We invite you to participate with us in a daily devotional time called “Your Daily Bread.” These daily devotions will come to you via our podcast network. It is through these daily podcasts that we hope you use to allow God to minister to your daily need enabling you to walk each and every day in the spirit of Christ.
Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugue at God is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ's teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting scripture, but scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today's focused discussion will be on understanding love from the Hebrew canon. We will now move into the final key of the kingdom being love. I bet many of you would not think of this as being a key of the kingdom, but after you finish listening to today's and the next two days' devotions, you will understand exactly why it is. Oxford defines the word love as to have an intense feeling of deep affection. Wikipedia states that love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. The word love first appeared in the scriptures in Genesis 22 2 KJV. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Because it appeared in the ancient text, we will look to Hebrew and Aramaic to provide the true meaning. The closest Hebrew word is ahava. The root of Ahava is hava, which literally means to offer or to give. The New Testament actually uses the Greek word agape. It means unconditional or sacrificial love, and has everything to do with the giver. Let us look at the Hebrew word for love, ahava, which is made up of three basic Hebrew letters, aleph, he, and vet. From these three root letters of ahava, we get the root word hav, which means to give. First, most Hebrew words can be broken down to a three-consonant root word that contains the essence of the word's meaning. The root word of ahava is ahav. The term ahav in Hebrew means to give. True ahava, true love, is more concerned about giving than receiving. Being the center of someone's attention is not love, and love is not about getting some feeling or fix. Ahava is about giving devotion and time. Giving is the vehicle of love. Yahweh so loved the world that he gave his only son. Meaningful relationships have mutual giving. Love may focus on receiving, but ahava is all about giving. There is a difference. Consider that the Hebrew word ahava is not an emotion but an action. It is not something that happens to you, but a condition that you create when you give. You do not fall in love, you give love. The Hebrew word ahava is spelled aleph, hei, bet, hei. The root word ahav is spelled aleph, hei, bet. These Hebrew letters reveal a secret of love hidden for thousands of years. This secret is exposed through the meaning behind each Hebrew letter in Ahav. Hang on for some amazing and alarming Hebrew insights. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is also the first letter in Ahav. This is the Aleph. The letter Aleph is the number one. Aleph symbolizes the one and only eternal Elohim, God. In Revelation 22, 13, Yeshua called himself the Aleph and the Tav. Aleph is a picture of Yahweh and his creation. There is one Yahweh. Yeshua said that this is the number one commandment. The first of all commandments is, Shema O Yisrael. The Master Yahweh is our Elohim. The Master Yahweh is Ekad. And you shall love the Master Yahweh with all your lev, heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like it, namely this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these. Mark 12, verses 29 through 31. Ahava starts with Aleph. Real Ahava starts with loving Yahweh first. Then, as a person has a relationship with Yahweh, one can love his neighbor properly. The next letter of Ahav is the He. The letter He is the fifth letter of the Aleph Bet. Five is the number of Chesed Grace. It is highly symbolic. There are five books of the Torah, five fingers on the hand, and King David gathered five smooth stones to kill Goliath. It is through grace or chesed that Yahweh loves us. Mankind loves Yahweh back through the fifth letter He. How? Ahava is shown to Yahweh through He, through the five books of the Torah. If you love me, obey my mitzvah commandments. If a man loves me, he will guard my words, and my Abba will love him, and we will come to him, and make our stay with him, said Yeshua in John 14, verses 15 and 23. The He is the means that a person expresses a hava. You love and give to Yahweh by your actions of obedience. The form of the letter He, the number five, shows how to correctly love Yahweh and man. The three lines of He are a picture of loving Yahweh with thought, deed, and words. The top horizontal line is the realm of thought. A person's thoughts should be focused upward on Yahweh and his word. The vertical line to the right is speech. From the abundance of the heart-mind horizontal line, the mouth speaks. Speech comes directly from thought. The unattached line to the left is deed. Though actions should be connected to our intentions, they often are not. There are many plans in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of Yahweh shall stand. Mishli, Proverbs 19:21. Man is to unite the three lines through devotion and service. Loving Yahweh with thoughts, words, and deeds is the goal of the He. The bait is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the third letter in Ahav. This letter vividly demonstrates the purpose of all creation. How? Bait is a picture of a house. Yahweh created the world to be a dwelling place in this world below. The first letter in the Torah is a bait, found in the word Bereshit. And the tabernacle was made to create a bait or a house for Yahweh. Know you not that you are the temple of Yahweh, and that the Spirit of Yahweh dwells in you. 1 Corinthians 3 16. The objective of loving Yahweh is to be conform to his image and represent him to the world. The two are to walk together. Bait is also the number two. Yahweh, plus his servant, equals two. Yet in the bait, the two shall become one. Yeshua said, For where two or three will assemble together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18, verse 20. Ahava starts with loving Yahweh, first and foremost, through word, deed, and thought. This type of ahava creates a house for Yahweh to inhabit. You make a dwelling place or house for Yahweh when you show love by giving to others. In review, the Hebrew root word for love is Ahav, spelled Aleph Hei, Bet. The Aleph reminds us that we are to love Yahweh first. He shows us to express that love by conforming our thoughts, words, and deeds to the five books of the Torah. When love is directed first to Yahweh, then a bait, a house, is built to sustain his presence. Wow! Ahava is the greatest. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of understanding love from the Hebrew canon. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.
