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Exploding the Lies – one by one. There are always the whiners who are looking to take issue with that which is of God, namely the written Word of God. Beware of the deceitful detractors – who, as their father the devil, whisper questions and doubts upon the LORD, His character, and His Word. Share to bless. The LORD kept His promise to preserve His Word to us (Psalms 12:6-7). Always remember saints, it is SATAN who is always behind the doubt casting upon God’s words, sowing confusion. Yet we have the “MORE sure word of prophecy” in the “exceeding great and precious promises” of the Holy Scriptures (2 Peter 1:3-4; 19-21, etc.). See Genesis 3:1; Mark 4:15, etc.. God kept His promise to preserve His Word to us in English in the King James Bible and in Spanish the Reina Valera, etc.


Beware of the uptick in the use of the cult of “yah” ….. that always puts up red flags for this disciple. HIS name is JESUS CHRIST. SAY IT WITH ME OUT LOUD – JESUS CHRIST!!!!! EVERY KNEE WILL BOW TO JESUS CHRIST!

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

There is “NONE other name” whereby one can be saved.

“… Jesus Christ of Nazareth … Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:10, 12

ANY QUESTIONS?


Gail Riplinger on the name false names Yahweh, Yahushua, and Yuhuah.

Riplinger on the name game.

The name of God is spelled with the Hebrew letters yod, heh, vav, and heh, read from right to left and then transliterated into English as JHVH (called the Tetragrammaton). In the KJV Old Testament it is translated ‘JEHOVAH’ seven times (and rendered ‘LORD’ the remaining times; see New Age Bible Versions, pp. 373-385). Each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet paints a picture. The letters in the name of God illustrate the following:

J = jod It suggests a ‘giving, extending hand’ (Marc-Alain Oauknin, Mysteries of the Alphabet, New York: Abbeville Press, 1999, p. 207).

H = heh =
It represents an ‘enclosure,’ like heaven or a window (Mysteries, p.191).

V = vav = It symbolizes a nail (Mysteries, p. 168). A ‘v’ in English is a pictogram of the chiseled end of a nail.

H = heh =
The H is repeated at the end of the name because “Jesus was risen” and “received up into heaven” again (Mark 16:19).

God reached his hand out of the windows of heaven, and we put a nail in it; having taken our punishment for sin, he has returned to heaven. The “nail” “pierced” “hands” of Jesus were foretold in Ps. 22:16 and Isa. 22:23-25. (Dr. Floyd Jones has even suggested that the sign recorded in John 19:19 might have been written in Hebrew, “JESUS OF NAZARETH AND THE KING OF THE JEWS,” creating an acrostic of the name JHVH, as the vav for ‘and’ begins the word for King, melek (see Hebrew O.T. Gen. 14:8 for Hebrew form). This could explain why the Jews immediately asked Pilate to change it to “he said, I am King of the Jews” (v. 21).

Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew ‘Joshua,’ meaning ‘JEHOVAH is salvation.’ Jesus Christ is shown to be the J, the jod “the arm of the LORD” in Isaiah 53:1-12 and Isaiah 59:16, which says, “therefore his arm brought salvation.” Isaiah 63:2, 5 repeats this theme. The jod, is a picture of an arm and hand, drawn in a tiny and compact form. Professor Ouaknin traced the jod from pictograms of a praising upright arm and hand, to outstretched arms, as if on a cross, and finally, to an arm and hand reaching down, like the letter  reaching like Jesus  to rescue perishing mankind (Mysteries, pp. 200-207).

In the 19th century, as unbelieving German critics of the Bible were hammering away at the word of God, they tried to refashion God’s name, JEHOVAH. They asserted that the God of Israel’s name should be pronounced Yahweh because, to them, he was nothing more than an offshoot of the pagan deity “Yaho.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Jews, who generally did not utter the name of God, had used, but ceased using the name JEHOVAH “centuries before the Christian era” notes the classic scholar’s edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It affirms that, “…reading what actually stood in the text, they would inevitably pronounce the name Jehovah” (Encyclop)dia Britannica, 11thedition (New York: Encyclop)dia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11), vol. 15, pp. 311-314, s.v. Jehovah). The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia admits that in the “older system of transliteration, Jehovah” is the pronunciation. It states, “In the Masoretic text the usual form would give the pronunciation Yehowah [pronounced, Jehovah]” (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1912), vol. VI, p. 117, s.v. Jehovah; vol. XII, p. 470, s.v. Yahweh).

