KEEPING THE WORD OF GOD

“It shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.”  (Deuteronomy 17:19 KJV)

The key word here is keep, so let me drill down on it. The Jewish rabbis said that every word of Scripture has seventy faces and six hundred thousand meanings. This is one of those kaleidoscopic words in Hebrew.

The word keep means keepsake, as in a treasured possession. It means to guard something, as if your life depended on it. It means to keep track of, like a courtroom stenographer. It means to watch over, like an air traffic controller. It means to keep watch, like a night watchman. It means to preserve, like a taxidermist. It means to examine, like a forensic scientist. It means to cross-examine, like a prosecuting attorney. It means to put in a vault, like a banker. It means to put a contract on something, like a real-estate agent. It means to decipher secrets, like World War II code talkers.

To keep the Word of God in our hearts, to keep our minds set on the Spirit, requires that kind of due diligence. Few things are as exhausting as intentionality, but the payoff is always worth the price. You pay the price by getting into God’s Word daily. Then the Holy Spirit… brings to memory what we need to know, when we need to know it. 

-- Mark Batterson in “If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God’s What If Possibilities”

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