120225

 

Woke up RIGHT before the snow started

Praying on couch, exhausted


THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW I AM IN HEAVEN 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙


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Reviewing Lamentations 1 & 2 and at verse 1:5 I had this thought:

God "takes away" children as a covenant curse (through their exile, starvation, murder) because children are the result of marital union. They are ONLY supposed to exist AS A FRUIT OF COVENANT LOVE. This is because the very reality of human conception is a MIRACLE in truth– reproduction in and of itself is a mini-miracle even in the animals and plants, because it is literally the propagation of LIFE, and Life ONLY comes from God (it's why no human will EVER be able to "create life" outside of God's natural reproductive means, although the very "toying with" those to begin with is an abominable sin). But with human conception, God literally places a soul inside the zygote, an act only He can do. Without God's direct involvement, human life would not exist. And because childbearing therefore NECESSARILY INVOLVES A UNIQUE ACT OF GOD, the process of childbearing MUST be "worthy of Him", and in harmony with what He IS– not only LIFE, but above all, LOVE. And love effectively mandates covenant, because Love's very nature requires steadfast commitment and sincere self-sacrifice and dauntless fidelity, just as much as it requires patient gentleness and courageous tenderness, etcetera. But you cannot cultivate those virtues without covenant, because you only GET those seeds BY covenant grace, and they won't grow anywhere else.
So. Conception outside of a covenant is sinful. So is conception without love.
Therefore, the prostitution of idolatry makes all metaphorical "children" of such illegitimate union doomed to death.
The literal, tangible consequence of such spiritual whoredom is that the literal children under the curse brought on through their parents end up dead.
GOD DOESN'T WANT THIS, but it is the inevitable end of idolatry, of rejecting God, of breaking the covenant of love with Him that makes life and love and children POSSIBLE.

Remember above all= God is the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of Life. Death has no power over Him, and through Christ death has no power over us either.
When God allows death to occur, that soul is not "taken away from Him." Death is still His servant, the reaper of harvests. Death, although not God's doing, is still obligated to be obedient and submissive to His Sovereign and Good Will.
So although death from covenant curse is indeed a tragedy, and God wills that those curses NOT happen, He still PERMITS those deaths in justice... but in His mercy, those children that die are brought into His eternal arms, and therefore saved from further terrors and sinful corruption on earth. Do you see? The death of the innocents is often actually a deliverance, to PRESERVE their innocence. Mortal life is NOT the ultimate end, nor is it even to be desired, as it were. We are here for a time and then we die, and THAT should be our constant goal and hope– to depart this world and be with God. So PREPARE your soul for it. That's WHY God is so heavy-handed with His judgments NOW– those "megadoses" of spiritual medicine are often the ONLY effective and swift cure for our sins, which would otherwise KILL OUR SOUL upon death. Bodily death is NOT our enemy! SPIRITUAL death IS!! But if we die in grace, in Christ, we have nothing to fear– just like those innocent children in the tragic prophetic texts, whose original sin I firmly believe God gently washes away in His great mercy, when He lifts them forever out of the horrors of siege and faithless family, and brings them home safely to Himself.

So DON'T BREAK THE COVENANT.
True, God always brings good "out of evil," but for YOU to be the CAUSE of that evil manifesting as curse by your infidelity to the God of Goodness Himself– and for those curses to affect innocent children by their proximity to you– THAT is an evil that you must NEVER even RISK. Do not presume upon later repentance and mercy! That's sick!! God will punish you with extra vengeance for taking such evil advantage of His Love by PURPOSEFULLY DENYING YOU THE GRACE OF REPENTANCE. He CAN do that. In that situation, your only hope is in His Heart, because on your own you are DOOMED. But God, although furious with your devilish moral nonchalance– for disregarding the consequences of your sins, especially towards others, under the twisted assumption that "God will make something good come out of it anyway, and I can just say I'm sorry after"– still doesn't want YOU to die, either. God does not want to lose you. God still treasures your life and soul as His treasure and possession. But will YOU, by your own free choices, push God so far away, and make yourself so blind and deaf and numb to Truth, that you effectively PREVENT His salvation from reaching you? In that case, there truly is no hope. Still... until your very last breath, God will not abandon His "hope" for you. He's the One Who MADE the Covenant with you, after all, and He IS FAITHFUL FOREVER. Nevertheless... He respects the free will He gave you, and if you pervert that will to say "no" to Him, to Life and Love and Goodness and Beauty Himself, even to the end, then God will allow in your death what He could never do in your life– He will let the "marriage contract" expire.
...and then all you'll have left to run to are your abusive affairs.


