Years ago those of us Baby-Boomers who needed to do research on a topic in school would have to visit the library and endure searching through the Dewey Decimal system (what’s that? *) to find the topic we needed to do our school paper. Or if we were fortunate enough to have Word Book Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica in our home we could struggle though the thousands of pages to gather the information we needed. But at least we put some effort (elbow grease) into it, and learned something along the way.
But today, who would have thought you could press a few keys on a keyboard and come up with scores of information on any topic from countless sources? (By the way, who are these countless sources?) The internet has opened numerous doors to knowledge we never had before, and in just milliseconds you can access anything. But do you believe everything you see and hear?
This generation grew up on television and media that fed our visual and auditory senses with all sorts of fanciful imaginations. And of course as kids, we believed all those commercials about the great toys we wanted. And then we dragged our parents to the store to try to convince them to put those toys in the shopping cart because we were sure they would perform like we saw it on TV. Yet when we got it home, it didn’t seem to perform like it did on the tube. How many of us handle the Word of God as such when we access information on the internet relative to spiritual things? Do we just believe everything we “Google” and expect it’s true?
You could do a search on a biblical topic and come up with all kinds of explanations, but who are these folks that give these interpretations? What are their backgrounds that define biblical topics according to their paradigms? The last I looked, the whole Bible, possibly with the exception of Luke (who may have been a proselyte) was written by the Jewish people, with God as the author. Remember II Peter 1:21:
2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Rabbi Shaul (or Apostle Paul) had his own issues with individuals who tainted the pure word of God with information from the sources of the day.
1 Timothy 1:3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to occupy
themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith;
2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
How many of us entertain myths and occupy ourselves in searches on the internet, or the endless speculations of armchair Biblical research generals on Facebook (or other social media sites) who have the last word on a vital spiritual topics and are absolutely sure they have the answer?
Ephesians 4:14 …that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting,
This doesn’t mean that every resource we may search on the internet is a “cleverly devised myth” or a “wind of doctrine” devised by “the trickery of men”. But do we readily speak and draw conclusions before we search it out from the word?
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
Yeshua (Jesus) made it very simple in his explanation to those who persecuted him:
John 5:39 You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me;
When God gave to Moses the commandment of unleavened bread right before they were leaving Egypt, he made a statement most of us are familiar with.
Exodus 13:9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.
When a Jewish man wraps the Tefillin, or phylacteries (in Greek: to guard or protect) on his arm and head, this signifies the “sign upon the hand” and “memorial between your eyes” so as to guard or protect that “that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth.” The Tefillin consists of 2 small leather boxes attached to leather straps. The 2 small boxes each contain four sections of the Torah inscribed on parchment. These 4 sections in the small leather boxes are as such:
1. The Shema (Deut. 6:4-9) – which attests to the Unity of The One God.
2. Vehayah (Deut. 11:13-21) – which expresses God's assurance to us of reward that will follow our observance of the Torah's precepts.
3. Kadesh (Ex. 13:1-10) - the duty of the Jewish people to always remember the redemption from Egyptian bondage.
4. Vehayah (Ex. 13:11-16) - the obligation of every Jew to inform his children on these matters.
When the Tefillin is wrapped, it is always placed on the arm first, which symbolizes the deed to be done, and then on the head, which represents thought (“memorial between your eyes) The head piece is never left on by itself. Why? At Mt Sinai when the Children of Israel accepted the commandments they responded as such:
Exodus 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. (Hear &
Obey)
They didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, they just did it. In other words, in the Hebrew mindset, do it first and understand later. The Greco Roman mindset says: “I need to understand it first before I do it” The priority of action is the deed. In Exodus 13:16 “upon thine hand” in the Hebrew which is pronounced yud–cha. In the Paleo-Hebrew, the Yud is a “hand” representing a “deed” to be done. A letter Dalet represents a doorway: or a “pathway to enter.” The commandments then are a “pathway to the deeds to be done.”
How often have we read II Timothy 2:15 regarding the study of the Word of God?
2Timothy 2:15 Study (Show diligence) to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Remember…the Tefillin are divided into 4 compartments- to attest to the Unity of one God, to observe God’s precepts & commandments, remember the redemption from bondage, and inform our children on these matters. WHAT A THOUGHT it would be to rightly divide our searches on the internet to “deeds to be done” rather than being entertained by conspiracy theories, “cleverly devised myths”, and “winds of doctrine”
Maybe we need to put some “elbow grease” in as “workman” to search out spiritual matters before we speak and believe everything we see on the internet and hear on TV. If we want to see a difference in our lives, then we need to do something different. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT we could see a difference with God in our lives by “doing” rather than being “Talking Heads”?
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Art Palecek
By the way…*Dewey Decimal System: This highly organized system categorizes books on library shelves in an efficient, specific and repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its proper place on the library shelves.
Pastor Art Palecek is the Associate Pastor at El Shaddai Ministries. His Pastoral heart and mind for youth and ministerial organization, research into the Greek language and Hebrew roots of our Faith are a valuable asset to our local and international ministry.
