Lord, give me your unfailing love,
the salvation that you promised me.
Then I can answer those who taunt me,
for I trust in your word.
Do not snatch your word of truth from me,
for your regulations are my only hope.
I will keep on obeying your instructions
forever and ever.
I will walk in freedom,
for I have devoted myself to your commandments.
I will speak to kings about your laws,
and I will not be ashamed.
How I delight in your commands!
How I love them!
I honor and love your commands.
I meditate on your decrees. (New Living Translation)
Christians often refer to the Bible as “God’s Word.” By that reference is meant that God has graciously given a self-revelation to us through the Holy Scriptures.
The Jewish people refer to the first five books of the Old Testament as the Law of the Lord or the Torah. They understand God as a great, high and holy Being, who graciously accommodates and communicates to us on our level by giving the Law.
Just as a parent coos and babbles and speaks in a very different way to a baby in a crib, so God speaks to us in a manner that we can understand divine care, concern, and love for us. Just as an infant cannot understand an adult conversation taking place, so God is a divine being well above our comprehension. We have no ability to understand anything God says unless the Lord graciously and lovingly bends down to speak to us on our level.
God’s Law, the Torah, was the curriculum for Israel’s religious instruction. The Law of the Lord is meant to be a behavior pattern, to be embodied in the lives of God’s people through both teachers and parents who learn God’s Word and, in turn, pass it along to others. Both those within the faith, such as children, and those outside of the faith, such as aliens or immigrants, can have a guide for how to live in the world.
God’s Law is an extension of God’s grace. And we can gratefully accept the grace of God expressed in God’s Word. We have the opportunity to ingest it, eat it, reflect on it, and dwell with it, in order to know God and be the sort of people God who can bless the world.
There are several Hebrew language words that come from the root word of Law, or Torah. A teacher is a “moreh.” A parent is a “horeh.” Parents and teachers are to be living guides in the way of God’s Word. What’s more, the Hebrew word for teaching is “yarah.”
So, in other words, the moreh’s and the horeh’s are to yarah the Torah. Parents and teachers are to point and lead others into the ways of the Lord. And how do they do this?…
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NIV)
God’s Law (God’s Word) is to be as familiar to us as our back door; it is to be in front of us all the time. We might put a modern spin on the Deuteronomy passage to help us understand our privilege when it comes to God’s Word:
Attention, Church! God, our God! God the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love God with all that is in you; love God with all you’ve got!
Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children.
In order to do this, talk about God’s Word at home when you are eating supper together, and when you are working or playing with each other.
Start your day with God’s Word when you get up, and end your day with God’s Word when you go to bed at night. Put God’s Word on your refrigerator, and your car’s dashboard; have it on your smartphones, and let it be available to you anywhere, anytime. Use every opportunity you have to incessantly chatter about God’s Holy Word.
Someone may say, “That’s pretty radical – I don’t need to do all that!” Then I would say you are missing out on living a blessed life, because people are blessed when they walk according to God’s Word and keep God’s Law in front of them, seeking God with all their heart.
Eleanor Turnbull, a veteran missionary to Haiti, collected and translated some simple but powerful prayers of the Christians who live in the Haitian mountains. Here are four prayers that they pray every day – and take note of their high view of God, and their longing to know God’s Word:
- “Our Great Physician, Your word is like alcohol. When poured on an infected wound, it burns and stings, but only then can it kill germs. If it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t do any good.”
- “Father, we are all hungry baby birds this morning. Our heart-mouths are gaping wide, waiting for you to fill us.”
- “Father, a cold wind seems to have chilled us. Wrap us in the blanket of your Word and warm us up.”
- “Lord, we find your Word like cabbage. As we pull down the leaves, we get closer to the heart. And as we get closer to the heart, it is sweeter.”
Let’s not be so busy, pre-occupied, or worried that we push God’s Word to the margins of our lives as only something for our discretionary time.
Instead, let’s commit ourselves, like the psalmist, to learning and loving God’s commands and decrees.
Let’s be intentional about connecting with the God who has so graciously given us a guide for grateful living.
Let’s lay solid plans to catechize people into the basics of faith and holy living.
May your efforts both honor God and build up Christ’s Church. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 