HEBREW WORD STUDY – A CONSUMING FIRE – KE’ESH BE’ARET –בערת כעש Kap Ayin Shin Beth Ayin Resh Taw

Jeremiah 20:9: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire and shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forebearing and I could not stay.”

“One half of mine is yours, the other half yours, mine own I would say; but if mine, then yours and so all yours.” William Shakespeare

“I hold it true, whate’er befalls, I feel it when I sorrow most; tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson

We are familiar with Jeremiah. He faithfully preached an unpopular message. He preached a message people did not want to hear and as a result he was persecuted to the point of being thrown into prison. It is while sitting in this prison that he makes his complaint known unto the Lord. He has grown tired of always having to preach an unpopular message, being rewarded with persecution, he was tired of being the good soldier. He even said he had decided not to make mention of Him. Actually, the word for mention is zacar which means remembrance. Literally what he was saying was: I will not be mindful of him. He was just going to forget about God and go his merry way, like bringing a bad romance to an end.

The next sentence says; But his word was in my heart like a burning fire. Actually word is not found in the Hebrew text of this passage. It is put there by translators as it seems to be the intent of the passage. Yet, literally the passage reads, He was in my heart like a burning fire. Burning fire in the Hebrew text is ke’esh be’aret which is a destructive or all consuming fire as used in this context. In Semitic literature a ke’esh be’aret or consuming fire is a metaphor for passion. This should read: “He was in my heart like a burning consuming fire. Jeremiah allowed God’s heart to enter His heart which means He also entered into God’s heart and he felt a consuming fire. A consuming fire is an ancient Semitic metaphor for passion. When God’s heart joined with Jeremiah’s heart he felt the power of God’s consuming passion such that he could not abandon God’s call on his life.

Have you ever felt a burning consuming fire a ke’esh be’aret inside of you? In my book Journey Into Silence I share how I made a deal with God that if He would weep for me when my heart was broken I would weep for Him when His heart is broken. Since that time there have been a number of occasions when God drew me into His heart and I could feel his passion. For instance recently there was this real sour prune faced bitty of a woman who got on my disability bus and was just down right nasty and I told the Lord that one more word of criticism from her and I was going to overhaul her engine. It was one of those times God called me to keep my end of my bargain and He drew me in His heart and I felt what He felt for Miss Nasty. I felt God’s love, passion and broken heart for this woman. I was so overwhelmed it was like a ke’esh be’aret, a consuming fire and I couldn’t hold it in and I struggled mightily to hold back tears although I did promise God I would weep when His heart was broken. I tried to cover the tears but Miss Nasty noticed them and misunderstood. She thought she pushed me too far and apologized. But that was not the reason for the tears, it was the love and broken heart of God that brought those tears. It was His ke’esh be’aret.

Like Jeremiah when we want to just forget about the name of God when He seems unresponsive to our pleas for help, God opens His heart to us. We need to be willing to enter His heart. It is not pleasant, it is filled with pain and brokenheartness. It is his choice to make us an honorable vessel or a dishonorable vessel and he must be willing to submit to His choice.

As Jeremiah entered God’s heart he discovered that he just grew weary with forbearing. In the Hebrew that word forbearing is kaleka which means to grow weary with trying to endure and the word weary is nile’iti which is in a Niphal form and comes from the root word leah. This is a curious combination of words and has the idea of laboring in vain and being sustaining despite the labor. What Jeremiah is saying is that when he entered God’s heart and felt God’s love and passion for Israel as much as he would like to forget about God, His passion is what sustains him and he cannot forget about it. As much as I wanted to tell Miss Nasty off, God’s passion overruled.

Times we grow so weary with trying to endure that we just need to give ourselves over to the passion of God’s heart. This is what Lord Tennyson was saying when he suffered a loss. But it was worth it in the long run. The pain of feeling God’s broken heart is so great you want to run. But if you feel God’s love for His lost sheep in the long run you know it is better than to never have felt that love at all.

What Jeremiah realized is what I realized and what you can realize too if you ask to enter God’s heart. Despite all the suffering and loss that comes from being filled with the passionate love of God, it was still worth it, to have known the passionate love of God. As the Apostle Paul said, “As it is written: ‘For your sake, we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:36-39.

When you allow God to draw you into His heart, you will feel his pain, heartbreak, and agony over a lost world. Your instincts will be like Jonah to run from it. But it is well worth it to just let the tears flow.

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