The Company You Keep

Leave me, you evildoers, so that I may comply with the commandments of my God.  Psalm 119:115  NASB Leave me – soor.  Leave, go away, depart.  Yes, but also “to turn off (lit. or fig.):—be [-head], bring, call back, decline, depart, eschew, get [you], go (aside), × grievous, lay away (by), leave undone, be past, pluck…

Why?

Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer nor His lovingkindness from me.  Psalm 66:20  NASB Has not turned away – As we discovered yesterday, the biblical standard is holiness.  Absolute holiness.  There is no “bell curve” of righteousness.  There is no appeasement policy.  There is no “life” insurance because you once made some…

The Holy Man

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8 NASB Go away – Do you know the story? Yeshua asks the men to pull out into the deep water of Lake Kinneret. He tells them to cast out…

Left Behind

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8 NASB Go away – Peter’s reaction to being in the presence of a holy man is Hebraic. “Depart from me for I am a sinner.” Peter doesn’t flee. That…

The God of Sleep

That night, sleep deserted the king, and he ordered the book of records, the annals, to be brought; and it was read to the king.  Esther 6:1  JPS Deserted – The story of Esther is much more like our experiences of life than the chronicles of Acts.  In Esther, life appears to be made up…

In and Out

 So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.  Ruth 1:7  NASB Departed from/ to return – Doesn’t this verse seem redundant?  Doesn’t it say the same thing too many times?  You’ve probably never asked why…

Right Or Left

Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14 Depart – Many Hebrew concepts involve physical motion of the body.  For example, the Hebrew idea of grace or benevolence involves turning the face in my direction.  “Make His face to shine upon me” is a Hebrew idiom for gracious relationship.  In…