Khaser: To Lack, to Decrease, to be in Poverty

To LACK/To DECREASE- khaser, verb (Strong’s 2637); LACKING- khaser, adjective (Strong’s 2638); POVERTY- makhsor, masculine noun (Strong’s 4270)

Root: חָסֵר

Sounds like: kha’sehr & makh’sohr

We’re looking at a word, this week, that describes my current state of being. I’m taking my two children to their perspective Universities in two different provinces (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) this weekend. I will be a first-time empty nester coming upon my 2nd anniversary of widowhood. After dropping off my youngest today, I will be lacking my children, my household will decrease, and, truth-be-told, I’m feeling quite impoverished about it. Your prayers would be appreciated.

The Hebrew word khaser is a verb meaning to decrease or lack. For example, after the great flood, God remembered Noah and all the animals and the waters decreased [wai-ya-kha’s’ru] (Genesis 8:3) and then decreased [w-kha’sor] some more until the mountain tops were visible (Genesis 8:5). And when the people received manna in the wilderness, they were given exactly the amount they needed, there was not an excessive amount and they were not lacking [hey-kh’sir] either (Exodus 16:18).

In the form of a noun makhsor was frequently translated as poverty, meaning a thing that was lacking, either financially or spiritually:

Proverbs 14:23

In all labour there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty [l-makh’sor].

In the form of an adjective khaser was primarily used to describe someone who was lacking sense, heart, wisdom, or understanding:

Proverbs 28:16

A leader who is a great oppressor lacks [kh’sar] understanding, but a person who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.

You have not Lacked Anything

The Biblical authors made it clear… if you followed YHWH there would be nothing lacking in your life:

Deuteronomy 2:7

“For YHWH your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wandering through this great wilderness. These forty years YHWH your God has been with you; you have not lacked [lo khasar’ta] anything.”

If you had the chance to speak with one of the ancient Hebrew wilderness wanderers you might have heard a different story. No doubt they felt like they lacked much of the things they had before. They lacked a permanent home; they lacked a variety of fruits and vegetables that they had in Egypt (Numbers 11:5-6); they lacked a lot of creature comforts that come with long-term settlement. What kept them going was God’s presence with them, a persistent (albeit basic) food supply, and a promise of a permanent land coming to them:

Deuteronomy 8:7-10 (see also Nehemiah 9:21)

For YHWH your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack [lo tey-kh’sar] anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless YHWH your God for the good land which He has given you.

The promised land would not lack anything… all that they needed would be provided:

Judges 18:10

“When you enter, you will come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious land; for God has handed it over to you, a place where there is no lack [makh’sor] of anything that is on the earth.”

This new land would have everything they needed for a successful life, but that didn’t mean it would fall into their laps. They would have to farm the land and herd the animals and work for their success, but all the raw goods would be theirs to work with. God provided the goods, and with a bit of determination they would flourish as a nation.

Things were going well in the new promised land… for a time. But eventually the people wanted to be more like the pagans next door. They wanted a human king and they wanted to worship other gods. The Hebrew people were looking less and less like imagers of God, and more and more like their pagan neighbours. When that happened, God did not force them to love Him… He let them have their way. They were no longer under YHWH’s protective hand because they did not want to be. Their fortunes changed as neo-pagans and their lives were filled with war, drought, and famine. And yet they did not see that their own actions led to their own destruction:

Jeremiah 44:16-18 

“As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of YHWH, we are not going to listen to you! But we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked  everything [khasar’nu kol], and have met our end by the sword and by famine.”

This was a what-came-first-the-chicken-or-egg scenario. They claimed that when they stopped burning sacrifices to a goddess everything went wrong. But really everything went wrong because of their goddess worship. Their refusal to listen and react to Jeremiah’s warnings brought an even greater tragedy.

Ezekiel 4:16-17

Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, because bread and water will be scarce lacking [ya-kh’s’ru]; and they will tremble with one another and waste away in their guilt.”

Because they had given up on God they would lose Jerusalem, and their culture, and their homes, and their Temple, and their way of life. They would be enslaved by Babylon and marched into exile. They once lacked nothing, now they lacked everything.

Poverty

The committed people of YHWH would never experience spiritual poverty. Those who followed YHWH were spiritually rich:

Psalm 34:8-10

“Taste and see that YHWH is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Fear YHWH, you His saints; for there is no want poverty [en makh’sohr] to those who fear Him. The young lions do without and suffer hunger; but they who seek YHWH will not lack [ya-kh’s’ru] any good thing.”

