You know, pronouns are so under-appreciated. They are these little words that hold so much hidden meaning. They stand in the place of the names of other, more specific people, places, things, and ideas whose overuse would make language much more monotonous if we employed them all of the time. For example, if I were to read you a story about a boy named John and I used his name every time I mentioned him in the story, you would probably beg me to stop after just a few pages.
Pronouns blur the repetition of specific information so that a reader or listener can move past being introduced to the same thing over and over again and can focus on other pieces of information that add depth and dimension to the story. Having been introduced to one thing, the reader can assume that certain pronouns refer to that one thing and can tuck that understanding away while he/she is introduced to something else.
There’s just one problem: a reader can make an incorrect assumption about what a pronoun represents, and because, in God’s language, specific nouns can symbolize many other things, the meaning of a pronoun can be even further removed from the understanding of the reader. Very quickly, one can completely misinterpret what God is trying to convey in both breadth and depth, at worst, or at best, he/she can understand something very superficially when, in reality, much deeper meanings exist.
Knowing this, one can very easily and effectively develop a fruitful strategy for scripture study: Never assume you know what a pronoun represents. You’re initial assumption of what it represents may be pretty accurate, or it might not, but pronouns, at the very least, provide an opportunity for you to check in with God and ask him if your understanding is less than what it could be.
And remember, there are quite a few pronouns. There are subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they), object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them), possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs), reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves), demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those), and more.
We really do ourselves a disservice when we gloss over these seemingly insignificant words.