Selfishly/curiously/embarrassingly, my belated first instruction to ChatGPT requested: “Chat, review Steve Bostrom’s columns and write about: ‘Behold.’”
Chat responded: “In a world of fleeting images and shortened attention spans, ‘behold’ is a small resistance. A reminder that not all seeing is equal. Some things deserve more than a glance. They deserve reverence”.
Hooked, I thought: “Chat, you could be idolized”.
And more. Looking up “reverence”, I found a Google book/word-search. Starting in 1800, the chart graphed our culture’s precipitous decline of using “reverence” from frequent to nearly nothing. Ouch!
Friend, let’s resist the loss of God/reverence by orienting ourselves with the wonder-inducing/soul-strengthening Biblical worldview. There, four grand acts describe life on earth: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation. “Behold”, rock our otherwise fabricated consensus!
First, ‘behold’ heightens dramatic tension as God cherishes His Creation. “God saw everything that he had made, and ‘behold’, it was very good”– not just “good”, but “very good!” Stupendous!
Holy Spirit, Co-Author of Genesis, You alert us to our Father’s initiative and invite worshipful attention. “Beholding” adds sparkle/glory to God’s excellent work.
Even ChatGPT knows: “‘Behold’ is an invitation to pause. It has a gravity that turns seeing into witnessing.” Wow! And AI, there is more. The clout “behold” wields grows witnessing into worship! Hallelujah!
God, Ultimate Wordsmith, You gave “behold” a family tree. “Be” means “to intensify” – doing something “thoroughly”. Then we add “haldan” – “holding”. Similar Germanic words give us “maintaining, retaining”.
But, how do our eyes “hold intensely”? Apparently, holding by ‘looking’ is found only in English.
And there is much more. Jesus, You declare the “pure in heart will ‘see’ God”. (Matthew 5:8) What an astonishing vision!
Furthermore, “behold” reminds us of “re-spect”. “Re” – means “again and again”. “Spect” is “to look at”. Praiseworthy repetition bypasses superficiality, signaling urgency, surprise and attention, grabbing truth/beauty/purpose.
ChatGPT, teach us more: “‘Behold’ asks us to stop, to look, and really see. It belongs to a different register, somewhere between poetry and Scripture.” Aha!
Also, being an imperative “behold” disturbs our comfort/apathy. Eyes forward! Attention!
And more: The Hebrew literary spotlight translated “behold” appears 841x in the OT. The NT Greek illuminator is used 684x. Such lavish reiteration aids our resistance! Alas, some translations deprive us by leaving this startling but frequent imperative untranslated.
Still, ChatGPT preaches: “Culture encourages us to consume information quickly – scrolling, scanning, moving on. But ‘behold’ pushes against that current. It asks us not just to look, but to linger. To let what we see shape us. It’s the gaze of someone who knows there is meaning in what stands before them.” Aha again!
Now, “Behold” teach us more.
We started with the second time the Bible uses “behold”. The first is: “God said, ‘‘Behold’, I have given you every plant yielding seed on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.’” (Genesis 1:29)
God, here we ponder nearly incomparable genetic codes You encrypted in each seed.
A few years ago, I visited Sequoia National Park. One Sequoia, General Sherman, 180’ tall measured 35’ in diameter!
But, I beheld another marvel – a small six-inch jar with a pound of Sequoia seeds. How many seeds? 91,000!
God, You have made prodigious Sequoias again and again from such a t-tiny seed! Flummoxed, we “behold” a seed/masterpiece of our Grand Programmer/Intricate Artist of Life. Beholding a seed, God, we behold Your creation.
Evolution, you seduce our pride with prospects of unending progress. You require the amnesia of brainwashed/doublethink/propaganda teaching millions of impossible years to have Life somehow purposefully anneal to random, lifeless matter. But, what about reproduction’s faithful ability sustaining true/lively/accurate replicas? “Beholding” Sequoia seeds shows Personal Design besting Lifeless Impersonality.
“Beholding” also helps us hear. Os Guinness recalled Rabbi Jonathan Sacks debating atheist Richard Dawkins. Sacks noted: “You are tone deaf”. Dawkins replied: “There is no music.” Os, now 83, remembered: “I first started hearing the ‘music’ sixty years ago.” He beheld and still beholds Christ.
Friend, now consider the extent of our Fall. Hear Genesis’s third “behold”. “God saw the earth, and ‘behold’, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” (Genesis 6:12)
Hebrews emphasized thoughts by repetition – like “corrupt/corrupted” here. Our ancestors were ‘very’ corrupt!
And despite the Great Flood washing the earth, behold, corruption’s way continues in us!
The Book of Common Worship confirms our sin while still giving many hope: “Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Free us from a past we cannot change; open a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness/image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen”.
Friend, now behold Redemption. Weigh how three arresting/poignant/startling uses of “behold” help us focus on Jesus. To better “behold” we’ll linger/ponder by also using Latin.
Jesus, John the Baptist proclaims: “‘Ecce’…Agnus Dei,” “‘Behold’…the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”! (John 1:29) Lamb of God, when we behold Your power redeeming the world, we are gobsmacked/God-smacked!
Secondly, as Pilate paraded Jesus, bloodied, scourged and wearing the crown of thorns before the crowd, he declared: “‘Ecce’…Homo” – “‘Behold’…the Man”. (John 19: 5)
Jesus, You flabbergast us at how far You have gone to redeem sinners like us!
Finally, You luxuriously promise Consummation: “‘Ecce’…, ego facio omnia nova.” “‘Behold’…, I am making all things new”! (Revelation 21:5)
Friend, beholding Jesus’ light keeps many walking even through the darkness. They pursue Him, willing to suffer for God who suffered for them. Their whispered resistance grows into a roared Hallelujah! “‘Behold’, a great multitude…from every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages…crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God…and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9,10)
Behold, a mustard seed of faith sprouting into full-throated/whole-hearted/transforming triumph!
