Well, There's an Armload of Nothing!

...the worlds were conceived in the imagination of God...

Welcome back, Roger, for another excellent discussion on divine imagination. In this third question, we take a look at what he discovered from scriptures on the subject of imagination. Is it real? Is it Biblical? Should we delve there?

Byron: Well, Roger, your responses have been excellent, and my readers are enjoying them. Let’s continue onto the third question I ask, “Have you discovered Biblical reference(s) relating to the imagination?”

Roger: Not being able to recall many verses which mentioned the word ‘imagination’, I, of course, consulted my Bible phone app and had it do a “Whole Bible” word search in my preferred study version, the New King James. The electronic search resulted in a whopping two hits, one in Genesis and one in Luke. Both times, the word ‘imagination’ in the verse cited was used in a negative sense; referring to the evil imagination of men’s hearts.

Byron: Okay, we're off to a gallop. So, with that armload of references, what did you do?

Roger: I tried recalling verses that implied the meaning of ‘imagination’ without using the exact word. Ah…success. Several instances now came to mind for me; all in the New Testament. Among them:

1 Cor.2:16b “But we have the mind of Christ”.

II Cor.4:18b “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Heb.11:1a,3b “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”; “ …the things which are seen [are] not made of things which are visible.”

Col.3:1-2 “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.”

II Cor.5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Heb. 11:13a “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them…”

Heb. 11:27b “…for he [Moses] endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”

Col.1:15-16 “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible…”

Byron: Is there no reference to the word “imagination” in any of these verses? I believe I see where you're going. Can you explain?

Roger: Although none of the above verses use the word in their text, it seems evident that imagination must be a key element. All of them require faith mixed with sight, which is, after all, what ‘divine imagination’ is all about.

Byron: I looked up the Merriam-Webster definition of imagination, which reads: The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. This has a sense of the 2 Corinthians 5:7 verse you stated above that we walk by faith, not by sight.

Roger: Right. All these verses involve our looking at things which are “invisible; not seen; eternal; promised; things that are above.”

Byron: What about the Old Testament? Did you try and apply the same idea?

Roger: Having not found a single use of the word imagination in the Old Testament, I broadened my search definition to include words with related meaning. Soon, I felt that I had (figuratively) struck gold: Isaiah 26:3 in my NKJV reads “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” “Mind” jumped out at me. Referencing “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, I looked up the exact Hebrew word, which was translated as “mind”. That Hebrew word is yêtser which Strong’s defines as: “[3336. a. form; fig. conception (i.e., purpose): - frame, thing framed, imagination, mind, work.”] It is the only instance of the word’s use in the Old Testament. For me, this gave a deeper meaning to Heb.11:3a “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…” My personal paraphrase: ‘…the worlds were conceived in the imagination of God before he worked to frame them according to his purpose.’ I had found ‘imagination’ in the Old Testament.

Byron: I have found, as you have proven, that the study of words both in the context of the writing and in the original language gives us a clearer understanding. It also keeps us from imagining our own understandings. Ya, you see what I did there. Where did this insight on the word yêtser take you? Did you search any further?

Roger: As a final confirmation, I did a quick search in a different Bible app on my phone. This app included in the versions available The Passion Translation (Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Copyright 2020). The Passion Translation’s rendering of Isaiah reads: “Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with you; they confidently trust in you.”

Byron: The Passion Translation has definitely opened the heart of the Father in these passages.

Roger: That rendering of Isaiah 26:3 is beautiful.

Byron: Wrapping up this question on imagination in the Holy Writ, what is your personal takeaway, and is there any encouragement for us?

Roger: My desire truly is for perfect and absolute peace to surround me. And, I want my imagination to be forever consumed with the things of the Lord. I pray that you want the same.

Byron: Thanks again, Roger, for taking the time to respond. Just so everyone knows, there's one more question. I'm looking forward to your response.

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Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are from The New King James Version, 1996, Broadman & Holman, pub.