Sunday: The Law in Our Life
Read Proverbs 6:21 and Prov. 7:3. How are we to understand the bodily images used in these texts regarding how we should relate to God’s law?
Image © Consuelo Udave from GoodSalt.com
As we saw in an earlier lesson, in Proverbs the heart represents the seat of emotions and thoughts. By telling us to bind the law upon our hearts (Prov. 6:21), the teacher means that we should always be in close connection with the law. There is no moment we may lose contact with the law, because the law is what defines sin (Rom. 7:7). The teacher also insists that this law should even be written on the tablets of the heart (Prov. 7:3), just as the Decalogue was written by God on the stone tablets (Exod. 24:12).
To speak about the law written on the heart means that the law is not just an external set of rules imposed on us. The law should penetrate our motivations, our secret intentions, and so be part of our intimate self. It’s another expression of having the Pauline promise of Christ in you, the hope of glory
(Col. 1:27) be a reality in our lives.
To tie the law around the neck also means that we should keep it close to ourselves. Ancient people used to tie their precious belongings around their necks. The neck is the place through which air travels to the lungs, allowing breath and life, an association of thoughts that is attested in the Hebrew word nephesh (soul
), which refers to life
and is derived from a word meaningthroat
and breathing.
To bind the law on one’s fingers means to bring the law into the domain of actions. The teacher focuses on the fingers to suggest the most delicate and intimate actions. The law should affect not only the grand choices we make but the smaller ones as well (see Luke 16:10).
Although the biblical intention of these images was purely symbolical, it is noteworthy that these symbols have been taken literally in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. It is seen through the use of the Jewish tephillin around the head and the fingers, the Christian crosses around the neck, and the Muslim (and Christian) rosaries around the fingers.
Symbols can be helpful, but why must we be careful not to mistake the symbol for the reality it represents?
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Could these passages be encouragement (or commands) to memorize Scripture?
Not necessarily John; and as I sometimes remind myself, given a large enough flock of Galahs (Australian parrots) and sufficient time I could teach them to recite the whole Bible, but what would be the use of that! The modern generation has the attitude, "Why memorize what you can look up?", and to a certain extent they are right. Memorization is a useful tool if you take on board the principles of what you are learning and put those principles into practice.
As an illustration, I know a person who learned the value of Pi to 1000 decimal places. Given the opportunity he would bore anyone who would listen to a recitation, and had difficulty understanding those who would cry out, "Stop, we believe you" after about 20 digits had been recited. As a mathematician, I can never remember the value of Pi to more than 2 decimal places, however I know a thousand situations where I can use that value to advantage. I leave it to the computer to crunch the numbers because I know it will do that with the accuracy required. It is much more useful to know where Pi should be used, than to know its value to high precision.
Christianity is not about how much we can remember but about who remembers us. (I do not mean to devalue memorization but rather give hope to those whom it is a difficulty.) I have Christian friends who have difficulty in reading, let alone memorizing, yet they are a witness to that fact that they are loved by God.
John, I think memorization has value as long as we understand what we are memorizing but when we do it just to be memorizing something then its value just about goes to zero. I think it is perhaps beneficial to keep in mind that the Pharisees memorized enormous amounts of scripture but it didn't help them one bit.
I like a particular story that was in a book on success that I once had. The author described a visit to one of his friend's house and both were watching one of those game shows where contestants answer questions for money. Since his friend was a corporate manager he got curious and asked him what he thought the person who was getting all the answers right was worth. His friend hesitated then replied "about the price of an encyclopedia because a person can find all those answers in one." A few minutes later his friend revised his answer, "the price of an almanac (at that time less than a dollar) because there is nothing that has been said that isn't in one." What his friend thought was of more value was someone that knew how to think and to know where to find the answers he needed. For us we would append application to that.
It was the same for Henry Ford who sued someone for defamation of character because he was being characterized as an idiot (Henry Ford only had a third grade education). When the attorney for the defense got Henry on the witness stand he tried to show the court that the characterization was actually true. What he did was to ask Henry a lot of simple, well known trivia questions. In frustration, Henry replied, "I can't answer those questions but in 5 minutes I can find someone who can." I have personally met people with very good education that were virtually worthless. One in particular couldn't handle a job above that of a janitor.
Now all of this only has some application to the Christian but in spite of that I would much rather know what the Bible says and why it says what it does then to simply blurt out so many words without understanding.
So, what good is regurgitation? Any fool can memorize and repeat what he doesn't know. Wisdom is understanding the words written and knowing how to apply them. However, if we are going to memorize anything to me the promises of God are probably the most important.
