{"id":5460,"date":"2025-08-08T00:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T00:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/?p=5460"},"modified":"2025-08-18T01:53:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T01:53:33","slug":"the-heart-in-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/?p=5460","title":{"rendered":"The Heart in the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe Hebrew word leb<\/em> means heart; mind; midst.  Leb<\/em> and its synonym lebab<\/em> appear 860 times in the Old Testament.\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHeart is first used of man in Gen. 6:5; And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.\u00a0 <\/em>In Gen. 6:6 leb<\/em> is used of God: And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.\u201d*<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe seat of desire, inclination, or will can be indicated by heart<\/em>.\u00a0 Pharoah\u2019s heart is hardened (Ex 1:16): whosoever is of a willing heart, <\/em>let him bring it<\/em> (Ex 35:5); I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all mine heart.\u201d*<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe heart<\/em> may be the seat of conscience and moral character.\u00a0 How does one respond to the revelation of God and of the world around him?\u00a0 Job answers: \u2026my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live <\/em>(27:6).\u00a0 On the contrary, David\u2019s heart smote him (II Sam 24:10).\u00a0 Hezekiah walked with a perfect heart.\u00a0 Only the man with clean hands and a pure heart (Ps24:4) can stand in God\u2019s presence.\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeb<\/em> may refer to the seat of rebellion and pride.\u00a0 God said: \u2026for the imagination of man\u2019s heart is evil from his youth<\/em> (Gen 8:21). The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?<\/em>(Jer 17:9)\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod controls the heart<\/em>.\u00a0 Because of his natural heart, man\u2019s only hope is the promise of God: A new heart also will I give you\u2026and will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh<\/em> (Ezek. 36:26).\u00a0 So the sinner prays: Create in me a clean heart, O God <\/em>(Ps 51:10).\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe heart<\/em> stands for the inner being of man, the man himself.  As such, it is the fountain of all he does (Prov 4:4).  All his thoughts, desires, words, and actions flow from deep within him.  Yet a man cannot understand his own heart (Jer 17:9). But God will cut away (circumcise) the heart of His people, so that they will love and obey Him with their whole being (Deut 30:6).\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*W.E. Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, <\/b><\/strong>Heart<\/em> –  pg 108 & 109, Copyright 1984, 1996, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only God can change a heart.  It is His work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Hebrew word leb means heart; mind; midst.  Leb and its synonym lebab appear 860 times in the Old Testament.\u201d* \u201cHeart is first used of man in Gen. 6:5; And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil … Continue reading The Heart in the Old Testament<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5460"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5479,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5460\/revisions\/5479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadinghorsestowater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}