Daily Bread - MAR/20/07
Acts 22:6 - And while I was on my journey and coming near to Damascus about noon suddenly a bright light shown about me from heaven.
The word "hikanos" is found 41 times in the New Testament. This adjective is used more by Luke than anyone else occurring 10 times in Luke and 19 times in Acts. It usually refers to a sufficient quantity whose magnitude would be defined by what is being contrasted; for example sufficient light to be seen at noon. It is translated in various ways in the Septuagint but one of the more notable words that it often translates is "Shaddai" which as a name of God refers to the all sufficient one or the "Almighty", El Shaddai (Ruth 1:20, 21).
Keeping this in mind Paul's special usage in 2 Corinthians sheds more light on the idea of being sufficient, "our sufficiency (hikanoi) is from God, who has made us sufficient (hikanotes) ministers of the new covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Knowing that our ministry is of God and that it is to be a supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit working through us the word sufficient cannot be mistaken for just satisfactory.
For our ministry to be sufficient to God then it must be at the magnitude that He has desired it to be. Thus by His grace He has supplied us with His power so that we may function in a realm superior to human ability (Romans 15:19,29; 1 Corinthians 2:4; Matthew 10:20; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:29; Luke 9:1; 10:1,9; Mark 16:17; Acts 1:8; 4:33). If our ministry depends on our own human effort then it is not sufficient (2Corinthins 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7; Romans 8:2-9). When we consider that the event of this passage took place at noon when the sun was the brightest then we understand that a sufficient amount of light would need to be very bright, which leads us to the most appropriate translation of "hikanos" in this verse, 'bright'. This translation is further justified by the wording of Acts 26:13 where the Greek word "lamprotes" (brightness) is used to describe this same event.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
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