Greek vs. Hebrew

I had a discussion last night with some friends and we were talking about the differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. Americans are Greek thinkers. Our culture stems from a Greek mindset. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and most of the New Testament was written by Jewish writers (Hebrews), although they wrote it in Greek.

There are many HUGE differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. And if we let our cultural tendencies control us, they can get in the way of us understanding Jesus, God, and Scripture.

Here's an example of our culture getting in the way of our understanding of the Bible. When reading the Bible...

Greek culture (Americans) have an attitude of "what you see is what you get". We love bullet points, outlines, directions, and steps. We think logically and everything should be explained before we believe it. So when we read the Bible, we expect to know everything. We want the Bible to fill in every detail, answer every question, and tell us every thing we WANT to know. We want all of this before we believe.

We want every movie to come together at the end and get ticked when something isn't explained.

When we buy something, we want very clear steps and instructions for assembly and cuss regularly if something is not clear and easy to understand.

How do we solve problems? By reading books, listening to doctors, and watching TV shows that give us "7 steps to happiness" and "3 steps to financial freedom". We want to know exactly what the journey looks like before we step foot on the path.

Hebrew Thinking - When they see words or numbers, they see depth, meaning, imagery, and symbolism. Rather than bullet points, lists, and everything spelled out for them, they like stories and poetry. For an example, look at Jesus. Many of his teachings were stories in which the audience had to figure out the meaning. Much of the story of creation in the book of Genesis is a Hebrew poem.

Truth is unfolding.

Faith and belief are not abstract nouns, they are concrete actions.

Following God is a story, not a self-help step program.

So how do my cultural tendencies get in the way?

There are a ton of examples that come to mind, here is one, and I'll bet you can think of more.

1. We naturally resist change. We love to find our comfort zone and stay there. We want things to be orderly, neat, and rational. But that comfort zone becomes a rut quickly because truth is actually unfolding. If we decide to follow Jesus, we are deciding to be in a story. And stories have ups and downs, scary parts, happy parts, and climactic events. The Hebrew God is a God that asks us to live in His story...and it is an adventurous and irrational one. Think about some of the guys in the Bible who chose to dive into the story.

Noah - built a boat as big as the Titanic in the middle of the freakin' desert and it had never rained before. People didn't even know what a flood was. That's irrational!

Peter - was making a living in the family business of fishing and made the decision to "drop his nets" and follow a Jewish carpenter for the rest of his life. This decision cost him his life. His life changed dramatically by entering into God's story.

So when you're reading the Bible, and reading stories about these people who chose to enter God's story, ask yourself these questions:

What cultural tendency would I push aside in order to get deeper into Jesus's story?

Am I willing to do something irrational for Him?

What comfort zone does He want to pull me out of?