Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree
Ok, folks, deep breaths here. As there are no verses containing the words 'heart' or 'hearts' in the NIV translation of Esther, we have arrived at the 'I am quite certain I have bitten off more than I can chew' portion of the study...the Books of Wisdom. If I have counted right (and my squiggling notes could have messed up the count); we have, to date, covered roughly 160 verses. In the five books of wisdom, I count something in the neighborhood of 234 verses; 120ish of those are in Psalms.
Just the fact that I even counted them kinda shows how much I am intimidated by this, lol. Now, I know this is my study and I can adapt/ adjust as much as ever I want, but I really, really do want to just keep ploughing on. I suspect we're going to see a LOT of repetition, especially in the Psalms. I don't want to be a snooze fest over here, but neither do I want to overlook something just because I'm trying to do a Readers Digest Condensed Version. As I've seen in the past, I just never know when some little gem is going to come up where I least expected it. Like today, for instance....
So we are going to stick our collective toe in the water today with just one verse...because Job changes tone REALLY FAST and the first 'hearts' verse is not really related to the rest of the discussion.
The first two chapters are basically the introduction for the rest of the book, providing the context for the arguments that follow. In that opening passage, we find that 1) Job was a righteous man 2) Job was a wealthy man 3) Job had 10 children and 4) Job was protected by God. The scenario is that God showed Satan that Job was an example of a human who did what was right, and Satan taunted God, saying that Job would abandon his faith if that protection was removed. So God gave permission for Satan to do as he pleased with Job life and family, but he was forbidden to harm Job himself. Consequently, in very short order Job lost all of his livestock, all of his wealth, almost all of his servants... and all of his children. When Job still blessed the name of the Lord even in the midst of all his loss, Satan sneered that Job was still protected and would certainly abandon his faith if he suffered physically. So God gave the enemy permission to torment Job physically, but he was forbidden to take his life. Job contracted a debilitating affliction, with boils forming all over his body. He sat in the refuse pile and scraped the boils with broken bits of pottery. But he did not sin in what he said.
He was joined there by three (ultimately four, but we don't know when Elihu showed up) friends, Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar, who sat with him at the dump for a week in silence.
Then the arguments started.
But today, I am just looking at that intro bit, and in it, as I said, there is one verse that mentions 'Hearts':
His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning, he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom. -- Job 1:4-5; 'Hearts' is Strong's H 3824, Lebab, which we have seen repeatedly...the inner man, mind will, heart, soul, understanding.
I just want to point out something that I really hadn't considered before covering this today. Here we are, in the opening verses of the oldest book of the Old Testament...and sin is described as something that happens in the heart. This is not a New Testament concept. Now, we know from the choice of David as king that God considered the heart to be of supreme importance, but I'm not sure this isn't really the first time we have encountered the concept of sin taking place in the heart.
But that's just a function of how the books are arranged. If we started with the oldest book, that concept would be introduced right from the git-go.
One can sin in one's heart... and that sin has to do with one's opinion of God.
Yup, that's a concept I know we are going to touch again before we leave the Books of Wisdom...
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