Jovial (29 Aug 2005)
"The Significance of Yam Suf"

There's a PDF version of this at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jovial/ads/YamSuf.pdf , which is easier to understand since it uses Hebrew characters and displays whatthis says in a more parallel manner.

When Israel crossed the Yam Suf (which can mean "Sea of the End", but usually translated Red Sea or Reed Sea in most English versions), we're told by Paul in 1 Cor 10 that this symbolizes the "Conversion Immersion" (also known as 'baptism'), which we also know symbolizes the new birth experience - death to the old man of sin, and rebirth into a new life by the Spirit. For Pharaoh, the Yam Suf was the END OF LIFE for him. For Israel, it was the end of one life of slavery and the start of a new life politically as a nation, and symbolizes the END OF LIFE of the old man of sin and the start of a new life for us in the Spirit.

So if I were to summarize what Yam Suf symbolizes by saying that it represents the reversal of the process of death, or the reversal of the process of the end of life, you might say, sure, that's obvious, perhaps even without reading what Paul said in 1 Cor 10, just because its the only place you can see the concept of an immersion (or baptism) present in the wilderness journey. But what if I could show you that without relying on Paul or the need to find a parallel to the immersion process?

Well one place is in the fact that just before they cross the Yam Suf, Israel was given the regulations of the firstborn. Of course, that's only a hint. But an even stronger indication is in the way the Hebrew phrase "YAM SUF" is derived from the phrase "END OF LIFE". This is something I show in my book, "The 42 Journey Pattern..." using Hebrew characters that make explaining this a lot clearer. I will have to try to do this with English characters here .

In Hebrew,

First, let's take the phrase "End of Life" (SUF [CHaY]YiM in Hebrew) and remove the "life" [CHaY] part symbolizing the fact that something has died. We're left with SUF YM. Now reverse the word order and we have YM SUF or, to add pronunciation, YaM SUF. YaM SUF is a word-play on SUF [CHaY]YiM that linguistically symbolizes what its content symbolizes. The YaM SUF is used in the 42 Journey Pattern to symbolize what happens when we reverse the process of death, or the removal of life, and the name "YaM SUF" can be derived from the phrase "Suf [CHaY]YiM" or "End of Life" by doing exactly that linguistically - removing 2 letters that says "life" and reversing the word order!

Now some of you may be sitting there thinking, "That's just a coincidence. Sure, it works out, but how do you know this word-play was INTENDED?" Well, I mentioned earlier that the 42 Journey Pattern appears in numerous places in Scripture. It appears in Psalm 22, 23, 24, Revelation 12-16 and even the story of Noah and even elsewhere! The concept of "end of life" and/or the reversal of the end of life appears in places where YaM SUF shows up. Let me explain this in Revelation. Earlier I mentioned how the 42 Journey pattern appears in the 42 month period of Rev 12-16+, and gave this chart....

Verses Encampment Revelation
Num 33:3-5 Leave Ramses for Sukkot A 42 month period of tribulation begins in Revelation chapter 12. Rev 11:8 says Jerusalem is "figuratively called Sodom and Egypt". The woman in the wilderness of Revelation 12 leaves Jerusalem (or wherever else she is) to go to the wilderness as Satan is cast out of the heavenly realm.

While Israel was at Sukkot, Exodus 13:1-16 gives the regulation of the firstborn males. In Revelation 12, we see the woman giving birth to a male child.
33:6, Exodus Etham Etham means "with them", and Revelation 12 describes how Satan is cast to earth where men live and is now "with them" in a very physical way, even to setup a Government on earth. He will control the earth through this "beast". In the wilderness pattern, the stage of Etham deals with sin being with us and with God being with us at the same time. Satan being physically on earth parallels the way the 42 stage pattern deals with this stage to speak to us of how sin is with us.
33:7, Exodus Pi HaChiroth Pi means "mouth". HaChiroth means "wrath", and in Rev 12:14-15, Satan unleashes his wrath (HaChiroth) against the woman in the wilderness by casting something out of his mouth (pi). I listed several other striking parallels the first time , but will shorten this for brevity here.
33::8 Marah Marah means "bitterness" or "rebellion," and in Rev 13:5-6, the beast is described as rebelling against the Most High.
33:9 Eilim Eilim means "their leader", and in Rev 13:7, the beast takes over the whole world and becomes "their leader" (Eilim).

