Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Just One Word: חַי, היה בחיים

How can there be so much power in just one small and seemingly insignificant word?  Translated from Hebrew to English, four letters are formed into a verb of divine action, one that bears all the majesty and might of our omnipotent God.

With a single word, God created all that is seen and unseen.  From an empty and dark void, He breathed forth all the universal elements, set in place the starry hosts, and made man from the very dust He created from nothing.  What a magnificent God we have Who would, with one word, display His far-reaching and abundant love so eloquently!

“There speaks a God!  Who but He could thus venture to deal with life and dispense it with a single syllable?”  (Charles H. Spurgeon, Evening By Evening, pg. 197)

But man fell from the Grace God so richly poured out upon him.  Sin entered man’s heart, defiling the perfection of all creation.  The sentence imposed upon the first man for his disobedience was passed on to every man born from the first seed.  And with it came death and a vast, expansive separation from the Living God.

Some will say that man’s fall from Grace was not in God’s eternal plan.  But they are wrong.  Our omniscient Creator always knew beforehand that sin and disobedience would come.  And when it did, He also had a plan from before the beginning to redeem man back to Himself.  Although there are times when it feels as though the chasm that separates us from Him is impassable, His omniscient eyes see us wallowing in our guilt and shame.  God, Himself, crosses the vast expanse to pause and hover over us.  And as He looks upon us “kicking about in [our] blood,” He speaks the single word that is able to restore us and bring us back to life.

With His voice uttering a single command, our condemnation is reversed, bringing with it a pardon and release from the sentence imposed upon sinful man.  Even in the midst of the shadows of death, the Lord’s voice is still heard and man may rise to eternal glory.

One simple word uttered by our Almighty God is the single most important word man will ever hear.  But to heed it is the single most vital action man will ever make in his earthly life.  His ears will not hear it spoken ever again after his last breath here.  The choice now, not later, must be made while he dwells in his earthly body, and that choice will determine his eternal destination.

The word is a command by God, one that is spoken to redeem His children who are living in sin and darkness and to present them to His Son as His Bride; washed and cleansed by His atoning blood.  It is a call to rise up from our depraved state and be renewed and restored to perfection as it was meant to be.

It is for God’s honor and glory, for His Name’s sake, that He cries out to His children this one small word that bears such great significance:

חַי, היה בחיים  ...  LIVE!”

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