Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim;
Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.”
If there is anyone who should understand the wackiness of one’s heart, it would be Solomon. The wisest man who ever lived, did some pretty foolish things when it came to matters of the heart. He must have been an old man when he wrote this for he was obviously writing out of his own personal experience.
We need to understand first just what the heart is. The word used here is “levav” which is the most common word in the Hebrew for heart. It can mean your physical heart but can also mean many other things. Here is a short list: Thought, reasoning, judgment, will, design, affection, love, anger, hatred, courage, fear, joy, sorrow and life. What do all these words have in common? They all determine our behavior, the direction we go, the choices we make. If we give our hearts to God what are we doing? We are giving him complete control over all the decisions and directions we take in life. That means that His thoughts become our thoughts, His reasoning becomes our reasoning, His judgments our judgments, His will, our will, etc. To truly give God our hearts, means we must know and understand His heart.
This is why Solomon exhorts us to keep our hearts with all diligence. For if our hearts belong to God, to abuse our hearts would be to abuse something that belongs for God.
The word “keep” is “Shamar” and the word “diligence” is “nesor.” Both mean to keep or watch over, but they both come at it from a different angle. Shamar is to keep watch so as to guard or beware. Nesor is to keep watch as to guard, and conceal so we can scrutinize. So Solomon is telling us that that part of us, that part which reasons, make choices, feels love, fear, hatred, passion etc. is to be carefully watched over so as to keep it from making some foolish choices. How do we keep it from making foolish mistakes, by scrutinizing it. How do we scrutinize our hearts? The word itself will tell us – “nun, sade, resh. By faith we humble ourselves to the will of the Holy Spirit. When we give our hearts to God, He unites it with His heart. A husband seeks to scrutinize his wife’s heart because if he breaks her heart, his will also break. If he brings her sadness, he will be sad, joy, he will be joyful. Yes there is self interest in pleasing the one we love, but that does not define selfishness, for we have joined our hearts with that person and thus in the process of scrutinizing her heart we are protecting our heart as well as the heart of the one we love. Selfishness, involves a heart separated from that of another. Hence, just as when a husband joins his heart with his wife he will feel her joy and her sorrow, so too when we join our hearts with God will we feel His joy and His sorrow. To scrutinize our hearts is to scrutinize God’s heart. To protect God’s heart is to protect our hearts.
“For out of the heart are the issues of life.” That is a tough one to translate. The word issues is “yasa” which really has the idea of seasons, particularly springtime. Spring is often viewed as the beginning of new life. You could almost say: “For out of the heart comes the seasons of life.” However, we allow our heart to move, will determine if that season is winter or spring. If our hearts are united with God, it will always be spring.
Of course if our hearts are united with God, then when He is joyful, we are joyful, when He is sad we are sad. Lately as I draw closer to God, I find I am filled with a sense of sadness. That doesn’t make sense, the closer I move toward God, the more joy and peace I should feel. Yet, that is not what I am getting. I now understand that what I am feeling is His displeasure over something that is not yielded to Him for the more I move toward God, the more I can feel His heart. I find I must shamar and nesor my own heart, search it out and scrutinize it to understand what it is that is displeasing to God and yield that to Him. When I pray or discuss things with God and others that are the focus of His will, that is when I begin to feel His pleasure. When I dwell on things that are not of His will, I feel his displeasure. Hence, I am shamaring and nesoring my heart as Solomon advised.
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