#042

SHMIRAS  HALOSHON

SHMIRAS (Guarding)
לשמור
THE TONGUE
הלשון

“WELL, SHUT MY MOUTH”

          What did people use to mean when they said this?  They weren’t really taking these words serious.  It usually meant they had heard something  too unusually good to be true.  It often designated a type of surprise, but a blessing for them or someone else.
          Perhaps their mouth was gaping open…but the news they received was so good or unbelievable that they had NO words to express what they were feeling.  They were at a loss for words.  So the only thing they knew to say was:
“Well, Shut My Mouth.”

GOD DID IT AGAIN!

                                                                                graphic by Melvyn

          Why (lama) is God drawing so many of us to focus on Israel, the Hebrew language, and their traditions at this time?  More and more I am seeing the Cross of Christ like a bridge connecting the Old Testament with the New…bringing us to the point of speaking the same language from our hearts.
          In Matthew 13:52, Jesus said that every scribe (a scholar of Old Testament Law) which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven, is like a man (householder) who brings forth out of his TREASURE…things (concerning) NEW and OLD.
WOW!

          Wow!  Like young whipper snappers (whatever that is…ha…), I see us as having run to the NEW and left the old behind.
          But Jesus said:  “Think NOT that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”  (Matthew 5:17).
          And verse 18 says:  “One JOT or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till ALL be fulfilled.”
          A jot ( י ) (yod or yodh) is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  It functions as a “y” in English and looks similar to an apostrophe.  A tittle is a small projection on the edge of certain Hebrew letters to distinguish them from one another.

GOD GIVES US WHAT WE NEED
WHEN
WE NEED IT

          “Well, shut my mouth.”  Ha.  I continue to be amazed when He places certain books in our path (hands) that emphasize His scriptures.  Holy Spirit peaks an interest in us, then makes information available.

GOD IS CONNECTING
THE
OLD WITH THE NEW

          I leave you today to ponder this thought for yourself.  God is causing us to take a Second Look at the Old Testament and its connection to the New.
          As we have recently had to question some things we have seen like the “Birds Head Pictures” on the Haggada of Passover book…ha…, before we could accept the message, I have displayed a picture of the small book of daily lessons about THE TONGUE.  It may look a little strange and almost scary at first, but check it out.  It is the Old Testament Laws for the Tongue.
          It is about the POWER of our Words for Good or Evil.
          We are familiar with Proverbs 8:21 which says:  Life and death are in the POWER of the tongue:  and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
         
SEFER
BOOK      
ספר
          This little sefer (book) is an exhaustive study on the concepts and laws of proper speech, arranged for daily study of the TONGUE…taken from the Torah. 
         
ESSENCE  OF  THIS  BOOK
(Copy these two meanings and meditate on them.)

Shmiras  Haloshon
(“ha” before loshon means “the”)
(Guarding of the Tongue)

And

Loshon  Hora
(Evil  Talk)

          Knowing only a little of what I have learned so far, for some reason I picture my younger brother Bruce and I wrestling in the grass in Bandera, Texas when we were 9 and 10 years old.  The object was to straddle your opponent and pin their arms to the ground…and make them TELL.
   
NOPE!
My mouth is shut for Today!

I dare NOT  SAY a WORD
   
Until
I Consider The Cost.

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