Preserving the Truth of God's Word

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Seventh Sunday in Trinity
Preserving the Truth of God's Word
July 18, 2010

TEXT:  (Jeremiah 31:23-25 NKJ)  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity:`The LORD bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!' 24 "And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. 25 "For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul."
 
About 10 years into the Reformation, Luther wrote a letter to the leadership of the government of Germany—Luther was concerned that the nation would perish because of the degradation of the schools—the teachers were getting lazy—the universities were filled with apathetic professors—but most of all the languages of the Bible were being neglected—Luther realized the importance of reading the Bible in the original languages—he knew how important it was to apply the original languages to assist in the understanding of the Word of God—he realized that translators tend to inject their prejudices and commentary into the Word as they translate—he was a translator of the Bible himself—much of his life was devoted to translating the Bible into his native language—Luther translated the entire New Testament into German in 11 weeks—and 39 years later he completed his translation of the Old Testament—his work is still the best German translation available today
 
I have been studying Classical Hebrew for over a year now—and I know what Luther had to endure to translate the Old Testament into the language of the people—that is, the language of his native country—German!
 
When Luther wrote his letter to the German Government leaders (his letters led to the start of over 300 city schools and universities)—he reminded the town mayors and the city councilmen that the degradation of the schools was a degradation of the German people’s relationship with God—we as individuals will complete our journey called life—but our legacy—our heritage as Christians—our influence on the souls of others lies with our preparation of the next generations to understand who God is and what the gift of salvation is all about—God’s people understood this since ancient times—without knowledge of God’s Word, we cannot know God—and we cannot help others know God—listen to the wisdom of God through the Prophet Isaiah
 
(Isaiah 40:7-8 NKJ)  The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."
 
And now consider one of the instructional Psalms telling us to train our children so they can train their children—and so on it goes—God wants the truth of His Word preserved
 
(Psalm 78:5-8 NKJ)  For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; 6 That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, 7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; 8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
 
When the Israelites were taken into captivity—they were forced to speak the language of their captors—the language of the Scriptures was almost lost—a few of the elders maintained their competency in Hebrew—but to make sure it was preserved for future generations a series of vowels were added to the letters to assist in pronunciation—the Hebrew that God wrote with His finger on the stone tablets contained no vowels—they were not necessary
 
Today—thousands of years later—the number of people that can read and understand classical Hebrew are reduced to a handful—Modern Hebrew and Classical Hebrew are not the same—but just as God told Moses to preserve the Law written in God’s own hand—we must work to preserve the ability to read the words of God in their purity—Luther understood that—and that is why the schools were so important to him—and to the Church—if we are not reading the Bible in Hebrew—we lose much of God’s message—let’s examine some examples
 
Many of the Psalms are not only poetic—but they also have word play and alphabetical significance—the most obvious and impressive is Psalm 119—it is divided into 22 sections—each section has 8 verses—we can see that in any language translation—but what we don’t see is that all eight verses in a section begin with the Hebrew letter of that section—there is a completeness about the Psalm—it is like saying that everything about the Law of God—from  A to Z—must be praised—this psalm is weakened by translation into English or any other language
 
In English translations we see the word God or Lord—in Hebrew there are many names for God—there is ONE GOD—but He communicates with us through many names—one name is El____—a El means God—it could also mean a false god, so we need to be careful when we read Hebrew—Hebrew has no personal name capital letters—therefore we determine who is being referred to by the context of the words—God uses El to give us specific information about Himself—such as Elohiym which is a plural intensive meaning the greatness of our God—that is why it is masculine plural—to signify the many great aspects of God
 
Another name God uses is Yehovah—this is the name the Jews refuse to pronounce for fear of taking it in vain—when they get to this name in Scripture they say Adoni—this name always means our God and Creator—it is never used to describe or refer to any other gods
 
Among the most dramatic examples of translations that deny Christians the Christian truths of God’s Word is God’s reference to Himself as having a long nose—this truly deprives us of the proper attributes of our God—consider this verse
 
(Exodus 34:6 NKJ)  And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
 
The word translated “longsuffering” is also translated as patient in some versions of the Bible—but what God literally said is that He is “long of nose”—in Old Testament times a long nosed person was one that was deliberate and patient in their approach to a situation—hence the slow to anger, patient, and longsuffering translations—but this misses the other aspects of God’s reference to Himself—in Scripture, animals are sometimes seen as powerful by a flaring of the nostrils or the smoke coming from the nostrils—part of the communication of Scripture is showing God with a large nose—as a symbol of His great power—greater than any other creature we can imagine—all this is lost with a patient or longsuffering God
 
(2 Samuel 22:6-17 NKJ)  The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears. 8 "Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry. 9 Smoke went up from His nostrils, … The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of the LORD, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils. 17 "He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.
 
Another example of Biblical enrichment by understanding the Hebrew language is the ark—God had Noah build an ark to save God’s people—and Moses was set afloat in an ark—and He would grow up to save God’s people
 
(Genesis 6:14-15 NKJ)  "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 "And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
 
(Exodus 2:1-3 NKJ)  And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
 
If language is important to our relationship with God and our understanding of the truth of the Word—and it is—then the original Hebrew language is important for us to properly understand what God is teaching us—God has used language as part of His plan from the beginning—and when Jesus came to Bethlehem as a baby—the entire world was speaking one language—Latin—because the Romans were ruling the known world—this was certainly part of God’s plan—language did not provide a barrier to communicating the Gospel
 
Getting back to Luther’s plea for maintaining a solid education program for the Biblical languages—he was familiar with the condition of the church in his day—very few pastors or priests could read Hebrew or Greek—they worked out of translated Bibles—this led to much false teaching and doctrine—and how can you argue what is right or what is wrong unless you can go to those original manuscripts?—today’s church is not any better—we lack training—and we lack credibility if we do not get the training
 
Let us close this discussion with the words of Paul as he tried to encourage the Ephesians—Paul tells us we must not only learn everything we can—but we must share with others to raise the entire churches understanding—there must always be those of us who study the original languages—apply what we learn—and teach everyone who will listen
 
(Ephesians 4:10-16 NKJ)  He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
 
ALL GLORY BE TO GOD!