Dabar

"In the beginning God created order out of chaos with the spoken word dabar."

This is how the Heilsgeschichte, which is German for Salvation History, begins. The Heilsgeschichte (which means that you basically tell the whole Bible story) is the signature assignment for Biblical Literature, a class unique to Hesston College. At the end of the semester you have to be able to say or write the Heilsgeschichte, which is unique to each person. If you say it it usually takes about an hour.

Honestly I am really starting to enjoy this class. It is a lot of work, but I really like the professor (Marion Bontrager). He actually developed the curriculum himself and came up with the Heilsgeschichte and everything. He's having it officially published sometime soon.

Today we talked about dabar, which is basically the concept of saying something and having it happen....it implies a great deal of power. Dabar is the "word" of Isaiah 55:11- "....so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."