"power was given over him over all kindreds, and tongues" (Rev. 13:7)
Something just hit me HARD. I'd been seriously contemplating Greek and getting into the Greek testament...I know I've thought about studying Hebrew and plowing into Jewish manuscripts and the Old Testament too. (No; of course I'm not even imagining getting anywhere close to attaining the proficiency of someone who actually studies the languages in school!) And of course, I've always carried with me the urge to be more fluent in Japanese.
I don't know where, in my talk with God, it came, but He seemed to say to me: "June, if I'd wanted you to understand the Jewish mind and their longing for the Messiah, do you think it would've been that difficult for me to have you born back then and in that culture?"
"Similarly, if I wanted you to understand the Greek language -- and you have heard how difficult it would be for you, now an "American mind", to learn it at 68 years of age, especially -- to get a better grasp of New Testament writings in the first century church; don't you think you would've been one of the little daughters running around the cobblestone streets of the city back then...when Rome oppressed, when females, incidentally, were kept silent much more than they are today."
"If I'd wanted you June, to be super smooth in Japanese as well as English, I could've so easily had you be born in a family and environment where operating in those languages were your second nature."
"But do you not trust ME to be wise and sovereign to know that actually You would desire most to know a God in Heaven desires and has chosen you as you are because He wants you specifically as you are, not wanting to acquire another ability you do not have to better yourself (altho' at some time He may tell you to gain something for the sake of furthering some purpose for Him -- the way God equips men in the pastorate to edify the flock; the way He anoints missionaries to communicate the Gospel)."
"God needs to use someone humble enough to know GOD is the One supplying all the power, an instrument pliable enough to let Him choose how to do it. A born expert is less prone to be this way -- someone stumbling about is much more likely, wouldn't you say? It's the 'Stumbler' I really want!"
A bumbling idiot was one sure offer I could make, I thought.
