Bible Flowers: Beautiful, Fragrant, and Temporary

Bible Flowers: Beautiful, Fragrant, and Temporary.

“Our frailty is not meant to cause us anxiety and sorrow. Rather, God means it to be our source of confidence, and even a source of joy. For it is exactly that frailty – the strict limits to our powers, their inevitable failure, the certainty of death – that creates the need and the desire to see God’s power at work, in ourselves, in the Church from generation to generation, and in Christ Jesus forever and ever – Him in whom frail humanity and eternal Godhead are fully met and joined, never to be parted, not even by death on a cross.” (Dr. Ellen Davis, “Like Grass I’m Dried Up,” from her book Getting Involved with God).

Flowers Fade. “When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful flower is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of what people call the prosperous life. At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.” (James 1:9-11).

The Permanence of God’s Mercy. “As for us, our days on earth are short-lived like the grass of the field; like the wildflowers in the countryside that spring up and bloom, but when a mere wind sweeps over them, they disappear just as quickly, and there is no longer any sign of them, as if they had never been here. But the Lord Yahweh’s mercy (“hesed”) is from everlasting to everlasting, His loyal lovingkindness remains from forever ago to forever from now, without beginning and without 9-11). children, so even their grandchildren will see His righteousness, as long as they carefully keep Yahweh’s covenant of love and remember to walk in the guidance of His teachings.” (Psalm 103:15-18).

“Hesed”= the Hebrew word for mercy that is often translated as lovingkindness, indicating a steadfast love, a compassionate faithfulness and loyalty to covenant love. It is used over 120 times in the book of Psalms alone in order to focus on God’s continued and unwavering forbearance and patience because of His faithful lovingkindness, His remaining true to his promises out of sheer love. The very center of God’s will is mercy, to satisfy all mankind with His goodness; to strongly desire what is best for each person, especially for those in need; to graciously treat those in distress with compassion; to have an eternal readiness to show practical love to those in any type of trouble or need; to have a passionate eagerness to put love into action. Mercy is the chief attribute of God, and seems to be the main way He shows his power. And so since we were made in His image, mercy is meant to be our main attribute as well. Mercy: Such is God with us, such are we to be with others.

The Permanence of God’s Word. “All flesh is grass, all its goodness like flowers of the field; Grass withers, flowers fade when the breath of Yahweh blows on them. Indeed, man is but grass; Grass withers, flowers fade – But the word (“dabar”) of our God is always fulfilled!” (Isaiah 40:6-8, Tanakh).

“Dabar”= Spoken word to use for guidance; declaration of a promise; verbal communication spoken with authority. Speech was extremely important and meaningful in the Hebrew culture. Pointing to the Creation story in Genesis, when God used words to speak the universe into existence, words were thought to contain creative power, transformative power, and had the ability to shape reality. Also, what a person said was considered an extension of their character. A person was only as good as his/her word. The Amplified Bible expands on “goodness” to mean “all that makes mankind attractive, such as its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good”. Other translations, instead of ”always fulfilled,” read “will stand forever,” “remains forever,” or “abides forever.”

St. Peter quotes the Prophet Isaiah on the Flower and the Word.  “Since you have purified your souls by obeying the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, not from a mortal and perishable seed, but from an immortal seed through the living and eternal word (“logos”) of God. For, “All people are like grass, their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word (“rhema”) of the Lord remains forever.” And that word (“rhema”) is the Gospel, the Good News, that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-25).   

The Two Main New Testament Words for “Word:” Logos and Rhema. Jesus is the Living Word (Logos), the Scripture is the written Word (Logos), and the Holy Spirit is the spoken Word (Rhema).

The Greek Logos. One Greek term for “word” was logos. Logos evidently started in the centuries before as a mathematical term, meaning to count up or give an accounting for, as in bookkeeping. But the term logos evolved into a Greek philosophical term. Using their famous Greek logical thinking, many Greek thinkers looked at our reasonable, well-ordered world and concluded that there must be a universal principle of Reason that is behind the running of the cosmos. They thought, mostly as a logical necessity, that there is an Intelligence somewhere, a transcendent source for this order that is beyond man’s understanding. There must be something that provides the world with this amazing form and coherence and exquisite design. They called this rather vague ideal “Logos.” This invisible force of Reason unifies the world into order from the chaos from before the world became reality. This logos is able to speak aloud, and whatever truth, goodness or beauty it speaks in fact exists the moment it is spoken. In a sense the Greek logos is able to create truth and reality. The Greeks never dreamed that their logos would become an actual person. The idea that logos would take on flesh would be laughable and unthinkable, and would actually defeat the whole purpose of this ideal of an impersonal, governing force in the world. The Greek logos had many hints of the true faith, though, and has been called a “bridge-word” because of the many Greeks who baptized the Greek logos into Christian belief after finding Christianity a logical step forward.

