Know the Time - Find the Treasure
June 16th, 2009 | Michael Q. Pink
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” Ecc 9:11
Well, thank you all for your strong encouragement to proceed with my study on the “eth” of God. Because I am on the journey with you, I am not able to construct this teaching from the vantage point of knowing where it ends. In addition, I expect to learn a lot on the way. Today, I’m going to lay some foundational thoughts and I expect the next several postings will bear out the “eth’s” of God as we see them in Scripture.
But first of all, do you remember what was said about the sons of Issachar? Here it is… “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;” Now, let’s think about that for a moment… What the children of Issachar knew, was how to discern or understand the “eth” of God. They could recognize seasons of time besides the four we all know and anticipate quarterly.
Not only could they recognize whether it was the right season to invest or to go to war or to plant a crop, but they also apparently knew what to do with that knowledge. To give you some perspective, what if you knew back in 1975 that Microsoft was heading into its season in the sun? What if you knew that it was the season for that kind of technology? Do you think you might have invested? The sons of Issachar would have.
So what did Jacob prophesy over Issachar upon his death bed? Genesis 49:15 is poorly translated in the King James. The Chaldee paraphrase gives this a widely different turn to that given it by most commentators: “He saw his portion that it was good, and the land that it was fruitful; and he shall subdue the provinces of the people, and drive out their inhabitants, and those who are left shall be his servants, and his tributaries.” It appears they were a laborious, hardy, valiant tribe, patient in labor and invincible in war; bearing both these burdens with great constancy whenever it was necessary.
Furthermore, Moses prophesies in Deut 33:19 that the sons of Issachar would partake of the treasures hid in the sand. Treasures. My point? The sons of Issachar had treasure. They looked at their portion given them through Moses and knew just what to do. The sons of Issachar, being experts at understanding the “eth” of God, always seemed to know just what to do and when. The result was prosperity, but not without battle. Selah.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
“sons of Issachar would partake of the treasures hid in the sand” also implies to me that the sons of Issachar could find treasure where no one else would look, or they could transform things that didn’t look like treasure into treasure. Was it a descendant of Issachar that transformed sand into silicon into electronics?
June 16th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Dont we all at some point want to be as the sons of Issachar??? Knowing when and how… To me the point is that the Lord will open to us all the Divine Strategies that we seek after but there will always be a battle for the new territory that we are advancing toward.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I have done a study in the past about the hebrew thought of sand, and they equate it to small disconnected parts of life an entity, that come together as awhole, instead of only small pieces disconnected. Maybe that is why we also are always learning to piece things together, even when worn down, by time, water, wind, and other elements that seem to toss us too and fro, with no purpose, but the Lord can help us see that purpose. We all know what it feels like to have sand in a shoe. Maybe we can in time, also see the small irritations with greater understanding on how it will affect our path, and how we can use those lessons to bless others and help direct their paths in wisdom.