Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Genesis part 2

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This is going to be...interesting.  I have gone about four different ways with this, and scratched each one.  Time to just bite the bullet and just talk about what we have.

There are four remaining 'heart' references in the NIV in Genesis.  The first references Abraham's servant, who returned to Aram to get a bride for Isaac, and who prayed a prayer asking for a specific sign to identify the lady he was seeking.

 "Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder.  She went down to the spring and drew water and I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'" - Gen. 24:45

God hears our hearts, y'all.  The things we don't even speak, that we don't dare to speak.  In a space where I only want God to hear me...he hears me. I don't think I had ever caught this little detail in this story before; always before, I had thought about the prayer and its answer, but the fact that he prayed in his heart...not out loud...had escaped notice.

Think on this for a minute.  True story:  when my oldest was expecting her first baby about three years ago, we were sitting (socially distant) on the front porch talking about various things and she happened to mention that she thought a particular item that I'd used for diaper disposal with her younger siblings was a cool thing.  I commented that I hadn't seen one...or even advertising for one...in a really long time and didn't even know if it was still a thing.  My mobile phone would have been in my pocket. In less than 24 hours, I had an advertisement for that very thing on my social media.  Someone was listening, somehow. If modern technology can hear a conversation, do not think it impossible that  God hears your heart.  He knows the truth about you that no one else could begin to guess. This is probably a theme we will hit over and over again as we go along, but for now...You don't have to make a big show or get loud to pray.  God hears your heart.

Ten chapters later, we have a rather dismal story of violence.  There's no way to tiptoe around it...for all the verse with 'heart' sounds all sweet and flowery and romantic, the truth is the dude first violated the girl (not using the 'r' word...which would be more accurate...because I don't want to end up in salacious searches).  After the act, then we read

His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.  - Gen. 34: 3

The next verse in my list, part of that same story, actually isn't translated 'heart' in some other translations.  In fact, it is a different Hebrew word than the rest of the words we're looking at today.  This one is nepes (Strongs' H5315);The others are all leb (Strong's H3824).

But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter.  Please give her to him as his wife."  Gen 34: 8

Other translations use something along the lines of 'his soul yearns for'.  The connotation from both verses, even through it is different words...is a deep-seated desire. This kind of ties in with last week's post, in which we talked about the unregenerate human heart seeking pleasure, possessions and power. (I think I'm going to just call this the 'triple-p trap' as it is going to come up over and over again).  True love doesn't assault another person to satisfy a desire. In this case, the prince's determination to have what he desired started a chain of events that cost his people greatly, although it's worth noting that the people of the area had their eyes on a devious prize as well, if you read the rest of the chapter (see verse 23, specifically).   The triple-p trap is quite visible there.

The last reference to 'heart/ hearts' in Genesis has another implication from either of these:

At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack. "My silver has been returned," he said to his brothers. "Here it is in my sack."   Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, "What is this that God has done to us?"  Gen. 42:27-28

This is an emotional description.  Dread, dismay, disappointment, discouragement, depression; all the downer words are implied by 'their hearts sank'.  Here, the heart is used as the center of emotions.

So, we see 'heart' used as 1) the inner spirit, a place of communicating with God 2) the origin of desire and 3) the center of emotions.

I expect we will hit these same themes over and over again.  But...at the end we should have a solid view of 'heart'.

I just hope it doesn't get so repetitive that it bores y'all to tears...in your hearts... ;-)

New Series - Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Genesis: Grieving the Heart of God

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This has been brewing for a while now.  I was so impacted by the word study I did on 'Desert' that I was itching to do another one.   That was the first word study I'd done; would another one be as eye opening?  I began to have a curiosity to see what the Bible says about hearts...the heart of man, the heart of God.

So I pulled out Ye Olde Exhaustive Concordance (well, maybe not so Ye Olde...it is based on the NIV and not King James) and looked up Heart/ Hearts.

Y'all.   I may have bitten off more than I can chew; we may still be looking at this topic when The Last Trumpet sounds.  That's just the first two pages, through Song of Songs.  I've got another page of references from the prophets.  I haven't started the New Testament yet.  I confess, I wavered a bit, daunted by that list (we could potentially be in Psalms for WEEKS, maybe MONTHS...).  But I took a deep breath, steeled my nerve, and decided to go for it.

As it turns out, there are only 6 references in Genesis, so it will be a good ease-in to what could prove to be a bigger challenge than I know, lol.  But let's dive in just the same.

The first listing in the concordance is Genesis 6:5 - 6 (all references today will be from the NIV 84)

The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

The second listing references the first somewhat:

The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma [of the sacrifice Noah made after coming out of the ark] and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.  And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."  - Gen. 8:21

Ok.  Change of plan.  The next reference is way, way down the road, and it and all the rest are in completely different contexts, and there is enough right there to think about, so we'll just look at these two today.

Yep.  Gonna be doing this study for a looong time....

No matter.  It's all about the journey anyway.

