ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – GOOD – TOVA – טובא   Teth Vav Beth Aleph

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.”

How many of you know this verse by heart?  How many of you have quoted this verse to someone going through a tragic time or had it quoted to you if you were going through a tragedy?  How many thought: “Yeah, but what is good?”  Or you are like me, that old English teacher who thinks: “That is it, just good?  Not better, not excellent, not the best, not superior?  Just good?”

Speaking of being an English teacher, let me tell you a story from my days as a Middle School teacher. We had a young, beautiful pre-teen girl about twelve years of age, maybe thirteen., transfer to our school from another school.  She was in the foster care system and I was advised by the principal that she was moved to another set of foster parents when it came out that her former foster parents were using her as well as other foster children in a sort of sex trafficking.  This young girl, Diane, we will call her was moved to a foster family who was born again Christians and led Diane to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  Diane flourished under their prayers and love so well that she was moved back into the school system.  Unfortunately, her past caught up with her as a student in our school knew a student in the school she came from and before long word got out that she was a prostitute. I found out about it because two students came to me and said: “You know that Diane, she was a prostitute.”  I marched these to two students to the principal’s office and told them to tell him what they told me. The principal turned red and pointed his finger at these students and said: “Diane was a victim, you hear that a victim of a terrible crime and if I hear about you or anyone spreading these rumors they will be automatically suspended. 

Well, word of the suspension did not get out quick enough as the next day I found Diane hunched in a corner crying her heart out. I asked if there was anything I could do.  She merely said; “It’s just not true what they say about me.”  I told her that I and the rest of the faculty knew this and that the principal would come down very hard on anyone who is caught spreading that rumor. I expected her to say something like: “Good, I hope they get what they deserve.”  Instead, she looked up at me with her tear stained face and asked; “Do you know any girl who needs a friend?  I don’t care if she is ugly, fat, weird or strange, I will be her friend.  We can hang out together, go to movies together.  I know how to be a friend, I can be a good friend.” 

I suppose you are wondering what happened to Diane. I don’t know, she transfers out of the school a couple of weeks later, the damage was already done, but I do know her foster parents put her in a Christian school. If it was anything like the Christian school I once taught at, I know without a doubt that Diane did well. Did she do good? Did it all work together for good?  I don’t know, depends upon your definition of good.

I do know this, she loved God and her desire to be a friend in the midst of her persecution proved she was called according to God’s purpose.  She was surely Tova.  That is the word in Aramaic for good.  In Greek, it is the word agothon which means good. In Aramaic, however, tova  not only means good but also harmony.  We can debate that whatever happened to Diane would have been good or not good, that depends upon the scale that you weigh good and bad.  However, we cannot argue that whatever happened to her if she continued to love God and follow her calling ie., to be a friend to the friendless, then she was tova, in harmony with God.

There are many situations in my life and I am sure in your life where the results were not what I or you would consider as good by our definition of good. However, if you loved God and felt called according to His purpose, you might not call the end result good, but I am sure in your heart you knew the results were in harmony with God and you know what?  That is good.