THOUGHT, DEED, WORD

    ‘It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and
    for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’s law
    may be in thy mouth.’–EXODUS xiii. 9.
The question may be asked, whether this command is to be taken
metaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the great
deliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover feasts,
inscriptions on the door-posts and fringes on the dress were appointed
for this purpose. And the Jews from a very early period, certainly
before our Lord’s time, wore phylacteries fastened, as this and other
places prescribe, on the left arm and on the forehead, and alleged
these words as the commandment which they therein obeyed. But it seems
more probable that the meaning is metaphorical, and that what is
enjoined is rather a constant remembrance of the great deliverance, and
a constant regulation of the practical life by it. For what is it that
is to be ‘a sign’? It is the Passover feast. And the ‘therefore’ of the
next verse seems to say that keeping this ordinance in its season is
the fulfilment of this precept. Besides, the expression ‘for a sign,’
‘for a memorial,’ may just as well mean ‘it shall serve as,’ or ‘it
shall be like,’ as ‘you shall wear.’ So I think we must say that this
is a figure, not a fact; the enjoining of an object for thought and a
motive for life, not of a formal observance. And it is very
characteristic of the Jew, and of the universal tendency to harden and
lower religion into outward rites, that a command so wide and profound
was supposed to be kept by fastening little boxes with four slips of
parchment containing extracts from the Pentateuch on arm and forehead.
Jewish rabbis are not the only people who treat God’s law like that.
Even if literal, the injunction is for the purpose of remembering.
Taking that meaning, then, the text sets forth principles that apply
quite as much to us. You will observe ‘hand,’ ‘eyes,’ ‘mouth’; the
symbols of practice, knowledge, expression; work, thought, and word.
Observe also that there is a slight change in construction in the three
clauses; the two former are to be done in order that the latter may
come to pass. Then the memorial of the great deliverance is to be ‘on
the hand’ and ‘before the eyes,’ in order that ‘the Lord’s law’ may be
‘in the mouth.’ Keeping these points in view–
I. God’s great deliverance should be constantly before our thoughts. It
is more than an accident that both Judaism and Christianity should
begin with a great act of deliverance; that that act of deliverance
should constitute a community, and that a memorial rite should be the
centre of the ritual of both. The Lord’s Supper historically took the
place of the Passover. It was instituted at the Passover and instead of
it. It is precisely the same in design, a memorial feast appointed to
keep up the vivid remembrance of the historical fact to which
redemption is traced; and not only to keep up its remembrance, but to
proclaim the importance of extending that remembrance through all life.
Notice the peculiarity of both the Jewish and the Christian rite, that
the centre point of both is a historical fact, a redeeming act. Judaism
and Christianity are the only religions in regard to which this is true
to anything like the same extent or in the same way. Christianity as a
revelation is not so much the utterance in words of great religious
thoughts as the history of a life and a death, a fact wrought upon the
earth, which is at once the means of revelation and the means of
redemption. This is a feature unshared by other religions.
This characteristic determines the principal object of our religious
thought. The true object for religious thought is Christ, and His life
and death.
All religious truth flows from and is wrapped up in that: _e.g._
theology, or the nature of God; anthropology, or the nature of man;
soteriology, morality, etc. All truth for the individual and for the
race has its source in God’s great redeeming act. Religious emotion is
best fed at this source, _e.g._ thankfulness, wonder, love: all these
transcendent feelings which are melted together in adoration. Here is
where they are kindled. You cannot pump them up, or bring them into
existence by willing, or scourge yourself into them, any more than you
can make a seed grow by pulling at the germ with a pair of pincers, but
this gives the warmth and moisture which make it germinate.
The clear perception of this truth is valuable, as correcting false
tendencies in religion, _e.g._ the tendency to be much occupied with
the derived truths, and to think of them almost to the exclusion of the
great fact from which they come; the tendency to substitute melancholy
self-inspection for objective facts; the tendency to run out into mere
feeling.
The command requires of us a habitual occupation of mind with the great
