The Biblical Heart II

Go To Meeting

Michael Heiss—January 20, 2022

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Before I actually get into new material, I want to make a comment or two because we received a couple of e-mails; good questions and good points.

I want to start out, the individual sent a nice study on God's omniscience. I appreciate that very, very much.

One thing we have to realize when we talk about theology, we talk about Biblical happenstances and occurrences, scholars come up with words such as monotheism, henotheism, omnipotence, omniscience... You won't find those words in the Bible, but scholars come up with them to just sort of try to explain what they read so they can understand it. The question was:

• Really, is it true that God doesn't know everything?
• Is it true that God cannot do everything?

The answer is yes, because it all boils down to a definition.

We tend to try to make God in our own image in a way. I'm referring to the play, My Fair Lady. I don't know how many of you have seen it but it is a delightful play taking place in London and Rex Harrison is the lead part and he has a song in their soliloquy and he's talking about:

Why can't a woman be like a man? After all, a woman is flaky, she's this, she's that, but a man is strong and stable!

Finally, he gets down to the nitty-gritty, the very end when he asks, 'Why can't a woman be like me?' That's his point! He wants a woman to be in his own image, but I'll tell you if they ever got that kind of woman, oh, he would be miserable; to have a woman, just like him. It wouldn't last long. Well, in a way, that's how we think of God.

The Hebrew word Elohim we translate into God. We think of all of the encrustments and all the accruements to all the additions and this God must be:

• all knowing
• all powerful
• able to do anything and everything all at once

That's not true! When you read Scripture, when you read the Bible, you don't find that. You really don't and I really appreciated the study that was sent to me. So, let me read just a couple of items from it.

To be all-powerful does not mean that God could do anything, whatever. How true! Things that are impossible to do, cannot be done, not even by God.

Things that contradict God's nature, that is Who He is, cannot be done. They are not really limitations of God's power. He can do anything and everything that is possible to do and in harmony with His own nature.

He gives a couple of examples here:

• God cannot make square triangles
• He cannot make a page so flat that it has only one side
• He cannot make the universe both exist and not exist at the same time

One of the skeptics like to always ask:

• he cannot make the proverbial rock so heavy that even he can't lift it

Remember, a rock is material, God is spirit, spirit automatically controls physical matter. God could lift a brick or a mountain so high. Doesn't matter:

• He can will it into existence
• He can will it out of existence

This is crazy!

But the point here is, when God says He's going to do something, that means He's going to do it. So, therefore, He is all powerful in the context. Always remember:

• context
• definition
• assumptions

If there are certain things God doesn't know, it doesn't make Him any less God, it's just that our image of Him does depreciate, but it shouldn't!

For example, I gave in part one the example about Abraham. When God said to him to 'go sacrifice your son to Me, you're only son; take him up to Me. You're only son of promise.'

If you read there in Gen. 22 you'll find that Abraham and Isaac arrive at the place. His servants are there, and then Abraham says something very interesting to his servants, 'You stay here while the lad and I go up to worship and we will come back to you.

If Abraham is supposed to sacrifice Isaac, that means Isaac's not coming back. But, you see, Abraham believed God, and what did God tell him?

Remember the story of Ishmael and Hagar; even God sided with Sarah, get Ishmael out of the camp,  get the Egyptian woman out of the camp. God says, 'Don't worry, Abraham, I will bless the lad because he is your son, but in Isaac shall your seed be called! Well, if Isaac is going to die, then Isaac will not be his seed. Abraham knew that!

Abraham had faith, that either God is going to change His mind, and not go through with a sacrifice OR the sacrifice would occur and God would resurrect him. But either way, Abraham and Isaac we're coming back.

It shows you Abraham's faith in God. It also shows that God, based on circumstances, can change in what he knows. Remember what God said to Abraham: 'Because you have done this thing. Not withhold your only son. In blessing I will bless you.' He swore by Himself. God said, 'Now, I know…'

• What?
• He didn't know before? No, He didn't!
• Does that make you any less Elohim? No, it just means as with Abraham and all of us that He's going to test us!
• Why? He wants to make sure!

I'm going to try to show you from Deut. 6:5[transcriber's correction] about the greatest commandment of all. What that really entails, what's there. And it's a lot more than meets the eye when you look into those words. God, does not want any Lucifer's running around in His Kingdom. He's not going to have it. Therefore, He has to test each one to know and those that He knows. He didn't know.

