Day 139: Commitment, Best Friend Feelings, and Desire

1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 16-17, and Song of Songs 4. Like the judges in the book of Judges where the leaders became progressively less faithful to God, here the kings of the North, Israel gets progressively less faithful and leads the tribes of the North away from the Lord. The Southern kings struggle where some start faithful and fall away, are somewhat  faithful sometimes, but Yahweh still seems to remain somewhat central in their world. We also discuss three Hebrew words for love being described in the story of love poems, ahava - commitment, rayah - best friend feelings, and dowd - sexual desire for intimacy. These all seem to be important in this romantic relationship that seems to be about marriage using imagery that has connection to Genesis 2, Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

 

Credits:

Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.