Also to the statement: "Christianity is not about how much we can remember but about who remembers us," I would say that Christianity is not about me or my memory or my memorization but about who remembers JESUS when they remember the things we shared with them about HIM and what HE can do for them as well as He has done and is doing for me.
John
I like how you said an encouragement to memorize the scriptures. When it says to write the law on my heart I do not need to go to a computer or book in crunch time to find the reference. It has become a vital part of me and gives me a peace or reassurance that God is always with me. Thank you
I would say yes, we are encouraged to memorise but like Tyler says, not as an end but as a means. When we memorise scripture we place it where it's very handy for us to use it/live it.
Even day to day life gets smoother with committing processes to memory (ofcourse with understanding) in order for us to live out those processes smoothly.
I know that EGW indicates that the reason we are so easily overcome by sin is because we cannot readily recall the "SCRIPTURE WEAPONS," from our memories.
Since then I have memorized many scriptures and have found this to be very true. When I make an effort to recall those scriptures during temptation, the temptation loses its force upon my mind. God is true to His WORD!, and especially when we, in a spiritually practical way, memorize it!
How did Christ fight Satan during his time of trial -- memorized scripture . . ."It is written . . ." As well as, much instruction in the New Testament is referenced from the Old Testament. I'm fairly certain that not all the Jews/Christians necessarily had written copies but had to listen and memorize what was taught in temple.
I think we are encouraged to memorize scripture so that recall will be readily available in time of need. But yes, it is important to understand what you've memorized and how it applies to your life (and maybe others lives.) That is why all study should be accompanied w/prayer to help memorization and understanding. Notice that Proverbs doesn't just say write the words on your hearts but also calls us to find and cherish wisedom, insight and understanding.
It's The Highest Counsel...To Be Obedient To The Creator Of The Heavens and The Earth.
If you Love me...Keep My Commandments.
Be Blessed All The Time...
The problems mankind has with symbols and pathways are longstanding. Being more motivated by sight than faith people tend to readily repose confidence in that which they may see or touch (2 Corinthians 4:18). Humans often grow closely attached to and even devoted to objects.
The underestimated Second Commandment recognizes our attraction to objects and cautions against this propensity (Exodus 20:4), even when in the form of a legitimate symbol. Under the Old Covenant the people came to rely on the symbols and objects meant to point to Christ and so failed to appreciate the reality of grace, a concept which was built into the sacrificial system (through substitution) (Hebrews 9). Before that they fashioned their own idol (Exodus 32:1-4)
Modern Israel should be mindful not to convert the avenues to the Savior into cul-de-sacs (dead-ends) by elevating the means above the end. In religious symbols, rituals and some forms of worship, including music, prayer, and study our purpose is to make a connection to Christ and become like Him. When Jesus is overshadowed or His Character misrepresented in what we do or emphasize we may be carving strange images, and it is a good time to reassess our focus (2 Corinthians 5:7).
It behooves us to keep the Principal (Christ) and His purpose, the restoration of His image in us, as the single-minded object of all our activities. In everything we do let us continually inquire to what extent Christ is involved, and be prepared to make adjustments (Proverbs 4:18).
What. is crucial here is the motive behind the use of a particular symbol and it's relevance in worship, our sole duty on earth . God will always reward the best of motives regardless of the presentation. with symbols or without
What's in a symbol? What's the purpose of the 'type' when the 'antitype' has already gone into effect? Does law guarantee life?
Jesus makes it simple: to love God with all our might and to love our fellow man as yourself. Have these 2 greatest comands fixed in our minds and we won't go astray when making our many decision during our daily lives. Love to God first and then to mankind.
Thy word have I hid in my heart. I will write My law on your hearts. My law have I written in your hearts.
No I don’t believe either that it is necessary to memorize verbatim. George Vandeman once told the story that took place when he was pastoring a church. There was a little girl who was asked to recite Psalms 23 from the KJV. She could not recite it verbatim, she was able though to converse the verses with all of the message intact. Elder Vandeman took an interest in this girl as her pastor and discovered that she couldn’t spit out the verses verbatim, even when He worked with her to memorize them. He then realized that it would be best to encourage her with what she had. For those who don’t know who George Vandeman was, or maybe younger than I, he was the 1st Speaker for the television telecast ‘It Is Written’. It is wonderful that God takes us were we are at, sinners, and molds us into Christians, where the love of God can flow through us to others, just as fluently as energy flows through the copper wire to light the lightbulb.
Now on the other hand it adds spice to life when the Pastor asks a 14 year old girl to get up and give the sermon. Her sermon was reciting the story of Ester by Maxwell verbatim Believe me I checked to see if there were any monitors she was prompted by, there were none. It was refreshing to listen to the story we had read as a child, being told word for word.
