Blogging Bible Study - The Heart of the Matter: Lamentations

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

In the holiday season...posts will just come when they come, lol....My schedule is all whacked and most of the time I'm not even sure what day it is....although I confess I am completely dumbfounded that Thanksgiving is in 4 days.  I'm kind of afraid I'll forget to do something critical.  But, we are still proceeding to look at 'heart/hearts' as translated by the NIV 84...and we have arrived at Lamentations.

I don't know if you all have notes in your Bibles; my NIV 84 has Scofield's notes and there is some interesting information about the poetry in Lamentations.  The first four chapters are rather like Psalm 119...Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 have 22 verses; in chapters 1 and 2, each verse which starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Chapter 3 has 66 verses...22 sets of 3 verses, and each of the three verses in a set starts with the same Hebrew letter, so that each of the 22 sets is alphabetical (like the 8 verse sets in Ps. 119).   Chapter 5 is not alphabetical; however, it is poetic in the sense that the second phrase of each verse is shorter than the first phrase, which has a somber cadence.

So Jeremiah wasn't just a prophet, he was also quite the poet.

I am just going to comment on the context and the words used here; the depth of grief Jeremiah expresses in this short little set of poems is sobering.  This is a small little glimpse of his sorrow.

In chapter 1, Jeremiah is writing as if he were Jerusalem/ the nation of Judah

"See, O LORD, how distressed I am!  I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious.  Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death. People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me.  All my enemies have heard of my distress; they rejoice at what you have done.  May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like me.  Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins.  My groans are many and my heart is faint."  Lam 1: 20 - 22;  both instances of 'heart' are Strong's H 3820 - Leb - inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding. 

Jeremiah is writing out his own grief in chapter 2

My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.   -- Lam. 2: 11  'Heart' is a word we haven't seen before, H 3516 - kabed - liver, heaviest organ.  This is another one of those words that I think has been translated idiomatically as modern English speakers don't have a concept of the liver being poured out in sorrow...but the heart, yes, we would definitely have a concept of the heart being poured out.

The hearts of the people cry out to the LORD.  O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.  Arise, cry out in the night as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.  Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.  -- Lam 2: 18 - 19;  both instances of heart are again H 3820. 

Jeremiah identifies himself with his nation in chapter 3::

He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. Lam 3: 12- 13; 'Heart' here is H 3629, kilya  -- kidneys, reins.  I'm just going to observe that the ancient Hebrews were varied in their organ references; us modern folks do not associate emotions with organs so much.  The NIV has translated this, as was done above with 'liver', as 'heart' because...idioms.  

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: "We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven." - Lam. 3:40-41; 'Heart' here is the second most common Hebrew word, Strong's H 3824, Lebab - inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding.  I am also reminded that 'lebab' has the connotation of joining one's heart to God, which certainly makes sense here.

At the end of chapter 3, Jeremiah laments the treatment he has personally received from those in positions of authority, and asks God to avenge him.

Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, for what their hands have done.  Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!  -- Lam. 3: 64-65; 'Heart' is H 3820 again.

There are no references to 'heart/ hearts' in chapter four; chapter five is a prayer on behalf of the people:

Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.  The crown has fallen from our head.  Woe to us, for we have sinned! Because of this, our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.  -- Lam. 5:15-17; both instances of 'heart'  here are H 3820.

Aside from the bit in Lam. 3:21-26, which is the famous 'Great is thy faithfulness' passage, reminding us that there is hope even in the bleakest judgment...this is a very sad little book.  As it should be, lamenting the fall and destruction of a nation.  Hearts faint.  Hearts melt.  Hearts are poured out on the ground; hearts are pierced.  Joy has departed.  

Repentance was declined. Judgment fell.  Jeremiah, who had seen all his warnings ignored, lamented.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Jeremiah, part 7

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok, I'm going to be honest here... due to December time off blackouts at work, I can't use vacation/ non-emergency PTO in December.  And since my hubby has been using up most all of his time off on  boys ministry related events...I have extra to use before, like, Thanksgiving. This means I have been taking random days off since I got back from Indiana...as a result, I am completely lost in any given week, lol, and have no idea what day it is.  So until I get back to a normal schedule, I might be, you know, off a day or so.

But be that as it may, we are finishing Jeremiah in our look at the words translated as 'Heart' and 'Hearts' in the NIV 84.

There is no mention of  'heart/ hearts/ in the narrative of the fall of Judah, the final exile, and the disobedience of those who were left in Judah, which is documented through chapter 45;  in chapter 46, the text shifts to a pronouncement of judgment of the nations in the area, and that is the context of all the verses we will look at today. 

This is what the LORD says: "Look!  An eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab.  Kerioth will be captured and the strongholds taken.  In that day the hearts of Moab's warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor. Moab will be destroyed as a nation because she defied the LORD. -- Jer. 48:41; both 'hearts' and 'heart' are Strong's H 3820, Leb - inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding.

Ok, as a woman who has gone through natural childbirth four times, I am slightly offended at the surface implication that a woman in labor is weak.  Just sayin'.  But I suppose the actual connotation is that a laboring woman is totally absorbed in the task at hand and certainly is in no shape to fight any other battle.  And that IS the truth.  Once things hit a certain point, I couldn't even carry on a conversation.  The outside world did not exist. Imagine an entire army so preoccupied with...whatever...that they couldn't even raise a token resistance to the invaders.  Because she defied the LORD.