The Gospel Logos. The term logos was not a foreign word in that part of the world during the time of Jesus and the early Christians. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was widely used for biblical reading and considered the Bible of reference of that time. John decided to adopt that term and baptize the Greek version with a more complete understanding of it from the Christian viewpoint. In the New Testament era, logos meant the expression of a thought of the Father through the Holy Spirit; an utterance or a word embodying a divine idea; a message through speech or in writing; or more generally, reasoning expressed by words.

The Hebrew Logos. The Bible used during the time of Jesus and the early Christians was usually the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The original Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but Greek was the prominent language used during Jesus’ time. The Septuagint had been translated several centuries before Christ, and so it was commonplace for New Testament writers to quote the Greek version and not the Hebrew version of Scripture. For the most part, when we see a quote from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, it is from the Septuagint. The Greek term logos was used literally hundreds of times in the Greek Bible, and was often used to highlight the Word of God. Logos was also used to translate “truth,” and implied thought, meaning, planning and design. It’s interesting that the Hebrew Bible’s logos was so similar to the Greek understanding. In many ways, the Greek Old Testament laid the groundwork for the use of logos in the New Testament.

Logos in the Flesh. As outrageous as this might sound, Jesus wasn’t merely fulfilling the Word of God, He was embodying it. He wasn’t merely living in light of the Ten Commandments, He was a living, breathing version of them. Jesus was not merely unpacking the Torah in His teachings, He was the Torah. Jesus the living Word, Scripture in the flesh, Torah with a pulse. Jesus is Yahweh spoken into flesh, the holy Scripture in the form of a Person. If we want to read God’s mind, we read Jesus.

RHEMA. Rhema literally means “a word uttered by a living voice, a thing spoken that has a definite meaning,” and is used seventy times in the New Testament. The rhema word is different than logos, and in fact is based on logos. Rhema is the word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a specific situation. Rhema is a written or spoken word taken from Scripture by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a particular time. Rhema is a passage from the written Word that speaks truth that needs to be said at that time. Rhema is an inspired word from the Holy Spirit that is intended to be directly applied to a situation or a person. The rhema word is a wise and timely passage from the Bible that has special relevance at that moment. Peter is expecting us to be so familiar with Scripture that the Spirit can inspire us at any opportune time to apply a passage at just the right moment. If we don’t have the Word “dwelling richly” in us, then we won’t have the raw material that the Spirit can use for a rhema word. As unpacked by Rev. Bill Johnson, the word “nothing” in Luke 1:37 (“For nothing is impossible with God”) is actually the Greek words “no-rhema.” One translation puts the verse this way… “No word of God shall be devoid of power.” In other words, Rev. Johnson preaches, rhema words, the freshly spoken words from the Holy Spirit, will have the power to fulfill what the word says, and has the ability to accomplish God’s intention with that word. “No freshly spoken word is impossible. God equips us, as we ask Him, to wield the fruitful rhema word, which itself is based on the inspired logos Word.” General biblical knowledge, Logos, is foundational, but the rhema words inspired by the Spirit of God are vital, because it is what God is telling us personally from Scripture. The rhema word is the Holy Spirit whispering to us an important application of the logos word.

LOGOS and RHEMA:  So we live by logos (Scripture), we speak by Rhema. Logos is the foundation of Rhema, so without logos, we would have no rhema. The Holy Spirit inspired Logos Scripture for our general benefit, and the Holy Spirit continues to inspire rhema for application. The Spirit-Sword is double-edged: the first sharp edge is Logos, and that is followed up by the second sharp edge, Rhema. When the two edges are wielded together, the devil is helpless. The Holy Spirit is the One who turns the logos word into a rhema word. The logos has potential application, the rhema has specific application. One anonymous writer put it this way: “Logos is speaking the Word of God, and rhema is speaking a Word from God.”

Despite their beauty and fragrance, flowers are temporary, fragile, perishable and mortal. But God’s mercy and God’s Word is eternal, everlasting, from forever ago to forever from now.

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