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1:14 revisit

https://biblehub.com/jeremiah/27-2.htm

The yoke is a powerful symbol in biblical literature, representing submission and servitude... a yoke was used to harness animals for plowing, symbolizing control and direction... oxen are harnessed to pull at the master’s will.
Here, the yoke signifies the impending [and inescapable] subjugation of Judah... This act of wearing the yoke is a vivid illustration of the burden and oppression that will come upon the people.

The yoke highlights divine authority, prophetic obedience, and the certainty and firmness of the judgment.

By crafting the yoke himself, Jeremiah shows his personal acceptance of God’s decree— he is not exempt from the hardship he proclaims [he fully & humbly recognizes that, even as a prophet, he is not sinless, and therefore as a sinner in any regard he is equally deserving of God's just wrath as any other man. Furthermore, he will not cut himself off from God's people, who he dearly loves, even in their time of judgment; like Christ, he would rather suffer with them even if innocent, then to remain untouched while "his own flesh and blood" was crushed. In any case, he is not the Master, so his only other option is to submit to the yoke– readily and freely, like a good ox.]

The yoke represents submission to God's will, even when it involves difficult circumstances.
It is a call to repentance [for refusing to obey] and submission to God's authority.
The yoke signifies the consequences of Judah's disobedience. It serves as a reminder that turning away from God leads to bondage [because our stubborn willfulness proved that we need to be yoked & bound just to keep us on the right track and not die]
While the yoke symbolizes judgment [it is a burden placed on us to control & direct our unruly heart and unbroken will, its very presence a testimony of our shameful disposition], it also points to hope, because submission to God, even in difficult times, leads to eventual restoration and peace. [His yoke is a GOOD yoke, even if it is heavy upon us, because it keeps us under His Hand, and in service to Him, BY the very weight of it. If we submit to it in surrendering trust, contritely acknowledging our need for it, and committing ourselves to the work with all meekness, we will soon enough realize that the weight has strengthened us, and tamed us, and quieted us– and that God had actually yoked us to plow a harvest field for Him. Our painful chastisement became the means of our future hope, simply because we accepted it, with both tears and faith, from His Sovereign and Saving Hand.]

Believers are called to trust in God's sovereignty [as the One Who we have a just duty to obey], examine their lives [to see at what times we are refusing to shoulder His yoke], and [purposefully, repentantly, humbly amend our lives to] align with God's purposes.

The act of literally putting the yoke on moves the sign from theory to visible, [tangible, personal,] uncomfortable reality.
Wearing the yoke in public made the message unavoidable for kings and citizens alike.

It dramatized that resistance to God’s plan would only chafe and wound, like a stiff-necked animal fighting its harness... calling for God’s people to yield to His sovereign plan rather than resist and suffer harsher consequences.

⭐⭐⭐ The placement on the neck anticipates Christ, Who one day offers a different yoke— still submission, yet light and restful for those who trust Him.


https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/1-14.htm

...the “yoke” in this case being the transgressions of Judah, which were as a sore burden too heavy to be borne.
...As the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen, so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins.
... "the yoke of my transgressions" (that is, of punishment for my transgressions) is held so fast fixed on me "by" God, that there is no loosening of it...
Judah's sins are like the cords by which the pieces of the yoke are fastened together... and bind the yoke around [the neck] so securely that it is impossible for her to shake it off...
It denotes the complication of judgments upon the Jewish nation for their sins, with which they were holden as with cords; and which were like ropes about their necks, very heavy and distressing to them, and from which they could not deliver themselves.

My heavy sins are continually before God's eyes, as he that ties a thing to his hand for a reminder.

‼️‼️‼️ It is noticeable that here, and in thirteen other passages in this book, the word "Adonai" is used instead of the more usual [Name of God], as though the latter, the covenant Name of the God of Israel, was less appropriate in the lips of one who was under His condemnation.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/1-13.htm

Zion likens herself to one whose inmost parts are being consumed, as with flame.

