Episkeptomai: When God Visits

Word of the Week

August 9, 2025

Episkeptomai: When God Visits

 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people.

Luke 1:68 NASB2020

 

When Aunt Tillie visits to have tea, you set out the fine china.

When your sister visits, bringing her twin two-year-old terrors, you hide everything breakable!

Visits come in all shapes and sizes.  You anticipate some with delight; you dread others.  Maybe your neighbor is coming over to bring chocolate chip cookies; perhaps he’s coming to borrow your mower.

However, the Bible describes visits that are much more than mere casual chit-chat.  They can be life-changing encounters, especially when God is the Visitor.

We can see the remarkable potential of a biblical visit by examining the Greek word for “visit.”

“Visit” in the New Testament is the most common translation for the Greek word episkeptomai [eh-pee-SKEP-toh-mye].  It is built on one of the verbs for seeing, and its original use in classical Greek had the idea of “to look at.”  It might describe a lawyer examining a document or a philosopher scrutinizing a virtue.  It could also picture a friend or a physician who “looks in on” an ailing patient.

The Old Testament uses the word in similar ways with a few added features.  In some passages, it means to look over someone carefully in order to choose them for a task.

But more importantly, we often read about the times when God Himself arrives for a visit.  When the Lord shows up, He always comes with a clear purpose.  Sometimes He comes for judgment; sometimes to show mercy.  He never shows up to simply watch.

Come to the New Testament and you find the same pattern for episkeptomai.  It appears 11 times and consistently pictures a visit with two clear elements:  (1) careful observation and (2) helpful action.

God visits mankind for good

• The book of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8:4 as an awe-struck reminder of God’s loving attention to underserving people like us.

But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man that you remember him? Or the son of man that you are concerned [episkeptomai] about him?” (Hebrews 2:6)

• When John the Baptist was born, his aged father Zacharias exulted in the birth as a grand visit from God. After 400 years of prophetic silence, the Lord was moving from heaven and showing up on earth’s doorstep.

Blessed by the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people (Luke 1:68).

Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us (Luke 1:78).

• Jesus startled the villagers of Nain by raising a young man from the dead. They recognized that the Lord Himself had showed up.

Fear gripped them all and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” (Luke 7:16)

• At a great council of church leaders in Jerusalem, James observed the new movement of Gentiles coming to Christ and correctly described it as a visitation from God. The Lord Himself stepped onto the scene, moving into action at the house of Cornelius to start a new stage in His kingdom.

Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (Acts 15:14 NKJV).

God’s people should show up for good

The New Testament makes it clear that God’s way of visiting people is a pattern for us.  It’s fine to get together at Starbucks for a chat, but an alert follower of the Lord looks for ways to make it more than just a way to kill time.  Like the Father, we can (1) keep our eyes open for ways to bless the other person and (2) do what we can to meet the needs we see.

Examples:

• Moses left the palace and went to visit his enslaved people, clearly observing their plight and taking action to help – even if it was poorly planned and executed (Acts 7:23).
• Paul and Barnabas had not been back home in Antioch long before they got the urge to retrace the path of their first missionary itinerary. As Paul said, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are” (Acts 15:36).  Notice the two-fold purpose:  to see how they were doing and to help them thrive.
• According to James, what is the core of genuine religion? “To visit orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27)
• Jesus Himself included this concept in His description of the sheep and goat judgment at His return. One of the criteria for entering His kingdom was visitation.

“I was sick and you visited Me” (Matthew 25:36)

[I was] “sick and in prison and you did not visit me” (Matthew 25:43).

Any visit can be a divine encounter, if only we think of it as a true New Testament visit.  God visits with a purpose to bless.  We can enter any conversation with the same intent, looking carefully to understand and acting thoughtfully to help.

 

Study Hint:

One New Testament passage preserves the secular definition of episkeptomai as “to look carefully, to choose.”  In Acts 6:3, the apostles instructed the people to select (literally, “look over and choose” men to oversee the relief program for the widows.  Isn’t it interesting that even this verse is connected to a ministry that would visit widows, get acquainted with their needs, and take action to make sure that they were cared for.  It’s a splendid illustration of New Testament visitation.

 

Coming Up

My high school English teacher used to warn us against the use of a “double negative.”  However, the New Testament uses double negatives in a different way.  The difference can transform your understanding of some verses, and we will consider some examples next week.

Ezra Project 2025