Morning Moments

In the lost and found section of the newspaper was the following:
“Lost – one dog – Brown hair with several bald spots. Right leg broken due to auto accident. Left hip hurt. Right eye missing. Left ear bitten off in a god fight. Answers to the name “Lucky.”

It is funny but certainly the name did not fit the dog.

If you are counting on luck in your life, you will be sadly disappointed. Look to, lean on, long for, and learn from Jesus. There is no disappointment in Him.
Sometimes when we read the Bible, we miss the true “shade of meaning” of a word.

Let’s consider an example from Psa 22:5 They cried to you and were saved. They trusted you and were never confounded (KJV), disappointed (GW).

Stop right there. By a simple reading of the text, we may get one meaning, but by a diligent study of the text we may get a bit different understanding. We must be careful in Bible Study to get the true meaning of a word in the context of the text. In the text I quoted from a newer translation we find the word “confounded” in the KJV translated “disappointed”. Please understand that I am not a KJV only Christian, though I cut my teeth on it and use it in study and speaking usually, but it seems that to the average reader there is a big difference in the two words. If you are confounded about something, what idea does that word convey? If you are disappointed, what does that word convey? God forbid that I should strain a gnat and swallow a camel, but I am simply trying to illustrate that a thing might be called one thing that does not truly represent that thing or word.

The English word disappointed means “unhappy because something was not as good, attractive, or satisfactory as expected, or because something hoped for or expected did not happen.”

The Hebrew meaning of the word translated “confounded” is a verb meaning to be ashamed, to act shamefully, or to put to shame. It is both an external and a subjective experience, ranging from disgrace (Hos_10:6) to guilt (Ezr_9:6). In Gen_2:25, shame is related to the sexual nature of humans. Moreover, to act shamefully is equivalent to acting unwisely (Pro_10:5; Pro_14:35). To be ashamed is to experience distress, as farmers with no harvest (Jer_14:4; Joe_1:11), but the blessing of God means that one will never be put to shame (Psa_25:20; Joe_2:26-27).

So you see that exact translation is sometimes quite difficult. How would you describe snow to a native in the tropics? Sometimes in translation it is impossible to put into English the precise meaning of the word in a word. Hebrew and Greek are languages with words that explode with meaning. English is not such a language.

For example, we use the word love for the way we feel about food, pets, parents, partners, etc., though we do not actually “feel” the same about all.
A parent may be disappointed in a child’s grades in school, but it doesn’t mean that the parent is ashamed of the child.

So “shades of meaning” are very important in Bible Study. God wrote the Bible in three languages: The Old Testament in Hebrew with certain passages in Aramaic and Greek in the New Testament. The New Testament was written in “Koine” Greek. It was a unique style of Greek. There were five different periods of Greek language in History. What we know today is “modern” Greek period, which is not the same as “koine” Greek period.

My point is simply this: One cannot live this life without occasional “disappointment” that things are not or did not as we had desired, hoped, wanted, expected, but we can live this life without being “put to shame” or bringing shame upon ourselves. That is how we are to live, and if we experience shame according to the text, God did not bring it upon us; we brought it upon ourselves, and may then be disappoint in ourselves.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to be diligent, but not divisive; to be correct without being critical; to be studious, but not stubborn; to be honest without being haughty. Teach us that being a disciple means discipline, and remind us that we have not receive the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a disciplined mind.