So...right off the bat, we have a mention of both the heart of man and the heart of God.  In this case, the 'heart of man' is a generalization about the entire human race, not the heart of A man, but the state of the heart of every human.

Every inclination of the heart of a human being is evil.  Now, this is the natural state of the human heart; knowing what I know, we will find verses that indicate this can be changed...by God.  But left to oneself, without redemption and reformation, humans inevitably do  what they want without regard to how that affects anyone else.  Thievery, murder, rape, manipulation, lying, cheating, rebellion,  and the like are all tactics humans employ to get what they want.  Pleasure, possessions and power.

The entire human population of Noah's day had left the pursuit of God and replaced it with the pursuit of  pleasure, possessions and power.  And their entire society was wicked enough to grieve..to cause actual pain to...the heart of God.

Just between you, me, and the fencepost; I have a hypotheses that Noah and his family, who DID follow God, were actually in danger from the rest of the population, for the same reason Abel was murdered by Cain.  The presence of righteousness is an affront to the spirit of one who has abandoned that path.  I kinda suspect that if God had not intervened in some way, Noah and his family would have been annihilated. 

Now, that's just my opinion, and certainly not specified in any scriptures that I have found.  But it does make sense.  There was a promise at stake...the promise that the offspring of Eve would crush the head of the serpent that deceived them.  One attempt had already been made to thwart that bloodline, with the death of Abel, but Eve was not past the point of childbearing and Seth was born to keep the bloodline intact.  BUT... if the enemy could somehow wipe out  Seth's descendant Noah and his family...there was no one left to carry that promise.  The entire population had abandoned God, save for Noah.

Or was it just coincidence that Noah's father, Lamech, died an unusually early death for that time period, 5 years before the flood, and his grandfather, Methuselah, died the year of the flood? Could one or both have been a martyr to the mob, whose 'every inclination of the thought of the heart' was evil?

Not making doctrine out of this, but it is interesting to consider.  Because that would mean that God intervened because he HAD to.  To preserve the promise.  And it caused him great pain.  His very heart was grieved by what mankind had become and what he had to do to keep the promised redemption possible.

But Noah, who HAD followed God in the midst of all the wickedness around him, worshiped after all the loss.  And his worship blessed God.  So God made himself a heart promise (he said in his heart) that he would never destroy the earth again in that manner.  Even though he acknowledged that the heart of man tends towards wickedness, he promised himself that this would not happen again.

God has intervened in other ways down through history to protect the promise, which was fulfilled in Jesus.

He has kept his promise.

In between studies... what difference does it make?

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Well, it fits the topic, so I'll pull the old faithful pic up again...

I have found myself pondering something this week, whilst I ruminate on the next study.  I think I have an idea of what it will be, likely another word study, but as I have pondered it I have found myself wondering why it is one of my passions to see folks enabled to pick up the Word and dig into it for themselves.

Several years back, I referenced some research done that indicated that, statistically, people who 'engaged' the Word at least four times a week had much fewer negative outcomes as life progressed...fewer divorces, fewer addiction issues (of all kinds), fewer instances of kids in various kinds of trouble...just, all in all, a much less traumatic life, while folks who indicated that they were followers of Jesus but did not 'engage' the Word often, it at all, actually had lives that were statistically no different than people who did not follow Jesus.

And 'engaging the Word' had three parts - 1) receive the Word, either through reading the Bible oneself, listening to an audio version, reading a book that discussed and expounded on the Word, or even listening to a teaching or sermon that expounded on the Word, 2) reflecting on the Word...that is, comparing the truth received to the way one is conducting one's life to see where the life doesn't match up and 3) responding to the Word...making corrections in the way one conducts oneself, perceives things, sets priorities, etc., so that one's life lines up to the truth received.

Step one is my soapbox.  Get into the Word.  Make it a priority.  Pay attention to what you read (all Bible study methods are basically gimmicks to help you pay attention, when you get down to it). BUT.

Steps two and three are not something that can be objectively taught.  Either someone is willing to think about what they're reading/ learning and applying it...or they're not.   Reading/ studying/ etc. is only truly beneficial if it is done for personal growth.  Not for weaponizing against someone else's ideology or action.  

Oh, of course, we are to study to show ourselves to be rightly handling the Word (2 Tim 2:15), but just reading the Word without applying the Word is...kinda pointless.

Jesus, in the 'house on the sand' parable - 

"Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?....The one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.  The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed, and its destruction was complete."   - Lk 6:46, 49, NIV 84; see also Matt 7:24 - 27.

James hits this concept pretty hard in his epistle:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  James 1:23

This is what he's talking about in chapter two, when he says 'Faith without deeds is useless' (James 2:20) and 'faith without deeds is dead' (James 2:26).  Not that your deeds are what make you a believer...but that anyone who follows Jesus will do what he said.  

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me....He who does not love me will not obey my teaching."  Jesus speaking in John 14:21a and 24a.

