Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Fix these words of mineThe Hebrew root for "fix" is "שׂוּם" (sum), which means to place, set, or establish. This implies a deliberate and intentional action, suggesting that God's words are not to be taken lightly or forgotten. In the historical context of ancient Israel, oral tradition was paramount, and the act of fixing words in one's heart and mind was a way to ensure that God's commandments were perpetually present in daily life. This phrase calls believers to a deep commitment to internalize God's teachings, making them an integral part of their identity and worldview. in your hearts and minds
The heart ("לֵבָב" - levav) in Hebrew culture was considered the seat of emotion, will, and intellect, while the mind encompasses understanding and thought. This dual focus emphasizes the comprehensive nature of devotion required by God. It is not enough to merely know God's words intellectually; they must also penetrate the emotional and volitional aspects of a person's being. Historically, this reflects the holistic approach to faith in ancient Israel, where belief was not compartmentalized but was a total life commitment. tie them as reminders on your hands
The practice of tying God's words on one's hands is a reference to the tefillin (phylacteries), small boxes containing scripture worn by observant Jews during prayer. The Hebrew word "אוֹת" (ot) means sign or symbol, indicating that these physical reminders serve as tangible expressions of faith. Archaeological findings, such as ancient tefillin from the Qumran caves, highlight the historical authenticity of this practice. This phrase encourages believers to let their actions (symbolized by the hands) be guided by God's commandments, serving as a visible testament to their faith. and bind them on your foreheads
Binding words on the forehead signifies keeping God's commandments at the forefront of one's thoughts. The Hebrew word "טוֹטָפוֹת" (totafot) refers to frontlets, again pointing to the practice of wearing tefillin. This act symbolizes the constant awareness and mindfulness of God's presence and laws. In a broader scriptural context, it reflects the call to live a life that is continually aligned with divine principles, ensuring that one's thoughts and decisions are consistently influenced by God's truth. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's commandments to the Israelites. 2. IsraelitesThe audience receiving the commandments, preparing to enter the Promised Land. 3. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 4. Mount SinaiThe place where Moses received the Law from God, which forms the basis of the commandments. 5. CovenantThe agreement between God and the Israelites, which includes the laws and commandments they are to follow. Teaching Points Internalization of God's WordThe command to "fix these words" emphasizes the need for God's commandments to be deeply rooted in our hearts and minds, not just superficially acknowledged. Symbolic RemindersThe practice of tying reminders on hands and binding them on foreheads serves as a physical representation of the spiritual truth that God's word should guide our actions and thoughts. Consistency in FaithJust as the Israelites were to consistently remember and follow God's commandments, Christians today are called to live out their faith consistently in every aspect of life. Generational TeachingThe passage underscores the importance of teaching God's commandments to future generations, ensuring that faith and obedience are passed down. Holistic CommitmentThe integration of God's word into daily life reflects a holistic commitment to God, involving heart, mind, and actions. Bible Study Questions 1. How can we practically "fix" God's words in our hearts and minds in today's fast-paced world? 2. What are some modern equivalents to "tying reminders on your hands and binding them on your foreheads" that can help us remember God's commandments? 3. How does the concept of internalizing God's word relate to Jesus' teaching in the New Testament about loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind? 4. In what ways can we ensure that we are not just hearers of the word, but doers, as James instructs? 5. How can we effectively teach and pass down the importance of God's commandments to the next generation in our families and communities? Connections to Other Scriptures Deuteronomy 6:6-9This passage similarly emphasizes the importance of keeping God's commandments in one's heart and teaching them to future generations. Exodus 13:9Discusses the use of physical symbols (like phylacteries) to remember God's law, similar to the binding on hands and foreheads. Proverbs 3:3Encourages binding mercy and truth around one's neck, paralleling the idea of keeping God's words close. Matthew 22:37Jesus reiterates the importance of loving God with all one's heart, soul, and mind, which aligns with internalizing God's words. James 1:22-25Stresses the importance of being doers of the word, not just hearers, which complements the idea of fixing God's words in our hearts and minds. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Bind, Bound, Brow, Deep, Fixed, Forehead, Foreheads, Frontals, Frontlets, Hands, Heart, Hearts, Impress, Lay, Marked, Minds, Placed, Sign, Soul, Symbols, TieDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:18 5152 fingers
5154 forehead
5191 thought
5507 rope and cord
6746 sanctification, means and results Deuteronomy 11:13-21 7410 phylactery Deuteronomy 11:18-19 7793 teachers
7797 teaching Deuteronomy 11:18-20 8764 forgetting God Deuteronomy 11:18-21 5302 education
5685 fathers, responsibilities
8313 nurture Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:18 NIVDeuteronomy 11:18 NLTDeuteronomy 11:18 ESVDeuteronomy 11:18 NASBDeuteronomy 11:18 KJV
Deuteronomy 11:18 Commentaries
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