Exodus 11:7: “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”

I saw a photo on the internet not too long ago of what was considered the most emotionally moving photo of the year. It was a picture taken of the casket of a fallen Navy Seal and lying before the casket was his service dog who had accompanied him in Afghanistan. He was lying down with his head in his paws looking oh so sad.

Many people have found a deeper understanding of God through the faithfulness of their pet dog (Sparky my neighbor’s pet bull dog excluded).  They see how a dog will love unconditionally, regardless of one’s race, occupation or appearance. He doesn’t question who or what you are, he will just love.  It is said that a dog has a sixth sense.  They believe that a dog can sense when someone is dying, is aware of impending danger, and can almost read their master’s mind.   Sometime ago soldiers were testing a dog’s ability to navigate a minefield.   They strapped a radio receiver around the neck of the dog while his master stood on hill almost a mile away and observed his dog through a telescope. He whispered directions through a radio.  The dog obeyed each one of his master’s command to turn, back up, move forward etc.  When the dog returned they discovered that they had failed to put the batteries in the receiver.  There was no way the dog could have heard his master’s commands except through some sixth sense. This is likely how the Hebrews communicated with the dogs in Exodus 11:7

There is a sort of love/hate relationship between Jews and dogs.  Some aspects of Judaism view dogs as dirty, scavengers and others give great honor to dogs.  Many orthodox Jews today so honor dogs that they will feed their dogs before they feed themselves.  This respect for dogs is the result of this verse in Exodus 11:7.

Exodus 11:7 tells the story about the time that the Jews fled Egypt.   You see the Jewish men who worked as slaves under the Egyptians numbered up to 600,000.  In order to keep the slaves in line the Egyptians employed guard dogs.  If any slave attempted to escape the dog would bark out a warning or even attack the slave.

What happened at the time of the Exodus is explained in Exodus 11:7.  The Lord was going to show the difference between the Egyptians and Israel by the fact that the dogs would favor the Hebrews and not their masters, the Egyptians.  They would not bark out a warning or attack the Jews when they sought to escape from the Egyptians.  The Talmud teaches that the Jews were actually able to speak and have a conversation with the dogs and the dogs listened and followed their instructions.

In Genesis 1:26 God gave man dominion over the animals.  If you have been following my blog you probably remember an earlier study over the debate of the root word for the word that is rendered as dominion.  Christians say the root word is radah which means to subdue.  The sages. however, teach that the root is yadah which means to come down to.  They believe the ability to speak to the dogs comes from this understanding of yadah, that you come down to their level and their world.  That is they speak not with their lips, but with their heart.

There is also a spiritual understanding here.  The ancient sage Chazal, which is really the initials for three sages Chochmenu, Zichrona and Levaracha, teach that the Holy Scriptures were given without any vowels and thus you are allowed to assign each vowel as you wish according to the idea behind your personal revelation from God.

The Hebrew word for dog is a good example. You see the word for dog is kalev.  This is a play on words.  For kalev also means like your heart. The Kap could be the preposition as or like before the word lev which is the word for a heart.  The literal understanding of this passage in Exodus is that the dog would not wag his tongue or bark out a warning and thus the Jews could escape from slavery.  The ancient teaching is that there is a double meaning in this passage. One is that the dogs did not bark and the other is the alternative rendering like their heart was their tongue.   The difference that God showed between the Egyptians and Israel is that their heart was like their tongue.  What they said with their speech was what was in their heart.  The Egyptians speech was filled with falsehood and unbelief.  This led to their destruction.  Israel’s speech was filled with truth and faith, this led to their deliverance.  When one’s speech is filled with truth and faith, judgments are eliminated. By the way, I think many dog lovers can appreciate the play on the word Kalev as meaning both dog and like a heart. That does not apply, of course, to Sparky.

Anyways, the sages try to teach that to exercise yadah (dominion) over a dog; one’s speech must be as ones heart.  A dog does not listen to the words you say.  He does not understand your speech. However, he pays close attention to you facial expressions, your movements and the tone of your voice. These are all expressions of your heart.  He cannot discern if you are fearful or angry, he is just able to discern if you are a threat to him and if you are, he will react accordingly.  Sparky knows I am a definite threat and so he barks a very unfriendly bark when I pass by.  You don’t fool a dog.  The same way you do not fool God.  God does not hear the words you pray. You may say some very pretty words, but they are meaningless to God.  You can go on and on with a prayer, “Lord, help old Charlie, he is in a tough way, he has that cancer you know, he wants to be healed, so Lord go ahead and heal him.”  The Bible tells us that God knows our needs before we even ask Matthew 6:8. Like Sparky, He listens to our hearts, not what we say. The Bible also says we worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). You are not going to fake out God any more than you will fake out Sparky.  God knows your heart, you motives, and He knows if you really care about old Charlie or you just care about making an impression on people with your pious prayer and words.