Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 6:1
Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do [them] in the land whither ye go to possess it:
1. Not a fresh title, marking the beginning of a separate discourse, but the natural continuation of the discourse from the previous ch. and still couched in the Pl.
And this is ] The conjunction not merely continues the discourse, but has an antithetic force, therefore not too strongly rendered now by A.V. and R.V. What at that time in oreb was delivered to Moses himself (as described in Deu 5:31) he now in Moab proceeds to present.
this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgements ] LXX these are the commandments, but Sam. confirms Heb., which is the more probable. Because this, not these, is used, and because the separate laws do not come till ch. 12, the words statutes and judgements are regarded by some as an editorial intrusion. But this is not certain: this with three objects following, and two of them in the plural, is grammatically possible in Heb., and Moses was now about to declare to the people in Moab not only the Charge or Miwah, but the statutes and judgements as well. The point is not important. What is clear is that Miwah or Charge (see Deu 5:31) is the enforcement of general principles underlying the Law, which proceeds till the end of ch. 11. For after this discourse is finished, the title in Deu 12:1, where the separate laws at last begin, drops the term Miwah and reads only these are the statutes and the judgements. Cp. Westphal, Sources du Pent. ii. 111.
whither ye go over to possess it ] A formula distinctive of the Pl. passages occurring, besides here, Deu 4:14, Deu 11:8; Deu 11:11; whereas when the Sg. passages use the verb go over they add the Jordan, Deu 9:1, Deu 30:18, but elsewhere prefer the equivalent phrase, the land whither thou art entering (or thou art entering the land), Deu 6:18, Deu 7:1, Deu 9:5, Deu 11:10; Deu 11:29, Deu 12:29, Deu 18:9, Deu 23:20, Deu 28:21; Deu 28:63, Deu 30:16. The only verse in which this phrase occurs with the Pl. Isa 4:5 b ( q.v.); while Deu 4:1 (Pl.) gives a variation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moses proceeds to set forth more particularly and to enforce the cardinal and essential doctrines of the Decalogue, the nature and attributes of God, and the fitting mode of honoring and worshipping Him. Two objects are indicated Deu 6:2-3, the glory of God and the welfare of man, as the grand aims that he has in view.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER VI
The great design of God in giving his laws is, that the people
may fear and obey him, that they may continue in peace and
prosperity, and be mightily increased, 1-3.
The great commandment of the law, 4, 5,
which shall be laid up in their hearts, 6;
taught to their children, 7;
and affixed as a sign to their hands, heads, doors, and gates,
8, 9.
How they are to act when they shall come into the promised land,
10-19.
How they shall instruct their children, and relate the history
to them of God’s wonderful acts, 29-25.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. Now these are the commandments, c.] See the difference between commandments, statutes, judgments, &c., pointed out, See Clarke on Le 26:15.
Do them] That is, live in the continual practice of them for by this they were to be distinguished from all the nations of the world, and all these were to be in force till the Son of God should come. Whither ye go. oberim, whither ye pass over, referring to the river Jordan, across which they must pass to get into Canaan.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1-9. Now these are the commandments,the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded toteach you, that ye might do them . . . whither ye go to possessitThe grand design of all the institutions prescribed toIsrael was to form a religious people, whose national charactershould be distinguished by that fear of the Lord their God whichwould ensure their divine observance of His worship and theirsteadfast obedience to His will. The basis of their religion was anacknowledgment of the unity of God with the understanding and thelove of God in the heart (Deu 6:4;Deu 6:5). Compared with thereligious creed of all their contemporaries, how sound in principle,how elevated in character, how unlimited in the extent of its moralinfluence on the heart and habits of the people! Indeed, it isprecisely the same basis on which rests the purer and more spiritualform of it which Christianity exhibits (Mat 22:37;Mar 12:30; Luk 10:27).Moreover, to help in keeping a sense of religion in their minds, itwas commanded that its great principles should be carried about withthem wherever they went, as well as meet their eyes every time theyentered their homes. A further provision was made for the earnestinculcation of them on the minds of the young by a system of parentaltraining, which was designed to associate religion with all the mostfamiliar and oft-recurring scenes of domestic life. It is probablethat Moses used the phraseology in De6:7 merely in a figurative way, to signify assiduous, earnest,and frequent instruction; and perhaps he meant the metaphoricallanguage in De 6:8 to be taken inthe same sense also. But as the Israelites interpreted it literally,many writers suppose that a reference was made to a superstitiouscustom borrowed from the Egyptians, who wore jewels and ornamentaltrinkets on the forehead and arm, inscribed with certain words andsentences, as amulets to protect them from danger. These, it has beenconjectured, Moses intended to supersede by substituting sentences ofthe law; and so the Hebrews understood him, for they have alwaysconsidered the wearing of the Tephilim, or frontlets, apermanent obligation. The form was as follows: Four pieces ofparchment, inscribed, the first with Ex13:2-10; the second with Ex13:11-16; the third with De6:1-8; and the fourth with De11:18-21, were enclosed in a square case or box of tough skin, onthe side of which was placed the Hebrew letter (shin), andbound round the forehead with a thong or ribbon. When designed forthe arms, those four texts were written on one slip of parchment,which, as well as the ink, was carefully prepared for the purpose.With regard to the other usage supposed to be alluded to, the ancientEgyptians had the lintels and imposts of their doors and gatesinscribed with sentences indicative of a favorable omen [WILKINSON];and this is still the case, for in Egypt and other Mohammedancountries, the front doors of houses (in Cairo, for instance) arepainted red, white, and green, bearing conspicuously inscribed uponthem such sentences from the Koran, as “God is the Creator,””God is one, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Moses designedto turn this ancient and favorite custom to a better account andordered that, instead of the former superstitious inscriptions, thereshould be written the words of God, persuading and enjoining thepeople to hold the laws in perpetual remembrance.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,…. Not the ten commandments repeated in the preceding chapter, but all others, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial, afterwards declared; for what Moses now did was only to give a repetition and fresh declaration of such laws as he had before received, and delivered to the people; and so the Targum of Jonathan thus paraphrases this clause,
“this is a declaration of the commandments, statutes, and judgments:”
which the Lord your God commanded to teach you; that is, which he commanded him, Moses, to teach them, though not fully expressed, as may be learned from De 4:1
that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it; this is often observed, to imprint upon their minds a sense of their duty, even of obedience to the laws of God, which they were carefully and diligently to perform in the land of Canaan they were going into, and by which they were to hold their possession of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Announcement of the commandments which follow, with a statement of the reason for communicating them, and the beneficent results of their observance. , that which is commanded, i.e., the substance of all that Jehovah had commanded, synonymous therefore with the Thorah (Deu 4:44). The words, “ the statutes and the rights,” are explanatory of and in apposition to “ the commandment.” These commandments Moses was to teach the Israelites to keep in the land which they were preparing to possess (cf. Deu 4:1).
Deu 6:2 The reason for communicating the law was to awaken the fear of God (cf. Deu 4:10; Deu 5:26), and, in fact, such fear of Jehovah as would show itself at all times in the observance of every commandment. “ Thou and thy son: ” this forms the subject to “ thou mightest fear,” and is placed at the end for the sake of emphasis. The Hiphil has not the transitive meaning, “to make long,” as in Deu 5:30, but the intransitive, to last long, as in Deu 5:16; Exo 20:12, etc.
Deu 6:3 The maintenance of the fear of God would bring prosperity, and the increase of the nation promised to the fathers. In form this thought is not connected with Deu 6:3 as the apodosis, but it is appended to the leading thought in Deu 6:1 by the words “ Hear therefore, O Israel! ” which correspond to the expression “ to teach you ” in Deu 6:1. , that, in order that (as in Deu 2:25; Deu 4:10, etc.). The increase of the nation had been promised to the patriarchs from the very first (Gen 12:1; cf. Lev 26:9). – On “ milk and honey,” see at Exo 3:8.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Summary of Religion. | B. C. 1451. |
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Observe here, 1. That Moses taught the people all that, and that only, which God commanded him to teach them, v. 1. Thus Christ’s ministers are to teach his churches all that he has commanded, and neither more nor less, Matt. xxviii. 20. 2. That the end of their being taught was that they might do as they were taught (v. 1), might keep God’s statutes (v. 2), and observe to do them, v. 3. Good instructions from parents and ministers will but aggravate our condemnation if we do not live up to them. 3. That Moses carefully endeavoured to fix them for God and godliness, now that they were entering upon the land of Canaan, that they might be prepared for the comforts of that land, and fortified against the snares of it, and now that they were setting out in the world might set out well. 4. That the fear of God in the heart will be the most powerful principle of obedience: That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes, v. 2. 5. The entail of religion in a family, or country, is the best entail: it is highly desirable that not we only, but our children, and our children’s children, may fear the Lord. 6. Religion and righteousness advance and secure the prosperity of any people. Fear God, and it shall be well with thee. Those that are well taught, if they do what they are taught, shall be well fed too, as Israel in the land flowing with milk and honey, v. 3.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
DEUTERONOMY – CHAPTER SIX
Verses 1-3:
This is the prologue to the commandments Moses was about to deliver to Israel. In it he states the reason for obedience: that the people might enjoy the blessings of safety, peace, and prosperity in the Land God had promised to their fathers.
This text gives the basic reason for teaching. It is not to enable the pupil to acquire knowledge. It is:
(1) To do those things which are taught; to put knowledge taught into practice in one’s life.
(2) To fear (reverence) the Lord.
(3) To put His statutes and commandments into practice, to make them to be one’s way of life.
(4) To teach the succeeding generation the will and way of God.
When these criteria are met, the pupil becomes wise, and enjoys peace and prosperity. Teaching that does not meet these criteria fails to equip the pupil for living.
This principle applies today. It is the reason for the conflict and crime and confusion in today’s world. Educators no longer observe these criteria, and the result is the chaos, hedonism, and despair of the world today.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Now these are the commandments. In these three verses he repeats what we have already seen in many previous passages; since God deals so liberally with the Israelites, they would be too perverse, unless such great kindness should allure them to love the law. We must remember too what I have already touched on, that, although I have postponed to another place the promises, whereby Moses urged the people to endeavor to keep the Law, still I have designedly put before my exposition of the Law those passages, in which, by setting the promised land as it were before the people’s eyes, he prepares their minds for submission, and renders the rule of so bountiful a Father pleasant and delightful. Since, then, they were appointed to inherit the land, Moses, when he invites them to its enjoyment, commands them gladly to embrace the doctrine, for the sake of which they were adopted; and to devote themselves, on their side, to obedience to God, by whose gratuitous goodness they had been prevented. As in chapters 8 and 11 he praised the richness of the land, so does he now confirm the same statement; or rather afterwards more fully explains what he slightly touches upon here. They all agree in this, that the happy state of life which was before their eyes ought to awaken the people’s gratitude, lest such notable beneficence should be expended on them in vain. Moses therefore declares, that he had presented to them laws and statutes, by which they might be instructed in the fear of God; at the same time, he reminds them how base in them it would be not to be ravished to the love of God and of His law by the delightfulness and abundance of the land. I pass over what I have already explained, viz., that he taught nothing of himself, but was the faithful interpreter of God; and also that he commands the doctrine to be handed down to their posterity, so that it may never be lost. Whence it appears how difficult it is for men to be duly prepared for keeping the law, since God does not in vain so often stimulate their indolence; for there is a silent reproof conveyed either of their indolence or instability, when God does not cease to insist on what it would have been sufficient to have pointed out in a single word. We must also remark the definition of righteousness, that they should do what is right in the sight of the Lord; in opposition to the reason and judgment of the flesh.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE RECAPITULATION OF THE LAW
Deu 5:1 to Deu 26:19 record for us a recapitulation of the Law. The study of this section sets out clearly certain fundamental truths.
The Decalog is repeated with significant variations. Chapter 5, fundamental to all the laws of God is the Decalog. In Exodus, Moses delivered the same as he brought it from the tip of the fingers Divine. In Deuteronomy, the Law is given again. From the first to the tenth commandment, the very language of Exodus is employed, save in the instance of the fourth. Here, the reason assigned to the Jew for keeping the Sabbath, is strangely and significantly changed, namely, from because the Lord in six days made heaven and earth and rested on the seventh day, to Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore, the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day (Deu 5:15).
This change is so strange and so unexpected that it arrests immediate attention and demands adequate explanation. Why did God shift the reason for keeping the Sabbath from the finished creation to a completed redemption? The answer is not difficult. In the Divine plan, redemption is a far greater event than creation; the soul of man exceeds the weight of the world; for that matter, of all worlds. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. The Law was given for Jews; the Gentiles were never in bondage to it, and above all, believing Gentiles are not bound by it. To them, the Law is not a great external or outside force created for practices of restraint. Its spirit is transcribed to their souls rather; they walk at liberty while seeking Divine precepts. This is not to inveigh against the Law. The Law is just, and true and good, but by Law no man has ever been redeemed. It is to exalt Grace, which God hath revealed through Jesus Christ, in whom men have redemption from sin. If I only love my father and mother because the Law commands it, I do not love them at all; if I refrain from making images and bowing down before them because this is the demand of the Law, my heart may yet be as full of idolatry as a heathen temple. Redemption is not by the Law; it is by Grace in Jesus Christ!
The early Church was shortly called upon to settle this question of salvation by Law or Grace, and in the Jerusalem Conference Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the Word of the Gospel, and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us;
And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? (Act 15:7-10).
Later he said, We believe that through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (not by Law) we shall be saved, even as they (Act 15:7-11). Mark you, in that very sentence, Peter, the Apostle, proves his realization of the fact that the Law had failed as a savior and the very Jew himself had hope alone in grace. How strange, then, for men of the Twentieth Century to turn back to Law and proclaim the Law as though it were a redeemer, and protest that men who ignore the Jewish Saturday as the Sabbath will plunge themselves into the pit thereby, when the Law never saved! The keeping of the Sabbath was the one Law that contained in itself no ethical demand. The Law to worship, the Law to honor father and mother, the Law against killing, stealing and covetousnessthese are all questions of right and wrong; but to tithe time by the keeping of the Sabbath was a command solely in the interest of mans physical life. When, therefore, by the pen of inspiration the reason for it was shifted from a finished creation to a finished redemption, the act was lifted at once to a high spiritual level and became a symbol of the day when Christ, risen from the grave, should have completed redemptions plan. That great fortune to mankind fell out on the first day of the week, creating not so much a Christian Sabbath as making forever a memorial day for redemption itself, for the eighth day, or the first day of the week, clearly indicated the new order of things, or the new creation through Christ.
We have no sympathy whatever with secularizing each one of the seven days; but we would have the first day of the week kept in the spirit of rejoicing as redemptions memorial. On that day our Lord rose from the dead; on that day He met his disciples again and again; on that day the brethren at Troas assembled with the Apostles and broke bread; on that day the Christians laid aside their offerings; on that day they met for prayer and breaking of breadthe fellowship of the saints; on that day John was caught up in the spirit and witnessed the marvels recorded in his apocalyptic vision. Oh, what a day! No legal bondage, for what have we to do with holy days, sabbaths and new moons; but salvations memorial, a day of special service to the Son of God, our Saviour, a day for the souls rejoicing in Jesus. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
But as we pass on in the study of this section of Scripture, we find Moses defends the Decalog in character and consequence. He reminds them of the glory out of which the voice spake (Deu 5:24). He reminds them of the obligation in the words themselves (Deu 5:32). He reminds them of the relationship of the possession of the land to obedience of the precepts. He pleads with them as a father, Hear, therefore, O Israel (Deu 6:4). He anticipates the day of prophecy and begs that these words have place in their hearts (Deu 6:6), to be diligently taught to their children (Deu 6:7); bound for a sign upon their hands and frontlets between their eyes, lest they be forgotten (Deu 6:8); written upon the posts of the house and on the gates, where they could not be unobserved (Deu 6:9). Moses knew the relationship of law-keeping to national living. It is doubtful if modernists now have or will ever again entertain the same sacred reverence for Law that characterized the ancients, even the heathen of far-off days.
We cannot forget how Socrates, when he was sentenced to death and, after an imprisonment of thirty days, was to drink the juice of the hemlock, spent his time preparing for the end; friends conceived and executed plans for his escape and earnestly endeavored to prevail upon him to avail himself of the opportunity, but he answered, That would be a crime to violate the law even when the sentence is unjust. I would rather die than do evil. If a heathen philosopher could treat unjust laws with such reverence, Moses was justified in pleading with his people to regard the laws that were true and just and good, and such were the mandates of Deuteronomy.
It is easy enough for one to pick out some one of these precepts and, by detaching it from its context, create the impression that it was foolish or superficial or even utterly unjust; but when one reads the whole Book, he sees the effectual relationship of laws, general and particular, to the life Israel was leading, and for that matter, catches the supreme spiritual significance of the same as they interpret themselves in the light of New Testament teaching. There is not a warning that was not needed, nor an exhortation which, if heeded, would have failed to profit the people. It all came to one conclusion for Israel.
What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deu 10:12)?
And as there was not a law in the Old Testament but was fitted for the profit of Israel, so there is not a command in the New Testament but looks to the conquest of the Christian soul.
Among these enactments were personal and significant suggestions. They gave dietary and sanitary suggestions (Deuteronomy 14); they established the Sabbatic year (Deuteronomy 13); they fixed the time of the Passover (Deuteronomy 16); they set forth the character of the offerings (Deuteronomy 17); they determined the duties of the Levites (Deuteronomy 18); they gave direction concerning the cities of refuge (Deuteronomy 19); they determined the way of righteous warfare (chap. 20); they established a court of inquest (Deuteronomy 21); they announced the law of brotherhood (Deuteronomy 22); they descended to the minute instances of social life and regulations of the same (Deuteronomy 23); they dealt with the great and difficult question of divorce (Deuteronomy 24); they ended (Deuteronomy 23) in an almost unlimited series of regulations concerning the social life of the people knowing a wilderness experience, including the law of the first fruits (Deuteronomy 26).
It is interesting to study not alone the laws enacted here, but the penalties declared, including the blessings and curses from Ebal to Gerizim. There is about them all an innate righteousness that has been unknown to those purely human codes for which God never assumed responsibility. From the curse against bribery to the curse against brutal murder to this day the sentences are justified in the judgment of the worlds most thoughtful men.
In all they contrast the injustice and inordinately severe punishments often afflicted by godless governments. Plutarch, in writing about Solon, tells us that he repealed the laws of Draco except those concerning murder. Such was the severity of their punishments in proportion to the offense that we are amazed as we read them. If one was convicted of idleness, death was the penalty. If one stole a few apples or potherbs, he must surely die, and by as ignominious a method as did the murderer. And out of that grew the saying of Demades that Draco wrote his laws, not with ink but with blood. And when Draco was asked why such severe penalties, he answered, Small ones deserve it, and I can find no greater for the most heinous. Such were human laws in contrast to these laws Divine.
But a further study of these laws involves a third lesson.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.Moses had rehearsed the law, reminded the people of the circumstances in which it was given, and now he sets forth its essential and fundamental doctrines, the nature and attributes of God and the mode of worshipping Him.
Deu. 6:1. Commandments. lit., commandment (sing. noun), equivalent to the law, cf. Deu. 4:44, i.e., the sum and substance of all that Jehovah had given (cf. Keil). Statutes, etc., explanatory of the command.
Deu. 6:2. Reason for giving law to awaken fear and obedience to every injunction.
Deu. 6:3. Constant fear of God would result in prosperity and increase of the nation. of Gen. 12:1; Gen. 17:6; Exo. 3:8; Exo. 3:17.
Deu. 6:4-9. The exposition now begins with a declaration concerning Jehovah (Elohim plu.). This does not relate to the unity of God, but simply states that to Him alone, the name Jehovah rightfully belongs, as the one absolute God to whom no other Elohim can be compared, cf. Zec. 14:9.Keil.
Deu. 6:5. To this one God, who is Israels God, a love must be given, with the heart, seat of feeling and affection; the soul, thy breath, the vital spirit, or rational soul, capable of intelligence and thought, Mat. 22:37; Mar. 12:30; Luk. 10:27; strength of body and soul.
Deu. 6:6-7. True love will be regulated by regard to the commandments, which must be laid up in the heart, ever present to thought and will; taught to children, and talked about on all fitting occasions. Teach, lit., whet or sharpen, a figure for earnest and frequent instruction.
Deu. 6:8. Sign, token, memorial, as rings used on wrists and fingers containing religious sentiment, Joh. 3:33; 2Ti. 2:19. Frontlets, Exo. 13:16. Moses here turns to good account usages prevalent in his times, and still common in the East. (See Speak Com.)
Deu. 6:9. Posts, Exo. 12:7; Deu. 11:20; Job. 19:23; Job. 19:25.
Deu. 6:10-15. After specific duties, Moses gives warnings and cautions against dangers to which prosperity would expose them, viz., of forgetting God and His mercies. Entrance into Canaan brought them into possessions for which they did not labour with their own hands; beautiful towns, houses full of good things, wells of water, vineyards and olive plantations. Swearing (Deu. 6:13) refers to judicial oaths in court. Moses refers to legal swearing; our Lord to swearing in common conversation, Gods worship precludes idolatry (Deu. 6:14-15), which a jealous God will not endure, but punish with destruction from the face of the earth.
Deu. 6:16-19. Tempting God by murmuring and unbelief as at Massah, i.e., Rephidim (Exo. 17:1-7), is forbidden; diligent observance of commandments and right-doing are urged. To cast out, (Deu. 6:19) the casting out, the result of obedience. Exo. 23:27; Exo. 34:11.
Deu. 6:20-25. Directions for the instruction of children more fully given than in Deu. 6:7. Signs (22) and wonders, cf. Deu. 4:34. Mighty hand, exercise of great power. Psa. 105:23; Psa. 105:28. ur good, (24), first reason for serving God, it is right; other blessings follow. Righteousness, i.e., observance of law constitutes their title to the land and gives them acceptance with God. Before the Lord, in his right and according to his judgment, cf. Psa. 56:13; Psa. 116:9.
THE FEAR OF GOD THE END OF THE COMMANDMENTS.Deu. 6:1-3
Two objects are indicated in these verses as sought by the Law-giver in thus expounding anew these important duties. He aims at awakening a holy fear of God in the heart of his people; a fear which shall manifest itself in steadfast fulfilment of the covenant; and he seeks no less the temporal prosperity of Israel, which is shown as a certain result upon such fidelity. Thus the glory of God and the welfare of man are seen to be the grand ends he has in view.Speak. Com.
I. The Commandments of God should be the rule of Life. That ye might do them. Plato and other philosophers taught that perfection consisted in conformity to certain forms or ideas laid down for man by his Creator. But for one thing to be the standard or measure of another it must be fixed and true. Sophists would persuade us that there is nothing fixed and permanent. Our senses deceive us, the laws of nature change, right and wrong, virtue and vice, are fancies and vary with individual feelings and tastes. But Gods law is unchangeable, His truth is sure and eternal. He has given rules for moral life and conduct. Our own sensations must not be set forth, our own opinions exalted into standards of truth. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
II. The fear of God is the most powerful principle to produce obedience to this rule. Love to the Lawgiver begets respect for his law. We cannot honour a master, nor be happy in his service without love for his character. Affection influences the will and prompts to happy obedience. Service from any other motive would not be disinterested and true, either in religion or daily life. The fear, or the love of God in the heart therefore, is the only power to produce loyal obedience to God.
I cannot worship what I cannot love.
III. To beget this obedience is the design of religious instruction. The Lord your God commanded to teach you. We must know a person before we can love and serve him; so the law of God must be known before it can be observed. The people must be taught the character and will of God. The children must he trained and educated, not for their own glory, nor that of their parents, but for the service and glory of God. Obedience to Gods law must be the design of family training and economy. Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.
IV. The results of religious instruction and obedience to Gods law will be beneficent. Since the law of God consults our highest good, obedience will always be to our interest. God mercifully teaches what is good, and promises to bestow that good upon us. In various ways, personal and social, temporal and spiritual, benefits come to help us to remember Him who is the highest good, God over all, and blessed for evermore.
1. In personal happiness. Well with thee in body, mind, and estate. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him (Isa. 3:10). But it shall not be well with the wicked because he feareth not before God (Ecc. 8:13).
2. In length of life. That thy days may be prolonged. The wicked shall not live out half their days.
3. In the increase of posterity. That ye may increase mightily. Virtue always tends to promote health, material prosperity, and national welfare. Without recognition of God and obedience to His commands, we cannot secure earthly or heavenly inheritance in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
DIVINE REQUIREMENTS.Deu. 6:4-5
These verses assert that Jehovah is one, indivisible and supreme God, and worthy of love supreme and undivided. It is not enough to hear, we must obey and obey with all the heart and soul.
I. God is worthy of our love and service. We love a person for what he is in himself and for what he does to others. God is excellent and exalted in himself. He alone is God, and therefore deserves our homage. Goethe taught that beauty, truth and goodness are the objects of human worship. But this is the religion of culture, the worship of the creature rather than the Creator, and does not satisfy personal wants. God is a Living Being, on whom we can think and with whom we can conversethe centre and cause of all beauty, goodness and truth. In Him these are objects for worship, and subjects for enjoyment. He does good, makes good and communicates His blessings unto His creatures. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power.
II. God requires us to love and serve Him with entire self-surrender. The terms used to indicate this are most comprehensive.
1. Affectionately, with all thine heart, without indolence, unfaithfulness or half-heartedness. With fervent, undivided affection. If the heart, the whole heart be withheld, apostacy will be the result.
2. Intelligently, with all thy mind, (Mar. 12:30; Luk. 10:27). The intellect and understanding must be concerned as well as the heart. Gods service is not a blind, unreasonable service. We know what we worship.
3. Energetically, with all thy might of will and active powers. If not free and cheerful, it is slavish and irksome. If ye be willing and obedient, (Isa. 1:19).
4. Entirely, with all thy soul. It must be sincere and constant, not superficial but rooted in love, (Eph. 3:17). God must be loved above all creatures, with all our powers and with all the energy of those powers. The royal law according to the scripture.
III. Gods relationship to us is a motive to prompt this required service. The Lord thy God. Jehovah was Israels God and had shown Himself such. Nothing can touch the will, and excite to motion which we do not perceive and appreciate. What is out of the view of mind and heart cannot affect them. Gods presence had been seen and His goodness displayed in wonderful ways. He made a covenant with Israel, claimed them for His people, and gave them every reason to honour and obey Him. I am the Lord thy God.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu. 6:3. Hearing and doing. Hear O Israel and observe to do it.
