Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd
Series Code: HPOV
Program Code: HPOV000023A
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00:16 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn
00:17 and we welcome you to Heaven's Point of View. 00:20 Our special guest, 00:22 host who will be our teacher today 00:24 is Dr. Tom Sheperd. 00:26 And, Tom, we're so glad that you are back with us again. 00:29 It's good to be back. 00:30 You know, no matter where I travel, 00:32 if people cannot think of your name, 00:34 they will tell me, you've done two series, 00:36 you've done the Gospel of Mark 00:38 and First and Second Peter on "Books of the Book" 00:41 and people always tell me, 00:43 you know, the guy with the bow tie 00:45 and I immediately know. 00:47 That's your trade mark, isn't it? 00:48 It's true. 00:49 I'm wearing them about, oh, may be 15 years or so. 00:52 Well, I think it's, I think it's lovely. 00:54 But we're very excited to have Dr. Sheperd with us today 00:59 because we are going to be starting 01:01 a new series on Heaven's Point of View 01:04 and it is on Love, Marriage, Sex, and Divorce 01:08 according to the New Testament. 01:10 And it's going to be a fascinating study. 01:12 We want you to get your Bible 01:13 and pen and paper because this is going to be something 01:17 that will be very enlightening 01:18 and Tom teaches this as a seminary course. 01:21 He is the professor of New Testament Interpretation. 01:25 He is also the director of the PhD in Religion, 01:30 Doctoral studies and the ThD 01:32 and this is at Andrews University seminary. 01:36 And this is the class had that 01:38 you've actually been teaching at Andrews. 01:40 Yeah, I've taught it for a number of years. 01:42 Actually, years ago I had a professor 01:45 when I was doing my PhD studies who taught this very class. 01:48 And when I came to seminary nobody was teaching it 01:50 and I said, "You know, I would like to teach that class." 01:53 A very important class for our students to understand. 01:56 In the course, I tell the students, 01:58 "Well, now look, this is not a counseling class, 02:01 this is-- I'm not a psychologist 02:03 or something like that but I want you 02:05 to understand what the New Testament says 02:07 about these subjects, love, marriage, sex and divorce." 02:12 I think it's vital for our pastors 02:13 to be able to turn to the Bible 02:15 and to know what the scripture say 02:17 on this topic so they can counsel people well. 02:19 Amen. Yeah. 02:20 And, you know, there is so much confusion today, 02:24 the word love is used very loosely 02:26 in the English language 02:28 and if we don't understand when the Bible is using 02:32 because it's translated into English with one word. 02:36 But in the Hebrew there were numerous words for love 02:39 as in the Greek. 02:40 And today, we thought even though 02:42 this is a New Testament study, 02:45 we thought we would start by laying a little foundation 02:47 of the Old Testament words for love. 02:50 So how is the word love used in the Old Testament? 02:55 It's used in a variety of ways. 02:56 Actually, there is a number of background words in Hebrew 02:59 that are translated into English to say love. 03:04 There is like six different words. 03:05 Four of them are fairly rare, two are very common. 03:09 So first I want to talk about the rare terms 03:13 and kind of set those in their place and, 03:16 you know, understand them 03:17 and then we will come and spend a bit more time 03:19 with the two more common terms 03:22 that are used and translated as love. 03:24 Of course, sometimes these words 03:26 won't be translated as the word love at all 03:29 because the meanings of a word 03:35 vary from language to language. 03:37 The term we use for this semantic domain 03:40 how many different ways do you translate the word. 03:43 I'll use sometimes an example with students 03:45 and I'll say to them, "Now, if I take the word grass, 03:50 that has several meanings in English." 03:52 Yes. 03:53 You know, if I say, 03:54 "Well, he went out to cut the grass." 03:56 Then we know it's that green stuff outside, 03:57 you know, he cut his lawn. 03:59 But if I met somebody 04:00 who was into drugs and they said, 04:02 "Well, the grass is really good 04:04 or the grass has been legalized in this state or something," 04:09 then we know that they are talking 04:10 about marijuana because the word grass 04:13 has it like two different meanings. 04:14 So when we go to a word in Hebrew, 04:18 we'll say well, it means this but sometimes 04:19 it means this and it depends on the context and how it's used. 04:23 All right, the first term that 04:24 we're gonna look at is kind of interesting. 