Familiar Phrases
Eye for an eye
Yes, the idea of “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” really is in the Bible: “If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him—fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him” (Lev. 24:19–20).
This law from the Old Testament strikes us as spiteful and vindictive (or “mean-spirited,” to use the now popular phrase). In the New Testament, Jesus taught a higher ethic: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matt. 5:38–39).
Isn’t that better—more “Christian”? For the record, the Old Testament law was pretty compassionate. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” was a limit. It meant “tit for tat”—but no more. The common custom (human nature never changes!) was (and is) to get more than even. But the enlightened law in Leviticus said, No, if you’re injured you can’t take two teeth because you lost one tooth. It was actually a progressive law. Jesus took it a step further. How would the Bible authors view personal injury lawsuits today?
Fire and brimstone
People often refer to “fire-and-brimstone preachers” without knowing just what brimstone it. It is an old name for sulfur, something common in volcanic areas. When Genesis reports that God destroyed the immoral cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, it may be referring to a volcano (Gen. 19:24).
The book of Revelation says that at the end of the world Satan and all nonbelievers will be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone where they will burn eternally (Rev. 14:10; 19:20, 21:8).
This is why “fire and brimstone” is another way of saying “the fires of hell.”
Beautiful
William Tyndale produced his English translation of the New Testament in 1524. It was the first English Bible produced on a printing press. It was also the first English Bible to include a word we now use every day: beautiful.
It was still a fairly new word at the time, and some people were amazed that Tyndale would use such a “novel” word in the Bible.
The blind leading the blind
This is one of many biblical phrases that have become part of the language. In Matthew 15:14 Jesus says, “If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” He was referring to false teachers who lead people astray.
Can a leopard change his spots?
Jeremiah (13:23) raised the questions, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?” The leopard question passed into common language.
Some Miraculous Highlights
The Burning Bush
Moses’ first encounter with God is described in Exodus 3. Moses, living as a shepherd in Midian, saw a bush that was on fire but did not burn up. He approached, and God called him by name and told him he was standing on holy ground. Fearful, Moses hid his face, while God told him He had seen the sorrow of the Israelite slaves in Egypt and was sending Moses to lead the people out.
Moses replied, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” but God said, “I will certainly be with you.” At this first encounter, Moses asked God His name. God replied, “I AM WHO I AM . . . the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” God promised that He would lead them to Cannan, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
This is one of the most famous incidents in the Bible, since it was Moses’ “commissioning” by God, and the first time God revealed His name to anyone.
The Ten Plagues of Egypt
The movie The Ten Commandments has made many people familiar with the plagues God sent on the Egyptians. Moses, God’s appointed leader of Israel, continually relayed to Pharaoh, “Let My people go,” but Pharaoh was stubborn.
The ten plagues were: turning the waters to blood, frogs, lice, flies, a disease on the cattle, boils on man and beast, hail, locusts, darkness, and, the crowning blow, the death of the firstborn. The tenth plague finally moved Pharaoh to free the slaves, although he changed his mind and sent troops after them, leading to their drowning in the Red Sea, which God had parted for the Israelites.
The plagues affected only the Egyptians, not the Israelite slaves living in the region of Goshen. There are, some say, “natural” explanations for most or all of the plagues.
It can hardly be coincidence that the ten occurred so close together, or that the Israelites were not affected.
The Food from Heaven, Manna
This was the miraculous food God provided the Israelites after they left Egypt. Since they were crossing a desert area, God was doing them a kindness. Exodus 16:31 describes it like white coriander seed and tasting like wafers made with honey. Later generations looked back and saw the forty years of manna as part of the great miracle of deliverance from Egypt and moving on to Canaan (Ps. 78:24).
Manna was literally “bread from heaven.” In John 6, Jesus refers to Himself as, figuratively, “the bread which came down from heaven . . . Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead . . . He who eats this bread will live forever” (vv. 41, 49, 58).
The Pillar of Fire
When the Israelites left Egypt, God guided them through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The pillar of cloud stood over the tabernacle (see 115) whenever God met Moses there.
As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses (Ex. 33:9).
Moses’ bronze serpent
The Israelites journeyed in the wilderness forty years after leaving Egypt. They endured various hardships, one being venomous snakes that killed many of them. God told Moses to make a bronze snake on a pole.
Moses did, and “if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” (Num. 21:9). The bronze snake was preserved, and later turned into an idol, for 2 Kings 18:4 reports that the Israelites had been burning incense to it. Jesus referred to the bronze snake on one occasion: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14).
The early Christians probably noticed the parallel: Moses’ bronze snake, lifted up on a pole, saved people from death, and Jesus, lifted up on a cross, saved people from eternal death.
