Betach - A Welded Trust by Joylene M Bailey

 

Image by Leopold 13 from Pixabay

I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Psalm 91:2  

~~~~~

Remember those old Sunday School picnics where they had three-legged races? You found your partner, tied one of your ankles to their ankle and then tried to run a race as one. Unless you were perfectly in sync, you just ended up tripping each other and stumbling all over the race course.

The B word God gave me for February means something kind of like that, but only if you imagine the perfectly in sync scenario.

The first time I saw the Hebrew word Betach was when I saw my daughter's new sign by her front door. At the time I didn't know what it meant; I only knew the whispering in my spirit that said, This is it. This is the word you need to share.

I'm not a Bible scholar, but I did a tiny bit of research, and I also asked my daughter, the theology major. 

My research informed me that the word has a few meanings, mostly to do with security and safety. But in the above verse it means to adhere to, and originally came from an ancient art of welding. 

Welded to God. 

My daughter informed me that when the word is used to mean trust, it's the kind of trust that is laid prostrate on the ground in complete vulnerability and surrender. Nothing held back.

I'd have to say it takes surrendering everything to be welded to something. In those old three-legged races, your ankles were joined by a flimsy rope of some kind. Imagine having your whole body welded to another. You give up your way of doing things. When their arm moves, your arm moves. When they turn left, you turn left. It is a complete surrendering.

I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge

and my fortress: my God; in him will I be

welded in complete vulnerability and surrender.

Well, who wouldn't want to be welded to He who is my refuge and my fortress? I guess someone who wanted their own way, someone who didn't understand that the LORD's ways are so much higher and better than my ways. 

But oh, it takes so much to surrender EVERYTHING, doesn't it? Even my writing - every last bit of it. The words I use, the places they go, whether or not they are published...

There is so much more research I could have done here, but I hope I've sparked something in you with this word BETACH. Let me know how it speaks to you.

Bonded.

Entrusting

This, (whatever THIS is for you)

Acknowledging

Complete

Homage.

~~~~~

Here's a link to a Hebrew word study on Betach.

Joy is currently looking after recuperating grandsons in Manitoba. When she's not supervising naps and making bland meals, she's writing InScribe blog posts deep into the night. Find more of her joy-infused writing at Scraps of Joy.