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Tag Archives: A New Heart

It’s A Heart Thing-Part One

09 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by Kate in Isaiah 45:7

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A New Heart, Bible Study, Biblical Hebrew, Book of Isaiah, Book of Jeremiah, Evil, Indwelling Spirit, Isaiah 45:7, Plans of God, Prophets

Hello and welcome to Renaissance Woman!  I am returning to my study of Isaiah 45:7 and, this week, am continuing to look at the words of the Lord where He says He makes peace “and creates evil.”

Simply reading those words causes a host of questions to raise in my mind.  How can a God who creates evil still be called good?  If He creates evil, how come there are passages like Psalm 34:16 which states “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil”?  Or Psalm 5:4: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You”?  If He creates evil, why did Jesus teach us to pray “deliver us from evil?” 

These questions were based on my understanding that “create” meant “to make from nothing” and thus, whenever I read this passage, I understood it to be saying evil did not exist until God created it.  I have proven to my own satisfaction that “create” does not hold that meaning.  This study has led me to a more accurate definition of “to cause and purpose something new to come into being and grow to fulfill that purpose.”  Unwieldy, I know but that definition is the only one that fits every occurrence of the Hebrew word bara (translated by the English “create”) in the Old Testament.  As I looked up these occurrences, I saw that bara was oftentimes used in situations where the act of creating was done with material already in existence and so, there was no reason to think of God as the source of evil based on the word choice of bara/create.

I also looked up each occurrence of the Hebrew word ra translated as “evil” in my study passage.  The preponderance of the scriptures were very clear that God was not the source of evil but rather evil was rooted in the heart of mankind and flowed into the world via their doings.  And yet, every once in a while I would come across a verse like Amos 3:6: “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?  If there is calamity (ra-evil) in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”  There was no denying God did evil as well as man.

And yet, there is a clear difference in the evil of mankind and the evil of God.  Before I point it out, it’s important to take a moment and get the meaning of “evil” clear in our minds.  What we think when we hear the word “evil” is not necessarily what the scripture intended to convey.  The Hastings dictionary defines “evil” as: “…an older form of the word “ill”…the word almost invariably connotes what is either morally corrupt (see Sin) or injurious to life and happiness.”  The Strong’s Concordance has “bad” as the first meaning of ra and continues to define ra with a list of words ranging from “adversity” to “wretchedness”.  I see the same range of meaning in the New World Dictionary where “evil” is defined as “morally bad or wrong” to “causing pain or trouble” to “offensive or disgusting”.  As I looked up the scriptures containing ra, I found reading around the specific passage and sometimes entire chapters necessary to understand which meaning ought to be applied.

The actions I-and I think most people-have in mind when they think of “evil” are the harmful and oftentimes horrendous actions human beings commit against each other: like murder.  The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:19-21 says, “the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…”.  If we keep this list in mind and take a long and honest look at the world around us, the “why” of the existence of the majority of evil in the word is clear.

What then is the evil done by God?  As I looked up the various passages I found “injurious to life and happiness” to be the best definition.  I also saw the truth of Amos 3:7 where the prophet declares, “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”  There was never an instance where God had an intention to take an action that would prove definitely injurious to life and/or happiness where He didn’t first declare it.  He also held off performing the action for a long period of time giving His people a chance to turn from their evil ways and also promising, if they did so, He would turn from the evil He had determined to do.

I found the book of Jeremiah offered up the most complete picture of what I am relating.  There are so many scriptures within this book that describe both the hearts and doings of the people of God as evil.  God declared through His prophet, “Hear, O earth!  Behold, I will certainly bring calamity (ra-evil) on this people-The fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words” (Jeremiah 6:19).  There is a fascinating passage in Jeremiah 18:7-12:

“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.  And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.  Now, therefore speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you.  Return now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good!” ‘“And they said, “That is hopeless!  So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”

I would have thought that would be enough for God to throw up His hands but He continues to entreat His people through His prophet saying to Jeremiah: “Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them.  Do not diminish a word.  Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings” (Jeremiah 26:2-3).

This same chapter describes another man named Urijah who prophesied in the name of the Lord and issued the same warnings as Jeremiah.  King Jehoiakim sought to put him to death and did so.  Urijah fled to Egypt but was pursued, drug back to Jerusalem, killed with the sword, and his body was thrown into the graves of the common people.  Jeremiah would have been killed as well but for the fact that he had the protection of man named Ahikam.  The people of the Lord did not only want to walk according to their own plans, they were set on killing anyone who sought to persuade them otherwise.

Well, the record in scripture is clear.  Despite His promises to relent, the word of the Lord was not heeded and God did bring destruction on Jerusalem and His people.  And yet, He still issued promises and words of comfort to His people.  Jeremiah writes a letter to the people carried away into captivity in Babylon and that letter contains one of the most quoted scriptures of all time: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).  The next chapters contain the promises that the captives would return and both Judah and Jerusalem would be restored.

The book of Jeremiah also records that beautiful promise of God: “They shall be my people and I will be their God, then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear (revere) Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good, but will put My fear (reverence) in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.  Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jeremiah 32:38-41).

I don’t see that the people were incapable of turning their hearts to God.  Rather, I see that they would not.  The book of Jeremiah also includes a story of the men of Judah who had fled to Egypt (despite their being warned not to do so!  See Chapter 42).  Even after they had seen the destruction of the city of God and heard God still promising to care for them in the land, their answer to the prophet was; “we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and put out drink offerings to her as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.  But since we have stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and famine” (Jeremiah 44: 17:18).