1. The Word heard. Man deaf and blind in spiritual things. Having ears, he hears not; having eyes he sees not. Only when God speaks does the heart open (Lydia) with new power of attention and interest. Be more ready to hear.
2. The Word considered. Observeattendance is not attentioneyes and ears must be open. In order to learn, says Coleridge, we must attend; in order to profit by what we have learnt, we must think. Take heed how ye hear.
3. The Word obeyed. Do it. We look for novelty and not for edification. Our great object is to be impressed and affected, and to have old and new truths reduced to experience and practice.Judge Hale.
Deu. 6:4. The unity of God.
1. The centre of Israels belief. How sound in principle, elevated in tone and powerful in moral influence, compared with heathen religions!
2. The foundation of Israels polity. Polytheism was the basis of other social fabrics. This clause not merely forbids polytheism, but also syncretism, which reduces the one absolute God, as King over all the earth, to a national deity, a Baal (Hos. 2:18), and in fact every form of theism and deism, which creates for itself a supreme God according to philosophical abstractions and ideas (Keil).
3. The law of harmony in our moral constitution. The mind is not capable of containing more than one object at a time. The heart and affections can only be loyally attached to one Sovereign, and fully developed by one person.
Deu. 6:4; Deu. 5:1. The command. Hear, O Israel. God seeks to make us attentive to what He is in Himself, and what He is to usto check our presumptionkindle our affection and dissipate our fear.
2. The duty. Love God with all thine heart. First the heart and then the deed. We must first be right before we can do right. It is greater to conquer by means of the heart, than to conquer the heart, says Schiller. Give me thine heart.
3. The method of performing this duty. (a) Willingly. God sometimes accepts the will for the deed; never the deed without the will. (b) Sincerely. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart (2Ch. 25:2). (c) Constantly. Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times (Psa. 106:3).
Moral life proceeds from the heart, and manifests itself without, in the three forms of activity indicated. The impulse Godward proceeds from the heart, and is realised in the life through the affection, which feeds on that supreme object; through the will, which consecrates itself actively to the accomplishment of His will; and through the mind which pursues the track of His thoughts in all His works.Godet.
THE METHOD OF PRESERVING THE DIVINE LAW.Deu. 6:6-9
To keep a sense of duty in their minds, it was ordered that Israel should carry great principles into daily life. A system of parental instruction was instituted, and provision was made for the remembrance of the commandments in most familiar and oft-recurring scenes of life. The means of preserving religion are minutely specified.
I. In personal experience. Shall be in thine heart. The memory may be good and the tongue glib without any feeling of heart. The truth must not only be received by the mind, but deposited and warmed by the heart. We must understand, value and love the Bible. Since we are in danger of losing the things, if we forget the words: these words must be matters of experience and conversation. Our soul must be brought under their influence and direction. The law of God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide (Psa. 37:31.
II. In home training. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Children are ignorant and self-willed. They will never instinctively or intuitively develop into saints. And while their secular education must not be forgotten their religious training must be first and most diligent. This may be given.
1. In various ways. In domestic intercourse, when thou sittest in thine house; in ordinary walking, when thou walkest by the way; in the times of the day, when thou liest down and risest up; by common representations, for signs and frontlets, and by constant writing, thou shalt write them.
2. In diligent methods. Diligently, sharpen up the children by earnest, assiduous and repeated instruction. As tools are prepared for work, so children should be taught for God and prepared for life.
III. In Religious Conversation. Talk of them. In the present age knowledge is spread by writing more than by speech. In earlier ages oral communications were the means of instruction. The living voice is still a great power in the world, and its mighty influence will be felt in future generations. Conversation was one of the methods employed by Jewish doctors and Jesus Himself, for imparting knowledge. Among friends and companions, in the domestic and social circle, in walking in a journey and in retiring to rest, we may converse about Divine things. I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. Psa. 119:46.
PARENTAL OBLIGATION.Deu. 6:7-8
In these verses it appears
(1) That parents are bound to give their children a religious education, to sow in their hearts the seeds of scriptural truth, to teach them the elements of christrian doctrine, to inculcate upon them the observance of moral duties, and to beget in them an attachment to the ordinances of religion, in their attendance on which we may expect the communication of the grace of the Holy Spirit, to render the word of truth, the power of God unto their salvation.
(2) Gods testimonies must not only be taught to our children, but the utmost diligence must be used to make them understand them. Thou shalt teach them diligently. That is, again and again, as one who whets a blunt instrument in order to sharpen it, which is done by reiterated friction or grinding. This part of parental duty is a most difficult task, and it requires much patience, much prudence, much judgment and much piety in the parents, to enable them to do this good, this most important work, in the best and most effectual manner.
(3) Parents are required to embrace every opportunity of inculcating the Divine commands upon their children.
1. This duty must be performed at home and abroad; When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.
2. It must be done in the night season and in the daytime; when thou liest down and when thou risest up.
(4) This command shows that every father had access to scripture, in a language which he and his children understood. Moses entertained no fear that the people would misinterpret it, or wrest it to their destruction. It is probable that many a Jew did so; nevertheless, that was no reason against every Jew possessing a copy of the law. The fact is, that under the Jewish law, the scriptures were put into the hands of all kinds of persons, young and old, male and female, learned and unlearned, priest and people with a command to read them and teach them to others, so that faith of all might rest on the foundation.Rev. J. Wilson.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu. 6:6-7. The Biblethe Family Book. To be read and taught in the family to promote personal piety and religious education. The most precious legacy you can leave your children is a thoroughly sound Christian education. This will never be finally and for ever forgotten for in the worst and most distant aberation from God, some early light struck out in the early years of childhood, will leap like a live spark from memory, as was the case with John Newton, when a prodigal at the helm in a tempestuous seathe text forgotten for twenty years, but taught him by his mother in the nursery, was the first on which turned his everlasting and happy destiny.Dr. Cumming.
Deu. 6:7. Children should be taught the principles which they understand not.
(1.) That they might have occasion much to think of the things that are so much and commonly urged.
(2.) That if any extremity should come, they might have certain seeds of comfort and direction to guide and support them.
(3.) That their condemnation might be more just, if having these so much in their mouths, they should not get something of them into their hearts.Trapp.
Deu. 6:9. Write them upon the posts.
1. At the time this command was given there were few written copies of the whole law, and the people had it read to them only at the feast of tabernacles. God, therefore, seemed to have appointed, at least for the present, that some select sentences of the law should literally be written upon their gates and walls, or on slips of parchment, to be worn about their wrists, or bound upon their foreheads.
2. The spirit of the command, however, and the chief thing intended, undoubtedly was that they should give all diligence, and use all means to keep Gods laws always in remembrance; as men frequently bind something upon their hands or put something before their eyes, to prevent forgetfulness of a thing that they much desire to remember. But the Jews, forgetting the spirit and design of this precept, used these things as superstitious people do amulets or charms. They used also to put these slips of parchment into a piece of cane, or other hollow wood, and fasten that to the door of their houses, and of each particular door in them, and as often as they go in and out they make it a part of their devotion to touch the parchment and kiss it.J. Wilson.
THE DANGERS OF PROSPERITY.Deu. 6:10-12
Moses anticipates the time when Israel will come into possession of Canaan with all the good promised. But he also sees the dangers to which this prosperity will expose themforgetfulness, idolatry (Deu. 6:14) and distrust (Deu. 6:16). He warns them against these dangers, and describes the remedy. Forewarned, forearmed.
I. Prosperity renders the heart insensible when we should be grateful When thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest thou forget the Lord. In poverty we despond, murmur or blaspheme; in prosperity we deny God (Pro. 30:9). Prosperity doth best discover vices, says Bacon. Exaltation often intoxicates, and blessings easily gained are not often valued. We are most sensible of things which cost us dearly; but unmindful of the giver when the gifts come easily and freely. We riot in carnal luxuries, and the heart becomes effeminate and self-indulgent, hardened to the reproofs of the Divine law and to the goodness and claims of the Lawgiver. They did eat, and were filled, and became fat (senseless, doltish, cf. Isa. 6:10), Neh. 9:25.
II. Prosperity begets pride when we should be humble. Man depends upon God for everything, yet often casts off God, expects nothing and fears nothing from Him. He is proud of rank, talent, and acquisitions, like Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:30). We forget our need of God, our obligations to Him, and become self-sufficient instead of humble. In all time of our wealth, Good Lord deliver us.
III. Prosperity lulls into carnal security when we should be watchful. Beware of the danger and guard against it. A self-indulgent life, incapacitates for vigourous watchful obedience to Gods commands. Nature is subdued by that which feeds it, its sensitiveness and spirituality die away, and carnal security leads to ease and perfect indifference.
O souls! In whom no heavenly fire is found,
Fat minds and ever grovelling on the ground.Dryden.
FORGETFULNESS OF GOD.Deu. 6:12-15
When we give our thoughts and hearts to the world God is soon forgotten. He is displaced and ignored, and we become guilty of ingratitude, robbery, and idolatry.
I. The danger pointed out. Beware, lest thou forget God.
1. Non-recognition of Gods presence. Even amid sensible and awful displays of that presence they forgot God and His wonders that He had showed them. Disregard of Gods providence. Which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt. A providence most constant and striking, yet despised when they should have remembered it most. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea (Psa. 106:7). Disobedience to Gods law. We cannot serve and obey those whom we forget. God has the greatest claim upon our gratitude and love. But when the danger is past God is forgotten. Men cry for mercy in trouble and adversity, but when these are changed for sunshine and substance they forsake God who made them, and lightly esteem His law.
Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.Pope.
II. The Method of avoiding this danger specified. God provides safeguards against dangers into which we are apt to fall. Some are given in these words:
1. The fear of God. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. Reverence for God is the great preservative from sin. On this principle Abraham educated his children and governed his household. Joseph feared to offend God and was directed to wisest counsels. Happy is the man that feareth alway.
2. Obedience to God. Serve Him. We cannot forget God if we walk with Him and continually obey His will. Servants must not neglect their masters commands, nor soldiers rush out of the ranks. Disobedience is disrespectful, disloyal, and insolent. Be not hasty to go out of his sight.
3. non-conformity to evil customs. Ye shall not go after other Gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you, (Deu. 6:14.) Israel would be tempted by the license and indulgence of idol worship around them. Numbers influence and attract men. The fashions, the principles, and the maxims of the world govern many professors. But we must not join a majority in any sinful cause, however prevalent and popular. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.
4. Public confession of God. And shalt swear by His name. God is the source of truth and the avenger of wrong. In all covenants and appeals we must regard Him. In ordinary intercourse and in common affairs of life we must be truthful. We must recognise the presence and majesty of God and not assert anything but what is right. God in the fulfilment of His word must be recognised as our example of faithfulness. He that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by the God of truth (lit. the God of Amen, i.e., firm and true, cf. Rev. 3:14; Rev. 19:11) Isa. 65:16.
THE FORBIDDEN PATH.Deu. 6:14-15
In all our hearts there is a tendency to depart from God, to forget what He commands, to go after what He forbids. This forbidden path is described
1. It is entered by many. The path of the people, the gods of the age. But the vox populi is not always the vox Dei. Idolatry of every kind is the root and nourisher of error and superstitionthe expression and epitome of human naturethe foul dishonour to God and His supremacy. Go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them (Jer. 25:6).
2. It is offensive to God. It stirs up Gods anger and rouses His jealousy. Bp. Patrick observes, that we never find in law or prophets, anger, or fury, or jealousy or indignation, attributed to God, but upon occasion of idolatry.
3. It is destructive in its end. Destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Idolatry corrupts the holy and petrifies the heart. Like a withering mildew it overspreads the earth and blights the nations. God has condemned and cursed it, and will punish all who are guilty. The warning voice from above should be heard; Ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu. 6:13. Threefold characteristics of Gods service.
1. God to be honoured.
2. God to be feared.
3. God to be served. Not forgetting is described from a positive point of view as fearing God, serving Him, and swearing by His name. Fear is placed first, as the fundamental characteristic of the Israelitish worship of God. It was no slavish fear, but simply the holy awe of a sinner before the holy God, which includes love rather than excludes it. Fearing is a matter of the heart; serving, a matter of working and striving; and swearing in His name, the practical manifestation of the worship of God in word and conversation.Keil.
Deu. 6:13 to Deu. 16:1. The fear of God the principle of service.
2. The preventative from idolatry (Deu. 6:14-15).
3. The remedy for unbelief.
Deu. 6:14-15. Ye shall not go after.
1. The course forbidden.
2. The warnings to keep from it; Gods anger and Gods jealousy.
3. The consequences of disregarding these warnings. Destroy thee from off the face of the earth. When lesser warnings will not serve, God looks into His quiver for deadly arrows. From hardness of heart, etc. Serving God. InquireI. What it is to serve God.
1. To dedicate ourselves wholly to Him.
2. To make His law the rule of our life.
3. To endeavour to please Him in all things. II. Why should we serve Him? Because He is
1. Our Maker.
2. Our Preserver.
3. Our Redeemer.
4. Our Master by covenant. III. The nature of the exhortation here given.
1. Directions: serve Him scripturally, obediently, willingly, cheerfully, faithfully, etc.
2. Motives: This is the end of your creation and of all Gods mercies to you; it is the work of heaven, and will be well rewarded.Wm. Stevens.
TEMPTING GOD.Deu. 6:16
The word tempt, here means to try to prove; and mindful of the circumstances alluded to God was not only provoked, but tested in His power and goodness. This sin we are warned against, for the apostle distinctly recognises that events in Israels history were typical and filled with Divine purpose and warning. All these things happened unto them for ensamples (types, patterns to admonish and instruct 1Co. 10:2.) How did Israel and how can we tempt God?
I. By doubting Gods presence and power to help. God was present with them night and day in the wonderful pillar, yet they cried, Is the Lord among us or not? (Exo. 17:7.) God had destroyed their enemies, delivered them from famine and danger, yet they tempted God in their hearts and cried in unbelief, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? (Psa. 78:18-20.) We murmur at our daily merciesthe manna and the stream; count actual enjoyments nothing, if they do not conform to our fancy; and pine for some imaginary good. When we circumscribe to infinite wisdom, mistrust omnipotent power to accomplish His purpose, we limit (sign, requiring miracle to satisfy us) the Holy One of Israel (Psa. 78:41.)
II. By rebelling against Gods authority. We find fault with Gods will, set up our own will instead, and thus insult God. At the Red Sea and the waters of Marah, in the wilderness of sin and in Rephidim, they provoked God their Creator and Lawgiver. They were base enough to deny His presence, doubt His power, and abuse His servant. In their wicked disposition they sinned still, went on sinning and rebelling, and were not in a mood to be convinced. Yea, they spake against God.
III. By provoking Gods patience. He led them in the wilderness, gave them plentiful supplies, but their gratitude was not commensurate with His goodness. How often did they provoke Him? Times enough did they rebel, and were as constant in provocation as God was in kindness. They have tempted me these ten times (i.e., often and in full measure), Num. 14:22; but at last Gods patience was provoked, and they were punished for their sins. God is not insensible to our conduct. We may vex His Holy Spirit, which would have been long ago withdrawn if God had not been merciful to us. We are dependent, and need Gods guidance and grace; let us not grieve Him in the desert. As Israel tried God by longing for the things left behind in Egypt and distrusted for the future, so we may tempt and offend God by hankering after pleasures which are forbidden, longing for that liberty in sin from which Christ has delivered us. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents (1Co. 10:9).
THE WAY OF LIFE AND SAFETY.Deu. 6:17-19
God is never indifferent to His claims upon us. Epicurus depicted his gods as totally regardless, and scorning the affairs of earth. But our God has set his heart on man, desires his eternal good, and points out the way to secure it. Amid the darkness and dangers of our journey God has provided help, For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Pro. 6:23).
I. A way in which Gods word must be our constant guide. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. The way has not to be invented or found out; it is revealed. We have not to make, but keep the command. The way of life is above to the wise. It is of heavenly, not of earthly origin, neither devised nor discerned by foolish men. We must constantly recognise and devoutly consult Gods word as our guide in our journey.
1. Carefully, as travellers anxious to be right and not lose the way. Some give careless service to God, and careless attention to His word. There must be no cold and formal observance, but effort to please and obey.
2. Earnestly. Diligence signifies not only energy and activity, but heart and affection. Heartiness and love must be displayed (Diligently the Latin tor lovingly). When Aristotle was asked what benefit he had derived from his philosophy, he replied: I have learnt to do without constraint that which others do from fear of the law. I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved.
3. Constantly. Not fitful or accidental, but patient and continual regard. Many forget and forsake the law. If it is displeasing to us, we easily neglect it; but when our hearts and minds are fixed upon it, then we love and practise it continually. When governed by the Word we are wise, safe, and strong. Happy is the mind to which the word is a special companion, says Bernard (cf. Psa. 119:7; Psa. 119:24; Pro. 6:22).
II. A way in which Gods will must be our constant regard. Do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord. The will of God is the standard of duty, and this must not be lowered to meet the opinions and wishes of men. It is not what is useful or expedient before men, but what is right before God. That alone is right which is pleasing to Him, which He commands, and which He requires from us. Conformity to Gods will and character must be the aim of our life. In this respect Christ is our example, who came to do the will of Him that sent Him, and could say, I do always those things that please Him (Joh. 6:29).
III. A way which leads to our present and future good. Religion confers the highest blessings upon us. The will of God is the fountain of all happiness, and the service of God the source of well being.
1. Our present good. That it may be well with thee. If it is not well with us, if we are not benefited by serving God, we may suspect something to be wrong. Our thoughts, employments, and pursuits may be opposed to Gods will, and then it cannot be well with us. It shall be well with them that fear God, but it shall not be well with the wicked.
2. Our future good. Man has a future of weal or woe. To forget this future is simply to court destruction. But continual regard to Gods will, and dependence upon Gods grace (a) will help us to overcome enemies. To cast out all thine enemies from before thee. We cannot overcome in our own attitude and strength. God dislodges our enemies, and clears our way to heaven (cf. Exo. 23:22; Jos. 24:8); (b) will secure to us the inheritanceresidence on earth, progress and grace in Christian life, and heaven at length. Thus do the Scriptures set before us the way of life. Are we walking in it? What man is he that desireth life and loveth (good days, or days of good, Seventy) many days, that he may see good (Psa. 34:12).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu. 6:16. Tempting God (Psa. 78:18). They tempted God, tried His patience over and over again, made as it were another experiment upon it, and, from the expression of tempting Him in their heart, it would seem as if they had made it a thing of mental calculation whether He would still bear with them (T. Chalmers on Psa. 78:18).
1. They tempted Gods patience.
2. They tempted Gods Wisdom
3. They tempted Gods power.
4. They tempted Gods wrath. Herein, as in a mirror, we see ourselves. Israel in the wilderness acted out, as in a drama, all the story of mans conduct towards his God.Treasury of David.
Deu. 6:17. Notice.
1. The Lawgiver. The Lord your God.
2. The authority interposed. Testimonies and statutes which He commanded thee.
3. The regard for this authority required. Keep the commandments.
Deu. 6:17 to Deu. 19:1. The end desiredgood.
2. The method of securing it. Filial obedience to God.
3. The results which follow. Possess the good land, etc.
The charge of Moses to Israel. In this passage we remarkI. A solemn charge given.
1. Hear the word of the Lord.
2. Observe the word of the Lord, doctrine, precept, promise.
3. Obey the word of the Lord. II. Important benefits proposed.
1. Safety.
2. Prosperity.
3. Peaceful possession of Canaan.Zeta.
THE RELIGION OF ENQUIRY.Deu. 6:20-25
Gods remarkable dealings with His people could not fail to excite their curiosity even to the latest generations. There was an express injunction that in every succeeding age they should carefully acquaint their children with the facts of their history. There must be a perpetual memorial of their great deliverance and a profound reverence in the mind of the nation of that Supreme Power to whom they were indebted for their civil and religious privileges. Questions were to be encouraged, parents were to answer questions by explaining divine institutions, that the laws of God might be perpetuated, family religion nourished, and national good secured.
I. The Religion of the Bible cultivates free enquiry. When thy son asketh thee what mean the testimonies. Man thinks. Reason is the attribute of his soul. The religion for man must not therefore overlook his intellect. Christianity is adapted to man in his capacity for knowledge and in his power to reason and conclude from that knowledge. Come let us reason together, is the language of our Creator. Many declare that Christianity is only fit for the ignorant and weak minded, and that it affords no scope for free enquiry. But it affords the finest scope for reason in which the mind can be exercised. Examination and enquiry are demanded from everyone. We are to think on these things, to search the scriptures, and prove all things (test like money changers) and hold fast that which is good (1Th. 5:21).
II. God has made provision for the demands of free enquiry. We cannot help but ask from whence am I and whither am I going? How can man be just with God? What mean the testimonies, etc. Solemn questions will prompt themselves which neither the philosophy of man nor the light of nature can answer. But God answers mans enquiries
1. In the facts of history. We were bondsmen in Egypt. In the Bible we have a record of facts beginning with the Creation and leading us through various dispensations to the consummation of Gods purpose in the death and work of Christ. In the lives of the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in the events of Jewish history and in the works of Jesus Christ we have grand historic facts, which are the basis of religion, the foundation of our faith, and the elements, the rudiments of childhoods lessons (cf. Gal. 3:24; Gal. 4:3).
2. In the doctrines of Scripture. Upon the facts of history the doctrines of religion are built. There is a growing tendency to take ideas without facts; to separate events from their supernatural surroundings; and to find in Scripture a legendary summary of primitive belief. But in the facts and doctrines of Christianity God has provided for the necessities of our nature and not left us to cunningly devised fables.
3. In the records of Providence. Gods power and presence were seen in His dealings with Israel. His purpose and promise have been fulfilled in the history of nations. The system of Providence is accommodatory to our nature in teaching by sensible signs and striking events. The Lord showed signs and wonders.
III. It is our interest to enquire and possess this Religion. The facts and doctrines of Scripture must be confirmed in our experience and traced in our life conduct. He that believeth hath the witness in himself. If we fear God and keep His commandments we shall realise the power of God to help; the grace of God to pardon and renew, the need of the Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide.
1. It will be for our good, Deu. 6:24. To investigate truth, to follow God will not only be enjoyment but our good. Our views will be enlarged, our convictions deepened, and we shall find that every event of Providence and every command of God contribute to our good always.
2. It will be for our righteousness (Deu. 6:25). Just as loyal obedience secured to Israel their standing and inheritance, so Christians can only justify their claims and position as Gods people by holy life. They are Gods peculiar people, redeemed to serve Him and to train future generations in their holy faith. Just as youth are embued with righteousness and truth, and posterity taught the will and works of God, will the Christian church and the nation have within themselves the principle of perpetuation and the security of natural life and religious position. That they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.
A WONDERFUL HISTORY.Deu. 6:21-23
Israels history from first to last is a process of moral education. In its gradual progress, its divine symbols and its spiritual design, we see divine purpose comprehend in the good of the nation and the redemption of the world. In these words we have two or three remarkable epochs or displays filled with moral instruction.
I. The Great Deliverance. The Lord brought us out of Egypt. For generations Israel had been oppressed and held in bondage most bitter. But in the self-same day of promise, they were rescued without delay. Slavery ended, task-masters gone and liberty gained! Salvation most complete and joy unspeakable. All escaped. Promises and deliverance in Christ to those in bondage of sin and death. He gives life, liberty, joy and glory.
II. The wonderful way in which it was accomplished.
1. By Divine might. With a mighty hand. Pharaoh could not resist the omnipotence of God. The strong man armed can only keep his palace until the stronger than he cometh.
2. By marvellous deeds. Signs and wonders, great and sore. Most alarming were the judgments of God upon Egypt. God touched the support of life and the objects of worshipannoyed with pain and diseaseturned the wealthy land into a wilderness. Then came the dark shadow and finally the stroke of death itself upon the chief of all their strength. Judgments upon sin may be light at first, but if disregarded will destroy in the end the wicked treasure, wrath against the day of wrath, because of the blindness (hardness) of their hearts (Eph. 4:18).
III. The Gracious Design. To give us the land. Canaan, acquired, not by valour and human skill, a gift of God. To give us. Patriarchs had been sojourners and strangers there; now descendents in full possession.
1. An inheritance promised. which he sware unto our fathers. The covenant 400 years before now to be established; God never forgets. Never think that Gods delays are Gods denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. (Buffon). With Him a thousand years as one day (Psa. 90:4).
2. An inheritance into which they were guided. He brought us out, that He might bring us in. Canaan not only offered, but Israel helped to get it. The way long, the dangers great, but the Angel of the Covenant never forsook them. God will guide us by the written word and the Holy Spirit if we follow Him. I will instruct thee.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Deu. 6:20-21. Notice
1. Divine Institutions have meaning and design.
2. Our duty to enquire al out them.
3. Children especially should be encouraged to question, etc. A Persian philosopher was asked by what method he had acquired so much knowledge, answered, By not being prevented by shame from asking questions when I am ignorant.
Deu. 6:20. The Childrens Question.
1. Children to be encouraged to seek knowledge concerning the Bible and the Church. 2. Patiently and wisely explain, doctrines, duties and privileges.
3. Early teach children to acknowledge God and refer deliverances and all other blessings to Him.
4. Believe that the Holy Spirit will impress youthful hearts with what they see and hear in Gods house. The School in the Family, pupils, teachers, lessons to be learned, and benefit of practising them.
Deu. 6:24-25. Gods commands, our life and righteousness.
1. Israel to be a separated people (Deu. 6:23).
2. Their continued existence depended upon obedience to God (Deu. 6:24).
3. In this continued existence would be the justification of their character and position (Deu. 6:25). Every Israelite who yielded an external obedience to the Mosaic law was termed righteous, and had a claim in virtue of that obedience, to the land of Canaan; so that doing these things, he lived by them (Lev. 18:5; Deu. 5:33). The import of the statement in these verses, then, is that a faithful observance of all these commandments should constitute their title to the promised blessings of the covenant.Jamieson.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Deu. 6:1-3. Fear. This fear of God is the foundation of religion; for the great support of virtue among men is the sense upon their minds of a supreme Governor and Judge of the universe, who will finally and effectually reward what is in itself essentially worthy of reward, and punishment what is worthy of punishment. Consequently fear brings us into subjection to Gods authority and enforces the practice of duty; for the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. (Duty of Man) Love. Our affections are drawn to an attractive object as naturally as iron is charmed by loadstone. God made us to love; and when brought near to such an object our feelings in-twine themselves around it, as the soft and pliant tendrils of the vine do around the support it clothes with leaves, and hangs with purple clusters. Such analogy is there between the laws of mind and matter.Dr. Guthrie.
