Counseling Session, Anyone?

"Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you."  (Proverbs 22:20, 21)

 

There are various translations of our text, especially verse 20.  Some commentators say that it is a difficult passage to translate, especially the word for, "excellent."  Wycliffe says that one translation is, "Have I not written 'to the ones sending thee?'"  And the LXX translates the latter portion, "Answer words of truth to them that question thee."  Possibility: "Have I not written to the ones sending thee [to] answer words of truth to them that question thee."

 

The Hebrew word translated, "excellent," is use elsewhere in Scripture as a military term and can also mean "a general of the highest rank," or "captain," also "triple, triangle, threefold measure."  Sorry, it's the theologian in me.  But what I see in our text is the Holy Trinity, not some vague number three or thirty as some translators use.  I see the Excellent One, Him of Excellent Things, the Living Triune God, "the captain of our salvation," Jesus the Christ, saying, "Look, "I have written to you of myself in Whom is all the treasure, 'of counsels and knowledge,' the One, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."  What you are searching for, longing for is in Me. 

 

Modern American culture has a plethora of counselors, self help books and preachers----- can be helpful, I suppose.  But the same people who flock to such also avoid, ignore, and neglect Him Who has promised, "of counsels and knowledge."  He has given his, "counsels and knowledge," in the written Word.  I say with Jeremiah, "O, earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the LORD!"  Jesus Christ is the Word.  What is written is not black ink on white paper.  Those words are, "the breath of his mouth," His very presence, His very, "I AM"-----------------  Counseling session, anyone?

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, O Word of God, sink down deep in me today.  Amen.

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2