“to be enough to satisfy or sustain somebody”.May these interesting facts give you something to meditate on that will “hold” you—i.e. nourish you spiritually—until the next post.
Fact #1: There are exactly 30 verses that contain the phrase “hold fast” in the English Standard Version of the Bible. Fifteen in the Old Testament, and 15 in the New Testatment.
Fact #2: This is a list of the things that are to be “held fast” according to the Bible:
- a. A man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to his wife.
- b. It is commanded that we hold fast to the Lord our God.
- c. Job was commended by God for holding fast to his integrity
- d. Hold fast a father’s teaching, when it is godly.
- e. Hold fast God’s covenant
- f. By the help of God hold fast to love and justice
- g. Hold fast to what is good
- h. Hold fast to the word Paul preached (the Gospel)
- i. Hold fast to the Head (Jesus)
- j. Hold fast to the word of life
- k. Hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (of Christ)
- l. Hold fast our confession (or the confession of our hope)
- m. Hold fast to the hope set before us
- n. The church at Pergamum was commended for holding fast the name of the Lord
- o. Hold fast what we have until he comes so that no one steals our crowns
Fact #4: The Hebrew words translated “hold fast” are: dabaq (cleave, cling to, glue); chazaq (be strong, strengthen, harden, take hold of); shamar (keep, retain, keep watch over, tend); chashaq (to have strong feelings for); and tawmak (uphold, make secure, make a physical attachment to by grasping).
Fact #5: The Greek words translated “hold fast” are: kallao (join fast together, cement, glue); krateo (be strong, mighty, to prevail); katecho (to hold firmly, hold fast); epecho (to direct attention towards).
Fact #6: A whopping 13% of the 30 verses are repetitions of a. above. I think He meant it, folks!
Fact #7: Hope must be pretty slippery—three times the word “hope” is paired in a verse with the phrase “hold fast”.
There are 7 facts—seems like a good number to end with.
Thinky Things
How many of the things in the list of Fact #2 are you being diligent to “hold fast”? In what areas are you holding fast to evil purposes or refusing to learn? What do you think now of the accusation, made by many over the centuries, that Christianity is a religion for wimps and weaklings?
Until next time...Hold Fast
Whoa, cool! I didn't do this much research when I made your cross stitch and now I wish I had! You could create a whole Bible study on just those two words!
ReplyDeleteIt does make me wonder about the "wimpy" reputation of Christians, but then, the things we are encouraged to hold fast to aren't exactly normal. We are not to "hold fast" to our rights, to our lives, or any of the things others revere. We are to hold onto our God, our hope in salvation, truth, marriage, promises yet to be fulfilled. These are all things that allow us to seem week as we lay down everything else in order to hang on to those most important things.
Your comment about holding on to hope made me laugh, and then sigh. I know that in spite of all the blessings, all the riches God has given me now, hope is one of the things I let slip far to easily.
Something to work on.
This was really encouraging!
Rhiannon: Yes, going through this list myself, I realize that one has to let go of many other things in order to hold fast to what is good!
ReplyDelete"slippery hope" makes me think of Matthew 11:12, where Jesus says:
>>kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.<<
Hmmmm...who knows? Perhaps that will be fodder for another post sometime soon...
Nice, I love the way you present all this. It's like protein disguised as Bible fun facts :D Very readable, but mentally stimulating, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteLol, couldn't remember my google password, so I'll just sign off-
Triss