every word -- part 2

The Word for today:
Deuteronomy 7

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

“Why do we study the Bible?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“Where does it take me?”

When I’m asked those questions, I start at Deuteronomy chapters 6-8 for the answers. Since that is where we are, we’re fielding those questions, one at a time.

Yesterday, we asked "Why?" Today, we'll ask "What?"

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“What’s in it for me?”

When I was a kid, I was athletic in a way (I could run like a deer) but in other ways I was the nerd at summer camp who hoped it would rain so we could have skit day!

I got pushed around in basketball; I struck out in baseball; I got bored in soccer; the swimming pool water stung my eyes. But if it rained, we got to write a skit and then act it out.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 has all the ingredients of great skit:

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

Utilizing a few simple props, it makes an obvious point in a humorous, over-dramatized way which borders on the ridiculous. (Recall that this is the same Writer who will teach a precept by showing us the blind leading the blind into a ditch!) It effectively illustrates that God wants His children and their children to be continuously involved with His Word:

He wants us teaching his Word to our children.

He wants us talking about his Word whether we are sitting, walking, lying down, or getting up!

He wants us talking about his Word whether we are at home or on the road.

He wants us to wear his Word on our hands and between our eyes.

He wants us to write his Word on the doors of our homes and at the entrances into our cities.

If we act out Deuteronomy 6:6-9 by continuously keeping God’s Word before our eyes, then, lo and behold, we will see God act out the rest of His Word.

The Word becomes flesh, is the way the gospel of John says it. I came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, is how Jesus says it.

It’s mystical and not easy to explain, but if you purpose in your heart to seek his every word, you will see God step off the page and into reality. The more faithfully we study his Word, the more real Jesus becomes. That’s what’s in it for us.

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