Balaam’s ass A donkey that can speak?
The prophet Balaam had such an animal, at least on one occasion. As the Israelites journeyed from Egypt to their home in Canaan, they passed through the hostile land of Moab.
The Moabite king sent his prophet Balaam to place a curse on Israel. God specifically told Balaam not to do this, but he rode out anyway, and as he rode toward the Israelites his donkey veered off, and Balaam beat her, not seeing the angel himself. The poor beast finally lay down, and Balaam beat her again.
This time she spoke: “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” (Num. 22:28).
God then opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel and fell facedown. He changed his plans (naturally), and instead of cursing the Israelites, he prophesied that they would be a great nation, blessed by God (Num. 22–24).
Bible Promises
The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
(PSALM 22:26)
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
(ISAIAH 49:25)
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
(PSALM 9:10)
THEY DREAMED IT
If you think people are only creative during their waking hours, you’re dreaming.
DREAMER: Paul McCartney
STORY: During one “restless night” in 1968, McCartney had a dream about his mother, Mary McCartney, who’d died in 1956. “She came to me in the dream and it was as if she could see that I was troubled. And she sort of said to me, she said, ‘Let it be.’ ” When he woke up, he immediately started writing “Let It Be,” which begins with the lines “When I find myself in times of trouble / mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom, ‘Let it be.’ ”
DREAMER: Stephenie Meyer
STORY: Twilight, Meyer’s romantic saga of a vampire who falls in love with a small-town girl, was a publishing phenomenon in the early 2000s.
Meyer had never written so much as a short story before she started work on it, the idea for which popped into her head while she slept. “It was two people in kind of a little circular meadow with really bright sunlight, and one of them was a beautiful, sparkly boy, and one was just a girl who was human and normal, and they were having this conversation,” Meyer said in 2010. “The boy was a vampire, which is so bizarre that I’d be dreaming about vampires, and he was trying to explain how much he cared about her and yet at the same time how much he wanted to kill her.” When she woke up, she jotted down every detail she could remember, but not because she thought it could be a book. “I just wanted to remember it.” To date the Twilight series has sold more than 100 million copies.
DREAMER: Jack Nicklaus
STORY: By the end of 1973, the Golden Bear had won all four of golf’s “majors”: the U.S. Open (three times), the Masters (four times), the PGA Championship (three times), and the British Open (twice). But Nicklaus slumped in 1974—he lost tournament after tournament.
One night, he dreamt that he was golfing, but he was holding the club slightly differently than how he did in real life…and he hit perfect shot after perfect shot.
“When I came to the golf course yesterday morning, I tried it the way I did in my dream, and it worked,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I feel kind of foolish admitting it, but it really happened in a dream.” He stuck with that swing for the rest of his career, which included six more wins at the majors.
Quotes...
If you think people are only creative during their waking hours, you’re dreaming.
DREAMER: Paul McCartney
STORY: During one “restless night” in 1968, McCartney had a dream about his mother, Mary McCartney, who’d died in 1956. “She came to me in the dream and it was as if she could see that I was troubled. And she sort of said to me, she said, ‘Let it be.’ ” When he woke up, he immediately started writing “Let It Be,” which begins with the lines “When I find myself in times of trouble / mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom, ‘Let it be.’ ”
DREAMER: Stephenie Meyer
STORY: Twilight, Meyer’s romantic saga of a vampire who falls in love with a small-town girl, was a publishing phenomenon in the early 2000s.
Meyer had never written so much as a short story before she started work on it, the idea for which popped into her head while she slept. “It was two people in kind of a little circular meadow with really bright sunlight, and one of them was a beautiful, sparkly boy, and one was just a girl who was human and normal, and they were having this conversation,” Meyer said in 2010. “The boy was a vampire, which is so bizarre that I’d be dreaming about vampires, and he was trying to explain how much he cared about her and yet at the same time how much he wanted to kill her.” When she woke up, she jotted down every detail she could remember, but not because she thought it could be a book. “I just wanted to remember it.” To date the Twilight series has sold more than 100 million copies.
DREAMER: Jack Nicklaus
STORY: By the end of 1973, the Golden Bear had won all four of golf’s “majors”: the U.S. Open (three times), the Masters (four times), the PGA Championship (three times), and the British Open (twice). But Nicklaus slumped in 1974—he lost tournament after tournament.
One night, he dreamt that he was golfing, but he was holding the club slightly differently than how he did in real life…and he hit perfect shot after perfect shot.
“When I came to the golf course yesterday morning, I tried it the way I did in my dream, and it worked,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I feel kind of foolish admitting it, but it really happened in a dream.” He stuck with that swing for the rest of his career, which included six more wins at the majors.
Quotes...
