Bible Discernments
A Division of Prayer Gardeners
Do you enjoy digging deeper into the Bible? If that is you, would you allow me to share some discernment from God's Word? May it open your eyes like it did mine!
Hi, my name is Tom Clarke. One day I was reading in Isaiah 6 about the Lord's calling for Isaiah. I had no idea that a footnote from my NIV Study Bible would open my eyes to a new approach for reading the Bible. The footnote to Isaiah 6:10 reads: “The abc/cba inversion is called a 'chiastic' arrangement, a common literary device in the OT.” Note the words: “a common literary device.”
Soon I was enjoying my Bible reading even more as I understood God's word more completely.
Just as the Lord was calling Isaiah in these verses, he was also calling me to discern this deeper meaning from the Scriptures. The result is the book Joshua's Spiritual Warfare:
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Joshua's Spiritual Warfare: Understanding the Chiasms of Joshua for $14.99 (paperback, 232 pages)
The Book of Joshua is analyzed using the chiastic (ky'-as-tic) approach and then is applied to the area of spiritual warfare -- in doing so, we see the Lord emphasizing passages that would often be overlooked for their full meaning ... more ... |
The next eye opener came while my daughter Becky and I were reading through the Bible. She was a freshman at a Christian college and had only read parts of the whole Bible. I believed that by reading the Bible together, I could help her draw closer to the Lord and also impart in her a stronger understanding of the Bible. That year, we spoke on the phone every Sunday evening for 2-3 hours while she was at college, discussing what we had read.
When I got to the Book of Proverbs, I was stumped. I could speak in generalities, but I could not state the full counsel of God on any particular topic because the subjects are so scattered. Now, four years later and after extensive research, the book A Topical Treasury of Proverbs has been published:
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A Topical Treasury of Proverbs for $29.95 (hardcover, 336 pages) Each verse of the Book of Proverbs is classified into one or more topics -- there are one hundred topics. Based on the NET Bible, the words from each verse have not been altered. With this approach, we can stay with a topic, meditate on it, and let the Lord minister ... more ... |
More recently, I have been attempting to learn the Greek of the New Testament. Here are two learning tools that may help you:
Forget-Me-Not Greek Conjugations (1 page)
A chart to help those learning the basic Greek verb patterns for the following conjugations of the Indicative Mood: Present, Imperfect, Future, Aorist and Perfect.
Forget-Me-Not Greek Declensions (6 pages)
For those struggling with learning the basic Greek declension system for nouns, adjectives, pronouns and the definite article, this is a great learning tool.
And finally, I have put together some brief articles that attempt to explain and apply the chiastic structure:
What is a chiasm?
If you are unfamiliar with the chiastic approach, this article is an overview.
Being an Overcomer
Based on the chiasm from Joshua 1:5-9, this analysis opens a fresh understanding of these verses.
The Power of Prayer: Understanding the Authority of Prayer in Numbers 11:1-6
The Israelites complained in the desert, but the prayers of Moses helped overcome the Lord's wrath. Based on the chiastic approach.