“And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” Psalm 130:8 His – Your eighth grade English teacher would have circled the word in red. She would write in the margin, “number disagreement”. “Israel” is plural but “his” is singular. Did God make a grammatical mistake? Take a look at this verse in your translation…
“but the way of the righteous is made plain” Proverbs 15:19 KJV Plain – Get out the map. This is not a word about spiritual insight. It’s a surveyor’s word. The Hebrew selulah is the word for a road that is built up above the lay of the land. It is designed for easy travel…
“Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8 Freely – If Jesus said it, it must be Aramaic, not Greek. That drives us back to the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word dorean. We find hinnam, “undeservedly, without cause”. You can see the word in use in 2 Samuel 24:24 and Jeremiah 22:13. Goods and…
“But when he came to his senses, he said” Luke 15:17 Senses – The story of the prodigal son. We need to know the literal wording here in order to really see the picture. It is “to himself he came” (eis eauton elthon). This is a place that each of us must visit if we…
“and they said to her, “You are out of your mind!” Acts 12:15 Out of your mind – Did you think that the early followers of the Way were more spiritually sensitive? Did you imagine that they prayed with great belief and trust? They lived in the midst of miracles. Do you suppose that this…
“My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.” Ezekiel 33:31 NIV Devotion – “What a powerful sermon, Pastor.” “Your teaching really made sense…
“If anyone says, “I love God” and hates his brother, he is a liar.” 1 John 4:20 (Greek Quotes) – There is a hidden Greek word in this translation. Hoti comes between “anyone says” and “I love God”. It’s not translated because its purpose is to indicate that the statement following is direct discourse. Hoti…
“I am the way, the truth and the life,” John 14:6 Way – Never forget that Jesus did not speak Greek. Our word, hodos, in the Greek text, is not what Jesus said. He spoke Aramaic. In order to understand why Jesus called himself “the way”, we must uproot our cultural images derived from the…
“A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth and does not know that want will come upon him.” Proverbs 28:22 Want – Cindy Lauper vocalized the culture’s mantra: “Money fixes everything.” If you allow the world to prescribe your antidote to want, you would certainly believe her. Everywhere we look, this world bows down…
“Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will you destroy the whole city because of five?” Genesis 18:28 Are Lacking – David knows the God who provides. Abraham knows the God who permits. “I shall not want” uses the same verb as “fifty lacking five”. What does this tell us about the character of God? …
