I am Your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know Your testimonies. Psalm 119:125 NASB So that I may know – What is the job of a servant: to understand or to obey? Of course, it’s nice to know why you’re asked to do something, but it certainly isn’t necessary. Your job as a…
Teach me good [y]discernment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments. Psalm 119:66 NASB Discernment – Do you like broccoli rabe? How about onion ice cream? Maybe something a bit more palatable like lambrusco? Everyone’s tastes differ. A lot of the time what we like is acquired through family recipes, traditions, cultural exposure, and just…
And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14b NASB Who knows – Yesterday we noticed that Mordecai’s remark implies alternative pathways to divine fulfillment. Life is not cast in stone. Our choices alter the direction and outcome of the universe. Things change. Today we see that…
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will tell riddles of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Psalm 78:2-3 NASB Known – Okay, so how can this be a parable or a riddle if we’ve known it for generations? Was the insightful story and the dark saying passed down…
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB Acknowledge – Let’s have some fun today. We want to think about the Hebrew idea of knowing. It’s not the same as our Western idea. To get the…
Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, Psalm 25:4-5a NASB Know/teach – “The whole of Torah, writes Sefat Emet, is a complex of hints, allusions to the unattainable.”[1] The rabbi’s statement shocks us. Don’t we need to know the truth in unambiguous ways so that we can properly follow God and…
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB Acknowledge– I’m not sure this particular rendition of yādaʿ really captures what we need to know (ah, a pun). yādaʿ is the verb translated “acknowledge,” but “acknowledge” seems too weak. After all,…
“Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am.” Psalm 39:4 NASB Make me know – The Jewish Bible translates this opening phrase as “I would know when I will cease.” The verb is familiar, yādaʿ, used 944 times in the Tanakh for virtually every…
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.” Genesis 4:1 NASB Had relations – We all know that this is about sex, right? Adam and Eve have sex and she gets pregnant, right? No, sorry….
