ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – LOVE GIFT – MOHABATA  מוחבתא Mem Vav Cheth Beth Taw Aleph

Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:”

If you were raised like me in a traditional evangelical church you would be very familiar with this verse.  It clearly states that we are saved by grace and that salvation is a gift of God. The next verse clearly teaches that salvation is not of any works that we do.  It is purely a gift from God. 

Now something that has always stuck in my mind and I blame Christmas and Santa Claus. Many parents tell their children, “Now behave, Santa is making a list of all the naughty and nice only the nice get a present at Christmas. For one thing, it is an outright lie because the kid will get his present and most likely the one he wants no matter how much of a rascal he has been. Secondly, he is being taught to thank some mythical fat man who spends the entire year checking out your Facebook account to determine if you are naughty or nice. The jolly, diametrically challenge old boy can always count on big brother or sister to rat you out.  It totally overlooks that those gifts come from two people who love that child and they give that gift simply because he is their child. It is called in Aramaic a mohabata, not just a gift but a love gift. 

This time of year I get many gifts in the mail.  I get those little return address stickers which I never use since I use the internet and not snail mail.  I get little pads of paper or calendars and sometimes a gift of a penny or nickel all from total strangers whom I never met and never will all with the expectation that I will either feel guilty or ashamed of myself if I do not return that gift with a much bigger gift to help pay the cost of sending me that gift in the first place with maybe a small percentage to the organization that hired this gift-giving outfit.  

Christmas party of sorts from church, work or clubs where you either picked out the name of someone you barely know or maybe don’t even like to buy a “gift” under $10.00. Maybe you just threw you $10.00 gift into some grab bag with the expectation of getting a gift of similar value. Those are not mohabata, they are just gifts of manipulation or expectations but most often are not gifts of love. 

So, there are many types of gifts.  The Greek word used here for gift is a pretty general word doron from the root didomi which basically means a present, gift, sacrifice or offering. It really doesn’t necessarily attach any emotional value.  Ah, but the word mohabata is built on the Aramaic word chav which means love. This gift is a gift given in love. We could almost translate this as: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the love of God:”  Of course that doesn’t really express mohabata as there is the idea of a gift embedded in this word.  So, our Greek word is in agreement only the Aramaic is more specific.  It is still a gift.  You have your choice, you can accept this gift or not.  If it was just love then everyone is saved.  But it is not just love it is a love gift.  Sometimes a gift is given because one earned it or did something for it.  For instance, I am often offered a tip for my services as a bus driver.  The people would not offer the tip if I had not driven the bus for them.  But I get paid for doing that. They, however, want to express their appreciation for going beyond my normal duties like helping them on and off the bus, carrying their packages. I do that so they don’t fall and sue me, but they are appreciative and want to show their appreciation.  I do not accept tips because it is a service we provide. 

Here is where Santa and I come to blows. This naughty and nice stuff  teaches children to be nice to get a reward.  How many Christians today who need something from God will clean up their act, they will start to attend church, be nicer to people thinking God will reward them for good behavior and will give them the blessing they pray for. 

One very clear Christmas memory I have is when I was four or five years old.  My Uncle Paul came into our house with a sack over his shoulder, dressed to the nines in a red outfit with a fake beard.  For some reason when I acknowledged him for the beloved uncle that he was I was booed down.  Then he proceeded to hand out gifts, all with tags on them with not only my name but the name of the relative who gave the gift. I acknowledge the gift from my parents.  Although I had no concept of the relative value of money, I did realize they were giving me the best gift of all.  I can’t remember what the gift was but I do remember hugging my parents and thanking them out of true gratitude.  But what made the gift so special was that it was from my mother and father.  Later that night after everyone went home I was playing with my gift and I broke it.  To this day I remember very clearly the heartbreak I felt and the tears I shed.  Not over the broken gift, I don’t even remember the gift but I do remember the feeling of a broken heart that the gift my mother and father gave me to show me their love was broken.  Yes, even at the age of four or five I saw a difference between the gifts from my relatives and the one from my parents. What made it special was the giver.

Our gift of salvation is given not because we were nice or good.  Not because we went to church and paid our tithe.   God doesn’t need our church attendance or money.  This is a gift of love.  It is proof that he longs and desires a relationship with us so much that he even sent his own Son to die to make it possible for us to have a relationship with Him.  

Tell me, when you find you broke something in your relationship with God, do you weep over that brokenness in your relationship or do you just feel sorry for yourself, you don’t have your toy to play with anymore?  Or is your heartbroken over something given to you out of love and represents your love for God and you weep because you carelessly broke it something that the God you love so much gave to you?