Observe to Do

Deuteronomy 5:32  Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

There is a phrase that appears 16 times in Deuteronomy, it’s short but it contains something important: observe to do.

It comes from two words, the first is ‘shamar’, which means literally ‘to hedge about’. The idea being to guard. The second is a commonly used word meaning ‘do, make, accomplish’. It’s an active word.

When they are put together it creates the poignant reminder that when we hear the Word of God there is a responsibility on us to ‘observe to do’. Or literally, ‘keep what we hear and turn it into action’.

How often do we sit in church and hear the Word of God only to fail to keep it in our hearts? How much more often have we failed to ‘do’? It matters not how many nice verses one puts on the wall, reads, or hears. It means little if you do not observe to do!

Inside this phrase is the idea that one can hear the law, and not keep or do the law. One can hear the law, keep the law, yet fail to do. The blessings of God are contingent on a full follow through – hear the law, keep the law, do the law. Observe to do.

It’s no coincidence that this phrase occurs so frequently in Deuteronomy which is a repetition of the law for the people. It’s a constant reminder to the reader that the benefits of the law are only found when we ‘observe to do’. Anything else will fall short.

While we are thousands of years away living under the law of Christ, the phrase, ‘observe to do’, still echoes down through the years to us. When we read the commandments of Christ, do we observe to do? May it be so.