Monday, June 17, 2013

Tefillin and Mezuzahs

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In my last post we looked at Deuteronomy 6:4-9 where it describes how we are to love God. Following that are several commands that both Jews and Christians observe, like "teaching your children God's Word" and "speaking of God's Word constantly." Finally, we are given two further commands about what we are to do with God's Word. We are to wear it on our hands and forehead and we are to put it on our doorposts and our gates. These last commands are not viewed as very essential to most Christians.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (KJV)
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Yet, here they are, in the midst of how we are to demonstrate our love for God. In fact, these two commands are two more ways of showing our love. We are to wear tefillin, in other words, we are to bind some of God's Word upon our hands and on our foreheads. Traditionally, only males wear tefillin. They are little boxes attached to a long strap that are placed on the arm and hand, and another one on the forehead. Inside of the box is a small piece of Scripture.

Secondly, we are to place mezuzahs on our doorposts and gates. Again, a small piece of Scripture (the mezuzah) is placed inside a small case that is attached to the doorpost of one's house.

Why did God feel that these two rather obscure commands were necessary? In order to ascertain why, we need to look further at the passage in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:10-15 (KJV)
10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

Once the people came into the Promised Land and they were living well, God warned them not to forget Him (verse 12). They were to fear God, serve Him, and not go after the gods of their neighbors (verses 13 & 14). For if they did, God would destroy them from off the face of the earth (verse 15). The advice given in verses 4 through 9 were meant as helps in remembering God's Word and His commandments. Again, God was trying to keep the people safe by giving them tools to help them stay in Him.

As Christians are we so arrogant to believe that we don't need help in remembering God's commands? Perhaps we are just naive. In any case, it is time to reclaim the commands of God and put them to practice.

4 comments:

  1. Val, the prophet to be like Moses is Yeshua.

    God did not create sin, rather, He created mankind to have the ability to choose God's ways or not. When Adam and Eve fell (chose against God's ways), sin entered the world (Romans 5:12) through man and not God.

    Because God is not only loving, but just, He must punish sin.

    1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV)
    9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
    10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

    I'm sorry, Friend, but you seem to be the one that is deceived. If you have any questions, let me know.

    Blessings!


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  2. Val, I want to add that although God punishes all sin, Yeshua died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. However, the only way to receive that payment for sin is by believing in Yeshua. Once you trust in Yeshua's death and resurrection to save you from sin, God only sees Yeshua's righteousness in place of your sin. This does not mean that believers can habitually sin, because 1 John is clear on that point.

    1 John 3:6 (KJV)
    6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

    Yet, if the believer sins, we can still repent and turn back to God.

    1 John 2:1 (KJV)
    1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

    I hope this helps.

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  3. A christian has no right to wear our tefillin and tzitzit or mezuzah or a kippah. You guys cherry pick what you want from the bible and insult G-d all the time through idolatry. The pieces of parchment in the tefillin refer to G-d as purely and entirely ONE, not a trinity or anything ridiculous like that, G-D is not G-d if he became a man (jesus). Your theology and beliefs are not like ours no matter how much you want them to be, stop hijacking our tefillin and our religious stuff religious terrorists. stick to your own stuff.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comments. Obviously we have disagreements, but I appreciate your willingness to comment.

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