Beneath Egypt

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4 NASB Earth – The Hebrew word mitahat combines the preposition min with the adverb tahat.   This combination produces the pictograph “Water/Massive/Chaos + Seal/Sign/Covenant + Fence/Separate/Surround…

David’s Benediction

Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above the earth.  Psalm 57:5  NASB Glory – We need to know all that we can about God’s glory.  Of course, that implies a stern warning.  Get too close and you will be burned.  The purity of His glory extinguishes life.  That itself is…

What’s the Difference?

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7  NASB From the ground – Why does the text use the word ha-adamah (the ground)?  Once more we are confronted with the first occurrence of a word. …

Double Dipped

And YHWH Elohim formed Man out of dry, loose earth dirt Genesis 2:7a (my translation) Dry, loose earth dirt – We found some unusual implications in the verb in this verse.  When God formed Man, it seems that God had decision polarity in mind.  But that’s not all.  There is another odd construction in this…

Prologue

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was not man to cultivate the ground. Genesis 2:5 To Cultivate – If you ask someone to tell you the story of…

Today’s Agenda

“Let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done, as it is in heaven, also on earth.” Matthew 6:10 Earth –  When we follow the pattern of prayer taught by our Lord, we endorse the Hebrew view of deliverance.  Praying “Your kingdom come on earth” focuses our attention of the Hebrew verb yasa’.  Of course,…

The Other Point Of View

on earth, as it is in heaven  Matthew 6:10  Earth/ Heaven – Startling!  Uncomfortable!  Of course, it isn’t for us because we are not saturated in the Hebrew Scriptures.  But the disciples were.  They would have expected “heaven and earth” not “earth and heaven.”  Glance through the Old Testament and you will find the phrase…

Frame of Reference

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…