Deu. 6:4-5. One Lord. We believe God to be one, so we believe Him to be in such manner one, that there cannot possibly be another, for all things must derive their being from Him, and whatsoever being has its existence from another cannot be God, but must be a creature. This unity of God is of universal obligation to be believed that we may be fixed as to the object of our worship, and place our religious adoration there only, where it is due; and also that we may give Him that honour, which is due to Him alone; part whereof is, that we have no other Gods but one, in him only must we trust and love with all our hearts, because He only is infinite goodness, beauty and glory.
Deu. 6:6-9. Write. It is now customary among the Arabs, and the Oriental nations, to write passages of the Koran, and other moral sentences, on the gates of cities, walls, and doorposts.Dr. Boothroyd.
Teach. It was the godly practice of the patriarchs to instruct their children concerning the creation of the world, transgression of man, destruction of the old world, Gods providence, the Messiah to be revealed, and the like. The parents mouths were large books, in which their children did read the noble acts of the Lord. Philip was glad that Alexander was born whilst Aristotle lived, that he might be instructed by Aristotle in philosophy. It is no mean mercy that thy children are born in the days of the Gospel, a land of light, where they may be instructed in Christianity.Geo. Swinnock.
Deu. 6:10-12. Forget. Prosperity is a more refined and severe test of character than adversity, as one hour of summer sunshine produces greater corruption than the longest winter day.Eliza Cook.
Deu. 6:12-15. Forget God. Men who put their supreme idea of life in self-indulgence, cannot understand what God means, who makes self-exertion, in Himself, in angelic powers, in all His creatures, the test of real being. If men are seeking to be supine, to have infinite enjoyment without earning it, and God is determined they shall be stirred up by storms of hope and fear, pain and ease, in order that they may grow and develop, of course they cannot understand Him or His administration. The prizes in this world are placed where those men shall get them who by development, by opening and educating their powers, seek them.Beecher.
Deu. 6:14-16. Tempt. Although God cannot be tempted with evil, he may justly be said to be tempted, whensoever men, by being dissatisfied with His dealings, virtually ask that He will alter those dealings, and proceed in a way more congenial with their feelings. Suppose a man to be discontented with the appointments of Providence; suppose him to murmur and repine at what the Almighty allots him to do or to bear, is he not to be charged with provoking God to change His purposes? and what is this if it be not tempting Goda striving to induce Him to swerve from His plans, though every one of these plans has been settled by infinite wisdom. In short, unbelief of every kind and degree may be said to be a tempting of God; for not to believe on the evidence which he has seen fit to give, is to tempt him to give more than He has already givenoffering our possible assent, if proof were increased, as an inducement to him to go beyond what his wisdom has prescribed.H. Melvill.
Deu. 6:20-25. What mean the testimonies? The mother of a family was married to an infidel, who made a jest of religion in presence of his own children; yet she succeeded in bringing them all up in the fear of the Lord. I one day asked her how she preserved them from the influence of a father whose sentiments were so openly opposed to her own? She answered: Because to the authority of a father I did not oppose the authority of a mother, but that of God. From earliest years my children have always seen the Bible upon the table. This Holy Book has constituted the whole of their religious instruction. I was silent that I might allow it to speak. Did they propose a question; did they commit any fault; did they perform any good action; I opened the Bible, and the Bible answered, reproved or encouraged them. The constant reading of the Scriptures has alone wrought the prodigy which surprises you (A. Monod). Young man, attend to the voice of one who possesses certain degree of fame in the world, said Dr. Samuel Johnson, and who will shortly appear before his Makerread the Bible every day of your life.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
d. PURPOSES OF OBSERVING THE LAW: (Deu. 5:32 to Deu. 6:3)
Notice these purposes as you read the verses below:
(1)
to live
(2)
to live well
(3)
to live long
(4)
to multiply
32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as Jehovah your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 Ye shall walk in all the way which Jehovah your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.
Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it; 2 that thou mightest fear Jehovah thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy sons son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 5:32-6:3
127.
The command of Deu. 5:32 presupposes several things: (1) A personal knowledge of the law, (2) A personal desire to obey the law, (3) Those who would teach the law, Were these factors always present? If not who was to blame?
128.
Physical life and material prosperity are here associated with obedience to the law. Is this true today? Discuss.
129.
Someone said, Democracy is the by-product of Christianity, Discuss the prosperity and danger of America as compared with Israel.
AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 5:32-6:3
32 Therefore you people shall be watchful 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 which 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 which you shall possess.
CHAPTER 6
Now this is the instruction, the laws, and the precepts, which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land to which you go to possess it;
2 That you may (reverently) fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your sons son, and keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be watchful to do them; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase exceedingly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
COMMENT 5:32-6:3
THAT YE MAY LIVE, etc. (Deu. 5:33)Note the similarity to Deu. 5:16 and Eph. 6:3. One cannot but be impressed time and again in this book that God promises happiness and joy to his children if they will be obedient, Afflictions and difficulties they might have on this earth (as Job did) but the promise contained here would still be theirs if they would not turn away from their God.
Material prosperity formed a large part of Israels promised blessing. The Israel of God today, his church (Gal. 6:16) is also a land flowing with milk and honeythe great spiritual and eternal blessings of Christ! Every true member of the church inherits far more than the blessings enumerated here. The least one in Christs kingdom has more for which to be grateful than the greatest of those living under the Mosaic covenant (Mat. 11:11).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VI.
FIRST PORTION OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE LAW (Deuteronomy 6-11).
(1) These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord . . . commanded . . . that ye might do them in the land.After the Decalogue itself has been recapitulated, Moses proceeds to apply its principles to the conduct of Israel in the promised land. The first part of the application is more general, and concerns the relation of Israel to Jehovah, who has brought them from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land. This portion concludes with Deuteronomy 11. The precepts that follow are particular, and concern the land of Israel viewed as the seat of (1) the worship and (2) the kingdom of Jehovah. But the whole discourse, from Deu. 4:44 to the end of Deuteronomy 26 is presented to us as one unbroken whole. (See Introduction for a complete analysis.)
The commandments.Literally, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments. The commandment is the duty imposed on Israel by the covenant of the ten wordsits application to their daily lives. This application includes (1) statutes, religious ordinances, or institutions; and (2) judgments, requirements, actual rules of behaviour. The two words statutes and judgments, in the original, may sometimes represent two aspects of the same thing. For example, the Passover is an ordinance, or statute, or, as we should say, an institution. The rules for its observance are judgments, or requirements. The thing itself is permanent; the rules for its observance may vary. It was originally eaten standing, and in haste. But after Israel was at rest, it was eaten by them reclining, and in an attitude of repose. Again, the moral law as a whole was eternal; but its application to the life of Israel was very different from its application to ourselves. The word here rendered commandments is now commonly employed by the Jews to signify any religious duty or good work.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1, 2. The commandments That which is commanded. The word in its signification is equivalent to the thorah, the law.
Statutes, and the judgments Explanatory of the preceding word statutes referring more to moral and religious precepts, judgments to laws regulating civil rights.
That thy days may be prolonged Comp. what Moses says in chap. Deu 8:1; Deu 30:16.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 6 The Essence of the Covenant Is That Israel Shall Love Yahweh With All Their Beings And Reveal It In Their Obedience, Keeping Solely To Him As Long As They Lived.
Having reminded them of the awesome experience of the giving of the covenant, and of what it basically contained, Moses now seeks to urge on the people the need for total response and obedience to it. But note that he does it, not in terms of their listing the rules and keeping them, but in terms of a personal response of love, a love that responds to what Yahweh has already done for them. The covenant is not one of bargain, but of grace. Yahweh had graciously delivered them from the suzerainty of Egypt, from slavery and bondage. Now He calls on them to respond to Him in love, trust and obedience. There could be no enjoyment of blessing without that.
This chapter will then be followed by a stern warning of the need to deal severely with idolatry in Deuteronomy 7, the need to ensure that they remember and never forget what He has done for them in Deuteronomy 8, and a need to recognise the obstinacy of their own hearts in Deuteronomy 9. These are the three great enemies of man; things that turn us away from God as He is; unfaithfulness and forgetfulness; and obstinacy. It is these things that prevent us fulfilling His will.
Deuteronomy 10-11 then speak of Yahweh’s positive preparations for His people, and recapitulate all that has already been said, preparatory to the giving of the detailed regulation.
In this we are drawing attention to the particular emphases of the chapters. There is of course much more. But the need to reject idolatry and the need to remember and not forget are constantly mentioned. These are one of the main emphases of these particular chapters.
Yahweh’s Covenant Requirements Are Now To Be Spelled Out ( Deu 6:1-3 ).
This opening introduction to Yahweh’s Covenant requirements describes (1) what he is bringing them, Yahweh’s commandment with its statutes and ordinances, (2) what he hopes they will do for them, make them have a reverential fear of Him, and (3) the final aim behind them, the keeping of those statutes and commandments resulting in long life. They are then exhorted (4) to listen well and observe to do them so that it might be well with them and so that they might become numerous, as Yahweh had promised, in the land flowing with milk and honey.
Analysis (expressed in Moses words).
a This is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land to which you go over to possess it (Deu 6:1).
b (These are given that) ‘you might do them in the land to which you go over to possess it, that you might fear Yahweh your God’ (Deu 6:2 a).
c To keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you (Deu 6:2 b)
c You, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged (Deu 6:2 b).
b And that you might hear and observe to do His covenant (Deu 6:3 a)
a That it may be well with you and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in the land flowing with milk and honey (Deu 6:3 b).
Deu 6:1-2
‘ Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you (ye) might do them in the land to which you (ye) go over to possess it, that you (thou) might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you (thee), you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your (thy) life, and that your (thy) days may be prolonged.’
We must beware of seeing this as a new introduction. It rather combines with Deu 5:32-33 to form a connecting link. Both this and Deu 5:31-33 refer to ‘the commandment, the statutes and the judgments (ordinances)’, and both refer to long lives in the land which they will possess. Thus this is to be seen as the carrying forward of the process described in Deuteronomy 5. It is entering the heart of the covenant. See also Deu 11:32 which finishes off this section and Deu 12:1 which connects this section to the next. See also Deu 26:16; Deu 30:16 (which also has a prosperous life in mind). It is a theme of Deuteronomy. Note the change from ‘ye’ to ‘thou’. This indicates a heightening of the sense of command and a personalisation to each hearer, especially in view of the singular ‘son’.
“The statutes and the ordinances” were mentioned five times in Deuteronomy 4 where they were a summary of the covenant stipulations. In Deu 5:33 ‘the commandments, and the statutes and the judgments’ were urged on Israel by Moses as something to be obeyed. Now he will declare them. This is so that they might do them in the land that they are going over to possess. God had given these statutes and judgments (ordinances) so that they and each of their sons and each of their son’s sons might fear Him and keep them. They were not just to be known but to be observed. They laid out the manner of life that was expected of them as His redeemed people.
But note the stress in Deu 6:5 that they were to keep them, not in order to gain merit, but because they loved Yahweh with heart, and soul, and might. He wanted not a servile obedience, but the loving response of a firstborn son to his Father (Exo 4:22). For this relationship in Deuteronomy see Deu 1:31; Deu 8:5; Deu 14:1.
Deu 6:3
‘ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you (thee), and that you (ye) may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, (enjoying) a land flowing with milk and honey.’
So he urges them as one nation, and as individual people, to hear and observe Yahweh’s commandment through these statutes and ordinances, so that it might be well with all of them, and so that they may grow and expand, (as Yahweh had promised to their fathers, and to them), in the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, the good land, where all was God’s provision and good to partake of. That is what they had promised in Deu 5:27. Now he calls on them to do it.
“Enjoying” is included in the English translation in order to indicate the sense.
For us there is no land to enter. But we have a better land, the Jerusalem that is above and all that goes with it (Gal 4:26). For the land offered by God through Moses was an earthly ‘Kingdom of God’, which was why it failed, but what He was more importantly really offering was life under God’s Kingly Rule. Thus we now enter into the heavenly kingdom of God by coming under ‘the Kingly Rule of God’. And having come under His rule by responding to Christ the King we are to fully keep all His commandments, and especially this commandment, that we love one another.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Deu 6:4-9 The Shema – Perhaps the most important Old Testament passage to the Jews in revealing God’s redemptive plan for mankind can be found in Deu 6:4-6, which the Jews call “the Shema,” ( ), a name derived from the first Hebrew word in this biblical text. This passage of Scripture reveals that there is only one true God, and that Israel was to serve Him only. S. R. Driver calls this passage “the fundamental truth of Israel’s religion.” [23] Because of its historical importance to the Old Testament Jews this passage of Scripture appears numerous times in the New Testament writings (Mat 22:37, Mar 12:29-32; Mar 12:37, Luk 10:27). For example, when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees what was the greatest commandment, He quoted the Shema, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord…” (Mar 12:29) In other words, Jesus considered the Shema the single most important text of the Old Testament, revealing to Israel that there is only one true God whom the Jews were to serve with all of their heart, soul, and strength. Paul Chappell says that a long-standing tradition of the Jews has been to recite this passage, as well as Deu 11:13-21 and Num 15:37-41, as a part of their daily prayers. [24]
[23] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1 21:9, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 6a, second edition, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM]. Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004, notes on Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Form, Structure, Setting.
[24] Paul G. Chappell, The Spirit Filled Life Bible ( Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, c1991), 262.
Jesus refers to this popular Jewish passage in the Gospels.
Mat 22:37-40, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Mar 12:29-33, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Luk 10:27, “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deu 6:5
Deu 6:5 Word Study on “soul” – Hebrew ( ) (H5315).
Deu 6:5 Word Study on “might” Strong says the Hebrew word “might” ( ) (H3966) means, “vehemently, wholly, speedily.”
Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:13 Deu 6:13
Mat 4:10, “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Luk 4:8, “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Deu 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
Deu 6:16
Mat 4:7, “Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Luk 4:12, “And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Deu 6:20-25 Explanation to the Children for Obeying the Mosaic Laws In Deu 6:20-25 Moses tells the people what to say to their children when they are asked a very practical question. Every child will ask their parents why they have to do this and that. The parents are to reply by telling how God in his grace redeemed them from Egypt. In other words, there is a message of God’s grace that underlies the works of the Law. The children of Israel were to obey the Lord because He was their Redeemer.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Emphatic Admonition
v. 1. Now, these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, v. 2. that thou mightest fear the Lord, thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command thee, v. 3. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, v. 4. Hear, O Israel: The Lord, our God, is one Lord, v. 5. and thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might, v. 6. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, v. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, v. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, v. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, v. 10. And it shall be, when the Lord, thy God, shall have brought thee in to the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, v. 11. and houses full of good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full, v. 12. then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. v. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord, thy God, v. 14. Ye shall not go after other gods, v. 15.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
II. THE SECOND DISCOURSE
Deuteronomy 5-26
The text-the decalogue, the foundation of the covenant, the kernel of the whole law, and the fundamental condition of all salvation
Deu 5:1 to Deu 6:3
1And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in [before] your ears this day, that ye may learn 2[and learn] them, and keep,1 and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive [living] this day. 4The Lord talked with 5you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. (I stood [was standing] between the Lord and you at that time, to shew [announce to] you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of [before]2 the fire, and went not up into the 6mount,) saying, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of3 bondage. 7Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 8Thou shalt not make thee any graven [idol] image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 9Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto [and upon] the third and [upon] fourth generation of them that hate me, 10And shewing mercy unto thousands [the thousandth] of them that love [loving] me, and keep [and keeping] my commandments. 11Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain4 [to a nonentity, falsehood]: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 12Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 13Six days thou shalt labour, and do 14all thy work; But [and] the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor [and] thy son, nor [and] thy daughter, nor [and] thy man-servant, nor [and] thy maid-servant, nor [and] thine ox, nor [and] thine ass, nor [and] any of thy cattle, nor [and] thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. 15And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that [om. that] the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through [with] a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day. 16Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, 17, 18in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Neither 19shalt thou commit adultery. 20Neither shalt thou steal. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. 21Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbours wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbours house, his field, or [and] his man-servant, or [and] his maid-servant, his ox, or [and] his ass, or [and] any thing that is thy neighbours. 22These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more5 and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. 23And it came to pass, when [as] ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for [and] the mountain did burn [was burning] with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 24And ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory, and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. 25Now [And now] therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: 26if we6 hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee;7 and we will hear it [thee], and do it. 28And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. 29O that there were [who will give] such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their [sons] children for ever! 30Go say to them, Get you into your tents again. 31But as for thee [and thou] stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. 32Ye 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. 33Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days [live a long time] in the land which ye shall possess.
Deu 6:1 Now these are the commandments, [And this is the commandment]8 the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go [pass over] to possess it: 2That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy sons son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it maybe well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised [spake to] thee, in [om. in] the [a] land that floweth with milk and honey.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Deu 5:1-5. In distinction from spake, Deu 1:1, here not to show the public nature of his discourses (Schultz) for that was already sufficiently clear, through all Israel, but the loud voice, with which Moses sought to reach all as far as possible. Gen 49:1; Joh 7:37. Comp. upon Deu 4:1. There , because as yet introductory, but here where the substance of the law is to be repeated, and accordingly instead of here , in both cases the participle indicating the condition: as ye see and hear. , to keep, is necessary both for its own conduct, and for the office of Israel among the nations (Deu 4:2; Deu 4:6). [Bib. Com. The recapitulation of the law upon which Moses now enters was suggested by the fact that the generation to which it was originally given was now dead, by the change about to take place in the circumstances of Israel, through their actual settlement in the land of promise, and by the approaching decease of the great law-giver.A. G.]. Deu 5:2. The peculiar character of the covenant as of God with Israel, has appeared already in a similar connection, Deu 4:1 (Doct. and Eth. 13). The law as an intermediate step in the development of the covenant, does not essentially modify the latter (Gal 3:17) since the law is at the same time pedagogically a promise (Gal 3:24 sq.). The time of the promise also is not without law, the Noachic and Abrahamic preformations of the law being simply overshadowed by the promise. Deu 5:3. That which is new and peculiar in this covenant, not with the fathers (i.e., the patriarchs) but with Israel, the characteristic of the historical development is merely the greater prominence of the law, and indeed as a national code, and as a preparatory step toward the salvation of all nations. Israel now has the same significance for the whole race which the fathers had for Israel (Deu 4:37). But although the negative statement throws light upon the character of the covenant, it contains much more, which the positive statement expresses, as to its direct relation to the present generation, who are thus distinguished from the fathers. There may be a reference also to the fathers in Egypt, (Calvin) in so far as they represent the first step in the development of Israel to a nation, whose actual existence as a nation is here prominent. And since the present Israel has escaped the judgments which overwhelmed the former Israel in death, so we seem to see the forms of the fathers, whose bones lie bleaching in the wilderness. But Moses intends to say, not the fathers, whoever they may be, but we are the people, whom it concerns, whose faith and obedience come into view (Deu 4:4). [But with us.The original is very emphatic: with us, even us, all of us living.A. G.] This direct relation of the covenant unto them is further shown by the manner of its conclusion: face to face ( instead of ). If it is not indicated in the words used, there is in fact a great difference between the manner in which the revelation spoken of here, and that made to Moses (Deu 34:10; Exo 33:11) was effected, and Deu 5:5 states concisely the mediatory position which Moses in forming the covenant occupied (Exo 19:19 sq.) on account of the fear of the people. [Moses was in the mount while the ten commandments were spoken. Although they were not addressed to him in distinction from the people, yet he even then occupied a mediatory position, which became more conspicuous after the terror and request of the people.A. G.]Upon the word of the Lord (not the ten commandments), comp. Deu 5:24 sq.; Exo 19:21 sq.; Deu 20:19 sq. refers remotely to , Deu 5:4, and more nearly to , Deu 5:5, which takes up again the thought of .
2. Deu 5:6-21. After the parenthesis, Deu 5:5, follows the decalogue as the foundation of the covenant, Exodus 20. The law, the determination for man, can only come from Him who alone and over all is self-determined, i.e. from God, and from God as Jehovah, Deu 5:6 (the entire moral code of the decalogue roots itself in the name of Jehovah. Baumgarten). The eternally unchangeable, because He demands the obedience of faith (not simply the moral imperative), must not merely reveal Himself, but in His revelation to Israel must show Himself as the true and faithful God.Thy God.With this initiatory statement, which concentrates within itself the life-thought of the Israelitish nation, is closely connected the historical statement of the redemptive work already accomplished: which brought thee out, sq.All that follows naturally addresses itself to Israel. Deu 5:7. The form of a prohibition, because with the allusion to Egypt, the apostate heathen world comes into view over against Israel, and Israel must say in its heart, not, sq., to which my heart is all too much inclined. [As the law is not alone for Israel, but universal, the prohibitory form has a deeper ground than any enactments growing out of the relations of Israel to the heathen worlda ground in the perverse inclinations of the heart as fallen, to go wrong.A. G.] Since denotes the only or self-existent being, and this being is the God of Israel, there cannot be ( ) for Israel any other God, either in His stead (substitution in the gross forms of idolatry), or even () in addition to, by the side of, or over and above Him (the co-ordination in the more refined systems of idolatry), Isa 42:8; 1Co 8:4-5. Heidel. Catechism, Question 95. It is ever another than the only true God in His revelation (), Deu 5:4. denotes a second one, following, whence in the plural form, thus polytheistically ( ), contradicts the unity and exclusiveness of Jehovah; but then also as implying a being other than the being, namely, a not-being, a nonentity. Heathenism is thus pointed out as an apostacy from the primitive monotheism, or as a sickly form of the God-consciousness, Romans 1. Comp. J. Grimm, German Myth. I.: All mythologies show this relation. Upon Deu 5:8 () comp. Deu 4:16; Deu 4:15; Deu 4:12.In the heavens (Deu 4:17), i.e. of birds, although also (Deu 4:19) of the stars. The way to idolatry is marked out and enclosed instructively in the ever-deepening shades of heathenism, i.e. of the human heart left to itself. First comes the falling away from the true God; then the falling into the service of false gods. If Jehovah in the first relation is the only living God, He is also in this second reference the one who is only and purely spirit. Idolatry in one aspect is an improper multiplication of, or addition to, the idea of God, and in another an equally improper division or subtraction from it. We pass in Deu 5:9 from the idol-makers to the idol-worshippers; (the believing reverence and worship), (the practical obedience of the cultus), Deu 4:19; Deu 4:28. The transition to Deu 5:11 is thus, as becomes the living Spirit or God, from the innermost spiritual life of men to its closest and most natural expession in words through language. And the reason also: For I the Lord, sq., is spiritual and moral in its nature. So likewise the introductory representation of Jehovah (comp. upon Deu 4:24) which precludes all nature-necessity, fate, and the like. And so also, although the iniquity of the fathers is said to come upon the children of the third, and even the fourth generation, still physical relations are perhaps mainly thought of in the iniquity in which they became sharers through the personal sins, and the punishment cleaves to the iniquity. Comp. Deu 24:16.To visit upon is to punish. , those hating me, by which this feeling is designated as the adhering quality, the enduring condition of those in question. The resumes again certainly the genitive ; but at the same time the repeated binds the different generations with the fathers into one organic form in their hatred against Jehovah. Indeed the parallel, (1Jn 5:3), will not admit any other interpretation (comp. Lev 26:39-40). As this regard to the subjective character of men does not veil the righteousness, in the holy energy of God (Gen 18:25), so Deu 5:10 unveils the abundant, overflowing richness of the love-energy of God (Exo 34:6 sq.). Jeremiah and Ezekiel simply correct the heathenish interpretation of the truth. Jer 32:18 sq.; Ezekiel 18. The word of the mouth to which we now pass is the most spiritual expression of the man; and thus the name of the Lord, Deu 5:11, is moreover the true self-revelation of the divine life (Joh 20:31), as this is for man, and offered to him, the word of God with respect to Himself, by which He legitimates Himself (Exo 3:13 sq.: Isa 52:6), and through which He will be sought and found (Deu 4:7; Joe 2:32). , to take, to raise up, with or , the direction whither, to lift up, to aim at, desire, used of the purpose of the soul, Psa 24:4, here of the tendency of the tongue, thus to take upon the lips, to bear in the mouth, in order to utter the name to , nothingness, vanity, thus useless, thoughtless, then morally evil, wickedness, and thus shamefully, falsely. If the acknowledgment of Jehovah is here indicated, the sanctification of the Sabbath is the actual acknowledgment. , Deu 5:12 is not more specific than , Exo 20:8 (as Schultz holds), but rather the reverse, since the latter points out specifically how the former may be secured. While in Deu 5:8, compared with Exo 20:4, the is wanting before , and is found in Deu 5:9 before , though not occurring in Exo 20:5, changes of little importance, the change here from to , bringing out the keeping in opposition to the profaning and secularizing of the name of Jehovah, corresponds significantly to the national character of Israel, and to the design of Deuteronomy. The sanctification of the Sabbath is indeed a national confession. Over against the several nonentities with which the name of Jehovah might be mingled, Israel was bound to the time (), which precisely points out this manifoldness as a nothingness, because temporary and fleeting. , the one who rests, keeps festival. The day is what Israel should be at the day. Thus the day is sanctified, i.e. set apart, separated from the other days.As the Lord thy God commanded thee refers to the institution, as it is recorded Exodus 20, for as to the rest Deu 5:13 sq. accords with Exo 20:9 sq.: so that the farther carrying out of the command does not come into view here. But since Exo 20:11 is here presupposed, Deu 5:15 still once more emphasizes has commanded thee. Deu 5:13. from (Gen 2:2), whatever one undertakes and completes. Deu 5:14. , to whom it is separated and sanctified.And thy son, sq.The state grows out of the household, the people from the family, and thus the national confession of Israel is laid open at its very roots and sources.Nor thy ox, sq.Particularizing, and then at last, summing up that which is generally referred to in nor thy cattle, Exo 20:10. For comp. Deu 1:16 and Doct. and Eth. 3. As to the connection of master and man-servant and maid-servant under the idea of rest: that they may rest as well as thou, this similar position in reference to the enjoyment of the Sabbath already intimated, Exo 23:11, is still more expressly stated in Deu 5:15, since the remember, Exo 20:8 (which does not call for a recollection of the Sabbath-rest of God (Genesis 2), but an inward keeping of the Sabbath-day to the very end of its sanctification, so that it shall be sanctified as commanded whenever it returns), gives at the same time a coloring and completion to the thought. The redemption of Israel from Egypt is brought to consciousness again just as in Exo 13:3; Deu 4:34. This demand here does not entirely coincide with Exo 20:11, for there the declares why Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, because He rested on the seventh day, while here on the contrary it teaches why Israel, is commanded to keep the Sabbath day instituted by God upon this ground, and rest, the man and maid-servant with their master. To the reason for the institution on the part of God there is added now a special reason for its observance on the part of the people, who therein confess that they are redeemed, and thus distinguished above all nations (Deu 4:34; Deu 4:37 sq., 20). A genuine deuteronomic application of the more objective command in Exodus 20.[So far from there being any inconsistency in the sacred writer here, the variety in the statements, confirms the genuine Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy. No later writer, designing to palm off his work as that of Moses, would have ventured upon this freedom. The appropriateness of these references to the previous condition of Israel, as motives to the observance of the Sabbath, is obvious, since the exodus was really one entrance into rest.A. G.]If the acknowledgment to Jehovah in fact appears here to be limited to the solemnity of a single day, Deu 5:16 removes any such limitation, and makes the whole life of the Israelite from the first father and mother down to the last, an actual and real acknowledgment of Jehovah. If designates the brightness of the divine majesty (), (Piel) puts this glory upon parents, and this is to honor them, and this with an express extension of the command to the mother usually elsewhere included in the personal service of the house (Beck). Parents stand nearest to us (without considering them here merely as men by our side, our neighbors, although in this sense they are truly nearest to us among men, and hence the transition from the first to the second table), and represent the glory of God the Creator, Preserver and Ruler, with which last idea all the remaining representations of the divine glory through men are connected, e.g.Exo 22:27.Hath commanded thee, as in Deu 5:12, and thus calls attention to its connection with the Sabbath commandment. They are two aspects of the actual sanctification, as Jehovah is holy, and thus a confession to Him in act or deed, Lev 19:2-3. That it may go well with thee.An addition of Moses, who, since he has so repeatedly referred to the first lawgiving, here allows himself this freedom. Long life, without well-being, would be a long calamity, and hence this filling up of the word of promise. is the earth as fruitful; (, the earth in distinction from water), perhaps in reference to the individual, as in reference to the people as a whole. After the structure of human society is thus presented not only as leaning (Baumgarten) upon the divine sanctuary, but through that is raised to the heights of honor, even to a Sabbath state, that Israel may lead a quiet life in all propriety and honesty, Deu 5:17, now turns against those things which in worldly policy and irreligion have been partly and by degrees endured, and partly in a certain way held as privileged destroyers of the social life, murder, adultery, theft (Baumgarten). The thought that the divine image in man introduces the transition (Keil), cannot be drawn from the text. It says simply: Thou shalt not, sq., with the energetic brevity and sharpness of the commanding law-giver, judge, and avenger of every assault upon the personal life, wedded life, and property. The first, roots or plants itself in the second, and has its individual well-being in the third, so that the common thought of these three prohibitions is the personal life, as is also the idea of deeds, from which we now pass to words. The is rhetorical. Exo 20:16; a false witness, through a deceitful testimony (, the testimony or the witness), here as Deu 5:11. Correspondence between the tongue commands in the two tables! , according to the primary sense of the word, is the ally, associate, companion, friend. The command directs itself against the fretting poison of falsehood in report and witness-bearing, in public fame and courts of justice, so destructive of any quiet possession and enjoyment of those goods, (i.e., those of the foregoing commands); and not content with crossing the serpent path of falsehood, as it in the affairs of life worms itself even into the halls of justice, the divine law goes still further, enters the secret workshop of the heart, and aims its blows at that selfish enjoyment and greed of gain (), which in it are ever weaving their plots against other persons and interests, in which indeed not only every outrage against our neighbor, but even the ungodliness and idolatry, standing at the beginning of the decalogue, have their ground and existence (Col 3:5; Eph 5:3). (Baumgarten). The twice-repeated , Exo 20:14, expresses the more comprehensive idea, in connection with the delight in the attractive features of the object, and hence Deu 5:18, used only in reference to the wife, rhetorically interchanged with in hithpael: more subjective desire. The personal life of our neighbor is passed over, since it offers nothing to the sinful lust, but rather the contrary, while on the other hand the wife (Exo 20:17) comes before house, as the prohibition of adultery follows that of murder. To the house, especially in its reference to Canaan, is added in a fitting way, the field, as a parenthesis. What follows is here, as in Exodus 20, the specifying of the household state. [The diversities in the form of this command here, from that in Exo 20:17, are all due to the peculiar character of this passage, or to the special object in view in Deuteronomy, when Israel was about to enter upon its possession.A. G.].