deliverance.
And the habitual presence of this thought will be best secured by
specific times of occupation with it. Let every Christian practise the
habit of meditation, which in an age of so many books, newspapers, and
the distractions of our busy modern life, is apt to become obsolete.
II. The great deliverance is to be ever present in practical life.
The ‘hand’ is clearly the seat and home of power and practical effort.
So the remembrance is to be present and to preside over our practical
work.
How it is fitted to do so.
_(a)_ It gives the law for all our activity.
The pattern. The death as well as the life of Christ teaches us what we
ought to be.
The motive. He died for me! Shall I not serve Him who redeemed me?
_(b)_ That remembered deliverance arms us against temptations, and
lifts us above sinking into sin.
How blessed such a life would be! How victorious over the small motives
that rule one’s life, the deadening influence of routine, the duties
that are felt to be overwhelmingly great and those that are felt to be
wearisomely and monotonously small! How this unity of motive would give
unity to life and simplify its problems! How it would free us from many
a perplexity! There are so many things that seem doubtful because we do
not bring the test of the highest motive to bear on them. Complications
would fall away when we only wished to know and be like Christ. Many a
tempting amusement, or occupation, or speculation would start up in its
own shape when this Ithuriel spear touched it. How it would save from
distractions! How strong it would make us, like a belt round the waist
bracing the muscles tighter! ‘This one thing I do’ is always a
strengthening principle.
How far is this possible? Not absolutely, but we may approximate very
closely and indefinitely towards it. For there is the possibility of
such thought blending with common motives, like a finer perfume in the
scentless air, or some richer elixir in a cup. There is the possibility
of its doing to other motives what light does to landscape when a
sudden sunbeam gleams across the plain, and everything leaps into
increased depth of colour. Let us try more and more to rescue life from
the slavery of habit and the distractions of all these smaller forces,
and to bring it into the greatness and power of submission to the
dominion of this sovereign, unifying motive. Our lives would thus be
greatened and strengthened, even as Germany and Italy have been, by
being delivered from a rabble of petty dukes and brought under the sway
of one emperor or king. Let us try to approach nearer and nearer to the
fusion of action and contemplation, and to the blending with all other
motives of this supreme one.
This command supplies us with an easily applied and effective test. Is
there any place where you cannot take it, any act which you feel it
would be impossible to do for His sake? Avoid such. Where the
safety-lamp burns blue and goes out, is no place for you.
It is a beautiful thought that Jesus does for us what we are thus
commanded to do for Him. The high priest bore the names of the tribes
on his shoulders and in his heart. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of
my hands.’ We bear Him in our hands and in our hearts. ‘I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’
III. The great deliverance is to be ever on our lips.
The three regions here named are the inward thought, the outward
practice, and the testimony of the lips. Note that that testimony is a
consequence of thought and practice.
1. The purpose of the deliverance is to make ‘prophets of His law.’
Such was the divine intention as to Israel. Such is God’s purpose as to
all Christians. The very meaning of redemption is there. He has ‘opened
our lips’ that we ‘should show forth His praise.’ He has regard to ‘His
own name.’ He desires to make us vocal, for the same purpose for which
a man strings a harp, to bring sweet music out of it. Words of
testimony are a form of love.
2. The other two are incomplete without this vocal testimony.
3. The utterance of the lips, to be worth anything, must rest on and
follow the other two. How noble, then, and blessed, how strong and calm
and simple our lives would be, if we had this for the one great object
of our thoughts, of our practical endeavour, of our words, if all our
being was sustained, impelled, made vocal, by one thought, one love!
O my brother, see to it that you give yourself to Him. That great Light
will gladden your eyes, will guide your activity, and, like the sunrise
striking Memnon’s voiceless, stony lips, will bring music. Thought will
have one boundless home of ‘many mansions.’ Work will have one law, one
motive, its consecration and strength; and as in some solemn
procession, all our steps and all our movements will keep time to the
music of our praise to ‘Him who loved us.’