For Brother Gilmore's sake, jogging my memory a little: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, so that I may not sin against Thee.” Psalms 119:11
Ahhh......ahhh..... Indeed the words of God are inspired, all the little symbols and images convey important messages. This underscores the necessity of divine guidance in interpreting the word. In the memory verse I pondered on "lamp" and "light", "For the commandment is a lamp and the law of light." The commandments can be just a lamp to some us: we know the functions and usefulness of the commandments; but we must use the commandments like a LIGHTED LAMP so that we can walk in the path of righteousness
When something is imbedded in one's heart is part and parcel of his/her life. You will not need to be told that what you are doing is illegal or immoral. Good things just happen without even knowing that you are actually following a certain command. Just like an infant knows suckles a mothers breasts for milk when hungry. There is no command or written instruction for her to do this but it becomes natural. In the old days, before the ten commandments, Gods servants served God and had laws that were imbedded in their hearts. Murder and stealing was still wrong despite the absence of written laws. Laws and commandments came into being because man had hardened their hearts as well as mirrors to sin. when you love God his laws are imbedded into your heart
I'm not good at memorizing but I value and pray that some day I will be able to memorize just as much as possible of the jewels of life(The Word of God). Remember when Jesus was confronted by the devil, who happens to be a bible student, Christ was able to repulse him with "thus says the word" or "it is written". Christ studied the Word and lived it.
Nicholas, It is true Jesus could quote scripture, a lot of it. I think it is instructive here to see how Jesus used what He memorized.
In the three temptations in the wilderness scripture was used (Lk 4). In all three temptations the phrase, "it is written" was used (Jn 4:4,8,10). Jesus used it in answering the devil concerning the first two and the devil used it in the third temptation. That third temptation is important because Jesus caught the misapplication and twisting of quoted scripture. Jesus knew what the Bible was saying - He didn't just memorize words, He also memorized the correct interpretation of those words. He knew the message they were communicating.
As Paul instructed Timothy, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15 NKJV). That is, using scripture with Godly wisdom understanding what it says without twisting it to suit our own ideas (2 Pet 3:16).
Say for instance; if this family were struggling with rats in their home and the mother prepared some food and put in rat poison to get rid of the rats and gave the two boys a strict warning that there is rat poison in that food therefore they shouldn't eat the food, I would be tempted to think that these boys wouldn't dare to eat the food lest they die. However, despite the strict warning, the sad reality is that our fallen nature makes me believe that some naughty boys would still eat the food and eventually die.
Obedience and making the right choices are key to listening to counsel and indeed "A Matter of Life and Death"
I love to read the word of God because it refreshes my mind, emotions, thoughts, and removes my fears. I have memorized some scriptures down through the years, but I am also grateful that God has allowed me to hear and see the workings of the Holy Spirit in my daily life by bringing the word of God back to my remembrance when I need it most.
When I study the word and the lesson for the day; the more I dig deep into the word; the more I feel full with Christ. The more I dig in the Scriptures; the more I move closer to Him. At the End of the Lesson Study, I feel so Full, I tap my Bible Lovingly Thanking Jesus Thanking the Holy Spirit for teaching me for the Day. The More I study The Word; The More I Love The Good Lord.
I feel Full; because it is The Bread Of Life that I'm taking in, feeding my Spiritual Soul.
The Study of The Word of God; brings one Closer to their Creator.
Be Blessed All The Time.
I am intrigued that the overall impression I get from the posts so far is negative towards memorizing scripture.
On the whole I am in favour of memorizing Scripture, I think there are more benefits than negatives.
Benefits I have experienced.
In times of worry being able to remember God's promises is reassuring.
Help to witness: I have collected on various topics 7 texts that summarize the quick answers.
Besides memorizing word for word it is a great benefit to learn and remember contents of passages, for instances 2 Tim 3 and 2 Peter 3 both talk about the "last days", when people say why do people do these terrible things I can point them to these texts and say we should not be surprised the Bible says it would be like this.
If you are not sufficiently acquainted with the words of a text it will not be that easy just to "look it up" as most Bible searches are based on actual words, not ideas (I speak under correction)
I acknowledge the cautions expressed by previous posters, memorizing without understanding is dangerous. I understand that memorizing is difficult for some, but that should not be an excuse for those who are able to memorize. Everyone can take a text each day and meditate on it through out the day to take it to heart.
I think the main idea of the texts in Prov 6:20*24 & 7:1-8 is:
Internalize the instructions so they become a way of life to keep you from evil.
