RESPONSIVE READING: Proverbs 3 : 8
8. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
I wasn’t too sure of this sentence, so I went to the dictionary.
From Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
HEALTH, noun – That state of an animal or living body, in which the parts are sound, well organized and disposed, and in which they all perform freely their natural functions. In this state the animal feels no pain. This word is applied also to plants.
1. Sound state of the mind; natural vigor of faculties.
2. Sound state of the mind, in a moral sense; purity; goodness.
3. Salvation or divine favor, or grace which cheers God’s people. Psalm 43:5 *
NAVEL, noun The center of the lower part of the abdomen, or the point where the umbilical cord passes out of the fetus. The umbilical cord is a collection of vessels by which the fetus of an animal communicates with the parent by means of the placenta, to which it is attached.
MAR’ROW, noun
2. The essence; the best part.
From a definition found on Google:
Bones
The basic or essential framework of something.
After reading the definitions, it seemed that “navel” is used as a symbol of the connection and communication we have with our Father-Mother God, our only source of health, morality, purity, goodness, and salvation. God only imparts “the best part” to strengthen the “essential framework” that allows His ideas to “perform freely their natural functions” — the expression Truth, Life, and Love. What a loving God we have!
Thank you for this lesson!
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* Psalm 43:5 – Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.