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Introduction

God says, “Trust me.” How and why do we trust Him, have faith in Him?

His Word defines that trust with several levels of understanding using the Hebrew’s roots sounds. As we will see faith has these levels of meaning: Caring, Covenant, Opportunity, True, Strength, Developing a Law abiding people, Speaking and Creating. Let us examine these root-sounds of faith.

539.aman [52d]; a prim. root; to confirm, support
 
With his head cocked to the side, He scrutinized the man and asked – do you have faith? The man stared back and asked, what is faith? Was the question that difficult? Another way of asking is, whom do you trust and why?
 
The first time aman appears in its root form is in Genesis below. Something made Abram believe what God promised. Not only did Abram believe what God promised, but also his believing was equated to righteousness.
 
Gen. 15:6 Then he believed (aman) the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
 
God told Abram to observe the stars. Why? Abram, unlike scientists today, knew that if God could create the heavens and earth, He could easily keep His promise.

Faithfully Caring

God’s faithfulness resembles that of a nurse who is always there to care.
 
Ruth 4:16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse.

Faith was also translated as a guardian, the one who protects.

2Kings 10:5 … the guardians of the children…

Nurses and guardians have their positions because they are reliable, just as God’s Word is reliable.

Neh. 13:13 … they were considered reliable,

The reliability of Faith has no limit in the sense of having no end or “cure.” Sometimes the eternity of faith is negative for those who deliberately eschew God and, with true adherents, it is positive.

Deut. 28:59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

1Sam. 2:35 ‘But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always.
 
God authorized certain people to demonstrate and validate His faithfulness in word and/or deed, just as God confirmed His Word by what He did.

1Sam. 3:20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD.

Psa. 93:5 Your testimonies are fully confirmed;
         Holiness befits Your house,
         O LORD, forevermore.

Like confirm, faith is also translated as established, which is similar to it.

2Chr. 20:20 ¶ They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.”

God uses the analogy of a peg being fastened into the ground to show that God is unmovable regarding His promises.

Is. 22:23 “I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
         And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house. 

Amanah used only a few times shows how faith has the sense of support.

548.amanah [53d]; from 539; faith, support

Faithful Covenant

Is it written in stone? Except for the commandments, no, but faith being so unmovable, is written down for all to see in God’s Word. Like a covenant God gives us an agreement and a firm regulation emanating from His faithfulness. We can rely on God’s trustworthiness as if it were written in marble or granite.

Neh. 9:38 “Now because of all this
         We are making an agreement in writing;
         And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.”
Neh. 11:23 For there was a commandment from the king concerning them and a firm regulation for the song leaders day by day.

The following meanings extend God’s faithfulness, trustworthiness, honesty and stability with the various verses gleaned from the root sounds below.

544. NRmOa omen [53b]; from 539; faithfulness
540. NAmSa aman [1081a]; (Ara.) corr. to 539; to trust
530. hÎn…wmTa emunah [53c]; from 539; firmness, steadfastness, fidelity

Is. 33:6 And He will be the stability of your times,
         A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;
         The fear of the LORD is his treasure.
 
Faith’s Opportunity

Those who trust God’s promises found in His Word have the greatest opportunity to gain all that is good. Naturally, God’s trustworthy agreements and covenants depend upon the agreement in word and deed of the ones who sign His document. However, the promise of life and life more abundantly would be wasted on those who mistrust the One who presents the opportunities, and these dedicated miscreants would never agree to the details found in His Word.
 
545.omnah [53d]; from 539; bringing up, nourishment
579.anah [58c]; a prim. root; to be opportune, to meet, encounter opportunely
534.amir [57b]; from 559; the top, summit

Psa. 121:7 The LORD will protect you from all evil;
         He will keep your soul.
Psa. 121:8 The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
         From this time forth and forever.
 
Faithfully True

Truth has a higher meaning than, that’s true! Truth has the ultimate meaning of foundational and ultimate reality. Furthermore, truth is like a mathematical formula, if this is true than that is also true. If x equals y and y equals z, than x equals z. Truth cannot be refuted with presupposed facts or assumptions.
 
543.amen [53b]; from 539; verily, truly

God has the very nature of being blessed, emphasized by repeating it twice, called pleonasm.

Psa. 41:13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
         From everlasting to everlasting.
         Amen and Amen.

When the God’s Word talks about a name, it means the entire nature and authority of a person, or Person. So God’s name is holy and to be adored by bowing down. From His being so high above all, the Earth has the elements of His splendor in the very creation, which sings praise to Him.

Psa. 72:19 And blessed be His glorious name forever;
         And may the whole earth be filled with His glory.
         Amen, and Amen.

546. omnah [53d]; from 539; verily, truly, indeed
551. omnam [53d]; from 539; verily, truly

In no way will God ever be able to act or do anything but good and praise worthy. He and the Word emanating from Him are faithful and true, forever.

Job 34:12 “Surely, God will not act wickedly,
         And the Almighty will not pervert justice.

552.umnam [53d]; from 539; verily, truly, indeed
571.emeth [54a]; from 539; firmness, faithfulness, truth

1Sam. 12:24 “Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.
2Sam. 2:6 “Now may the LORD show lovingkindness and truth to you; and I also will show this goodness to you, because you have done this thing.
2Sam. 7:28 “Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.

Israel were the first people to listen to and obey God’s Word, first by Passover and crossing through the Red Sea, and later by agreeing to the law of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God. God gave them that Law of Life, which He faithfully promised to give them according their willingness to keep their part of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments.  Later, in the New Covenant, God wrote the Ten Commandments, not again on stone, but on the hearts and minds of those who trust Him and believe on His adopted son.