God pronounced judgments on Ahab. Ahab, lo and behold, went in sackcloth and ashes, humbled himself, and God said, 'See what Ahab has done.' I'm not going to do it in his day. God backed off! Why? Because Ahab repented, as much as Ahab could possibly repent! Ahab being Ahab, he couldn't keep it up; he did go through the motions, he went through the words he was sincere at the time.

So God said, 'Okay, I'll back off.' God didn't know that Ahab was going to do that; He really didn't.

Again, that does not mean that God is any less God, just because they're things He doesn't know. Particularly  with human beings because God has given us all free moral agency. That's important. God says:

• here's My Law
• here are My requirements
• here are My statutes
• here are My judgments

• hearken unto them
• obey My voice

Then it's up to us! God is just sitting back and watching.

• What are we going to do?
• Do we really love Him with all our the heart, mind, soul?
• What do we do?
• He's got to know!

So, there are things that God doesn't necessarily know, but, again, it doesn't make them any less the mighty Elohim that He is.

Elohim is a title like Pharaoh or Caesar, (inaudible) or pope. It's not necessarily an individual being. Right now, there are two in the Family of Elohim. Before it's through, who knows how many millions or billions of individuals in Elohim that there's going to be.

Question #2

I did want to bring that out and then somebody else sent an e-mail showing a Scripture in Ezekiel where the Bible does talk about fairness as such, was very, very interesting. You say, the way of the Lord is not fair.

Ezekiel 18:25: "Yet, you say, 'The way of the LORD is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is not My way fair? Are not your ways unfair?"

Verse 29: "Yet, the house of Israel says, "The way of the LORD is not fair." O house of Israel, are not My ways fair? Are not your ways unfair?"

Then he says, almost the same thing in Ezek. 33, and these are the only two chapters in the entirety of the Old Testament where this word is used, and it's only used four or five times.

Now you'll find the English Word fair in the Bible, talking about a fair young maiden, she was fair to look upon, the weather was fair.

But in terms of conduct, what is fair and unfair? These are the only two places that I have found in the Old Testament where this word is used.

Ezekiel 33:17: "Yet, the children of your people say, 'The way of the LORD is not fair.' But as for them, it is their way that is not fair."

Verse 20: "Yet, you say, 'The way of the LORD is not fair.' O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways."

What do we have here? God does not promote Himself as being fair. God has a goal, and I don't know why, but He loves us! Sometimes I look at myself and say, 'Father, why would You ever want me?' But He does! He wants all of us!

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son…"

At some point… I would like to say 'at some point in time' but I can't because God is outside of space and time. Before this universe was ever created, there was no time, just spirit beings. That's hard to grasp, I can't, but at some point the two of Them—El Elyon and the Logos—decided They wanted a Family. What's happening is that everything from:

Genesis 1:26: "And God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image…" clear to the book of Revelation, high above on that Sea of Glass—sometimes I think it's more like crystal, but whether glass or crystal it's going to be gorgeous—God is going to get us from point A to point B!

How He does—all the points in between—is up for grabs. That depends on how we act. God has established certain standards. He'll always judge righteously on the standards.

Cain gave an offering to the Lord, and Abel did, too. God accepted Abel's, but not Cain's. Cain[transcriber's correction] said, in essence:

God, You're not fair. I gave an offering, why did You accept my brother's, but not mine?

We can speculate on it, we could say, because it says Abel gave of the choicest, that he gave the best, all it says is Cain gave an offering from the ground. Well, was it the best? Don't know! All we can do to speculate.

Maybe it's because Cain should have sacrificed an animal knowing it takes the blood to have sin forgiven. But either way, God did not accept Cain's offering; therefore, God wasn't fair. Fair is always a human perspective. We say God is unfair because he doesn't do things the way we want him to do. That's trying to make God in our own image.

Look at nations, some nations are big and powerful, other nations are small, is God fair? When you have such giant kingdoms and such tiny nations, 'God just didn't do it right. He played favorites.' No He didn't.

God is working things out to accomplish his plan. He's not thinking in terms of fairness because fairness is irrelevant to Him.

Holiness and Righteousness, that's what's important to Him. bringing us along, so we all can be in His Kingdom and all be one together.

So the fairness is irrelevant to God, but on the other hand He's fair in his regard: He doesn't play favorites. If you don't repent of sin and go His way, you know you aren't going to be in the Kingdom.

• doesn't matter who you are
• doesn't matter what your name is
• doesn't matter what your lineage is

Also, in addition to that, if you do repent, then it doesn't matter what your background is, He will receive you into His Kingdom

He doesn't play favorites, but in terms of fairness as men, see it, no, He's not because he doesn't think in those terms.

It is human, mankind to think in terms of fairness. God does not He's not unjust, but he doesn't think in terms of fairness.

Now I would like to go to Deut 6--God give a requirement, something that is very profound, and it's all encompassing.

Deuteronomy 6:5: "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

There's a lot more here than meets the eye. First of all, He said "…you shall love…"

That means up Word love implies:

• loyalty
• dedication
• absolute obedience

To love God means to be completely faithful to Him in everything that He says, to back Him up with everything you have! That's what it means to love God, to be absolutely dedicated and loyal to Him.

Then the process "…with all your heart…" That's the word 'leb,' which is the entirety of the person?

• his thoughts
• his actions
• his emotions.

Everything that makes that person what he is, that is to be dedicated to God. You're to love Him with all of your heart.

Then it says, "…with all your soul…"  Would you believe it really means—when you understand where it is coming from—with all your neck? What's neck got to do with this?

Actually, the Hebrew word is 'nephesh' meaning life, breathing! Technically, breathing. Go back to Genesis, remember: and the Lord came down, formed the man and breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and man became a 'nephesh.'

The neck is a conduit from the hand to the rest of the body. What starts with the neck? How about breathing, the lungs! It starts with the nose where the air goes, and then goes down through the neck, the esophagus. That's life! If you don't eat, if food doesn't get down, you're dead; you starve to death. Of course, there's the skeleton, your backbone. It starts at the back of your neck and goes clear down.

In other words, you are to love him with all your living force, your breathing force. Not just the heart. The heart is a total composite, but in Hebrew we call parallelism, it's like poetry. You had the meter and the rhyme and so forth. Hebrew doesn't have that. It has repetition.

Go back and see the death of Cicero. Deborah was there. It says he fell, he sank, he died. That's how Hebrew is constructed.

So, we're to love God with our entire heart, our whole being, and then our life force, everything that gives us life, devoted to God. Then with all our might, in other words, what all the strength that we have.

So IF you're loving God and devoted to Him with your heart, meaning your entire being—not just that pump, not just the emotions, but your entire being—and your life force, and whatever might and strength you have, you're giving God. everything that you are!

That's exactly what he wants, because then, and then only, will God know, as He  knew with Abraham's obedience. Then he knows, you will never turn into a Lucifer. But that's what, that's what he's doing here, in and do in Deut. 6:5.

Now we're going to look at a tragic story. I don't know how to describe it, except it is: the heart of Solomon! We're going to see some amazing things.

2-Samuel 12:24: "And David comforted his wife Bathsheba. And he went in to her and lay with her. And she bore a son. And he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him."

God, loved Solomon. No ifs, ands, or buts. A straight up statement, and it says that Solomon loved the Lord:

1-Kings 3:3: "And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father. Only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places"—because there was no temple as such.

God loved Solomon; Solomon loved God. What could go wrong? Something went wrong! Solomon loved the Lord, walked in the statues of David until he didn't, until he stopped! As a warning, or warning to us. Look what Solomon asked for when God appears to him.

Verse 5: "In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, 'Ask what I shall give you!'

• To how many people did God ever say that? He said it to Solomon!
• What would you like?
• What do you want to have now that you are king?

Solomon said, all the right words; he did!

Verse 9: "'Now, therefore, give to Your servant an understanding heart… [the 'leb', the total being, give me the capacity] …to judge Your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this, Your great people?' And the word was good in the eyes of the LORD that Solomon had asked this thing" (vs 9-10).

Of course, God would love it. Solomon loved and believed it—I think, I hope!

Verse 11: "And God said to him, 'Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life and have not asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to judge justly.'" So, God did that!

Verse 12: "Behold, I have done according to your words. Lo, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart…"

Solomon got that heart; he got that understanding heart His whole being was wrapped up with God at this point.

"…so that there was none like you before you and after you none shall arise like you" (v 12). God, indeed, gave it to him!

1-Kings 4:29: "And God gave Solomon exceeding great wisdom and understanding, and largeness of heart…"

A big heart, big understanding, big knowledge more than any king that ever existed before him.

"…even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all…" (vs 29-30)—all others!

But, along with that, came the big IF, and Fred has pointed this out so many times, Let's start out about this IF:

1-Kings 6:11: "And the Word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, 'As to this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and do My judgments and keep all My commandments to walk in them, then I will perform My work with you which I spoke to David your father. And I will live among the children of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel'" (vs 11-13).

