HEBREW WORD STUDY – A NEW SPIRIT – CHADASH RAUCH  חגש  רוח

Ezekiel 18:31 “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O House of Israel?”

Yesterday our Hebrew class studied this passage.  So much was offered by the class on this verse and I only have time to share the highlights.

We discovered that the word  cast is shalak in Hebrew and is found in a Hiphil imperative form.  This is causative and a command.   As we discussed in class, as an imperative, God is commanding us to cast (banish, abandon) our transgressions.  Being in a Hiphil form this comes when he fills us with such disgust over our transgressions that we are caused to cast them away.  

But soft, I have met many who are disgusted with their transgressions and are trying to throw them off or abandon them, but they just keep coming back, particularly those with addictions.  How are we to abandon our transgressions?   The word shalak explains itself. It is spelled with a Shin, Lamed and final Kap.  Thus it is the power of God the Shin through prayer Lamed that our transgressions are emptied from our hearts final Kap. 

Note that the phrase, “all your transgressions” is preceded with an “eth” and is in a construct form. You can not cast off some of your transgressions and keep the ones you want, it is an all or nothing process. This is important as you will find out in the following paragraphs.

The word transgression is pasa.’  This means to rebel, sin, and offend.  But more specifically it is talking about a conscious, willful rebelling against the power of God, it is speaking in words and actions, anger, lust and jealousy.   These transgressions are not just those of the addict and the obvious sinners.  This applies to all of us who feel a surge of jealousy, or lust or anger.  Note the passage continues by saying, “which we have transgressed in them.”   Pretty redundant isn’t it, to say the transgressions we transgressed in them?   That word bam rendered as in them is important.”   In other words, they were not a part of us to begin with, we walked into them.  This is not referring to the sin nature that is in us.   In other words, these are sins or mud holes that our sin nature is driving us to jump into.

Now as to why we must cast off “all” transgression note that the verse says,“Make you a new heart.”   How can we make ourselves a new heart?  Well if you look at the syntax you will find that it is the “Casting away of all your transgressions” that will “make” you a new heart. The word “make” is ’ashah.  How do we “make” or “create” a new heart?  Note the word is spelled Ayin –  deep spiritual discernment and insight, Shin – the power of God and Hei  the presence of God.   Through our spiritual insight in recognizing our transgressions, the power of God will change our heart so that it may be emptied of all its transgressions and filled with the presence of God. This is not casting off our sin nature, God deals with that on another level, these are the sins resulting from our sin nature. 

It also says we will have a new spirit.  This is a play on words chadash rauch.  This is very close to chadosh rauch or Holy Spirit.  The word rauch means spirit and it also means a pleasant scent.  Where our hearts were once a stench in the nostrils of God, it will become a sweet scent to the nostrils of God through the cleansing work of Jesus Christ through whose divine power, our transgressions are emptied from our heart and then filled with the Holy Spirit – the presence of God. 

Finally, a new heart.  The word heart is lev. It is spelled  Lamed Beth. This is where we get our English word, love from.  When God cleanses our hearts, it becomes love.   As a rabbi once told me, the very last letter of Torah (Old Testament) is a Lamed and the first letter is Beth.    Together they make the word lev or heart, for with Torah we find the Love of God as well as the love of fellow man.  But why does this combination appear only reversed?  Because this love can only be fully created after we have obeyed the entire Word of God and we allow the word of God to complete love in us.