Jots and Tittles

732 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 1Ki 1:5-8, Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king"; and he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. 6 (And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, "Why have you done so?" He was also very good-looking. His mother had borne him after Absalom.) 7 Then he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they followed and helped Adonijah. 8 But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David were not with Adonijah. (1 Kings 1:5-8) As you and I read the Word of God we need to pay attention even to the tools of the grammarian. Concerning the Word of God, Jesus said in Mt 5:18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Jots, tittles, commas, periods, and even the parenthesis we find in our text today are all used to enhance our understanding of the Word of God. For instance, in our text today, we could read it just fine without the parenthetical words of v6. It is just an added sentence used by the Holy Spirit to provide a little more background on why Adonijah acted the way he did. He was a good-looking spoiled brat much like his brother Absalom, who wanted to take over the throne from his father. But you could read this passage without v6 and it flows nicely. Adonijah sought to be king. He enlisted the help of important military and religious figures, and was opposed by Shimei, David's mighty men, a priest and the mighty prophet Nathan, The stage is set for the inevitable conflict that will occur. Parenthetical statements are very useful and should be studied carefully as you read the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit could've thrown them out, but He keeps them in to help fill in our gaps of understanding! Father, thank You for your every expression in the Bible, truly, nothing is wasted and may Your every jot, tittle, and words help us on our road to spiritual maturity.