Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Believe it or not, there is only one passage in the entire book of Numbers that mentions heart/ hearts...
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.' " -- Numbers 15:38-40, NIV84
I wrote about this incident nearly nine years ago; click through here to read all the deets I'm not going to go into now.
Suffice it to say here that God had expectations of his people and they were having a difficult time remembering that they now needed to live according to God's instructions. The tassels with a blue cord were to be a visual reminder for them to stop and consider their actions so they could follow God's commandments and decrees.
But I had a bit of an eye-opener when I looked it up the Hebrew in Blue Letter Bible...the default translation is KJV, which renders verse 39 a little more, um, emphatically:
" 'And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.'"
Whoa.
So I checked the NASB...to get the literal translation in a bit more conventional language:
"'And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot,"'
The Hebrew word translated as 'go a whoring' or 'played the harlot' or even the NIV 'prostitute yourselves' is zanah - a primitive root that means, on the most basic level, 'highly fed and therefore wanton', which is an interesting concept in and of itself, and is usually used to indicate committing adultery.
But notice this passage is to indicate a shift...ie, something that USED to happen, that should now no longer happen. The eyes and the heart led them astray, but now...they know better.
What happened in the middle? They were given The Law. They had entered into a covenant relationship with God.
The word for 'your own hearts' here is lebab (Strong's H3824) - " לֵבָב lêbâb, lay-bawb'; from H3823; used also like H3820 the heart (as the most interior organ);:— bethink themselves, breast, comfortably, courage, (faint), (tender-) heart(-ed), midst, mind, × unawares, understanding."
The covenant and commands of God had absolutely no regard for the norms of the society or cultures around them, nor did God's law leave room for indulgence in or pursuit of Power - Possessions- Pleasure...that ol' Triple-P Trap.
But we see that the unregenerate heart, the default setting, so to speak, is inclined to lust/play the harlot/prostitute oneself/ go a whoring right after that Triple-P deal.
The Hebrews were instructed to use the tassels to remind themselves they were called to live by a higher standard. But, you know what history shows...they added the tassels but eventually ignored the meaning of them and lived as they pleased...and suffered for it. Just as we today will wear cross jewelry or put a fish bumper sticker on the car or sport a 'Chosen' t-shirt...and ignore the change in lifestyle/ attitude/ worldview that those things are supposed to signify.
If we are in covenant with God, it should make a difference. We should not be following the default settings of the heart, which will always go off into...harlotry. The difference is...now, we have the Spirit to help us; we don't need to be constantly reminding ourselves. We just need to listen to the right voice.
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