This verse declares that we should acknowledge God to be the Author of ALL our afflictions, to the intent that we might seek Him for remedy.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/1-20.htm

"at home there is as death"; within the city, and in the houses of it, the famine raged, which was as death, and worse than immediate death; it was a lingering one... "in the house" there are pale pining forms, wasting with hunger, and presenting the appearance of death.

...As violent death is imminent for those who stir abroad, so even those who remain within are like to die of pestilence.

...or, "in the house was certain death"; for the "caph" here is not a mere note of similitude, but of certainty and reality; to abide at home was sure and certain death, nothing else could be expected.

It is not death "pure and simple" that makes each home tremble, but the “plurima mortis imago” ("the many faces of death"): the starvation, disease, exhaustion, which all were deadly, i.e. deathlike, in their working.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-5.htm

Several pathetical expressions signifying the same things, properly imitating the dialect of mourners, whose passion suffers them not to speak according to art, but frequently they say the same things over and over.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-6.htm

"and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest"– whose persons and offices were sacred, and ought to be treated by men with honour and respect; but, for the sins of both [and since all sin is inherently in outright opposition to the very God these men were sanctified BY and FOR, it effectively defiled & profaned their persons and offices both], the LORD despised them Himself, and [in dreadful justice] made them the object of His wrath and indignation [for such an acute offense against His holiness], and suffered them to be despised and ill used by others [since, having profaned themselves by sin– which effectively "stripped" them of holiness, making them like any other common person– these men had cut themselves off from God's particular protection, and were now "alone in the wild" of the world, easy prey to the (un)natural cruelty of godless sinners].

It is just with God to cast down those by judgments, who debase themselves by sin.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-7.htm

A sad representation is here made of the state of God's church, of Jacob and Israel; but the notice seems mostly to refer to the Hand of the Lord IN their calamities. Yet God is NOT an enemy to His people, when He is angry with them and corrects them.
...It becomes necessary, though painful, to turn the thoughts of the afflicted TO the Hand of God lifted up against them, and to their SINS as the source of their miseries.

It is just with God to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and ordinances, who have not duly valued nor observed them. What should they do with Bibles, who make no improvement of them? Those who misuse God's prophets, justly lose them.

God, by His suffering the place to be destroyed where alone they might sacrifice, seemed to have abhorred His own institutions... by suffering it to be profaned, pulled down, and burnt, it looked as if He had an abhorrence of it, and the service in it; as He had, as it was performed without faith in God, love to Him, or any view to His glory... as it is said, "The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord."

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-9.htm

"The law is no more"– the Book of the Law was burnt in the temple, and the tables of it carried away with the ark, or destroyed; and though, no doubt, there were copies of the law preserved, yet it was not read nor expounded; nor was worship performed according to the direction of it; nor could it be in a strange land...
The Jewish Law, the Torah, came to an end when it no longer had a local habitation. Its enactments were essentially those not of a universal religion, but of a national religion, and the restoration of the nation with a material temple was indispensable to its continued existence. It was only when elevated TO be a universal religion, by being made spiritual, that it could do without ark, temple, and a separate people.

"Her prophets also find no vision"...With the Torah, the special gift of prophecy also ceased, since both were unique to the theocracy; but it was not until the establishment of Christianity that they were finally merged in higher developments of grace.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-10.htm

The despondency of the people is indicated by the outward signs of woe. Instead of taking counsel for the emergency, the elders sit, like Job’s friends, as if the evil were inevitable.

They who used to sit in the gate on thrones of judgment, and passed sentence in causes tried before them; or were wont to give advice and counsel, and were regarded as oracles, now sit on the ground, and dumb, as mourners... The "elders," by their example, would draw the others to violent grief.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-14.htm

not discovered thine iniquity—in opposition to God's command to the true prophets ("Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.")

Their prophecies were soothing and flattering; but the result of them was heavy calamities to the people, worse than even what the prophecies of Jeremiah, which they in derision called "burdens," threatened. Hence he terms their pretended prophecies "false burdens," which proved to the Jews "causes of their banishment".

...They did not tell the people of their sins; they took no pains to convince them of them, but connived at them; instead of reproving them for them, they soothed them in them; they did not "remove" the covering that was "over their iniquity", as it might be rendered– Literally, "They have not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity, so as to set it before thee"– which they might easily have done, and laid their sins to open view: whereby they might have been ashamed of them, and brought to repentance for them... had they dealt faithfully with them, by showing them their transgressions, and the [real] consequences of them, they might have been a means of preventing their ruin.

