The Ephraimites will become like warriors, and their hearts will be glad as with wine.  Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.

• Zechariah 10:7

This quiz examines the 725 references to the word “heart” in the NIV.

Okay, maybe not all of them, but a few.  In what way?  The Scripture above says that hearts can be glad and hearts can rejoice.  What else can hearts do?

And the heart does not have to “do” something to be part of an expression.  The quiz title, “Have a Heart” means providing a little grace, cutting us a break, or as Oxford Language would say showing mercy or having pity.

By the way, there are four books in the Old Testament that do not use the word “heart.”  There are four books in the New Testament that do not use the word “heart.”  What are these eight books?  This is kind of a bonus quiz.

The Questions:

1. The first reference to “heart” talks of the heart thinking of something.  What are the thoughts of the human heart only upon all the time, at least at one time in history, but true most of the time with most people?
2. And then one verse later, how did God’s heart react to the thoughts of the human heart?
3. What did Abraham’s servant do in his heart before seeing Rebekah approach with a jar on her head?
4. What happened to the hearts of Joseph’s brothers when they found their silver in their sacks of grain?
5. Many references to Pharoah were that his heart became what?
6. What did Rahab tell the spies who came to Jericho about what fear had done to their hearts, the fear of the Lord?
7. Abner had led King Saul’s army, but he becomes loyal to David and wishes to help David have all that David’s heart ______.  (Fill in the blank.)
8. What was the state of King Asa’s heart toward the Lord all his life?
9. In the Beatitudes, what is the condition of the heart that will see God?
10. When Jesus was confronted by some people in the synagogue about healing on the Sabbath, what condition of their hearts distressed Jesus?
11. When the widow of Nain was burying her only son, Jesus had compassion upon her and told he not to cry.  How did Luke describe what happened to the heart of Jesus?
12. Jesus told His disciples at the Last Supper about all that must happen, but then He told them to have hope by saying that they should _____ heart.  (Fill in the blank.)
13. When Peter gave his Pentecost sermon, the people that listened asked what they needed to do, and three thousand were added to the number of believers that day.  But hearing that they had been part of the mob that caused our Savior to die, what happened to their hearts?
14. What body part does our heart “need” in order to know the hope in which God has called us, the rich inheritance that awaits us in Heaven?
15. What does James tell the double-minded to do other than to wash our hands, something done to the heart?
16. At the beginning of Jesus’ Revelation to the Apostle John, John wrote that we must do what to our heart with this revelation?

As I mentioned, there are hundreds of examples of the heart doing this or that in the Bible.  I barely scratched the surface.

But I remember Mark Lowry’s routine on watching a documentary of open-heart surgery.  He explained that with Jesus in our hearts, Jesus was not sitting there watching the corpuscles go by.  The “heart” in these verses referenced in the questions pertain to what our focus in life is.  What do we strive for?  God promises us that when we seek Him, we will find Him.  God will reveal Himself to us.  And even that seeking might relate to an answer above, so I will refrain.

Bible References:

1. Genesis 6:5
2. Genesis 6:6
3. Genesis 24:45
4. Genesis 42:28
5. Exodus 7:13, among many
6. Joshua 2:11
7. 2 Samuel 3:21
8. 2 Chronicles 15:17
9. Matthew 5:8
10. Mark 3:5
11. Luke 7:13
12. John 16:33
13. Acts 2:37
14. Ephesians 1:18
15. James 4:8
16. Revelation 1:3

The key to all this heart stuff is that we need Jesus in our hearts.  If we flip Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” we can see that where our heart is, there will be our treasure.  And when Jesus is in our heart and God is what we want, having God within us and being considered a child of God…  Now that is treasure indeed.

And we had a bonus quiz before the answer section, and I should answer that before the Answer Section.  The four books in the Old Testament (NIV) that do not contain the word “heart” are Ruth, Esther, Micah, and Haggai.  The four books in the New Testament (NIV) that do not contain the word “heart” are Titus, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

1. Evil
2. Troubled
3. Praying
4. Sank
5. Hard or hardened
6. Melted
7. Desires
8. Committed
9. Pure
10. Stubborn
11. Went out, as in went out to her
12. Take, as in take heart
13. Cut to the heart
14. Eyes
15. Purify
16. Take to heart

Notice the difference in questions 12 and 16 – what a difference a small preposition makes.  When we “take heart,” we have hope and courage.  When we “take to heart” some teaching, we understand the teaching and incorporate that teaching into our way of life.

And since you did so well, or even if you did not, here is a link to the nearly nine-minute talk by Mark Lowry about watching a TV show about open-heart surgery.  He starts there, but he wanders a bit in true Mark Lowry fashion.  Biblical wisdom and laughter in less than nine minutes.

We have established from our questions that the heart thinks and the heart has eyes, but Taylor Dayne must think that the heart has ears.  Why else would we Tell It to my Heart?  Umm, her heart.

But as I mentioned before, we need Jesus in our heart.  Enjoy the Gaither Vocal Band singing Heart o’ Mine with Wes Hampton singing the solo.

But what are we really talking about?  Mark Lowry tells us in the video above that Jesus is not more interested in being in our blood pumping muscle as He is our liver.  Lowry says that the heart is the seat of the emotions, but I think that it goes beyond that to our very essence, our soul.  This last song, one of my favorite hymns, It is Well with my Soul, is sung by the Gaither Homecoming crowd in Jerusalem, with Guy Penrod and David Phelps singing solos.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.