Could the people of God then have been so blind that they did not know evil had come upon them as a direct result of the evil of their own hearts and doings, their turning away from God, and their outright disobedience? Even so, God promises to give them one heart and one way.  That prophecy is repeated and intensified through another prophet of the Lord, Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

We will continue to look at this next week…

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland •New York, 1972, 1974

Hastings, James, Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Fifth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, 2001, Page 247

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

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A New Heart

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by Kate in Gospel and Letters of John, Studies

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A New Heart, A New Spirit, Baptism, Bible Instruction, Bible Living, Bible Reference, Bible Study, Bible Truth, Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Ezekiel, Gospel of John, Holy Spirit, Psalms, Studying the Word, Word of God, Word Study

Conducting a word study on a passage is an undertaking most fascinating.  Sometimes, as I trace the words to their roots in the original language, a picture forms that makes the scripture leap off the page.  Other times, while the original meaning doesn’t reveal anything surprising, the words usage-or lack thereof-in other scriptures proves to be fascinating.  Such proved to be the case with my word study on Ezekiel 36: 25-27.

A quick recap: I decided on the word study when I was referred back to this passage by several different sources I used in my study of John chapter 3.  I found it fascinating that both the sources that assured me that the “born of water” in John 3:5 did mean water baptism as well as those that assured me it did not referenced me back to Ezekiel 36.  I decided to see for myself.

I do try not to undertake any study with preconceived ideas as to the meaning of scripture.  This is not easy as I have been a Christian all of my life and still find I carry ideas picked up from my church going days that are based on a doctrinal tradition rather than scripture.  The Holy Spirit is steadily rooting those out but, during this study, I caught myself mentally linking scriptures together that do not necessarily mean what I think they mean.

What do I mean?

It’s probably obvious by now that I do lean towards the interpretation that “born of water” does not mean water baptism but does, rather, mean an inward working of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  (See last week’s post)  My study of Ezekiel 36: 25-27 seemed to bear this out.  God does say He “will sprinkle clean water” and “will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.”  Despite this, I do think it’s a stretch to infer water baptism from this passage and even more of a stretch to think Jesus would have expected Nicodemus to make the association.  There is no mention of the ritual cleansing established in the law in all of chapter 36. The cleansing mentioned in my study scriptures is an intention of God and comes from the hand of God.  Verse 22 states “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake…” John’s baptism was to the repentance of sins and I intend to go into this in more depth next week.  Suffice for this post, the Greek word translated repentance is metanoia (G3341) and means a change of mind1.  Important, necessary, but I do not see how such a baptism is synonymous with Jesus’s expounding on what it means to be born anew in John 3:5.  I am becoming convinced such a thing is a work of God inside of us rather than an outward immersion in water and these verses in Ezekiel seem to make this clear. However, I am not interested in bending scripture to support my own conviction:  I want to know the truth and am open to my word study showing me otherwise.

It didn’t do so. Verse 26 states “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.”  Here I find that same dual action of God described in John 3:5.  I was so excited!  “I get it!” I exclaimed to myself and my mind was flooded with other scriptures.  This is what metanoia must look like because Proverbs 23:7 says “as he thinks in his heart so is he” so this change in heart would of course result in a change of mind.  And then, thought I, Matthew 5:1 says “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” and I just bet that “See God” in this passage is the same as “See the Kingdom of God” in John 3:5. 

I do not wish to get into an argument over translations of the Bible, i.e. which is better/more accurate/most useful.  What I do wish to say here is that, just because a translator used the same English words in different passages, does not mean they are the same words in the original languages.  The words translated “see” in these two passages in the King James Version are not the same in the Greek.  The Hebrew word translated “heart” in my study scriptures is not the same as the Hebrew word translated “heart” in Proverbs 23:7.  Does this mean I am wrong in my assumptions?  Not necessarily.  What it does mean is that there are layers of meanings in these scriptures not immediately evident when I read them in English and are thus worthy of more study.  It also shows me how important it is to lay aside all my preconceived notions and focus only on what’s in the text.  It is supremely exciting to see that there is something new to discover.  Word studies do feel a bit like unearthing buried treasure.

And so, what treasures did I find in Ezekiel 36: 25-27?  As I conducted my study, I couldn’t help verses from Psalm 51 from coming to mind.  On a whim, I took a look at the words for “clean”, “heart”, and “spirit” in Psalm 51:10 and compared them to the same words in Ezekiel.  They were, each one, the same Hebrew.  Perhaps such a thing ought to be obvious but, since I found other Hebrew words translated “clean”, “heart”, and even “spirit” in other passages, I thought it best to verify. 

Do you know Psalm 51:10?  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  This is a cry of David’s heart after the fiasco with Bathsheba.  It has been the cry of my heart many times.  As my study unfolded, it seemed to me that the promise of God in Ezekiel 36 was in answer to David’s plea in Psalm 51.  David cries out for a clean heart and right spirit and God promises a new heart and spirit.  Indeed, He promises His spirit (verse 27).

That’s all well and good, I imagine some of you saying, but what does that have to do with the material point?  Not a thing.  Nothing in this study led me to the conviction that these verses in Ezekiel ought to have suggested the water baptism being performed by John to the mind of Nicodemus. Still, I find I cannot unequivocally say that “born of water” in John 3:5 does not mean baptism.  There is still study I need to perform.

To be continued…

  1. Vine, W.E., Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words, 1997, Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 952.  

Back to Part Three

Continue to Part Five

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