There are some really long words in our language. I remember years ago when I first heard what was at that time the longest one. It was antidisestablishmentarianism. I learned it when watching the national spelling bee. It took me a while to learn it, but I mastered how to say it.
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is not recognized as a word, but a nonsense word from Mary Poppins. It is one that, while not easily pronounced, can be sung by those who saw the movie. If you have ever wondered, the longest word in the dictionary is “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” — a medical term describing lung infection caused by inhaling minute particles of dust.
As difficult as these words are to say, they are not the hardest to say as a three-word phrase. The phrase has only eleven letters in it, but there is something about these three words that makes them so difficult to say. In fact, these words were unspoken for the first 2,500 years men were on this earth. Every person could have said them, but no one ever did. What are these three words?
The three English words hardest to say are, “I have sinned.” Who was the first person to use these words in the Bible? It was not Adam or Eve in the garden, for instead of saying what was true, they blamed the serpent or the woman whom God had made. For some strange reason, these three words are hard to understand. They were not said by the millions of people who perished in the flood. They were not said at the Tower of Babel. They were not said by Abraham when confronted in the lie he told about Sarah. They were not said by Jacob who stole the blessing and the birthright from Esau. They were not said by Joseph’s brothers. Such an important phrase, but so hard to say!
The first time this phrase is found in the Bible was when Pharoah said these words twice to get plagues removed from Egypt. How genuinely were they spoken? Evidently not at all, for when the plagues were removed he kept on sinning! Even in our day, sometimes men call upon God with these words but actions show they were not sincere.
They were spoken by Balaam who beat his donkey and talked to him. The false prophet then saw the angel and said these words but likely he was talking about doing wrong to the donkey. He said the words but kept on going on his journey to curse Israel.
The phrase is found less than 20 times in the Bible, and in a historical setting, David and the prodigal son use them nearly half of the time. Now think about yourself. You have wronged God and others, but how often do we use them?
-Dan Jenkins
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