04:27 It is-- well, they are all interesting terms, 04:30 but this term is yed-eed. 04:32 Okay. 04:33 And this Hebrew word means, beloved or lovely. 04:37 And it's not used many times 04:39 but it's used most often to refer 04:42 to Israel as God's beloved. 04:45 God has a covenant with Israel and God loves Israel. 04:48 So a nice example of this is in Psalms 60. 04:51 Okay. 04:52 So we want to read the entire Psalms. 04:53 It's just 12 verses 04:55 and the love doesn't appear here many very times. 04:57 In fact, just kind of like once but we will see where it is 05:00 as we read through the passage. 05:02 Okay. 05:03 And Psalms 60, this is an urgent prayer 05:05 for the restored favor of God. 05:08 David writes, "O God, You have cast us off, 05:12 You have broken us down, You have been displeased, 05:15 oh, restore us again! 05:17 You have made the earth tremble, 05:19 You have broken it, 05:20 Heal its breaches, for it is shaking. 05:22 You have shown Your people hard things, 05:25 You have made us drink the wine of confusion. 05:28 You have given a banner to those who fear You, 05:32 that it may be displayed because of the truth. 05:34 That Your beloved may be delivered, 05:37 save with Your right hand, and hear me." 05:41 Answer me. 05:43 "God has spoken in His holiness," 05:46 you know, this is God speaking. 05:47 "'I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, 05:51 and measure out the Valley of Succoth. 05:53 Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine, 05:56 Ephraim also is the helmet for My head, 06:00 Judah is My lawgiver. 06:02 Moab is My washpot, 06:04 over Edom I will cast My shoe, 06:07 Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me." 06:11 That's the end of God's part. 06:13 Now David says, "Who will bring me to the strong city? 06:17 Who will lead me to Edom? 06:19 Is it not You, O God, who cast us off? 06:23 And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies? 06:27 Give us help from trouble," but the help of man or 06:31 "for the help of man is useless. 06:34 Through God we will do valiantly, 06:37 for it is He who shall tread down our enemies." 06:41 Now that's interesting 06:42 because you've got 12 verses that are talking about war 06:46 and about losing God's favor and trouble. 06:49 Yeah. 06:50 There's only one verse, 06:51 verse 5 that uses that word love. 06:53 Yes. 06:54 "That Your beloved ones may be delivered, 06:56 give salvation by Your right hand, and answer us." 06:59 So here is David and his armies in trouble and he is, 07:03 you know, he lays it all out. 07:04 It's so bad it's like it's an earthquake. 07:06 Yes. 07:07 And so he is very kind of graphic description 07:10 of their problems and he calls on God 07:13 to come to the aid of and the reason 07:16 why is because Israel is the beloved of God. 07:19 So he says, come to my aid. 07:20 And then God speaks and it's kind of interesting 07:22 because He uses these different place names, 07:27 Shechem, Succoth, 07:28 the Valley of Succoth, Manasseh, Ephraim. 07:30 Now if you look at some of those names, 07:33 you know, particularly Manasseh and Ephraim 07:35 are both names of tribes of Israel. 07:38 "And Manasseh is mine." 07:40 He says, "Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is My scepter." 07:43 So these are positive terms and then suddenly He says, 07:47 "Moab is my washbasin." 07:49 So it's like Moab is down. 07:51 And then He says, "Upon Edom I cast My shoe." 07:53 So the enemies of Israel are gonna go down 07:56 and Israel is gonna come up 07:58 because Israel is God's beloved. 08:01 Or yed-eed. Yeah, yed-eed, that's right. 08:03 Yed-eed, okay. 08:04 Now it's not a very common term 08:06 and the other one that's, another one 08:09 of the uncommon terms is that the term hashaq. 08:13 It's like that like guttural sound. 08:15 The Hebrew clearing your throat. 08:17 Yeah. Its hashaq. 08:18 Hashaq. 08:19 And this is an interesting term in that it talks to be attached 08:23 to love somebody but also to add bands to something. 08:29 So actually the term 08:31 it's sometimes not translated love at all. 08:34 They used it when referring like a pillar 08:37 and they put bands so they call them fillets. 08:40 Bands around the pillar 08:41 and so that was used the same term hashaq. 08:45 Hashaq is kind of to be bound to somebody. 08:46 Yeah, somebody to be bound, to be tied to. 08:48 Now, the interesting, one of the interesting use is here 08:52 for of in relationship to love or well, 08:57 you have to determine it's real love. 08:59 It's in Genesis 34. 09:01 It's the story of Shechem and Dinah. 09:04 So we turn over to Genesis Chapter 34, 09:07 read the first eight verses of this chapter 09:10 and see what happened to Dinah who was the daughter of Jacob. 