If you have read much of this blog, heck if you have read two posts, you will know that one of the purposes is to encourage you as a dad to be in the Word for yourself. Why? Well, we are commanded to teach our children God’s Word. It is hard to teach something with which we are not familiar.
I have mentioned several times that in digging through the Word, in passages with which we are familiar, we will see things we have not seen before. That is one of the reasons we have to continually stay in the Word. It happened today in my time in Hebrews 4:11- 12.
This is another passage I memorized, probably 35 years ago. I have studied Hebrews, don’t know how many times, translated it from Greek to English, taught it in Sunday school classes, and spoken from it – but I did not see this until today. Point is no matter how familiar you are with a book, or a verse, the Holy Spirit can show you more.
The key to what I saw today was the structural markers. I equip men with these in the workshops; I have written about them in this blog; I had overlooked them in this passage.
The first thing that caught my eye was the word "diligent" in verse 11, it is not a marker, but I spend a lot of time in 2 Peter and that word is repeated several times in that book. One of the reasons diligence caught my eye is that the passage was dealing with "the rest," which is one of the more important concepts in Hebrews. The writer here is exhorting us to be diligent to enter that rest. Ok.
Verse 12 then starts with "for." That is a structural marker for substantiation, or the why, or support of what the writer just said. Here the writer tells us that we need to be diligent to enter into the rest for the Word of God is living… you know the rest.
The writer is connecting strongly entering into the rest of God with the Word of God. Equipping people to do that is my passion and yet I have missed that in all my travels through Hebrews.
That is one of the main things I love about the Bible. It is fresh every time I open it.
This is another passage I memorized, probably 35 years ago. I have studied Hebrews, don’t know how many times, translated it from Greek to English, taught it in Sunday school classes, and spoken from it – but I did not see this until today. Point is no matter how familiar you are with a book, or a verse, the Holy Spirit can show you more.
The key to what I saw today was the structural markers. I equip men with these in the workshops; I have written about them in this blog; I had overlooked them in this passage.
The first thing that caught my eye was the word "diligent" in verse 11, it is not a marker, but I spend a lot of time in 2 Peter and that word is repeated several times in that book. One of the reasons diligence caught my eye is that the passage was dealing with "the rest," which is one of the more important concepts in Hebrews. The writer here is exhorting us to be diligent to enter that rest. Ok.
Verse 12 then starts with "for." That is a structural marker for substantiation, or the why, or support of what the writer just said. Here the writer tells us that we need to be diligent to enter into the rest for the Word of God is living… you know the rest.
The writer is connecting strongly entering into the rest of God with the Word of God. Equipping people to do that is my passion and yet I have missed that in all my travels through Hebrews.
That is one of the main things I love about the Bible. It is fresh every time I open it.
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