He who guards the command knows no evil matter. And the heart of the wise discerns both time and right-ruling, Because for every matter there is a time and right-ruling, though the trouble of man is heavy upon him. For he does not know what shall be; so who declares to him when it shall be? No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no discharge in battle, and wrongness does not release those who are given to it.

– Ecclesiastes 8:5-8

Recently I was on a men’s retreat out ha’bemidbar – to the desert wilderness of southeastern Oregon near Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge in Plush, OR. It was a fathers and sons trip to the wilderness where us dads and our sons could bond in prayer and the study of scriptures in a remote region far from the distractions of modern Babylonian society. It’s important as men that we show our sons that if we guard the commands of Elohim, then we will not know an evil matter, as the son of David – Koheleth – says in the book of Ecclesiastes. This particular father and son get-away delivered on that message.

“He who guards the command knows no evil matter. And the heart of the wise discerns both time and right-ruling.”

The Hebrew reads:

שׁוֹמֵר מִצְוָה לֹא יֵדַע דָּבָר רָע וְעֵת וּמִשְׁפָּט יֵדַע לֵחָ כָםב

Transliterated, the text says:

Shomer mitzvah lo yada ra v’et v’mishpat yada lev chakam.

Literally, word for word, it says: Watchman (or keeper, guard) command no know word evil, and time (or experience) and judgment know heart wise (or learned, shrewd, skillful, prudent).

The word used for “know” in this verse is yada (יֵדַע ) and is Strong’s H3045. Yada is more than having knowledge of something, but it means to know intimately. Looking at Genesis 4:1 we can see that Adam “knew” his wife, and she conceived:

And Adam knew Chavah his wife, and she conceived and bore Qayin, and said, “I have gained a man, YHWH.”

Taking this into consideration, we can apply that understanding to the meaning of the word yada in Ecclesiastes 8:5. This particular verse in Ecclesiastes also has the word dabar, which most English translations change for some reason to “thing” or “matter”, as in “knows no evil matter.” Dabar means “word” and is where we get the name for one of the books of the Torah, Debarim (Deuteronomy) literally means, “Words”. So, having this understanding we could read the words of the Koheleth, son of David, as:

A watchmen of the command does not intimately know evil words, and experience and righteous judgment are intimately known by the shrewd, skillful, and prudent heart.

A few days before we left for our trip, one of the dads called me up and was concerned about the road conditions, since we had been experiencing a fairly significant snow storm earlier that week. Being not too privy to driving in snowy conditions, he was a little concerned about one pass in particular that we would be traveling over. The Highway 140 summit reaches an elevation of about 5000 feet, and can get quite a bit of snow in the winter. I too had been monitoring the weather and road conditions. It didn’t look like we would be getting much weather on the day that we would be traveling, and as long as Department of Transportation kept the roads plowed and sanded, it seemed to me that we should be good to go.

Being a former snowboard instructor and basically living most of my winters as a young man at the ski lodge, driving in the snow is second nature for me, it’s not really a big deal; I enjoy it. However, now that we are bringing along our children, I admittedly felt a slight twinge of anxiety regarding the weather and road conditions, but also felt that we should consider this as part of our wilderness training; conditions might not always be ideal when we go to the wilderness. We agreed that we would continue with our planned weekend in the desert.

“Because for every matter there is a time and right-ruling, though the trouble of man is heavy upon him.” – Ecclesiastes 8:6

As we were gearing up for the trip, I spoke with one of the other dads the night before we left, just to make sure we were all meeting-up in the right place. He told me that they were all packed-up and ready to go. He already had all of their gear in the truck, and he even threw-in a heavy duty floor jack, just in case. We’re not gonna be doing any four-wheeling out there, I thought to myself, but hey if wants to bring the jack good for him!

The next morning we all met-up and the Dollar Store that is at the intersection where Highway 140 meets Highway 62 and headed out on our wilderness adventure, asking the boys before we left if anyone needed to use the restroom. No? OK then, we were off! As we started to climb in elevation, we inevitably hit some snow flurries, which grew into a snowstorm rather quickly. Being in the lead of the caravan, we eventually came-up on a semi-truck with snow chains on that was going about 10 mph up a fairly steep incline. The cars ahead of me started to go around the semi, and so when I had a chance I flipped on the 4-wheel drive and passed the truck as well, thinking the boys behind me would follow suit when they had the chance.