But you have to walk in the judgments and statutes of God

1-Kings 9:2: "The LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD said to him, 'I have heard your prayer…'" (vs 2-3).

Read that prayer in 1-Kings; it's a masterpiece. I don't know how many people could have ever uttered that prayer. Solomon was sincere when he uttered that, I don't see how you could possibly utter a prayer like that and be deceitful.

But, Fred has often told us, it's not how you start the race that counts, it's how you end it.

Solomon, started out beautifully, God spoke to him twice. God loved him! He gave his wisdom, gave him wealth. God gave Solomon everything that you could ask for.

Verse 3: "And the LORD said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and your cry, which you have made before Me. I have made Holy this house which you have built to put My name there forever. And My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.'"

Do we realize what God is saying? His essence, His presence will be there in that house that Solomon dedicated.

Verse 4: "And if you will walk before Me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you; and if you will keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever as I promised to David your father…'" (vs 4-5).

David gives Solomon a warning. Sometimes I shudder when I read David's warning:

1-Chronicles 28:7—God speaking: "And I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues resolute in keeping My commandments and My ordinances, as he is today."

So at this point in time, God acknowledges that Solomon was walking in the ordinance of God, he was keeping the commandments in the statutes, at that time.

Verse 8—David speaking: "And now in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God, so that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever. And you, Solomon my son, acknowledge the God of your father and serve Him with a perfect heart…" (vs 8-9)—wholeheartedly with all your being, with everything you have, and all your might!

You need to love God as we read in Deut. 6:5. David is warning him!

"…and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts…" (v 9). Yes, he does

As I brought out before, it's a scientific fact that when you think of thought out it goes out into the universe and you broadcast, you broadcast your thoughts. God has a huge receiver or whatever it's like, I haven't seen it. I know that it's there, and that receiver is capable of hearing every thought we think that's incredible mind boggling.

"…serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind…" (v 9).

Now, by the way, we got 'nephesh' here. That's not just thinking, that's the whole living thing.

It's amazing! We didn't have any other way to really translate it, so we translated it 'mind,' because it makes more sense to the English. But really, it's your life force. David is saying to Solomon what God said to Moses, to all of Israel? Love the Lord your God with your heart, your 'Nephesh' and all your might and strength!

"…for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts…." (v 9).

Of course, He's got His receiver, taking in all the electrical impulses that you're sending forth!

"…If you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever" (v 9).

It's a warning! Solomon, my son, stay on the Word, stay on that road. Obey the Lord Your God, that was a warning.

Verse 10: "Take heed now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it."

So, Solomon started out right, but what happened to him? It's a tragedy, he started out so beautifully, he really did.

1-Kings 11:1: "And King Solomon loved many foreign women, even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites; of the nations which the LORD had said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you; surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.' But Solomon clung to these in love" (vs 1-2).

God said, 'Don't do it!'

Remember a song by Paul Simon: Slip Slide, Slip Sliding Away.

Slowly but surely, Solomon, at some point, started slip sliding away softly and gently. He started building temples to other gods. Just what God said, 'Don't you do that.' Solomon did it!

We're going to see a difference between Solomon and David, it's coming up here.

Verse 3: "And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart" In other words, turned his entire being! All his attention, all that he was, no longer dedicated to God; dedicated to himself, he was king! But look what he did.

Sometimes I read about people who used to belong to the Worldwide Church of God and left, for whatever reason. I listen to what they say, what they read, what they write and so forth, and I wonder how they to do what they do and say what they do!

After having gone through Ambassador College four years, and then out into the field ministry, sometimes 15 or 20 years, in totally reject everything they were taught. Now some of it I reject, too. There were things out on the extremities that really did not have a basis in Torah, that's true.

• Everything?
• How could they do that?

Just read the first eleven chapters of 1-Kings, and you'll see how:

• the most powerful man in the world
• the greatest king who ever lived
• the wisest man
• one of the wealthiest men that ever lived

and see what happened to him!

His heart! You have to control the heart, the entire being. Deut 6 again, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and being!

At some point, Solomon stopped doing it, and we need to beware!

Verse 4: "For it came to pass when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods…."

Turned him away, turn his attention away from the temple away from writing out his own copy of the Law.

"…And his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God as was the heart of David his father," (v 4).