3. Deu 5:22-33. Deu 5:22 sq. as Exo 20:19 sq. Comp. upon Deu 4:11-12. accusative of the instrument, or member through which the act in performed. Gesenius. Eze 11:13. (Num 11:25) and he added no more, i.e., not to speak in this way, he did it this once and not again. The decalogue is spoken directly to Israel, all the rest through Moses.[Wordsworth: The perpetuity, universality, and supremacy of the law, were marked by the circumstances of the delivery of the decalogue.A. G.]. Comp. Deu 4:13; Exo 31:18
Deu 5:24 : Comp. Exo 20:19; Deu 3:24; Deu 4:33; Deu 4:42. We have lived to see that which has never been heard of, but not again! Thus the no more on the part of Jehovah, Deu 5:22, receives its explanation, though the desire for a mediator on the part of the people. Deu 5:25, Exo 20:19; Deu 4:24, (Heb 10:31). For if we hear [lit. add to hear] see upon Deu 5:22. : The people, in distinction from Moses, set forth the necessity for a mediator. The serves to strengthen the declaration that the one occurrence was enough. Deu 5:26 : designates man as on account of his sinful nature, weak and frail, all his lifetime subject to fear, ever apprehending the execution of the sentence of death. On the contrary, God as the eternal, and His everlasting life that of the righteous and holy. As Israel is conscious that He is flesh, so God comes before him in this aspect as the living God, and thus Israel knows himself in opposition to Him. In order to hold fast hereafter this once experienced, which they recognize, Deu 5:24, truly (with gratitude Knobel?) but with fear, with anxiety for the future, with wonder, and indeed that they remained alive, they needed a mediation of this uttered opposition between themselves and God, which they found in the person of Moses; one through whom the living God becomes to them the source of life, and is still hidden from their sight (Heb 12:18 sq.). The love, mercy, and grace of God, is included for the time in Moses. Deu 5:27. They bind themselves to obedience to that mediated revelation of God, with even greater zeal and devotion wrought by their fear (Schultz). Exo 19:8; Exo 24:3; Exo 20:19. Since now, Deu 5:28, the desire of the people meets the divine approval, in which the utterance of the desire is made prominent (the voice of your words), which they at the very least had so uttered, Deuteronomy in which Moses so speaks the law of God to the people in his name, wins the special sanction of God. Moses had already, Deu 1:18; Deu 4:13, intimated the same, but now, as the mediator so solemnly demanded by the people, he first becomes truly and legally the speaker of the divine laws. All that follows, although not spoken as the decalogue directly by God to Israel, has still the same authority, as the people indeed expressly recognized the words of Moses as binding. To fix and settle this position beyond any doubt, is the special object and import of this paragraph. [Bib. Com.: The reply of God to the request of the people, Deu 5:28-31, is omitted altogether in the historical summary of Exodus. Here it is important to the speakers purpose to call attention to the fact that it was on their own entreaty that he had taken on him to be the channel of communication between God and them. The terrors of Sinai had done their work. They had awakened the consciousness of sin.A. G.].They have well said [lit. done good] all that, sq. For the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and Moses as mediator is the forerunner of the Messiah. In Heb 12:21 the mediator himself shares in the fear of the people. Deu 5:29. Emphasizes the fear of God in the people, in connection with the promise of obedience. O that, who will give, sq., may your heart, (your innermost life) be such as your words, viz., that you will have, sq. Or as Jer 17:9, they have it not, and no one but I the Lord can give it to them, Jer 32:39. It belongs to uprightness that the words and heart should agree; they speak right who have also right hearts.The voice of the words (Deu 4:12) is there a form also behind the words? i.e., a habitus, (Schultz). Yes, but it does not first obtain a place in this connection. Comp. Deu 4:10; Deu 4:40 (Luk 1:75). Deu 5:30. How different from Deu 1:40! Deu 5:31. Moses authorization as a mediator singular, all that is commanded. Comp. Deu 4:1; Deu 4:5. Deu 5:32 sq. Corresponding to the following transitional exhortation. The figure of a path or way lies at the basis (Deu 2:27). The law a way of life, Deu 6:2.
4. Deu 6:1-3. Since now according to Deu 5:31 Moses is to teach, he makes known at once (Deu 5:1) that he has in mind and will hold fast the whole, whatever he may dwell upon singly, and by itself hereafter. Thus the method of his exhortation connects itself with what precedes, and Deu 5:4 is without question the beginning of a new paragraph. Deu 5:1. Now these are the commandments, lit., and this is the commandment, just as the law, (Deu 4:44), and then also as Deu 4:1. Deu 5:2. Comp. Deu 5:29. The fear of the Lord is the higher inward life of Israel, and long life and prosperity follow faithfulness to the law, and thus the law is both as to heart and conduct the way of life, Deu 5:32 sq. Deu 5:3 makes clear already the new section, through the Hear therefore O Israel, thou and thy son, and thy sons sons. Deu 5:2 intimates the great increase of the people, just as all the days of thy life intimates the lengthening of their days, so that the grandfather is regarded not only as living in the grandchild, but at the same time as with him. Comp. Deu 1:11. The land sq. Either in the land (Keil) where they should multiply, or what is more probable, connected withas He hath promised, i.e., as Schultz holds as Jehovah hath promised thee, when He promised a land, or as we may say now simply, as Jehovah has promised thee a land sq., [so essentially the Bib. Com.,A. G.], in which all shall come to pass, since it is fitted to secure such prosperity through its own happy condition. The proverbial description of Canaan (Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17) in its fruitfulness and beauty, rests upon its rich, broad pastures, and its blooming gardens for the bees, combining the utile with the dulce: Milk and honey (Son 4:11).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The distinction between the covenant of God with the fathers, and at Sinai with Israel, is evident even in the signs of the covenant; there circumcision, here the passover. As the revelation to the fathers, Exo 6:3, is described as that of El-Shaddai, so circumcision has its fundamental genetic character. The sign touches the origin of natural life; and it is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who has laid the elements, sources of Israel in the fathers. The legal character or element in circumcision is evident, Genesis 17, but not only is it closely connected with the promise, but the sign of the covenant itself is pre-eminently full of promise. On the other hand, the passover has the character of development, the historical character of Jehovah. As a meal, truly, it belongs to the continuance, the recruitings of life. The praises of the redeemer-God were therein celebrated out of the past, for every present time of Israel. There was, therefore, a continuous promise in the passover. But this element of promise recedes behind the preponderating element of the law, and the law in its practical result, working the knowledge of sin, comes out prominently both in the sacrificial transaction in the passover, and still more in the fact that the lintel and door-posts must be sprinkled with its blood. Sin is thus in various ways presented or set forth and at the same time Israels need of reconciliation in the judgment. Thus circumcision still holds its prevailing tone of promise in Christian baptism, Mar 16:16, while the predominant legal tone of the passover appears in the Lords Supper, since the law reaches its end, is fulfilled in His sacrifice, and we have to remember it in an uninterrupted appropriation. Luk 22:19; 1Co 11:26.
2. For the division of the commandments in the decalogue, and the progress in the thought, see Exodus 20. Here we remark only, 1) that the symbolical form, and the words of our Lord, Mat 22:27 sq., are both in favor of the arrangement of five commands in one table; 2) that the division of the reformed church has in its favor not only that it is the oldest (Josephus, Philo, the Greek Church) that it is the New Testament division (Schultz, p. 252), but also that in it the history of Israel, and the spirit and letter of the text receive their rights (Schultz, p. 273); 3) and this division is in accordance with the progress in the thought, both from within outward, and then from without inward, (comp. Exeget. and Crit.) by which the beginning and the end of the whole, and the central command also form an unquestionable parallelism. (Hengstenberg, Beit. III., 604). [Also Fairbairns Typology, which has a full discussion of this question.A. G.].
3. As to the deviations in the deuteronomic text of the decalogue, V. Gerlach says: It is remarkable that in the repetition of the ten commandments, especially of the fourth and second, we find some alterations and additions, as a proof that as in similar repetitions of the words in the word of God itself, the Spirit of the Lord works with new creative energy. Baumgarten: That Moses does not feel himself strictly hampered, in the setting of the decalogue, engraved upon stone by the finger of God, shows clearly the great freedom of his spirit, and puts shame upon all mere honoring of the sacred letter, which is still under the new covenant, burdened with somewhat of constraint. Ranke: The introductory words, Deu 5:1-5, show that the law is not first given in this passage, but that it is the repetition of an earlier given, to which however a very great importance is attributed. Was not the author of Deuteronomy, who, it is conceded, had the earlier books before him, in a condition to re-issue the ten commandments, which he places at the beginning of his lawgiving, correctly, or would he not take the pains to do so? We observe in the command in regard to the Sabbath, great freedom of treatment. But from this command the manner of the discourse changes, Jehovah no longer speaks, but Moses exhorts and refers to the commands of Jehovah. (Exo 20:7 sq. may have given encouragement to this mode of statement). Thus he turns himself to that aspect of the command which is directed to man, to the very least among the people. The Sabbath law includes in itself good for those serving (Exo 23:12) and this is still further unfolded in the law for the Sabbatic and jubilee year, and this element Moses raises into prominence. As he thus demands rest for the very least, he secures this result, that the Sabbath solemnity should be a copy of the creative Sabbath. The recollection of the bondage in Egypt only serves to impress the foregoing statutes which demand rest for the servant, male and female. So also in the fifth command Moses is the speaker, and at the close the speaker makes prominent that which is the more important.
4. The pre-supposed monotheism of the first table points to that glory of God which rests upon the cradle of humanity (Naville, the heavenly Father). Polytheism is not the point of departure of a continuous progressive culture, but an apostasy which makes a restoration necessary. But the Grecian philosophy, nobly as it has served humanity, has not restored in itself the idea of God. God remains to the masses, after all the toil of the philosophic spirit an unknown God; even the salvation of monotheism, the only light in the night-shadows of the old world, is of the Jews.
5. The Sabbath solemnity (Schultz) is peculiar among the nations of antiquity to the Hebrews, who are called precisely Sabbatarii (Martial), which is all the more remarkable in the universality of the reckoning by weeks. The monument of the completed creation becomes in Deuteronomy the monument of redemption begun, as further the Sabbath remains the sign (Exo 31:13) of the eternal saving purpose of Jehovah with respect to His people (comp. upon Deu 4:30 and Deu 5:19 sq.), Heb 4:9. By so much more is it fitted to be the confession of the people of God among the nations.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Deu 5:1-4. The covenant with the fathers, and that at Sinai (Deu 5:2. Calvin: He commends in these words the law of God to them, because it is the greatest benefit and the highest honor to be taken into covenant by God).What Moses demands for the law of the Lord: 1) a universal hearing (each one by all); 2) not barely hearing, but obedience, learn, keep and do (Deu 5:1).The Covenant at Horeb: the persons (Deu 5:2-3), the way in which it is closed (Deu 5:4), the Mediator of this covenant (Deu 5:5). Deu 5:4. Calvin: The certainty of the law, from its divine origin. Richter: Moses as a type and counterpart of Christ was a Mediator (Deu 5:5; Deu 5:23 sq.), but a mediator of the law for a few (Gal 3:19 sq), while Christ is the mediator of a better, more general and eternal Covenant of Grace, Heb 8:6; Heb 9:15; Heb 12:24; 1Ti 2:5.
Deu 5:6-21. The ten commands in their form and contents. Deu 5:6. Schultz: Faith, which is the basis of the life, cannot be required, but only awakened. Before God commands He gives; before He demands faith, He discloses or reveals Himself to it. J. dEspagne: The cornerstone of the law of God, the fundamental position upon which it is reared, the soul of the first command, without which it cannot be understood, is this: Thy Saviour, the gospel at the entrance of the law. Starke: Is God thine? then also all, whatever He is and possesses, all His blessedness. Thus must thou also be for God, present to Him body, soul, and all that thou art and hast, for His service and possession. Deu 5:12 sq. Tub. Bib: Yes, every day, hour, minute and second thou shouldst with pure heart-devotion sacrifice to thy God, raise thy heart to Him without intermission, and especially guard thyself against every work of sin.
Deu 5:22. Wurth Bib.: The law is perfect, and embraces all that man should do and leave undone in the service of God and of his neighbor. Jam 1:25; 2Ti 3:17. Deu 5:25. Cramer: Through the law comes the knowledge of sin, Rom 3:20; it works wrath, Deu 4:15; Deu 7:11 sq., and has the office of the letter Which killeth, 2Co 3:6. Deu 5:27. Osiander: When the heart of man is terrified by the wrath of God, he promises him much more than he can perform in his life-time. Starke: See here the nature and effect of the law. It drives us from the face of God. We look around us for the true Mediator, and find refuge in Him, Deu 18:15-16. Calvin: This history shows how well God has cared for His Church through the preaching of the word, that it might be divinely ruled by it. We also should hear Moses and the prophets, especially the only Son of God (Joh 5:45-46). Deu 5:28. Berl. Bib.: It were better to do as had been said. The tongue promises largely; but the heart is reluctant to perform. Deu 5:29. Berl. Bib.: God looks upon the heart and all the depths of the soul. Hence we are never to satisfy ourselves with rendering to Him acts of devotion, prayers, songs or attendance at church. Deu 5:32. Calvin: It is only half obedience to receive what God has commanded, unless we go further, and see that we add nothing. We shall not desire to be righteous, unless we are taught in the law.
Deu 6:1. Starke: So is it with our sluggish nature; we need ever to be warned and urged. The motives which Moses used are more evangelical than legal. Deu 5:2. Berl. Bib.: God commands nothing more than what is useful to man, and tends to his blessedness. Fear connecting itself so closely with danger pre-supposes the higher and more mighty, whom we have to fear; and thus the knowledge of God and our own weakness, the two factors in our spiritual life. Deu 5:3. Berl. Bib.: Observe that thou do! Who wonders not that although this runs through the whole Scripture upon every page, there is still no truth more spoken against by all sects of Christians. Moses grieves not to repeat the same command again and again. Comp. Php 3:1 (Act 20:20; Act 20:31). Berl. Bib.: In truth it is never well with any one who does not stand well with God. [Bib. Com.: Thus the glory of God and the welfare of men are seen to be the grand ends he has in view. They are the ends in the law and of all obedience to it.A. G.]
Footnotes:
[1][Deu 5:1. Mar. more lit., keep to do them.A. G.].
[2][Deu 5:5. Lit., from the face of.A. G.].
[3][Deu 5:6. Margin and lit., servants.A. G.].
[4][Deu 5:11. Thou shalt not lift up (take) the name of Jehovah thy God to a falsehood.A. G.].
[5][Deu 5:22. Lit., did not add.A. G.].
[6][Deu 5:15. Lit., margin, and so Schroeder, we are adding to hearhear further.A. G.].
[7][Deu 5:27. Our version here observes carefully and properly the distinction between and .A. G.].
[8][Deu 6:1. is singular. The commandment is a whole and includes statutes and judgments.A. G.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter is a continuation of the same subject as the former. The man of GOD is exceedingly earnest in enforcing obedience to all the precepts contained in the covenant.
Deu 6:1
As the religion of the LORD JESUS distinguisheth his followers from all others that are in the earth, so will it follow that his people are distinguished by their life and conversation from all others. It is a charming feature of character which the Jewish council, in the first age of the gospel, gave of the apostles, when it is said of them, they took knowledge of them, that they had been with JESUS. Act 4:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Message of the Book of Deuteronomy
Deu 6:4
The book which lies before us is, in many ways, the most interesting and impressive of the Pentateuch. The message that this book brings us, coming as it does after the book of Numbers, is a most essential one. Numbers told us of the arrest in the deliverance of the nation; of the thirty-seven years of wandering sent as the punishment of unbelief. But it told us also how the people were brought back to obedience, and were made ready to go into and possess the land. Could anything be more fitting than that, ere they actually entered on the work, the great lawgiver should recapitulate in their hearing that law, in obedience to which lay their only hope of blessing?
I. First we have the laws which concern religion. These enjoined that only at one central sanctuary should offerings be offered. Further, all idol prophets, all who entice to idolatry, are to be destroyed, and all idolatrous practices utterly renounced. The distinction between clean and unclean animals is to be observed in the matter of food, tithes are to be paid, and the year of release and the feasts of the law are to be duly celebrated.
II. Next comes a section of laws regulating the conduct of the government and the executive. These laws define the authority of the judges and the judicial functions of the priests. They prescribe the method of demonstration in the courts of justice, they regulate the authority of the King, and exhibit the place that he is to fill in the Theocracy. They determine the position and privileges of the priests and Levites as members of the nation, and point the procedure to be followed in the case of the manslayer who flies to one of the cities of refuge. This section concludes with the chapter devoted to the laws of war, whether waged against nations generally, or specially against the inhabitants of the land.
III. From laws affecting public personages the writer passes to deal with the laws concerning the private and social life of the people. The discourse as a whole is a very remarkable one, and fitted to rebuke those who speak disparagingly of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy being a recapitulation of the law, and, in a certain sense, the summary of the preceding books, we might expect to find emphasized in it the lessons of those books; and this we do find. The Divine holiness implying national holiness, which is the theme of Leviticus, is kept constantly in view in the book before us, and this holiness is constantly held up before the people as the standard which is to determine their conduct ever in matters secular. The book was spoken to the people as they were ready to enter the land, to fill them with enthusiasm to obey the Lord, and it was fitted to do this. For it spoke of the land which was to be possessed, and of the law as a law to be obeyed in the land. There is much retrospect in the book, but the main outlook of it is forward.
G. H. C. Macgregor, Message of the Old Testament, p. 59.
Deu 6:4
On this verse Prof. Harper observes: ‘The worship at the High Places had led, doubtless, to belief in a multitude of local Yahvehs, who in some obscure way were yet regarded as one, just as the multitudinous shrines of the Virgin in Romanist lands lead to the adoration of our Lady of Lourdes, our Lady of taples, and so on, though the Church knows only one Virgin Mother. This incipient and unconscious polytheism it was our author’s purpose to root out by his law of one altar; and it seems congruous, therefore, that he should sum up the first table of the Decalogue in such a way as to bring out its opposition to this great evil.’
References. VI. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons, vol. ii. p. 398. J. Johns, Preacher’s Magazine, vol. xix. p. 354. J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 123; The Law of the Ten Words, p. 35. J. Vaughan, Sermons (10th Series), p. 6. VI. 4, 5. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 25. VI. 6, 7. E. W. Attwood, Sermons for Clergy and Laity, p. 369. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 140. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 254. VI. 6. M. Briggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p. 125.
Deu 6:7
On the religious education contemplated in this passage, Prof. Harper says: ‘To compensate for the restrictions which the Decalogue puts upon the natural impulses, Yahveh was to be held up to every child as an object of love, no desire after which could be excessive. Love to Yahveh, drawn out by what He had shown Himself to be, was to turn the energies of the young soul outward, away from self, and direct them to God, Who works and is the sum of all good. Obviously those upon whom such education had its perfect work would never be fettered by the material aspects of things. Their horizon could never be so darkened that the twilight gods worshipped by the Canaanites should seem to them more than dim and vanishing shadows. Every evil, incident to their circumstances as conquerors, would fall innocuous at their feet.’
Reference. VI. 10-12. Archbishop Benson, Sermons Preached in Wellington College Chapel, p. 1.
The Lamp of Memory
Deu 6:12
Dr. Johnson defined a patriot as ‘one whose ruling passion is a love for his native country’. Jesus Christ showed Himself to be a profound patriot, and the Old Testament, which was His Bible, is the most patriotic book in the world.
I. The gift of memory is a strange and mysterious power which holds its seat in the very fortress and citadel of the inward man. We are persons, because we can remember. We English are anxiously unmindful of our own national past, though few people ever had such a past to be proud of and thankful for. Each green battlefield where English liberty was won, each crumbling castle and cathedral on English soil, is preaching its silent sermon, warning us, and teaching us how much God has done for us, and for our fathers.
II. ‘The sense of greatness keeps a nation great.’ Mr. William Watson’s line comes true if ‘greatness’ be the greatness of our calling and election in God’s will, of our high privileges by God’s grace, of our sacred charge and duty to be the standard-bearers of liberty and mercy and truth in the world. But if the sense of greatness only inflates us with a conceit of ourselves and contempt for other peoples, if we use our privileges selfishly and recklessly, and boast ourselves like Nebuchadnezzar over our imperial state and power then England’s decay and downfall have begun already. For that insolent temper in any nation has its root in rottenness and its blossom in the dust.
