Hebrew Exegesis has been a trial and a joy for me. Trial because, as you could imagine, I have a hard time reading, parsing, and making sense of the different Hebrew constructions and intricate grammar. But it also has been a great joy for me because I have seen the scriptures come alive in its original language.
For our Hebrew Exegesis class, one needs to pick a passage; in my case, Habakkuk 3:17-19 and live, sleep, eat, and commune with it. We have to write five papers, I am on paper number two, it deals with a syntactical analysis of the text: taking word for word, construction by construction to bring out the meaning of the text.
I was quite surprised on what I have found so far:
1) Hebrew is hard
2) There are way too many words/constructions that I don’t know
3) However, it is important to notice that God chose this language for a reason.
4) People throughout history had to learn Hebrew, including our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul, and many heroes of the faith.
It is easy for me to be perplexed by Greek and Hebrew, yet as I was reminded by one of our professors, even our heroes from the faith had to learn them and one must continue the struggle to be able to cut it straight.
God used this syntactical analysis to remind me that the original languages are worth learning and mastering. He also reminded me through this exercise that I am, but human. Lastly, God is a God of excellence and demands my best even in a paper. (Even writing this is convicting me).
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