Hebrew Word Study – Selfish Love – ‘Agav-  Ayin Gimel Beth 

Ezekiel 33:32: “And, lo, thou [art] unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.”

If the nightingales could sing like you
They’d sing much sweeter than they do
For you brought a new kind of love to me – Irving Kahal

I recall many years ago hearing for the first time the term making love. This one threw me, how can you make love?  I quickly learned that it was a carnal expression for a man and woman having a sexual relationship. It is amazing that one English word, love, can have so many different expressions from deep affection to lust. 

I understand that whatever is important in a culture is reflected in the language.  Perhaps this is why we have just one all-encompassing word known as love.  We have over a million words in the English language but we can only come up with one word that we call love. For that, we mean parental love, romantic love, sexual love, friendship love, physical love, emotional love, affectionate love, etc.  We need to add an adjective to that word to distinguish the difference because we only have one word.   Greek has only three words (some say four) agape, phileo and eros. Yet, Classical Hebrew has only 7,500 words compared to the million in the English language and it has a number of words that can be rendered as love.  So I ask you which culture finds love more important than other cultures?  

Yet, love is at the very root of worship and yet we know so little about that word. Even the songwriter Irving Kahal expresses in a song made famous by Maurice Chevalier and Frank Sinatra that we can learn a new kind of love. As we pass through this life we experience love on many different levels.  Ezekiel 33:32 talks of a new kind of love so to speak.  The words very lovely song are more correctly translated You are a love song.  The word love here is not ahav, your general word for love, nor is it racham, a deeply affectionate and romantic love.  This word is ‘agav.  This is selfish love, lust and as far as I am concerned fits the definition of our English idiom making love. Engaging in for purely personal pleasure, and desire for the other person involved, is of little consequence.

Ezekiel was preaching the love of God, preaching the protection of God and people were eating it up. It was like he was singing a love song.  Only to the people of Israel it was not an ahav song, or a racham song, but an ‘agav song.  It was a song catering to one’s own personal desires and pleasure.  They loved to hear about all the good things God would do for them. They hear these words of love, but they do not act upon them.  

Now before we throw rocks at Israel maybe we should pause and look at ourselves and our practice of worship. I have heard people say: “I am not going to that church anymore because I just don’t feel the presence of God.”  What they are talking about is that the music is not to their liking, or the style of worship is not what they are comfortable with. They tramp around to different churches trying them out like a new mattress until they get one that feels just right.    They are not feeling the presence of God, they are feeling their own passion. Their own passion demands a certain type of music, a certain type of sermon, and a certain type of expression.  Yes, they love God alright but not with ahav or racham, but with ‘agav, a selfish, feel-good type love.  Love does not always feel good.  Sometimes it needs to feel pain as it shares the pain of the one who is loved.  

So ask yourself, “Do I  worship God  just as the people of Israel in Ezekiel’s day?”  They listened to a love song, but what they heard was not ahav, racham but ‘agav, “What’s in it for me if I am not getting satisfied, fulfilled, well then I will just pick up and find a god that will satisfy me. I deserve to be satisfied.” 

There are a lot of churches that fill their empty chairs with promises of great things from God, prosperity, healing, success, restored relationships and all sorts of goodies and people flock to hear those sermons. They sing and shout and praise God expressing their love.  But is that love’agav a selfish love?  If the people listened to Ezekiel with a heart of racham love and not ‘agav love, they would have felt God’s broken heart, God’s longing for them, God weeping for them. Instead, all they wanted to hear was happy, happy, happy, joyful, no problems just rich and fulfilled.  They want a worship filled with joyful songs and songs that stir their souls like a good College fight song. 

When you go to church this Sunday or join us online Saturday, what love song are you going to hear or sing when you worship God?  Will it be an ‘agav selfish me, me, me song or one of a heart longing to have a relationship with God who longs for a relationship with you?

Music is a tool of worship, but it is not worship itself. All we need is a heart filled with love for God and to express it to Him.

Note: Monday evening in our live discussion class and Bible study we will be discussing this and other aspects of worship and praise. Consider joining us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com 

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