HEBREW WORD STUDY – SATIATED RAVAH רבה
Jeremiah 31:25: “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
Do you ever feel like your soul is healing? For years I have tried to understand the difference between a soul and spirit and I still have problems. However, according to Jeremiah 31:25 our soul, whatever it is, can grow weary. Maybe we cannot describe our soul but somehow we just know it when our soul becomes weary.
God may have saved our souls but apparently, our souls can still experience the pains of this natural world. Maybe we should pray or have people pray over us for a healing for our souls.
The soul and spirit have been a theological issue for 2,000 years. Some say a man is made up of three parts, body, soul and spirit with the soul being like our heart or mind. Another school of theology says a man has only two parts, body and soul with the soul being the same as spirit. I am not a theologian so I will not attempt to answer this question.
I drove a man on my disability bus to the veteran’s hospital the other day. He was a Vietnam veteran. What was Vietnam, forty-five years ago? Yet this man had a soul that was still weary and sorrowful over the events of forty-five years ago.
Maybe I can’t explain what a soul is, but I sure can explain what it is when God satiates and replenishes the soul. The word satiate is ravah which means to be intoxicated. It also means to be drunk, to be saturated with water or to take a bath. Considering the context and the culture of that day I would lean toward a rendering that suggested a saturation of water rather than alcohol. In our modern Western society water is very plentiful. We have no concept of what it means to have to ration water or wonder if we will have enough water to survive. In ancient times this was a constant concern. Most wars in ancient times were fought over water rights. That is why David went to the stream to pick up five smooth stones to pelt Goliath. That little war was likely being fought over that stream of water.
In ancient times in the Middle East, the average person rarely took a bath. Even in Medieval times that knight in shiny armor rarely took a bath and wearing that outfit in the hot sun, well, no wonder they had to arrange marriages.
In the Jewish community, the people only took a bath for religious purposes. The Greeks and Romans established bathhouses for the elite, the non-elite were left to their stench.
Which brings us to an understanding of what ravah, satiate really means. Have you ever taken a bath or shower after having been out camping or participating in some athletic event? Or, on a day like today where the heat index is at 104 F. Then you go and stand under a nice cool shower letting that water run over your skin cleansing you of all that sweat and filth. That, oh so, refreshing feeling is ravah. When your soul is weary with sin, discouragement, failure etc., God will make you feel like you have just taken a long cool shower and your soul, whatever it may be, will feel ravah.
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