Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:’

Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure, He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.”

I am often asked what the “literal” translation of a verse would be.  What I am being asked is what the direct word for word translation would be.  In many cases a word for word translation  often makes little sense.  A translator knows that he will not be able to express the true intent of a passage without paraphrasing.  That is really the case with this verse.

Literally this verse reads: “God is the refiner of every saying.“    Refining is the act of separating impurities from a metal.  What is being given is a metaphor telling us that the words of God go through a refining process.  Why does God’s word undergo a refining process?  If He is perfect, then is words are perfect and pure.  To take this verse literally would be to suggest that God’s words carry some impurities.   Hence the translators simply paraphrase this metaphor and say that God’s words are pure.

If we are talking literal, let’s be literal.  The word for “pure” or “refine” is “Saraph” which is in an imperative form and has a paragogic Hei.   It is also used as a participle.   Frankly, I really don’t know how to express this in English. The best I can do on this is to speak to those who feel they have received a Word from the Lord.  I am not sure how you received that “Word” from the Lord.  The Hebrew word used here for “word” is “amar.”   When used as a word from God, it conveys the idea of God making a revelation about His nature.  Maybe you have received a “word” from God in a dream, a witness in  your own spirit or from someone you trust that hears from God.  However you receive this “word,” you have clung to it, perhaps from years waiting for God to fulfill his promise.

No when you put that refining process of this “word”  your receive from God into an imperative with a paragogic Hei what you have is God not refining His Word before giving it to you but once He gives it to you he orders that “word” to start refining itself in you.  If God gives you a word that you are going to get a candy apple red Mustang, you may shout “yippee!” But God is commanding that promise to burn itself in you, refine you of all your trust in yourself so that  your trust is in God alone.  You may see a new Mustang, but God sees a saint who finds his shield in Him and puts his trust in Him.

It is interesting that the word “shield” is  a play on the word “magen” which is the word for a gardener.  This Word that God plants in you is commanded to be a refining process in you and as you go through this refining process God is carefully tending to His Word in you as a gardener tends to the seeds he has planted.

Maybe the result is a candy apple red Mustang, maybe not, but in this refining process you see this “word” for what it really is and that is a means of bringing you into complete trust in God.  The word “trust” is “chasah” which is a word for a shelter and a place of protection.

So whatever that promise or “word” is that you receive from God, expect God to refine it in you and nurture it in you and when it fully matures you may find it is not the candy apply red Mustang you thought He promised, it may just be the peace, security or assurance of His care over you that you really desired from that Mustang. All the selfish, self centered desires  you thought that word or promise from God was going to fulfill will be refined away and what will be left will be the true and pure “word’ or “promise” from God.

I remember a minister who said that in his fourth year of seminary, he was sent out on an internship.  He  felt he received a “word” from God that he would be assigned to work with a loving, God fearing, deeply spiritual pastor who would encourage him to go deeper in his walk with God.   As God refined this “word” in him he found he was placed with the most liberal, cold, self-centered pastor in the whole denomination. God’s “word” was fulfilled in him, he found that this liberal pastor literally forced him to re-evaluate his walk with God and caused him to go deeper in his relationship with God.   The loving, caring pastor type he thought God would send, was just his own interpretation of God’s “word” to him.  God had to refine that out of him and leave the true pure “word” which was to go into a deeper walk with Him.

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