Daily Word: Watching Your Ways

Proverbs 23:26 says: "Give your mind to me, my son; Let your eyes watch my ways." (JPS) The word "mind" is often translated "heart" in our English Bibles. The Hebrew word is leb, and means the seat of feelings, affections, and emotions. It refers to our mode of thinking and acting, as well as our purpose and determination. In this verse, the writer is asking for our entire emotional being. He wants all our thoughts and purposes to be his thoughts and purposes. The connection to God's desires for us is obvious.

The second part of the verse is a call to obey the writer's ways. Again, the connection to the call of God to watch His ways is an appropriate interpretation of the verse. God wants us to watch His ways. This is not the call to passive observation. In Hebrew, to watch is to actively follow. You are not hearing, learning, or watching something unless it impacts your actions. In Hebrew, it is all about action. Whereas Greek thought emphasizes intellectual assent, Hebrew emphasizes what you do. What are God's ways? They are found in His Word. It starts in Genesis, not Matthew. The words of God contained in the Hebrew Scriptures are eternal and should not be dismissed. Rabbis in the first century liked to summarize the 613 Commandments into as few as possible. Jesus did this in Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (KJV)

Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because Jesus summarized the 613 Commandments into two, that He dismissed the rest of them. He was summarizing them, but He would never do away with them. Remember Matthew 5:17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (KJV) Most of God's commandments are still binding (those referencing the Temple and sacrifices are not binding since there is no Temple). They are His ways and we are to watch them.