Where is Ebenezer?

In the well-known hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” we sing:

“Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.”

Is Ebenezer an actual place or a parable? Let us read what the Bible has to say about it.

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Why do people call Israel “Palestine”?

Anyone studying biblical history or reading books about this topic, may have noticed that the common name to refer to the country of Israel in the academic literature is not “Israel”, nor “Judah”, but “Palestine”. Why is this name so commonly used? Where did it come from?

Paul Lawrence, in his “Atlas of Bible History” explains:

Before the Israelite conquest the name of the Promised Land west of the Jordan was Canaan. Its inhabitants were Canaanites.

To avoid confusing we use the term “Palestine” to designate that region after the conquest, but this should not be interpreted a modern, political sense.

“Israel” and “Judah” are used to denote the historic nation states that later emerged.

Lawrence Paul, The IVP Concise Atlas of Bible History (IVP Academic, 2013), 48

Even if we agree that the term “Palestine” does not have a political meaning, it surely has a theological meaning, as we shall explain below.

Palestine in c. 350 AD according to Eusebius and Jerome (map as reconstructed by George Adam Smith, 1915)

When was the term “Palestine” first used?

Although many biblical history scholars call the land “Palestine” in their articles and books, this term was never used in the Bible itself. The first to call the land of Israel “Palestine” were the Romans in the 2nd century AD, after they defeated the Bar-Kokhba revolt in 135 AD.

After the war against Judah ended Roman emperor Hadrian decided to officially change the name of the province “Judaea” to “Syria Palaestina”. Some scholars claim this name was already known before Hadrian. But nevertheless, the change of the name of the province came only after the Judean nation was completely destroyed and exiled.

Another proof of the Roman intention to wipe out the name Judaea and the bond of the Judeans to the land is the fact that they also changed the name of Jerusalem. The Romans exiled the Jews from Jerusalem and renamed it Aelia Capitolina.

The Romans, in the period they called “Pax Romana” – the Roman peace – wiped out Judah and made sure no remains are left of that nation. From this point in time, the name Judea was replaced on all maps by Syria-Palaestina, and all history books started to use the new name: Palaestina. Until this very day…

The origin of the name “Palaestina”

This name is derived from Philistia (Hebrew: פְּלֶשֶׁת), the name of the coastal area of Israel that was held in biblical times by the Philistines (Hebrew: פְּלִשְׁתִּים). Around the time the Israelites settled in Canaan, so too did the Philistines. They reached their height of power under Kings Saul and David, after which they began to diminish, ultimately being wiped out in 604 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

In this small land, there were Canaanites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Edomites, Hellenists, Samaritans, and of course: Israelites and Judeans. How then, from all those nations, is it after the name of the Philistines that Hadrian called the land?

After all, the Philistines held a very small part of the southern coast of the land, and they were gone over 700 years before Hadrian time.

Political or Theological?

An act of political renaming of countries was used since ancient times. The name of the land affects how it is publicly known. Many countries changed their names after a change of regime to denote that they are a different entity. (e.g., Russia to the USSR and back to Russia, Burma to Myanmar, and many more examples).

So it makes sense that the Romans changed the name of Judaea. Did the name that they chose as the new name have any meaning for them? Was it just the most logical name to choose?

But the bigger question is, how come this name, that was invented as a “replacement” name by Rome, is still the name used today by scholars to refer to the land in the time of the Bible, when this name was not used?

An answer to the above question may be attributed to the early Church in the first centuries. The early theologians of the church had the idea that the Christian Church replaced Israel of the Bible. So, Israel is no more, and the Church is the “New Israel”. This replacement theology was the mainstream Christian perception of Israel and the Jews until the 20th century and until the new state of Israel was founded. The new state of Israel brought significant questions to the Church, and even the Catholic Church had to reconsider its approach to the Jews.

Then why is this name, “Palestine”, the name that the Arabs choose to identify with today? After all, this name has nothing to do with any Arab or Muslim legacy, and it is a memory of the Roman conquest and the Roman Catholic Church.

Do the Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians” affiliate with the Roman conquest of Judea or with the early church?

What is Palestine?

If we look at the history of the use of this name – Philistines/Palaestina/Palestine, we can see a “crimson thread” throughout time.

  • The Philistines killed the first ‘anointed one of Israel’ – the first Messiah (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ), King Saul. They also tried to kill David, the anointed one who was a man after God’s own heart, but without success.
  • The Romans used the name of the Philistines and renamed the land to “Palaestina”, hoping to eradicate the name of Israel and Judah forever.
  • The early church followed Rome by trying to abolish the memory of historical Israel, believing that God abandoned His people.
  • And in our modern era, the name “Palestine” is attributed to an entity that aims to replace the state of Israel.

What is common to this name throughout history is an attempt to destroy God’s plan of salvation through Israel and the Jews! Whenever someone uses this name, they try to replace Israel’s role in God’s plan..

