Deuteronomy 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them
Every summer at Bill Rice Ranch we have Bible quizzing among the elementary-aged junior campers. I am always amazed by the questions we ask and the answers young people give. I am often amazed at how much these junior kids know about the Bible. I remember distinctly a question about who drove his chariot furiously in the Bible. I think the answer was Jehu, and I thought to myself, “Where did they get that answer? I must have been asleep during Bible classes when I was a kid. I don’t remember that.”
Is the Bible just a book of trivia, trivial things that don’t really matter? No, and don’t trivialize the truth. We are living in a day when truth is so often trivialized. Things that should carry weight, like the founding of the country, the founding fathers, and so on, are caricatured. If you see them depicted, it is usually as a cartoon, comedy, or caricature of the truth. I’m not saying that George Washington, for example, is totally sacred and we can never have a cartoon of him, but so often depictions you see, if you have seen any at all, are more comical as opposed to portraying the man as he actually was. The real point is not George Washington; it is God. I’m just saying that we take so little seriously in America today.
When it comes to Israel, God brought them out and God brought the truth forward. You find that in Deuteronomy 5:1 where it says, “And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep them, and do them.” The Bible is not trivial or unimportant, yet in your life and mine the Bible is only trivial if you do not act on it. James 1 says we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.
In Deuteronomy 5 there are four steps; hear, learn, keep and do. The purpose of these steps is the doing of God’s truth, His judgments, His statutes, His commandments. In verse 27 the children of Israel said, “We will hear it, and do it.” Again, verse 31 says of Israel, “That they may do them [God’s commandments] in the land which I give them to possess it.” Verse 32 says, “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God has commanded you.” Verse 33 says, “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”
In this reiteration of the law, they were to remember. What are we to do with truth, God’s judgments, commandments, and statutes, today? Not as Israelites, but as people who belong to God, what are we to do with the Bible?
First, you must know it in order to do it. I was talking to a pastor who has been in a country where the gospel is fairly new. He worked with pastors there who go from being unbelievers to believers wanting to share the good news with their family, and because they are the only ones who have any knowledge of the Bible at all, their families and friends look to them for leadership. Eventually they by default become the pastor of the community. They come to this pastor friend of mine and ask questions. They are eager to hear and learn so they can teach others.
Curiosity reveals the why in the Bible and keeps the Bible from being trivial. Jehu drove his chariot furiously. Who cares? Why is that in the Bible? If there is a why, it is probably part of the bigger story and the story is there for the reason. The reason is to help us in our life right now. So, you must know God’s truth in order to do it.
Second, you must do God’s truth in order to justify knowing it. The Bible says that to whom much is given much will be required. Two views that encourage us to do the truth are retrospective, what God did, and prospective, what God will do. As far as retrospective, verse 6 says, “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” God provided for them, guided them, protected them, and freed them. It only makes sense that they would hear, learn, keep, and do God’s will and word. As far as prospective, verse 33 says to do God’s commandments “that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.” So, do not trivialize the truth. Whatever God’s truth is, hear it, learn it, keep it, and seek God’s grace to do it.
On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was running for his third term in office. He was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, walking from his hotel to a car that was to take him to the Milwaukee Auditorium where he was to give a speech. A man named John Schrank stepped out of the crowd and shot Roosevelt full in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver. I don’t know what you would have done, but Roosevelt said, “Take me to the speech. It may be the last speech I make, but I’m going to make it.” When he got to the auditorium he proceeded to give a ninety-minute speech. He said, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.”
What spared his life? There were a fifty-page manuscript and his glasses’ case in his breast pocket and that was just enough to deflect the bullet from killing him. The bullet lodged in his ribs, where it would stay for the rest of his life, and he went on to give his ninety-minute speech.
You’ve got to admire someone like that. Was Roosevelt a man of words or a man of action? He was a man of action. He had a speech to give. It took more than a bullet to keep him from giving a speech. He was also a man of words, and it was the very words of his speech that protected him as they deflected the bullet. Roosevelt was both a man of words and action; that is why he was significant. Today, we ought to be people of God’s Word, His truth, because the Bible is only trivial if you do not act on it.