The Daily Word

There are some words which when added to a sentence tend to grab your attention. Advertising messages are a classic example. No Company wanting to sell its products would ever just say, “There is a sale on at our store tomorrow”, The message that would be broadcast would be something like, “There is a fantastic sale on at our store tomorrow only!” It is still the same sale, but the message is more urgent.

The writers of the Bible, whilst not attempting to sell anything used the same technique, to get our attention to something really important that we need to take special and urgent notice of. In the New Testament, the King James Version uses the words “Verily, verily …” to emphasise the truth of the statement following, particularly when the words were spoken by Jesus. But another word used throughout the Bible to seek to get our attention is the word “Behold ….!” One such verse out of many in the Bible which contains the word ‘behold’ is in Isaiah 12, “Behold, God is my salvation!”

I can’t help but put an exclamation mark at the end because it is such an important statement. Also, there are only 5 words and yet we could stress every one separately. Apart from ‘behold’, we can stress the word “God”. If we are not looking to God for the whole of our life ,to guide us, then our lives will be a failure.    “is”, this emphasises the continuity of our relationship with God, who promised never to leave us or forsake us.    “my” – the personal pronoun, specific to me, a possession, a treasure that means so much to us we don’t want to let it go!

And finally, what is it that we treasure, “salvation”, the most precious possession that we can have because it restores that lost relationship with God that our sin has broken and it is all because Jesus died to pay that price. Again we say with the hymn writer, “Hallelujah, what a Saviour!”

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church