Thousands of years ago, perhaps 3,600, the name JEHOVAH was given by God to Moses. It is seen first in Genesis 2:4 in the Hebrew Old Testament and translated in Exodus 6:3 in the KJV. In his scholarly book, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel Points and Accents, John Gill (1697-1771), eminent theologian and writer, documents the use of the very name JEHOVAH from before 200 B.C. and throughout the centuries of the early church and the following millennium. The Hebrew’s Mishna allowed the name as a salutation (Berachoth, ix, 5); according to Thamid, the priests in the temple could use the true name, but those in the country could only use Adonai (vii, 2); Maimonides said the name was used by the priests in the sanctuary and on the Day of Atonement (Moreh Nebukim, I, 61, and “Yad chasaka,” xiv, 10). Even commentators such as Nicholas of Lyra, Tostatus, Cajetan, and Bonfrere defended the pronunciation ‘JEHOVAH’ as received by Moses on Mt. Horeb. The name is found in the writings of Raymund Martin in the 1200s and Porchetus in the 1300s. Theodore Beza, Galatinus, and Cajetan, among many others, use it in the 1500s. Scholars such as Michaelis, Drach and Stier proved the name as the original. The 1602 Spanish Bible uses the name Iehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciation Jehovah in its preface. In “the 17th century the pronunciation JEHOVAH was zealously defended by Fuller, Gataker, Leusden and others, against the criticisms…”(EB, pp. 311-314). (Martin: Pugio fidei, ed. Paris, 1651, pt. III, dist. ii, cap. iii, p. 448, and Note, p. 745; Galatinus: “Areana cathol. veritatis,” I, Bari, 1516, a, p.77; Porchetus: Drusius, “Tetragrammaton,” 8-10, in “Critici Sacri,” Amsterdam, 1698, I, p.ii, col.339-42; “De nomine divino,” ibid., 512-516; see also p. 351 et. al; Michaelis: “Supplementa ad lexica hebraica,” I, 1792, p. 54; Drach: “Harmonic entre l’Eglise et la Synagogue,” I, Paris, 1844, pp. 350-53, Note 30, pp. 512-16, 469-98; Stier: Lehrgebaude der hebr. Sprache, 327.)

“Genebrardus seems to have been the first to suggest the pronunciation Iahue [pronounced Yahweh], but it was not until the 19th century that it became generally accepted” (EB, pp. 311-314). Anti-Semitic German liberals, like Driver and Delitzsch, eagerly grasped the new pronunciation, Yahweh. They and other unsaved ‘higher critics,’ denied that the Old Testament was actually given by God. They grasped at any straw to shelter their unbelief, asserting that the Old Testament was the creation of men who adopted and adapted stories, words, and names from neighboring pagan religions and languages. The higher critics used the new pronunciation, Yahweh, as so-called proof that the God of Israel was nothing more than a tribal god, whose name had evolved from pagan gods like Yaho or Ya-ve, worshipped by the Babylonians and Canaanites, the Hebrews’ captors and neighbors. They said, Yahweh “meant Destroyer” (EB, p. 312). The German critics said, “Yahweh is not a Hebrew name;” such a pronunciation would prove the Hebrews borrowed it (EB, 310-314). Critic Rudolf Kittel asserts, “yahu…do[es] not lead back to a pronunciation represented by Yehovah (or Jehovah)” (The New Schaff, vol. XII, p. 470, s.v. Yahweh). The critics cited ancient documents, like the “magical texts,” Aramaic papyri, and Babylonian tablets that tell of pagan gods named Yaho, Yahu, or Ya-ve. this pagan deity and mocking the God of Israel?)

Driver tried to provide as evidence, an Ethiopic list of magical names for Jesus, which included Yawe. Other Bible critics, anxious to find a linguistic, rather than a supernatural source for the name of the God of Israel, grasped the ‘Canaanite connection’ and the new pronunciation. (These critics include: von Bohlen (Genesis, 1835, p. civ.), Von der Alm (Theol. Briefe, I, 1862, pp. 524-527), Colenso (The Pentateuch, V, 1865, pp. 269-84), and Goldziher (Der Mythusbei den Hebr#ern, 1867, p. 327). (See also: Driver, Studia Biblica, I. 20; I, 5; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1910-11, vol. 15, pp. 311-314, s.v. Jehovah; Delitzsch, “Wo lag das Paradies,” 1881, pp. 158-164; “LesestKcke,” 3rd ed., 1885, p. 42, Syllab. A, col. I, 13-16).