Some of us have poor memory. Dont worry. Our heavenly Father will not punish us for not literally remembering everything in the bible. But as long as we are able to remember and be guided by the fact that there exists a guide book of policies and procedures that was designed by the Master, we have nothing to fear. With prayer and supplication of faith, he will guide us. we need not worry that we cannot commit to memory everything from Genesis to Revelation. The Holy Spirit is powerful.
Do not worry; if you have a poor memory, God knows you, he knows Your Heart, He knows your Abilities and He Knows Your Weaknesses and Failings. He will not Judge you, because you have a poor memory...He will LOVE YOU...Because YOUR Heart...Is a Willing Heart.
Just Try...That's All You can Do...And The Holy Spirit of God, Will Do The Rest.
Be Blessed All The Time...
I work in the medical field, you can't imagine how great one feels/ appears when you have a good memory, but that does not take away the place for other reference tools and practically one just can't do without them, one of the professors realizing how difficult it is to memorize said "the best medical practitioner is not he who memorized everything, but the one who knows when, where to get what" referring to the big volumes of medical literature.
I personally realised that to share Christ with written evidence (The Word), one has one option but to memorise where to get what, but now with coming in of the internet search engines, I can comfortably pick my phone and search the text of interest, but how embarrassing it is when my technology isn't working.
One person stands out among all the recent Adventists that I know; Randy Skeete, he is so blessed with memory power and uses his gift in a wonderful way, so I think for teachers, evangelists it is of paramount importance to have the "Word" on your "finger tip", but most of all to understand the principles and practice what we memorise.
Could we summarize this lesson by saying that we are required to remember what the scripture says? We forget at our own peril!!
I believe it is not an issue of trying to remember as we do at schools to recollect what is taught physically. It is rather a spiritual experience of the Holy Spirit that would fulfil the promise by Christ Jesus as " But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
I have to admit: when I read the preceeding verses prior to the requested verses above. I'm a little confused by the lesson. The author of lesson seems to speak of 10 commandments but every version I read online refers to instructions given by the parents. Granted, the following lists of instruction is something we need to adhere to and hopefully parents guide/instruct their children based on 10 commandments and scripture. However, I'm not sure these verses are not saying anymore than listen to your parents. (But God is the ultimate father.)
Hi Dorothy,
I think that Solomon was referring back to Deut 6:1-9 where, through Moses, God gave these instructions to parents about what they were to teach their children, namely the 10 commandments and the other instructions. Note the similarity between Proverbs & Deut about putting them on your body!
Deu 6:1-9 And these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which Jehovah our God commanded to teach you so that you might do them in the land where you go, to possess it, (2) that you might fear Jehovah your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be prolonged. (3) Then hear, O, Israel, and be careful to do it, so that it may be well with you, and that you may greatly multiply, as Jehovah, the God of our fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey. (4) Hear, O, Israel. Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. (5) And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. (7) And you shall carefully teach them to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. (8) And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9) And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.
Pro 6:21 bind them upon your heart forever, tie them around your neck.
Pro 7:3 Bind them upon your fingers; write them upon the tablet of your heart.
I usually act from what i know , memory helps in situations , we memorise a lot of stuff to help us do our work better even do refresher courses periodically to perfect our skill, just so this stays in our memory , we have the law and verses to memorise so we can grow spiritually and be better witnesses for Christ , though let not it be done just so it can be useless knowledge over and above everything we have a mission and the Holy Spirit to remind us all we have been taught so i personally love to memorise .
I don't think anyone will dispute the value of memorization (and recall obviously) but the true value of any information memorized or otherwise available is in the application. A friend and I would often "chew the fat" (I hope that translates properly outside Australia) on a Sabbath afternoon. We would discuss many of the same sort of issues we discuss here on Sabbath School Net. At the end of our conversations he would say, "Well Maurice, time to pat the verandah post goodbye and get on with the real world". For all our memorization, thinking,and verbalizing, in the end we need to put our information/knowledge into practice.
From my understanding after reading all the above comments and from my own experience, understanding is more crucial. Don't memorize before you understand. We all had schoolmates so good at theory units but when it came to practicals and projects, it proved a task. When you know when what scripture relates where, then you're on the right path if you go ahead and apply. Writing the laws on our hearts enables us to make decisions instinctively.
The Sabbath, among other Laws, is also written on our hearts. What does that really mean for our lives?
Keeping the Sabbath means better spiritual, emotional,psychological and physical health.
For most of us mammals, regurgitation is a sign of disease. But for a ruminant it is vital for good digestion. A cow or sheep will lay quietly and chew the cud, aiding breakdown of the cellulose in the plants and improving digestion. Memorization, or if you have the Word on your smart phone allows you to ruminate when you have a quiet moment.