09:16 Okay. 09:17 "Now Dinah," this is Genesis 34 09:20 and we're gonna read verses 1 through 8. 09:22 Genesis 34, "Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, 09:26 whom she had borne to Jacob, 09:27 went out to see the daughters of the land. 09:29 And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, 09:34 prince of the country, saw her, 09:35 he took her and lay with her, and violated her." 09:39 In other words he raped her. 09:40 He raped her. All right. 09:41 "His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah 09:44 and the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman 09:48 and spoke kindly to the young woman." 09:50 Now that's interesting because he's raped her 09:53 but now he is speaking kindly to her. 09:56 Yeah. 09:57 "So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, 10:00 'Get me this young woman as a wife.'" 10:03 So he was hashaq, bound to her. 10:06 Oh, that's, we haven't come to hashaq yet. 10:08 Okay. Let's jump later. 10:09 "And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. 10:13 Now his sons were with his livestock in the field, 10:17 so Jacob held his peace until they came. 10:20 Then Hamor the father of Shechem 10:24 went out to Jacob to speak with him. 10:26 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field. 10:29 When they heard it, and the men were grieved and very angry, 10:34 because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel 10:38 by lying with Jacob's daughter, 10:40 a thing which ought not to be done. 10:44 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, 10:47 'The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. 10:51 Please give her to him as a wife.' 10:53 Okay. 10:54 Now this is not the end of the story of course, 10:57 but here we notice, 10:59 it's in verse 8 actually that we come to this word hashaq. 11:02 The longs for? 11:03 Yeah, he longs for, he is bound to her. 11:05 He's like tied his soul, his life, he is tied to her. 11:09 He is interested in her. He has his mind for her. 11:12 Now, does he really love this girl? 11:15 Are you asking? 11:16 I'm asking you. I would say, no. 11:18 No, he raped her. It's a lustful thing. 11:19 Yeah. He is bound to her by lust. 11:21 And so he says that he loves her but I mean, 11:26 what he's done is to rape her. 11:29 So the first thing that's mentioned is he rapes her 11:31 and then he talks kindly to her. 11:34 Well, I mean, what kind of a attitude is that 11:40 where a person mistreats and abuses somebody, 11:44 you know, doesn't ask just takes. 11:46 That's not love. 11:48 No, he is-- rape is not about love or sex. 11:51 It's really about control. 11:53 Control, yeah. 11:54 So he saw something he desired. 11:56 He took it. He took it. 11:58 Yeah. 11:59 And then he tries to cover it up 12:00 by speaking gently. 12:02 He liked her so he now says 12:03 he is now trying to persuade her to like him. 12:05 Yeah, good luck with that. Yeah. 12:07 And, and but then his other spirit comes back 12:10 and as you see with his father he says, 12:11 "Give me this girl for my wife." 12:13 Yeah. 12:14 Now it's a controlling kind of thing. 12:16 Now his father tries to put the, 12:18 shall we say the best face on it, 12:20 you know, and he says, "He is really bound to her. 12:22 He is really, he is really tied to her. 12:24 You know, why don't you, why don't you give him?" 12:26 You know the rest of the story. 12:27 It's very sad story 12:29 how they will get slaughtered by Judas' sons-- 12:31 Jacob's sons and it just turns out terrible. 12:36 So there's not really love here. 12:38 The word love is used a couple of times 12:40 and other one of the common words 12:41 that's used there when he says he loves this girl 12:44 and here this binding but it's not true love. 12:48 This is a kind of abuse that we must condemn. 12:54 And this is something that in today's world, 12:56 we will see that these kind of things still take place. 13:00 Oh, sadly. 13:02 And there are, sadly there are some who, 13:05 domestic abuse where you've got someone 13:08 who is proclaiming their love for someone 13:11 and yet they are being very abusive. 13:14 And in that case, it's not really love. Is it? 13:16 No. 13:17 And, you know, what's interesting is 13:19 sometimes the Bible will describe things 13:22 and not tell you what's the right or the wrong. 13:24 It just expects you, as you read in the story, 13:27 to understand that there, now this particular story 13:30 is quite clear negative on what Shechem has done. 13:34 Jacob holds his peace till his sons come home. 13:37 His sons come home, they are indignant 13:40 and very angry because he's done an outrageous thing, 13:44 something that shouldn't be done. 13:46 So the Bible paints the picture that this is very negative. 