There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. I have been teaching most of my life on the heart of God. God’s love for us is a racham love, a love we just can’t experience in this earthly corrupt body. But one day we shall know that love and complete our love with and for God. For we will know a love that is beyond any that we can know in this physical realm. Ralph Carmichael once wrote a song used to portray Nicky Cruz in the movie the Cross and The Switchblade.

 

The lyrics start with “Love was something to think about, something you use when you are not too sure of what to say, just to pass the time away.” The lyrics end with what Nicky Cruz either said or felt: “I see love as the hand of God reaching down to a mean and lowly guy like me, nothing is so hard to see but I will try to understand.”

 

 

I have spent my life trying to understand racham love and I think I am getting close. The older I get the more I feel the presence of God in ways I never felt in my 74 years. I had more people on my disability bus say: “Who said these are our golden years – bah.” But they are truly golden. For me to experience those everlasting arms is truly golden. I don’t desire nor need the streets of gold and a city of gold. I am satisfied even if it is just a metaphor of what it is like to find one’s eternal dwelling place in God. I will be content with just a little shack along a stream if that is my dwelling place in heaven and I find my dwelling place in Jesus.

The word dwelling place in Hebrew is me’onah from the root word ‘anah which means to inhabit, a place of refuge. Our place of habitation and refuge is not an eternal city made of gold’ it is more precious than gold it is to dwell in the everlasting arms of God. The everlasting arms in Hebrew is ‘olam garash. Garash means to thrust out and is a picture of God thrusting out his arms to embrace us. I like that but there is more to the word garash. It is in a Piel form, intensive. It is an intense thrusting out. I watch a video of one of the hostages who was released by terrorist. When his mother who was waiting at the airport for her son who was lost for so long and is now alive, when she saw him she threw out her arms and embraced him. She just didn’t hold her arms out saying: “Come to momma!” She her arms out, burst into tears and there was no hiding the longing and desire she had to just embrace her son and hold him forever. That is ‘olam garash.

 

 

God doesn’t take you into His arms , pat you on your head and say: “There, there daddy’s here.” He is like that father in the prodigal son, waiting, anxiously for his son. Watching the road to the homestead, praying that his son would one day appear. Sure enough, out in the distance probably before he could clearly see his son. He may have recognized the way he walked, certain movements or just an inner knowing it was his lost son and ran, an elderly man, to reach his son and embrace him. That was ‘olam garash, the everlasting arms.

 

A.J. Showalter taught music in a well known school of music in the mid 1800’s. He received a couple letters from former students telling him their wives had died. He knew his students were grieved and prayed that God would give him the words to comfort his former students. He was lead to Deuteronomy 33:27 and the words “Everlasting arms” struck him and he sat down and wrote a poem for his grieving students which were put to music and became a classic hymn sung even to this day: “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” Well, poor Showalter, he was a muscian not a Hebrew scholar, otherwise he would have recognized the Piel form of the word and maybe he would have written “Embrace and hugged by Everlasting Arms.” But hey, just leaning on those everlasting arms would be enough for me, but I believe the Hebrew is telling us that it is something even more than just leaning. It is being embraced, hugged and shedding tears right along with us as we weep in His everlasting arms.

 

Saturday in our Torah Study we will explore this thought much deeper. Plan to join us at www.HebrewWordStudy.com