Nur & Ore: The Lamp & the Light

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How do you know the best way to get where you are going? What is your guide to keep yourself on the right path to reach your destination? Do the scriptures provide any advice that night help, and do the pictograms in that advice direct us to Messiah?

 

King Solomon of ancient Israel was famous far and wide for his great wisdom, which was, according to 1 Kings Chapter 3 verse 9, a gift from his Heavenly Father. The book of Proverbs contains a list of many of the 3000 moral teachings he was responsible for writing.

 

Contained in these Proverbs is a compilation of instructions for living a Godly life here on earth. These directions also provide an assurance of blessing in the life that is yet to come. These teachings contain many warnings about the dreadful rewards for lives lived according to things like laziness, pride, vengeance, and lust.

 

In Chapter 6 verse 24 and 25 Solomon gives a specific warning against lust and adultery:

 

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman,

Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

 

What counsel does Solomon give to avoid the pitfalls of lust and adultery? He precedes this warning with verse 23 where he offers this:

 

For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light;

and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

 

We all understand that to travel in darkness is to invite stumbling. We need our way to be well lit so the obvious obstacles will be exposed before we encounter them. 

 

This is not the only place the key words in this verse, lamp and light, are used together. Psalm 119 verse 105 states this:

 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

 

There is an unmistakable pattern in both these verses. In the first verse the word law is Torah and commandment refers to teachings based on Torah. In Psalm 119, word is again referring to Torah, the word of God. In both cases the word of God is responsible for light that directs us.

 

What can the ancient Hebrew pictograms reveal to us in these two key words? Lamp is the word Nur and means lamp, light, or candle. Nur is spelled Noon Reysh.

 

Noon     is the picture of the sprout or the fish    and means life or activity.


Reysh    is the picture of the head    and means the leader, the master, or the prince.

 

The simple but profound message in these two pictograms is one you can surely guess.

 

Life is in the Prince

 

And just who is this Prince? The apostle John wrote in Chapter 1 verse 1 of his gospel:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

 

John continues in Verse 4 to describe this man:

 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

John provides us a clear picture that Jesus Christ was the Word of God. He was the lamp that was the light of men and brought life.

 

There is a second word Solomon used in his counsel to avoid the lust and flattery of the evil woman. That was that the law, or the Torah, is light. Light is the Hebrew word Ore and means diffused light. It is scattered everywhere but is not itself the source of the light.

 

This word first appears in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 3 where we read:

 

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

 

This was not the light from the sun; that wouldn’t appear until the sun was created on day four. This was light that radiated from God Himself and permeated all creation. What can the Hebrew pictograms for Ore show us? Ore is spelled Aleph Vav Reysh.

 

Aleph  is a picture of the ox      and means the strong leader or God the Father.

Vav     is the picture of the wooden hook or metal nail     and means to fasten or secure two things together that are separated from one another.

Reysh   is again the picture of the head      and means the leader, the master, or the prince.

 

 

What does this tell us about Ore?

 

God the Father is connected to the Prince

 

The Vav which connects two things together in Hebrew is actually the word and. This light is the result of the work of both the Father and the Prince, His Son.

 

First John Chapter 1 verse 5 says this about God:

 

                 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,

that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

 

John the Apostle was taught by Jesus Christ that God His Father was Light. And Solomon taught that Torah was light, and that reproofs of instruction or the guiding of the Law was the way to life.

 

John also relayed this to us about Christ in Chapter 8 verse 12:

 

The spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world:

he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

 

God and His Son together provide the illumination to prevent us from the perils of darkness and keep us on the pathway to life. And where are they to be found? Solomon and the Psalmist both give the same answer, they are to be found in the written Word of God. If you want to know them and secure your path, that is where to look.

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Comments Add yours

  1. Barbara says:

    I look so forward to these weekly study as they are amazing and so informative. Thank you, blessings

  2. Winette Roof says:

    I look forward to each week’s lesson. It’s amazing how the words are symbolized in Hebrew. I love it, thank you. Building up quite file.

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