Tag-Archive for » Words «

Too Familiar

Sunday, July 01st, 2012 | Author:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.  Psalm 19:14 NASB

Words – Adin Steinsaltz makes the following comment in his book, Simple Words:  “Because we know these words for such a long time, because we seem to know their meaning so well, we never have the chance to really understand what they mean.  When we grapple with the meaning of the words, we discover what they are.  Through this process of trying to understand, the words may become very different; sometimes we also gain a new understanding of ourselves and what we have been doing all our lives.  This understanding is itself a revelation.”[1]

In my opinion, this insight applies across most of our understanding of Scripture.  Our familiarity with the Bible, as a result of the centuries of Christian influence in the culture and our own immersion in Christian thinking, has altered the way we read the text, not only in translation but also in the original languages.  We no longer hear the words as they were spoken because we don’t live in the world that first heard them.  In order to truly understand God’s revelation, we need to strip ourselves of the accumulation of meanings from our own history – personal and cultural.  This is our task, not because we have been remiss but simply because we are millennia removed from the history of God’s declarations.  But we can recover.

In order to read Scripture with the mind of those who first heard it, we must carefully articulate the paradigms that influence the meanings of our words.  This is a big task, but not an impossible one.  For example, by studying the use of hesed in the culture and history of ancient Israel, we discover how rich the word really is – and how anemic our translations of “mercy” or “lovingkindness” are.  What is true of hesed is true of most of the Bible’s words.  In order to understand we must go back.  The meanings we seek are in the past, not the present or in some eschatological future.

Far too often, when we realize the enormity of this task, we experience two conflicting emotions.  The first is the feeling that all we have previously learned is wrong.  The second is the denial of this same feeling by claiming that surely God oversees His word so that culture and history make no real difference to our faith.  The first feeling of panic is not warranted.  Our experiences with God are not invalid.  They are the very things that brought us to this point.  Without them we would still be in the dark.  God uses every human experience to bring us to the light, even those that ultimately turn out to be false or sinful.  Rather than feeling as though the past is a loss, let us embrace it as the path that brought us here – superintended by God Himself.

However, the second reaction is insufficient and probably in error.  The history of the transmission of Scripture is quite clear.  There are lots of mistakes.  That does not mean that the words God delivered were not accurate.  It means that they have been put into the hands of men, and men often massage the words in order to accomplish their purposes rather than God’s.  God doesn’t supervise the sins of men, so when these sins affect the transmission of His word, He doesn’t act as a proofreader.  Of course, God still uses those words to reach the hearts of men and women, but that doesn’t mean the words themselves didn’t contain mistranslations and mistaken theological doctrines.  It simply means that God uses what human beings allow Him to use.  He does not violate our free, and often fallible, will.

What’s the bottom line?  Words!  Words that we know so well we don’t even think about them anymore.  Words that are so much a part of our vocabulary we have stopped thinking about their real meanings.  Our objective is to examine these words as best we can to understand what they would have meant when God first spoke them.  Our goal is to bring these “dead” words back to life so that they may become words that “are acceptable in Your sight.”

Topical Index:  words, paradigm, Adin Steinsaltz, Psalm 19:14


[1] Adin Steinsaltz, Simple Words, p. 24.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 33 Comments

The Genesis Curse

Sunday, February 13th, 2011 | Author:

Therefore, the land mourns and all who dwell in it waste away; the animals of the field, the birds of the air, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Hosea 4:3  (Dearman, NICOT)

Mourns – God designed His creation with one thing in mind: response.  Everything God did established the opportunity for responding to His calling.  He called the heavens into existence and they responded by distinguishing the day from the night.  He called to the seas and they responded by teaming with life.  He called to the land and it responded by being fruitful.  And He called to Man as steward.  You know that story.

A creation that was designed to respond agonizes when it cannot fulfill its purpose.  When chaos and disobedience inhibit the full productivity of creation, everything suffers.  Human beings experience precisely the same malaise, frustration and discouragement when they are compelled to perform tasks that are not in concert with their design.  Just put a natural problem-solver in a company where everything is running smoothly.  Watch out!  Before too long, the problem-solver will make something break down so that he can feel fulfilled fixing it.