Even the Oxford English Dictionary warns that “this origin is now disputed” (OED, s.v. Jehovah). So let’s examine why the critics of ‘JEHOVAH’ are wrong. The first letter, jod, could be pronounced in Hebrew, as ‘ye’ in Yeshua, the Hebrew pronunciation of Jesus, but it could not be pronounced that way in English. The English pronunciation and spelling of words which begin with the same Hebrew letter (jod) and vowel pointing (silent sheva Je ) – words like Jerusalem, Jericho or Jew – break the critic’s Canaanite idol, Yaho, in pieces. It cannot be pronounced ‘Ya’ in English. The sound of the Hebrew letter jod came into English as the letter ‘I,’ used as a consonant and having the soft ‘g’ sound, like today’s ‘j.’ In the past the letter ‘I’ was used as both a vowel (i) sound and as the consonant ‘j’ sound. The OED says that the sound of ‘j,’ though originally printed as ‘I,’ was pronounced as a soft ‘g’ (Oxford English Dictionary, Unabridged, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, s.v. J). The ‘JE’ sound in JEHOVAH was spelled ‘IE’ and pronounced as ‘JE.’ To distinguish the consonant sound (soft ‘g’) of the letter ‘I’ from the vowel sound of ‘I,’ many scribes in the 1200s began putting a tail on the soft ‘g’ ‘I’,’ making it look like our modern ‘J.’ The Spanish, in the 1500s, were the first to more consistently try to distinguish the consonant I (soft ‘g’) sound as the shape of a ‘J.’ At that same time English printers used ‘J’ and ‘I’ fonts interchangeably (as documented elsewhere in this book). During the 1600s, most languages began consistently using the extended ‘I’ form, now called a ‘J,’ to represent the ‘j’ (soft ‘g’) sound. (World Book Encyclopedia, Chicago, Ill.: Field Enterprises, vol. 10, s.v. J.)

The Hebrews used Psalm 119 to teach the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 119:73 was used to teach, the letter Jod (not yod), the hand pictogram. Interestingly, the first words of verse 73 are “Thy hands” ! These Hebrew letters are shown in King James Bibles printed by Cambridge University Press. The transliteration of the Hebrew letters  as the Roman letters Yahweh requires a German accent (‘Je’ is ‘Ya’ in German), invented vowels, and a translator who does not know that the Germans, who transliterated it that way, pronounce the letter ‘w’ as ‘v’! Only the Latins (Roman Catholicism) and Germans (Higher Criticism), using the Roman alphabet, team up to pronounce ‘J’ as ‘Y.’ (There are no native German words that begin with ‘y.’) Even the untrustworthy Hebrew Aramaic Interlinear Old Testament, by Jay Green, admits, “…the letter J in German is pronounced like an English Y. The bulk of theological studies having come from German sources, there has been an intermixed usage in English of the J and the Y. Our English translations of the Bible reflect this, so we have chosen to use J, thus Jehovah, rather than Yahweh, because this is established English usage for Biblical names beginning with this Hebrew letter. No one suggests we ought to change Jacob, Joseph, Jehoshaphat, Joshua, etc. to begin with a Y, and neither should we at this late date change Jehovah to Yahweh” (The Interlinear Hebrew Aramaic Old Testament, 2nd ed., Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993, vol. 1, p. xii).

