The Mystery in Ehbed and Sharath: Hebrew Words for Servant

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Both Joshua and Moses are called servants, but different words are used for them. One is Sharath and the other is Ehbed.  Why is that?  What does that tell us about them and their ministries? What will the letters in these words tell us that might give us more understanding? Will anything point to Messiah? You are about to find out. 

The Ancient Prophetic Biblical text containing the book of Joshua opens with a command from Yahweh to the new leader. Joshua Chapter 1 verse 1 and 2 says:

Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. 

 The word servant used for Moses is Ehbed and indicates ownership.  It is often used as a term to describe a bond-servant or a slave who has been set free by the owner but chooses to remain with his owner and serve him out of love and devotion. 

The word Sharath used for Joshua is very different. The word here translated Moses’ minister also means servant but refers to a high ranking servant who directly and personally ministers to his master. 

The first occurrence of Ehbed is in the first book of the Torah, the book of Genesis Chapter 9 verse 25 where we read:

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Servant of servants is Ehbed of Ehbed and shows us that the consequences of the sin of Canaan will be that he is destined to never again serve his true master Yahweh, but instead will be forced to only serve other servants. He will not choose to serve out of love and devotion but will be forced to serve out of duty. He will be the lowest of servants.  

What mystery is hidden in the pictographs of Ehbed? Ehbed is spelled Ayin Beyt Dalet.

 

Ayin is the picture of the eye and means to see, to know, or to experience. 

 

Beyt is the picture of the tent and indicates a family or a dwelling place, and is the first letter in the Torah that identifies the Son of God. 

 

Dalet is the picture of the doorway and points to a pathway, a gate, a place of decision, or a place where change can take place. 

The pictographs which preserve the meanings of the Hebrew words over time show us in Ehbed that Moses could willingly choose to serve Yahweh because he had come to a place of decision and had not only experienced but had come to know God the Son. Remember Moses authored the Genesis accounts of Abraham and Jacob meeting with God in the flesh in the person of Yeshua.  

The first place Sharath is found in the Biblical Narrative is again in the Torah in the Book of Genesis. In Chapter 39 verse 4 we see the Hebrew Joseph, the son of Jacob, serving as a personal slave in Egypt in the house of the captain of the guard to Pharaoh. 

 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. 

The word served is Sharath and tells us Joseph was a high ranking and trusted slave even though he was in a foreign land. The grace Joseph enjoyed tells us he must have served with a good heart. 

The same whole-hearted devotion is found of Joshua towards Moses in Exodus Chapter 33 verse 11.  

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. 

Wherever Moses went, Joshua was there to serve him. 

What can the pictographs of Sharath reveal to us? Sharath is spelled Sheen Reysh Tav

 

Sheen is the picture of teeth and means to destroy or to press and is the one letter God uses to identify Himself. 

 

 

Reysh is the picture of the head and stands for the leader, the highest, the most important, or the prince. 

 

Tav is the picture of crossed wooden sticks and symbolizes a covenant, a sign, or a cross and can mean to seal. 

So the pictographs of Sharath show us just how devoted Joshua was in his service to Moses.  Remember Joshua is a type of Yeshua. Joshua served with the same loving devotion that the Son of God would show God the Father as He went to the cross. The verse we just read in Exodus tells us Joshua was in the presence of Yahweh in the Tabernacle with Moses. The mystery preserved for us after all this time is that Messiah would in loving devotion to His Heavenly Father willingly go to His death on the cross. The servant Messiah would by doing so fulfill the Father’s plan of salvation for all those under the curse of sin. 

The Hebrew letters are also numbers. The letter Sheen is the number 300 and signifies the final blood sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God. The letter Reysh is the number 200 and balances the complete sufficiency of God with the insufficiency of man. Tav is the number 400 and stands for a divinely ordained period of time that will bring about deliverance and renewal.  Here we the complete sum of the plan of Yahweh: the blood sacrifice of Yeshua, the Lamb of God, will be sufficient to deliver fallen man from the bondage of sin and bring us to a new life in Him. 

There is one final mystery we can now understand. It can’t be an accident that the last three letters of the 22 letter Hebrew Aleph Beyt make up the word Sharath. Just as the first three letters Aleph Beyt Gimel stand for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and begin our story, the last three show us there will be a Servant who will finish the story for us: the Son Yeshua will be Sharath to the Father and will finish the plan of salvation at the Tav, the wooden cross.

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4 Comments Add yours

  1. Loved this article so informing of how the words were used in Scripture for different meanings !!

  2. Paula says:

    enjoyed this ty

  3. Toribio says:

    Very, extremely valuable information, that allows a servant of YAHWEH, to get to really know GOD as GOD requires!!

  4. Philgreen Ogheneaga says:

    Thanks for this article. It opened my eyes to the understanding of service at different levels of calling.

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