The heart is the organ that supplies blood and oxygen to all parts of the body. It is about the size of a clenched fist, weighs about 10.5 ounces and is shaped like a cone. The heart is located in the chest cavity just posterior to the breastbone, between the lungs and superior to the diaphragm. The heart is surrounded by a fluid filled sac called the pericardium. Blood is pumped away from the heart through arteries and returns to the heart through veins. The major artery of the body is the aorta and the major veins of the body are the vena cavae.
The heart is not just
one of the most important organs that constitutes human life but is also the
most important aspect of human life that should be handled with absolute carefulness
and watchfulness; biologically, life starts when the heart starts to beat and
ends when it stops beating.
The heart therefore
is the representation of who a person is; various times in the Bible, God spoke
of the heart. In Gen. 6:5, God
regarded the heart of man as an extreme wicked member of the human body which
habors or conceives evil thoughts, Gen
8:21 gives another perspective of what God says the heart is; God
declared that from childhood, the heart has always been over-clouded with
negative/evil inclinations.
The friends of Job on
the other hand in Job 15:16 refer to
the heart as that which drinks up evil like water while Prov. 6:18 regard the heart as being capable of devising evil
scheme. Jeremiah in Jer. 17:9 says
that the heart is more deceitful than anything else, incurably bad and hard to
understand.
Jesus Christ speaking
of the heart in the book of Mark 7:21-23
said:
For from
within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and
folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.”
From
all indications, it is clear that the Bible holds a uniform understanding of
what the heart is. However, the very big question that should be considered
this moment as we proceed on this study is:
v What is the Biblical interpretation of the Heart?
That
is to say, when the Bible makes mention of the heart, what exactly do he mean? In
the whole of the Bible, the word heart was used about 830 times with the Old Testament
recording 725 counts and the New Testament 105.
In
the Old Testament, the Bible made use of two Hebrew words לֵב (leb)
and לֵבָב (lebab).
Lebab לֵבָב translated
as heart in the English Bible, refers to the heart (as the most interior organ)
i.e. the heart of an animal which can be human as the case may be, but the
frequent usage of the word heart in the Old Testament is the word, Leb לֵב.
Leb לֵב also
translated as heart in the English Bible is an offshoot of the root word Lebab לֵבָב which refers to the heart in a
figurative sense, thus used very widely for the
feelings, the will and even the intellect; it was also regarded as the centre
of anything (anything can also mean everything).
In the New Testament, the
Greek word used for heart is καρδία
(kardia), hope you know that the Old Testament was
written in the Hebrew language, while the New Testament was written in Koine
Greek, (oops I should not be saying this).
καρδία (kardia), used in several places in the New Testament
has been translated as heart but was used in a figurative sense as well thus, the New Testament when talking about the heart, refers
to the thoughts or feelings (mind) habored by one.
Now from the above, we
realize that the Old and New Testament hold the same view on what the heart is
and thus when they make mention of the heart, they refer to the Feelings, will, intellects and the thoughts of the mind;
it speaks of the intentions or motives that runs through your mind.
LET US TRY AND APPLY THIS UNDERSTANDING TO THE TEXTS THAT WE HAVE
ABOVE:
Jer. 17:9 The heart (Feelings,
will, intellects, thoughts of the mind intentions or motives that runs through
your mind) is
more deceitful than anything else, and incurable — who can understand it…
Mark 7:21-23 For from within, out of the
human heart (Feelings, will, intellects, thoughts of the mind
intentions or motives that runs through your mind), come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and
folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.”
We understand that the human
heart as centre of life is also the centre of the existence of thoughts which
in its capacity forms the character of any a person.
Who you are is a reflection of
whatever is going on in your mind; this explains why God concentrates on the heart.
The heart contains your real
Identity and therefore demands to always be put right before God.
In our next study, we will use
this understanding to examine what this passage of the Scripture is saying:
Psalm 15:2 …The one who lives honestly, practices
righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart
Ps 24:4a He who has clean hands and a pure heart
Ps 119:11a I have hidden your word in my heart
Jer 4:14 Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart
and be saved
Ps 14:3 He that speaketh truth in his heart,
who hath not used deceit in his tongue
I remain your Pastor and Friend
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