Stretched Priority

delivered by

Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (NIV 1984)
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God
directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you
are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you,
your children and their children after them
may fear the Lord your God as long as you live
by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you,
and so that you may enjoy long life.

Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey
so that it may go well with you and that you may
increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,
just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today
are to be upon your hearts.

Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road, when you lie down
and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands
and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates.

phylactery   –   mezuzah

“…and you shall inscribe these words upon the doorposts
of your house and upon your gates.” 

Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)
Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.
Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River
and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you,
then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River,
or the gods of teh Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.