Hosea tells us that this general curse of the fallen world is not the result of a design flaw.  This curse comes directly from disobedience.  Hosea provides the list:  no faithfulness, no hesed, no knowledge of God, swearing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery.  These actions by human beings perpetuate the curse on the land.  The land never wanted to exist under such terrible conditions.  It mourns (the Hebrew is ‘aval).  That’s funeral language.  Something has died or is about to die.  Tragedy upon tragedy.  It takes very little reflection on the present state of the world to realize that Hosea is right on target.

Hosea helps us see something in the Genesis story that we might have missed.  Genesis 3:17-18 is God’s declaration of the consequences of disobedience.  Adam is not cursed.  The ground is cursed.  Of course, ha’adamah (the ground) is intimately connected to Adam since he comes from the ground.  Adam’s source is cursed.  The substance of his existence, the foundation he needs to survive, is damaged.  Now it will resist Adam.  Now it will be dysfunctional.  This much is pretty obvious (the peshat – surface – reading).  But let’s look a bit deeper.  As a result of this tragedy, thistles and thorns will become part of the landscape of Man’s effort.  On the surface, this could mean that before Adam’s sin there were no nasty plants like thistles and thorns.  But I don’t think that makes much sense.  Would I give up roses so that I would never encounter a thorn?  Would I endanger mice and birds by removing the thistle seeds they eat to survive?  Did God create thistles and thorns after He rested on the seventh day?  Thistle is the Hebrew word darda’.  Thorn is qots.  Both designate undesirable, uneatable, useless plants for Adam.  Perhaps that’s the real imagery.  The ground produces things that get in the way of human fulfillment.  It is certainly not the case that thistles and thorns have no purpose at all.  They serve all kinds of purposes.  It’s just that they don’t serve the purposes of men very well.

But maybe we need to look even deeper.  God creates by His breath.  He speaks and it comes to be.  The world is the spoken word, manifested in tangible form.  When a curse is spoken over the land, that curse is barbed breathing.  It brings sorrow, toil and eventually death.  Thistles and thorns are merely the symptoms of words that prick.  Their presence is a constant reminder that God’s word is a two-edged sword.  It blesses and curses.  It blesses those who align themselves with the divine order embedded in His word and it curses those who refuse to align themselves with the grain of the universe.  God doesn’t have to create anything new for this to happen.  It is already built into the way the world works.  All God has to do is allow the inherent consequences of our actions to proceed unabated.  We bring about the manifestation of the cursing side of the sword by uttering words that oppose God.  We activate the embedded opposition to God’s ordered blessings.  We speak chaos (words of disobedience) and chaos comes forth.

Both God and Man create with words.  God creates order, harmony and purpose.  Man unleashes disorder, confusion and chaos.  Both kinds of speaking have enormous consequences for the rest of creation.  All the more reason to watch your tongue, right?

Today, will you speak God’s words after Him bringing order to your world or will you speak your own words, activating thistles and thorns?

Topical Index:  mourns, ‘aval, thistle, thorn, words, Hosea 4:3

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 3 Comments

Words As Weapons

Monday, July 12th, 2010 | Author:

Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me things that I do not know. Psalm 35:12

Malicious Witnesses – Yeshua reminds us not to fear the one who can kill our bodies.  We are to fear the one who can take our lives and also destroy our souls (see Matthew 10:28).  That’s a good Greek expression communicating the Hebrew idea that the real issues have little to do with existence.  The real issues in life are about sovereignty, authority and citizenship.  Until you can answer the great question, “Lord, what do you demand of me?” you have not understood life at all.  In fact, those who are occupied with existence often find that there is nothing worth salvaging at the end.

In a Hebrew culture, a man would rather die than lose his reputation.  In fact, loss of reputation was serious social leprosy.  An outcast, rejected, often feared, repulsive and alone – such a man wandered the edges of community, without home or comfort.  There are worse things than death.  Ask the liar, the adulterer or the thief.

In this verse, the psalmist is attacked by verbal terrorists.  These are edei hamas, literally, testifiers of violence.  They use words as weapons of assault, destroying the reputation of their victims.  In the Hebrew culture, these people might as well have been carrying backpack bombs.  The damage they inflict is far worse than death or dismemberment.  They take away a man’s integrity.  They strip him of his dignity.  They inflict him with community expulsion.  If you thought that sticks and stones could break your bones, but words would never hurt you, you don’t live on this planet.  No wonder the Bible is replete with warnings about the tongue.

