HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENCHANTED – חרש Cheth Resh Shin
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise)
Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in his love, He will joy over you with singing.
Why does God want us to worship and praise Him? Is He that arrogant, self-centered or is He that insecure that He needs our constant reassurance that we love Him? Why did God give a man free will and allow the enemy to entice us away from God? I believe God wanted to be truly loved, not just loved because He programmed us to love. He knew there was another dimension to love which He could only experience by creating a being in His likeness and image that had a free will. Thus, He would know what it is like to be chosen over another suitor. That specialness of love realizing that someone chose to love Him over someone else. As God and the creator he could create all the beings he wanted to love Him, but what is so special about that? How about he creates a being in his image that has free will, then allows that person to exercise free will resulting in pain and suffering like Job. Then to have that person still choose to love God knowing that God was capable of relieving his suffering but doesn’t.
We love to feel the presence of God, we go to church and worship to feel the presence of God and if we don’t feel the presence of God in a church we will go to another until we do feel the presence of God.
I was watching a documentary on the lives of professional athletes after the end of their professional careers. One commentator said that divorce was not unusual after the mega checks stopped coming, the press stopped printing their stories and the spotlight went out. The true test as to whether these women married these athletes for fame and wealth or whether they married out of love came when the fame and wealth ended.
Keep this in mind next time you are in a worship service. Rather than focus on the warm fuzzy feeling you are getting, stop and consider just what God is experiencing and your willing presence. Stop and realize that he may be just enchanted with you like those little teenagers in their first love.
I wonder how many Christians today would divorce themselves from God if the prosperity, comfortable lifestyles, and that fuzzy warm feeling of His presence would suddenly end. The enemy was making a good point about Job. Probably even Job was not sure if he was serving God because God paid him so well. I wonder if the story of Job is more common than we realize. I wonder if the enemy does not stand before God with the same challenge as us. I wonder if God does not allow the enemy the same freedom as us as He allowed for Job just to slap the enemy in the face and prove that true love cannot be purchased.
Perhaps God has allowed the enemy to unmask his evil in our nation today. If I read Scripture right and the church continues in the direction it is headed, I believe many of us will enter a Job-like experience. God may just want to use us for the purpose He created us, to love Him when the lights of fame, fortune, and prosperity ended. Will we say like Job: “Should we only serve and love God in good times?” Maybe for once we can bring some real pleasure to God and love Him not because he has given us so much, but just because we have chosen to love Him.
We think worshipping God is all about a warm fuzzy feeling. But we marry God for better or for worse, for richer and poorer, and just as a husband mourns and feels sorrow when his wife is sad and heartbroken so too does God mourn and feel sorrow when our hearts are broken. But it is the other way around. A loving wife will feel sorrow and mourn when her husband is sad and heartbroken. They were married with the promise to share each other’s joys and sorrows. Does it not stand to reason that we too should mourn and feel sorrowful when the God we love has a broken heart?
Zephaniah 3:17 is the best expression in the Old Testament of God’s love. I mean read this carefully. He is saying that He will rejoice over us with joy, He will rest in His love, and He will joy over us with singing. I taught middle school for a few years and I watched many young teenage girls and guys go through their first love. I mean cloud 9, over the moon, smitten, dreamy, and totally useless as a student type of love. They just love to be in love. What a sensation, what an experience. You remember your first kiss, sure you do. We all do, it was just so, so, you know the thing.
Look at this verse in Hebrew what does it mean when God says He will rest in His love? This phrase is a very troubling one for translators. Perhaps because if they translated it the way it should it would make God sound like a giddy teenager in love. The Hebrew word that is rendered for rest is charash which in its root meaning can be very troubling. Yet, it makes perfect sense when you use it as a metaphor and put it into a proper context. You see the word charash means to be enchanted or bewitched. Those are not words we like to associate with God. I mean in its literal sense the English word enchant and bewitched implies putting a spell on someone or witchcraft. However, if we trace this word charash to its Semitic root it does not really imply a real spell or witchcraft, but the idea of being so taken with an object or person that you become obsessed with them. In other words, charash really means an obsession. So, we could say: “He will rejoice over you with joy. He will be obsessed with His love for you, He will joy over you with singing.” I like to use the word enchanted but don’t quote me. “He will be enchanted with His love for you.”
You see God just loves to be in love. Just like my little students, like you, like me and any other human being, we love to be in love. No matter what age we are. I heard on the radio today about a place called The Village in Florida, a retirement and senior living community. These are people in their so-called Golden years. They have a practice that if you are available, that is available for the romantic intentions of the opposite gender, then on a certain day, you wear a certain color. If you wear that color you will likely have some elderly gentleman or lady hit on you. No matter what age we humans love to be in love. Never forget we are created in the image of God and He is the granddaddy of romance who loves to be in love and when we return that love, He is charash, obsessed, or enchanted.
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise
Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
Final comment: He is easy to love, the most lovable being in all the universe.
Supremely worthy of our love.
My mind continues to struggle with the concept that the Source of all Love allows other trash to contend for my love.
But is that not the accusation of the contender Satan and the lazy servant? God is not worthy to be loved and served.
Your book and ministry fundamentally show the wonder of His warm loving Father heart by dispelling the numerous insults translated that put a shadow over the character of our loving Father and Creator.
Wow what a beautiful word study. I truly enjoyedo reading it. I’m smitten enchanted I’m in love. I love that scripture in Zephaniah, one of my favourites. Thank you so much. I’ve learned such a lot. God bless you. Shalom
I’m not sure how to address you, my friend. I know we have never met however, because of all the things I have read from you and listen to, I feel like I know you, like an old trusted friend.
Which leads me to my quandary. I’m not sure how I should address you? Are you the teacher of Life, because the Son is giving you His teachings on Life… Or as a son, His teachings have given you Life, that you share with us… or could it be the teachings of the Son that you share with us, is Life! Or perhaps it’s all the above! If you could let me know it would be great.
So, if I may let me say this about that. I so enjoy your dry and witty sense of humor that puts concrete ideas into a “user friendly form” I trust that you will have many more years in continuing your ministry. It has helped me in my journey in understanding Hebrew.
I love the illustrations of every day life and how you weave it together along with the critters that you encounter that make His Word come alive!
Just so you know, there is a real Spirit to spirit connection that you help provide. “Enchanted” was one of those times! Until net time, shalom aleichem, my friend!
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He sent me this very scripture this morning and I want to be completely obsessed with Him! My NKJV Bible says ” He will quiet you with His love”. I prefer your Bible version. Thank you for always obeying the Lord! Peace to all.
Beautiful!