The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV)The New King James and some other translations read "trees of righteousness." So instead of translating the Hebrew word 'ayil as "trees" as is done in the King James, the NIV scholars chose "oaks." Get it? It's a different translation of the same word.
Why am I making a point of this? Because I think it's less important than many other Believers probably do. You see, I was thinking about this verse while riding my bike, and it came to mind because I had just passed an oak tree. This particular oak is a bur oak maybe 25 feet tall, and right now (in September) it's covered in bright green acorns that seem to glow amid the dense, dark green leaves. The trunk is perhaps 20 inches in diameter and straight, and the branches grown virtually straight out from the trunk all the way up to the rounded crown. In the short time I beheld this oak tree as I rode by, Isaiah 61:3 occured to me and I began to think of what it means to be an "oak of righteousness;" how majestic a thing an oak tree is; how slowly and strongly it grows; how it beautifies the landscape, provides shade, shelter and food, and lends an atmosphere of grandiosity to the place where it is planted.
Now consider what might have occurred to me had I only known this verse with the phrase "trees of righteousness." I would probably not have been impressed with the same sense of what the Lord says about us. At least not with the impressions of grandeur, majesty and strength that the oak inspires. The English word "trees" falls rather lamely in this passage compared to "oaks," laden as the latter word is with so much cultural significance. A tree can be any kind of tree. It can be an oak, of course, but it can also be a cottonwood, which leaves its own distinct impressions far different from oaks.
The reason I think this quirk between or among translations of the Bible is not important is because these are words on a page. The Bible as I know it is a pretty huge collection of words on pages, all of which could mean one thing or another depending on my mood, religious background, geographic region, ethnicity, political ideology or relative intelligence. The words on these pages bear revelation and significance not because they are translated without error, but because God speaks in them. God speaks in oaks and he speaks in trees. To me He spoke revelation in the word oak, and I don't doubt that on another day, another bike ride, He may speak revelation in the word tree. Truthfully the words of God as we envision them, captured by so many men over the course of centuries, are far less important than the voice of God that speaks in these words for those who have ears to hear.
I hope that last statement caught you off guard. In fact, I think I can already hear many of you formulating your arguments and mounting your defenses. Some of you are raising your favorite translation into the air in triumph. Perhaps you have Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek translations laid out on a table. Your concordance is worn and heavily marked, as are your dictionaries and commentaries. You have encountered arguments against the Bible and you're prepared to believe that this is another one, and you have your retort ready. I'm also pretty sure you have a go to translation, the RIGHT one, the BEST one, the one you believe is the only version through which one hears the pure and unadulterated words of God.
Personally I have no beef with deep study of the Bible. I would be a fool to say there is no merit in studying this wonderful book, in delving into the ins and outs of the various languages in which it was written. I have on my own gained a great deal of revelation from studying individual words, short enigmatic passages, deep and confusing biblical teachings. I've also gained a great deal of revelation from misrememberings of certain scriptures. The Lord has spoken to me in verses I couldn't even find when I went back to look. Sometimes He encourages me with a scripture that, once I do find it and read it again, is far less impressive on the page than it was in my heart when He spoke it to me. The reason that this occurs is because the voice of God is always more powerful, more significant and more revelatory than the simple words. It's what's behind the words that touches my heart. It's Him - He is behind the words, whatever they may be.
Jesus often said this to those who gathered to hear him teach: "He who has ears, let him hear." I find that to be a peculiar phrase, mostly because it is so simplistic. Hearing is exactly what ears are for, so the directive sounds rather obvious - unless, of course, it is possible to have ears and NOT hear. As we all know, it is not only possible to have ears and not to hear, more often than not this is just what we do. Many who heard Jesus preach had ears, but very few heard just what he was saying about himself and he came to do. The same is very much true today, and Jesus has not ceased speaking and teaching. An ear is a rather useless appendage if it isn't used for hearing. The fact remains that there are a lot of useless ears in the worlds, both inner and outer. But even if you listen attentively with your outer ear, there is so much you will never hear, because the Father is speaking not to your human ear and mind but right to your spirit through His own Holy Spirit.
This then is what makes the Bible worth reading. This is what makes the words of God come alive as His very voice, regardless of how precise or perfect the translation is. When we let the Holy Spirit speak and do what is his ministry - to teach, to exhort, to encourage, to lift up and inform - when we let God speak behind the words on the page then there is life in those words. When the Holy Spirit is our guide and we know the sweet melody of his whispering voice, there is life in oaks and there is life in trees. There is revelation all around, in fact, when we walk in step with the Holy Spirit. We don't even have to be literate to find it.
