6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
I want to talk a little bit today about translation of the Scriptures. As you know, or may not know, the Bible was written primarily in Hebrew and Greek, with several chapters in the Old Testament in Aramaic. If you know more than one language you know that it can be hard to convey the exact nuance of one language into another. Sometimes the flavor of the original gets lost when it gets translated. Sometimes there is no word in the new language that expresses the meaning of the old. Our passage today has just such a word. The one word in Greek gets translated into English “being poured out like a drink offering.” That is one work in Greek needs seven words in English to translate it. But even when you read the English, you might not know the importance of being poured out like a drink offering. The Jew’s worship of the Lord contained many pictures of sacrifice and yielding. One of the offerings involved pouring out liquid on the altar. Sometimes it was a drink offering, and sometimes it was the blood of the newly killed animal. Both were a necessary part of the process of cleansing pictured in the Old Testament. All those pictures were fulfilled in Christ. Paul says he feels like one of those offerings. He feels like he is being poured out on God’s altar, like his very being is being emptied in the cause of Christ. He is giving it all up as an offering to the Lord. The reason I mention this today is that I want to challenge you to dig deeper into the Scriptures. There is a wealth there that you will miss, if you don’t take time to dig for yourself. There are so many wonderful resources that will help you dig. If you want some suggestions, feel free to ask. I can send you to some resources.
The Arnold Journey 