Abhor גָּעַל

We are in chapter twenty-six of Leviticus with our word for today used for the first time in the Bible in our chapter. גָּעַל loathe, unpleasant, fail, abhor, defile. It is used 10 times in the Old Testament, 5 times in our chapter. We find our word used once in the sense to be defiled, to be made unclean. 2 Samuel 1:21 For there the shield of the mighty נִגְעַל֙ was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. Our word is also used in the sense of failing. Job 21:10 Their bull breeds without יַגְעִ֑ל fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. All the other uses of our word are used in the sense to abhor, to find repugnant. Ezekiel 16:44-45 Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your mother, who גֹּעֶ֥לֶת loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who גָּֽעֲ֙לוּ֙ loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Jeremiah 14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul גָּעֲלָ֣ה loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? This is how our word is used 5 times in our chapter. Leviticus 26:11-12, 14-15, 30, 43-44 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not תִגְעַ֥ל abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people … But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul תִּגְעַ֣ל abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant … And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will וְגָעֲלָ֥ה abhor you … But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul גָּעֲלָ֥ה abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will גְעַלְתִּים֙ I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. Did you notice that 4 out of the 5 times our word is used in our chapter it is with the word soul. One time God is seen not abhorring his people and then another time he is. The difference is their following his instruction. God is struggling with loving his people who are or will be acting unlovable. Then the other two times what the people abhorred from inside of their souls were God’s rules and statutes. God cares about not just obedience but our heart behind it. Because our actions show what is in our hearts. Jesus made this clear with his analogy of a tree and its fruit. Luke 6:43-45 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. I’ll close with these great reminders. Matthew 22:37-38 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. 1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.