Eliasaph ben Deuel

“So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name.” (Numbers 1:17, NASB95)The Captain for the tribe of Gad is Eliasaph ben Deuel.  If you’ve followed this series, you should now immediately recognize “Eli” as “My God.”   However, just when you thought you learned it, we have an exception to the rule. This time, El stands in front of “yasaph” and the English transliteration poorly places an “i” in the place of a “y.”  So, El-yasaph is “God, the giver.”  Indeed, “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17 NASB95).Deuel (the equivalent of Reuel) means “to know God.”  The Hebrew nation would come to know God like never before in her days of dark wandering prior to the time when she would meet God as the giver of the Promised Land at Jericho.  Sometimes it is the dark night in which we most learn the character of God.When you are in days of knowing God through tribulation, rejoice that “weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning!” (Psalm 30:5).In His Grace,Dr. Randy White