In summary, ‘JEHOVAH’ and ‘JESUS’ have always sounded and been pronounced exactly as they are today, as ‘JEHOVAH’ and ‘JESUS,’ although the type fonts used to represent these sounds sometimes looked like ‘Iehovah’ and ‘Iesvs.’ The letter ‘V’ is the other disputed consonant in JEHOVAH. “The vav is pronounced like a V in vehicle,” writes Professor Marc-Alain Ouaknin of the Department of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew Bar-Illan University and the Jewish Research and Study Center in Paris. Therefore the ending in JEHOVAH would be pronounced in Hebrew and in English as, ‘VAH’ not ‘weh.’ Professor Ouaknin also said that the letter vav went into the Greek alphabet, “bearing the name digamma and being pronounced “v” as in vehicle.” (Mysteries, pp.168, 170). The Ww in Gesenius’ [German] Hebrew Grammar and other Hebrew textbooks is pronounced Vav, in English and Hebrew. Readers misunderstand charts which say “Pronunciation…w,” not knowing that the letter ‘w’ is pronounced as a ‘v’ in German The sounds of Vav and the vowel which follows it, Kamatz (a), can be heard on the instructional Hebrew web site http://www.ejemm.com, pronounced exactly as it would be in JEHOVAH. (E. Kautzsch and A.E. Cowley, Gesenius Hebrew Grammar, 2nd English Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910, pp. 2628 et. al; See also Menahem Mansoor, Biblical Hebrew, Grand Rapids,Mich: Baker Book House, 1980, pp. 18, 19, 21.)

Even Americans have heard Hogan’s Heroes, Sergeant Schultz say to Colonel Klink, ‘Ya vool Kammandant,’ (spelled “Ja wohl Kammandant,” meaning ‘Yes, indeed Commander’). In German restaurants Schultz said, ‘viener schnitzel’ (spelled wiener), vile he listened to the tunes of V gnr (spelled, Wagner) and Lood-vikh fan Beethofen, (spelled, Ludwig van Beethoven). In German, the letter ‘v’ is pronounced like an ‘f.’ Consequently, in Hebrew textbooks it was necessary to put the letter ‘w’ after the Hebrew vav (‘v’) so that German readers would know that the Hebrew letter ‘v,’ was not the German ‘f’ sound, but the sound of the letter ‘v’ represented by their letter ‘w.’ English speaking textbook authors and seminary professors have misunderstood this and misconveyed to their students that the Hebrew letter should be pronounced like the English ‘w,’ not the German ‘w.’

Where did the phony ‘weh’ sound in Yahweh come from? As Green said,  “German sources.” In German “the “v” sound is rendered by the “double u” (“w”). Although the German critics spelled the name Yahweh, they pronounced it, Yahveh. “In German…W takes the value that V has in English…In German the same symbol w is called Vey, because in that language it has the value of the English v…” (EB, s.v. V; s.v. W; see also The Mysteries of the Alphabet, pp. 168, 170, 171). Because Germans use the letter ‘w’ for the ‘v’ sound, those reading or translating German theological works have brought in the German letter ‘w’ for ‘v.’ It is not to be pronounced like an English ‘w,’ but like a ‘v.’

To further compound the confusion, unbelieving Catholic Bible critics have brought their Latin ‘w’ pronunciation to the letter ‘v.’ “The Latin V, however, was…like the English w…Early borrowings, like wine(Latin vinum [pronounced winum]) [and] wall (Latin vallum [pronounced wallum]), retain the w sound and are therefore spelt with w” (EB, s.v. V; s.v. W). So we have Latin speaking Roman Catholic scholars and liberal German higher critics joining together to fight WW II against the God of Israel and the word of God. Even the NIV translators and editors of the corrupt Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament admit that confusion arises in part “because of past German influence on Hebrew studies.” Imagine 19th century anti-Semitic German scholars recasting the name of the God of Israel in the mold of Yaho, a pagan idol, who speaks with an untrained German accent! To further compound the confusion, there are two conflicting Hebrew systems of pronunciations: 1.) the Ashkenazi, a German method from Jews who immigrated to Germany and central Europe and then some to America and 2.) the classic Sephardi. (R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Chicago: Moody Press, 1980, vol. 2, p. x; The American Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. W; Mansoor, p. 33.)

Where did the VOWELS in JEHOVAH come from? Most believe the Bible record which states that the vowels in JEHOVAH were heard as, “the LORD said unto Moses…my name JEHOVAH” (Exod. 6:3). The statement, “the LORD said unto Moses,” is repeated over and over in the book of Exodus. Moses heard the pronunciation of words.“ And the LORD said unto Moses, Write…in a book…And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD” (Ex. 17:14, 24:4, 34:27, Num. 33:2, Deut. 31:9, 24.) The book titles in the KJV state that the first five books of “Moses” are the “beginning” of the “old testament” (Luke 24:27, 2 Cor. 3:14, 15).