Israel learned that God is true to His Word for the Covenant keepers by faithfully rescuing them from Egypt in ancient times and the similar evil in later times.

Neh. 9:13 “Then You came down on Mount Sinai,
         And spoke with them from heaven;
         You gave them just ordinances and true laws,
         Good statutes and commandments.

Ex. 20:1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
Ex. 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Ex. 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
Ex. 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Ex. 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Ex. 20:6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Psa. 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
         The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.

Jer. 10:10 But the LORD is the true God;
         He is the living God and the everlasting King.

Psa. 100:5 For the LORD is good;
         His lovingkindness is everlasting
         And His faithfulness to all generations.

Faith of the Almighty

Faith and strength rooted together in Hebrew where strength gives broader meaning to faith. In other words, because God is trustworthy, those who trust God shown by their words and deeds, receive elements of God’s strength for their faithfulness.

553. amets [54d]; a prim. root; to be stout, strong, bold, alert

Being faithful, like God, generates great strength

Is. 41:10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you;
         Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
         I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
         Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

533. ammits [55c]; from 553; mighty

Faith Produces a People, Language, Culture and Laws

People who are together like Israel or come together like Christians become transformed to citizens of the Kingdom of God, though, Christians, as those in exile for the Kingdom of God has not yet fully come to Earth.
 
524. ummah [1081a]; (Ara.) corr. to 523; a nation

Psa. 117:1 Praise the LORD, all nations;
         Laud Him, all peoples!

Dan. 7:14 “And to Him was given dominion,
            Glory and a kingdom,
            That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
            Might serve Him.
            His dominion is an everlasting dominion
            Which will not pass away;
            And His kingdom is one
         Which will not be destroyed.

Those who trust the trustworthy God automatically become a part of His Family as sons and daughters of the Lord.

Faith Is Like a Master Workman

Faith has the equivalency of a person who has the skills of an artist, composer, literary light, or accomplished in any field. Faith gives one the artistry of the highest order, who can form the art as he desires.

542. omman [53b]; from 539; a masterworkman, artist

Ex. 26:30 “Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its plan which you have been shown in the mountain.
Ex. 26:31 ¶ “You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.

Ex. 36:34 He overlaid the boards with gold and made their rings of gold as holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
Ex. 36:35 Moreover, he made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet material, and fine twisted linen; he made it with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
Ex. 36:36 He made four pillars of acacia for it, and overlaid them with gold, with their hooks of gold; and he cast four sockets of silver for them.

Faith Speaks
 
559. amar [55c]; a prim. root; to utter, say

Among the over four thousand times the Bible uses amar are God’s speaking and commanding the creation and (with the ar in dabar) speaking the commandments. These two important statements characterize God’s faithfulness by giving man life and all that is needed for life in the creation and the words, which provide the ultimate life and relationship with the Creator.

Gen. 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Ex. 20:1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
Ex. 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

561. emer [56d]; from 559; speech, word

Job 23:12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
         I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

Proverbs shows people that God Words, which He taught to the one He formed, Adam, in a person’s language and communication can have a broad positive impact for those who use Them.

Prov. 22:21 To make you know the certainty of the words of truth
         That you may correctly answer him who sent you?

A slightly different sound in emrah tells us that God uses His Language to create matter, energy and living things.

565b. emrah [57b]; from 559; utterance, speech, word

Lam. 2:17 The LORD has done what He purposed;
            He has accomplished His word
         Which He commanded from days of old.

Faith Creates

But, amar commanded the world into existence, and this creation demonstrates for all to see His glory and lovingkindness. The Hebrew for create has a root sound connection with speaking; therefore, even the creation demonstrates God’s faithfulness (aman).

Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created (bara is also sound rooted to amar in the ar sound in Hebrew) the heavens and the earth.
Gen. 1:3 Then God said (amar), “Let there be light”; and there was light.

560. amar [1081a]; (Ara.) corr. to 559; to say, tell, command

All those who ascribe the creation to the Big Bang and evolution will perish as well as the perpetrators of the myth. God speaks, has language and He made man in His image to have language as He has. No human is born with language, even though the brain is created to have language; each parents or guardians must teach language to babies, who learn it quickly. Each of the many languages on Earth has a unity of grammar in the basic subject, verb and object (at times). All language users use it for communication. That language and communication exist in various forms through out the universe demands a Creator because neither a Big Bang nor evolution can develop the complexities of language, language users and communication, even in, say DNA and sun and plants.

Note the following verse from above.

Jer. 10:11 Thus you shall say to them, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”

Among the Hebrews sounds growing out of faith, we have emer, which is used to describe the Words coming from God.

After the Creation, God faithfully completed all the things necessary for life and its amazing attributes. He further gave people a most essential time to live life to its fullness, Sabbath’s Day Rest. Not only that, a person resting as God did, fulfills the promise and fact that God made man in His Image, the One who rests on the Sabbath, or, as called today, Saturday.

Gen. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
Gen. 2:2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

The people who accept the fact that they are formed and created by God will not worship the sun  god on Sunday or worship matter and energy in science. It takes a powerful delusion and deception to wrest people away for the fact of a creation and bow down to that which is created from demons to anything else.

Deut. 4:19 “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

People who refuse to worship the Creator adamantly must suffer the same consequence as of those false gods.

Jer. 10:11 Thus you shall say to them, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
Jer. 10:12 It is He who made the earth by His power,
         Who established the world by His wisdom;
         And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.

Conclusion

God’s great faith, as we have seen, gives us great power in all ways. Let us remember these root-sounds of faith: Caring, Covenant, Opportunity, True, Strength, Developing People and Laws, Speaking and Creating.

Amen.

Gil Kovacs, Pastor

Sabbath Christian Church