AUGUST RADIO MESSAGES/THE TWELVE STONES IN THE BREASTPLATE OF THE HIGH PRIEST A Name from God by Dr. Lloyd T. Anderson
I N T H E P R EC ED IN G STU D Y , W e h a d a review of Dan, of his tribe, and we identified the beryl as the stone which was representative of the tribe on the breastplate. We shall turn, now, to God’s Word as the foundation for our search or profitable enquiry. The Book of Gen esis, chapter 30 and verses 12 and 13 are before us — “And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daugh ters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.” When upon his deathbed Jacob said of Asher — “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.” “And of Asher he (Moses) said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deuter onomy 33 : 24 , 25 ). So with these Scrip tures in comment, we are aware that we have an interesting son before us for study. This child was the second son born of Zilpah, the handmaiden and adopted by Leah who also named him. As she took the child into her arms — with an air of contentment and pleasure — Leah, one of the two wives of Jacob said, “. . . Happy am I, for the daugh ters will call me blessed . . .” As she gave him a name, she gave him a name which embraced both the words she used, for Asher means “happy” and “blessed.” The Hebrew form of the name Ash er is Ashere, which is plural and often
occurs as such in the Scriptures. Now notice it—“. . . Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. . .” Let us see how this principle in Christian doctrine works out: In the Old Testa ment, Genesis 12:2, God said to Abra ham, “. . . I will bless thee,. .. and thou shalt be a blessing.” Then we find this principle carried over to the New Tes tament — for example, in John 15:11, “. . . that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” We are blessed of the Lord and yet we are called upon to bless the Lord. In our Bibles the plural word Ashere is translated 27 times as blessed, and it should always be understood as bless ednesses — look at “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly . . Psalm 1:1. Therefore, we should read it in the plural — Oh the blessednesses” of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungod ly. And again we turn to the Book of Psalms — Psalm 32:1, “Blessed is he . . . whose sin is covered.” How force ful these words are! Think of the man who walks in the path of righteousness with the knowledge that his sin is cov ered, is even more than blessed, he is crowned with blessing and blessing, and in the ecstasy of God’s goodness he calls upon all that is within him to bless and praise the Lord’s holy and wondrous Name. So we see something of the deep meaning of the name Leah gave her son — Asher! This word Ash ere is translated “happy” 18 times, and it should be read happy, very happy. Now the stone that represented Ash er was the onyx — the first stone to (Continued on Next Page)
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