"They have not disclosed to thee thy sins, that so thou mightest repent, and I might have turned away thy captivity."

From her prophets, Jerusalem can expect neither comfort nor healing. For they have brought this calamity upon her through their careless and foolish prophesyings. 

They did not expose the sin and guilt of the people with the view of their amendment and improvement, and thereby removing the misery into which they had fallen BY their sin; nor did they endeavour to restore the people to their right relation towards the Lord, upon which their welfare depended, or to avert their being driven into exile.

...healing the injuries of the people BY discovering their sins

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-15.htm

The triumphant exultation of the enemies of Zion came to add bitterness to her sorrows. They reminded her of what she had been in the past, and contrasted it with her present desolation.
...nor do they by these words deny, but rather OWN, that it HAD been what was said of it; but now the case was otherwise; instead of being a perfect beauty, it was a perfect heap of rubbish; instead of being the joy of the whole earth, it was the offscouring of all things.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-16.htm

"they say, we have swallowed her up"; all her wealth and riches were corns into their hands, and were all their own; as well as they thought these were all their own doings, owing to their wisdom and skill, courage and strength; not seeing and knowing the hand of God in all this.

"Certainly, this is the day we have looked for"— Which we have expected and longed to see. Thus the enemies of the Church are apt to take its disasters for its ruin, and to triumph in them accordingly; but they will find themselves deceived, for the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.
"The Lord hath done that which he had devised" — Our destroyers could have had no power against us, unless it had been given them from above: they were but the sword in God’s hand. And He hath not surprised us by these providences: He gave us notice beforehand what He WOULD do if we WERE disobedient, and He hath done no more than what He threatened long since. 


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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-18.htm

Calls to lamentation are given; and comforts for the cure of these lamentations are sought.

"Their heart"- That of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The prophet bids the city wall, as the representative of the people who had dwelt secure under its protection, shed floods of tears on their behalf. Broken up by the enemy, it could be their guardian no longer, but by its very ruins it might still cry unto the Lord in their behalf.

"No Rest" - Properly, the torpor and numbness which follows upon excessive grief... The word rendered "rest" means properly the stiffness produced by cold.

They cried unto God seriously, though not sincerely; from their heart, though not with their whole heart...

When it is seen that the LORD has appointed the terrible calamity, the people are driven to pray for mercy. Hence Lamentations 2:18 follows, yet not at once with the summons to prayer, but with the assertion of the fact that this actually takes place [first]: "their heart cries out unto the Lord;" and it is not till after this that there follows the summons to [continue to cry out, yet prayerfully: to] entreat Him incessantly with tears... Offer up thy earnest prayers with tears to the throne of grace; and send up thy very soul, and thy most devout affections along with them.

..."give not," i.e., grant not "torpidity (stagnation) to thyself." ...it is used of the torpidity of the vital spirits, stagnation of the heart. The expression in the text is a poetic one... "do not permit thy numbness," i.e., let not thy flood of tears dry up.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-19.htm

The prophet calls upon the Jews not to be slothful in this their very evil day, but to rise up from their beds, and either at the beginning of the four watches, or at the beginning of each watch, at all times in the night, to betake themselves to God by prayer, and that not in a cold, lazy manner, but so as to pour out their hearts with their words; and he moveth them to it, as for their own sake, so for the sake of their young children, who everywhere were starved to death... praying that God, if He will not spare thee, may at least preserve "thy young children."

"Arise, cry out in the night"...Israel, who are addressed and called upon by the prophet to arise from their beds, and shake off their sleep, and sloth, and stupidity, and cry to God in the night season; and be earnest and importunate with him for help and assistance.
...the word used signifies a "lifting up of the voice" both in singing and in lamentation; here it is used in the latter sense; and denotes great vehemency and earnestness in crying unto God, arising from deep distress and sorrow, which prevents sleep.

"pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord"; use the utmost freedom with him; tell him, in the fullest manner, thy whole case, fit thy complaints; unbosom thyself to Him; keep nothing from Him; speak out freely all that thy soul needs; do all this publicly, and in the most affectionate way and manner, thy soul melted in floods of tears, under a sense of sin, and of the pressing evils for it.

