Deuteronomy 6 - Listen Up
- Chad Werkhoven
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Your faith centers on knowing God and making Him known.
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... Moses reiterated the ten commandments that God had given decades earlier from Mt. Sinai.
Deuteronomy 5:32–6:9 (ESV)
32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
6 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 103
Q. What is God’s will for you
in the fourth commandment?
A. First,
that the gospel ministry and
education for it be maintained,
and that, especially on the festive day of rest,
I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people
to learn what God’s Word teaches,
to participate in the sacraments,
to pray to God publicly,
and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.
Second,
that every day of my life
I rest from my evil ways,
let the Lord work in me through his Spirit,
and so begin already in this life
the eternal Sabbath.
Summary
Today's passage is built around one of the oldest confessions of faith, called the Shema':
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
The following definition is taken from the Lexham Bible Dictionary:
It "derives its name from the statement’s first Hebrew word, שְׁמַ֖ע (shema')—which is the command to “hear”... Jewish boys are to be taught the Shema as soon as they can speak and it is to be recited at the end of one’s life.
"The Shema summarizes the heart of God’s covenant with His people. Yahweh alone is Lord, and covenantal faithfulness to Him involves every part of one’s being: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
But these words are not just meant to be a magic incantation. Rather, your entire life must be centered around understanding it first for yourself - these words shall be on your heart - and then communicating this truth to the subsequent generations: teach them diligently to your children. They must be the basis for all of your conversations: talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Dig Deeper
Today's Dig Deeper section is re-posted from July 21, 2023
It's often easy to think that God's plan of salvation changed when Jesus arrived. In plan A, God entered into a covenant with Moses, giving His people a clear set of expectations for them to follow in order to gain a reward. Indeed we see language like that in this passage from Deuteronomy that every Israelite would have known so well: keep the commandments so that you may enjoy long life; be careful to obey so that it might go well with you; follow these rules so that you might increase.
Having given the Israelites plenty of time to get their act together, it might seem like God finally gave up on plan A for the grace-filled plan B that Jesus would inaugurate, in which His covenant people would now be saved by the fact that Jesus perfectly kept the law on our behalf.
But as we keep reading in Deuteronomy 6, it becomes clear that God has always had one plan of salvation for all people, and it has always been completely grace based.
God was bringing His people - then, and now - through their wilderness wanderings and into the Promised Land, which flowed with milk and honey. They would enjoy flourishing cities, nicely appointed houses, wells, vineyards and olive groves. All of this would be a gift: they would not need to build, provide, dig or plant. Another word for gift is grace.
Certainly they had a covenantal obligation to keep the law, an obligation they couldn't keep. What they didn't know then was that Christ would provide that covenant faithfulness for them, as He has for you.
So inhabiting the Promised Land was a pure gift; it was never an obligation God owed them. So the reminder God gives to Israel - the recipients of His grace then - is just as valid for us, the recipients of His grace now:
Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that these words will never be far from your lips;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
