"Hear, O Israel!"

The voice of Moses, servant of the Most High God, thundered across the plain. Forty years had passed since the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, and now, at long last, they stood at the brink of the Promised Land. Moses was giving his farewell address.

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one!"

This was it. Moses would not be entering Canaan with his people. Because of his act of direct disobedience at the waters of Meribah, he would only glimpse the land promised to Abraham some 400 years previously. But the man of God knew that he would have this one last opportunity to speak to Israel—to instill in them the attitude and mind-set they would need if they were to survive as God's people.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

What should have been a few-month journey had instead become a 40-year trek through the wilderness. When the first generation of Israel was told to go up and take the land of Canaan, the people refused out of fear. They failed to trust God's sure promise of victory and, as a result, were denied entrance.

Their children, the generation Moses was now addressing, were being given the chance to succeed where their parents had not. Essential to their success was first and foremost a love for their God that placed Him above everything else in their lives. And this love would need to last.

"And these words which I command to you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

And they did. The Israelites who began the invasion of Canaan were arguably some of Israel's greatest. Under the leadership of Joshua and with the zeal of men like Phinehas (who ended a plague by killing an openly sinning Israelite) and Caleb (who was ready to fight giants at age 85), they accomplished incredible feats. Because of their trust in God and adherence to Moses' words recorded for us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, they claimed victory after victory in their conquest of the land.

Moses' words are as essential to follow today in our own lives as they were for the Israelites invading Canaan. They stood armed and ready to enter a Promised Land; so do we. If we hope to succeed, we must be sure to take God's words and bind them as a sign on our hands, let them be as frontlets between our eyes and set them in our hearts. But how?

Let God's Word Guide What We Do

With our hands, we take action. We build up; we tear down. We accomplish. When we bind God's Word on our hands, we let it dictate what actions we take. Rather than "every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8), we choose to do only that which conforms to God's law.

The apostle James tells us to "be doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). This is not a light commitment. Sometimes it will mean going against the crowd and making the unpopular decision. Sometimes it will mean not doing what we want to do. Sometimes it will invite persecution.

But we bind our hands with God's Word regardless, knowing that "godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:8).

Let God's Word Guide How We See

With our eyes, we do more than just look. We direct our attention. We choose what we will focus on. To let God's Word act as frontlets for our eyes is to allow it to direct our focus to where God wants it to be. Paul, speaking of our understanding of God's plan, writes, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12).

God's Word gives us a goal—something to look to and focus our attention on. While we can only see it dimly from our human viewpoint, the Kingdom of God must remain our perpetual focus. Without it, the trials we face in this life can seem overwhelming, impossibly difficult.

But by refusing to give undue attention to the things God hates, and with our eyes fixed firmly on our goal, we can share in Paul's absolute confidence that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18, emphasis added).

Let God's Word Guide Who We Are

The biblical concept of the heart was radically different from ours today. We know it to be the organ that keeps pumping blood and occasionally think of it as the source of emotion.

In ancient Hebrew culture, to talk about the heart was to talk about "the whole man, with all his attributes, physical, intellectual and psychological, of which the Hebrew thought and spoke...The heart was conceived of as the governing centre for all of these" (New Bible Dictionary, second edition, p. 465). To the Hebrews, the heart was not just an organ; it was the entirety of the inner man.

When Moses told the Israelites that these words were to be in their heart, he was not just telling them to feel strongly about them. He was telling them to integrate them into their very being—what they felt, what they thought—the very core of who they were.

Similar to what we do and how we see, who we are must be governed by God's Word. When we submit our entire self to God's perfect way of life, we will take part in the greatest change of all time at Christ's return, "We shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet… For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

When God's Word guides what we do, how we see and who we are, it will, in turn, guide us on the path to develop the character essential to one day joining the God family as kings and priests with Christ in our Father's Kingdom.

Let us then be certain to bind God's Word on our hands, set it as frontlets for our eyes and, above all, ask God to write it in our hearts. "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10). UN