“Ten Words to Live By, Part 1”
Text: Deuteronomy 5:1-5
Elpis Christian Church
October 25, 2009
I’ve noticed that one of the things that TV psychologist Dr. Phil says when he wants to motivate his clients to take action is, “let’s put some verbs in those sentences.” What he means is that it’s fine to talk about something – sort out your feelings; consider your options – but when the rubber meets the road you’ve got do something more. Well, today I want to put a few verbs in my sentences.
We’re coming to the point in our study now where Moses is repeating the law to the people as they are on the verge of entering the Promised Land. The word Deuteronomy is a Greek word that means “second law” but it’s really more accurate to say this is a “repetition” of the law. Deuteronomy picks up where the book of Numbers leaves off. Israel is in the plains of Moab. This is a new generation of people – not the ones who left Egypt originally – but their kids. They are literally poised on edge of the long awaited land they are to invade. And Moses takes this opportunity to get down to business once again. There is too much at stake. There is too much to lose and much too much to gain. So he has to make himself perfectly clear. And that’s where the verbs come in – the action words – the commands.
This week and next I want us to looks closely at ten words to live by. They were those Moses gave to Israel thousands of years ago. They are the ones God gives to us today. And they are the difference between spiritual life and spiritual death.
The first three words that I want to focus on are found in the very first verse of the scripture I just read. Did you catch them?
1. HEAR. “Hear, O Israel.”
The Hebrew word that means to hear is shama – and it means to “hear intelligently.” Think about that. To hear intelligently is to do so much more than just register a sound within your brain. It’s to consider and discern. It’s to understand fully – or at least desire to understand more. It’s the eager student waving her hand wildly and enthusiastically at the professor when his words have stimulated something new and exciting in her thinking. It’s a hungry way of hearing – a desiring for more. That’s how Moses wants the people to respond to the instruction he’s giving them on behalf of God.
When the last time you felt that way about your Bible; about Sunday School or a new book you’ve picked up? If we don’t have that kind of hunger about learning God’s word – well, then we’re already at a disadvantage. Shama is to give “undivided listening attention” to what God has to say. And it is to understand what God says to you not just with your mind – but with your heart. That’s the only way to live.
2. Learn.
The word is lamad and it means, interestingly enough, to “goad” the way a animal is goaded to move forward. But it also means to teach. Where some languages make a distinction between the two – here the same word is used for both. Learning and teaching others are intimately related to each other.
To use our same example, imagine that enthusiastic young student – who has just been turned on to a exciting new idea – and runs to tell her friends and fellow students about it. Lamad carries with it all the connotation of practicing and training. And, we might not exactly like the association with a farm animal being goaded along to go in the right way – well – if we’re honest about it – don’t we all have to be goaded now and then? Moses wants the people to be stirred to action. When the last time time God stirred your heart and mind that way? When was the last time you were so excited about something God showed you that you wanted to sit down and talk about with your spouse, your children, your friends? You don’t have to come to Sunday School to do that – although it’s not a bad idea. But it takes energy and – like a good education – you get out of it what you put into it. So go find something exciting to learn about your faith and then share with it with someone else.
3. Observe.
This word is shawmar – and it means a lot more than just to casually take a look at something. This is one of my favorites. It means literally to “hedge about, to protect, and attend to something.”
A lot of you here today are gardeners. Think for a moment – picture yourself putting a protective fence around the garden you’ve just planted. Imagine carefully, lovingly, patting the dirt down around the gentle plant that has just been put in the fertile ground. That’s shawmar.
Moses knew that the people could take all the words, all the commandments, all the instruction and just look at them and walk away. Or – they could take it all in and nurture it, and fertilize it, and help it grow into all God intended it to be in their lives. Do we show that kind of observant care for our life of faith?
4. REMEMBER.
You’ve got to move on down in the chapter – to verse 15 of chapter 5 in Deuteronomy – to find this verb. Moses says,
“And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out by mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.”
How easy it is to forget what we owe God. How easy it is to think that we have gotten where we are on our own steam, and how deadly that is. For Israel it could literally mean their physical death. If they were not reminded to constantly turn to God for their daily bread, their daily water, their protection, and their direction – they would quickly die in their desert wandering. One whole generation had done just that. And now it was their children’s chance. To pay attention, to remember God as their source wherever He would lead them and whatever He told them to do. That was the difference between death and life.
And that brings us to our final word for today –
5. LIVE.
Chayah (Khaw-yaw). It means a lot more than just to exist. It means to revive, to nourish up, to preserve and quicken and recover and restore and be whole.
After forty years in the desert – wouldn’t that be a welcome invitation to hear? That after all the wandering, after all the scorching heat that sapped their strength and the cold nights that chilled to the bone; after all the running from the dangers of the wilderness; after living on manna and water drawn the rocks it was oasis time. It was time for this small, tiny, baby nation to live and prosper and grow and thrive.
If you have gone through, or you are going through, a dry dead time – this is God’s invitation for you as well. That through a close, loving relationship with Him you can live and prosper and grow and thrive in a brand new way.
Five words of ten: HEAR, LEARN, OBSERVE, REMEMBER, and LIVE. Those are very good words, aren’t they? And they are what a life of faith – a life in relationship to God – is all about.
I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds a whole lot more exciting than the idea of memorizing a bunch of legal requirements, a bunch a statutes and religious rituals. No wonder Jesus took all of the hundreds of laws that Israel came to obsess over and boiled them down to just two – love God and love others at least as much as you love yourself.
Life is not just about following rules. It’s about tuning our ears and our minds every single day to what God so lovingly offers us. It’s about being enthusiastic students of what He has to teach us – or short of that, at least being willing sometimes to be goaded into learning what we need to learn. It’s about being excited to teach others what we’ve learned as well. It’s about taking the small bits of wisdom and experience and nurturing them into something wonderful. And it’s about doing a whole lot more than just existing. Life is full and rich and important. And God wants to share it all with us. Who would have thought you could find that in a dusty old book called Deuteronomy?
So – that begs the question – what now? I hope today I’ve whet your appetite a bit. I hope you will go home and, sometime this week, pick up your Bible. It doesn’t really matter what you look at, although I would recommend you don’t start with Second Kings or the Book of Nahum. Pick up the gospel of John again – or one of Paul’s letters. Take another look at the book of Acts or the Psalms. Open your eyes and your heart and pray a sincere prayer that God will give you a word or two that you need to hear. Ask Him to guide you so that you can find the answers you’ve been looking for lately. And I bet He will – or at the very least – I bet He will plant a seed that, if you are willing, can be watered and nurtured and grow into something beautiful.
The Word of God is alive and rich and important. And too often we just treat it like it’s a bunch of stuffy old rules and regulations. Take another look – it’s worth every minute and every bit of effort you put into it.
“Hear, O Israel” – Hear, oh children of God, that “which I am speaking today in your hearing” – HEAR, LEARN, OBSERVE, REMEMBER and LIVE.
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