A Phrase Every Kid Should Know

You know when you read something and say, “Wait just a minute, back up”.

In that moment you have the choice of opening up some commentaries, googling your heart out, OR you can just skip it and hope that it was not essential to the story line. I had one of those, today. I love running across old hymns or proverbs in the bible, old colloquialisms are just plain fun.

Today it was a proverb, which is found in two places of the bible. I am not telling you what to do, but it might be fun to resurrect some of these old phrases and use them with your friends. They will have no idea what you are saying, but you might start a trend.

In those days they shall no longer say:

“The parents have eaten sour grapes,

and the children’s teeth are set on edge. - Jeremiah 31:29, NRSV

What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”? – Ezekiel 18:2, NRSV

This was a phrase used by those in living in the days of Jeremiah concerning the looming judgment. They did not feel that it was right to have to pay for the sins of their ancestors. The sour grapes, that their parents had eaten, were the sins that angered God. The children perceived that they would pay for it.

Jeremiah assures them in 31:30 that this is not so, “But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.” Our God is a fair God and each person will be responsible for themselves. See where I am going with this?

So, if this phrase is spun right, siblings everywhere can say, “My sister has eaten sour grapes and my teeth are set on edge”, instead of “She did it”. I only wish that I had something this profound to use when I was a kid. It is a whole new level of tattling.

I think that there are endless applications. Let me know of any I am missing. So, use it in health this weekend.