What is FATHER’S Divine Intent of music? Ezekiel wrote by THE SPIRIT in Ezekiel chapter 26:
13 ‘I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps (H3658) shall be heard no more.’
I played in a rock ‘n roll band for six years while I was in high school and college. We were a very successful local band and played over 250 engagements during that time. However when I received the baptism of The Holy Spirit, I immediately lost interest in playing in the band and quit. The desire was totally removed and I thought I would never play again. Six years later, FATHER told me to play in church though I had no equipment. I told HIM that if HE wanted me to play, HE would have to provide me a bass guitar. Forty-five minutes later, a man was moved by THE SPIRIT (without any knowledge of my prayer) and provided the guitar. I played praise and worship music in church for the next twenty years. Clearly, FATHER enjoys music.
The Hebrew meaning of the stringed instrument comes from Strong’s 3658. My friend Alan has provided details of the meaning of the Hebrew word kinnowr:
The Hebrew rwnk which Strong’s has numbered as #3658, is a variation of the word translated as lamp, or ryn ((nyr) which is Strong’s #5216. Another variation of nyr in the Hebrew is spelled as nr, with no inserted recognition of vahv or yode, but always with a suffix or prefix added to the word, and most times both a prefix and a suffix is added. These prefixes and suffixes tell a lot about how the word is being used, but that is too long for this discussion. This two letter form is usually translated simply as ‘lamp’, or ‘lamps’. There is a variation of the word with a vahv, the sixth letter, inserted ( rwn ), or ‘nor’, which Strong’s numbers as 5135, but that spelling only shows up in that form in the Chaldee (Aramaic), and then only in Daniel. And in Daniel this word is translated as ‘fire’, or ‘fiery’. A further look at the concept reveals that the ‘light’ is given off by the ‘fire’; or, the source of the fire. Our Father is a consuming Fire by the Light He reveals within us. Boy, does that really change things.
And now, back to ‘kinnor’, or rwnk. If we can grasp that the ‘nr’ or ‘nyr’ or ‘nor’ is communicating ‘light’, and/or the source of that ‘light’, then we only have to understand what the first letter in this spelling, the ‘caph’, represents. The ‘caph’ is the 11th Hebrew character, and its symbolism is that of a hand, cupped so as to hold water or sand, etc. The cupped hand is the ‘caph’, and should be understood as representing that which you attempt to hold in your ‘cupped hand’. In that context, the caph, as a prefix (which in this word it definitely is) is usually translated with English words attempting to indicate ‘to be like’; or, ‘to be as’. Words with the caph prefixed are often translated as ‘like’ something. An easy example of this concept is Psalm 1:3 “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;” In this verse, the word for ‘tree’ is ‘eytz’ (#[), Strong’s #6086, a two-letter word. But the Hebrew spelling in this verse of the word for tree, which has been translated as “…like a tree”, is as this: #[k The translation correctly understood the meaning of the letter ‘caph’ as a prefix to this word for ‘tree’, and the English translation in this instance is quite acceptable. So, how does that apply to ‘kinnor’, or rwnk? This word, translated as ‘harp’, in my opinion is communicating that the ‘harp’ is used to attempt to express, by the player of the harp, a sound or music that expresses, through the playing of the instrument, the ‘Light’ that the player of the harp feels within. It is synonymous with saying “The music of this instrument expresses the Light as I understand the Light to be”. The music or sound of the harp is desired to be an expression “…to be like” the Light (nyr) of God. I will even say the music of the harp (kinnor) is an expression of the Light of God within. Remember Bob Marley’s song “One Love, One Heart”? This was Bob’s attempt to express the Light of God as he understood it. I think it would be fair to say of Bob Marley’s song, “kinnor”. ‘kinnor’ is not necessarily a physical object, like a harp or flute or lyre or drum, but it is the expression from the heart of the player of the instrument, attempting to express Light as he believes Light to be. We know that Yashua is Light, and Christ in you and me makes us the Light of this dark world. Marley may, or may not, know that to be truth. However, my ‘kinnor’ is in trying to share the simplicity and purity of My Father’s Life/Light as revealed in these Hebrew words and verses of the Old Testament. Marley does the same thing with his music. I hope you grasp that analogy, is clumsy as if feels in writing it. The most accurate expression of ‘kinnor’ is “As the Light”; or “To Be the Light”. For in the Hebrew concept of these verbs, when we are ‘like’ the Light, we are accounted as ‘being’ the Light.
KJV 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. We cannot ‘see’ him until we can identify with him. Then we can understand “…be like him”.
When we are Like Christ, we are Christ. ‘kinnor’. When we are Like Christ, because the Spirit of Christ has raised us out from among the spiritually dead, then Christ is being manifested in the world. And ‘the world’ is always darkness, and confusion. Babylon is not ‘falling’, as some understand the concept. Babylon is fallen; past tense. Babylon is a fallen mindset, and a fallen lifestyle. Come out of her, and be ye separate. I believe the ‘babylonians’ of the fallen world will only understand that when the Body of Christ becomes ‘kinnor’, or Like ‘the Light’ of Christ. For when we are ‘like’ (kinnor) Christ, we are Christ. For the Light we have to offer is from the fire of Our Father within. “If you have seen me, you have seen My Father”.
Let us be a light unto the world in word, song, and deed.