~ Being Real ~

Disciple: Day 4

Today we’re looking at law and the prophets. I decided to keep trying out different Bible translations for the more familiar passages to force myself to really think about the passages instead of just skimming over them.

EXODUS 20 (Contemporary English Version – CEV)

The only thing that really stuck out to me was verses 5b-6: “If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.” I thought it was interesting that God’s punishment will last “three or four generations” but his “kindness” will last “for thousands of generations.” Considering that he made us, he’s probably making use of the fact that incentives work better at motivating people than do threats.

DEUTERONOMY 5-6 (English Standard Version – ESV)

Gee, this sounds amazingly familiar… Nonetheless, chapter 5, verse 3 really stands out to me: “Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.” It mostly stands out because of its unusual grammatical construction; compare the ESV to this NIV version: “It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.”

I actually had to stop and re-read the verse to understand what it was saying. And I think it’s a significant verse because it talks about God making his covenant with the Israelites of the day and not their ancestors which is kind of like how God wants us to have a relationship with him instead of just accepting the “religion” of our parents.

Another interesting thing was verse 5 in chapter 6 because it’s pretty much the same as Mark 12:30: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” I guess if I read the notes in my Bible Deuteronomy would probably be referenced in Mark, but I doubt I would ever have thought to look for a cross-reference for that particular verse (Mark 12:30).

MICAH 4 (New International Version – NIV)

Since I’m not familiar with this book, I thought I’d go back to the NIV for this passage. To be truthful, my attention is kind of wandering right now. The only thing I noticed was the mention of “a remnant” in verse 7, and it reminded me of a sermon that Alex Yeung (I think it was him, anyway) gave. There was something special/particular about the word “remnant,” but, for the life of me, I can’t remember what!! ^^;;