Really, Really

If a TV show is good, we don’t say it’s interesting. We say it’s really interesting. If we have a bad toothache, it’s not just bad. It’s really bad.

The Old Testament of the Bible, written largely in Hebrew, has some interesting ways of intensifying language. It seems a bit more sophisticated than repeatedly using the word really.

One way is to repeat the verb. The first occurrence of this is early in the Bible, in Genesis 2, when God speaks to Adam about not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because, “in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” The rendering “you shall surely die” is actually the repetition of the verb “to die” in two different forms, back to back. It happens often with many different verbs.

Another instance of this same thing is in Jeremiah 7, where Jeremiah is warning the people not to think that they can go on living in sin and yet presume to claim the promises of God as their own. Jeremiah calls on them to “Amend your ways and your deeds.” He goes on to say, “if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, …” then God’s impending judgment will be stayed.

In this case, the rendering “truly amend” is a repetition, as before, of a particular verb in two different forms. But it also something else. It is an intensified form of that verb. This verb in “normal” form would be “to do good.” But in this intensified form, it is “to make to do good.” It is to take charge of the situation in such a way that good comes about. It is not letting good happen. It is making good happen.

“Letting good happen” wasn’t working so well. The people were involved in stealing and lying. Actually, #’s 6-9 of the 10 commandments are mentioned: murder, adultery, stealing, and lying (bearing false witness). Good doesn’t seem to just happen on it’s own. Which is why just letting kids express themselves is a far cry from “train up a child in the way he should go.” After all, they tend to take after their parents.

We are to pray and plan for how we can make good happen. How can I be a good neighbor? It probably won’t happen on it’s own. You need to pray/plan for it. How can I avoid that particularly sticky temptation? It probably won’t happen on it’s own. You need to pray/plan for it. You need to “amend your ways,”  “to make good happen.” Put a prayer/plan to it. Really.