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life in another place. Oh to believe God! let man call us what
he will. It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
We have now considered four of the most important Hebrew
words used by
God in connection with the wages of sin, abad, shamad, tsamath
and karath.
One or two more words of less frequent usage will complete our
studies in
this section, and then we must turn to the Greek words used in
the New
Testament.
Kalah. This word is translated by a great many different English
words. We give a few of the most important: 'to consume, be consumed,
consume away' 60 times. Other renderings include, 'be accomplished', 'be
finished', 'cease', 'destroy utterly', 'utter end'.
Let us look at the way the word is used, apart from the question of
future punishment. 'On the seventh day God ended His work which He had made'
(Gen. 2:2). Comment is unnecessary here. Totality and completion are
clearly expressed by the context in this passage. 'And He left off talking
with him, and God went up from Abraham' (Gen. 17:22). 'The famine shall
consume the land' (Gen. 41:30). 'The water was spent in the bottle' (Gen.
21:15). 'My soul fainteth for Thy salvation ... mine eyes fail for Thy Word'
(Psa. 119:81,82). 'I will not make a full end with you' (Jer. 5:18; 30:11).
'The Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption ...' (Isa. 10:23).
The underlying idea of the word kalah may be seen in the fact that kol
is the Hebrew word for 'all' and 'every'. It signifies, as we have observed,
totality and the utter end. It is the word used by the Lord when He said to
Moses, 'Let Me alone, that I may consume them' (Exod. 32:10), or as in
Numbers 16:21,26 'that I may consume them in a moment'. The Psalmist uses
this word when speaking of the ungodly. 'Consume them in wrath, consume them
that they may not be' (Psa. 59:13). The added words, 'that they may not be'
amplify the inherent meaning of the word 'consume'. Again, in Psalm 37 we
read, 'But the wicked shall perish (abad) and the enemies of the Lord shall
be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume (kalah), into smoke shall they
consume away (kalah)'. Here we have not only the figure of the utter
consumption of fat by fire, but also the parallel word 'perish', which we
have considered together earlier.
Perhaps
the passage in the A.V. which gives a complete idea of the
nature of the
word is Zephaniah 1:18. 'Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able
to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole
land shall be
devoured (akal) by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make
even a speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land'.
Evil is not to be forever; God's universe is to be cleansed; He shall
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend; He will make a speedy
riddance of evil. Again we pause to consider yet another word used by the
Lord in relation to the wages of sin, and again the unfailing testimony is
borne by the Scriptures to the fact, that to perish, to destroy, and to
consume, in their primary meanings are everywhere the words used by God to
describe the penalty of sin.
Nathats. This word is translated 'beat down' 3 times; 'break down' 22
times; and once or twice 'cast down'; 'pull down'; 'throw down'; etc., and
'destroy' 5 times. The primary meaning is, 'to break down', 'to demolish'.
It is applied to altars (Exod. 34:13; Deut. 12:3), to houses, towns, cities,
walls (Lev. 14:45; Judges 8:9; 9:45; 2 Kings 10:27, etc.). In Psalm 52:5 we