and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy Genesis 2:3 Holy – God declares holy a separated time, not a special place. Let that sink in for a moment. The first use of the Hebrew qadash (holy) in Scripture is about time. Every other ancient cosmology operates with some declaration of sacred space,…
January 5 God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear.” Genesis 1:9 A Line In The Sand Gathered – The flat-backed liquid Leviathan shows its white belly today, raging against its sandy cage. But God has shut the door and it can’t get out….
January 4 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Frame of Reference And The Earth – Are you so familiar with this opening verse that you no longer think about what it says? Yes, of course, it tells us that God created everything. That’s what the Hebrew idiom hashamayim ve…
January 3 In the beginning, God created [et] the heavens and [et] the earth Genesis 1:1 (Hebrew added) Untranslatable Et – It’s there but you don’t see it. In Hebrew, this verse is Bere’shiyt bara’ Elohim et hashamayim ve et haarets. I have underlined the words translated “the heavens and the earth.” The first three…
January 2 In the beginning, God created Genesis 1:1 Even Deeper The – Of course, by now you know that the word here is bere’shiyt. There is no definite article. That means there is no “the” in this text. Try reading the text without the “the” and things change – dramatically. We have already learned…
January 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Beginning Again In The Beginning – Let’s begin by doing some mental stretching. You’ve had a nice vacation. You’ve had some rest. You have the day off. Now put your mind to work. Something deep is happening here. Something very deep. …
Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD, Isaiah 1:18 Let Us Reason Together – Perhaps on this day, the last day of the year, you will allow me a little personal reflection. This day is the 2191st day of Today’s Word. Six years ago when I started writing this daily journey into God’s Word…
And as He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. John 9:1 From Birth – Healing a man who has become blind is miraculous, but healing a man who was born blind is even more amazing. In order to see just how amazing this account is for first century Jews, we need to…
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3 Burdensome – It’s a real dilemma, isn’t it? John, under the inspiration of the Spirit, tells us that the summation of God’s love is found in keeping His commandments. He doesn’t say keeping the…
YHWH is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. I seek refuge in Him; He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. Psalm 18:3 (Hebrew text) Rock – If you looked at this psalm in the Hebrew text, you would see something unusual (for us, at least). The letters…
