HEBREW WORD STUDY – IN HIS HEART – ‘EL LEVO אל לבו
Genesis 8:21: “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said to his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.”
Psalms 14:1: “To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.”
If you were reading a love letter and your beloved began by saying: “I said to my heart, ‘I will follow my lover to the ends of the earth.’” Then in the next paragraph, you beloved says: “I said in my heart: ‘Perhaps my lover would like a quiet meal at home rather than go to a restaurant.’” Would you pause to question why your beloved first wrote: “I said to my heart” and then wrote: “I said in my heart.” You likely would not pick up on that subtle change in prepositions until maybe the 10th or 20th reading. Then you would pause and say to yourself: “I wonder why she said in my heart when following me to the ends of the earth, but said to my heart when thinking of dinner.” However, if it is a love letter there would be a 10th or 20th reading and you would be examining every word your lover wrote and question the choice of each word. The reason you would read and re-read a love letter and not, say, a form letter advertisement is because this love letter is personal and you are seeking to discover the secrets of your lover’s heart and you know that if examine this love letter very closely it will expose the true passions of your beloved’s heart.
To many Christians, the Bible is not much more than a form letter or advertisement from some insurance company trying to sell you life insurance. Perhaps you might give it a quick reading just to see if there is anything you could use but generally, it goes unread or is never even opened. The Bible is a love letter and if read over and over you will begin to understand the passions of your God. Jeremiah 29:13: “And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” The word heart here lev, means your passions. If you have a passion for God and you search His Word with all your passions you will find him. The word find is matsa which means to discover and possess, to reap or acquire. It is a picture of searching for something very precious in order that you may claim it as your own. Just as you give yourself to God He will in return give Himself to you but only if you truly want Him. The proof that you long to desire Him is that you will search for Him with all your passions.
I once had a professor in a business class tell us that every one of us in that class could be a millionaire within five years but likely only one would actually accomplish it. My professor said the reason is that we all would like a million dollars, but very few of us want it bad enough to make the sacrifice to obtain it. We all want God but how many of us want Him bad enough to search for Him with all our hearts. How many would wonder why God uses the preposition to when speaking to His heart and yet Scripture records others saying “In their hearts?”
The sages asked this in the Mishnah Rabbah and in searching it out they found that the wicked always say in their hearts but the righteous always say ‘el levo to their hearts. In other words the wicked are subject to their heart or passions where the righteous have their hearts under control, they will not be driven by their fleshly passions and desires. I checked it out and indeed the wicked, Jereboam in I Kings 12:25, Esau in Genesis 24:41, and Hamon in Esther 6:6 for example always spoke in their hearts but the righteous like Hannah in I Samuel 1:13, David in I Samuel 27:1 or Daniel in Daniel 1:8 all spoke to their hearts.
Our hearts can be deceitfully wicked according to Jeremiah 17:9. We have a choice we can speak in our hearts, that just allows ourselves to be subject to the wickedness in our hearts or we can control our hearts and speak to it commanding it to do the right thing
Love the Hebrew depth of God’s Word.
Very, very nourishing to my soul
Very astute! It is similar to the role emotions play in our life. Some people make all their decisions based on emotions (what they feel in the moment), and predictably, their lives inevitably run a muck. Those who decide based on logic and, more importantly, based on YHWH’S instruction (Torah), tend to have less tumult and drama in their lives and more success and peace.
Thank you so much for your translations. I can look how what a word “reads” but need lots of help understanding what it says. I just wish Facebook would let these come thru daily instead of now and then.
Thank you- I really enjoyed today’s writing! (What woman doesn’t enjoy talking about love letters!) But I appreciated your sentence, “We all want god but how many of us want Him bad enough to search Him with all our hearts?” Yes! My prayer is, “Fan the flame, Lord Jesus!!”