Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Our cruise through the NIV 84, looking at words translated 'Heart/ hearts' , has brought us to the middling chapters of Ezekiel. We'll look at six selections today, starting in chapter 18...
"Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" -- Ez. 18:31-32; 'heart' is the familiar Strong's H 3820, Leb inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding
Here's another passage that foreshadows the concept of a new birth... a new heart and a new spirit. The plea to repent and live...Why will you die? strikes me as especially poignant. Why indeed? It's just as relevant today.
In chapter 20, Ezekiel is doing a review of Israel's history:
"Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I had given them -- a land flowing with milk and honey, most beautiful of all lands -- because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols." -- Ez. 20:15-16; 'Hearts' is H 3820 again.
A heart devoted to an idol cannot be a heart devoted to God.
"Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. And when they ask you, 'Why are you groaning?' you shall say, 'Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every knee become as weak as water.' It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. -- Ez. 21:6-7; the second occurrence of 'heart' is , once again, H3820, but the first one is a word we have not seen yet, Strong's H4975, Matnayim - loins, side, greyhound (? 'perhaps an extinct animal'). I actually think this is a literal reference to, um, broken loins....let's just say acute, excruciating pain. The NIV translating it as a broken heart is an idiomatic translation that's a little more delicate than an exact translation would be.
In any case, Ezekiel is instructed to grieve over the coming judgment. His timeline is that he is prophesying after the first deportation of Jewish leaders to Babylon, but before the final destruction of Jerusalem. The context of the chapter is very clearly prophesying the final and utter defeat of the nation of Judah. Judgment was coming...and the people were not believing it.
The warning continues; we have another reference to melting hearts...
"So that hearts may melt and the fallen be many, I have stationed the sword for slaughter at their gates. Oh! It is made to flash like lightning, it is grasped for slaughter." -- Ez. 21:15; 'Hearts' is, again, H 3820.
It actually did not matter one whit that the people didn't think it was going to happen; that they were doing what seemed right to them. Horrible, tragic, absolute judgment was coming.
And all the people had to do to avert it was listen to the prophet, confess and repent of their idolatry, and follow God's covenant.
Why will you die?
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