History tells us that when Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot nation in southern Alberta, gave the Canadian Pacific Railway permission to lay track from Medicine Hat to Calgary, he was given in exchange a lifetime railroad pass. Reportedly, Crowfoot put the pass in a leather pouch and wore it around his neck for the rest of his life, but he never once availed himself of the rights and privileges it granted.
What a great pity if we do this with the Word of God. Do we use it as a decorative badge but never avail ourselves of the information it contains which is able to make us wise unto salvation? Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees saying, “But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries…even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
Because God wanted Israel to keep His commandments ever before them, He said that His words should be as “frontlets between their eyes.” As a result, they made phylacteries, which were tiny containers that held miniature copies of the commandments and thus bound His word on their foreheads. They thought that they were obeying. They may have had the Word of God bound to their foreheads, but unfortunately it often did not absorb into their thoughts. Wearing their phylactery did them no more good than did Crowfoot’s railroad pass hanging from his neck. As Solomon wisely taught us, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thine heart…”
It is fine to have the Word of God bound on our forehead, but as Solomon rightly put it, it must also be bound in our hearts. It is fine to tie it around our neck but it should then be referred to and used, just as the Canadian Pacific Railroad expected Crowfoot to use his railroad pass.
We must keep the Word of God near us, but it is more important to absorb it within us. It has been said that “Those who do not read have no advantage over those who cannot read.” We might adapt this to say, “Those who do not read their Bible have no advantage over those who do not have a Bible.”
There is no use calling ourselves the brothers and sisters of Christ if we do not do his will. Jesus spoke of those who would say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Why did he not know them even though they claimed to act “in his name?” The preceding verse gives the answer: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Having a railroad pass around your neck won’t get you anywhere. Having a phylactery on your forehead won’t help either. Having the Word of God within our hearts and doing it will. As Solomon said, when the word is in the heart, then “when you go, it will lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One