The Targum is, "pour out, as water, the perverseness of thine heart, and return by repentance, and [thereby] pray in the house of the congregation (or synagogue) before the Face of the Lord"

The watchman’s cry would rouse the sleeper to realise afresh the miseries of the situation.


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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-20.htm

Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest; a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous.
Our [singular] business in prayer is to refer our case to the Lord, and leave it with Him. His will be done.

"Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this".... On whom Thou hast brought these calamities of famine and sword; not upon Thine enemies, but upon Thine Own people, that are called by Thy Name... "to what nation?" - not a heathen one, but the people of thy choice, to whom all Thy blessed promises have been given... and upon their young ones, who had not sinned as their fathers had...

...here the church does NOT charge God with ANY injustice, or complain of hard usage; she only humbly entreats He would look upon her, in her misery, with an eye of pity and compassion; and consider her sorrowful condition; and remember the relation she stood in to Him; and so submits her case, and leaves it with Him.

...The Israelites, moreover, had been threatened with this inhuman outrage as the most extreme form of divine chastisement. While this abomination IS opposed to the moral order of the world instituted by God, the other case (the murder of the priests and prophets in the sanctuary) is a violation of the covenant-order which the Lord had given His people. Neither of these arrangements can God consent to abolish. Therein is implicitly contained the request that He would put an end to the misery into which His people have fallen. This request, however, is not expressly stated; there is merely complaint made to God regarding the terrible misery. [Yet the hope is that, for the sake of His faithfulness to His covenant, through His innate character as the Father and Creator of all Life, and] in view of such inhuman cruelties and such desecration of His sanctuary, God CANNOT remain inactive.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-22.htm

As my people were wont to be called together from all parts in a solemn day, when they were to meet at Jerusalem from all parts of Judea; so now, by Thy Providence, my terrible enemies– or terrible things– are by Thee called together against that holy city, [to destroy and desolate it, the very place] whither Thy people were wont to be called to Thy solemn worship.

Thou hast made me as a great mother to bring Up many inhabitants that were my children, and now the enemy hath consumed the far greater number of them.
...Her children, whose limbs she had stroked with her hands, whom she had swathed with bands, and had carried in her arms, and had most carefully and tenderly brought up... by those she had "swaddled" are meant the little ones; and by those she had "brought up" the older ones... but both of these the enemy consumed and destroyed without mercy, without regard to their tender years, or the manner in which they were brought up; but as if they were merely nourished like lambs for the day of slaughter.
[...this is so painfully, personally relevant that I feel eviscerated.]

With the complaint that [literally] no one could escape the judgment– that the enemy dared to murder even the children whom she, Jerusalem, had carefully nourished and brought up– the poem concludes, like the first, with deep sorrow, regarding which all attempts at comfort are quite unavailing.

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https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lamentations/2-11.htm

As the heart was regarded by the Jews as the seat of the intellect, so the liver (or bowels) was supposed to be the seat of the emotions.
The pouring out of the liver upon the ground meant that feelings had entirely given way under the acuteness of sorrow, and he could no longer restrain them.

The “liver,” like the “heart” and the “bowels,” is thought of as the centre of all intense emotions, both of joy or sorrow. As such it is represented as giving way without restraint, under the pressure of the horror caused by the calamities which the next words paint, by the starving children who fainted for hunger in the streets of the city.

This whole verse is but expressive of the prophet’s great affliction and sorrow for the miseries come upon the Jews: he wept himself almost blind, his passion had disturbed his bodily humours, that his bowels were troubled; his gall lying under his liver, upon this disturbance was vomited up... violent emotion was supposed to occasion a copious discharge of bile. 

...the pouring out of the liver on the earth may thus mean that the inner man is dissolved in pain and sorrow– that it perishes, as it were, through pain. For it is evident from the context... that it is the effect of pain in consuming the bodily organs that is here meant to be expressed.

Jeremiah, who had wept his eyes dry, or rather blind, on account of the calamities of his people; though he himself obtained liberty and enlargement by means thereof

"For the destination of the daughter of my people; for the miseries befallen the Jews" he had mourned for their sins before, and for their plagues too which he had in prospect; he now mourns for them as being come upon them: which mourning, considered only as for their miseries, spake no more than the prophet’s good nature and love to his country; BUT [this same mourning,] considered as the indication of God’s wrath and displeasure, was also a godly sorrow.

