The Heart Loves and Hates--21

Love has a wide variety of nuances in scripture, as it does in all languages. One loves apples or chocolate or movies or a boyfriend or girlfriend or a nation or a color or a smell or a husband or wife or son or daughter or father or mother or Jesus or God. And the list goes on and on. The word "heart" in the Hebrew Bible appears four times connected with love.
1. In the first great commandment, Deuteronomy 6:5 says: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your heart and with all your might."
2. In Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Moses warns his people not to listen to or follow prophets and diviners who encourage the people to follow other gods and serve them. "You must not heed the words of those prophets of those who divine by dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul."
3. Deuteronomy 30:6 says: "Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live."
All of these texts indicate that to love God with all the heart means to love God with all one's being.
4. Song of Solomon 8:6 describes the feelings of the young bride toward her groom:
    "Set me as a seal upon your heart,
           as a seal upon your arm;
      for love is strong as death,
          passion fierce as the grave.
      Its flashes are flashes of fire,
          a raging flame."
This text describes the love of a person for her marital partner.

Like love, hate or hatred contains many nuances. As in all languages, one can hate food, the weather, an attitude, an action, a person, Jesus, and God. The list goes on and on. The Hebrew Bible uses four different verbs connected with hatred.
1. The Hebrew verb bazah, "to despise," appears twice in the Hebrew Bible.
     a. 2 Samuel 6:16. When David danced before the Lord with all his might, his wife Michal "looked out of the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart."
     b. 1 Chronicles 15:29 repeats 2 Samuel 6:16.
2. The Hebrew verb sane', "to hate," occurs once with the heart in Leviticus 19:17: "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin."
3. The Hebrew verb na'ats, "to contemn, spurn," occurs once with heart in Proverbs 5:12:
     Speaking to his student, the sage says:
     "And you say, 'Oh how I hated discipline,
           and my heart despised reproof!"
4. The Hebrew noun qarabh, "war," appears once with heart in Psalm 55:20-21 [Hebrew 55:21-22]:
     "My companion laid hands on a friend
            and violated a covenant with me
       with speech smoother than butter,
            but with a heart set on war;
        with words that were softer than oil,
            but in fact were drawn swords."
Hatred means strong disapproval toward an attitude, a feeling, an action, or a person.

Share YOUR feelings and actions and attitudes and concerns and belief with others. Let me hear from YOU.

John Willis