T. H. Darlow, The Upward Galling, p. 70.
References. VI. 16. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2178. VII. 2. M. Biggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p. 134. VII. 2-4. T. Arnold, The Interpretation of Scripture, p. 24. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 192.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Principles and Duties
Deu 6:1-12
A wonderful change has taken place in the tone of Moses. We can tell by his very voice that he is much older than when we first knew him, and much tenderer. When we first heard his voice, we noted how singularly wanting it was in mellowness, sympathy, kindliness, such as sore and wounded hearts may recognise and bless. Throughout the Book of Exodus the tone of Moses was very high, penetrating, and commanding. Then a change took place in the whole manner of the man: he was not less in stature, not less keen of vision; yet somehow he was quieter, perhaps more indulgent, certainly mellower. In Deuteronomy all these qualities of the voice, being also qualities of the spirit, culminate; Moses exhorts, entreats, wrestles with men, that they may be wise and good; there is nothing wanting that is suggestive of ripeness of experience, depth and genuineness of sympathy. Moses becomes shepherd again, only now men and women and children, more wayward than any beasts of the earth, constitute his multitudinous and most trying flock. Read Deuteronomy immediately after Exodus, and mark, though the fire of his eye is not dimmed, the growth of the man in the softening of his voice, in the multitude of his tears, in his pastoral solicitude for the salvation of Israel. The sixth chapter of Deuteronomy is full of exhortation and expostulation. In the third verse we read, “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.” This is not bribery. Moses must not be conceived of as holding up a prize, saying, This donation is for the best-behaved amongst you. No man can be made good by such temptations. The very desire to have the prize may itself indicate a viciousness inveterate and ineradicable. Moses is not pointing out a reason, but indicating a consequence or issue: whoever observes and does the commandments of God shall enter into largeness of blessing, immeasurable depth of holy contentment, and every land shall be a land flowing with milk and honey. The man makes the land. When men everywhere praise the Lord, the earth shall yield her increase: the swelling psalm of honest thankfulness and the waving harvest of golden wheat shall be seen together upon the earth. No man can do right in order that it may be well with him, but no man can do right without its being consequentially well with every faculty of his mind, every emotion of his spirit, every outgoing of his life. Moses is already preaching the Sermon upon the Mount according to the measure of the light which made up his ancient day. What is he now doing but saying, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”? “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do the commandment of God; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily.” Our business is with the “hearing” and the “observing,” and God’s business is with the other end, namely, the end of result, and issue, and blessing.
But Moses soon comes back to central principles. Moses is never less than a philosopher, a philosopher with a broad streak of shepherdliness running all through his mental and moral constitution, but still a philosopher, a reasoner, a theologian. What could be more pregnant with meaning, more inexhaustible in suggestion and poetry, than the fourth verse, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord”? The sentence seems to be easy. There is no simplicity in the Bible that does not hold within its lines the very eternity of Jehovah. We must have a right view of God. The meaning of the exclamation of Moses is not that the Lord our God is one Lord as against some possible distribution of number in His own constitution, but He is one Lord in distinction from all the gods and idols, and all the claimants to human worship known in all the lands and peoples through which Israel has passed; the Lord stands apart from them; he is singular in relation to them; he has no relations with them, unless they be relations of contempt and mockery and disdain. Moses was not arguing a theological proposition: he was not laying down the doctrine of the unity of God as against the tri-unity of God; that sphere of thinking was not involved in this contemplation of the divine nature; Israel was called to monotheism as opposed to polytheism the many gods that ruled the inferior thinking, and accounted for the debasing superstition of mankind.
Yet, though so lofty in his conception, Moses soon becomes tender in his tone. Hence we find in the fifth verse words which even Jesus Christ did not alter: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God must never be set away from our love that is to say, in some inaccessible region of intellectual contemplation or of high theological imagining. God must be kept quite near to the heart. Once let the heart lose touch of God, and God himself becomes but a distant and infinite idol. Keep the heart right, keep the soul sweet, keep love unmixed and unembarrassed a free, generous, undivided affection, and all the rest will flow out of that central conviction and attitude as a living stream out of a living fountain. The question which the soul should often put to itself should relate to love. There is a place for reverence for the worship so awestruck as to be speechless; but we must always find room for simple, childlike, clinging love. Jesus Christ delighted to paint God as a Being full of love so loving the world as to spare nothing for its redemption and salvation. The love of God culminates in the Cross of Christ. The Cross of Christ is not only the symbol of the Atonement, it is the eternal pledge of a beneficent Providence: not only does it include forgiveness of sin and the way into the liberty and peace of heaven, it includes a guarantee of daily bread and daily care, divine attention to all the details of human life. “If God spared not his own Son” is the basis of Paul’s sublime appeal on the matter of human providence and social government. God being the object of love, we ourselves must have the spirit of love in regard to God; we must love God. Love does not reason: love is a poor logician as to forms and symbols; love insists upon speaking its own language and finding its own prayers, and creating its own songs and setting them to its own music. Love will have liberty. Love could never live in prison. Love was made to fly in the open firmament of heaven, to beat its gracious wings against the very gates of the morning, to rise into the holy place of the light, and to come back to do earth’s work with heaven’s purity and tenderness. Children can love where they cannot understand. Love is before reason and after reason: love passes through the zone of reason, and ascends to the heaven where it was created in the heart and thought of God. Live in reason, and life will be cold; do nothing that cannot be defined and affirmed and indicated by consecutive reasons, and life may become mechanical. Rise into the very passion of love the very sacrificial temper of consecrated affection and the wilderness shall be a garden, and death but a messenger sent to bring the soul into some inner place in God’s infinite sanctuary.
Is it enough to have a right conception of the unity of God in relation to the multitudinous idolatries of the world, and to have a right view of the moral qualities of God as opposed to an insensate and unresponsive deity? Moses teaches that there is no religious sufficiency in either or both of these things. Moses will have more. What more he will have he tells us in plain terms: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” ( Deu 6:6 ). We begin with words; we begin with things and with pictures, with substances and with commandments, visible and utterable; and from all these we may grow away not by an act of separation but by an act of the fulfilment which comes out of development. Christian words are to be in our heart. The heart has a memory of its own. Give into the custody of the heart some lesson, and it will be retained. Men remember what they want to remember, in all the highest relations of life. Intellectual memory is hardly called into operation in this matter of religious communion. The heart is kept alive; the fire upon the altar of the heart never goes out; the heart hears every knock upon the door; the heart sees every sign that is marked upon the spaces of the firmament; the heart overhears all that is passing which has relation to its own development and completion. We are what we are in the heart. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Are the words of God to be kept in the heart as treasure may be kept in some secret and inviolable place? Is the heart the only organ that is interested in this great matter of religious information and culture? Moses gives the reply: “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children” ( Deu 6:7 ). He who teaches out of his heart will be able to speak to children, even in the simplest sense of that term. Children like teachers who talk out of their hearts. The heart knows all the little words because itself is a little word of one syllable. The heart waits for the very slowest walker in this great quest of the temple of wisdom: the heart says, We must tarry for the cripple. When the intellect would say, Let us urge forward, and the imagination would step from mountain-top to mountain-top, miles at a time, the heart says, Wait! here is a little child who cannot go at that pace; here is a poor old traveller who wants to res awhile; stop! not one must be lost: every child and every cripple and the meanest member of the flock must be saved. There is a way of teaching the words of God: they may be so taught as to repel or discourage or affright; or they may be so taught as to allure, fascinate, entrance, and put out of view every competitive spectacle or seduction. God’s word must be spoken in God’s way.
Having delivered the words to the children, does the task end there? Moses says it does not end at any such point; he adds, “and shalt talk of them” not lecture upon them, not deliver superb and magnificent orations upon them, but “talk” of them. The very word is suggestive. The words of God are to be so thoroughly in our hearts as to become part of our life, and to mingle with our very breathing; then we may talk about them with the ease of conscious mastery, with the familiarity not only of intellectual intimacy, but of the heart’s truest friendship. Religion is not to be introduced upon state occasions, or upon great days, or even upon the Sabbath day as an exclusive period of time. The word of God is to be talked about, is to come into conversation as if it had a right to be there, to elevate the speech of social man, to give grace and dignity and solemnity to all the transactions and covenants which make up the business of the day. To teaching we must add talking; to the formal exposition we must add the informal and most friendly suggestion and the unexpected prayer, coming into conversation with the ease which belongs to perfect acquaintance with the Spirit of God.
Is the teaching to be conducted in the sanctuary, and the talking to be limited to holy places of public resort? Moses gives an answer to these inquiries, and there is no escape from the comprehensive terms in which his response is couched: “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” ( Deu 6:7 ). Here is a religion which covers the whole day, which belongs to every attitude of man, which condescends to flow into the mould of daily position and continual progress. The word of God can accommodate itself to every season and to every position and to all the circumstances of life. It is never there by force, or unaccountably there; it belongs of right to our whole life. It can be spoken in walking; it can simplify itself so as to suit the position of one who is sitting in his house, quietly and lovingly, in the very centre of the family; when the man lies down, religion will consent to be spoken about in terms and promises of restfulness and recruiting and the sleep which brings youth back with it; and religion is so energetic that when the man rises up a whole man, complete in strength, reinvigorated in every faculty, it can leap forth into every expression of energy and outrun every effort of the mind.
So the answer of Moses is very complete. The word of God is to be in the heart, it is to be taught to children, it is to form the subject of talk, it is to be talked about everywhere. Does the matter end there? Moses has still further field for religious activity. He is delighted to find the words of God in the heart, and to hear them talked in the public assembly, and to hear them spoken about with all the familiar ease of conversation: he is delighted to meet men in the house and on the highway, sitting down, rising up, and still talking about the goodness and the judgment of God; but he will have more: Moses adds, “And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” ( Deu 6:8 ). There shall be no secret religiousness, no stealthy piety, no profound consecration that wraps around itself garments which are so used by itself as not to involve particularity of devotedness. If the word is in the heart, it must also be written on the hand; if the word is part of the speech, which only a few can hear, it must be as frontlets before the eyes, that observers may note, so that men passing by may be able to say, This man publicly acknowledges, and, perhaps, publicly worships, God.
Does Moses put a full stop here? Moses does not: Moses still finds further space “And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” ( Deu 6:9 ). Moses would have a broad religion, and would have a broad religion broadly acknowledged. The heart, the tongue, the hands, the eyes, the house, this is most comprehensive. It is, in fact, absolutely inclusive. There is no spot left on which the devil may play his pranks. The heart all Bible, the speech all savour, the hand all consecration, the eyes set in one direction, the posts of the house and the very gates bearing inscriptions of heaven, this was the religious idea and this the religious programme of Moses.
Then comes a great caution: “And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware ” ( Deu 6:10-12 ). Moses is growing old, but he is intellectually as astute as ever. It is not his soul that is growing old; it is not the perennial mind that is drying up or withering away. Mark the conception which Moses formed of all advancing civilisation. How much we have that we have not done ourselves! We are born into a world that is already furnished with the library, with the altar, with the Bible. Men born into civilised countries have not to make their own roads.
We are born into the possession of riches. The poorest man in the land is an inheritor of all but infinite wealth, in every department of civilisation. In the very act of complaining of his poverty he is acknowledging his resources. His poverty is only poverty because of its relation to other things which indicate the progress of the ages that went before. Young men come into fortunes they never worked for; we all come into possessions for which our fathers toiled. We could not assemble in God’s house in peace and quietness today if the martyrs had not founded the Church upon their very blood. Men today enjoy the liberty for which other men paid their lives. It is ungrateful to forget that every liberty we enjoy, every security we boast, is the result of suffering too poignant to be expressed adequately in words. Coming into a civilisation so ripe and rich, having everything made ready to our hands, the whole system of society telephoned so that we can communicate with distant friends and bring them within hearing, the table loaded with everything which a healthy appetite can desire, all these things constitute a temptation, if not rightly received. Moses drew the picture, and then said “Beware.” In the time of prosperity, and fulness, and overflow “then beware lest thou, forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” ( Deu 6:12 ). Prosperity has its trials. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Poverty may be a spiritual blessing. The impoverishment and punishment of the flesh may be religiously helpful. There are anxieties connected with wealth as well as with poverty. The high and the mighty amongst us have their pains and difficulties as well as the lowliest and weakest members of society. Ever let men hear this word of caution “beware.” When the harvest is the best harvest that ever was grown in our fields, then “beware.” When health is long-continued and the doctor an unknown stranger in the house, then “beware.” When house is added to house and land to land, then “beware.” Many men have been ruined through prosperity.
Selected Note
” Frontlets between thine eyes ” ( Deu 6:8 ). The practice of using phylacteries was founded on a literal interpretation of that passage where God commands the Hebrews to have the law as a sign on their foreheads, and as frontlets between their eyes. It is probable that the use of phylacteries came in late with other superstitions; but it should be remembered, that our Lord does not censure the Pharisees for wearing them, but for making them broad out of ostentation; and it is still uncertain whether the words referred to ought not to be taken literally. One kind of phylactery was called a frontlet, and was composed of four pieces of parchment, on the first of which was written Exo 13:1-10 ; on the second, Exo 13:11-16 ; on the third, Deu 6:4-9 ; and on the fourth, Deu 11:13-21 . These pieces of parchment, thus inscribed, they enclosed in a piece of tough skin, making a square, on one side of which was placed the Hebrew letter shin ( ), and bound them round their foreheads with a thong or riband when they went to the synagogue. Some wore them evening and morning, and others only at the morning prayer.
As the token upon the hand was required, as well as the frontlets between the eyes, the Jews made two rolls of parchment, written in square letters, with an ink made on purpose, and with much care. They were rolled up to a point, and enclosed in a sort of case of black calf-skin. They then were put upon a square bit of the same leather, whence hung a thong of the same, of about a finger in breadth, and about two feet long. These rolls were placed at the bending of the left arm, and after one end of the thong had been made into a little knot in the form of the Hebrew letter yod ( ), it was wound about the arm in a spiral line, which ended at the top of the middle finger.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).
XII
FIRST AND SECOND ORATION, PART I
Deu 1:6-11:32
FIRST ORATION
The occasion is great and awe inspiring. Death is just ahead of the speaker, about one month off, and yet the old man stands before us in the vigor of youth. He does not die from decay of either mental or physical power but simply because God is going to take him. He has carried these people in his heart eighty years and has borne them in fact for forty marvelous years of eventful history; has suffered unspeakably in their behalf, and now is burdened with the spirit of prophecy which unfolds to his eagle eye their disastrous future for thousands of years, brightened for a time by the coming of the Prophet, like himself but infinitely greater, and the prospect of their final restoration. He starts out with a reference to Horeb where they entered into covenant relations with God, and where he himself sat, with the chiefs of the tribes, of thousands, of hundreds, of tens, to hear all minor causes, appealing to him only in great matters. The qualifications of these judges are set forth in Exo 18:21 , and “they were able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” and here, as “wise men, well-known chiefs of the tribes, full of understanding.” He rehearses his original charge to these judges: they must fairly hear all cases, must judge righteously, must be impartial, must fear no face of man, must remember that the judgment is Jehovah’s. The object of the reference is to show that they left Sinai thoroughly organized and equipped; left there in numbers more than the stars shown to Abraham and with their leader praying, “The Lord of your fathers make you a thousand times as many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you.”
They left there at God’s command to go at once to take possession of their long promised country. But alas, on account of their sins they lost thirty-seven days in getting to Kadesh-barnea and then with the imperative command ringing in their ears, the Lord said as before, “Come and take possession”; they again are delayed forty days in order to get a report from spies, and after that report and an awful breach of the covenant they lost thirty-eight years more of weary wandering, then when again assembled at Kadesh-barnea sinned again and caused Moses himself to sin, and so debarred him from the Promised Land. Then, through unbelief in God, through fear of man, through presumption toward God, through fleshly lusts, they had utterly failed to enter in.
Moreover, they had lied in attributing their attitude of rebellion to parental concern for their children, which God rebuked by showing that he could lead those helpless children into the Promised Land without the loss of one, while the bones of the parents whitened in the wilderness. And now, though at Kadesh-barnea again, when entrance was no more than stepping over a line drawn in the sand, they must turn down toward the Red Sea, and by a long, weary and circuitous march approach the country on the other side; a path must compass Mountain Seir, skirt Edom, Moab, and Ammon and bring them into deadly conflict with Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the hosts of Midian. That circuitous march was marked by some great sins and made memorable by some great deliverances. Aaron died at Mountain Hor. Moses is about to die, without passing over into the Promised Land.
Now, this oration, having thus briefly reviewed the legislation, makes that survey the basis of his exhortation by way of application. Learn from this model, O preachers, how to revive the lost art of exhortation. That used to be the custom for men that were called to exhort who could not preach. They could not preach a sermon but they could sit down and listen to a preacher preach and then move people mightily by exhortation. I have heard men, ignorant as they were in books, give exhortations that would make the stars sparkle.
Dr. Burleson preached a sermon at Huntsville and at the close of the sermon J. W. D. Creath got up and commenced by slapping his thigh and you could have heard him a hundred yards. He said, “The spirit of God is here, and the devil is fighting hard.” The people were converted by the hundreds and the biggest man was Sam Houston. A Negro boy on the outside was convicted of sin and came to the front, not understanding but feeling the power of God, he knelt at Sam Houston’s feet saying, “Massa Houston, save me.” Sam Houston said to the boy, “Ask the clergy, I am just a poor lost sinner myself.” We bad Deacon Pruitt; he never preached but Judge Baylor never held a meeting but he got Brother Pruitt to help him. He always wanted him to exhort after he preached. Moses determined to exhort these people, and in order to exhort them, he takes up the survery. They keep forgetting the times of his exhortation. The points are stated thus:
(1) Hearken unto God’s word and do it.
(2) Do not add to his law nor diminish it. “Heaven and earth,” says our Lord, “must pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”
(3) Be warned by your own history. History teaches lessons and imposes obligations. Preachers especially should be students of history in order to understand God’s government over nations and the way of his providence.
(4) In view of its impression on other nations obedience will be your highest wisdom. They will thereby recognize your relations with Jehovah and marvel at your prosperity and fear your power.
(5) Do not forget. Teach this law diligently to your children.
(6) Remember that you yourselves and your nation alone heard God’s own awful voice pronounce your Decalogue and that you have his autograph copy preserved as a witness.
(7) Remember that when you heard his voice you saw no likeness of him and beware that you make no graven image of anything that is in heaven above, nor earth below; do not fall down and worship it. We should all become iconoclasts, breakers of images. “Icon,” the image; “Iconoclast,” the breaker of images.
(8) Remember that Jehovah is a jealous God and will look upon sin with no degree of allowance, and be sure that he will find out your sins and be sure that he will punish your sins. Don’t you become so sweetly sentimental that you will think it impolite to say the word “hell.” Let us remember the awful words of our Lord, greater than Moses, who said, “Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” who said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” So this is the first exhortation of Moses.
SECOND ORATION, PART I
The scripture of this part is Deu 4:44 , to the end of the eleventh chapter. Like the first oration, the second has an introduction giving the time, place, and circumstances of delivery. The closing: paragraph of Deu 4 gives this introduction in verses Deu 4:44-49 . There is nothing in it calling for additional comment beyond the fact that it marks an interval of undetermined time between the two Orations.
This part of the oration consists of a rehearsal of the whole Decalogue, stated in an offhand, oratorical form, without attempting the exact verbal quotations, and of an exposition of the first table, that is, the four commandments embodying our relation to God) and then an earnest exhortation by way of application. Note the verbal differences between this offhand rehearsal of the Decalogue by Moses and the Exodus record of it as spoken in the very words of Jehovah himself, and written by him on tablets of stone. From Revised Version, read Exo 20:2-17 , and then read the corresponding Commandments in the same version from Deu 5:6-21 . You must consider the Exodus form as the true original, and the Deuteronomy form as a substantial restatement by a public speaker, and note that Deu 5:15 , is not an attempt to quote the Fourth Commandment as originally given, but merely a passing exhortation, assigning an additional motive for remembering the sabbath day. The reader will also note that Romanists combine the first and the second according to our division, to make their first, and then divide our tenth to make their ninth and tenth. This does not affect the matter, only the numbering of the parts.
I asked you to read the Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy alternately because enemies of the Bible have made so much of the fact that there is not an exact verbal agreement, and hence they have denied the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. The reply to it is that the divine original in God’s own handwriting is the Commandments as they were delivered; second, in this case there is an inspired substantial restatement of the original in oratorical form and this restatement is just as much inspired as the original. Remember the sabbath because God rested on that day and it is prophetic, in an indirect way, of the New Testament sabbath. As God rested from creation when he had finished the work and the day commemorated an historical fact, so Jesus, having accomplished the great redemption (so that the Jewish sabbath is nailed to the cross of Christ), rested from his work and there remaineth a sabbath-keeping to the people of God. Jesus entered into this rest, as God did his.
Here I pause to commend, first, the exposition of the Decalogue in the Catechism of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. This catechetical exposition has been taught to more children than perhaps any other in the world. Let us always commend the Presbyterians for their fidelity in family instruction, and always confess and lament Baptist delinquency on this line until we repent and do better. Second, it now gratifies me to be able to commend a Baptist exposition of the Decalogue, which, in my judgment, is the best in all literature. Not very long ago, a venerable man, soon to pass away, was helped upon the platform and introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention, and he received the Chautauqua salute. It was George Dana Boardman of missionary fame. He is the author of University Lectures on the Ten Commandments. The lectures were delivered before the students of Pennsylvania University, and the book was issued by the American Baptist Publication Society. Study it carefully and assimilate it into your very life. On the Fourth Commandment, perhaps without immodesty, I may ask you to read the three sermons on the sabbath in my first published volume of sermons.
My reason for speaking of these books is that Moses himself is now to devote eight chapters to an exposition of the Decalogue in the oration under consideration. You will make special note that Moses emphasizes the fact that the Decalogue was the only part of the covenant actually voiced by Jehovah, and that this divine autograph was then filed away in the ark as an eternal witness. The fact is also emphasized that no other people had even heard God’s voice or possessed his autograph. Thousands of the younger generation now addressed by Moses were present that awful day when Sinai smoked and trembled and was crested with fire, and the loud and ever louder trumpet smote their ears as no other trumpet will smite the ears of men until the great judgment day. They might well recall their terror when from the fires of Sinai this awful penetrating voice solemnly pronounced in thunder tones those Commandments one after another. They themselves could recall how they begged not to hear that voice any more and implored Moses to hear for them as mediator and to repeat to them in human voice any other words of God. I have already sought to impress you that Deuteronomy is an exposition of the law rather than a giving of the law. The orator and expositor not only shows that these Commandments of God are exceedingly broad, but he attempts to show their depths and reveal their heights, yea, to lay bare their very heart and spirit.
This heart and spirit he finds in the word “love.” “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy soul, with all thy might.” He compresses the first four Commandments into “Thou shalt love Jehovah,” as later in this book he compresses the last six into “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” When our Lord answers the question, “Which is the first commandment of the law?” He quotes Deuteronomy in his answer: “This is the first and great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy mind, and all thy strength, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
And as the second is impossible without the first, a New Testament writer may well say, “All the law is fulfilled in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And another says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Or as Paul to Timothy declares its widest scope, “Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, out of a good conscience, out of faith unfeigned.” In one word then, that grandest thing in the world, LOVE, Moses expounds the Decalogue. On this matter he founds his exhortation thus:
(1) “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them on the posts of thine house, and on thy gates.” What a course of family instruction! What a theme of family conversation! What a safeguard at home, at the gate, at the door, at the hearth, at the bed! As the Jew awoke in the morning, the Law greeted him; as he passed the door, it saluted him; as he passed through the gate, it hailed him; in all his walking beyond the gate it accompanied him. It governed the words of his tongue; it remained between his eyes to regulate sight; it dwelt in his heart to regulate emotion; and remained in his mind to prescribe and proscribe thought, purpose and scheme. Its hand of authority touched the scales and yardstick and restrained within its bounds all his business. His fruit, his grain, his flock, and all other treasures acknowledged its supremacy. It provoked the questions of children by its object lessons and supplied the answers to the questions.
(2) When prosperity comes with its fulness of blessings) do not forget God, (Deu 6:10-15 ).
(3) When adversity and trial overtake you do not tempt God as you tempted him at Massah, saying, “Is God among us?” (Deu 6:16 ). Just here the psalmist says, “My feet had well nigh slipped, for I was envious of the prosperity of the wicked and said, In vain have I washed my hands in innocency and compassed thine altars, O Lord of Hosts.” How often have we been bitter in heart and counted God our adversary and ourselves the target of his arrows and lightning.
(4) “Remember that the destruction of the Canaanites is essential to your fidelity to this law. They will corrupt you if you spare them. You shall not pity them, for the measure of their iniquity is full.” You are God’s sheriff executing his will, not yours, mercilessly as a pestilence, a cyclone, an earthquake, or a flood, indiscriminatingly obey his will. Make no covenant with these doomed and incorrigible nations. Do not intermarry with them. Covet none of their possessions devoted to God’s curse. Ah, if only Achan later had remembered this and had not brought defeat upon his people and ruin to himself and house!
(5) Remember the bearing of this law on Self:
(a) When walls crumble before you and the sun and moon stand still to complete your victory, beware lest you attribute your victories to your own strength.
(b) Or to your numbers.
(c) And especially beware of self-righteousness. All your history avouches you to be a stiff-necked and rebellious people. There was no good in your origin. “A Syrian ready to perish was your father.” At the Red Sea, at the waters of Marah, when you thirsted, when you hungered, in all the wilderness, and at Kadesh-barnea, through the cunning of Balaam even until now you have sinned and kept sinning, and will continue to sin, existing as monuments of grace and mercy. Who are you, to be puffed up with conceit and pride of selfrighteousness?
(6) Consider how reasonable all of Jehovah’s commandments are: “And now, Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deu 10:12 ).
A later prophet shall re-echo the thought: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee but to do justly and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
(7) Finally, blessings crown your obedience and curses follow your disobedience. The inexorable alternative is set forth before you. Obey and live; disobey and die. And ye yourselves, over yonder, shall stand on opposing mountains while this law is read in a valley between, and those on Gerizirn shall call out the blessings, and those on Ebal shall pronounce the curses. And you will in one loud Bounding voice say, “Amen, so let it be.”
QUESTIONS
1. What briefly the occasion of the first oration?
2. What the substance, appeal and application of the first oration?
3. What lost art here referred to, and what examples of this art cited?
4. What the several points of his exhortation?
5. Where do you find introduction to the second oration and what the time, place and circumstances of its delivery?
6. Of what does Part 2 of the second oration consist?
7. What are the verbal differences between the Exodus form and the Deuteronomy form of the Decalogue and how account for them?
