SOUNDING OUT:
God’s Word Gets into Our Hearts, Because We Put It There
If we want to
get God’s Word into our heart, we must put it there. Remember
Psalm119:11 said, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart.”
The Word got into David’s heart because he put it there.
He hid God’s Word in his heart. We want to hear it over
and over again. We want to saturate our minds with it.
The Hebrew word for “hid” here means “to
conceal something with a definite purpose.” What’s
the purpose in Psalms 119:11? It is recorded in the end of the
verse: “That I might not sin against thee.” When we
apply it, it makes a difference in our lives. It keeps us from
blowing it and missing the mark.
“Hid” also connotes storing or treasuring things
on account of their value. What’s the value of God’s
Word? When we know the Word of God we can do the will of God.
How valuable is it? In the first few occurrences of this word,
God paints a beautiful word picture of what it means to hide.
The first is in the record of the birth of Moses. In chapter one,
verses 16 and 22, Pharaoh commanded every Hebrew son to be killed.
Exodus 2:1-3:
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a
daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare
a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid
him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide
him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with
slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid
it in the flags by the river’s brink.
What kind of care do you
think went into this hiding? What was at stake? Moses’ life
was at stake. For three months Moses’ mother kept him hid
and alive. How often do you think she thought about it? Do you
think it was a casual thing or do you think there was much commitment
and attention to detail involved? Look at the value she placed
on her son. She was willing to defy Pharaoh and put her life on
the line to protect her cherished, goodly child.
The next occurrence is in Joshua, in the account of Rahab’s
hiding of the spies.
Joshua 2:1-4:
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly,
saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came
into an harlot’s [innkeeper’s] house, named Rahab,
and lodged there.
2 And it was told the king of Jericho,
saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children
of Israel to search out the country.
3 And the king of Jericho sent unto
Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which
are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all
the country.
4 And the woman took the two men,
and hid [That’s our word, to conceal with a purpose] them,
and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they
were:
Why did she hide them? Why was it
so important to her that they live? Let’s continue reading.
Joshua 2:9-14:
And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you
the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all
the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the LORD
dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of
Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that
were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we had heard these
things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more
courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he
is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear
unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye
will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give
me a true token:
13 And that ye will save alive my
father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all
that they have, and deliver our lives from death.
14 And the men answered her, Our life
for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be,
when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly
and truly with thee.
Rahab hid them to not only
spare their lives but also her life and the lives of her family
when they overtook the city. This hiding preserves life. Look
at the value placed on the items hidden. Moses’ mother decided
to hide Moses, and Rahab decided to hide the spies for the purpose
of preserving their lives. They valued and loved enough to do
whatever it took.
We read last week from Proverbs 4:22 that the Word is “life
unto all those that find them and health to all their flesh.”
The only way we will ever live a life that is more than abundant
is to do it God’s way. To a vast degree our abundant life
depends on hiding the Word in our hearts. Hiding the Word in our
hearts will preserve us and keep us like it did Moses and the
spies.
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