Today’s Reading: 2 Sam. 14-15, Luke 17:1-19
Today’s Reflection: 2 Samuel 14:14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
According to Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. Romans 5:12 also says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Simply put, we ALL are going to die, because we ALL have sinned! That’s the New Testament rendition of this Old Testament verse.

Looking at the original Hebrew word for what has been translated “banished” and “expelled” in our selected text, we find that both words came from the exact same Hebrew word nâdach, which means, among other things, to banish, cast out, push off, drive away, etc. It is very similar to the Hebrew word shâlach used in Genesis 3:23, when the Bible says of Adam that “…the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden…”
So we see here that our sin sends us forth, banishes us, casts us out, drives us away, or expels us from God’s presence, however you want to put it. And because our verse today has the Hebrew word used twice in the same sentence, it COULD be translated, “Yet doth he devise means, that his BANISHED be not BANISHED (instead of expelled) from him.” In other words, an exact reversal of this harsh judgement is made possible through a means that God Himself has devised.

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