8. Which is the true, original form?
9. What of Moses’ statement here of the Fourth Commandment?
10. How do the Romanists number the commandments?
11. What charge is sometimes brought against the Bible because of these verbal differences and the reply thereto?
12. What books on the Ten Commandments commended?
13. What facts in connection with the giving of the Ten Commandments especially emphasized by Moses?
14. What was Moses’ summary of the Ten Commandments and what Christ’s use of it?
15. Kame the points of his exhortation.
16. How was the importance of teaching the law emphasized?
17. What exhortation relating to prosperity?
18. What one relating to adversity?
19. What charge concerning the Canaanites, and why?
20. What the bearing of this Law on self?
21. How does he show the reasonableness of God’s law?
22. What alternative set before them, and what prophecy concerning blessings and curses here given by Moses?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Deu 6:1 Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do [them] in the land whither ye go to possess it:
Ver. 1. Now these are the commandments. ] Moses having repeated the decalogue, begins here to explain it: and first, the first of the ten, in this present chapter: that first commandment being such, as that therein the keeping of all the other nine is enjoined, as Luther rightly observeth. a
a Primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur. – Luth.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 6:1-3
1Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, 2so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 6:1 the commandment, the statutes and the judgments See Special Topic: Terms for God’s Revelation .
the LORD your God See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY .
teach. . .do Chapter 6, along with the conclusion of chapter 5, could be characterized as a strenuous emphasis on the need for obedience (cf. Deu 5:29; Deu 5:31-33; Deu 6:1-4; Deu 6:17; Deu 6:24-25). This same emphasis on the need for obedience is repeated in the NT (cf. Luk 6:46; Joh 14:21; Jas 2:14-26; 1Jn 5:2). One way that we show Him that we really love Him is that we do what He has told us to do. The focus of this obedience is directed first toward God and then toward our covenant brother/sister. God always takes the initiative in grace (covenant benefits), yet He expects us to obey His covenant requirements!
in the land where you are going to possess it This of course, refers to Gen 12:1-3. In the OT the land aspect of the Abrahamic promise is emphasized while in the NT the seed aspect of the Abrahamic promise is emphasized (tribe of Judah, family of Jesse, line of David).
Deu 6:2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God This concept of family reverence and worship is emphasized in Deuteronomy (cf. Deu 4:9-10; Deu 5:29; Deu 6:13; Deu 11:19; Deu 32:46). It is the theological opposite of Deu 5:9!
fear. . .keep The reverence (BDB 431, KB 432, Qal IMPERFECT) is demonstrated in keeping (BDB 1036, KB 1581, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT) all His covenant requirements!
keep See note at Deu 5:1.
all the days of your life Notice that this is an emphasis on lifestyle-daily obedience, not just particular worship periods or annual feasts. Biblical faith is initial faith and repentance followed by lifestyle faith and repentance (cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21).
that your days may be prolonged This phrase has often been interpreted in connection with Deu 5:16 as a promise of individual longevity to those who honor their parents. However, because of the repeated use of this phrase in Deu 4:40; Deu 5:16; Deu 5:33; Deu 6:2; Deu 11:9, it is obviously an idiom for the promise of a stable society, not individual longevity. God’s covenant is designed to promote a godly, stable, healthy, productive society (cf. Deu 6:3; and full note at Deu 4:40).
Deu 6:3 Notice how the VERBS and concepts are repeated again and again.
that it may be well with you This parallels the phrase, that your days may be prolonged, of Deu 6:2
Notice the phrase is also found in Deu 5:33; Deu 15:16; Deu 19:13
that you may multiply greatly. . .in a land flowing with milk and honey It needs to be stated that YHWH’s basic method of attracting the nations to Himself was to bless Israel in a unique way. However, Israel’s disobedience never allowed this scenario to become effective. The cursing and blessing section of Deuteronomy 27-29 is pivotal in understanding the history of the children of Abraham. They were told specifically of the abundance that would accrue to them if they would follow God and the cursing that would accrue to them if they disobeyed. The history of Israel is one of disobedience.
The phrase, land flowing with milk and honey, is a technical phrase in both Ugaritic and Egyptian documents to denote Palestine. It is used often (cf. Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Num 14:8; Num 16:13; Deu 6:3; Deu 11:9; Deu 26:9; Deu 27:3; Deu 31:20).
these are. Hebrew “this is”.
commandments. See note on Deu 5:31.
statutes, and the judgments. See note on Deu 4:1.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
go. Hebrew pass over.
Chapter 6
So in chapter six:
NOW these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither you go to possess it: That you may fear the LORD thy God, and to keep all of his statutes and commandments, which I command you. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of your fathers has promised thee, in the land that flows with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel ( Deu 6:1-4 ):
This is called the great Shema, the great commandment.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD ( Deu 6:4 ):
Or “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah”.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might ( Deu 6:5 ).
Now when the lawyer came to Jesus and said, “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus quoted this, the Shema.
The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might ( Deu 6:4-5 ).
It is interesting that Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy more than, I think, any other book in the Old Testament. He was very familiar with this book of Deuteronomy. He used His passages when Satan was tempting Him and he quoted often from the book of Deuteronomy.
Now this Shema it is almost for the Jew his Magna Carta. I mean it’s just whenever they would get together they would start to chant this. In their worship and feast services they would chant this, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD:”( Deu 6:4 ). And I mean they really just chant it over and over and over again.
But it is interesting, in the Hebrew, there is a word for “one” which means a compound unity and another word for “one” which is an absolute unity. Now, we might say that we are one body gathered together here in Christ but we would use the word for a compound unit because there’s a lot of bodies here, but we comprise a oneness in Jesus. So, there is one body in Christ that is made up of many parts, the compound unity. That Hebrew word for one, the compound unity, is “achad”. Now there is another Hebrew word for one which means an absolute one, indivisible one. That word is “echad”.
Now as we look at this Shema, the very heart of the whole Jewish faith and religious system, “The Lord our God is one LORD”. If the word one Lord, the word “one” there is “echad”, you can have absolutely no argument for the trinity at all. An absolute indivisible one and no place for the trinity. If the word “achad” is used for “one”, you have then a compound unity. Very interesting because you know that the word “achad” is used. “The Lord our God is one LORD” the compound unity. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one Lord, one God, yet the compound unity, the three persons of the one God. It’s right there in their very Shema, their chant, the foundation of their whole religious system is this verse, this scripture. And yet within it there is the idea of the compound unity of God, “The Lord our God is one LORD”.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, soul, and might. Now, these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart [first of all]: [secondly] you shall teach them diligently to your children, now you’re to talk about them when you’re sitting in your houses, and when you’re walking along the path, and when you’re lying down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they might be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and upon your gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land that he sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you the great and goodly cities, which you did not build the houses, but you’re full of good things, which you did not fill, and wells that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant; when you have eaten and are full: Beware lest you forget the LORD, that brought you out of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, [or reverence Him] and serve him, and shall swear by his name ( Deu 6:5-13 ).
Now, God wanted them to have His Word and the thought of God just permeating their very life and their lifestyles. I like it. I think that we need to have more talking about God. Now when you lie down at night, now usually they of course just had one room the whole family would lie down in one room, just talk about God. When the lights are out and it’s dark just start talking about God and the law of God and the commandments of the Lord. When you wake up in the morning, start talking about the Lord. When you’re walking with your children along the path, talk to them about God. When you’re sitting down at the table, let your conversation be about God. Let it be just so much a part, let it be not just a part, let it be the totality of your life; just the Word of God and the things of God.
Bind them on your wrist, put them in the frontlets and so they had little leather pouches and they’d the commandments in these pouches and they tie them on their foreheads; these little boxes with the law of God tied there between their eyes. They’d wrap them on their wrist, they’d have the little masseuse on the door and in the masseuse a little copy of the law on the doorposts; they would just tack it up there. And they do today in the orthodox homes. They’d go in and out of the house. They’d kiss their fingers and touch the little masseuse the law of God. It’s signifying the love for the law of God.
I think that’s great. I love it. Write them on your dashboards. You know, just surround yourself with the Word of God, the commandments and the statutes of the Lord. Let it become just that vital part of your life you’re living. You know, it’s an interesting thing in Malachi it says, “and they that love the Lord spake often of him. And God kept a book of remembrances”( Mal 3:16 ).
You know the neat thing about it whenever you get together with your friends you start talking about the Lord, the Lord always eavesdrops. He loves to hear what you’re saying about Him. “And God keeps a book of remembrances and they shall be accounted as his precious jewels in those days. “They that love the Lord spake often of Him.” Oh, that we would just talk about Jesus. When we lie down at night, when we get up in the morning, when we’re walking in the path, when we’re going places and we just surround ourselves with the awareness and conscienceness of Him.
Now he warns them not to forget.
Not to go after the other gods, the gods of the people around about you: (For the LORD God [again a warning] is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him at Massah ( Deu 6:14-16 ).
When Satan said, “Hey, command this stone to be made bread.” Oh no, he said, “Jump off the temple here.” And we’ll get to the place in a little while “man shall not live by bread alone,” that comes. But when he said, “Jump off the temple because it’s written he’ll give his angels charge over thee, keep thee in all thy ways, to bear thee up lest at any time you dash your foot up against a stone.” And Jesus said, “It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Jesus is quoting here Proverbs the sixth chapter. He knew it.
Thou shall not tempt the LORD thy God. But you shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has command you do. And you shall do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it might be well with you, that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers. To cast out the enemies from before you. And when you son ask you in time to come, saying, What are the meaning of the testimonies, and these statutes, and these judgments, which the LORD God has commanded you? Then you shall say unto your son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt: and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the LORD showed us signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and all of his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out from there, that he might give us this land [and so forth] ( Deu 6:16-23 ).
It’s interesting to me that God was always seeking to strike questions in the mind of a child in order that the child might learn. So many things that were deliberately designed to create curiosity and questions in the minds of the children. God has put that curiosity into the heart of a child; and as a parent, use it. Take time to explain to your children when they ask their questions. Don’t just brush them off and say, “I don’t have time.” Sit down and answer their questions. God has given them the questioning art in order that they might learn. Take advantage of it and teach them the ways of the Lord.
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Deu 6:1-2. Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy sons son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
Obedience to God should arise from the fear of him, or from a holy awe of God felt in the heart, for all true religion must be heart work. It is not the bare action alone at which God looks, but at the motive at the spirit which dictates it. Hence it is always put, That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments. Neither are we to be content with keeping commands ourselves. It is the duty of parents to seek the good of their children to seek that the son and the sons son should walk in the ways of God all their lives. May God grant us never to be partakers of the spirit of those who think that they have no need to look after the religion of their children who seem as if they left it to a blind fate. May we care for them with this care that our son and our sons son should walk before the Lord all the days of their life.
Deu 6:3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may will be with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
It seems, according to the old covenant, that temporal prosperity was appended as a blessing to the keeping of Gods commandments. It has been sometimes said that while prosperity was the blessing of the old covenant, adversity is the blessing of the new, and there is some truth in that statement, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and yet is it true that the best thing for a meal is that he should walk in the commands of God. There is a sense in which we do make the best of both worlds when we seek the love of God. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, other things are added be us; so that it is not without meaning to us that the Lord here promises temporal blessings to his people.
Deu 6:4. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
This is the great doctrine that we learn, both from the Old and the New Testament there is one Lord. And this great truth has been burnt into the Jews by their long chastisement, and, whatever other mistakes they make, you never find them making a mistake about this. The Lord thy God is one Lord. May we be kept always from all idolatry from all worship of anything else, except the living God. The sacred unity of the Divine Trinity may we hold fast evermore.
Deu 6:5. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
It is not a little love that God deserves, nor is it a little love that he will accept. He blesses us with all his heart and all his might, and after that fashion are we to love him.
Deu 6:6-7. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
The Word of God if not for some particular place called a church or a meeting house. It is for all places, all times, and all occupations. I wish that we had more of this talking over of Gods Word when we sit by the way, or when we walk.
Deu 6:8. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
With thee in all thine actions with thee in all thy thoughts conspicuously with thee not out of ostentation, but through thine obedience to become apparent unto all men.
Deu 6:9-12 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
And the houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged which though diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Pride in the peculiar sin of prosperity, and pride stands side by side with forgetfulness of God. Instead of remembering whence our mercies came, we begin to thank ourselves for these blessings, and God is forgotten. I remember one of whom it was said that he was a selfmade man, and he adored his Creator, and I may say that there are a great many persons who do just that. They believe that they have made themselves, and so they worship themselves. Be it ours to remember that it is God who giveth us strength to get wealth or to get position, and, therefore, unto him be all the honour of it, and never let him be forgotten.
Deu 6:13-15. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you: (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you)
He will have the heart all to himself. Two Gods he cannot endure. Of false gods, there may be many: of the true God there can be but one, and he is a jealous God.
Deu 6:15-19. Lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.
Now, this covenant of works they break, as we also have long ago broken ours. Blessed be God, our salvation now hangs on another covenant which cannot fail nor break down the covenant of grace. Yet, still, now that we become the Lords children, we are put under the discipline of the Lords house, and these words might not unfitly set forth what is the discipline of the Lords house towards his own children, namely, that he does bless us when we walk in his ways, and that he will walk contrary to us if we walk contrary to him. He keeps a rod in his house, and in love he uses that upon his best beloved ones. You only have I known of all the nations of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities. He will not kill his children, nor treat them as a judge treats a criminal, for they are not under the law, but under grace; but he will chasten them and treat them as a father chasteneth his child out of love. Oh! that we might have grace to walk before him with a holy, childlike fear, that so we may walk always in the light of his countenance.
Deu 6:20-23. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statues, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaohs bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the LORD shewed signs and wonders great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
And cannot we tell our children what God has done for us how he brought us out of our spiritual captivity, and how in his almighty love, he has brought us into his Church and will surely bring us into the glory above? May God grant us grace to speak about these things without diffidence, With great confidence to tell our children of what he has done.
The appeal of Moses was now elaborated in a great statement on the deepest value of the commandment and the corresponding responsibilities of the people Observe the peculiar form of the opening statement, “Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments.” The very form suggested the unification of plurality and evidently was intended to do so, for it led to the statement, “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” Here Jehovah was used as name and as title, its supreme value, of course, being that it postulated existence and revealed an attitude of grace.
Immediately following this announcement of the sublime and allinclusive principle of the unity of Jehovah, Moses dealt with the resulting responsibilities. First, personal love for God and His commandments was insisted upon Second, the family was in mind, for the children were to be diligently taught these things. Third, these words were to be the subject of conversation in all the activities of life, sitting in the house, walking by the way, lying down, or arising. Moreover, they were to be kept in mind by outward manifestation, bound upon the hand, and between the eyes; written upon the door posts, and upon gates.
The great lawgiver proceeded to make certain applications of these responsibilities of the life they would live when they had come into possession of the land. Three perils would then threaten them. The first would be the peril of prosperity. Moses charged them not to forget their relationship to God. The second would be the peril of adversity. They were not to tempt the Lord as they had at Massah (Exo 17:1-16). There they had committed the sin of murmuring and strife because of their difficulties. The third peril would be the neglect to keep their relation to God alive in the minds of their children He charged them, therefore, to take time to teach the children.
How to Treat Gods Words
Deu 6:1-19
Obedience is still the one condition of true prosperity and success. Lands still flow with milk and honey; and they live long who live well. Lives are measured by heart-throbs, and not by figures on the dial.
Deu 6:4 is reckoned by pious Jews as one of the choicest portions of Scripture. They write it on their phylacteries and repeat it, with other verses, at least twice a day. Note the various methods for maintaining the religious atmosphere: (1) by meditation; (2) by the religious training of children; (3) by pious discourse and conversation; (4) by the persistent study of Scripture. When books are scarce, use wall-texts; but never substitute stray snippets, however sweet, for the whole meal of Scripture.
Let us not forget how many of our present privileges and spiritual advantages must be credited to the prayers and the tears, the labors and the sufferings, of those who have left these precious inheritances to us, their children and heirs! We drink of cisterns we never hewed!
Deu 6:4
(with Mat 28:19)
Observe:-
I. That the Scriptural Trinity implies that God is One. So far from being against the cardinal truth of God’s unity, it actually assumes it. The Trinity of our faith means a distinction of persons within one common indivisible Divine nature. If we ask, What is the chief spiritual benefit which we derive from the knowledge of the unity of God? the answer is this: The unity of God is the only religious basis for a moral law of perfect and unwavering righteousness. It is a unity of moral character in the Ruler, and therefore of moral rule in the universe. It is such a unity as excludes all conflict within the Divine will, all inconsistency in the Divine law, all feebleness in the Divine administration.
II. What religious advantages do we reap from the fresh Christian discovery of a Trinity within this unity of the Divine nature? (1) To this question we answer, that the doctrine of the Trinity has heightened and enriched our conception of the nature of God. (2) This doctrine affords a basis for those gracious relations which it has pleased God to sustain towards us in the economy of our salvation.
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 123.
I. The belief in one God gives rest to the active man; it satisfies his intellectual, his moral, his emotional, his spiritual, being.
II. In the field of scientific research this faith inspires us with a confident hope of reducing all phenomena to law, since all proceed from one hand, and express one creative will. This faith supplies that which physical science lacks and yet requires, viz., a prime mover and a sustaining power.
III. In morals this faith acts most powerfully upon our will and rouses us to exalt the higher nature and repress the lower Polytheism deifies the human passions, and turns the wors views into acts of religion; but if there be only one God, then our highest aspirations must give us the truest image of Him.
IV. Faith in one God brings peace to the mourner and to the suffering, for we know that He who now sends the trouble is the same God whose kindness we have felt so often. Having learned to love and trust Him, we are able to accept suffering as the chastisement of a Father’s hand. If there were gods many, we could regard the troubles of life only as the spiteful acts of some malevolent deity; we must bribe his fellow-gods to oppose him.
V. Upon one God we are able to concentrate all the powers of the soul, our emotions are not dissipated, our religious efforts are not frittered away upon a pleasing variety of characters, but the image of God is steadily renewed in the soul, and communion with God grows ever closer.
F. R. Chapman, The Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, Jan. 22nd, 1880.
The teaching of the text is that the “one God” must be “loved” and served by the whole man. Consider how the love of God is to be cultivated.
I. We cannot love an abstraction. God must be a personal God before we can love Him. We must have a sense of property in Him. He must be our own God.
II. Presence is essential to love, even in human love. If we have not a presence in fact, we always make it in fancy. There is an imaginary presence of the person we love always with us. God says, “My presence shall go with thee.”
III. There must be prayer. Communion with the absent whom we love is essential to the existence and the growth of love.
IV. God is really a present God. Therefore we must do acts-acts which have Him in them. Acts of love make love.
V. There is no love like union-wedded union. And so through this mystery of union the love grows fond, intense, eternal. Our whole being gathers itself up to one focus, and the demand of the text becomes possible, and the duty becomes a necessity.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 6.
References: F.W. Robertson, Sermons, 4th series, p. 261; J. Oswald Dykes, The Law of the Ten Words, p. 35; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 271. Deu 6:6, Deu 6:7.-E. M. Goulburn, Gospel of the Childhood, p. 37. Deu 6:7.-R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 21. Deu 6:16.-J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 205; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2178. Deu 6:20-25.-Parker, vol. iv., p. 145.
Deu 6:24
I. Let us examine the popular idea as to the excessive severity and formality of this law. To a transgressor who had not in him the living principle of obedience it was, no doubt, fearfully formal and stern. So is our statute-book to a felon, while on you and me it sits lightly as the air. Judaism was given from Sinai to that people for that people’s good. It was God’s best gift to them as they stood there before the mountain. Its relation to the future was their relation to the future; in training, educating, and developing them, it was making a future possible to their nation and to the world.
II. Notice that the very heart’s core of a dispensation of law is duty, and duty is the master-key to life. Law is the buttress of right; its object is to fortify the dutiful soul. The real object of law is to help men to do right, and thus most effectually restrain from wrong; unless there be a sentiment of duty latent which the law can appeal to and elicit, it is heartless and hopeless work.
III. The receiving of a law was the first step of the people in a new and glorious career of personal and national development, which, though they have missed the crown, has left them the most notable, powerful, and capable race in the world. In other words, it opened a noble man’s career to them; it will open the same to you.
IV. But, however we may magnify it, and however justly, the law is not a gospel, and can in no wise supply the place of a gospel to the world. The dispensation of law in our individual histories is but a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” The Gospel is the instrument of the reconciliation which the law declares to be needful, but cannot secure.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 202.
References: Deu 6:24.-A. W. Hare, Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 367. Deu 7:2-4.-T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. vi., p. 24. Deu 7:6.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Easter to Ascension Day, p. 192. Deu 7:8.-Parker, vol. v., p. 6. Deu 7:9.-Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 165; Parker, vol. v., p. 7 Deu 7:9, Deu 7:10.-R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 21. Deu 7:12, Deu 7:13.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Easter to Ascension Day, p. 375. Deu 7:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., p. 673.
2. The First Commandment and What It Involves
CHAPTER 6
1. Hear, therefore, O Israel! (Deu 6:1-3)
2. The first commandment (Deu 6:4-5)
3. The remembrance of these words and practical obedience (Deu 6:6-25)
Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD. Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the Shema after the first word Hear. It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word echod (one), however, excludes forever such a denial, for it means a compound unity. The Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians, who reject the three persons in the Godhead, believe. It is the word yochid; this has the meaning of a single one.
Jehovah, our Elohim is one Jehovah, thus the name of God is used in this verse. The verse states that to Him alone the name of Jehovah (the Self-existing One) rightfully belongs, He is the one who is absolutely God. It is the testimony against the polytheism (many and different gods) of the Gentiles, which surrounded Israel on all sides. And therefore, because He is the one God, and none beside Him, He must be loved with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the might. The heart with all its affections and energies must belong to Him. To believe on Him and to know Him must ever result in giving Him the heart. Spirit, soul and body must be devoted to Him. This is the first and the great commandment (Mat 22:38; Mar 12:29-30). And we know this Jehovah as our Redeemer, who came and died in our stead. The New Testament fully reveals the claims He has on those, for whose redemption He paid the price with His own blood. We love Him, because He first loved us (1Jn 4:19). And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also (verse 21). This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (1Jn 5:3). For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods (1Co 6:20).
Verses 6-9(Deu 6:6-9) are literally carried out by orthodox Jews. They write these words on parchment and put them in little boxes, which they bind with strips of leather to their foreheads and upon the hand. These are the phylacteries. They also put them in tin-boxes and nail them on the doors of their houses. All His words are worthy to be constantly remembered. The Word must be hid in the heart. It is to be in the family. It is never to be forgotten, whether we sit in the house, or walk, or rest, or rise up. Such a true spiritual remembrance of His words will increase and constantly produce devotion and obedience to the Lord. How solemn the warning not to forget Jehovah in the days of blessing and prosperity! (Deu 6:10-15) How often they did forget Jehovah in the days of peace and earthly blessing.
Deu 6:16 is of deep interest. Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted Him in Massah. The tempting of the Lord at Massah was questioning His presence among them (Exo 17:7). Our Lord made use of this word when the devil demanded that He should cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. Satan then quoted Scripture in His presence. The enemy knows how to do that; but he either leaves something out from the Word or he adds something to it. In quoting from Psalm 91, he omitted seven words, to keep thee in all thy ways. Satan knew the obedience of Christ and he tried to make our Lord act in obedience to the Word by testing Gods Word. But such was not Gods way; it was not according to His command to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. If He had done it, it would have been an act of self-will and therefore disobedience. And that is why Satan left out those seven words. But what did our Lord do? He did not call Satan to task for mutilating the Scriptures, but quoted another Scripture to show His unswerving obedience. Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God. He would not tempt God. He quoted the book of Deuteronomy, because it is the book of obedience, and He had come not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. He also quoted the words in 8:3 and 10:20. How this fact confirms the inspiration and genuineness of Deuteronomy, we have already mentioned in our introduction.
the commandments: Deu 4:1, Deu 4:5, Deu 4:14, Deu 4:45, Deu 5:31, Deu 12:1, Lev 27:34, Num 36:13, Eze 37:24
go to possess it: Heb. pass over.
Reciprocal: Exo 18:16 – make Exo 18:20 – teach Exo 24:3 – all the judgments Lev 18:4 – General Lev 19:37 – General Lev 26:46 – the statutes Deu 6:17 – General Deu 7:1 – the Lord Deu 8:1 – General Deu 11:1 – his statutes Deu 26:1 – General Deu 26:16 – This day Deu 27:2 – on the day Jos 1:8 – observe 2Sa 22:23 – judgments 1Ki 2:3 – statutes 1Ki 8:58 – his commandments 2Ki 17:37 – the statutes 2Ki 23:3 – his commandments 1Ch 28:8 – that ye may 2Ch 33:8 – to do all Ezr 9:12 – that ye may Neh 1:7 – the commandments Psa 105:45 – That Psa 147:19 – his statutes Isa 2:3 – he will teach Isa 28:10 – For precept Eze 18:9 – walked Eze 20:19 – walk Mic 4:2 – and he Act 7:38 – who
Deu 6:4. , Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah. There is uniformly an elision of the letter mem, when the plural is associated with the noun; and the yod is not used in the paradigm of Hebrew verbs to designate the plural noun. The name of the Divinity being here used three times, as in Psa 33:6, Isaiah 49, 63., and the central name or noun, Elohinu, being in the plural number, indicates to us that mysterious sociality in the Trinity in unity, known to us by the adorable names of Father; Son, Word, Wisdom, or Messiah; and Spirit. This text is sublimely introduced, Hear, oh Israel; the more divinely to impress the heart with the consequent duties of love, obedience, and adoration; yea, of utter abhorrence of all idols which would share the heart, and estrange it from the knowledge and love of the one true and eternal God. In Eusebius we have many heathen testimonies which coincide with this text. See Isaiah 56:17.
Deu 6:13. And serve him. The LXX read, And him only, , shalt thou serve; and so quoted by our Lord. Mat 4:10.
Deu 6:25. It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do, &c. The Hebrew reads, righteousness shall be to us; that is, all covenant mercies shall be ours. The LXX, followed by the Vulgate, read, mercy shall be to us. So is the running language of the holy scriptures. The merciful shall obtain mercy. Righteousness cannot come by the deeds of the law.
REFLECTIONS.
To know the true God is everlasting life; because we cannot know him without loving, nor love without desire and delight to please him. Moses therefore teaches them what God is. One in essence, in opposition to the gods many, and lords many of the heathen: the self-existent, eternal, omnipotent Jehovah, besides whom there is and can be no other. Happy the man that hath the Lord for his God.
