Word association

Hebrew 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;                               

I want to share with you something I find incredibly fascinating about these two verses. To do this let's work backwards.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
 
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 
       
The above verses refer to the Son as the Word. But how did the Word become flesh?

I know it sounds like a redundant question, but stick with me.

Luke 1:34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

The next question we need to ask is: how did the word in time past come by the prophets?

If you spend any length of time reading in the Old Testament you will come across the expression "the word of the Lord came unto me saying". In fact this expression is repeated over and over again especially in relation to the prophets. The rabbis actually interpret this a little differently as "the word of the Lord became in me".

So, let's look a  more carefully at this.

In Hebrew the "came unto me saying" is covered by a single word 'amar. Inside this word we find the Hebrew word for mother linked with the letter Reysh which stands for head (as in the source of a river) or beginning. By definition mothers are where the source or beginning of life occurs in the womb.

What we glean from this is that the prophets became pregnant with the word of the Lord.

Suddenly we begin to understand why the writer of Hebrews wanted us to see a strong connection between the prophets and the Son. In times past the prophets became pregnant with the word of the Lord by virtue of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Then, at the appointed time the Holy Spirit came upon Mary to conceive the Word, the Son of God!!!!
 
As I'm writing this I am just sitting here going wow, wow, wow , wow.......

But, did you know that the word 'amar occurs 30 times in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis???

Let me give you a sample:

Genesis 1:3 Then God said('amar), "Let there be light"; and there was light.

Genesis 2:18 And the Lord God said('amar), "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

Genesis 3:14 So the Lord God said('amar) to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

This is what the writer to the Hebrews means when he says: "through whom also He made the worlds;"

Every time we see the word 'amar in these chapters of Genesis we are seeing the Word, the Son actively involved in creation.

Given all this, I am left wondering whether Moses was in fact prophesying to our generation when he said:

Numbers 11:29 Then Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!"

Are you and I living constantly pregnant by the Spirit with the life of the Son, the Living Word?

Food for thought.