13:49 Very bad, yeah. 13:52 It's not that common that the Bible will say, 13:54 you know, this is a disgraceful thing 13:55 and so forth and it just kind of describes it, 13:58 unless you see the picture of the evil 14:01 but here it's quite specific. 14:03 So that's the word hashaq. 14:04 Now the other two terms 14:06 that are rare terms are quite interesting. 14:09 They are in the book of Song of Solomon. 14:12 And this is song about love. 14:16 It's after the Book of Proverbs. 14:17 Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon. 14:21 Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. 14:23 And what we want to read here is verses, chapter 1 verses 12 14:29 through chapter 2 verse 1. 14:32 It's only about eight verses or so. 14:34 And this is talking about the Shulamite, 14:37 this is Song of Solomon 1:12. 14:41 Now there's actually two terms here. 14:44 The two terms are dod and rah-yaw. 14:47 Dod and rah-yaw. Okay. 14:49 So we will come and we will explain 14:50 what those are but first let's read the passage. 14:52 Okay. 14:53 "While the king is at his table, 14:55 my spikenard sends forth its fragrance. 14:58 A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, 15:02 that lies all night between my breasts. 15:05 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms 15:08 in the vineyards of En Gedi. 15:11 Behold" Now that was the Shulamite speaking now 15:16 the beloved, is speaking. 15:17 "Behold, you are fair, my love! 15:20 Behold, you are fair! 15:22 You have dove's eyes." 15:24 And then the Shulamite speaks. 15:27 "Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! 15:30 Yes, pleasant! 15:31 Also, our bed is green. 15:34 The beams of our houses are cedar, 15:36 and our rafters of fir. 15:40 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." 15:44 All right. 15:46 Now the two words are the two terms 15:49 for the lovers, all right. 15:52 And the one term is refers to the male 15:57 and the other term refers to the female. 16:02 Rah-yaw is the word for the female. 16:03 Dod is the word for the male. 16:06 So when she says "my beloved" in verse 13, 16:11 She is saying, dod. Dod, yeah. 16:13 She is using that term. 16:14 And when he says "my love" in verse 15, 16:18 he is using the term rah-yaw. 16:20 Now this book, the Song of Songs 16:24 is or the Song of Solomon as it's called, 16:29 is quite an interesting kind of read. 16:31 You know, you read this and it's very, very suggestive. 16:34 It's very ironic. Sensual. 16:35 It's very sensual. It's very sensual. 16:37 And sometimes people look at this and say, 16:40 "Whoa, this is in the Bible?" 16:43 When it says, she speaks of the king and she says 16:46 "While the king was on his couch, 16:47 my nard gave forth its fragrance." 16:49 Verse 13, "My beloved is to me 16:51 a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts." 16:54 I mean, wow. 16:56 You know, now most people out in, 17:00 they aren't acquainted with the Bible, 17:01 they think, they tend to think of the Bible's messages 17:04 rather negative on sex 17:07 and rather, you know, against any kind of 17:11 physical expression of love and-- 17:15 And they forget who created it. 17:16 Oh, yes. 17:18 And when you read these passages and, 17:20 you know, it goes on an on 17:21 and there's all kinds of word plays 17:24 and back and forth, between these two it's, 17:29 Richard Davidson in his book "Flame of Yahweh" 17:31 which is all about sexuality, 17:33 a big thick book on sexuality in the Old Testament. 17:36 He describes in there how 17:37 there is this almost playfulness in this 17:41 and that there's this play between husband and wife 17:46 in sexual arousal and in sexual intercourse 17:51 and that here it's described so explicitly. 17:54 It's just kind of like people are a little bit shocked but-- 17:56 Well, you know, I really think that people, I had a pastor 18:01 when I was young and engaged, he'd been my pastor growing up 18:05 and he and his wife sat down to talk to me 18:07 and he said that they nearly had gotten a divorce 18:10 because he'd been brought in a home 18:12 where he thought of sex 18:14 is being something naughty, something dirty. 18:17 And so they had very limited 18:22 physical expression of their love 18:25 and it created a lot-- 18:26 I mean, they managed to have two children 18:28 but it created a lot of issues 18:30 and he finally went to counseling 18:32 and went through Christian counseling 18:34 and he said, "When I actually recognized 18:38 that God is the one 18:39 who created this wonderful thing, 18:41 He gave us this as a gift." 18:43 And he said I got that, you know, that old filter, 18:47 that cloudy old filter that had been put on his eyes off. 18:51 He said then he came to understand God's love 18:54 even better because God is such an intimate God 18:58 and He gave us 18:59 that physical expression in marriage. 