He urges the duty of loving him: this is the first and great commandment, and it contains all the rest; for then we cannot but delight in what he commands, and rely on what he promises; and most deserving he is of our warmest affection, since he is in himself so transcendently excellent and kind. Well may he challenge our heart, our whole heart, in sincerity that knows no reserve; with supreme affection, which admits no rival; with ardency stronger than death, and with permanence equal to the days of eternity. Lord, shed abroad that love in our hearts.
The means prescribed to maintain and increase this love are, that they store up Gods words in their mind and memory; that they instruct their children, by frequently inculcating the commandments upon them; that they make them the subject of daily conversation, and write select portions of them upon parchment and on the posts of their houses, that they may be reminded of them whenever they go out or come in.
Gods word should be read with seriousness every day. Our hearts should be employed in meditation, that we may inwardly digest it for our spiritual food. We should delight to make it the subject of our discourse; not to dispute on what is abstruse, but to build up one another in love and obedience.
Special care should be taken early to acquaint our children and servants with the invaluable knowledge, which alone is able to make them wise unto salvation. Such attention to the divine precepts would preserve them from forgetting God in a day of prosperity. No state is so dangerous to the soul; no state calls for greater fear and trembling, than when the world smiles, when abundance surrounds us, and every earthly blessing tempts the idolatrous heart to take up its rest below. No mention of idol gods must come into their mouths, but when they swear, it must be an appeal to the true and only heart searching God. As the great danger of Israel arises from their idolatrous neighbours, they must carefully avoid going after their gods, for that would infallibly bring down upon them the wrath of heaven to consume them.
Israel must embrace every opportunity to instruct their children, that their religion, and the deep remembrance of Gods dealings with them, may be transmitted to the latest posterity. Hearing the law so often read and taught, and seeing so many ceremonies performed, their children would be naturally inquisitive into the meaning of them. They must then seize the good opportunity to inform them of their former deplorable estate in Egypt, the great deliverances wrought for them, and the favours conferred in these institutions, in the perfect observance of which they might attain righteousness and life. It should be highly pleasing to parents to hear childrens inquiries about the things of God. It is their duty to inform them, even when averse to instruction; and how much more so, when teachable, and desirous to learn.
Deuteronomy 6
“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgements, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee; thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.”
We have here presented to us that great cardinal truth which the nation of Israel was specially responsible to hold fast and confess, namely, the unity of the Godhead. This truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish economy. It was the grand centre round which the people were to rally. So long as they maintained this, they were a happy, prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. It was their great national bulwark, and that which was to mark them off from all the nations of the east. They were called to confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world, with “its gods many, and lords many.” It was Israel’s high privilege and holy responsibility to bear a steady witness to the truth contained in that one weighty sentence, “The Lord our God is one Lord,” in marked opposition to the false gods innumerable of the heathen around. Their father Abraham had been called out from the very midst of heathen idolatry, to be a witness to the one true and living God, to trust Him; to walk with Him; to lean on Him; and to obey Him.
If the reader will turn to the last chapter of Joshua, he will find a very striking allusion to this fact, and a very important use made of it, in his closing address to the people. “And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.”
Here, Joshua reminds the people of the fact that their fathers had served other gods – a very solemn and weighty fact, most surely; and one which they ought never to have forgotten, inasmuch as the remembrance of it would have taught them their deep need of watchfulness over themselves, lest, by any means, they should be drawn back into that gross and terrible evil out of which God, in His sovereign grace, and electing love, had called their father Abraham. It would have been their wisdom to consider that the self-same evil in which their fathers had lived, in the olden time, was just the one into which they themselves were likely to fall.
Having presented this fact to the people, Joshua brings before them, with uncommon force and vividness, all the leading events of their history, from the birth of their father Isaac, down to the moment in which he was addressing them; and then sums up with the following telling appeal, “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which, your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Mark the repeated allusion to the fact that their fathers had worshipped false gods; and, further, that the land into which Jehovah had brought them had been polluted, from one end to the other, by the dark abominations of heathen idolatry.
Thus does this faithful servant of the Lord, evidently by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, seek to set before the people their danger of living up the grand central and foundation truth of the One true and living God, and falling back into the worship of idols. He urges upon them the absolute necessity of whole-hearted decision. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” There is nothing like plain, out and out decision for God. It is due to Him always. He had proved Himself to be unmistakably for them, in redeeming them from the bondage of Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness, and planting them in the land of Canaan. Hence, therefore, that they should be wholly for Him was nothing more than their reasonable service.
How deeply Joshua felt all this, for himself, is evident from those very memorable words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Lovely words! Precious decision! National religion might, and alas! did go to ruin; but personal and family religion could, by the grace of God, be maintained, everywhere, and at all times.
Thank God for this! May we never forget it! “Me and my house” is faith’s clear and delightful response to God’s “Thou and thy house.” Let the condition of the ostensible, professed people of God, at any given time, be what it may, it is the privilege of every true-hearted man of God to adopt and act upon this immortal decision, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
True, it is only by the grace of God, continually supplied, that this holy resolution can be carried out; but, we may rest assured that, where the bent of the heart is to follow the Lord fully, all needed grace will be ministered, day by day; for those encouraging words must ever hold good, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Let us now look, for a moment, at the apparent effect of Joshua’s soul-stirring appeal to the congregation. It seemed very promising. (The people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; for the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed; and the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.”
All this sounded very well, and looked very hopeful. They seemed to have a clear sense of the moral basis of Jehovah’s claim upon them for implicit obedience. They could accurately recount all His mighty deeds on their behalf, and make very earnest and, no doubt, sincere protestations against idolatry, and promises of obedience to Jehovah, their God.
But it is very evident that Joshua was not particularly sanguine about all this profession, for “He said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.”
We do not now stop to contemplate the aspect in which Joshua presents God to the congregation of Israel, inasmuch as our object in referring to the passage is to show the prominent place assigned, in Joshua’s address, to the truth of the unity of the Godhead. This was the truth to which Israel was called to bear witness, in view of all the nations of the earth, and in which they were to find their moral safe-guard against the ensnaring influences of idolatry.
But alas! this very truth was the one as to which they most speedily and signally failed. The promises, vows, and resolutions made under the powerful influence of Joshua’s appeal soon proved to be like the early dew and the morning cloud that passeth away. “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old…. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.” (Judges 2: 7-13)
Reader, how admonitory is all this! How full of solemn warning to us all! The grand, all-important, special and characteristic truth so soon abandoned! The one only true and living God given up for Baal and Ashtaroth! So long as Joshua and the elders lived, their presence and their influence kept Israel from open apostasy. But no sooner were those moral embankments removed than the dark tide of idolatry rolled in and swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Jehovah of Israel was displaced by Baal and Ashtaroth. Human influence is a poor prop, a feeble barrier. We must be sustained by the power of God, else we shall, sooner or later, give way. The faith that stands merely in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, must prove a poor, flimsy worthless faith. It will not stand the day of trial; it will not bear the furnace; it will, most assuredly, break down.
It is well to remember this. Second-hand faith will never do. There must be a living link connecting the soul with God. We must have to do with God for ourselves, individually, else we shall give way when the testing time comes. Human example and human influence may be all very good in their place. It was all very well to look at Joshua and the elders, and see how they followed the Lord. It is quite true that, “As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend.” It is very encouraging to be surrounded by a number of truly devoted hearts; very delightful to be borne along upon the bosom of the tide of collective loyalty to Christ – to His Person and to His cause. But if this be all; if there be not the deep spring of personal faith and personal knowledge; if there be not the divinely formed, and the divinely sustained link of individual relationship and communion, then when the human props are removed; when the tide of human influence ebbs, when general declension sets in, we shall be, in principle, like Israel following the Lord, all the days of Joshua and the elders, and then giving up the confession of His name, and returning to the follies and vanities of this present world-things no better, in reality, than Baal and Ashtaroth.
But, on the other hand, when the heart is thoroughly established in the truth and grace of God; when we can say – as it is the privilege of each true believer to say – “I know whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day; then, although all should turn aside from the public confession of Christ; although we should find ourselves left without the help of a human countenance, or the support of a human arm, we shall find “the foundation of God” as sure as ever; and the path of obedience as plain before us as though thousands were treading it with holy decision and energy.
We must never lose sight of the fact that it is the divine purpose that the professing church of God should learn deep and holy lessons from the history of Israel. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Nor is it, by any means, necessary, in order to our thus learning from the Old Testament scriptures, that we should occupy ourselves in searching out fanciful analogies, curious theories, or far-fetched illustrations. Many alas! have tried these things, and, instead of finding “comfort” in the scriptures, they have been led away into empty and foolish conceits, if not into deadly errors.
But our business is with the living facts recorded on the page of inspired history. These are to be our study; from these we are to draw our great practical lessons. Take, for example, the weighty and admonitory fact now before us – a fact standing out, in characters deep and broad, on the page of Israel’s history from Joshua to Isaiah – -the fact of Israel’s lamentable departure from that very truth which they were specially called to hold and confess – the truth of the unity of the Godhead. The very first thing they did was to let go this grand and all-important truth, this keystone of the arch, the foundation of the whole edifice, the very heart of their national existence, the living centre of their national polity. They gave it up, and turned back to the idolatry of their fathers on the other side of the flood, and of the heathen nations around them. They abandoned that most glorious and distinctive truth on the maintenance of which their very existence, as a nation, depended. Had they only held fast this truth, they would have been invincible; but, in surrendering it, they surrendered all, and became much worse than the nations around them, inasmuch as they sinned against light and knowledge – sinned, with their eyes open – sinned in the face of the most solemn warnings and earnest entreaties; and, we may add, in the face of the most vehement and oft-repeated promises and protestations of obedience.
Yes, reader, Israel gave up the worship of the One true and living God, Jehovah Elohim, their covenant God; not only their Creator, but their Redeemer; the One who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt; conducted them through the Red Sea; led them through the wilderness; brought them across the Jordan, and planted them, in triumph, in the inheritance which He had promised to Abraham their father. A land flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.” They turned their backs upon Him, and gave themselves up to the worship of false gods. “They provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.”
It seems perfectly wonderful that a people who had seen and known so much of the goodness and loving kindness of God; His mighty acts, His faithfulness, His majesty, His glory, could ever bring themselves to bow down to the stock: of a tree. But so it was. Their whole history, from the days of the calf, at the foot of Mount Sinai, to the day in which Nebuchadnezzar reduced Jerusalem to ruins, is marked by an unconquerable spirit of idolatry. In vain did Jehovah, in His long-suffering mercy and abounding goodness, raise up deliverers for them, to lift them from beneath the terrible consequences of their sin and folly. Again and again, in His inexhaustible mercy and patience, He saved them from the hand of their enemies. He raised up an Othniel, an Ehud, a Barak, a, Gideon, a Jephthah, a Samson, those instruments of His mercy and power, those witnesses of His deep and tender love and compassion toward His poor infatuated people. No sooner had each judge passed off the scene, than back the nation plunged into their besetting sin of idolatry.
So also, in the days of the kings. It is the same melancholy, heart-rending story. True, there were bright spots, here and there, some brilliant stars shining out through the deep gloom of the nation’s history; we have a David, an Asa, a Jehoshaphat, a Hezekiah, a Josiah – refreshing and blessed exceptions to the dark and dismal rule. But even men like these failed to eradicate from the heart of the nation the pernicious root of idolatry. Even amid the unexampled splendours of Solomon’s reign, that root sent forth its bitter shoots, in the monstrous form of high places to Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh, the abomination of Moab.
Reader, only think of this. Pause for a moment, and contemplate the astounding fact of the writer of the Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs bowing at the shrine of Molech! Only conceive the wisest, the wealthiest and the most glorious of Israel’s monarchs, burning incense, and offering sacrifices upon the altar of Chemosh!
Truly, there is something here for us to ponder. It was written for our learning. The reign of Solomon affords one of the most striking and impressive evidences of the fact which is just now engaging our attention, namely, Israel’s complete and hopeless apostasy from the grand truth of the unity of the Godhead – their unconquerable spirit of idolatry. The truth which they were specially called out to hold and confess, was the very truth which they, first of all and most persistently, abandoned.
We shall not pursue the dark line of evidence further; neither shall we dwell upon the appalling picture of the nation’s judgement, in consequence of their idolatry. They are now in the condition of which the prophet Hosea speaks: “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.” – “The unclean spirit of idolatry has gone out of them,” during these “many days,” to return, by-and-by, with “seven other spirits more wicked than himself” – the very perfection of spiritual wickedness. And then will come days of unparalleled tribulation upon that long misguided and deeply revolted people – “The time of Jacob’s trouble.”
But deliverance will come, blessed be God! Bright days are in store for the restored nation – “days of heaven upon earth” – as the same prophet Hosea tells us: “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.” All the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David shall be blessedly accomplished; all the brilliant predictions of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, shall be gloriously fulfilled. Yes, both promises and prophecies shall be literally and gloriously made good to restored Israel, in the land of Canaan; for “the scripture cannot be broken.” The long, dark, dreary night shall be followed by the brightest day that has ever shone upon this earth; the daughter of Zion shall bask in the bright and blessed beams of “the Sun of Righteousness;” and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
It would indeed be a most delightful exercise to reproduce upon the pages of this volume those glowing passages from the prophets which speak of Israel’s future; but this we cannot attempt; it is not needful; and we have a duty to fulfil which, if not so pleasing to us, or so refreshing to the reader, will, we earnestly hope, prove not less profitable.
The duty is this, to press upon the attention of the reader – and upon the attention of the whole church of God – the practical application of that solemn fact in Israel’s history on which we have dwelt at such length – the fact of their having so speedily, and so completely given up the great truth set forth in Deuteronomy 6: 4, “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.”
We may, perhaps, be asked, “What bearing can this fact have upon the church of God?” We believe it has a most solemn bearing; and, further, we believe we should be guilty of a very culpable shirking of our duty to Christ and to His church, if we failed to point it out. We know that all the great facts of Israel’s history are full of instruction, full of admonition, full of warning, for us. It is our business, our bounden duty to see that we profit by them – to take heed that we study them aright.
Now, in contemplating the history of the church of God, as a public witness for Christ, on the earth, we find that, hardly had it been set up, in all the fullness of blessing and privilege which marked the opening of its career, ere it began to slip away from those very truths which it was specially responsible to maintain and confess. Like Adam, in the garden of Eden; like Noah, in the restored earth; like Israel, in Canaan; so the church, as the responsible steward of the mysteries of God, was no sooner set in its place, than it began to totter and fall. It almost immediately began to give up those grand truths which were characteristic of its very existence, and which were to mark off Christianity from all that had gone before. Even under the eyes of the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, errors and evils had begun to work which sapped the very foundations of the church’s testimony.
Are we asked for proofs? Alas! we have them, in melancholy abundance. Hear the words of that blessed apostle who shed more tears and heaved more sighs over the ruins of the church than any man that ever lived. “I marvel,” he says; and well he might, “that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel: which is not another.” “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you” “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service to them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years;” Christian festivals, so called, very imposing and gratifying to religious nature; but, in the judgement of the apostle, the judgement of the Holy Ghost, it was simply giving up Christianity and going back to the worship of idols. “I am afraid of you,” and no wonder, when they could thus so speedily turn away from the grand characteristic truths of a heavenly Christianity, and occupy themselves with superstitious observances. “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” “Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
And all this in the apostle’s own day. The departure was even more rapid than in Israel’s case; for they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua; but, in the church’s sad and humiliating history, the enemy succeeded, almost immediately, in introducing leaven into the meal, tares among the wheat. Ere the apostles themselves had left the scene, seed was sown which has been bearing its pernicious fruit ever since, and shall continue to bear, till angelic reapers clear the field.
But we must give further proof from scripture. Let us hearken to the same inspired witness, near the close of his ministry, pouring out his heart to his beloved son Timothy, in accents, at once pathetic and solemn. “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.” Again, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Here is the testimony of the man who, as a wise master builder, had laid the foundation of the church. And what was his own personal experience? He was, like his blessed Master, left alone, deserted by those who had once gathered round him in the freshness, bloom, and ardour of early days. His large, loving heart was broken by Judaising teachers who sought to overturn the very foundations of Christianity, and to overthrow the faith of God’s elect. He wept over the ways of many who, while they made a profession, were, nevertheless, “the enemies of the cross of Christ.”
In a word, the Apostle Paul, as he looked forth from his prison at Rome, saw the hopeless wreck and ruin of the professing body. He saw that it would happen to that body, as it had happened to the ship in which he had made his last voyage – a voyage strikingly significant and illustrative of the church’s sad history in this world. But here let us just remind the reader, that we are dealing now only with the question of the church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth. This must be distinctly seen, else we shall greatly err in our thoughts on the subject. We must accurately distinguish between the church as the body of Christ, and as His light bearer or witness in the world. In the former character, failure is impossible; in the latter, the ruin is complete and hopeless.
The church, as the body of Christ, united to her living and glorified Head in the heavens, by the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, can never, by any possibility, fail – never be smashed to pieces, like Paul’s ship, by the storms and billows of this hostile world. It is as safe as Christ Himself. The Head and the body are one – indissolubly one. No power of earth or hell, men or devils can ever touch the feeblest and most obscure member of that blessed body. All stand before God, all are under His gracious eye, in the fullness, beauty and acceptability of Christ Himself. As is the Head, so are the members – all the members together – each member in particular. All stand in the full eternal results of Christ’s finished work on the cross. There is – there can be no question of responsibility here. The Head made Himself responsible for the members. He perfectly met every claim, and discharged every liability. Nothing remains but love – love, deep as the heart of Christ, perfect as His work, unchanging as His throne. Every question that could possibly be raised against any one, or all of the members of the church of God, was raised, gone into, and definitively settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross. All the sins, all the iniquities, all the transgressions, all the guilt of each member in particular, and all the members together – yes all, in the fullest and most absolute way, was laid on Christ and borne by Him God, in His inflexible justice, in His infinite holiness, in His eternal righteousness, dealt with everything that could ever, in any possible manner, stand in the way of the full salvation, perfect blessedness, and everlasting glory of every one of the members of the body of Christ the assembly of God. Every member of the body is permeated by the life of the Head; every stone in the building is animated by the life of the chief corner-stone. All are bound together in the power of a bond which can never, no never, be dissolved.
And, furthermore, let it be distinctly understood that the unity of the body of Christ is absolutely indissoluble. This is a cardinal point which must be tenaciously held, and faithfully confessed. But, obviously, it cannot be held and confessed, unless it is understood and believed; and, judging from the expressions which one sometimes hears, in speaking on the subject, it is very questionable indeed if people, so expressing themselves, have ever grasped, in a divine way, the glorious truth of the unity of the body of Christ – a unity maintained, on earth, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
Thus, for example, we sometimes hear people speak of “rending the body of Christ.” It is a complete mistake. Such a thing is utterly impossible. The Reformers were accused of rending the body of Christ, when they turned their backs upon the Romish system. What a gross misconception! It simply amounted to the monstrous assumption that a vast mass of moral evil, doctrinal error, ecclesiastical corruption, and debasing superstition was to be owned as the body of Christ! How could any one, with the New Testament in his hand, regard the so-called church of Rome, with its numberless and nameless abominations, as the body of Christ? How could any one, possessing the very faintest idea of the true church of God, ever think of bestowing that title upon the darkest mass of wickedness, the greatest masterpiece of Satan the world has ever beheld?
No, reader; we must never confound the ecclesiastical systems of this world – ancient, medieval, or modern, Greek, Latin, Anglican, National or Popular, Established or Dissenting – with the true church of God, the body of Christ. There is not, beneath the canopy of heaven, this day, nor ever was, a religious system, call it what you please, possessing the very smallest claim to be called, “The church of God,” or “The body of Christ.” And, as a consequence, it can never be, rightly or intelligently, called schism, or rending the body of Christ, to separate from such systems; nay, on the contrary, it is the bounden duty of every one who would faithfully maintain and confess the truth of the unity of the body, to separate with the most unqualified decision, from everything falsely calling itself a church. It can only be viewed as schism to separate from those who are, unmistakably and unquestionably, gathered on the ground of the assembly of God.
No body of Christians can now lay claim to the title of the body of Christ, or church of God. The members of that body are scattered everywhere they are to be found in all the various religious organisations of the day, save such as deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot admit the idea that any true Christian could continue to frequent a place where his Lord is blasphemed. But, although no body of Christians can lay claim to the title of the assembly of God, all Christians are responsible to be gathered on the ground of that assembly, and on no other.
And if we be asked, “How are we to know – where are we to find this ground?” We reply, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” “There is “a path” – thanks be to God for it, though – “no fowl knoweth, and the vulture’s eye hath not seen it. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.” Nature’s keenest vision cannot see this path, nor its greatest strength tread it. Where is it then? Here it is, “Unto man – to the reader and to the writer, to each, to all ‘he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job 28.) But there is another expression which we not infrequently hear from persons from whom we might expect more intelligence, namely, cutting off the members of the body of Christ.”* This too, blessed be God, is impossible. Not a single member of the body of Christ can ever be severed from the Head, or ever disturbed from the place into which he has been incorporated by the Holy Ghost, in pursuance of the eternal purpose of God, and in virtue of the accomplished atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The divine Three in One are pledged for the eternal security of the very feeblest member of the body; and for the maintenance of the indissoluble unity of the whole.
{*The expression, “cutting off the members of Christ’s body” is generally applied in cases of discipline. But it is quite a misapplication. The discipline of the assembly can never touch the unity of the body. A member of the body may so fail in morals or err in doctrine, as to call for the action of the assembly, in putting him away from the Table; but that has nothing to do with his place in the body, The two things are perfectly distinct.}
In a word, then, it is as true, today, as it was when the inspired apostle penned the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, that “There is one body,” of which Christ is Head, of which the Holy Ghost is the formative power; and of which all true believers are members. This body has been on earth, since the day of Pentecost, is on earth now, and shall continue on earth until that moment, so rapidly approaching, when Christ shall come and take it to His Father’s house. It is the same body, with a continual succession of members, just as we speak of a certain regiment of her Majesty’s army having been at Waterloo, and now quartered at Aldershot, though not a man in the regiment of today appeared at the memorable battle of 1815.
Does the reader feel any difficulty as to all this? It may be that he finds it hard, in the present broken and scattered condition of the members, to believe and confess the unbroken unity of the whole. He may feel disposed, perhaps, to limit the application of Ephesians 4: 4, to the day in which the apostle penned the words, when Christians were manifestly one; and when there was no such thing thought of as being a member of this church or a member of that church; because all believers were members of the one church.*
{*The unity of the church may be compared to a chain thrown across a river; we see it at each side, but it dips in the middle. But though it dips, it is not broken; though we do not see the union in the middle, we believe it is there all the same. The church was seen in its unity on the day of Pentecost, and it will be seen in its unity in the glory; and although we do not see it now, we nevertheless believe it most surely.
And, be it remembered, that the unity of the body is a great practical, formative truth; and one very weighty practical deduction from it is that the state and walk of each member affect the whole body. “If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.” A member of what? Some local assembly? Nay; but a member of the body. We must not make the body of Christ a matter of geography.
“But,” we may be asked, “are we affected by what we do not see or know?” Assuredly. Are we to limit the grand truth of the unity of the body with all its practical consequences, to the measure of our personal knowledge and experience? Far be the thought. it is the presence of the Holy Ghost that unites the members of the body to the Head and to one another; and hence it is that the walk and ways of each affect all. Even in Israel’s case, where it was not a corporate but a national unity, when Achan sinned, it was said, “Israel hath sinned;” and the whole congregation suffered a humiliating defeat on account of a sin of which they were ignorant.
It is perfectly marvellous how little the Lord’s people seem to understand the glorious truth of the unity of the body, and the practical consequences flowing from it.}
In reply, we must protest against the very idea of limiting the word of God. What possible right have we to single out one clause from Ephesians 4: 4-6 and say it only applied to the days of the apostles? If one clause is to be so limited, why not all? Are there not still, “one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all”? Will any question this? Surely not. Well then it follows that there is as surely one body as there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God. All are intimately bound up together, and you cannot touch one without touching all. We have no more right to deny the existence of the one body than we have to deny the existence of God, inasmuch as the self-same passage that declares to us the one, declares to us the other also.
But some will, doubtless, inquire, “Where is this one body to be seen? Is it not an absurdity to speak of such a thing, in the face of the almost numberless denominations of Christendom?” Our answer is this, We are not going to surrender the truth of God because man has so signally failed to carry it out. Did not Israel utterly fail to maintain, confess and carry out, the truth of the unity of the Godhead? And was that glorious truth, in the smallest degree, touched by their failure? Was it not as true that there was one God, though there were as many idolatrous altars as streets in Jerusalem, and every housetop sent up a cloud of incense to the queen of heaven, as when Moses sounded forth in the ears of the whole congregation, those sublime words, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”? Blessed be God, His truth does not depend upon the faithless, foolish ways of men. It stands in its own divine integrity; it shines in its own heavenly, undimmed lustre, spite of the grossest human failure. Were it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? or what would become of us? In fact, it comes to this, if we were only to believe the measure of truth which we see practically carried out in the ways of men, we might give up in despair, and be of all men most miserable.
But how is the truth of the one body to be practically carried out? By refusing to own any other principle of Christian fellowship – any other ground of meeting. All true believers should meet on the simple ground of membership of the body of Christ; and on no other. They should assemble, on the first day of the week, round the Lord’s Table, and break bread, as members of the one body, as we read in 1 Corinthians 10, “For we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf.” This is as true, and as practical, today, as it was when the apostle addressed the assembly at Corinth. True, there were divisions; at Corinth as there are divisions in Christendom; but that did not, in any wise, touch the truth of God. The apostle rebuked the divisions – pronounced them carnal. He had no sympathy with the poor low idea which one sometimes hears advocated, that divisions are good things as superinducing emulation. He believed they were very bad things – the fruit of the flesh, the work of Satan.
Neither – we feel persuaded – would the apostle have accepted the popular illustration that divisions in the church are like so many regiments, with different facings, all fighting under the same commander-in-chief. It would not hold good for a moment; indeed, it has no application whatever, but rather gives a flat contradiction to that distinct and emphatic statement, “There is one body.”
