Journal for today January 27

The full spectrum of God's word enables me to see all colors.

Psalm 119:130 KJV The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

NET Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines. They give insight to the untrained.

VW The entrance of Your Words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Common objects we see all around us are not normally sources of light, they simply reflect light. They depend on light sources so we can see them. We need white light, the full spectrum of light (remember the rainbow colors), in order to see all colors. If the light source is red, we will only see shades of red. Red objects are visible as red while blue, green and other colors are black because they absorb the red light. Everything is black and red. If the light is green, everything is black and green because other colored objects absorb the green light. What if the light source is cyan, a combination of blue and green light? Now we can see shades of 3 colors: blue, green and cyan. It is still incomplete though as we cannot see white, red, magenta, yellow and other colors produced by combining red with blue and green.In the same way, in order to see all colors around us and in our lives we need the full or complete spectrum of the light of God's word.We are not talking of angles here. When we look at God's word at different angles we see different facets but we still have the same word and light. Every time you come back to the same verse you discover new things because you are seeing different facets. This is affected by your own experience and circumstances.So what is the complete spectrum?

Consider the following:Micro view – word analysis. You can look at the Hebrew or Greek lexicon. The ancient language is actually very rich. I am using Strong's, Brown-Driver-Briggs', Thayer's, Robertson Word Pictures and the commentaries as well. You can also compare different translations just like the above references.

Macro view – context, cultural, economic, political, time. You will understand more about the word if you know the complete context. I am using commentaries and dictionaries here. My favorite: Matthew Henry, Barnes, Clarke, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Gill, Keil & Delitzsch, and Wesley.

Cross reference – Let the Scriptures interpret Scriptures. Jesus quoted the Old Testament a lot. And so did all New Testament writers. God's word does not contradict itself but it rather reinforces. I am using Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge mostly for cross-references, the commentaries for additional reference (for they quoted other verses also), search feature of my Bible Study tool E-Sword for accordance-like searches, and my search engine for my recorded insights.

Follow
Like