ELTB BB 16-17
Cuckows
Some cuckows build their nest on the ground in shrubs so they represent people of the flesh. Their name can mean 'shrub death'. Adam may have named them because of that. But the word also means emaciated, or wasted away. The nickname of the cuckow could be 'Bone-y'.
Those who are spiritually dying are not a good source for spiritual teaching. Jesus used the word 'dead' to refer to those who are spiritually dead [1] The person who does more and more bad things is wasting away and we should not learn from them.
The person who stops learning about God stops learning good things and falls backwards to do the old bad things.
- cuckow shachaph שחף - emaciate, waste away, shrub death
Hawk
There are many instances in the riddles where referring to the death of Christ is a 'bad' thing and speaking of his resurrection is the 'good' thing. An example is that of the 'shibboleth'. David's men would ask for the password as strangers passed over the mountain. If they said the word with an 's' it meant a single seed. If they said it with a 'sh' it meant a whole ear of grain. [2]
A single grain needs planted ( a picture of being buried in a grave). A whole ear of grain refers to being fruitful in the harvest. Those who referred to a single grain 'sibboleth' (the death of Christ), were put to death, but those who referred to a whole ear or stream 'shibboleth' (the resurrection and fruitfulness of Christ), lived. The word 'hawk' refers to Christ's death.
We should not learn from the teachers that only speak of the death of Christ, but from those who speak of his resurrection. Long ago many people died on crosses, but only Jesus rose from the dead.
- hawk nets נץ - the son of man נ killed on the cross ץ
- cibboleth סבלת - grain of wheat
- shibboleth שׁבלת - ear of wheat or flowing stream
- ↑ ▸ ± Mt 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
- ↑ ▸ ± Jud 12:6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce [it] right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
