Hebrew Word Study – Middle – Tavek – ת֥וֹךְ Taw Vav Kap 

Exodus 14:22: “And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry [ground]: and the waters [were] a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.”

Let me show you something I found interesting in the Talmud this morning.  I was reading in Sotah 37a and found a discussion on Exodus 14:22.   The word that was called into question was the word midst.  In Hebrew the word is tavek.  This word means midst, middle, into, through, among, in-between and even the center.   We automatically assume that when the passage says they walked in the midst meant that the sea was around them while they were on dry ground. 

Yet the Talmud asks the question “If they went into the sea, why did it say ‘on dry ground’; and if they went on dry ground, why does it say that they went into the ‘midst of the sea.’”   You see the word tavek in the Hebrew can only mean they actually walked into the sea itself.  Thus the Talmud explains that this is teaching that the sea was only divided after Israel had stepped into it and the water reached their noses – only then did it become dry ground.

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It seems God is teaching a lesson we are not anxious to hear and that is that sometimes our miracle does not come until we are almost at the point of drowning.  Sometimes, God will wait until that eleventh hour, the movers have the furniture in the truck, ready to drive off and then the Lord will say to the driver; “Ok, you can put it back now.”  Actually the Bible is full of eleventh-hour rescues.  Peter in Acts 12 is put in prison.  The saints were praying but had already given up hope because when Peter arrived at their door they thought he was a ghost.  Abraham and Sarah had a child after passing their childbearing years.  Gideon went against the Midianites outnumbered 300 to one and they were armed with only a clay pot and torch. In fact God did not assure a victory until Gideon walked right into the tavek, the midst of the Midianite camp. Jehoshaphat went up against the three kings with a choir.  They all had their cliffhangers.  

God seems to want us to wait until that eleventh hour, or cause us to walk right into the midst of what we fear the most before He rescues us.  Why?  I don’t know but I do know that in every case God is trying to strip us of all our trust in ourselves so that the world can see that our trust is in God alone. 

You know what?  That is really hard on your heart.

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