“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Ellen Parr

The first way to cultivate curiosity and beat the boredom during your Quiet Time is to investigate.

To in-vest-ti-gate means to carry out research or study to discover facts or information.  In other words, use some techniques to get curious about what we are reading in the Bible…even if it is a geneology.

Let me show you how this works. Pick up your Bible and read  Genesis 5.

After reading the passage, are there any words or names that stand out? Any words that are not understood? Do any phrases are odd or unusual? Write them down. Now, be curious and look up the meaning of these words in the original language. By exoring the meanings of these words in the original language a fuller, richer understanding of the text will be gained. BlueLetterBible.com is one of my favorite free resources to amplify the meaning of a text and change it from being ho-hum to thought-provoking.

For example, let’s take a look at Genesis 5. This chapter is one very long genealogy and comprised of names and numbers. All Hebrew names have a meaning and when we look take a closer look at the meaning of the names of Adam (in the original language) and all his decedents in Genesis 5, we discover something astonishing.

Genesis 5 Geneology

Strong’s Concordance gives the following meanings for the names in Genesis 5:

1.Adam (121) = man
2. Seth (8352) is related to the root word shiyt (7896) = to set or be put in place. Established/appointed.
3. Enosh (583) derived from enosh (582) = mortal
4. Kenan (7018) derived from qeyn (7064) = nest or dwelling
5. Mahalalel (4111) is a combination of two words. Mahalal (4110) means to shine. The word el means God. = praiseworthy God or the shining of God
6. Jared (3382) comes from the verb (3381) = descent or come down
7. Enoch (2585) comes from Hebrew verb (2595) = initiate, teach, dedicate
8. Methuselah (4968) is actually two Hebrew words. The first word mot (4194) means death.  The next word, shelahh (7973) is a verb meaning “send” = at his extent of time a shooting forth or his death brings. (Interestingly, the year Methuselah died, the flood of Noah’s time came.)
9. Lamech (3929) This name is difficult to define because this name or any other related word is not used in the Hebrew Bible. It is generally believed lamehh = to bring down low or despair.
10. Noah (5146) comes from the verb nu’ahh (5118) = quiet, peace, to rest

Are you seeing anything?

Now read over the meaning of the names out loud. Sure, this is a long list of names that is hard to pronounce. Yes, it names some people we are not familiar with. Yet, if you look closely, a pattern is beginning to emerge.  Hopefully, I have piqued our curiosity and the good news I found hidden in this list will be encouraging.

In conclusion, I want to encourage you to stick with me for the next blog post because I promise this is going to be amazing!  Day 1 of Selah collects Information. This is one of the techniques we use to understand what we are reading. If you want to investigate and find out more about  The Selah Method

Come on over to the next blog post in the series 4 Ways to Cultivate Curiosity (#2 Inquiry)