One Word that Changed Everything

Ki Teitzeh … Dvarim (Deuteronomy) 24:17-19  

There is a single word, a conditional word, in this chapter that changed my life.   It gave me a career, a family, and a certainty that there was wisdom for life in the path I had chosen.    It sits quietly at the end of this portion, waiting to see if anyone will notice.    

17 לא תטה משפט גר יתום ולא תחבל בגד אלמנה 

You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn. 

וזכרת כי עבד היית במצרים ויפדך יהוה אלהיך משם על־כן אנכי מצוך לעשות את־הדבר הזה  

Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that your God יהוה redeemed you from there; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment. 

כי תקצר קצירך בשדך ושכחת עמר בשדה לא תשוב לקחתו לגר ליתום ולאלמנה יהיה למען יברכך יהוה אלהיך בכל מעשה ידיך

When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow—in order that your God יהוה may

bless you in all your undertakings.

Deuteronomy 24:17-19

This chapter is called Ki Teitzeh, or more fully,  Ki Teitzeh l’Milchama - “WHEN YOU GO OUT TO WAR”.   It concerns moral and ethical conduct, some of it archaic:  we don’t stone adulterers to death anymore (we give them the main bedroom in the White House).  Others are morally arcane:  though scholars have interpreted the title verse to be concerning spiritual battles, it clearly isn't: it's about a soldier who wants a beautiful captive of war and his requirement to make her his wife, with all the rights and considerations of in Israel.   Dt. 24.17

There’s no doubt much of this chapter is foreign to us today.    So I was surprised to find a principle buried here that has made all the difference in my life personally.   

The last verse of the chapter looks like an ordinary admonition to do kindness to widows, orphans, and strangers.     

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, 

... in order that ...

(l’ma’an - למען)  

the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 

Deuteronomy 24:19-20

The words of scripture have been for all of my adult life ALIVE, inspired.   Not as just principles or rules, but as a bridge to the thoughts of a living God.   As Paul pointed out in his letter to Jews, (Hebrews 4:10).   If you meditate on them, memorize, ponder, & inquire, the Holy Spirit will bring the words to life and change you, change directions, and possibilities.   Any passage may be that bit of wisdom that makes all the difference.   Here is what did so for me

In that verse, there is this conditional word: 

  למען - “in order that”

When I was 21,  new to faith, full of that newness and immediacy that the word of God was alive,  I heard a message about parents being a tool God uses to give direction for life.   He quoted the 5th commandment which says 

כבד את־אביך ואת־אמך למען יארכון ימיך על האדמה אשר־יהוה אלהיך נתן ל

"Honor your mother and father

למען 

…in order that 

it might go well for you and you dwell long in the land".

Exodus 20:12 12 

The same word. "למען"  Paul comments on this fifth of the Ten Commandments:  

Eph 6.1 “… this is the first commandment with a promise”

The lecturer suggested that God used parents as an instrument of change and protection, a sort of spiritual umbrella in life.   I knew what it meant for me right away.   I had stopped out of school after my junior year to start an artistic furniture-making business.   

I wasn’t making any money, but I sure was making lots of sawdust.    My believing friends said, “God is going to bless your business”.  Which I hoped was true. I loved my little shop and the smell of cherry wood or white oak shavings, the magic of dovetails and tusk tenon joinery. My parents thought it was a nice hobby but a terrible idea, and thought I should go back to school.    On that day, I KNEW that if the word was ever going to be ALIVE as Paul said,  I had to give it a place to live in my life.  Saying in my mind "OK God, I don't want to, but if you say so... I'll do it", at that moment, the presence of the HOLY SPIRIT overwhelmed me.   I was at a large conference, but the experience was so profound that I could neither speak nor even move, both spectacular to be swept up into the presence of God and also brilliantly normal. This is a rare occurrence for me and I don't pursue such things, yet a singularly impressive moment, a turning point. 

I won’t go into the ordinary and extraordinary events that followed that empowered and confirmed that decision.   In the three years of college before stopping out, I had been, that “bright” student that just didn’t care about studies.   In fact my freshman year,  I made a point to not attend any classes, just read the texts and took the tests.   But from that moment on, newly empowered with God’s direction for life, school, and learning, everything turned to gold and gave me the career I have enjoyed for my whole adult life.  I don't look to extraordinary experiences to lead my decision-making because it was the Word itself that became my tools for life.

If you’ve been to our house, you know I didn’t sell the table in the photo.   It’s a bit worse for the wear, forty-eight years, three kids, and forty-some thousand meals later.   But this principle was weathered well:   God gives purpose and direction for our benefit.  Starting in His Word.   In this case, just one...single...word.

I was surprised to be reminded of this story in studying Ki Teitzeh, seeing a simple conditional phrase that changed my life.  Scripture gives direction with the promise of the fullness of life if we choose to seek out its purpose, which ultimately is “in order that” we fulfill our purpose in life.  

L'MA'AN  למען 

...in order that

God will bless you in all the work of your hands.   

 Deuteronomy 24:19-20

Looking back, not every path turned to gold, but my tools stayed sharp, and meditations were always valuable. But I still recommend this life of meditation on the Words of a living God, this sense of purpose, to anyone.   To everyone.