HEBREW WORD STUDY – DRAWING NEAR – NAGASH  נגשׁ  

Genesis 44:18: “Then Judah came near unto him, and said, ‘Oh, my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord’s ears…”

The word for come near is nagash.  This has the idea of drawing near or approaching with an offering, a present or a request.  The sages believe that this verse is teaching the way in which we can approach God in prayer.

When I first started to study the Talmud, it was with the intention of honing my skills in Classical Hebrew and Aramaic, not to get any spiritual insight.  After all, I was a Christian, what did Judaism, another religion have to offer me.  However, I came to realize that just because the Jews have rejected Jesus as their Messiah, did not mean they lost their anointing to be the guardians of the Holy Scriptures.  I found that by removing such things as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and inserting Jesus Christ, many teachings of the sages had deep application to my own faith.  This is one example.  

The sages believe that Genesis 44:18 is giving three suggestions, that with any of these three we will be able to have the strength to approach God in prayer.

The first is to consider that we are sinful and we have no right to approach a Holy God. All our deeds are filled with foolishness and emptiness.  Yet, we still approach God, not on our own merit, but in that of the holy ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Well, for one thing, they are not my ancestors and even if they were, they were sinners just like me. But suppose I say: “We approach God, not on our own merit, but on the merit of Jesus Christ who died for our sins.”  Now that makes a whole lot of sense for me.

The second is that God has placed within us a soul which has been designed to attach itself to its source, which is God when we pray. An interesting thought, prayer is the instrument God uses to attach our soul to Him.  Again, my Jewish teachers seem to overlook the problem of sin, which is a pretty perplexing problem for them, but not for me, as Jesus Christ solved that problem 2,000 years ago so that the sinfulness of my soul is made pure and Holy before God, so that I may use prayer to attach my soul to the God of the universe.

The third way is to consider that God spoke through the mouth of Moses. As our soul attaches to God, God will put His words in our mouth as we pray.  By His mercy, and, I would add the finished work of Jesus Christ, He will place His words in our mouth and we will pray with Him.   Consider what the sages are teaching.   We move from praying to God to praying with God.  We are literally conversing with God as one.  

Do you ever find yourself praying for guidance from God and saying things like: “Lord, I don’t know how I will find the time to get this project done.  I know I can cancel this appointment, I don’t have to watch that TV show, and I could skip the time I spend on my favorite hobby…”  We end up answer our own question while we are praying.

When we pray and our soul attaches to God it is sort of like Paul said: “Let’s this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”   Philippians 2:5.   Our words spoken in prayer often becomes the words of God giving us the answer to our prayer. How does God speak to us?  The Talmud teaches that sometimes He speaks to us like Moses, through our own mouth.