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There the wicked cease from raging, and there the [h]weary are at rest.  The prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.  Job 3:17-18  NASB Rest – What is the most important thing human beings desire?  Prosperity?  Health?  Long life?  A sense of purpose?  Fame?  Power?  Job asks for none of…

Job – Unsatisfied

“Why did I not die [f]at birth, come out of the womb and pass away?  Job 3:11 NASB Pass away – We’ll have to add another verse in order to understand the implications of this one.  That other verse is Job 3:13: “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then,…

Does God Forget? (2)

Abandoned among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and they are cut off from Your hand.  Psalm 88:5  NASB No longer remember – zākar.  What an important Hebrew verb!  Zākar means “to remember,” but the same consonants in noun form also mean “male.”  It seems to me that…

Free At Last (2)

Abandoned among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and they are cut off from Your hand.  Psalm 88:5  NASB Abandoned – What an interesting choice of words!  Sometimes translated “forsaken,” the Hebrew root is the verb ḥāpaš.  Here it is ḥopšî, an adjective.  What’s interesting is the basic…

Private Window

When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.  Genesis 49:33  NASB Gathered to his people – I stand in the window of the second floor apartment in Glenview, looking at the snow.  Suddenly I begin to cry.  To shake.  My whole life…

Blessed Assurance

Be assured, the evil person will not go unpunished, but the descendants of the righteous will be rescued.   Proverbs 11:21  NASB Be assured – You remember the old hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.  Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.”  Fanny Crosby clearly didn’t get the idea from this Hebrew verse. Why?  Well, the…

A Little Letter Does It

Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,  in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,  Titus 1:1-2 NASB For – Paul’s letter to Titus about qualifications for leadership.  Easy to read, often skipped until…

Does God Forget?

Abandoned among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and they are cut off from Your hand.  Psalm 88:5  NASB No longer remember – zākar.  What an important Hebrew verb!  Zākar means “to remember,” but the same consonants in noun form also mean “male.”  It seems to me that…

Free At Last

Abandoned among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and they are cut off from Your hand.  Psalm 88:5  NASB Abandoned – What an interesting choice of words!  Sometimes translated “forsaken,” the Hebrew root is the verb ḥāpaš.  Here it is ḥopšî, an adjective.  What’s interesting is the basic…

Que Sera Sera

 If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  1 Corinthians 15:32  NASB Raised– You hope it happens.  You hope that the dead are raised, that there is something after the grave, that what you do now will matter later.  But you don’t know, do you?  You don’t really know,…