Now, there's a difference between David in Solomon. I tend to think of it as Solomon's conversion or Solomon is spirituality, skin deep? He said, the right words. He knew the right words. He grew up with a 'silver spoon in his mouth'; David was his father.

He knew what would happen and he told, God, 'You know my father who walked in your statutes.' Solomon knew that.

The difference is that when David was pressed by Nathan the prophet, 'You're the one, David, who did this.' David fell to his knees and repented in sackcloth and ashes. He begged God:

Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart…".

We don't read where Solomon ever did that. We don't read where Solomon ever asked, God to forgive him. Maybe, I don't know; It doesn't say so. We see no indication that Solomon ever really return to God.

I'm not going to pass judgment. I'm just one guy living in the 21st century. This happened some 3,000 years ago, so I'm not going to throw stones at Solomon. But when I read what I read, I shudder, I really do.

1-Kings 11:5: for Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD…" (vs 5-6).

There were some decent Kings of Judah. We had Jehosphat, Asa and Josiah. It was never said of them that they did evil in his sight of God. But here it is.

I know we had Ahab, Omri, and all the kings of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, not one of them is it said that they did evil in the sight of the Lord. Here it is said of Solomon. What a come down! How could he have done it?

"…and did not go fully after the LORD like his father David" (v 6).

We'll see the difference in Psa. 42; we will see the attitude of David as opposed to Solomon.

Psalm 42:1: "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul… [my life force, my 'nephesh,' my entire life force] …pants after You, O God."

David was trying every which way he could, to get close to God. Like animals in the desert maybe, or it's dry season, they need water desperately, and they are desperately trying to find water. David said that he was like that, and is so written in the Psalm. But you will never find that said of Solomon, just won't! Sad, but true.

1-Kings 11:7: "Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill, which is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise he did for all his foreign wives, and burned incense and sacrificed to their gods" (vs 7-8).

Ever hear the king named Manasseh of Judah toward the very end of the destruction? Yeah, that's what he did! Read what he did horribly.

Verse 9: "And the LORD was angry with Solomon..."

God was never fully angry with David. Oh yes, He punished him. Some people say that he got away with murder, but he didn't.

I remember listening to a broadcast sometime years ago. This guy called in saying he would never follow the God of the Old Testament. He let David commit murder and adultery and get away with it. David didn't; God punished him in different ways? God said, the sword shall never depart from your house.

Remember, Absalom and what happened, and Ammon remember that there's a sister. Oh, David had a miserable family life. The last 10-15 years or so of His life was not very pretty, but stay faithful, he stayed faithful! God rewarded him for being faithful. His son Solomon was not!

Verse 9: "And the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel who had appeared to him twice."

Twice God appeared to him. It was said that God loved him. Solomon turned his back; he let his heart be turned away.

Verse 11: And the LORD said to Solomon, 'Since this has been done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. But I will not do it in your days, for David your father's sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son" (vs 11-12).

What a tragedy! Let's not let our hearts be turned like Solomon. It was foreign women! He built temples to their gods.

God warned the kings: 'don't multiply horses.' Solomon did that, too. We could read about the stables and the horses always look to God. That heart must be perfect. It must be turned to Him, we must love the Lord, our God, with all the heart, our entire being, with our living breath. We put every might and strength we have, that's the command.

That's the way we are going to achieve God's Kingdom, not by human strength, but by God's Spirit!That's the big equalizer!

Now I want to go over 'in his heart' phrases. It talks about people saying 'in his heart' or 'to his heart.' We'll go through these quickly and you'll see a difference. You'll be able to guess which preposition is used by the context of the verse.

Gen. 8 ought to be a dead giveaway. There's really no way we're going to miss this one.

Genesis 8:21: "And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in His heart…"

Every time you see that phrase, "…in His heart…' will have two prepositions"

• Hebrew: 'lovet' (sp ?)—a 'L' sounding
• Hebrew:  'bet'—a 'B' sounding

Now the 'bet' is within himself, within the heart of man. What did Jeremiah say about the heart of man? Anytime you see the bet there, you know it's going to be a bad decision, not going to turn out right.

But every time you see an 'L' there, a 'lovet,' that's the individual commanding his heart, basically, to do what's right?

In Gen. 8:21, He said in his heart, Do we have a 'lovet,' or do we have a 'bet'? Well, you'd only have a 'lovet.' This has God commanding himself, this has got talking to his heart.

1-Samuel 1:13: "Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. And Eli thought she had become drunk."