However, spiritually rich people are sometimes economically poor. Every earthly nation comes with rich people and poor people, but this socio-economic imbalance was to be equalized in the community of YHWH followers:

Deuteronomy 15:7-8

“If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which YHWH your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; 8but you shall fully open your hand to him, and generously lend him enough for his need [makh’sorow] in whatever he lacks [yey-kh’sar].”

The family of God was to work together, giving to each other, and raise each other up in community. There were many Proverbs promoting this good service, including the following:

Proverbs 28:27

One who gives to the poor will never lack [en makh’sor] anything, but one who shuts his eyes will have many curses.

Proverbs 22:16

One who oppresses the poor to make more for himself, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty [l-makh’sor].

In the neighbouring pagan lands of the Gentiles, assisting the poor was not a common practise. One of the miracles in the Tanakh was about a widowed Phoenician woman. None of her Phoenician neighbours came to help her and, in the end, she was so destitute that she expected to die. She had just enough food for one last meal for her and her son:

1 Kings 17:8-16

Then the word of YHWH came to him (Elijah), saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for you.”

So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

But she said, “As YHWH your God lives, I have no food, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

However, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said. Just make me a little bread loaf from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For this is what YHWH, the God of Israel says: ‘The bowl of flour shall not be used up, and the jar of oil shall not become empty [tey-kh’sar], until the day that YHWH provides rain on the face of the earth.’”

So she went and did everything in accordance with the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil become empty [khaser], in accordance with the word of YHWH which He spoke through Elijah.

Yeshua (Jesus) spoke about this story after He read the Scriptures in His hometown of Nazareth, early in His ministry: 

Luke 4:23-26

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.”

Yeshua pointed out that Elijah was sent to none of the Israelite widows, during the great famine, but he was sent to a Phoenician woman and he saved her from starvation. YHWH wasn’t just for the Hebrew people, He was there for all who were lacking. YHWH would provide salvation for everyone in need. This was not a popular announcement and after this statement the townspeople wanted to throw Yeshua off a cliff. Was YHWH really going to save their enemies… the Romans? The Greeks? The Phoenicians? The Samaritans? In their minds, that was blasphemy. The Messiah was meant to conquer their enemies and save them, not love their enemies and redeem them… right?

According to Yeshua, salvation was for everyone of every tribe and of every social class. YHWH wants to save the world, not just one family in the world.

But how would YHWH do it?

Yeshua- Decreased from God

One of the more interesting verses to use the word khaser can be found in one of David’s Psalms:

Psalm 8:3-5

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place; what is man that You think of him, and a son of man that You are concerned about him? Yet You have made him a little lower [wa-t-khas’rehu] than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!

This is an awkward phrase to translate:  You have made him a little lower [wa-t-khas’rehu] than God. More literally this could read, You have decreased him a little from God (or the gods). Elohim is the Hebrew word used, not malak (angels), but Elohim can be used for the One God and also used for the generic plural term gods (spiritual beings or the divine council). The New Testament writer of the Hebrews scroll quoted the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Tanakh). The Septuagint translated Psalm 8:5 as “angels”, indicating heavenly beings:

Hebrews 2:5-9

For He did not subject to angels the world to come, about which we are speaking. But someone has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man, that you think of Him? Or a Son of Man, that you are concerned about Him? You have made Him for a little while lower [Greek: elattosas] than angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honour; You have put everything in subjection under His feet”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

But we do see One, having been made lower [Greek: elattomenon] than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of His suffering death crowned with glory and honour, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

Yeshua emptied Himself of His heavenly being status and succumbed to human death in order to save us. He conquered death so that we could return back to YHWH’s Garden Kingdom, free from the restraints of this world. 

Isaiah the prophet spoke of a future of freedom and protection, under the guidance of YHWH:

Isaiah 51:14-16

“The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking [yey-kh’sar]. For I am YHWH your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar (YHWH of armies is His name). And I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

Arguable, the most famous of King David’s Psalms was Psalm 23. In a way, it was David’s faith mission statement:

Psalm 23:1-3a

[David:] YHWH is my shepherd, I shall not want lack anything [eh-kh’sar]. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.

We were never meant to gain great monetary wealth, and maybe some of us are way poorer than we’d like… but with YHWH we are as rich as they come. You are not lacking; you are filled with the Spirit of God… and that makes you prosperous beyond measure!

Next week: Grandchild/Grandparent