19:01 Yeah. 19:03 You see it's interesting both in Judaism and Christianity, 19:06 this book is so explicit 19:09 that I guess that maybe one of the reasons, 19:12 but they have taken, the book has been taken 19:15 and made allegorical. 19:17 People will say, "Well, that's not really about sex 19:20 and about love between men and women." 19:21 That's about God's love for Israel 19:25 or that's about God's love for the church 19:27 and the woman is the church 19:29 and the beloved is God and it's not about this stuff. 19:35 Well, actually it is. 19:37 You know, you can say does it also apply that way in terms, 19:40 you know, that's been interpret that way by many people. 19:43 But more modern interpreters have looked at it and say, 19:46 "No, that's just, this is a poem of love 19:49 between a man and his wife 19:52 and there's nothing wrong with that." 19:53 The Bible affirms that, you see. 19:56 We're gonna study later 19:58 when we come to in great detail 19:59 about the subject of sex 20:02 and what the New Testament says about it. 20:04 We'll see Paul's teaching and on and on. 20:07 We'll discuss this but sex is good 20:11 when it's in the right place. 20:13 When it's in a place it doesn't belong that's 20:15 when it creates problems and trouble and heartache. 20:20 So God created the differences between male and female, 20:26 the attraction, the hormones, the whole thing. 20:28 Yeah. 20:29 And sex, he intended sex to be a beautiful thing 20:35 so that you could be fruitful and go forward and multiply 20:39 but it wasn't just for the purpose, I mean, 20:41 it was obviously you read this Song of Solomon. 20:45 It's full of purpose of physical expression-- 20:49 Of joy and love for each other. It's joy and joyful thing. 20:50 Yeah. 20:52 Now, but He intended it 20:54 to be within the context of marriage. 20:58 And within the context of marriage to know 21:00 this kind of joy is like the icing on the cake, 21:04 you know. 21:06 I mean, it's just wonderful. 21:08 The problem is for people, 21:10 who the heartache and the problems come in 21:13 when people become involved 21:16 with the physical expression of love-- 21:19 Outside of marriage. Outside of marriage. 21:20 Yeah. Right. 21:22 And we will have, in this series, 21:23 we will have a lot more to say about that 21:25 and we will look at passages 21:27 in the New Testament discuss it. 21:28 Amen. 21:29 But those are the four rare words. 21:31 Okay. 21:32 So now we want to look at one more word in this time 21:35 that we have and that's the word, 21:37 one of the common words for love 21:38 and that's the word ahab. 21:41 Ahab is a term that means a friend or beloved. 21:45 It can even mean an illicit lover. 21:47 It's a rather flexible term. 21:48 You know, the term in English is flexible. 21:50 We say I love my dog. I love pizza. 21:55 I love my cello. 21:57 I love my wife. I love my grandchildren. 21:59 You know, there's different terms 22:00 that you will use the word for love. 22:02 So this word was a fairly common word 22:05 used maybe 200 or more times in the Old Testament. 22:09 So between people, 22:12 this term refers to desire or attraction between people. 22:18 It can be with end goal of marriage 22:21 or simply a sexual encounter that 22:23 they have in mind that's involved. 22:26 It's also a term that's used for positive attachment 22:30 between family members. 22:32 You love your relatives. 22:35 It's used in the book of Ruth's to refer to. 22:37 Noami. 22:39 Yeah, Ruth loved for Naomi 22:42 that Ruth loved her and cared for her. 22:45 It's used for political loyalty. 22:49 You're loyal to your tribe or you are loyal to-- well, 22:53 it's used as David is loved by Saul 22:57 they say and Saul's servants 22:59 and all of Israel and Jonathan loves him. 23:02 This is the term that's used for that 23:03 and they will say political 23:05 kind of connection between them, 23:06 not simply a sort of a friendship. 23:09 It's interesting that, that's a very interesting point 23:12 because there are people who try to make something else 23:14 out of David and Jonathan's relationship 23:17 just because the word used, 23:19 love there but this is political loyalty. 23:21 Yeah. Okay. 23:22 Then there is-- sometimes the term is not used 23:25 between relationships between people. 