-Gail Riplinger

Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison MinistryMexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | H.O.T. Bible Study [podcast] | Church History Exposed | Bible Agnostics Exposed | How to Spot a Fake Bible [podcast] | WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE KJB? [podcast] | New American Standard Version “Bible” NASV Catastrophe Exposed | The Audacity of Defending the New Versions | Do We Have God’s Word or Do You Need to Know the Original Languages? [podcast] | Bible Versions Category |

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Abiding

The Death before the Death [podcast]


Gethsemane Preceded Calvary

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-12

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25  For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Luke 9:23-25

Shall We Freshly Declare the Cross to be Front and Center in our Personal Lives?

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 

Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison MinistryMexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | Prayer | Manhood | The Conquering Cross of Christ [podcast]The Cross VictorySin – Man’s Core Problem

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Abiding

“Rend Your Heart, and Not Your Garments” [podcast]


Who Does God Look to? Who Does God Dwell in?

Beware of any man pretending to represent Christ who isn’t praying and preaching for you to be possessed by a humble and contrite heart.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

“‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). A low condition.  ‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:4). To mourn over our sin and our utter wickedness before a holy and righteous God. Those are the ones who will receive the comfort and ‘joy in the Holy Ghost’ (Romans 14:17).” Karen Cochran

Abandoning Our Own Sin, Our Own Way, for God and His Better Way!

To “rend your heart” is a biblical phrase meaning to tear open your heart in radical sincerity, true humility, and genuine repentance.

The phrase comes from Joel 2:13 in the Bible: “Rend your heart and not your garments and return to the Lord your God.”

One source notes the following:

“Context and Deeper Meaning:

  • Cultural Background: In ancient times, the Jewish people would tear (rend) their clothes as a public, highly visible display of grief or repentance.
  • The Spiritual Message: God is warning that outward rituals (like ripping clothing) are meaningless if the heart remains unchanged. Rending your heart implies breaking through your pride, letting go of excuses, and being completely vulnerable and authentic before God.
  • The Reward: The verse goes on to say that God is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Tearing open your heart allows you to experience His forgiveness and restore your relationship with Him.”

To see an example of rending one’s physical garment in representation of rending their heart, see Acts 14:11-18.

Where is the LORD Looking?

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God” Joel 2:12-14

“What a gracious invitation is contained in these words. How tenderly the Lord reasons with his people. And what an encouraging assurance it folds up with. Reader! do not fail to observe that this call of the Lord, the accompanying grace to incline the heart to the observance of it is implied. It is most blessed ever to remember that when the Lord thus comes forth in his endearing invitations, he is secretly inclining the heart to accept them. Grace must first enter the heart, or there will be no inclination to obey.” Robert Hawker

“Jeremiah’s message was never meant to leave the heart in despair. Every warning from God carried an invitation to return. The Lord does not expose empty religion to shame His people, but to heal them. Repentance is not the loss of hope, it is the beginning of hope. Christ still receives every soul that comes with humility, and He gives living faith where there was only habit, peace where there was only fear, and joy where there was only emptiness. The call remains the same today, to draw near to Him with a sincere heart, trusting that His mercy is always greater than our weakness.” Dan Blincoe

A Fresh Start with God Always Begins with Humility and True Repentance

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?” Joel 2:12-14

Concerning rending our hearts before the LORD, one source notes:

The classic Bible passage on this concept is Joel 2:13, where God commands: “Rend your heart and not your garments”.  In ancient biblical culture, tearing (or “rending”) one’s physical clothing was a customary, visible display of extreme grief, despair, or repentance. Through the prophet Joel, God is essentially telling His people: Stop doing the empty, outward religious ritual of tearing your clothes to show everyone how sorry you are. Instead, let me see true, inward brokenness over your sins.

Examples of Rending Physical Garments

In the Bible, the physical act of tearing clothes was used as a dramatic expression of deep emotion in several well-known narratives:

  • Joseph’s Brothers (Genesis 37:29, 34): When Reuben realized Joseph was not in the pit, and later when the brothers brought Joseph’s blood-stained coat to Jacob, they tore their clothes in grief and despair. 
  • Job (Job 1:20): After hearing that he had lost all his wealth and his children, Job stood up and tore his robe as an outward sign of his overwhelming sorrow.
  • King David (2 Samuel 1:11-12): When David received news of the deaths of King Saul and Jonathan, he and his men tore their clothes to mourn.
  • The High Priest (Matthew 26:65): In a dramatic display of hypocritical outrage, the high priest tore his own garments when Jesus declared He was the Son of God, falsely accusing Him of blasphemy.

