Emunah, Faith

"Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. (Hab 2:4)

One of the key concepts of scripture is Emunah, faith. We are saved by faith; our righteousness is based on faith. Healing comes through faith. Faith is central to the gospel. So, what exactly is faith?

Most of us have been taught that faith is a quantifiable level of trust or belief in something or someone. This comes to us from Hebrews 11, the hall of faith chapter.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” (Heb 11:1-2, NKJV)

Using the word substance gives us a clue that faith is something solid with mass.

The Greek word utilized here is “hupostasis”. “Hupo” means underneath something. “Stasis” where we get the word static, which implies a stillness or a standing still. Together, this tells us that the substance of faith is where we stand and support. One clear image of this was Aaron and Hur supporting, acting in faith with Moses:

“Joshua did just as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about, when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed; but when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. And Moses’ hands were heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” (Exo 17:10-13, NASB)

The description of Moses’ hand being steady is the effect of faith or the picture of support that steadies the person in battle. The word “steady” is the Emunah or faith.

Let’s deconstruct the word using our Hebrew letter pictures. The word comes from the root “min”. The pictograph “mem” is a picture of water or other liquid such as blood, the “nun” is a picture of a seed representing continuance. Combined these mean "blood continues". Each species (kind) continues by passing its blood to the following generation, which comes from the parent. Also, the idea of strength through the blood.

If we think of bloodlines, we realize that this is an essential element of strength. Abraham, the “father of faith” was on the basis of the bloodline covenant that God entered in with him. Abraham’s “seed” would be the symbol of faith, the continuance of the bloodline.

““And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”” (Gen 22:18, NASB)

This verse shows us the fullness of faith, or the result of the support that comes from the Word of God. Similar to Moses whose arms were upheld by Aaron and Hur using stones, which is the symbol of the trustworthiness of God’s Word, Abraham trusts and obeys God’s Word, His Voice and in that is the picture of faith, Emunah!

This is a particularly important section of Abraham’s life because this verse about His seed is in response to the sacrifice of Isaac, who was a representation of Yeshua and His sacrifice and resurrection.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and the one who had received the promises was offering up his only son; it was he to whom it was said, “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE NAMED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” (Heb 11:17-19, NASB)

Isaac was the seed that brought continuance for Abraham, the seed of promise. The sacrifice of Isaac, called the akedah, demonstrates that God’s word transcends this reality which is bordered by death. Death is the consequence of sin, and the fear of death is what attacks faith or Emunah.

Once we grasp the word picture of the root, “Min” we then can expand that to include the remaining characters beginning with the aleph, which is the picture of strength as typified in burden carrying ox. This one letter transforms the “min” into the amen. 

The amen is then the picture of the power that brings continuance to the seed. We know the amen as the agreement, the place of oneness. This is the place of power and is the actual power itself. The Apostle Paul describes it this way:

“For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no but has been yes in Him. For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore, through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2Co 1:19-20, NASB)

Reading this carefully, we might be able to see that yes and no is replaced by yes. What does that mean? We are wired for yes, for agreement. As I have demonstrated our nervous system aligns with yes. Our muscles become stronger with yes. No weakens us. The problem isn’t actually with yes or no but yes AND no. Yes and no is a conflict. It invites the adversary and the place of doubt. The amen eliminates that. As Paul tells us our amen is possible because of Him. In other words, we receive Him and become agreeable, able to agree. Our belief, Emunah contains our amen.

What am I saying? Think about it for a minute. Reflect back on how you were before you received Yeshua into your heart. You had no amen. You had no agreement. I know I didn’t. I could choose to accept certain things like limitations on what I could do. Mostly these were boundaries enforced by the fear of penalties. I was always looking for a way around them, to push the limits. I was truly “dis-agreeable”. I was dysfunctional in my ability to agree with anything. I was argumentative and arrogant about my “truths”. I was yes and no.

Then I received Yeshua, and I became agreeable. As I learned on His ways in my heart, I found myself wanting to yield to them and so my amen was born. Over the years, I have learned that there is great joy in being agreeable with Him, the amen. This brings me into alignment with His promises. This is the power of Emunah.

The final letter of Emunah is the hey, which is the letter for revelation. When we tie this all together, we see that faith, Emunah, is the revelation of the power that brings continuance to the seed. Ending the word with a “hey” gives us a clue that faith is progressive. It is from revelation to revelation as we learn of Him and put our trust in what He reveals of Himself to us. 

This is the place where covenant opens up the possibility for faith. In the new covenant, God makes a startling revelation. He states that He will take His Law, His intentions for reality and write those on our heart. He goes one step farther and promises that we will know Him using the most intimate word for knowing possible, yada.

““Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”” (Jer 31:31-34, NASB)

We are saved by faith, Emunah. 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10, NASB)

We can bring together some of what we have learned to perhaps grasp this in some power. By grace, chen, is the protective wall around the seed, which is the potential for new life, grace guards the seed. Then the seed the power and reality of new life is activated by faith, Emunah, which is the revelation of the power that brings continuance or destiny to seed. Emunah is the amen that takes us from the yes and no to the yes of eternal life.

In this way, Emunah restores us to the promise of the garden. In Emunah are all of the promises of God. Healing is in the Emunah. 

“But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” And at once the woman was made well.” (Mat 9:22, NASB)

The revelation she had of the power that brought a destiny to the seed of God that was her life brought her back into oneness and health. You see faith is about primarily a revelation. God shows us something and we agree with that and hat process is called Emunah. This is why He said:

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom 10:17, NKJV)

But the true key is being willing to listen, to become agreeable. If we look at The surrounding scriptures to Rom 10:17, we see that Paul is speaking about the gospel going forth in the context of rebellious Israel who would not receive His love. 

“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?" So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "THEIR SOUND HAS GONE OUT TO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD." But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I WILL PROVOKE YOU TO JEALOUSY BY THOSE WHO ARE NOT A NATION, I WILL MOVE YOU TO ANGER BY A FOOLISH NATION." But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME; I WAS MADE MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME." But to Israel he says: "ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND CONTRARY PEOPLE."” (Rom 10:16-21, NKJV)

True Emunah comes when we receive Him and begin the process becoming agreeable to Him and His ways and love. As we learn to agree more and more, increasing our amen, we then are capable of agreeing more. This brings us into more joy and more freedom in Him. Paul describes this in 2 Cor 3:17-18:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Co 3:17-18, NKJV)

As we come in greater agreement we become transformed into His image and likeness, the original intent to be sons and daughters of God.

Activation: God will never move us past our last act of being disagreeable. Ask the Lord to reveal to you when you may have put the brakes on Him by ignoring or outright being disagreeable with His instruction to you. As you know being disagreeable doesn’t necessarily mean disobeying. It can also mean being just disagreeable.