Lamed

What in the world is Lamed? (pronounced lah-med)

Lamed is a letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Lamed is the middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Lamed is also the tallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. To the Jew, this is very important. Why?

Lamed is also a word in the Hebrew language. It means two things: to teach; to learn.

How can one word mean both to teach and to learn? And why is this important?

First, the Jews consider the meaning of things to be highly important. Since Lamed is the very center of the alphabet and since it is the tallest (overshadowing the other letters), the Jews have said that Lamed is our highest endowment, our greatest gift, from God.

Teaching and learning are our highest endowment from God? What does that mean?

Paul tells us in II Timothy 2:15: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

In Acts 17:11, the Bereans "searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

In Isaiah 34, we read a long list of prophecies of the end times and then the Lord ends with verse 17: "Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail."

When you spend time studying and searching God's Word, does it bring you closer to the Lord? If your heart is to study His Word to learn, is it an act of worship? The Jews believe that studying God is the ultimate act of worship of God. Think about it. If you are studying God's Word to know Him better, to know His will for you, to know what pleases Him, to know what is an abomination to Him, wouldn't that be worship? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy ... mind!"

Do you worship the Lord daily by studying for yourself what He has to say to you? I John 4:1 tells us, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." How do you test those spirits? Against the Word of God! Let us study God's Word daily and search diligently to test all that we hear and read. Let us show ourselves approved unto God!

Is studying God's Word the only we can study to worship God, though? How about considering His creation? Take a walk in the beauty of His creation (which man has damaged) and consider what God has done in each little flower, the spring greens, the birds' songs, a million little aspects of His creation. In that same vein, when we study science, we are studying about God. It is God who created science, and provided so many opportunities for humans to learn, both believers and not. As Christians, though, we should study science as being from an incredible Creator, which leads us to worship again, doesn't it? And how about history - His Story! God has allowed everything in history to happen for a reason, some for His glory, some to teach us something, and much of it for reasons we do not know now. But we can study and find out many of God's ways in history as well!

There are many other subjects of study, of learning, that will lead us to worship God as we learn more about Him and His ways. Let us look for the sovereignty of God in all of life!

Hear.
Study.
Do.
Teach.

If we want to retain knowledge, when we first hear something, we must study it for ourselves, walk it out, and teach it to others. Those who teach learn the most!

What an awesome gift God has bestowed upon us - to learn; to teach! Now that you are responsible for this knowledge, go and make disciples, disciples of Christ, teaching them ALL things that Jesus taught!

Lamed.