Displaying the Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy 11:18. “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul,
and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.”

I’m not interested in joining the debates on the public display of the Ten Commandments, prayer in public schools, or “keeping Christ in Christmas.” I am concerned about whether the Ten Commandments are personally displayed in my life. It’s one thing to post the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn and another thing to embody them in my personal interactions.

Moses says to put these words in your heart and soul, bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Moses’ instructions about binding the words of the law to our bodies and dwellings remind us that the law is present to guide our interior lives (heart and soul), our exterior actions (hands), our thinking (forehead), and our coming and going (doorposts and gates).

When we allow the law to be our guide, and we live like we really believe that it is important and worth following, we become a very public display of the Ten Commandments.

*Originally written for and published by Forward Day by Day.