The Spiritual Meaning of “Rending the Heart”

The concept of “rending the heart” contrasts an outward show with inward reality.

  • Genuine Repentance: Tearing your heart means being vulnerable, acknowledging your brokenness, and deeply repenting of sin before God. 
  • Prioritizing Relationships over Rituals: God desires a sincere heart—true sorrow and a desire to change—more than he desires traditional religious pageantry or dramatic, public displays of grief.
  • The Promise of Forgiveness: In Joel 2:13, the command to rend the heart is immediately followed by the promise of grace: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”.  

God sees beyond our external habits and religious actions, requiring instead a humble, contrite heart to fully experience His mercy.”

God’s Mercy

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?” Joel 2:12-14

In God’s Word, where we see men who tear open their garments…. This holds the illustration of rending our hearts before the LORD.

Don’t render outward tearing, no, rather, tear open your inner man, your heart—be honest, sincere, exposed, and vulnerable to the LORD whom you trust.

Let’s attempt to get at, to ascertain what God is commanding of His beloved people to do in this “rend your heart” passage.

“Joel 2:13: Rend your heart—Let it not be merely a rending of your garments, but let your hearts be truly contrite. Merely external worship and hypocritical pretensions will only increase the evil, and cause God to meet you with heavier judgments.

For he is gracious—Good and benevolent in his own nature.

Merciful—Pitying and forgiving, as the effect of goodness and benevolence.

Slow to anger —He is not easily provoked to punish, because he is gracious and merciful.

Of great kindness—Exuberant goodness to all them that return to him.

And repenteth him of the evil—Is ever ready to change his purpose to destroy, when he finds the culprit willing to be saved. See the notes on Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7.” Adam Clarke

“Joel 2:12-14: III. DIVINE APPEAL TO JUDAH TO REPENT (2:12-14)
Even now, the LORD calls the people to repentance. It is not too late to return to Him. But it must be more than outward ritual. Their turning was to be with all their heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Believer’s Bible Commentary

To rend our hearts is the consistent message, mandate of God to His people of all ages and eras.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalms 34:18

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalms 51:17

In Joel 2 the LORD reminds those who are backslidden that He “is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? …”

They must meet His stated conditions to receive His blessings ….

He promises that He will forgive them as they…..

“Joel 2:12-27: THE AVERTING OF JUDGMENT
To rend the garment is easy, but a broken and contrite heart can be imparted only by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The love of God should bring us to repentance. He takes no pleasure in our miseries and if men repent and turn from their sin they find an immediate and loving welcome to the Father’s heart and home. Joel had called for the trumpet to announce war; he now directs the trumpet blast to summon the people, from the highest to the lowest, to plead for help. Prayer and true repentance and faith bring an immediate answer. As the husband yearns over his erring but repentant wife, and is indignant with those who have maltreated her, so will Jehovah remove from us, when we turn to Him, those who have cruelly oppressed us.
The great things Jehovah did against Egypt and Babylon are an earnest of what He will do again. The earth (and all  the creation  of God) … have good reason to rejoice in what awaits them. God promises not only to forgive sin, but to make us happy and well provided as if the locust and cankerworm had never settled upon our lives.” FB Meyer

Religious hypocrites, counterfeits, emphasize the outward to cover their inner darkness, rebellion.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.   Matthew 23:23-25

“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Mark 7:6

 

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God and His Word are Unchanging [podcast]


Because God is Unchanging, So is His Word

“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”    Malachi 3:6

“Which keepeth truth for ever” – Is the Bible “Archaic”? No. Divine truth is everlasting. Has no expiration date. You cannot escape accountability to it, to Him. It’s an open book test. The Savior says “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:31). Divine truth is eternal, unchanging, and binding upon all men (Psalms 146:6; Malachi 3:6, etc.).

Every time you open God’s Word and begin reading, you are hearing the voice of God.

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (the devil questions God’s Word, questions what God says in His Word.)

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall NOT surely die.” Genesis 3:4

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Proverbs 30:5-6

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19

“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deuteronomy 4:2

“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:17

“Ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.” Jeremiah 23:36

“all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:” Jeremiah 26:2 

 

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