MY JOURNEY – DAY #10 – CHERISH – אהב

MY JOURNEY – DAY #10 – CHERISH – אהב  

 

John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

As I enter my tenth day of searching for the One Whom my soul loves I am forced to really consider what this means to love.  We have so over used this word love that it has literally lost all its meaning.  For instance, what if I were to tell you that in the Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, He did not say: “For God so loved the world.”  He did not say that He loved the world. At least not in the average person who lives in a 21^st Century Western world’s definition of love.  I mean we love our pets, we love our parents, we love our spouses, we love Mc Donald’s, and we love The Simpsons.  We throw that word love around so much in so many different contexts that it has lost its meaning.  I said yesterday that he word chav means an appetite.  It also has another meaning and that is to cherish.

 

Next time you are tempted to put your arm around someone and say; “You know God loves you.”  Say instead: “You know God cherishes you.”  That is what that word chav means in the Aramaic in John 3:16, “For God so cherished the world.”

 

We don’t associate the word cherish with love because that is considered a separate word with a separate meaning in English, but no so in Hebrew.  Hence, God does not just love the world, He cherishes it. He just does not love you He cherishes you.   What is cherish?  Webster defines cherish as holding something or someone dear, to care for tenderly.  I don’t know about you but that puts a whole new face on John 3:16.  I love a Big Mac, but I certainly do not cherish it, nor does  my body.   It is easy to say you love your spouse, but do  you cherish your spouse?

 

Samson Hirsch the 19^th Century Jewish linguist expanded further.  Ahav means to be entirely devoted to someone or something. In its Semitic root it is used to express the idea of offering and bringing forth.  In other words ahav love has the idea of caring so much that you would be willing to give up what is most dear to you.  Finally from this ahav love something is produced, something comes from it. It you truly ahav or love God there will be fruit. There will be love, joy peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness which all springs from ahav.

 

We have no problem believing that God ahav’s us, cherishes us, sacrifices for us, and from it offers  us love, joy, peace etc.  but do we feel the same for God?   So to answer my question as to whether I love God or not I just have to ask myself, do I cherish Him?  Oh,  yes, yes, yes, I do I really do.   Would I sacrifice for Him.  Of course I would and so would you. The only thing that stops us from getting on a bus and starting to  preaching is that we are not absolutely sure God is asking us to do that.  A lot of legitimate questions pop up when we consider getting on a bus and preaching.  Foremost is that it would not do any good if God was not in it. People would automatically pass us off as nuts, crazy unless the Spirit of God was really moving which brings us back to the original question is God telling us to do it. We are not sure so as reasonable people we do not do it.  But if the Archangel Michael appeared to you on a street corner and asked you to do it promising that the Spirit of God would be with you, yeah, you and I would do it in a heartbeat.  Why?  Because we do love ahav Him, we really, really do.  We do cherish Him and we do see the fruit of our ahav in expressing love, compassion, joy, peace and all those other fruits.

 

I cherish Him but more amazing to me is that He actually cherishes me. I am special to Him and I bring Him joy.  If you tell someone that all you want to do is bring that person joy and happiness, is not that the same as saying “I love you.”  For God only wants to bring joy and happiness to the world so He gave His only begotten Son.”    Say you had a simple, cheap key chain of angel for instance.  It means a lot to you, it is important to you and you give it someone.  Is that not saying “I love you” because you gave something dear to you?  Before my father passed away he gave me his Bible.  He didn’t say “I love you.”  But then again, it was ahav.

 

That is why God asked for the first fruits.  The first fruits were always the best, the tastiest, the fruit you are dying to eat, but if your appetite ahav is stronger for God than for that fruit, you will give it to Him without hesitation.