Do you know how it feels when you discover something by yourself? When you read your Bible and you discover something that you didn’t know before? Especially when no one knows about it but you…well, assuming that no one knows yet!
It feels incredible! You feel like you wanted the whole world to know about it.
This happened to me several times. This morning when I was reading my Bible, in the book of Isaiah, I read about Israel as God’s chosen people. Then came the word or shall I say name, “Jeshurun.” I have no idea what it means or who it is. I looked up the meaning on the internet, and here’s what I’ve found…
Deuteronomy 32:15 (King James Version) But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou
art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Deuteronomy 33:5 (King James Version) And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel
were gathered together.
Deuteronomy 33:26 (King James Version) There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help,
and in his excellency on the sky.
Isaiah 44:2 (King James Version) Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will
help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Jeshurun, in the Hebrew Bible, is a poetic name for Israel. Derived from root word meaning upright, just, straight. Describes Israel when it does not stray away from the high standards set by and upheld by God. (R’Hirsch) Jeshurun appears four times in the Hebrew Bible — three times in Deuteronomy and once in Isaiah. It can mean the people of Israel (Deut. 32:15; 33:26), the Land of Israel (Deut. 33:5;), or the Patriarch Jacob (whom an Angel renamed Israel in Genesis 32:29) (Isa. 44:2). In the Midrash, Rabbi Berekiah in the name of Rabbi Simon interpreted Jeshurun to mean the Patriarch Israel. (Genesis Rabbah 77:1.)
The word Jeshurun may have a relationship to the same root as the Hebrew word “upright,” “yesharim.” Numbers appears to use the word “upright,” “yesharim,” as a play on the word “Jeshurun” to refer to the people of Israel. (Num. 23:10.) Similarly, Rabbi Berekiah in the name of Rabbi Judah b. Rabbi Simon interpreted Jeshurun to mean “the noblest and best among you.” (Genesis Rabbah 77:1.)
Rabbi Aha bar Jacob told that the breastplate of the High Priest (or Kohen Gadol) contained the words “The tribes of Jeshurun,” thus supplying the otherwise missing Hebrew letter tet in the word “tribes.” (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 73b; see also Exodus Rabbah 38:9.)
In the Zohar, Rabbi Hiya explains that “Jeshurun suggests the word shur [row, side] and indicates that he [Jacob] has his rank on this side and on the other.” (Zohar 1:177b.) – from Wikipedia
Maybe for other people this is nothing. But for me it is big! Why? Because I’ve discovered it myself with the help of God. The Bible says to search the Scriptures like you are searching for treasures. There are a lot of gems in the Word of God waiting to be mined!
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