It's found in a small five letter word. One little word.... but oh, the meaning goes deep!
It's a slip of word. "Slip" as in a garment you slip on. Like a sleeve. Or a bag. Or a pocket. Or a dress. Or a coat. Something you wear. But wow, at what is contained in the garment. It is no ordinary covering. And, it's no ordinary thing that that covering contains!
Actually, it's even better than that! Better than a coat... or a dress... or a pocket... or a bag... or a sleeve... or a slip! It's a skin! A human one! Flesh itself... is the covering!
It started here. In Genesis 2:21-23. (Stay with me, because you'll soon see a very surprising unexpected!) "So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
I have purposefully bolded, in the verses above, my word of interest. The five letters that first seemed so normal, yet is far from it, and soon to excite me are: f.l.e.s.h.
Crazily (because I love so much to look up all words in any passage I'm reading), I went to Strong's Lexical Concordance for flesh's definition.
Here's what I found: The English word flesh here, is basar in the Hebrew. And means:
Basar comes from a root word... another word spelled the same: basar. And this basar is defined like this:
It's the combined definition of the two that so very much whoa-ed me! From the two (and from other backup verses that I'll mention below) this is what I concluded:
That, I guess, it could be said that our 'flesh' is just the 'skin' that God created in which the 'good news' could be 'published' and 'preached' and 'shown forth' in! The flesh (or skin) was made to be the vessel (the dress, the vehicle, the container, the jar of clay!), the 'bearer,' in which to contain and carry and to bear the good news to others in! The 'skin's container has purpose to encase the good news, the message.. and is the 'skin" in which to publish it, to preach it, to announce it, to SHOW the salvation of Jesus to all those around us!
Let me elaborate on all that was just said with a few proof examples.
1 Chron 16:23-27, "Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; SHOW FORTH [basar] from day to day His salvation. Declare His glory among the heathen. His marvelous works among the nations. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.."
Isa 52:7, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that BRINGETH GOOD TIDINGS [basar], that publisheth peace; that bringeth GOOD TIDINGS [basar] of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
Isa 61, "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me TO PREACH GOOD NEWS [basar] to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..."
Note that we're told of Jesus in John 1:1-2,14, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning.....And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us...."
God once took that "Word" (Jesus) and wrapped Him in human skin (flesh) so that He could witness of Him, and we could see God, the Father, in the Son He sent.
Notice, too, what we're told in the same chapter of John (vs 6-15), "There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness [maturia = testifying; to be a witness, to testify, to record, to report] to testify [martureo = to be a witness, to bear witness, to give (not keep back) testimony, to utter honorable testimony, to give a good report] concerning that Light, so that through Him all men might believe. He himself was not the Light; he came only as a witness [martureo] to the Light.... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.... John testifies [matureo] concerning Him. He cries [krazo = to cry out, to speak with a loud voice, to vociferate] out, saying, "this was He of whom I said..."
Can you see it???
I don't know if it did for you what it did for me... but wow, still I'm blown away by God's wording and His working. Flesh / skins [basar] made to contain and proclaim [basar] Him! Skins to hold the Savior and His Spirit... while those very skins are used to voice Jesus!
It's as Jesus says in Acts 1:8, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be MY witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
It's surely easily seen in Christ Himself as The Word that became flesh to show and make God's Glory known. And then, we see it again in the example of John... he being sent by God Himself to be a "voice" - the vessel that calls (proclaims, witnesses, bears good news, brings good tidings) in order to point to the One that is Glorious and thus being a vessel of His to (also) display His Glory.
Wooo... we're made to tell! May we "witness" and "proclaim" and "testify" well!
May His Word come in flesh again, as it did in Jesus, in our skins!
"Let the redeemed of the Lord say...." (Psalm 107:2)... and I myself must say, that I LOVE to be saying..............!!!!
Woe, what I KNOW is... is that this flesh of mine is gonna be proclaiming something! This mouth of mine has a need to voice it's feeling... and, too, it's FILLING! I already knew that. But now that the knowing has made itself in deeper with these new words God has so preciously revealed to me, may I NOT waste time and words to what the enemy's done and is doing, but may my words be careful to publish and announce and be a messenger alone of all that my Savior has and still does!