I stopped here because the next stage is YaM SUF, and explaining the connection here is a bit more complicated than the previous stages. In fact, I was thrilled that the first 5 stages were easy ones to explain because after this, you kind of have to know a lot about what each encampment is all about to see the connection to Revelation. But let's continue on......

YaM SUF picks up where Eilim leaves off. Eilim was in Rev 13:7, and Yam Suf is in Rev 13:8-10. Rev 13:10 ends by discussing what type of "End of Life" various believers will experience. It says,

So the topic of conversation here is the "End of life" for these people. And Rev 13:8 starts off by talking about the "Book of Life" - that is the record of who will have eternal life after death. So one can see the concept of YAM SUF in the Book of Life. Its a book that records who has had that new beginning. Who will have eternal life, reversing the process of what death set in.

But how do we say, "Book of Life" in Hebrew? In Hebrew, its SeFeR CHaYYiM!!!!!!!! The phrase "Book of Life" (SeFeR CHaYYiM) is a Hebrew word-play on the phrase "End of Life" (SUF CHaYYiM), just like YaM SUF is a Hebrew word-play on "End of Life" (SUF CHaYYiM), and it appears where the 42 Journey Pattern tells us YaM SUF should appear in Revelation!!!! And how do we get "Book of Life" (SeFeR CHaYYiM) from "End of Life" (SUF CHaYYiM)? We take SUF and drop the VAV, which in Hebrew might be viewed as a "defective" spelling of End/Suf, which poetically fits, because the end of life isn't really the end of life. It is the start of eternal life or eternal death. Then we add the letter RESH, which in Hebrew thought represents the concept of Rectification, something I explained in my book "The Creative Forces." And the "Book of Life" (SeFeR CHaYYiM) is all about who will recieve rectification from the "End of Life" (SUF CHaYYiM)!

So

Coincidence? I don't think so. And before you try to argue that this is some sort of double coincidence (which is like arguing evolution happened by chance at this point), wait until you seen the connection between the Yam Suf and Psalms 22-24, the story of Noah, and other places where the YAM SUF/SUF CHAYYIM connection pops up above and beyond what I've mentioned here! There's even more evidence in my book to support this than what I have time to mention here. After you get done analyzing all the places this connection appears, there's no use in trying to deny that this word-play was EXACTLY what the Omniscent One above intended. There is more evidence that YaM SUF was intended as as word-play on SUF CHaYYiM that I have documented in my book "The 42 Journey Pattern...", but this is enough to show the plausibility of this proposition. And there's more I say in my book on Rev 13:8-10 and how it relates to Yam Suf, but this is enough for now.

_

This example illustrates why it is not easy to figure out what the 42 Journey Pattern represents. It's a lot more difficult than the puzzle involved in the names of the patriarchs between Adam and Noah, because there's more to the meaning of each encampment than just the meaning of the name. Knowing where the name came from...its history...its subtleties....are all part of putting the puzzle together. Yam Suf isn't just "the Sea of the End". Its the reversal of the process of the life being removed. But you can't see that in English.

"The 42 Journey Pattern..." peals back layers of understanding that are hidden by translation and restores the original Hebrew thought to many things you will miss trying to read about the wilderness journey in English only. If you're tired of reading 260+ page books that only give you 10 pages of new information, you won't have that problem with this book. You will learn new information on every page, page after page, that will make you wish everything you read was this fresh and new.

Shalom, Joe

For ordering info on "The 42 Journey Pattern of Our Spiritual Growth and Prophecy", See http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jovial/ads/42journeys.htm#ORDERS
Home Page : http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jovial/learn/mc/mcindex.htm

Two final notes: YAM SUF appears twice in the Wilderness journey, once after Pi HaChiroth and again as a place they camped besides. SUF in Hebrew can mean "end" or "reed". "Red Sea" is not a valid translation of YAM SUF. Reed Sea is a valid way to interpret the name, though it may or may not be part of the intended meaning. God may have planted reeds in this body of water in order to get Israel to call it by this name. But even if a "reed" is part of the meaning to the name, it symbolizes "end". It is sort of as if Hebrew called reeds "ends" in Hebrew thinking. The reed, if intended at all as part of the meaning of this, was intended to symbolize an "end" to something. So it either directly, or symbolically via the reed, is speaking to us about the Sea of the End.