Tiny Devotional for Saturday, 06-24-2023

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, visualize whirled peas.

If you are slack in the day of distress,

Your strength is limited.

Proverbs 24:10, NASB

Stumped, stumped, stumped.
In 52 minutes, I’m supposed to be in men’s group, and I’ve encountered a really tough verse.

I was alerted to the fact that it’s a tough verse, because NASB, and almost every other English translation, is Captain Obvious.  
OF COURSE, you don’t have enough strength if you can’t handle the tough fight. Why spend a verse saying THAT?

So, I had to look, and I discover that the word that is translated ‘limited’ here, and in other translations ‘weak, small, limited, diminished’ is 

כֹּחֶֽכָה (tsar)

It appears 105 times in the Bible, and this is the ONLY time it’s translated as ‘small.’ In almost every other place, it’s rendered as ‘enemy, adversary, trouble, distress, affliction, foes.’

Look: the translators of the Old Testament were GENIUSES: this verse is expressed in exactly FIVE Hebrew words! And somehow, not only do we get meaning, we also get beautiful, poetic language.

Still, this old man must disagree with those old men on what the verse means.

My brother Walter is a competitive weight lifter, and HE knows what this verse means from his own experience. Walter has said things like this:

“If you fail in competition, it’s because you didn’t train enough. Your ‘strength’ is your enemy.”

(My words, not Walter’s. I didn’t have time to check with him; 22 minutes to men’s group.)

‘Don’t blame the enemy, or your allies, or your other resources when you fail in the crisis; you didn’t do the work to get prepared.’

So, let's do the work.


Peace be on your household.

Comments

  1. BobDJune 24, 2023 at 6:58 AM

    I appreciate your scholarship so much! I am a firm believer in "defining your terms". Total transformation of this verse for me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Moose45RiderJune 24, 2023 at 7:57 AM

    Keep up the great work and dissection of these verses because some of us are entrenched in the face value of these and don't stop and meditate on them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. On Christ the Solid Rock I StandJune 28, 2023 at 2:02 AM

    Amen and Amen my Brother Pat, wonderful idea. Praise God!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny Devotional for Wednesday, 06-21-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the Fairmount Pattersons are Papa-sitting this morning! It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:9, NASB Today is the 21st of the month; so, Proverbs 21. I have written about verses 1-8;  it’s verse 9’s turn. Thus, my selection of this verse has NOTHING to do with my wife, mother, sisters, or daughters! All of them are intelligent, confident, and assertive; they are NOT contentious. ‘Contentious’ does NOT mean ‘has a different opinion’!  A man who has lived with a contentious woman gives the definition by example: I was 20 years old, and stupid (those might be the same thing).  I thought our marriage would work because she was beautiful, and I was, too. It didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong about that. Most of the time, it didn’t matter what I did; I couldn’t please her. We were married for 3 years,
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-20-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Piper doesn’t like her food. Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10, NASB If this verse weren’t so important, I’d skip it, because I discovered it in a painful time. Others were involved, and their stories are not mine to tell. So, you get a parable: Stockman Bubba ran a cattle station, in partnership with his horse, Nancy. They worked hard together, and although they were not rich, they had achieved a degree of success. One day, a platypus stung Bubba, incapacitating him. Bubba tried to continue running the station, but after two years had passed, he realized it was time to retire. Nancy couldn’t adjust to this, and she left for life on her own. Three years later, Bubba realized Nancy was never coming back, and considered getting another horse. However, he was concerned that the other station owners would think bad
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 07-23-2023

Image
 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, reach for the sky. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:17-18, NASB Today’s verse is 18, but I included 17, because I THINK they are a couplet. I wrote about verse 17 last month, and will try not to repeat myself. Our senses describe the present, our memory describes the past; the future is described by our hopes and our fears. In this little verse, we are given one of the strongest foundations for peace: yes, you DO have a future, and it’s a good one. Under most circumstances, we take the future for granted. If you have ever been forced to doubt that a future exists, you know how chilling that is. ‘No future’ is MUCH worse than ‘bad future.’ This verse draws us back away from the abyss of nothingness, and back into reality: yes, you DO have a future.  (If that
Read more