.
Actually, it's even better than that! Better than a coat... or a dress... or a pocket... or a bag... or a sleeve... or a slip! It's a skin! A human one! Flesh itself... is the covering!
It started here. In Genesis 2:21-23. (Stay with me, because you'll soon see a very surprising unexpected!) "So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
I have purposefully bolded, in the verses above, my word of interest. The five letters that first seemed so normal, yet is far from it, and soon to excite me are: f.l.e.s.h.
Crazily (because I love so much to look up all words in any passage I'm reading), I went to Strong's Lexical Concordance for flesh's definition.
Here's what I found: The English word flesh here, is basar in the Hebrew. And means:
- flesh
- the body itself
- the exterior skin
- It's also: animals, or mankind, or flesh as frail and erring (man against God)
Basar comes from a root word... another word spelled the same: basar. And this basar is defined like this:
- to bear news
- to bear tidings
- to publish
- to preach
- to show forth
- to gladden with good news
- to announce
- to be a messenger
It's the combined definition of the two that so very much whoa-ed me! From the two (and from other backup verses that I'll mention below) this is what I concluded:
That, I guess, it could be said that our 'flesh' is just the 'skin' that God created in which the 'good news' could be 'published' and 'preached' and 'shown forth' in! The flesh (or skin) was made to be the vessel (the dress, the vehicle, the container, the jar of clay!), the 'bearer,' in which to contain and carry and to bear the good news to others in! The 'skin's container has purpose to encase the good news, the message.. and is the 'skin" in which to publish it, to preach it, to announce it, to SHOW the salvation of Jesus to all those around us!
Let me elaborate on all that was just said with a few proof examples.
1 Chron 16:23-27, "Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; SHOW FORTH [basar] from day to day His salvation. Declare His glory among the heathen. His marvelous works among the nations. For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.."
Isa 52:7, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that BRINGETH GOOD TIDINGS [basar], that publisheth peace; that bringeth GOOD TIDINGS [basar] of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
Isa 61, "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me TO PREACH GOOD NEWS [basar] to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..."
Note that we're told of Jesus in John 1:1-2,14, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning.....And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us...."
God once took that "Word" (Jesus) and wrapped Him in human skin (flesh) so that He could witness of Him, and we could see God, the Father, in the Son He sent.
Notice, too, what we're told in the same chapter of John (vs 6-15), "There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness [maturia = testifying; to be a witness, to testify, to record, to report] to testify [martureo = to be a witness, to bear witness, to give (not keep back) testimony, to utter honorable testimony, to give a good report] concerning that Light, so that through Him all men might believe. He himself was not the Light; he came only as a witness [martureo] to the Light.... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.... John testifies [matureo] concerning Him. He cries [krazo = to cry out, to speak with a loud voice, to vociferate] out, saying, "this was He of whom I said..."
Can you see it???
I don't know if it did for you what it did for me... but wow, still I'm blown away by God's wording and His working. Flesh / skins [basar] made to contain and proclaim [basar] Him! Skins to hold the Savior and His Spirit... while those very skins are used to voice Jesus!
It's as Jesus says in Acts 1:8, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be MY witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."It's surely easily seen in Christ Himself as The Word that became flesh to show and make God's Glory known. And then, we see it again in the example of John... he being sent by God Himself to be a "voice" - the vessel that calls (proclaims, witnesses, bears good news, brings good tidings) in order to point to the One that is Glorious and thus being a vessel of His to (also) display His Glory.
Wooo... we're made to tell! May we "witness" and "proclaim" and "testify" well!
May His Word come in flesh again, as it did in Jesus, in our skins!
"Let the redeemed of the Lord say...." (Psalm 107:2)... and I myself must say, that I LOVE to be saying..............!!!!
Woe, what I KNOW is... is that this flesh of mine is gonna be proclaiming something! This mouth of mine has a need to voice it's feeling... and, too, it's FILLING! I already knew that. But now that the knowing has made itself in deeper with these new words God has so preciously revealed to me, may I NOT waste time and words to what the enemy's done and is doing, but may my words be careful to publish and announce and be a messenger alone of all that my Savior has and still does!
.
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