The Covenant of Peace

Love Is a Battlefield

You might remember these lyrics to a popular 80’s song, Love Is a Battlefield and unfortunately, these words are very true.  What is love?  Hollywood would have us believe that it is a fleeting, random emotion and once you stumble upon it, you must do everything you can to hold onto it.  Is this true?  Let’s take a closer look at this word in Scripture.

The first time the word “love” is used in Scripture is in Genesis 22:2 (NASB) He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  God is speaking to Abraham about the event that is often referred to as the Akeida or the binding of Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moriah.  I find it very revealing that God uses this word for the first time in Scripture to describe a love of a father towards his “only son”.  Of course, we know that Isaac is not Abraham’s only son, so I believe that God is hinting at His relationship with Yeshua, His one and only Son.   This might be the reason that the two letters Alef-Tav (or Alpha and Omega in Greek), appear 3 times in this verse.  In history, to this point, there had been many marriages and many relationships mentioned, but yet, this is the first time that the word “love” is used.  If you are a parent, you completely understand this concept.  The first time I held each of my children, it was such a surprise to me that I could be completely and totally in love with what really was a stranger.  Yes, I carried each one for nine months, but had yet to see them, touch them and truly get to know them as a human being, but I was powerless to stop the flood of emotions that I felt.  It was the same way the first time I held each of my grandchildren.  I was in love.  I was even more surprised by the love I had for my grandchildren until a close friend of mine told me to look up the word for Grandmother in the Scriptures.  In the TaNaKh (or the Old Testament), this word is used twice.  Both times, it is used to describe Asa, the King of Judah’s grandmother, Maakah.  The truly interesting part is that when you look up the Hebrew word for Grandmother here it is am, which is the Hebrew word for mother.  No wonder I felt the same feelings of love when my grandchildren were born as I did when each of my children were born.  Our daughter is pregnant with a little girl right now and she learned that at the time a baby girl is born, she already has all of the ovum in her tiny little ovaries that she will ever have.  In a way, my daughter is actually carrying her grandchildren also.  What a concept! This type of love does seem like the Hollywood type, though.  It creeps up on you and you simply can’t resist.

There is much more to this word, love.  The Hebrew word for “love” in Genesis 22:2 is ahav and it is spelled Aleph-Hey-Beit.  If we take a look at the word picture for this word, it is Aleph = Adonai or first, Hey = revelation, Spirit and Beit = tent or house.  This word could literally mean: “Adonai’s revelation to the house” or “Adonai’s Spirit and the house”.  No wonder the apostle John tells us that “God IS love”.  He first revealed it to us, His house.

I want to take a closer look at this word “love” in other relationships.  Something that I felt that my Father was teaching me is that love isn’t always an unsuspecting, random emotion. At the root of it, love is a choice.  We have been commanded to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  We have also been commanded to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  Ephesians 5:25 says (NASB) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her…” Yeshua says in Matthew 5:44 “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” How can we do any of these commandments if love is only a fleeting emotion?  Love is a choice.  When you are married, you understand that this relationship requires work.  It is not just an emotion and thank goodness because that emotion in itself doesn’t last forever.  Again, love is a choice.  We cannot be commanded to do something that cannot be done.  What kind of father would give his children a list of chores that they couldn’t possibly do?  God doesn’t do this.  He knows that when He commands something of us, as His children, we are more than capable of doing His will, but it is a battlefield at times. 

Social media can be an awesome thing.  To be able to renew relationships with old friends, keep in touch with loved ones and follow awe inspiring teachers can be such a blessing, but we also know that there are so many very ugly things on there.  Some days, instead of seeing pictures of precious family members, or hearing a praise report from a loved one, we oftentimes see division and backlash.  Hurting people like to post things about others without naming names hoping that the one that hurt them will see it. Political posts and mud-slinging opinions are rampant, but the ones that are the most frightening are the posts that in essence, tell us that it’s just fine to cut relationship ties for self-preservation and it’s okay to cut negative people out of your life.  Or maybe that the deck of cards that you have been given of family members and friends are not good for you, so why don’t you just reshuffle the deck?  Or love only those that are worthy of our love. The problem is that God doesn’t tell us to love our neighbor as ourselves or to honor our mother and father or to help the widow and the orphan only if in each situation they treat us right, does He?  No, because God knows that love is a choice.  How can we possibly keep relationships if we cut people out of our lives at the first sign of a disagreement? The world was not worthy of God’s love when He gave His only begotten Son, so if none of us were worthy…

We are not always going to agree with people and we are not always going to feel that fleeting emotion we like to call love towards one another, but we are commanded to love our neighbor without qualifiers.  We are called to forgive one another when they do hurt us and that is a very difficult thing to do at times, but again, it is a choice.  Maybe this is why divorce is so very prevalent these days.  If we can only see love and forgiveness as emotions that come and go rather than choices, how can we make things work out between two people?  The picture is bigger than that, though.  It’s not just about relationships in the home, it’s about the relationships of God’s people too.  Even in Messianic circles, we are having a very hard time honoring each other when we disagree.  My opinion is that it helps to know that love is a choice.  Once we know that it is something we are capable of doing, we can set about to make it happen through prayer and communication.

Yeshua speaks about personal relationships in Matthew chapter 5:21-48.  This is a very good refresher to read these verses, but I would really like to focus on verses 21-24 (NASB) “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”  What exactly is our “offering” today since we do not have a temple?  Psalm 141:2 (NASB) “May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.”  Can even our prayers be hindered when we have a problem between us and another person?  Yes!  Proverbs 28:9 says (NASB) “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.”  The Hebrew word for “listening” here is shema’ and it means to hear and obey.  The word for law is torah.  When we are not obeying Torah, even our prayer is an abomination.  Torah tells us in Leviticus 19:18 “‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”

We are commanded to love others and love truly is a battlefield that the enemy is quickly winning on.