Notice that these edei hamas do not accuse the victim.  They simply humiliate him.  They ask him to answer questions which he is unable to answer.  He might not know because of ignorance.  He might not know because the question does not allow an honest answer (“When did you stop beating your wife?”).  He might not know because the answer is forbidden (“Think not on these things”).  It doesn’t matter to the edei hamas.  They are not interested in the answers.  They are interested in subjugation by verbal inundation.  Point blank execution with verbal accusations is always effective, and very destructive.

Do you know one of these terrorists?  Probably.  Probably this reptilian substitute for a human being is lurking somewhere inside of you.  Well educated in the art of intimidation, accusation and insinuation, the serpent lies dormant until there is a useful opportunity to strike, to cause irreparable harm to another.  To humiliate.  To castigate.  To destroy.  Were it not for our personal proximity to such dark creatures, we would claim that all such behavior is anathema.

When did you stop using words as weapons? (How can you answer that?)  If forgiveness is not a part of your  daily vocabulary, you might be a linguistic terrorist.

Topical Index:  malicious witnesses, edei hamas, words, Psalm 35:12

LAST CHANCE.  SPACES ARE LIMITED.  COME ON DOWN AND MEET THE REST OF US IN 4 DAYS OF FUN AND FELLOWSHIP.  THE FAMILY REUNION!  CLICK HERE.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 5 Comments

Sticks and Stones

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 | Author:

And looking at them He said, “What, then, is this which has been written, “The stone that the builders rejected, this one came to be the head of the corner”? Luke 20:17

Stone – “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  That childhood rhyme certainly wasn’t what Jesus had in mind when He provided His commentary on the meaning of the word ‘eben.  Of course, we must start in Greek.  Lithon is in the Greek text.  You will recognize its meaning from words like Paleolithic – “early stone age”.  Jesus isn’t speaking Greek, so we have to read this word in Hebrew.  Once we do, we discover that Jesus is employing a play on words – ‘eben and ben.  ‘eben means stone and ben means son.  The word play comes from an allusion to Psalm 118:22 which His audience certainly recognized.  In that allusion, Jesus suggests that the leadership of Israel is in peril of judgment and anyone who associates with that leadership would be well advised to reconsider his loyalty.  The time has come when the Son will act like a stone and crush those who stand in the way of God’s redemptive plan.  Apparently some words can break your bones.

There is another more subtle word play here that we dare not overlook.  Exodus tells us that the Ark of the Covenant contains the testimony of the Lord.  This refers to the stone tablets that contain the summary of the Torah.  The early Christian church saw this testimonia in relation to Yeshua as the cornerstone.  Yeshua is not merely the Son who is a stumbling block to those who reject God’s way.  He is the physical representation of Torah obedience, a fulfillment of what the stone tablets are all about.  He is the manifestation of the Word of God (as John takes pains to demonstrate).  Therefore, it is not just ben and ‘eben that are in play here.  It is also dabar and torah.  Upon stone (‘eben) God wrote the ten words (dabar) which are ultimately manifested in the Son (ben) through His obedience to the words (torah).  It’s all tied together.

If we learn anything at all from this little word play, we learn that all of Scripture is connected.  We don’t live in a world of two testaments.  Our relationship to God is not part of a second covenant.  There is one message, one mediator, one plan of redemption and one manifestation of His body.  It began with Abraham and it continues to this very day.  Not only are the words all connected, so are we.  We have a share in the Kingdom.  We are sons and daughters of Abraham.  We are citizens of the commonwealth of Israel – and God isn’t through with any of us yet.

Today we can celebrate an adoptive history that reaches back to the time of the patriarchs.  We have been added to those long genealogies in Scripture because we have a place in this nation of priests.  Once more we realize just how important our common history really is – and how blessed we are to be a part of it.  Today is a great day for lifting up the name of the Lord who delivered us from the house of bondage and set us free to serve Him.

Topical Index:  Words

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: ,  | Comments off