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https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3516.htm
kabed: the liver (as the heaviest of the viscera)

...the liver, one of the largest and heaviest organs in the body. In ancient Near Eastern thought it was associated with vigor, vitality, and deep-seated emotion. Because life was understood to be in the blood and vital organs, the liver naturally came to symbolize the very center of one’s physical and emotional existence.

Cultic Role in the Sinai Covenant: Eleven of the fourteen occurrences belong to the priestly legislation of Exodus and Leviticus. In every case the “lobe of the liver” or “entire liver” is singled out, together with the fat surrounding it, for burning upon the altar. Unlike the edible portions of a peace offering, this inner fat belonged exclusively to the LORD. The Israelite could partake of the meat, but the life-bearing organ was returned to God in fire, a vivid reminder that all life comes FROM Him and MUST be CONSECRATED BACK to Him. The centrality of the liver in these rites underscores the demand that worship penetrate beyond outer forms to the inmost being.

Symbolism of Life and Inner Affections: Outside the sacrificial context, kaved serves as a poetic image for the deepest emotions. Jeremiah mourns, “My eyes fail from weeping … my liver is poured out on the ground”. The prophet’s grief is portrayed as life draining away from his core.

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ Warnings Against Spiritual Folly:
The seduced youth in Proverbs 7:23, “until an arrow pierces his liver… did not know it would cost him his life”. This verse connects the liver to sudden judgment, emphasizing that sin’s consequences reach the innermost person. The arrow’s strike is instantaneous and irrevocable... and just as damage to the liver equals certain death; moral folly fatally wounds the very seat of life. 
In ministry, this text warns against minimizing hidden sin; what seems private will in time reach the CORE and PROVE FATAL UNLESS REPENTED.
[WOW GOD CAN YOU EVEN GET ANY MORE LITERALLY RELEVANT TO MY LIFE WITH THIS?????]
[Seriously PASTE & COMMENT ON THE ENTIRE CHAPTER OF PROVERBS 7 BECAUSE IT IS TERRIFYINGLY APPLICABLE TO WHAT HAPPENED TO US SPIRITUALLY IN CNC.]
(Here's a clip for the immediate context = "With all her seductive charms, she persuades him. With her smooth lips, she makes him yield and give in. With persuasive words, she led him astray... With much fair speech she misled him, with the flattering of her lips she forced him... At once he followed her impulsively, being gently led on like a child, even as an ox is led to the slaughter, and as a dog to be muzzled, not knowing that he is being drawn foolishly into chains... like a deer stepping into a noose, or as a hart shot in the liver with an arrow. It is just as if a bird were to hurry into the snare...  He immediately follows her, like a steer on its way to be butchered, like a ram hobbling into captivity, until an arrow pierces his heart... He does not realize that it will cost him his life... he does not know that it is to the death of his soul that he goes.")

Contrast with Pagan Divination: Hepatoscopy– “looking at the liver” as part of divination– was widespread in Mesopotamia, but the practice is never sanctioned for Israel. The same organ that Israel rendered to God in worship was mutilated by pagans for guidance. Scripture thereby exposes a crucial line: true revelation comes from God’s word, not from manipulating creation. The Israelites’ exclusive burning of the liver to the LORD functioned as a polemic against such occult reliance.

The sacrificial prominence of the liver points ahead to the inner perfections of the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, Who offered not only His Body, but also all His innermost affections, wholly to the Father (Hebrews 10:5–10). Just as the priest placed the liver on the altar, so the Son yielded His entire life essence on the Cross, purchasing our redemption.
For ministers, the [liver as Christian] symbol challenges us to bring every motive and hidden thought into obedience to Christ, presenting our “[entire] bodies as a living sacrifice [as Christ did, in a purehearted and generous manner that is] holy and pleasing to God”.

Practical Application for Contemporary Believers
1. Whole-hearted Worship: The liver’s altar-fire calls believers to [daily and unreservedly] consecrate both outward service and inward desires.
2. Guarded Emotions: Proverbs 7:23 warns that unchecked passion can mortally wound the soul; believers must guard the heart at its deepest level.
3. Discernment: Ezekiel 21:21 cautions against seeking [ANY sort of moral, spiritual, emotional, etc.] guidance through unbiblical means. Reliance on God’s Self-revelation remains the only safe path.
4. Compassionate Ministry: Lamentations 2:11 models honest lament; sharing grief from the depths both accords with biblical realism and invites divine comfort.

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