As you read this whole chapter, do you think it was a 'bet' or 'lovet'? 'Lovet,' absolutely!

Daniel 1:8: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's food…"

• What do we have?
• A 'lovet' or a 'bet'? A 'lovet'

"…Daniel purposed in his heart…" He's determining, to obey God.

Psalm 14:11: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God!'…."

What do you think we have, a 'bet' or a 'lovet'? A 'bet'! This is within himself, apart from God, no Holy Spirit!

Genesis 27:41: "And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, 'The days of mourning for my father are at hand—then I will kill my brother Jacob.'"

A 'bet' or a lovet'? A 'bet'!

You see, when you use the 'bet' it's bad decisions.  When we use a 'lovet' it's good decisions. So, you are either in control of your heart, that your heart is right with God, your whole being is right with God. So, when you say in your heart, you're saying to your heart, guided by God, with His Spirit. On the other hand, without that Spirit, your saying within the carnal mind, within that heart only bad things will come.

Remember Mark 7 about the food eaten with unwashed hands, and Jesus said, 'Don't worry about the food, it goes out with the draught. But what really defiles a man or his thoughts they come from within? That's the 'bet' within the heart.

Now, what I would like to do is point out a few things about how God calls things.

Psalm 7:10: "My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart." Or saves those who are straight!

Isaiah 40:4: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked… [Hebrew 'aqob'] …places shall be made straight… [Hebrew: 'miyshor'] …and the rough places plain."

Jacob was crooked, a conniver! We know that, but yet, he was made straight. Because the Hebrew word in Genesis is the same as they are here in Isa. 40.

Gen. 32—this is the time when Jacob was wrestling with this individual:

Genesis 32:27: "And He said to him, 'What is your name?' And he said, 'Jacob.'…. [Hebrew: 'ya adobe'] …And He said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed'" (vs 27-28).

The letters are exactly the same. The only difference is we have got a sheen, which is a bar and three prongs. If there's a dot on the right one over the right one it's [???]. If the dot is on the top left one, it's an S, but it's parallel.

So, as Jacob, the crooked one was made straight, so the crooked places in the world to come are going to be made straight.

And it's called 'hasher leb' in Psa. 7:10, a straight part. That's how God describes it, a straight heart. It's amazing how God uses the word heart.

Psalm 12:2: "They speak falsehood each one with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak."

This is 'leb' and 'leb,' which means dishonest, a man who is double-minded. Here's double-hearted, meaning that he speaks, as the Indians used to say, 'white men speak with forked tongue.' Double double-hearted, which means dishonest.

Now we will come one more, and then we'll wrap this up: courageous.

Amos 2:16: "'And the stout-hearted among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,' says the LORD"—meaning what courageous and strong was, but He chose stouthearted; yet, it should be courageous, but God calls it stouthearted.

Remember the movie with Mel Gibson Braveheart? That's a courageous heart. I remember the TV show about Wyatt Earp; he was brave, courageous and bold. Well, that would be a double heart, meaning mighty, strong, greatness. That's the heart we have to have.

So, in closing, at this point, let's remember to love the Lord, our God, with all the heart meaning everything that we have, all that we are, everything!

Then coming down a notch, but adding to it: our physical being, the actual life force within us, and whatever strength we have.

Solomon did not do that, and it was tragic.

Let's make sure that we, in our heart, using that heart, stay straight with God:

• brave in heart
• mighty in heart
• loyal in heart
• an honorable person

So, let's all be brave and stouthearted!.

Scriptural References:

• Ezekiel 18:25, 29
• Ezekiel 33:17, 20
• John 3:16
• Genesis 1:26
• Deuteronomy 6:5
• 2 Samuel 12:24
• 1 Kings 3:3, 5, 9-12
• 1 Kings 4:29-30
• 1 Kings 6:11-13
• 1 Kings 9:2-7
• 1 Chronicles 28:7-10
• 1 Kings 11:1-4
• Psalm 51:10
• 1 Kings 11:5-6
• Psalm 42:1
• 1 Kings 11:7-9, 11-12
• Genesis 8:21
• 1 Samuel 1:13
• Daniel 1:8
• Psalm 14:1
• Genesis 27:41
• Psalm 7:10
• Isaiah 40:4
• Genesis 32:27-28
• Psalm 12:2
• Amos 2:16

Scripture referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 22
• Psalm 53:1
• Mark 7

MH:bo
Transcribed: 1/7/23

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