Putting the Heart Study on Hiatus...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to  Beer Lahai Roi

It's been a busy month....

Just returned from a trip to Florida; My Sweet Babboo was teaching three sessions in a class at the Florida Royal Ranger camp, which just happens to be about 15 minutes from The Flute Player and her hubby; we had time share points to burn before the end of June and The Actor's birthday was just before Mother's Day...so we headed south for a week.  The classes were great, we got to do a belated birthday celebration for the Actor and worship with friends who are pastors of the church at which the kids are on staff (Berkely Chapel) and then we spent three nights at the resort that's next door to Animal Kingdom and crammed in all four parks before we headed north again.  We are tired and footsore but we had fun.

And, I'm telling you, scheduling a return from vactation on the start of a holiday weekend is PURE GOLD.

So that's why I missed last week's post, lol.  And the week before...well, I've been  spending my writing time working on a thing and I finally got a first draft done.  I've written up the curriculum I've been using for about 7 years to teach a very basic 'How to study the Bible' class.  I've already referenced most of the key info in the blog in past posts, but I had to get it organized into something like a workbook.

I have no idea what, if anything, I will do with it.  I've sent the 1st draft to a number of folks at church for their recommendations...we are revamping our discipleship programs somewhat and I'm not sure that my class will fit the new model but at least I have something put together.  If you clicked through the link, you'll know this is very, very basic...just to help folks get over the intimidation factor of Bible study.  I might just post the whole thing here, in installments... It's not that long.

But, having more or less finished that...at least, until I get some feedback...I should be ready to dive back into my weekly study here.  Except...in two weeks, I'm getting a new hip and EVERYTHING is going on hiatus for a bit.  So I've decided to make life easy on myself and I will resume the study once I'm off of narcotic pain killers, lol.  I may drop in with a couple of 'Here's something I've been pondering' posts before the surgery, but I do have a LOT of things I want to get done 'before the surgery', so I'll just see how things go.

I've had a few people tell me that, after I've healed up, I'll ' wonder why you waited so long to do this', but this is literally the first time I've had a big enough gap in the calendar to schedule it since the dr told me I needed it.  Even then, it's a squeeze; we've a family vacation coming up in September and it's going to be close whether I'm back to at least where I am now at that point.  The surgery is amazing; it's an outpatient proceedure that takes 45 minutes.  I'm told it's much easier than knee surgery...and, as I'm likely going to have to have the knee replaced too...I am really hoping the folks who are telling me I'll be up and going in no time are right.

Once I'm off the pain meds (which I hope to be Really Soon...I hate that stuff) I should be able to get back onto a fairly regular posting schedule again.

Just in case you were wondering, lol. 

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - 2 Chronicles, part 3, The Reign of Hezekiah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It has been a minute.  We've taken two road trips since the last installment and life has been busy.  I had to go back and re-read the last Heart of the Matter post, and I found...I goofed.  I said that we would take up the narrative with Joash, who was made king at age 7 after the coup against Athaliah and...I was wrong,  There is no reference to heart/ hearts in the narrative about Joash so we skip all the way to the revival under Hezekiah.

Now, I will admit that, as I was perusing around, I discovered that there are some uses of the Hebrew words for heart/ hearts that we have been looking at that were not translated as 'heart/hearts' in the NIV.  I had a bit of a struggle with that, but ultimately decided not to go chasing all of those down because...I haven't been doing that so far and it would be rather inconsistent to start now.  So I'm sticking with the NIV 84 Exhaustive concordance.  Just for the record.

ANYWAY...the next reference we have in the NIV to heart/ Hearts is 2 Chron 29:31:

Then Hezekiah said, "You have now dedicated yourselves to the LORD. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the LORD."  So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings.  ("hearts" - Strong's H 3820, one of the two Hebrew words that we see repeatedly.  Interesting to note that the NIV 2011 does not translate this but just says 'those who are willing')

This was the rededication of the Temple after the idolatry of Hezekiah's father, Ahaz.

They also had the Passover festival for the first time in many years, and Hezekiah sent invitations to the tribes in the northern kingdom as well, and the couriers were pretty much scorned there. But, there were some folks who took the message to heart and came to Jerusalem for the festival.

Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written.  But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God - the LORD, the God of his fathers -- even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.  -- 2 Chron. 30:18-20;  'Heart' is the other word we're seeing over and over again, Strong's H 3824., from which our previous word, Strong's H 3820, is derived, both meaning 'inner man, mind, will, understanding'.

I think this is interesting...Hezekiah interceded for the people, requesting that God honor the intention of the heart even though they had not followed the letter of the law...and God answered that prayer and healed the people of...whatever had afflicted them after their transgression. God responded according to the heart of the people who had, likely from ignorance, not fulfilled all the requirements of the Law.  And the people responded by keeping the festival for an entire extra week, and then smashing the idols and Asherah poles.

My friends, that's revival.  Not just hanging out at church for extended services, but going out and dismantling the things that distracted the people from true worship to God.  That's not just loving the service because it made them feel good...that's making a commitment to God and following through.

Because...their hearts were right.  Even if their actions weren't perfect.  And they didn't just SAY their hearts were right...they demonstrated it by ridding themselves of their idols.  

That's worth a selah right there.

But people are people and we can't seem to maintain that dedication.  Somewhere along the line, the practice of  faith becomes a point of pride, which is laughably ironic.  It happened over and over to the kings of Judah, and Hezekiah was no different.

The Assyrians had attacked and defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel, carting those folks off to who knows where and bringing a polyglot of folks abducted from random other places to occupy the land (folks whose descendants would later become known as 'Samaritans').  But God had intervened and protected Hezekiah and his people from the Assyrians and Judah remained independent.  As a result, Hezekiah had a highly favorable reputation among the other nations.

But apparently Hezekiah thought he had something to do with that.

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.  He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign.  But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.  Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD's wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.  2 Chron. 32:24-26

Good for Hezekiah, but he did have a moment of pride that cost him.  A delegation of folks from an insignificant kingdom to the north came round for a visit, and Hezekiah showed them ALL his wealth and ALL his military strength and ALL his business.  What could it hurt?  They came from a long way off, right?

But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. -- 2 Chron. 32:31; 'Heart' is  Strong's H 3824 again.

Hezekiah's desire to impress these folks from the faraway land of Babylon came from a place of pride.  And God allowed him to make that choice.

That choice ultimately cost the nation everything.  Oh, not then, and not in his son's lifetime or his grandson's lifetime or even his great-grandson's lifetime.  But when the nation's idolatry reached the breaking point, the judgement came.  I don't think it was coincidence that it was Babylon that executed that judgement.

That small 'What could it hurt?' thing has a way of turning into a pivotal choice.  Sobering.