23:28 Sometimes it's used of an object 23:31 that you set your heart on, 23:32 you mind of like righteousness 23:34 or God's law or wisdom things like that. 23:36 Okay. 23:37 Then interestingly this term 23:39 is used in the commands that we have to love God. 23:43 Turn to Deuteronomy 6:4-6 23:46 we are looking at the-- Great Shema. 23:48 Great Shema which is the confession of faith 23:52 of the people of Israel 23:55 and the word ahab is used there. 23:57 Okay. 23:58 Deuteronomy 6:4-6 is where we begin. 24:02 "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 24:07 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 24:11 with all your soul, and with all your strength. 24:14 And these words 24:16 which I command you today shall be in your heart. 24:18 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 24:21 and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 24:24 when you walk by the way, when you lie down, 24:26 and when you rise up." 24:28 All right. 24:29 So you notice here there it says, 24:31 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 24:33 with all your soul, and with all your might." 24:35 Yes. 24:36 And people wonder, sometimes they say, 24:39 "Well, now, how can you command somebody 24:42 to love somebody else?" 24:43 You know, that just seems so-- 24:45 Especially when we talk about the, 24:48 in contrast that God has given us free wills 24:51 because He isn't controlling. 24:53 So... 24:54 Yeah. We love God. 24:56 Well, you know, that isn't that something 24:57 that you just kind of has to arise from you. 24:59 Well, the concept here in Deuteronomy 25:03 is actually based in the rhetoric 25:06 of international relationships in the ancient Near East. 25:10 So in those relationships, 25:12 there was faithfulness to a treaty, 25:15 a treaty of protection and where you had somebody 25:20 who is gonna protect you 25:21 and then you would have a relationship with them 25:23 and obey them 25:24 and have some kind of linkage with them. 25:25 So this actually comes out of this international relations 25:29 rather than the concept of marriage. 25:31 And so when we think of love, and we say, 25:34 love God we think of it more in terms of relational terms, 25:38 in terms of, you know, 25:40 you're thinking about loving your relatives 25:43 or something like that. 25:44 And we don't think of it in terms of the loyalty 25:46 to a treaty but that's really the context here. 25:49 That's interesting. 25:50 It helps us to understand a little bit better 25:52 that the command is a command not to sort of, 25:56 develop some sort of feelings but rather to be faithful 26:01 to the treaty that you have with God, 26:02 the covenant relationship. 26:03 So that would be the same then for the command 26:05 to "love your neighbor as yourself." 26:07 It is. It is. It's the same? 26:09 It's the same kind of concept and that's over in Leviticus, 26:12 "You should love your neighbors as self." 26:13 These two great commands both use this terms ahab 26:17 and it has this sort of, 26:19 you could say almost ethical sense to it. 26:21 So is it ever used of God's love for Israel? 26:24 I mean, is that His loyalty? Is ahab used of God for Israel? 26:28 Well, you see when you're in a treaty with two individuals, 26:33 you have now a relationship between them 26:36 and so you have one where you're, 26:39 where you're being faithful to them and the other 26:42 where you're now linking up with them. 26:44 So this relationship and when it uses this term 26:48 in terms of Israel loving God, 26:54 the term in Hosea is flipped around 26:58 where its God's love for Israel. 27:00 And there you almost get a sense 27:02 maybe that it has that sort of marriage sense too 27:04 because he has the whole case of his wife that is, 27:10 needs his help and God comes to their aid. 27:12 So yeah, it's used from both side of the issue. 27:16 This has been a fascinating study today and particularly, 27:20 about the command to love God which was-- that was ahab 27:26 and that means to be loyal to God. 27:28 That helps me understand a whole lot better. 27:30 It's a very flexible term that's used in variety of ways 27:32 but that's one of the important uses. 27:34 It's there in Deuteronomy describing God 27:38 that we are to love God and then 27:39 we are to love in Leviticus to love our fellowman. 27:42 Amen. 27:44 Fascinating study as I said, we've been through 27:46 a five of these six Old Testament words so as-- 27:49 Yeah, one more to go. 27:51 Very fascinating. 27:52 And we're out of time today 27:53 so that will be on our next time. 27:55 But we just want to thank you for joining us today. 27:58 Hope you are enjoying this as much as we are. 28:01 And may God multiply His mercy, His love, and His grace to you. 28:06 That's our prayer. Good bye. |
Revised 2016-02-25