“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Moses has just warned about a heart that is deceived and turns aside to other gods. He warned too that heaven itself can be shut up over a disobedient people. The "therefore" of this verse gives his remedy. God's words go deep inside first. Then they show on the hand and before the eyes.
The Word as Antidote
The verse answers the barrenness described just before it. One writer sees that shut sky as a picture of what disobedience does to a believer's fellowship with God. Moses' appeal is the cure.
The land is barren and the wilderness desolate. May we not see in that a fitting and striking picture of a soul out of communion, through disobedience to the precious commandments of Christ? Such a person has no refreshing contact with heaven. No showers come down. Nothing unfolds the preciousness of Christ to the heart. The soul misses the sweet ministry of an ungrieved Spirit. The Bible seems a sealed book, and all is dark, dreary and desolate. So let us listen to the earnest appeals Moses makes to Israel. They set before us God's own antidote against the special evils that the church of God faces at this very hour.
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Heart, Soul, Hand, Eyes
The verse names four parts of a person. The order matters: the words go in before they show. Taken together they leave nothing of a person outside the reach of God's word.
C. H. MackintoshThe "heart" — the "soul" — the "hand" — the "eyes" — all engaged about the precious word of God. This was real work. It was to be no empty formality, no barren routine. The whole person was to be given up, in holy devotion, to the statutes and judgments of God.
What Hand and Eyes Stand For
Each image carries its own force. The heart forms the motive. The hand does the work. The eyes decide where a person looks for direction.
Having the words in their hearts would mean they were the motivating power. Bound on their hand, they speak of control over their actions. Frontlets before their eyes show that they were to keep their eyes centred on the truth of God, instead of looking in other directions for help or guidance. Israel did not respond to the meaning of these things. But such things are written for us today, so that we may realize the spiritual blessing of having the truth always delighting our hearts.
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Figurative or Literal?
A "frontlet" is something worn on the forehead, between the eyes. But the same verse also tells them to store the words in the heart. That inward command shows how the outward one is meant.
Morrish Bible DictionaryIsrael was to keep two things always before them: their deliverance from Egypt and the law. These were to be a token on their hand and frontlets between their eyes. Ex. 13:16; Deut. 6:8; Deut. 11:18. The text also says they were to lay the words up in their hearts. So it seems clear that wearing them as frontlets was meant in a figurative sense. They were to keep it always before them that they were a redeemed people. In the New Testament we find that people took this literally, and they called the articles they wore phylacteries.
The Full Sweep of Verses 18–20
The verse does not stand alone. It opens a chain that runs from daily conversation to the doorposts. One writer traces the whole progression as a summary of everything God's truth is meant to do in His people.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe children of Israel were urged to lay up these words in their hearts, and in their souls (v. 18). So the truth given was to govern "the soul" and develop the affections. The words they received were also to control their bodies. They were to bind them as a sign on their "hands," so that they should be as frontlets on their "eyes." The truth set before them also had to form the subject of their conversation at all times, and be taught to their children (v. 19). Finally, they had to write the words on their gates and doorposts, so that a testimony to the truth went out to all (v. 20).
What Neglect Costs
Israel's later history shows what happens when a nation stops laying up these words.
George C. WillisBut in the days of Josiah, and in the days of his father, that blessed Book was so neglected that neither king nor priest even knew it existed. Little wonder the nation went astray. A nation without the Bible can do nothing else, and a family without the Bible will do the same.
Summary
- Heart — the words go inside first. Stored in heart and soul, they become the motivating power, not a formality.
- Hand — what you treasure inside then governs the work you do.
- Eyes — the same word decides where you look for help and guidance, instead of looking elsewhere.
- Home — verses 19–20 carry it into daily talk, into the children, and onto the doorposts. The testimony goes out to everyone.
- Heaven — obedience keeps the line to heaven open. Neglect leaves a soul barren, and in Josiah's day neither king nor priest knew the Book existed.