Bible in Basic English

Bible Verses About love – Romans 12:10
[Be] kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Bible Verses About love – Revelations 22:15
For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Bible Scriptures – Deuteronomy.31.6.html
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

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Bible Verses About love – Matthew 22:37
And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Bible Verses About love – Song-of-Solomon 1:4
Take me to you, and we will go after you: the king has taken me into his house. We will be glad and full of joy in you, we will give more thought to your love than to wine: rightly are they your lovers.

Bible Verses About medical – Luke 4:23
And he said to them, Without doubt you will say to me, Let the medical man make himself well: the things which to our knowledge were done at Capernaum, do them here in your country.

Bible Verses About changes – Genesis 31:7
But your father has not kept faith with me, and ten times he has made changes in my payment; but God has kept him from doing me damage.

Bible Verses About waiting – Job 24:15
And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about;

Bible Verses About tribe – Numbers 13:4
And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, the son of Zaccur.

Bible Verses About breathing – Proverbs 12:17
The breathing out of true words gives knowledge of righteousness; but a false witness gives out deceit.

Bible Verses About sending – Isaiah 15:9
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: and I'm sending even more on Moab, a lion on those of Moab who go in flight, and on the rest of the land.

Bible Verses About zephaniah – Zephaniah 2:4
For Gaza will be given up and Ashkelon will become waste: they will send Ashdod out in the middle of the day, and Ekron will be uprooted.

Bible Verses About arrows – Psalms 127:4
Like arrows in the hand of a man of war, are the children of the young.

Bible Verses About gibea – Isaiah 10:29
They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our resting-place tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear; Gibeah of Saul has gone in flight.

Bible Verses About philistia – Psalms 60:8
Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I put out my shoe; over Philistia will a glad cry be sounded.

Bible Verses About lifted – 1-Samuel 24:6
And David said to his men, Before the Lord, never let it be said that my hand was lifted up against my lord, the man of the Lord's selection, for the Lord's holy oil has been put on him.

Bible Verses About seeds – Mark 4:31
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is put in the earth, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth,

Bible Verses About time – John 7:8
Go you up to the feast: I am not going up now to the feast because my time has not fully come.

Bible Verses About urijah – 2-Kings 16:16
So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said

Bible Verses About spirits – Mark 1:32
And in the evening, at sundown, they took to him all who were diseased, and those who had evil spirits.

Bible Verses About yellow – Leviticus 13:32
And on the seventh day the priest will see the place: and if it is not increased, and there is no yellow hair in it, and it does not seem to go deeper than the skin,

Bible Verses About comforting – Zechariah 1:13
And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me.

Bible Verses About gihon – 2-Chronicles 32:30
It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah did well.

Bible Verses About makers – Ezra 10:24
And of the music-makers, Eliashib; and of the door-keepers, Shallum and Telem and Uri.

Bible Verses About jerusalem – 2-Kings 14:20
And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.

Bible Verses About visions – 1-Chronicles 26:1
For the divisions of the door-keepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, of the sons of Ebiasaph.

Bible Verses About salvation – Isaiah 63:1
Who is this who comes from Edom, with blood-red robes from Bozrah? he whose clothing is fair, stepping with pride in his great strength? I whose glory is in the right, strong for salvation.

Bible Verses About fear – Isaiah 8:9
Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:

Bible Verses About heaven – 2-Kings 7:19
And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a taste of the food.

Bible Verses About worship – Deuteronomy 13:2
And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;

Bible Verses About tongue – Romans 3:13
Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips:

Bible Verses About love – Psalms 119:167
My soul has kept your unchanging word; great is my love for it.

Bible Verses About mothers – Mark 13:12
And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death.

Bible Verses About faith – 1-Thessalonians 2:10
You are witnesses, with God, how holy and upright and free from all evil was our way of life among you who have faith;

Bible Verses About women – Isaiah 3:12
As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way.

Bible Verses About friend – Judges 14:20
But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man.

Bible Verses About wisdom – Revelation 7:12
So be it. Let blessing and glory and wisdom and praise and honour and power and strength be given to our God for ever and ever. So be it.

Bible Verses About anger – 2-Kings 14:10
It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?

Bible Verses About prayer – Job 21:15
What is the Ruler of all, that we may give him worship? and what profit is it to us to make prayer to him?

Bible Verses About baptism – John 4:2
(Though, in fact, it was his disciples who gave baptism, not Jesus himself),

Bible Verses About strength – 1-Samuel 2:4
The bows of the men of war are broken, and the feeble are clothed with strength.

Bible Verses About birth – Genesis 38:28
And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first.

Bible Verses About hope – Hebrews 12:5
And you have not kept in mind the word which says to you as to sons, My son, do not make little of the Lord's punishment, and do not give up hope when you are judged by him;

Bible Verses About dreams – Zechariah 10:2
For the images have said what is not true, and the readers of signs have seen deceit; they have given accounts of false dreams, they give comfort to no purpose: so they go out of the way like sheep, they are troubled because they have no keeper.