We were cruising along the snowy path of a highway on top of blacktop that was completely whited-out and peppered with red rocks, the tall snow banks looking like icing on a cake all along on the sides of the road. My son, all excited said, “This is so awesome, I love snow!” “I know, me too son,” I said proudly as the windshield wipers flapped on high, wiping away the snowflakes piling up between each swipe. “Dad, when’s the next rest area, I gotta go pee.” Are you kidding me? We’re in the middle of a snowstorm, on a steep twisting highway, we just left the parking lot twenty minutes ago, and now you gotta go to the bathroom? Well, those were my first thoughts, but I checked myself saying, “There probably aren’t any rest areas open, since we’re in the middle of a snowstorm, but I’ll pull over as soon as I can find a safe place. Sound good?”

Once I found a spot that looked safe enough to pull over near the top of the pass, a spot that had been cleared out by snowplows, my boy hopped out to handle his business. I watched the road to keep an eye out for the other guys, so I didn’t miss them when they drove past. Several cars passed as we sat in the warm cab of my truck, but I didn’t recognize any of them that went by. After waiting for awhile, eventually that semi-truck that I passed went by, and there was no sign of the rest of our caravan. What is going on?

We decided to head back the way we came to see if we could find them, and eventually we ended up driving past them on our way back down the mountain, and then turned around to catch back up. Checking-in to see if everything was OK, it turned out that one of the pick-up trucks blew-out a tire on the steep snow-covered highway, right about the time when the snow started coming down pretty good too. Fortunately, he had decided to throw-in that floor jack, and the two dads hopped out in the middle of the storm on the side of the highway and “Nascar-ed that thing” as one of them would put it. I can’t help but think that even though the trouble was seemingly heavy upon them, these two guardians of the commandments didn’t concern themselves with the evil matter that was happening, but jumped into the situation without hesitation. Using discernment and righteous judgment they handled business and took care of what needed to be done in that moment.

Out in the desert there is no cell phone service, or internet, or television for that matter. There was no landline phone, or connection to the outside world, aside from the ranchers herding cattle and waving as they pass by in their large, heated tractors hauling hay to feed their herds. Life in the desert doesn’t start and stop for the 9 to 5 grind, yet the pace is somehow slower. In the desert, doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done is essential for survival. The wilderness can be ruthless, but at the same time if one comes prepared, they are able to overcome the trials and tribulations that are thrown at them.

It had been sub-zero temperatures the days leading-up to our arrival at that little cabin in the desert; the temperature was in the teens our first night there. The water to the cabin would not turn-on, probably due to the freezing temperatures. Over the next couple of days, the temperatures would warm-up a little, but not enough for the pipes to thaw. Thankfully there was electricity for cooking and a fireplace to build a fire. We had warmth and shelter, and had brought 15 gallons of drinking water – just in case. We melted snow on the stove for washing dishes.

Sitting down that first night for Bible study and fellowship, the brother who got the flat tire said, “To be honest, I haven’t really driven in the snow that much,” and we all kind of laughed about it. He went on to explain that when he was packing their stuff, he heard Yah say to put the floor jack in the back of his truck. Not understanding why he would need a floor jack, he almost didn’t put it in his truck. If he hadn’t brought it, there is no way they would have been able to jump out on an inclined highway in the middle of a snow storm and change that flat tire within ten minutes, getting them back on the road.

During our Bible study, we read Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verses 5-8, and I realized as we were reading it that this verse was prophetic to this particular group of men. Even though they were not accustomed to driving in winter snow conditions, they had something going for them that many are missing: these men are Guardians of the Commandments. They were not concerned with the evil that had seemingly come upon them, but because they know, intimately, the discernment and righteous right-ruling that comes to those who have a wise and prudent heart – those who guard the commands – they were able to be overcomers when the evil thing came upon them. Most importantly, their sons were able to see what living the commandments really looks like, and that when we guard the commands of Elohim, then we will not know an evil matter.

There were some pretty cool experiences on this little wilderness journey. We got up-close with a couple of herds of prong horn antelope as they ran across the snowy tundra. A rather large, hairy hog that randomly wandered down the road, his short legs crunching in the crusty snow. The desert was cold and snowy. We didn’t have running water. The last night there was a very powerful windstorm the likes of which I’ve never experienced – it sounded like a hurricane, with sustained winds that didn’t seem to stop for hours.

As I laid in bed that night listening to the howling desert winds, I prayed to YAH and thanked him for this shelter from the storm, and for the opportunity that He gave to us to prepare us for the real wilderness experience that is at hand.

After three days of not having running water, I can safely say that I was ready to go home. In preparing for the wilderness, we can make sure that we have all of the supplies that we may need, but the most important thing that we can do to prepare is make sure that we are Watchmen, Guardians of the Commandments Elohim who have the Testimony of Yeshua. That way, when the time is right, we can safely say: I am ready to come home.