Useless & Nothing

  Introduction

Very often the word (or a close synonym) for "nothing" or "useless" is found in relation to God and his work as perceived by man.  These words therefore become code, as an ironic opposite, for God and his work.

For examples of this phenomenon, see write-ups:

  Write-ups in Which these Words are Discussed

  Synchronicity of Discovery on Day this Index was Began

I began this index for "Useless and Nothing" early this morning, July 27, 1999.  Later this evening, after wheeling the garbage out to the street, and seeing once again the number printed on our assigned trash bin: 1099, I was curious to see what word # 1099 might be in the Lexicons.

The first place I looked was word number 1099 in Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament.

1099 %/*-" "Not anything, nothing."

That is quite a synchronicity considering that I began this index early this morning.   It ironically fits the idea of "trash/garbage" as well.

In my margin, over the next word, 1100, I had noted that the ASCII character sum for my wife's name, CHERI_MOON_ALLAN, in all caps, and including the spaces, is 1100.  That word means,

1100 -3*-" Unprofitable, worthlessness, what is useless, of no fruit.

Hence in these two personalized consecutive words were the two key words which I chose for the name of this index this morning.

Word number 1099 in the Greek New Testament lexicon (Zodhiates') is an opposite parody on the idea of useless garbage.  There is a double antonym inasmuch as garbage is solid waste, whereas this word speaks of potable water.

1099 (8L6LH Sweet, as honey. Water is called sweet, meaning potable, in contrast to salty.
Syn (358), saltless.
Ant. (4089), bitter.

This double antonym is as if providing commentary on how man views things compared to how God views them.

Page number 1099 in Zodhiates' NT Greek Lexicon is the third of four pages covering the definition 3850: "a parable, placing side by side; a comparison, similitude."  It is a listing of the parables in Luke, Mark and Matthews Gospels.

[8/1/99] The day after doing this write-up, I opened to page 1099 in my huge Webster's III '61 dictionary to see what might be there.

The first and last words on the page (hence the headings for the page) apply.  The first word and heading on the page is "hucksterer: HUCKSTER", which is actually a humorous play on the slang word "huck" or heave, and "ster," which is my nickname.  Hence, huckster could be rendered "Huck Ster," or trash Sterling.

Huckster is defined as:

huckster 1. One that sells good along the street.

I was actually standing our trash can in the street in preparation for its morning collection when I saw the number again and thought to look it up.

The last word on page 1099 of Webster's III '61 dictionary is:

hui . . . 2 : Community gathering

That fits the idea of civic trash collection too.

Summary

In this context, the garbage can is providing the metaphor.  That is how valuable God's work is among fallen man.  Something to be cast out as worthless.

  Essay: Humility as Exemplified by God

From: "Sterling D. Allan" <sterlingda@greaterthings.com>
To: "The Keys of Knowledge List" <keys-l@spiritweb.org>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 1999 10:01 AM
Subject: [keys-l] The Distortion of the Past -- Remedy of Humility

In contemplating J J's concept of clear communication and being able to view in the present without letting the filters of the past cloud our perception, again the concept of HUMILITY comes to my mind.

If we are humble, then our ego does not hang onto the past as a status symbol to us.  We can accept the present along with the truths it presents, without feeling threatened.  With humility, there is no such thing as feeling threatened.  Rather there is a quiet yet powerful conviction of the new truth, along with a letting go of the falsehoods of the past.

In my studies of "Alphabetics" which includes considering words in vicinity to one another in alphabetical sequence, one of the things I have observed many times is that a pronoun for "God" is followed or preceded immediately by a word that means "nothing."  For example, the name "Jehovah" in English is followed by the word "jejune: Devoid of interesting matter, or attractiveness of any kind; bare; meager; barren; unprofitable."

"Unprofitable" is the meaning of word 888 in the New Testament lexicon.  888 is the number of Jesus (the sum of the numeric values of the letters spelling his name in Greek).  Isaiah describes the Messiah, "the arm of the Lord," saying, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."  Jehovah, jejune.  That is certainly how fallen man perceives God, because fallen man looks for show, for flash, for excitement, for charisma -- all of which attributes Satan has down pat.

So on one hand, we could see this juxtaposition of words for God and words meaning "nothing" as a contrast between God's greatness and the opposite of greatness being nothingness.  But I believe there is also a nothingness that pertains to God that makes him God.  God is God because he recognizes his own nothingness perfectly.  In and of himself he is nothing without tying into the greatness of the God universal.  He couldn't have become God on his own, and he cannot stay God by himself.  He is part of a wholeness that includes a universal working togetherness.

There is a Book of Mormon passage that I just love which sustains this point very well.  Moroni says, "And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things."

Here is the resurrection Lord speaking (communicating) "in plain humility."  If it's good enough for God, then it is certainly good enough for us, as we strive for Godliness, that we too can overcome all things and become as he is -- including being humble in our communications.

Sterling

by Sterling D. Allan; Manti, Utah; July 27, 1999
updated February 28, 2002

Bibliography: