Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

When it comes to translation of the Bible, we seem to be living in the Wild Wild West of Biblical translations.  Up until about  30 or 40 years ago the KJV was your standard translation.  After the NIV appeared in the late 70’s a flood gate opened up with dozens and dozens of translations appearing.  Christians began to realize that the KJV did not represent the  inspired Word of God and that the inspired Word of God was found only in the original manuscripts written in Hebrew and Greek.  With the advent of mass media, television, recording devices, and the internet, the average Christians are finding themselves about as knowledgeable of the Bible as a Bible College student who attended school forty years ago.  Christians are taking online courses in Bible and Biblical languages and are blazing a trail into Greek and Hebrew study that was only followed by graduate students in prior generations.  Christians have moved into the Wild Wild West of Bible translation and study and have built their own homesteads and communities without the direction of someone holding a M.Div or PhD.

I personally applaud this new reformation of the church to study the Word of God in the original languages and to question the renderings of many of the new translations.  Just as in the time of Tyndale, Wycliffe, and Martin Luther who tried to put the Bible into the hands of the common person so they could read it for themselves, I believe we live in a time when scholars need to step down from their thrones and encourage Christians to pick up a Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament and begin to study the Word of God for themselves.  It is time to allow the Holy Spirit to lead them to truth and not from some language professor who sits in a lofty tower to dictate how certain words should be rendered.

Whatever time God has given me here on this planet, I hope to use that time to encourage Christians in a personal study of the Word of God in the original languages.  My goal is to step into the Wild Wild West of translations and teach the homesteaders to build their own place, not for me to build it for them. I hope I can leave behind tools that any Christian, no matter what age or education can pick up Hebrew Bible and search the Word of God with all their hearts.

But as I said, it is the Wild Wild West.  It is full of a lot of gunslingers who want to be the fastest gun in the West in wowing their fellow believers with their knowledge. I myself have a few notches on my Hebrew Bible after such stand offs.  The Old West was not tamed overnight, their were wars, attacks on settlements, bandits and  gunslingers.  But eventually, things settled down and now a trip to cities in Texas or Colorado are not much different than trips to the East or Midwest.  I foresee a day when a Christian child will open up a Greek New Testament or Hebrew Bible and read the Word of God in the original language just as Jewish children do today when they read the Torah.

Those in home churches, small Bible Studies or small groups make up many of those who have gone off into the Wild Wild West of translations.  To those I would give Jeremiah 29:11.  This verse was given to Israel who found themselves in a “Wild Wild West” of captivity.   Many times they felt abandoned by God, they wondered if there was ever any hope of peace again.  Yet God said through his prophet that He knows his thoughts.  Good for Him, He knows his thoughts.  But the word “know” is “yada’” which means an intimacy.  These are His most intimate, most precious thoughts and that is “peace” for his people.  The word “peace” here is “shalom.”   In the Wild Wild West of translations this has been rendered as “prosperity,” “good” and “welfare.”  All are correct. He does not imagine “evil.”   There are many renderings for this word as well.  It is the word “ra’ah” which is the same word for Shepherd and friend.  But it has it roots in consumption or consuming passion.  His thoughts are not to allow us to be consumed by our passions.

He will give us an expected end. Actually the words expected end are both nouns connected by a conjunction.  He will give us our expectations and bring it to a conclusion or an end.   I have a dream or expectation of Christians becoming excited over the Word of God and not fearing a search of the Word of God in the original languages.  I may not live to see the fulfillment of this dream or expectation, but if it is a God given expectation, it will be brought to a conclusion.  Many Israelites had a dream of returning to the homeland in peace.  Many did not live to see it, but God gave them that expectation and it was brought to a fulfillment.

God may have given you a dream or an expectation and you may be in the Wild Wild West.  You may not live to see that dream fulfilled as many who lived in the Wild West saw their dream of a land united and at peace, but their dream was fulfilled none the less.