Facets of God Displayed in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet—Part 5

The Gezer calendar is written in Paleo pictograph-style Hebrew

Deepen Your Understanding of the Bible

My favorite Biblical studies center around the ancient Hebraic roots of our Christian faith. Hebrew word studies and their pictographs can sometimes give us a more detailed and in-depth view of Biblical concepts.

There are a total of 22 letters in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. This article will study the fifth set of three letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet in their pictograph form. These are "mem מ," "noon נ," and "samech ס." These will also present a unified lesson regarding the character of God.

Before we continue, please note that the words in Hebrew font should be read from right to left. Knowing Hebrew won't be necessary, but knowing the directional aspect when describing the letter's position within the word is helpful. When I mention the first letter, it will be the letter beginning on the right, and the last letter will be on the left. It is also important to note that the fonts I am using in this article are modern Hebrew ones developed during the Babylonian captivity and are used in Israel today. In their most ancient form, these letters were actual images of the pictographs we will be studying.

Additionally, a video will further the lesson about each letter at the end of each section. The videos are produced by Jewish Jewels Ministries and hosted by Dr. Danny Ben-Gigi, a former Hebrew professor at Arizona State University.

Bering Sea Typhoon
CC BY 2.0 NOAA/Commander Richard Behn

"Mem מ": Mighty Immeasurable Waters

Mem (מ), the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, is a picture of water in various forms. It is predominantly depicted as ocean waves, indicating something in forceful motion. Ocean waves are one of the most powerful forces on Earth. "Mem מ" portrays the Lord as a mighty, powerful force.

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

— Psalm 93:4

God and His power cannot be measured. This immeasurability is discussed in Paul's letter to Ephesus, where he prays the following.

... that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places ...

— Ephesians 1:17-21

Isaiah gives us another immeasurable description of God regarding His omniscience in the following verse.

His understanding is unsearchable.
— Isaiah 40:28

God is Unquantifiable

God is Unquantifiable

God's mightiness not only speaks of force but also of mass and immensity. God is unqualifiable in any category. A.W. Tozer echoes this idea in the following statement.

"God is Himself, without qualifying thought or Word. He is simply God."

Using the ocean once again as our metaphor, according to Seethesea.org, the ocean's mass is 1,400,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons. This unimaginable measure illustrates God's immeasurable substance and weight.

Relating to the connection between weight and God's glory, His glory is sometimes described in terms of heaviness in the Bible. The Hebrew words "glory" and "heavy" are the same.

The heavens declare the glory (weightiness) of God ...
— Psalm 19:1

Weight in the ancient world was synonymous with value. Monetary measures were expressed in terms of heaviness. God's riches and value are indescribable.

O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things, both small and great.

— Psalm 104:24

He is the owner of all, according to Melchizedek and Abraham.

Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said:

"Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;

— Genesis 14:18-19

Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich'—

— Genesis 14:22-23

The ocean's expanse expresses God's unfathomable immensity, covering approximately 71 percent of the earth's surface.

... for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?
— 2 Chronicles 2:5-6

An ocean is noted for its depth, the deepest point being 36,198 feet. If Mount Everest were placed into this trench, it would be covered with seawater more than a mile deep.

They see the works of the LORD,
And His wonders in the deep.

— Psalm 107:24

God Himself is very deep and willing to share His deep plans and prized purposes with us.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
— 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

The Book of Job asks some great questions about trying to quantify God. These questions link with the above-studied observations of the letter "mem מ."

Can you search out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?

— Job 11:7

"Mem מ" can also represent kings and kingdoms, as well as mighty forces in heaven and earth. "Mem מ" is, therefore, fittingly the first letter of the Hebrew words for kings, kingdoms, and angels.

The New Testament begins with presenting Jesus as our King in the book of Matthew. The phrases "The Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of heaven" appear 94 times in the New Testament.

... He who is the blessed and only Potentate (one possessing great power and dominion), the King of kings and Lord of lords ...
— 1 Timothy 6:15

His Kingdom is a vast, superior, powerful force in heaven and on earth.

Thomas Quine
Eckernfoerde Germany

"Nun נ": Seed or Fish

"Nun," (נ) the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, is a picture of a seed or a fish, representing perpetuation and propagation, as in from one generation to another, symbolizing prolific, eternal, and everlasting things.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
— Psalm 90:2

God, the Giver of Life

Rivers are included in this connection with life, fish, and propagation in a portion of Scripture from the book of Ezekiel titled "The Healing Waters and Trees" in the NKJV.

And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
— Ezekiel 47:9

In the Garden in Eden, the river symbolizes eternal life flowing through it.

And a river (נהר) went out of Eden to water the garden.
— Genesis 2:10

In the Bible, moving water was called "living waters."

The Hebrew word for river is "nahar" (נהר) and begins with the Hebrew letter "nun" (נָ). This river in Eden was at the beginning of all things. We see this river again at the end of all things in the book of Revelation.

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
— Revelation 22:1

God Gives Fruitfulness and Multiplies

He is the God who makes fruitful and makes multiply. The first mention of God's mandate to be fruitful and multiply occurs in the context of things living in the water.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
— Genesis 1:21-22

"Nun נ" is also included in the word faithful.

Your (God's) faithfulness (אמונב) endures to all generations
— Psalm 119:90

"Samech ס": A Stick of Support

"Samech סמך," (ס), the fifteenth letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, is an image of a walking stick or crutch meant to communicate the idea of "support," "being upheld," and "helped." The Hebrew word sometimes translated as "uphold" is "samech סמך."

Uphold (סמך-samech) me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
— Psalm 119:16

The world criticizes and claims that our religion is nothing but a crutch to which we may reply, "Why, yes, it is!" We are entirely dependent upon God for all we are, have, and do.

... without Me you can do nothing.
— John 15:5

In the following familiar passage of Scripture, the Hebrew word translated as "stay" is "samech סמך," which gives us a better idea of what it means to stay on the Lord, with these things in mind.

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed (supported, sustained, upheld, and dependent) on You.

— Isaiah 26

We lean on God for our strength, not ourselves or the world around us, for support, as Hezekiah well presents when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, comes to take the people captive and destroy their reform efforts. Hezekiah encourages them with the following statement.

"With him (Sennacherib) is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened (סמך-samech) by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

— 2 Chronicles 32:8

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, our God is mighty (mem מ), eternal (nun נ), and upholding (samech ס) all things by His power, as the writer of Hebrews records and pulls all of these themes together. In might, the eternal Son of God secured an everlasting inheritance (in Hebrew begins with the letter "nun נ") for us and upholds all of these things.

God, who in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 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; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
— Hebrews 1:1-4