For thousands of years, from King Saul up to our day, trying without success to abolish the plan of God that cannot be changed.

The death of King Saul by Gustave Dore

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
“Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”

Psalms 2:1-6 [NIV]

So next time you use the name “Palestine”, be sure you understand what you are saying.

“The Word” (Λόγος) and the “Wilderness”

The word “wilderness” or “Desert” – “Midbar” (מִדְבָּר) in Hebrew – appears 272 times in the Bible (Old testament).

The meaning of “midbar” in modern Hebrew is an arid area. A place where crops cannot grow.

But in the Bible, it has two different meanings:

  1. Desert or desolate place.
  2. A place where the shepherds take the flock to graze.

An example of the “Midbar” as a wilderness or desert:

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;

Isaiah 35:1

But in other places, the “midbar” is referred to lands that are not dry but rather quite fertile:

And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness (midbar), and do not lay a hand on him”

Genesis 37:22

Although the word “midbar” was translated here to “wilderness” in English, we know that this story took place in the valley of Dothan, which is a fertile valley.

Why is this ambiguity?

In order to understand the meaning of the word Midbar (מִדְבָּר), we need to look for its root. Hebrew words all have roots, and different branches can arise from these roots. However, the root contains the original meaning.

The word “midbar” מִדְבָּר comes from the root D.B.R.

Other meaning branching out of this root is: “To speak”

  • Diber (v.) דִבֵּר – Spoke
  • Davar דָבָר (n.) – Spoken word
  • Diber (n.) דִבֵּר – Commandment

How are “wilderness” and “speaking” related?

The good shepherd

Let’s check the original meaning of the root D.B.R.

In ancient Hebrew and in other Semitic languages, it means “to lead”

A shepherd leads his sheep. He makes them lie in green pastures. He saves them from the lion and the bear. If one of a hundred sheep is lost, he will leave the 99 to find the one.

This is what it means to be a leader.

And for this reason, all the faithful leaders in the Bible were shepherds: Abel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David.

The more common use of the root D.B.R is in the verb “speak” – דִבֵּר and the noun “spoken word” – דָבָר. In Greek: Λόγος.

This is clear: the one who speaks is the leader, and he leads through spoken word. The shepherd also leads with his voice:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

The “spoken word” then generated a more profound meaning in Hebrew: “The important thing”, which is another meaning in Hebrew of “davar” דָבָר.

“In the beginning was the Word (Greek: Λόγος, Hebrew: דָבָר) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.

Where “the Word” and “Desert” meet

in the history of the sons of Israel, the spoken Word “Davar” דָבָר, Λόγος is spoken in the desert.

And this makes sense: God is the leader of the people. He led them in the desert (“midbar”) and spoke (“diber”) to them and gave them His commandments (“dibrot”).

All branches of the root D.B.R meet in the story of Exodus.

Interestingly, the names of the last two books of the Pentateuch – the Torah, are of the same root D.B.R:

  • Numbers – in Hebrew: “Bamidbar” בְּמִדְבַּר – “In the desert”
  • Deuteronomy – in Hebrew: “Devarim” דְּבָרִים – “The spoken Words”
Moses Smashing the Tables of the Law, Gustave Doré

So how can we tell which is the correct meaning of “midbar” in the Bible?

When you encounter the word “wilderness” or “desert” in the Bible, it might be one of two meanings: Dry wilderness, or a place where the sheep are led to graze.

How can we tell which is which?

So probably, the original meaning was – a place where shepherds took the flock out.

Later on, a secondary meaning evolved from the original. The shepherds took the sheep to feed them in an area that was not cultivated. In Israel, in many cases, that was the frontier of the desert.

So the word “midbar” got a new meaning, which was: a wilderness where very little rain falls. A desert.

In the Bible itself, you can distinguish between the two easily:

In most cases, when the word “midbar”, translated to wilderness or desert, appears on its own or is used to refer to a certain name of a desert – you know it is “a desert”.

So “Wilderness of Sinai” or “Wilderness of Judah” point to the desert of Sinai and the desert of Judah.

But when “midbar” appears before a name of a town, then we know that this is the area where the shepherds of that town took the flocks to feed them.

Therefore, “Wilderness of Ziph” and “Wilderness of Maon” are those lands out of the cultivated fields, where the people of Ziph and Maon feed their flocks.

Many types of “desert”

In Biblical Hebrew, we have other words that are used for a desert. They represent different level of aridity.

“midbar” is probably the mildest desert. because there is enough vegetation for the goats and sheep to be fed.

Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon

1 Samuel 23:24 (NIV)

In this short verse there are three different words for desert:

  1. Desert of Maon (“midbar”) מִדְבָּר – this is the area close to the town of Maon, where there is enough food for the sheep
  2. Araba עֲרָבָה – plains in the desert. Here we read David was in a part of the “midbar” of Maon that was a flatland.
  3. Jeshimon יְשִׁימוֹן – a more arid area with very little rain.

the LORD, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness (“midbar”), Through a land of deserts (“arabah”) and pits, Through a land of drought (“tsiya”) and the shadow of death (“tsalmaveth”), Through a land that no one crossed And where no one dwelt

Jeremiah 2:6 (NKJV)

Here, four different words for desert in one verse:

  1. Midbar מִדְבָּר
  2. Arabah עֲרָבָה
  3. Zia צִיָּה – extreme arid desert.
  4. shadow of death צַלְמָוֶת – a land where death rules.
Negev desert in southern Israel

False Prophets Today?

In the Bible we read about false prophets that unlike true prophets, do not hear from God, but rather from their own mind.

They pretend to be hearing from God. Many people, even kings, approach them to hear what God put in their mouths. But all in vain. All they have to say is the opposite of God’s word.

Why are they opposing God? Because false prophets tell people what they want to hear!

And how do false prophets know what the people who come to them want to hear?

Let’s check the Bible.

King Ahab needs a good advice

In 1 Kings chapter 22, we read a story about Ahab, king of Israel, that wanted to start a war against Aram.

Before he went to the war, he had asked his prophets: “Shall I go to battle or shall I refrain”?

And the 400 prophets answered in one voice: “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” (1 Kings 22:6)

But his friend, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, urged him to ask a prophet of the Lord as well. Unwillingly, Ahab asked for Micaiah son of Imlah, a prophet of the Lord of Israel.

Micaiah did not want to tell Ahab the true vision he had. And told him a lie, just like the rest of the false prophets. But after Ahab commanded him to tell the truth, he said to him:

“I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd.

And the Lord said, ‘These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace.’”

1 Kings 22:17

And then Micaiah explained.

This is very important because it tells us what is the source of false prophecies:

I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. 20 The Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 The Lord said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.’ 23 Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you.”

1 Kings 22:19-23

Deceiving Spirit. This is what it is.

False prophets make it their profession to prophesy, even though they do not hear from God. They tell the people what the people want to hear. Jeremiah said about them:

“For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.

Jeremiah 6:13-14
Jeremiah by Michelangelo

False prophets today

So who are the false prophets of our days?

Who are the people that are against God and tell the people what they want to hear? Moreover, they have some kind of supernatural authority that comes from their wisdom and knowledge. Don’t we all know them?

The undisputed leader of today’s false prophets is a Jew, of course. He was born in Israel. He wrote books that became best-sellers.

Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama and Bill Gates recommended his books.

His name is Yuval Noah Harari.

And here is a prophecy quoted from his book “Homo Deus” (Harvill Secker, 2015)

Having reduced mortality from starvation, disease and violence, we will now aim to overcome old age and even death itself. Having saved people from abject misery, we will now aim to make them positively happy. And having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods, and turn Homo sapiens into Homo Deus.

Tell people what they want to hear. An extreme enemy of God. Tell them that they are God now!

Anyone said this before???

your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God

Genesis 3:5

Animal Parables in the Bible (III): Jeremiah was not PC

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

Jeremiah 13:23

Jeremiah wanted to tell us, that even if we believe we can’t change our ways – we can!

We are accustomed to do evil. It does not mean we were born evil.

The people in his time had this saying: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?” which meant: you are born in a certain way, and there is nothing you can do about it.

And he told them: No! Doing evil is not what you were born to do!

Like he used to do in other places, Jeremiah liked to use parables.

In this case, two parables: one of the Ethiopian, and one of a leopard.

I want to go a little deeper to understand why he used those two examples:

Cheetah in Kruger NP South Africa, Photo by Amir Silberman

Can a leopard change its spots?

Leopards lived in Israel until the beginning of the 21st century in the Negev and Judean desert. In the last decade, no leopards were reported.

But we know that in the time of Jeremiah, there were leopards, lions and cheetahs in Israel. All of them are extinct now.

The word Namer (נָמֵר) can refer probably to both leopard or cheetah, as both have spots.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

Today, many educated people who call themselves “progressive” boycott the Bible. They say that the stories are not good for children, and lead to violence and discrimination.

Certainly, Jeremiah was not afraid from being considered “Not politically correct”

The word Ethiopian that is used here in almost all English translation is not precise.

The right word is Cushite – a man of the land of Cush.

The land of Cush is mentioned in the Bible in several places. The word Cushite refers to a person who comes from Cush.

Moses took a wife that was a Cushite and his brother and sister did not like this. (again, translated to Ethiopians in most English translations)

The true meaning of “Cush” is probably “Africa” and a “Cushite” is a man or woman with a dark skin. The point of this parable is that a man can’t change the color of his skin from dark to pale.

Some say that speaking like this is not PC, but the Bible never claimed to be PC!