The beauty of betrayal

"everything beautiful in its time"

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Spring.  Beautiful things happen in spring.  Warmer temperatures ~ but not too warm.... baseball starts up again.... and everywhere I look, nature is betraying itself.  

Oh, I'm sorry, are you not familiar with the word "betrayal" being used in that sense?  Well, one could hardly blame you.  I just discovered it myself.  I love etymology!

Sometimes when I'm studying the Bible, I look up words just for the fun of it.  And often I find definitions I didn't know the word had, or word origins that change my understanding of the word.  Or my understanding of The Word!

It's also interesting to find out what word was used in the original language in Scripture.  American English is a tricky language.  Of course, it came mostly from "the King's English," but there has been much added from other languages over the last few centuries.  As a result, words sometimes come to mean something they didn't used to mean.  If you know what I mean.

So my latest discovery is the word "betrayal".  I was studying John chapter 13, when Jesus said to His disciples, "One of you will be betray Me."  And it made me wonder what I might not know about the word "betray".

In our language, betrayal can be as simple as being disloyal to someone.  But in the Latin the word is paradidomi, and it means "to give over, or deliver," which takes Judas' actions from "I know where you can find Him," to "Here He is."

But here's another definition ~ "to permit or allow, to deliver to one something to keep; to commit or commend".  And that usage we see in John 19:30 ~ "So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'  And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."

Jesus gave over His spirit.  He commended His spirit unto His Father. 

And when?  Well that's another definition.  This word, in the Latin, is also used to describe a plant that is bringing forth its fruit.  And when does a plant bring forth fruit?  When the time is right.  The the reason Jesus had received the sour wine was because He had said out loud that He was thirsty.  And the reason He said that He was thirsty was because He knew it was time. 

John 19:28 ~ "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!"

There is nothing more beautiful to me, in the context of God and His plans, than trusting His timing.   Psalm 1 says that He whose delight is the law of the Lord shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season.

A tree that brings forth fruit in its season.   That's what I want to be.  And He will bring that about in me, just as surely as He completed His Father's plan for salvation by giving up His life. 

~ "being confident of this very thing, 

that He who has begun a good work in you 

will be faithful to complete it 

   until the day of Jesus Christ" ~

Philippians 1:6

~