 |
Amen Faith |
|
|
The Study of Amen.
Amen is the most intensive description of faith in the Bible. Much of its meaning is dependent on its grammatical usage (i.e. verb or noun). We will explore a series of passages detailing the various usages of this word. These are based on the different “stems” of the word. The verb has a root form and prefixes are used to give different attributes or meanings to the verb. This is the only word directly translated as faith in the Greek version of the Old Testament (The Septuagint).
A Promise. Nehemiah 5:13 “Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.”
Amen in Adverb Form:
The adverb is to confirm, the acknowledgment of the hearing, to the desire that God’s promises be fulfilled. It also carries with it a commitment to contribute, as much as within us, to execute God’s word. 1 Kings 1:36, “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so too.”
1) Is always a word of response to what is said by someone else.
2) Let it be so, may it come true. To say amen genuinely is an act of self-commitment, for it implies appropriate action on the part of the speaker.
Today it is used by Christians often simply as a marker of conclusion.
If the Christian is to follow the O.T. usage then to say amen should imply a commitment to a prayer and to live, where appropriate, in such a way as to further the fulfillment of the prayer.
Amen 1st Noun Usage:
It is often used of speaking the truth. In the psalms when speaking of the words and commands of Jehovah, it does not just mean that they are true as opposed to false, but that they also have the character of being trustworthy and reliable for people to base their lives on.
This usage is often combined with love. Amen (Faithful) love of God. This feature showed the willingness of God to renew His covenant with a faithless Israel in the wilderness when they made and worshiped the golden calf. (Ex 34:5-18) Even though they were faithless, Jehovah keeps His faith despite their sin. Same as found in 2 Tim. 2:13, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” (If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.)
Amen 2nd Noun Usage:
Is used in connection of (steadfast) love and righteousness. Here there is a strong bond with truth or truthfulness. That God is truth or of truthfulness, and that men need to be as God in their truth and truthfulness. Habakkuk 2:4, gives the hope that for the people to survive the impending national disaster they must live by faith, to maintain their person integrity, or faithfulness to Jehovah.
Amen as a Verb:
Qal
To support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish, to foster as would a father, a mother, or as a nurse. The form is also used for pillars, supporters of the door. Passive it is “he was caused to believe.”
This is probably the warmest, tender, and loving condition of Amen, as seen to mother, nurse. In this is to carry, to hold, to give protection or attendance, provide guidance in learning, nurture, and be steady, firm in duty. When used of God to His children it overwhelms the soul of man.
Niphal
To be established, be faithful, be carried, make firm. Usages; (1) to be carried by a nurse, (2) made firm, sure, lasting, (3) confirmed, established, sure, (4) verified, confirmed, (5) reliable, faithful, trusty, (6) causative active, he caused to believe.
It is not limited to the single act but refers to the totality of man’s relation to God. It shows his continued disposition toward God. Used the same as the noun, but also means established, made firm.
Hiphil
Is equivalent word in Hebrew to Greek “pisteuo.” To believe, in the sense of accepting a report as true. It has the added sense of acting in response to what is heard with trust or obedience. Thus it is to stand firm, to trust, to be certain, to believe in. It is to say amen with all the consequences for both the object and the subject.
It reveals the total relationship between man and God, and God and man. God initially establishes the relation. God is the true author of faith. This agrees with Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
The amen faith implies acknowledgment of the requirement and man’s obedience to God’s commands. It further implies not only God’s promises but acknowledgment of God’s power to fulfill it, and denotes the worship of God as the almighty Lord. On man’s part it is taking God as God with unremitting seriousness!
Not to believe, amen, is often equivalent to apostasy. Living this faith is piety or holiness and by doing so came victory or triumph over catastrophes and the afflictions of individual life.
Acknowledgment is at the heart of amen, with the commitment to obey. Consider the following passages.
| - Israel fell to the Assyrians because they did not trust in the Lord their God (2 Kings 17:14). |
| - Moses and Aaron were prohibited from entering into the promised land because “you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites” (Num. 20:12). |
| - The people of Nineveh were spared because they did believe God (Jonah 3:5). |
| - Abraham believed Jehovah and Jehovah credited it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Here, with Abraham, the word denotes his actions in the past and now his response is consistent with or a continuance of his past consonantly (habitually) trusting, believing God. |
| - Isaiah 28:16, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth (amen) shall not make haste (shall not be dismayed).” Trust and faith are given as the one true and secure way to live among evil men and during divine judgment. |
| - Isaiah 7:9b, “If ye will not believe (amen), surely ye shall not be established (amen). |
The NIV has the better translation, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Here two different verb stems are used, first is to believe and the second is made firm or established.
| - Isaiah 28:16, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth (amen) shall not make haste. |
|
New Testament Amen
It is often used at the end of a prayer or discourse. Today we use it in this manner: as an endorsement of what has been said (so be it, may it be fulfilled or done).
It was a custom, which passed from the synagogues to the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or discoursed, or had offered up solemn prayer to God, others responded “Amen,” and thus made the substance of what was uttered their own
Matthew 28:20, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
Matthew 6:13, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”
2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”
Better is the YLT 2 Corinthians 1:20, “for as many as {are} promises of God, in him {are} the Yes, and in him the Amen, for glory to God through us;”
Yes, and Amen complement each other.
Revelation 3:14, “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;”
Only here is Christ named The Amen, though in Isa 65:16 we have “the God of Amen” understood in the Septuagint as “the God of truth.” Here applied to Christ. “whose testimony never falls short of the truth.” The play of the “beginning” and the Amen (as conclusion) should not be lost on us.
Deut 32:20, “And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith (no amen).”
Wm. Bekgaard
|
Next: Love
| |
This page last updated November 10, 2004 at 10:21am
|
|
| |