Bible Quizzes for Really Smart People XLIII

This is really a nice verse. Usually when we invoke God's help today or talk about he ways that God might enable us to live in the world, we might say something like, "God helps me cope," or "God gives me strength to face the day." These are examples of our paltry, weak, imageless way of speaking. When we do speak in pictures it is because we have heard someone else do it, and we use what they have said. We become as dull as the sheen on a ten year-old car. What is the antidote to all of this? Recapture the vivid pictorial imagery of the Bible (among other things). Start with this one. In the preceding line the author had said, "By you (i.e., God) I can crush a troop," and so we see that the bolded quotation has to do with a person's ability in war. Thus, this isn't the biblical "high-jumper's prayer," so to speak. A digression--I thought it was wonderfully cool that for a few years in the early part of this decade one of the premier American high-jumpers was Nathan Leeper (from KS, I might add). I discovered a big word for "leaping over" or "leaping across" as I was reviewing the words from the 2005 National Spelling Bee. It has a wonderfully euphonious ring, and is the word transilience. The OED calls it "rare," but so are many steaks, and that is no reason to ignore it. It is "a leaping from one thing to another; an abrupt transition." If you know that the Latin verb "salire" means to leap or jump, you have the picture in your mind. So, the leaping over a wall might not exactly be called the transilience of the wall, though maybe you can speak of a transilience of a pit. I think, upon further reflection, that transilition would be the better word. Ok, enough on this. Where do you find this great affirmation?

2. "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful."

Yep, this is all one verse. It isn't quite as long as Esther 8:9, the longest verse in the Bible, but it is getting up there. Actually, this verse both inspired and hurt me over the years. It inspired me because I took it literally and decided to commit hundreds and even thousands of Bible verses to memory so that I could have my head full of the Bible 24 hours a day. I meditated on the Bible day and night. This may be one of the reasons why I never developed any practical skills, but I was just trying to read the Bible and take it seriously. Understand? Well, that is how it backfired on me, precisely because I took it seriously. I just studied the Bible, and for some reason, I didn't feel as if I had success. Maybe I really have had success in life but just haven't recognized it as such. Well, in any case, it shaped my consciousness in significant ways in the early 1970s, and I bring it to you today. Where do you find it?

3. "How can these things be?"

If people can name a tune in five notes or fewer, you ought to be able to recall a Scriptural verse in five or fewer words, also. Indeed, when I was in Seminary we had a professor (Dr. Ramsey Michaels) who taught an annual course on the Gospel of John. Early in the course he would give a "content" test of the Gospel, just to keep students honest. That is, there were all kinds of bead-wearing, sandal-accoutered, hemp-smoking people in the mid-1970s that studied the Gospel of John because it was "about love." So, Michaels tested people early (probably after three weeks), and would put words down like, "Yes," and expect students to know which chapter that came from in the Gospel. Well, as you see, I am giving you the easy version of Prof. Michaels' test. Who speaks these words, and where do you find them? It really isn't a tough question--especially if you know the answer.

4. "then I was beside him, like a master worker; I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race," NRSV. I like the sonorous last few words of the KJV: "Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."

Of course, any modern Bible translation must eschew phrases like "sons of men" if it wants to be read today by most people. But I still like the phrase from the KJV. Ok, this has been a terribly significant passage in the scholarly study of the Bible because it suggests some sort of mediatorial or intermediate creature not an angel between God and humans. We know that the Jewish tradition was strictly monotheistic, so scholarly interest has focused on the issue of identifying this "master worker" who was with God. Job, also, will speak of a mediator (whom he calls his "witness in heaven" or his "redeemer") but here we have a different image. And, of course, overeager Christian exegetes have wanted to see a foreshadowing of Christ in this designation. Now that you know it can't come from the NT, you only have 1000 pages or so from which it could come. Where does it appear?

5. "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."

I think St. Paul was correct when he identified the three virtues that "abide": faith, hope and love. I sometimes think that hope is almost as important as love in making life work. We perish without vision, as the Scriptures say (where do they say that?). When hope drains, our hearts are empty. Thus, this verse is particularly potent because it assures the reader that God is behind their hope. In the context of this passage the author is speaking of hope for return to the land of Israel after exile, but the generality of the words encourages their application to other "exilic" experiences we face in life. Where, friends, do you find it?

That's enough for one day.

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