The plain truth is that while it is important to study the Word of God...studying it without allowing it to affect the way you live and work and interact with others is, well, not very profitable.

Reading the Word is the starting point.  To fully engage...it must be implemented.

But fully engaging the Word is statistically proven to make a difference.

Receive it.

Reflect on it

Respond to it.

Making Space...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This song has been on repeat since January...so much in it that speaks my heart.

And maybe it explains the last six Wednesday nights.

See, we do small groups at church on Wednesday nights.  Usually 10 weeks in the fall, and 10 weeks in the spring.  I have been teaching a class on some simple Bible study methods; We finished the spring semester on April 19.  But this year, the decision was made to do a 6 week 'minimester' to finish out the spring instead of doing the large group Bible study we have done in the past.  My class wasn't one that was asked to repeat/ continue for the short term, so I kinda was at loose ends to decide what I should do.

I didn't really want to jump into a class that was a continuation of what they'd been doing...and there were only a couple that were starting up new.  One was a marriage class, but I didn't really want to do that without My Sweet Babboo, who works in the boy's ministry on Wednesday nights.  I thought about doing the other, as it was being taught by one of my favorite teachers in our church, but it was material that I'd already covered when I took the ministry school classes.  What to do, what to do.  

Then, the Wednesday the mini-mester started, I had a sudden thought: Why don't I ask God what  I should do?  And then see if I get some kind of direction.

Y'all.  I prayed that little prayer and IMMEDIATELY heard in my spirit, 'Why don't you just spend that time with Me?'

What?  Skip church and come home and just spend the time with Bible and journal?  But even as I thought that I knew it wouldn't work...I had too many distractions.  Too many Things That Need to Be Done.  Well...could I just sit in my office at church and ...nope.  Too Many Things there, too.  But...no one was using the classroom I had been teaching in...

And suddenly, I had an idea for a small group named 'We Make Space -- Spending Time with God' in which we would NOT have a specific group time, per se, but after a quick devotional prompt we could all, like, spread out and turn the desks (it is an old school, and they left us the desks, lol) to the wall and each one spend the time with Bible, journal and Holy Spirit.

I wrote it up really quickly and emailed it to our life group pastors to see if they liked it.  But, I realized it was an extremely short notice...it hadn't been on the sign up lists, there would be no signage made...it wouldn't be easy to pull off.  So, I asked that, if we didn't promote it as a group, would it be ok if I used the classroom for some personal seeking time?

Then I grabbed my Message  Bible, because I wanted a version that I'm not as familiar with (and I'm not a big fan of The Message, but it works for a prayer prompt) so as to not be a routine read, my journal and my little blue tooth speaker and, on a whim, a book that I got a  while back but hadn't really gotten much into, and threw it all in a tote bag and headed for church, not really knowing what was going to happen.  

My hunch was right...there wasn't time for that to be a group, but it was no problem for me to use the room for my own seeking time.

I went up that night during the class time and shut myself into the room, turned on some music rather low so as to mask the conversation from the next room without disturbing them, and opened my books.

The book I'd grabbed at the last minute was  Hebrew Word Study: Revealing the Heart of God by Chaim Bentorah. I had bought it thinking it would be an introduction to Hebrew or some such thing but it wasn't that at all.  It is a collection of articles or devotions based on different Hebrew words or phrases.  I had read a few when the book arrived and had found them thought provoking but hadn't really made an effort to dig into it.  I thought, since it was a devotional style, it might be good for a prayer prompt.

Guys.  Those Wednesday nights were AMAZING.  90 minutes of uninterrupted time with no distractions to focus on personal communion.

I did learn something about Hebrew from that devotional book.  Unlike English, where words are made up of letters representing sounds, Hebrew words are made up of letters representing concepts; the meaning of the word is tied up in the letters used to spell it; the pronunciation follows the spelling, not the other way round.  And most Hebrew words derive from a set of three-letter root words. It's incredibly complex and deeply layered.  So naturally, the words I studied all had much richer meanings than the simple English translation would indicate.

The words inspired journal entries that were conversations...I'd write a bit, then change the color in my four color pen and record the words that came to me as a response.  That is, as you can imagine, deeply personal...but it was inspiring and affirming and challenging and the six Wednesdays went by in a flash.

What I came away with, in a nutshell, is that the heart of God yearns for intimate communion with His people.  One of the words I studied is a word that can be translated 'hug'...and I left the classroom that night with a sense of inner peace the likes of which I don't think I have ever felt before.  It was profound....and it hasn't really left.  It's still there, under the surface. The Father's hug.  If I had gotten nothing else but that, it would still have been an amazing time.

I have to find a way to block out the distractions so I can continue that pursuit at home.

Which was, of course, the whole point of the exercise.  To make space...clear out the clutter...welcome Him...and to get accustomed to doing it so I could continue in less specific circumstances.

There is a PS to this...the small group pastors loved the concept, for all there wasn't time to pull it off this go round, so it will be something that I do with others as an actual group at some point in the future...