs….” Then everyone looks at me as if to say: “Give it a rest, there are more important things in life.  So, you have to forgive me if I accept someone as a Christian brother even if he is gay because my few straight friends and those I tried to befriend tire easily of my incessant chatter about the Word of God. 

I was reading something very interesting in the Talmud about Numbers 15:31: “Because he hath despised the word of the LORD…”  There is quite a discussion in the Talmud in Sanhedrin 99a on this verse. Who are the ones who despise the Word of the Lord? Well, first the Talmud does a little Hebrew word study and points out that the Hebrew word for “Word” is dabar.  These are words from the very heart of God. As far as who is being discussed, the Talmud makes it clear it is just not the Jews.  It is everyone who has the revelation of the Torah. As I discussed in an earlier study on Deuteronomy 33:2-3 according to many Jewish teachers it is a reference to all mankind.  God has given His Torah to all mankind and everyone is responsible for either accepting this revelation or rejecting it. 

So, we can conclude that to despise the Torah is to reject it.  Well, not necessarily.  The Talmud gives many examples of despising the Torah.  You see the word used in Hebrew for despised is not just to hate something. The Hebrew word is bazah which means to despise, disdain or scorn.  It is also used in the Akkadian as buzzu’u which is to mistreat.  In the Old Persian, it is badu’a which is to plunder and take as booty. In other words, it is to mistreat something that was precious and important to someone else but because of your power over them you can take it from them and misuse it.  Sort like how Nazi prison guards in a concentration camp would seize photos of prisoners’ loved ones and then use it for toilet paper. There are many levels of bazah. The Talmud teaches that bazah is idolatry because the Torah teaches you should have no other god. To worship another god when it is revealed to you not to, that is to bazah, the Word of God.  That is one level but the Talmud describes another level and that is to not share the Torah with others.  You are to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and might.  If you have no desire to share the Word of God with even other believers, you are guilty of bazah despising the Word of God. 

The Jews have a saying: “How one chooses to live is between them and God.”  So too, with my gay Christian friend who rides my disability bus.  It is not for me to judge, it is for me to share the Word of God with anyone who longs to talk of the Word of God.  The Jewish approach to someone who is gay is that they are still Jews and are to be treated as such, even if you feel they are living in sin, they are still Jews and deserve the respect of being a Jew. I believe my veteran friend is a born-again Christian, despite my views on homosexuality.  If he says he loves God I am not to judge just to love God with him, share the Word of God and call him brother.  After all, I struggle with pride, envy, holding grudges, lack of forgiveness to others and I can continue my list of sins that are of course not as bad as homosexuality, except in the eyes of God.

Did I tell you about Gloria, a Christian woman with a beautiful Godly spirit that I drive to the Marijuana clinic to get her monthly supply of joints?  Perhaps some other time.  

 

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