The next declaration is against Edom:

"The terror you inspire and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks, who occupy the heights of the hill.  Though you build your nest as high as the eagle's, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.  - Jer. 49:16; 'Heart' is, once again, H 3820.

The high ground is no advantage when God declares judgment.  Whatever victories have happened in the past, when judgment falls...everything falls.

And, once more, the 'woman in labor' analogy...

"Look!  An eagle will soar and swoop down, spreading its wings over Bozrah.  In that day the hearts of Edom's warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor." -- Jer. 49:22.  Both instances are, as before, H 3820.  Edom will fall.

The last mention of heart/ hearts in Jeremiah is in the pronouncement against Babylon...but this verse is directed towards the people of God in exile in Babylon...

Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. -- Jer. 51:46. 'Heart' this time is H 3824. lebab - inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding.

Interesting that this form of 'heart is used here.  As we saw last week, this form has an extra emphasis on joining one's heart to God's.  The Jews in exile were going though some stuff, no doubt about that.  But God is actually encouraging them to keep their hearts towards him through the uncertain times.  

If we truly know the one who's ultimately running the show...he's got it.

Good for folks in these uncertain times, too.

Blogging Bible Study : The Heart of the Matter - Jeremiah, Part 6

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Back after a bit of a chaotic couple of weeks; all is well, it's just been...hectic, lol.  But we are diving back into our cruise through the words listed in the Exhaustive Concordance of the NIV 84 translated as 'heart/hearts' and we are starting today in Jeremiah 29: 13, one of the most encouraging promises we have encountered in this study; the original audience was the nation of Judah, who had neglected to follow the commandments of God fully and was on the brink of disastrous judgement...I am actually going to include the whole context here:

This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you  and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.   I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and I will bring you back from captivity."    - Jer. 29:10 - 14a.

I am going to take just a second here and go a little more in depth on the word translated as 'heart' here.  It is Strong's H 3824, Lebab  - inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding.  It is the second most common word translated as 'heart/hearts', but we haven't had it come up for a while and I have stumbled onto a little more info about that word in the meantime.  I have been using Chaim Bentorah's Hebrew Word Study: Revealing the Heart of God as a devotional study off an on for a while and I recently read the essay he'd written about this very word.   This word is spelled, in Hebrew, Lamed Beth Beth (I don't have the Hebrew alphabet available) .  Bentorah writes "I have read in Jewish literature that when you find the word Heart with a double beth after the lamed, it indicates your heart and God's heart joined together."   The word we have seen used the most frequently, Leb, is spelled Lamed Beth.   

Which all puts a slightly different spin on this phrase...you will find me when you seek me with all your heart...if we put that context on it.  Seeking God with one's whole heart is actually melding one's heart with God's.  Which kind of implies not holding back any part of one's heart from God but yielding the whole lot to him.  And it is significant that God is telling this to them on the front end:  seventy years, then they will call to him and yield to him and they would be restored, not only back to their land, but, ultimately, to the relationship God and his people were meant to have.

But...the people had neglected the Sabbaths, they had mixed their worship of God with the local pagan deities and they had rejected the true prophets who brought words of warning and calls for repentance.  There was judgment coming.

The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart.   In days to come, you will understand this.  -- Jer 30:34; 'Heart' is that Hebrew word we have seen translated as 'Heart' the most often,  Strong's 3820, Leb -- inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding. 

Over and over again, the residents of Judah were warned that God's judgment was coming.  They'd already seen the exile of the northern kingdom of Israel,  and had been told over and over that, unless they repented, they would not escape a similar fate.  

God never stopped loving his people, though, even when they were suffering the consequences of their actions.

"Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight?  Though I often speak against him, I still remember him.  Therefore, my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him," declares the LORD. -- Jer 31:20.  This is another one of of those instances in which the NIV renders a word as 'heart' because that makes more sense to modern readers than a literal translation.  The Hebrew word translated as 'heart' here is Strong's H4578 - Me'e - internal organs, inward parts, bowels, intestines, belly.   We folks of the late 20th and early 21st century do not think about yearning for someone with the bowels, but that was a common idiom/imagery in ancient Israel.  

Ephraim was a reference to the ten tribes that made up the northern kingdom of Israel, which had fallen to the Assyrians during the reign of Hezekiah in the south.  By Jeremiah's time, there was little remaining of those folks in that area as the Assyrians had carted most of the people off and left them scattered about their empire, bringing in other folks from foreign countries to work the land there.  The genealogies  were lost and the folks who were now living in what used to be the northern kingdom now had no way to determine their ancestry...and they became what was later known as 'Samaritans'.  But God remembers Ephraim.  He knows where those descendants are.  Their story isn't over, despite it looking like they have all been lost to history.  God hasn't lost them.

There is a new covenant is coming, as we see just a few verses later:

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD.  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people."    -- Jer. 31:33; 'Hearts' is, once more, H 3820

A new covenant...written upon the heart.  This, of course, refers to the new covenant Jesus sealed with his sacrifice.

One more passage to look at today...

"I will give them singleness of heart and action, so they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."  -- Jer. 32:39-41 ; both instances of 'heart' are H 3820 again.

"Singleness of heart and action"...I think this is still in the future, because even Paul writes about doing the thing he knows he shouldn't do, and not doing the thing he knows he should do; a war in his spirit between the old and new nature (Romans 7).  But in the coming eternal kingdom, the old nature has gone and there is no more internal battle.  That will be at the fulfillment of all things, when the enemy has been routed and God truly reigns in all the earth.