Bible Verses About life – 1-Samuel 7:15
And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life.

World English Bible

Bible Verses About water – Samuel-1 26:16
This thing [is] not good that thou hast done. [As] the LORD liveth, ye [are] worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD'S anointed. And now see where the king's spear [is], and the cruse of water that [was] at his bolster.

Bible Verses About healing – Corinthians-1 12:30
Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

Bible Verses About marriage – John 2:1
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:

Bible Verses About courage – Deuteronomy 3:28
But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

Bible Verses About jealousy – Psalms 78:58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Bible Verses About fasting – Esther 4:3
And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Bible Verses About anger – Mark 3:5
And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched [it] out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

Bible Verses About trust – Jeremiah 12:5
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

Bible Verses About clean – Chronicles-2 29:18
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the showbread table, with all the vessels thereof.

Bible Verses About tongue – Psalms 137:6
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Bible Verses About begging – Psalms 37:25
I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Bible Verses About macedonia – Acts 20:3
And [there] abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.

Bible Verses About potter – Psalms 2:9
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Bible Verses About dowry – Genesis 34:12
Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.

Bible Verses About bowl – Numbers 7:31
His offering [was] one silver charger of the weight of an hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:

Bible Verses About cunning – Jeremiah 10:9
Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple [is] their clothing: they [are] all the work of cunning [men].

Bible Verses About vomit – Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, [so] a fool returneth to his folly.

Bible Verses About hasty – Habakkuk 1:6
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, [that] bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces [that are] not theirs.

Bible Verses About blue – Exodus 27:16
And for the gate of the court [shall be] an hanging of twenty cubits, [of] blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: [and] their pillars [shall be] four, and their sockets four.

Bible Verses About access – Romans 5:2
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

King James Bible

Bible Scriptures About prophecy – Chronicles-2 15:8
And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that [was] before the porch of the LORD.

Bible Scriptures About commandment – Kings-1 9:6
[But] if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments [and] my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

Bible Scriptures About present – Esther 1:5
And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace;

Bible Scriptures About spake – Deuteronomy 2:1
Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.

Bible Scriptures About justice – Proverbs 21:3
To do justice and judgment [is] more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Bible Scriptures About words – Mark 8:38
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Bible Scriptures About princes – Isaiah 34:12
They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none [shall be] there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

Bible Scriptures About solomon – Nehemiah 12:45
And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification, according to the commandment of David, [and] of Solomon his son.

Bible Scriptures About bow – Samuel-2 16:11
And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now [may this] Benjamite [do it]? let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him.

Bible Scriptures About ghost – Acts 10:44
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

Bible Scriptures About morning – Exodus 36:3
And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it [withal]. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

Bible Scriptures About gods – Deuteronomy 20:18
That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Bible Scriptures About king – Micha 1:14
Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib [shall be] a lie to the kings of Israel.

Bible Scriptures About remnant – Jeremiah 42:19
The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

Bible Scriptures About houses – Ezekiel 45:4
The holy [portion] of the land shall be for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the LORD: and it shall be a place for their houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.

Bible Scriptures About certain – Ezra 10:16
And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, [with] certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by [their] names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

Bible Scriptures About anointed – Chronicles-1 11:3
Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.

Bible Scriptures About beside – Daniel 11:4
And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

Bible Scriptures About knowledge – Corinthians-2 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Bible Scriptures About wrought – Chronicles-1 22:2
And David commanded to gather together the strangers that [were] in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

Bible Verses About salt – Deuteronomy 29:23
[And that] the whole land thereof [is] brimstone, and salt, [and] burning, [that] it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Bible Verses About touched – Esther 5:2
And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, [that] she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that [was] in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.

Bible Verses About harvest – Job 5:5
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

Bible Verses About almighty – Job 24:1
Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

Bible Verses About deep – Job 33:15
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;

Bible Verses About midnight – Acts 16:25
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Bible Verses About heart – Proverbs 22:11
He that loveth pureness of heart, [for] the grace of his lips the king [shall be] his friend.

Bible Verses About favour – Lamentations 4:16
The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

Bible Verses About grave – Job 5:26
Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

Bible Verses About sodom – Isaiah 3:9
The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide [it] not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.