Think about your average day. What words consume your mind? What content fills your heart? In the western world, not many of us place value on words by binding signs on our hands or decorating our foreheads with cloth. But we all set our attention and our affections on something.
Most of the time the words that serve as a frontlet between our eyes are the ones we briefly scroll through on social media or see in a text from a friend. Here, in Deuteronomy 11:18, Yahweh pleads with His covenant people to treasure His words to them, words that are meant to bring life when obeyed.
The Commands of the Lord Are the Foundation
Deuteronomy 11 opens with a call for whole-hearted love and obedience to Yahweh. The foundation for this love and obedience is revealed as Moses recounts all of the awesome deeds and signs that Yahweh enacted on behalf of His covenant people.
From their freedom from slavery in Egypt to the parting of the Red Sea to His provision in the wilderness, God had proven His faithfulness to keep His promises. He is now preparing them to enter this Promised Land. The commands and words of Yahweh must be central to who they are and how they live in the land.
What lies before us in Deuteronomy 11:18-25 is a beautiful call that we know should mark us as Christians. If we are being honest, it is an impossible command to perfectly obey.
Ultimately, Israel failed in keeping what the Lord commanded. They literally broke the words God had given to them (Deuteronomy 10:1-2). It’s as if God is pleading with them to not forget His words! Lay them up, bind them, and put them between your eyes.
Implanted with God’s Word
But no matter how many times they memorized a verse or commandment, they would still never be able to accomplish the kind of obedience God required of them. This is why the New Covenant was promised and prophesied in Jeremiah 31 and Deuteronomy 10:12-22. They didn’t need better study methods or quiet time rhythms or stricter habits, they needed new hearts.
The promises of the New Covenant are fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus, the true and better Israel. He was perfectly obedient to all the commands of the Father and bestows the blessings of that obedience onto us by faith.
Through faith in Christ we have the law written on our hearts. We know the Father, and we are forgiven of our sins (Jeremiah 31:31-34). We have a Spirit-empowered obedience flowing from the gospel foundation Christ has paved into our new hearts as we reflect on all He has done for us in Christ.
James 1:21 tells us that this life-saving word is now “implanted” in us. This “implanted word” doesn’t mean the command of Deuteronomy 11:18 lacks blessing or importance for us today. It just means that this command is now made possible in light of Christ. This is why Paul says “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16) and practically encourages the church to “lay up these words in our hearts” by preaching the Word, hearing the Word, singing the Word, and praying the Word.
God’s Word Brings Blessing
Psalm 1 echoes the message of Moses in Deuteronomy 11, describing the blessed man as the one who “does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffer. Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the LORD’s commands; he meditates on his commands day and night” (v. 1-2).
We are blessed, sisters, when we store up the Word in our hearts! We have assurance that as we treasure God’s Word, implanted in us through Christ and revealed to us in Scripture, we will experience the blessings of His obedience.
