endurance

Whereas each of these two words is biblical – ko•ach is strength and se•vel is to bear, to suffer, and burdens, putting them together makes up the modern Hebrew expression ‘endurance.’ It translates as ‘the strength to suffer, to carry a burden.

Here is an example of all these notions in one verse:

‘And even to your old age I am he; and even to gray hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; I will carry, and will deliver you.’

And here are the verses that you all know which demonstrates ko•ach se•vel better than any other biblical example:

‘He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ‘Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was bruised because of our iniquities; his sufferings were that we might have peace; and by his injury we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, but he humbled himself and opened not his mouth; he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep, that is dumb before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. By oppression and false judgment was he taken away; and of his generation who considered? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.’

Can you comprehend that you and I, and all of us are the beneficiaries of this awful, yet awesome utmost endurance?