“Will they not go astray who devise evil?” Proverbs 14:22 Devise – The Hebrews were a people of the land. Their imagery and metaphors come from this deep connection to the earth. Their language is mixed with dirt, fields, trees, rocks, planting and harvests. We, on the other hand, are a culture of the mind….
“Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” Proverbs 16:5 Proud – The Biblical image for pride is quite physical. Gevah is literally about what is high. A high mountain, a high tower, a high wall. From this very physical context, the meaning of gebah is transferred to human beings. Pride…
“Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 Commit – Wouldn’t it be nice to have a guaranteed plan for success? Just think how easy life would be if you knew the absolutely sure way to accomplish anything you set out to do. That’s the promise of dozens of…
“The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.” Proverbs 16:4 For its own purpose – Do we really believe that God made everything for a reason? Actually, the literal translation suggests that God made everything for his (or its) answer (Hebrew: ma’aneh). The idea is that…
“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations;” Romans 5:3 Exult – In order to appreciate the paradox in this verse, we have to realize that the word for “tribulations” (thlipsis) is not about inconveniences. It’s not about daily annoying struggles or problems. This is a very strong word that means “crushing…
“and hope does not disappoint; because” Romans 5:5 Disappoint – How many times have we read this verse and never heard it speak to the depths of our hearts? Do we really believe that God engineers life in order that we can arrive at the place of no disappointment? Have we submitted ourselves so completely…
“who turned the grace of God into licentiousness” Jude 4 Licentiousness – Even in English we stumble over this word. Bible publishers have done their best to accommodate our standard third grade reading vocabulary (one of the reasons why I find it so difficult to get a publisher) by offering “license for immorality” or “sheer…
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed” Jude 4 Crept in unnoticed – Jude writes like an e-mail memo. He gets right to the point. He’s brief. His words are carefully chosen. His message carries a punch. Most importantly, Jude sends out this Greek e mail to warn us. There’s a deadly virus on the…
“The gospel according to Matthew” According – Of course, you will recognize where this is found in the Bible but it doesn’t have a chapter and verse number. In the Greek text, it is merely KATA MATTAION. The words for the “gospel” are understood. We don’t think much about the title of the book of…
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” Philippians 2:5 Have this attitude – You just got cheated! I don’t know how “attitude” ended up in this verse (it’s the same in the NIV), but it certainly isn’t close to the use of this Greek word in its occurrences in the Classics,…