Reader, this is a most glorious truth. Let us ponder it deeply. Let us look at Christendom in the light of it. Let us judge our own position and ways by it. Are we acting on it? Do we give expression to it, at the Lord’s Table, every Lord’s day? Be assured it is our sacred duty and high privilege so to do. Say not there are difficulties of all sorts; many stumbling-blocks in the way; much to dishearten us in the conduct of those who profess to meet on this very ground of which we speak.
All this is, alas! but too true. We must be quite prepared for it. The devil will leave no stone unturned to cast dust in our eyes so that we may not see God’s blessed way for His people. But we must not give heed to his suggestions or be snared by his devices. There always have been, and there always will be difficulties in the way of carrying out the precious truth of God; and perhaps one of the greatest difficulties is found in the inconsistent conduct of those who profess to act upon it.
But then we must ever distinguish between the truth and those who profess it; between the ground and the conduct of those who occupy it. Of course, they ought to harmonise; but they do not; and hence we are imperatively called to judge the conduct by the ground, not the ground by the conduct. If we saw a man farming on a principle which we knew to be thoroughly sound, but he was a bad farmer, what should we do? Of course, we should reject his mode of working, but hold the principle all the same.
Not otherwise is it, in reference to the truth now before us. There were heresies at Corinth, schisms, errors, evils, of all sorts. What then? Was the truth of God to be surrendered as a myth, as something wholly impracticable? Was it all to be given up? Were the Corinthians to meet on some other principle? Were they to organise themselves on some new ground? Were they to gather round some fresh centre? No, thank God! His truth was not to be surrendered, for a moment, although Corinth was split up into ten thousand sects, and its horizon darkened by ten thousand heresies. The body of Christ was one; and the apostle simply displays in their view the banner with this blessed inscription, “Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”
Now these words were addressed, not merely “unto the church at Corinth,” but also “to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” Hence, the truth of the one body is abiding and universal. Every true Christian is bound to recognise it, and to act on it; and every assembly of Christians, wherever convened, should be the local expression of this grand and all-important truth.
Some might, perhaps, feel disposed to ask how it could be said to any one assembly, “Ye are the body of Christ”? Were there not saints at Ephesus, Colosse and Philippi? No doubt? and had the apostle been addressing them on the same subject, he could have said to them likewise, “Ye are the body of Christ,” inasmuch as they were the local expression of the body; and not only so, but, in addressing them, he had before his mind all saints, to the end of the church’s earthly career.
But we must bear in mind that the apostle could not possibly address such words to any human organisation, ancient or modern. No; nor if all such organisations, call them what you please, were amalgamated into one, could he speak of it as “the body of Christ.” That body, let it be distinctly understood, consists of all true believers on the face of the earth. That they are not gathered on that only divine ground, is their serious loss, and their Lord’s dishonour. The precious truth holds good, all the same – “There is one body;” and this is the divine standard by which to measure every ecclesiastical association and every religious system under the sun.
We deem it needful to go somewhat fully into the divine side of the question of the church, in order to guard the truth of God from the results of misapprehension; and also that the reader may clearly understand that, in speaking of the utter failure and ruin of the church, we are looking at the human side of the subject. To this latter, we must return for a moment.
It is impossible to read the New Testament, with a calm and unprejudiced mind, and not see that the church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth, has, most signally and shamefully, failed, To quote all the passages in proof of this statement would, literally, fill a small volume. But, let us glance at the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation where the church is seen under judgement. We have, in these solemn chapters, what we may call a divine church history. Seven assemblies are taken up, as illustrative of the various phases of the church’s history, from the day in which it was set up, in responsibility, on the earth, until it shall be spued out of the Lord’s mouth, as something utterly intolerable. If we do not see that these two chapters are prophetic, as well as historic, we shall deprive ourselves of a vast field of most valuable instruction. For ourselves, we can only assure the reader that no human language could adequately set forth what we have gathered from Revelation 2 and 3, in their prophetic aspect.
However, we are only referring to them now as the last of a series of scripture proofs of our present thesis. Take the address to Ephesus, the self-same church to which the Apostle Paul wrote his marvellous epistle, opening up, so blessedly, the heavenly side of things, God’s eternal purpose respecting the church – the position and portion of the church, as accepted in Christ, and blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies in Him. No failure here. No thought of such a thing. No possibility Of it. All is in God’s hands here. The counsel is His; the work His. It is His grace, His glory, His mighty power, His good pleasure; and all founded upon the blood of Christ. There is no question of responsibility here. The church was “dead in trespasses and sins” but Christ died for her; He placed Himself judicially where she was morally; and God, in His sovereign grace, entered the scene and raised up Christ from the dead, and the church in Him glorious fact! Here all is sure and settled. It is the church in the heavenlies, in Christ, not the church on earth for Christ. It is the body “accepted,” not the candlestick judged. If we do not see both sides of this great question, we have much to learn.
But there is the earthly side, as well as the heavenly; the human as well as the divine; the candlestick as well as the body. Hence it is that in the judicial address, in Revelation 2, we read such solemn words as these, “I have against thee, that thou hast left thy first love.”
How very distinct! Nothing like this in Ephesians; nothing against the body, nothing against the bride; but there is something against the candlestick. The light had, even already, become dim. Hardly had it been lighted, ere the snuffers were needed.
Thus, at the very outset, symptoms of decline showed themselves, unmistakably, to the penetrating eye of Him who walked amongst the seven golden candlesticks; and when we reach the close, and contemplate the last phase of the church’s condition – the last stage of its earthly history, as illustrated by the assembly, at Laodicea, there is not a single redeeming feature. The case is almost hopeless. The Lord is outside the door. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” It is not, here, as at Ephesus, “I have somewhat against thee.” The whole condition is bad, The whole professing body is about to be given up. “I will spue thee out of my mouth.” He still lingers, blessed be His Name, for He is ever slow to leave the place of mercy, or enter the place of judgement. It reminds us of the departure of the glory, in the opening of Ezekiel. It moved, with a slow and measured pace, loath to leave the house, the people and the land. “Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.” “Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims.” And, finally, The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. (Ezek 10: 4, 18; 11: 23.)
This is deeply affecting. How striking the contrast between this slow departure of the glory and its speedy entrance, in the day of Solomon’s dedication of the house, in 2 Chronicles 7: 1. Jehovah was quick to enter His abode, in the midst of His people; slow to leave it. He was, to speak after the manner of men, forced away by the sins and hopeless impenitence of His infatuated people.
So also, with the church. We see, in the second of Acts, His rapid entrance into His spiritual house. He came, like a rushing mighty wind, to fill the house with His glory. But, in the third of Revelation, see His attitude. He is outside. Yes; but He is knocking. He lingers, not indeed with any hope of corporate restoration; but if haply “any man would hear his voice and open the door.” The fact of His being outside, shows what the church is. The fact of His knocking, shows what He is.
Christian reader, see that you thoroughly understand this whole subject. It is of the very last importance that you should. We are surrounded, on all sides, with false notions as to the present condition and future destiny of the professing church. We must fling these all behind our backs, with holy decision, and listen, with circumcised ear, and reverent mind, to the teaching of holy scripture. That teaching is as clear as noon-day. The professing church is a hopeless ruin, and judgement is at the door. Read the epistle of Jude; read 2 Peter 2 and 3. read 2 Timothy. Just lay aside this volume, and look closely into those solemn scriptures, and we feel persuaded you will rise from the study with the deep and thorough conviction that there is nothing whatever before Christendom but the unmitigated wrath of Almighty God. Its doom is set forth in that brief but solemn sentence in Romans 11, “Thou also shalt be cut off.”
Yes; such is the language of scripture. “Cut off” – “spued out.” The professing church has utterly failed as Christ’s witness on the earth. As with Israel, so with the church, the very truth which she was responsible to maintain and confess she has faithlessly surrendered. Hardly had the canon of New Testament scripture closed, hardly had the first set of labourers left the field, ere gross darkness set in, and settled down upon the whole professing body. Turn where you will, range through the ponderous tomes of “the fathers” as they are called, and you will not find a trace of those grand characteristic truths of our glorious Christianity. All, all was shamefully abandoned. As Israel, in Canaan, abandoned Jehovah for Baal and Ashtaroth, so the church abandoned the pure and precious truth of God for puerile fables and deadly errors. The rapid departure is perfectly astounding; but it was just as the Apostle Paul forewarned the elders of Ephesus. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20)
How truly deplorable! The holy apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, almost immediately succeeded by “grievous wolves,” and teachers of perverse things. The whole church plunged into thick darkness. The lamp of divine revelation almost hidden from view. Ecclesiastical corruption, in every form; priestly domination with all its terrible accompaniments. In short, the history of the church – the history of Christendom is the most appalling record ever penned.
True it is, thanks be to God, He left not Himself without a witness. Here and there, from time to time, just as in Israel of old, He raised up one and another to speak for Him. Even amid the deepest gloom of the middle ages, an occasional star appears upon the horizon. The Waldenses and others were enabled, by the grace of God, to hold fast His word and to confess the Name of Jesus in the face of Rome’s dark and terrible tyranny, and diabolical cruelty.
Then came that gracious season, in the sixteenth century, when God raised up Luther and his beloved and honoured fellow-labourers, to preach the great truth of justification by faith, and to give the precious volume of God to the people, in their own tongue wherein they were born. It is not within the compass of human language to set forth the blessing of that memorable time. Thousands heard the glad tidings of salvation – heard, believed, and were saved. Thousands who had long groaned beneath the intolerable weight of Romish superstition, hailed, with Profound thankfulness, the heavenly message. Thousands flocked, with intense delight, to draw water from those wells of inspiration which had been stopped for ages by papal ignorance and intolerance. The blessed lamp of divine revelation, so long hidden by the enemy’s hand, was permitted to cast its rays athwart the gloom, and thousands rejoiced in its heavenly light.
But while we heartily bless God for all the glorious results of what is commonly called the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, we should make a very grave mistake indeed were we to imagine that it was anything approaching to a restoration of the church to its original condition. Far – very far from it. Luther and his companions, if we are to judge from their writings – precious writings, many of them – never grasped the divine idea of the church as the body of Christ. They did not understand the unity of the body; the presence of the Holy Ghost in the assembly, as well as His indwelling in the individual believer. They never reached the grand truth of ministry in the church, “its nature, source, power and responsibility.” They never got beyond the idea of human authority as the basis of ministry. They were silent as to the specific hope of the church, namely, the coming of Christ for His people – the bright and morning Star They failed to seize the proper scope of prophecy, and proved themselves incompetent rightly to divide the word of truth.
Let us not be misunderstood. We love the memory of the Reformers. Their names are familiar household words amongst us. They were dear, devoted, earnest, blessed servants of Christ. Would that we had their like amongst us, in this day of revived popery, and rampant infidelity. We would yield to none in our love and esteem for Luther, Melanchthon, Farel, Latimer and Knox. They were truly bright and shining lights in their day; and thousands – yea millions will thank God, throughout eternity, that they ever lived and preached and wrote. And not only so, but, looked at in their private life and public ministry, they put to shame many of those who have been favoured with a range of truth for which we look in vain in the voluminous writings of the Reformers.
But, admitting all this, as we most freely and gratefully do, we are nevertheless convinced that those beloved and honoured servants of Christ failed to seize and therefore failed to preach and teach many of the special and characteristic truths of Christianity; at least, we have failed to find these truths in their writings. They preached the precious truth of justification by faith; they gave the holy scriptures to the people; they trampled under foot much of the rubbish of Romish superstition.
All this they did, by the grace of God; and for all this we bow our heads in deep thankfulness and Praise to the Father of mercies. But Protestantism is not Christianity; nor are the so-called churches of the Reformation, whether National or Dissenting, the church of God. Far from it. We look back over the course of eighteen centuries, and, spite of the occasional revivals, spite of the brilliant lights which, at various times, have shone upon the church’s horizon – lights which appeared all the brighter in contrast with the deep gloom that surrounded them – spite of the many gracious visitations of God’s Spirit, both in Europe and America, during the past and present century – spite of all these things, for which we most heartily bless God, we return, with decision to the statement already advanced, that the professing church is a hopeless wreck; that Christendom is rapidly hastening down the inclined plane, to the blackness of darkness for ever; that those highly favoured lands, where much evangelical truth has been preached; where Bibles have been circulated in millions, and gospel tracts in billions, shall yet be covered with thick darkness – given over to strong delusion to believe a lie!
And then? – Ah! what then? A converted world? Nay, but a judged church. The true saints of God, scattered throughout Christendom – all the true members of the body of Christ, will be caught up to meet their coming Lord – the dead saints raised, the living changed? in a moment, and all taken up together to be for ever with the Lord. Then the mystery will rise to a head in the person of the man of sin – the lawless one, the Antichrist. The Lord Jesus shall come, and all His saints with Him, to execute judgement on the beast, or revived Roman empire, and the false prophet, or Antichrist – the former in the West, the latter in the East.
This will be a summary act of direct warrior judgement, without any judicial process whatever, inasmuch as both the beast and false prophet shall be found in open rebellion and blasphemous opposition to God and the Lamb. Then comes the sessional judgement of the living nations, as recorded in Matthew 25: 31-46.
Thus, all evil having been put down, Christ shall reign, in righteousness and peace, for a thousand years – a bright and blessed time, the true Sabbath for Israel and the whole earth – a period marked by the grand facts, Satan bound, and Christ reigning Glorious facts! The very reference to them causes the heart to overflow in praise and thanksgiving. What will the reality be?
But Satan shall be loosed from his thousand years’ captivity, and allowed to make one more effort against God and His Christ. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.* And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Rev. 20: 7, 10.)
{*The reader must distinguish between the Gog and Magog of Revelation 20 and those of Ezekiel 38 & 39. The former are post-millennial; the latter, pre-millennial.}
This will be Satan’s last effort, issuing in his eternal perdition. Then we have the judgement of the dead, “small and great” – the sessional judgement of all those who shall have died in their sins, from the days of Cain down to the last apostate from millennial glory. Tremendous scene! No heart can conceive, no tongue, no pen, set forth its awful solemnity.
Finally, we have unfolded to the vision of our souls the everlasting state, the new heaven and the new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, throughout the golden ages of eternity.
Such is the order of events, as set forth, with all possible clearness, on the pages of inspiration. We have given a brief summary of them in connection with the line of truth on which we have been dwelling – a line, as we are fully aware, by no means popular; but we dare not withhold it on that account. Our business is to declare the whole counsel of God, not to seek popularity. We do not expect the truth of God to be popular in Christendom; so far from this, we have been seeking to prove that just as Israel abandoned the truth which they were responsible to maintain, so the professing church has let slip all those great truths which characterise the Christianity of the New Testament. And we may assure the reader that our one object in pursuing this line of argument is to arouse the hearts of all true Christians to a sense of the value of those truths, and of their responsibility not only to receive them, but to seek a fuller realisation and a bolder confession of them. We long to see a band of men raised up, in these closing hours of the church’s earthly history, who shall go forth, in true spiritual power, and proclaim, with unction and energy – the long-forgotten truths of the gospel of God. May God, in His great mercy to His people, raise up such and send them forth. May the Lord Jesus knock louder and louder, at the door, so that many may hear and open to Him, according to the desire of His loving heart, and taste the blessedness of deep personal communion with Himself, while waiting for His coming.
Blessed be God, there is no limit whatever to the blessing of the individual soul who hears Christ’s voice and opens the door; and what is true of one is true of hundreds or thousands. Only let us be real, and simple, and true, feeling and owning our utter feebleness, and nothingness; laying aside all assumption and empty pretension; not seeking to be anything, or to set up anything; but holding fast Christ’s word, and not denying His Name; finding our happy place at His feet, our satisfying portion in Himself, and our real delight in serving Him in any little way. Thus we shall get on harmoniously, lovingly, and happily together, finding our common centre in Christ, and our common object in seeking to further His cause and promote His glory. Oh! that it were thus with all the Lord’s beloved people, in this our day; we should then have a very different tale to tell, and present a very different aspect to the world around. May the Lord revive His work!
It may perhaps seem to the reader that we have wandered a long way from Deuteronomy 6; but we must remind him, once for all, that it is not merely what each chapter contains that demands our attention, but also what it suggests And further, we may add that, in sitting down to write, from time to time, it is our one desire to be led by God’s Spirit into the very line of truth which may be suited to the need of all our readers. If only the beloved flock of Christ be fed, instructed and comforted, we care not whether it be by well connected notes or broken fragments.
We shall now proceed with our chapter.
Moses, having laid down the grand foundation truth contained in the fourth verse, “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord,” proceeds to press upon the congregation their sacred duty in respect to this blessed One. It was not merely that there was a God, but He was their God. He had deigned to link Himself with them, in covenant relationship. He had redeemed them, borne them on eagles’ wings, and brought them unto Himself, in order that they might be to Him a people, and that He might be their God.
Blessed fact! Blessed relationship! But Israel had to be reminded of the conduct suited to such a relationship – conduct which could only flow from a loving heart. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Here lies the secret of all true practical religion. Without this all is valueless to God. “My son, give me thine heart.” where the heart is given, all will be right. The heart may be compared to the regulator of a watch which acts on the hair-spring, and the hair-spring acts on the mainspring, and the main-spring acts on the hands, as they move round the dial. If your watch goes wrong, it will not do merely to alter the hands, you must touch the regulator. God looks for real heart-work, blessed be His Name! His word to us is, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
How we ought to bless Him for such touching words! They do so reveal His own loving heart to us. Assuredly, He loved us in deed and in truth; and He cannot be satisfied with anything else, whether in our ways with Him or our ways one with another All must flow straight from the heart.
“And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart” – at the very source of all the issues of life. This is peculiarly precious. Whatever is in the heart comes out through the lips, and in the life, How important then, to have the heart full of the word of God, so full that we shall have no room for the vanities and follies of this present evil world. Thus shall our conversation be always with grace, seasoned with salt. “Out of the abundance of the heart the month speaketh.” Hence we can judge of what is in the heart by what cometh out of the mouth. The tongue is the organ of the heart the organ of the man. “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” When the heart is really governed by the word of God, the whole character reveals the blessed result. It must be so, inasmuch as the heart is the main-spring of our entire moral condition; it lies at the centre of all those moral influences which govern our personal history and shape our practical career.
In every part of the divine volume, we see how much importance God attaches to the attitude and state of the heart, with respect to Him or to His word, which is one and the same thing. when the heart is true to Him, all is sure to come right; but, on the other hand, we shall find that, where the heart grows cold and careless as to God and His truth, there will, sooner or later, be open departure from the path of truth and righteousness. There is, therefore, much force and value in the exhortation addressed by Barnabas to the converts at Antioch: “He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.”
How needful, then, now, always! This “purpose of heart” is most precious to God. It is what we may venture to call the grand moral regulator, It imparts a lovely earnestness to the Christian character which is greatly to be coveted by all of us. It is a divine antidote against coldness, deadness and formality, all of which are so hateful to God. The outward life may be very correct, and the creed may be very orthodox; but if the earnest purpose of heart be lacking – the affectionate cleaving of the whole moral being to God and His Christ, all is utterly worthless.
It is through the heart that the Holy Ghost instructs us. Hence, the apostle prayed for the saints at Ephesus that, “The eyes of their heart [kardias, not dianoias] might be enlightened” And again, “That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith.”
Thus we see how all scripture is in perfect harmony with the exhortation recorded in our chapter, “And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” How near this would have kept them to their covenant God! How safe, too, from all evil, and specially from the abominable evil of idolatry – their national sin, their terrible besetment! If Jehovah’s precious words had only found their right place in the heart, there would have been little fear of Baal, Chemosh or Ashtoreth. In a word, all the idols of the heathen would have found their right place, and been estimated as their true value, if only the word of Jehovah had been allowed to dwell in Israel’s heart.
And be it specially noted here how beautifully characteristic all this is of the book of Deuteronomy. It is not so much a question of keeping up a certain order of religious observances, the offering of sacrifices or attention to rites and ceremonies. All these things, no doubt, had their place, but they are, by no means, the prominent or paramount thing in Deuteronomy. No; THE WORD is the all-important matter here. It is Jehovah’s word in Israel’s heart.
The reader must seize this fact, if he really desires to possess the key to the lovely book of Deuteronomy. It is not a book of ceremonial; it is a book of moral and affectionate obedience. It teaches, in almost every section, that invaluable lesson, that the heart that loves, prizes and honours the word of God is ready for every act of obedience, whether it be the offering of a sacrifice or the observance of a day. It might so happen that an Israelite would find himself in a place, and under circumstances in which a rigid adherence to rites and ceremonies would be impossible; but he never could be in a place or in circumstances in which he could not love, reverence and obey the word of God. Let him go where he would; let him be carried, as a captive exile, to the ends of the earth, nothing could rob him of the high privilege of uttering and acting on those blessed words,
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
Precious words! They contain in their brief compass, the great principle of the book of Deuteronomy; and we may add, the great principle of the divine life, at all times, and in all places. It can never lose its moral force and value. It always holds good. It was true in the days of the patriarchs; true for Israel in the land; true for Israel scattered to the ends of the earth; true for the church as a whole; true for each individual believer, amid the church’s hopeless ruins. In a word, obedience is always the creature’s holy duty and exalted privilege – simple, unhesitating, unqualified obedience to the word of the Lord. This is an unspeakable mercy for which we may well praise our God, day and night. He has given us His word, blessed be His Name, and He exhorts us to let that word dwell in us richly – dwell in our hearts, and assert its holy sway over our entire course and character.
“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
All this is perfectly beautiful. The word of God hidden in the heart; flowing out, in loving instruction, to the children, and in holy conversation, in the bosom of the family; shining out in all the activities of daily life, so that all who came inside the gates or entered the house might see that the word of God was the standard for each, for all, and in everything.
Thus it was to be with Israel of old; and surely thus it ought to be with Christians now. But is it so? Are our children thus taught? Is it our constant aim to present the word of God, in all its heavenly attractiveness, to their young hearts? Do they see it shining out in our daily life? Do they see its influence upon our habits, our temper, our family intercourse, our business transactions? This is what we understand by binding the word as a sign upon the hands, having it as a frontlet between the eyes, writing it upon the door posts, and upon the gates.
Reader, is it thus with us? It is of little use attempting to teach our children the word of God, if our lives are not governed by that word. We do not believe in making the blessed word of God a mere school book for our children; to do so is to turn a delightful privilege into a wearisome drudgery. Our children should see that we live in the very atmosphere of scripture; that it forms the material of our conversation when we sit in the bosom of the family, in our moments of relaxation.
Alas! how little is this the case! Have we not to be deeply humbled, in the presence of God, when we reflect upon the general character and tone of our conversation at table, and in the family circle? How little there is of Deuteronomy 6: 7! How much of “foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient!” How much evil speaking of our brethren, our neighbours, our fellow-labourers! How much idle gossip! How much worthless small talk!
And from what does all this proceed? Simply from the state of the heart. The word of God, the commandments and sayings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are not dwelling in our hearts; and hence they are not welling up and flowing out in living streams of grace and edification.
Will any one say that Christians do not need to consider these things? If so, let him ponder the following wholesome words, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” And again, “Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 4: 29; 5: 18-20.)
These words were addressed to the saints at Ephesus; and, most assuredly, we should apply our hearts diligently to them. We are little aware, perhaps, of how deeply and constantly we fail in maintaining the habit of spiritual conversation. It is specially in the bosom of the family, and in our ordinary intercourse, that this failure is most manifest. Hence our need of those words of exhortation which we have just penned. It is evident the Holy Spirit foresaw the need, and graciously anticipated it. Hear what He says “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse.” – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3.)
Lovely picture of ordinary Christian life! It is but a fuller and higher development of what we have in our chapter, where the Israelite is seen in the midst of his family, with the word of God flowing forth from his heart, in loving instruction to his children – seen, in his daily life, in all his intercourse at home and abroad, under the hallowed influence of Jehovah’s words.
Beloved Christian reader, do we not long to see more of all this in our midst? Is it not, at times, very sorrowful and very humbling to mark the style of conversation that obtains in the midst of our family circles? Should we not sometimes blush if we could see our conversation reproduced in print? What is the remedy? Here it is – a heart filled with the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, Christ Himself. Nothing else will do. We must begin with the heart, and where that is thoroughly pre-occupied with heavenly things we shall make very short work with all attempts at evil speaking, foolish talking and jesting.
“And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten, and be full; then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” (Vers. 10-12.)
Amid all the blessing, the mercies and the privileges of the land of Canaan, they were to remember that gracious and faithful One who had redeemed them out of the land of bondage. They were to remember, too, that all these things were His free gift. The land, with all that it contained, was bestowed upon them in virtue of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Cities built and houses furnished, flowing wells, fruitful vineyards and olive yards, all ready to their hand, the free gift of sovereign grace and covenant mercy. All they had to do was to take possession, in simple faith; and to keep ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of their hearts the bounteous Giver of it all. They were to think of Him, and find in His redeeming love the true motive spring of a life of loving obedience. Wherever they turned their eyes they beheld the tokens of His great goodness, the rich fruit of His marvellous love. Every city, every house, every well, every vine, olive and fig tree spoke to their hearts of Jehovah’s abounding grace, and furnished a substantial proof of His infallible faithfulness to His promise.
“Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you. (For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you,) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.”
There are two great motives set before the congregation, in our chapter, namely, “love” in verse 5; and “fear,” in verse 13. These are found all through scripture; and their importance, in guiding the life and forming the character, cannot possibly be too highly estimated. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We are exhorted to be in the fear of the Lord all the day.” It is a grand moral safeguard against all evil. Unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”
The blessed Book abounds in passages setting forth, in every possible form, the immense importance of the fear of God. “How,” says Joseph, “can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” The man who walks habitually in the fear of God is preserved from every form of moral pravity. The abiding realisation of the divine presence must prove an effectual shelter from every temptation? How often do we find the presence of some very holy and spiritual person a wholesome check upon levity and folly; and if such be the moral influence of a fellow mortal, how much more powerful would be the realised presence of God!
Christian reader, let us give our serious attention to this weighty matter. Let us seek to live in the consciousness that we are in the immediate presence of God. Thus shall we be preserved from a thousand forms of evil to which we are exposed from day to day, and to which, alas! we are pre-disposed. The remembrance that the eye of God rests upon us, would exert a far more powerful influence upon our life and conversation than the presence of all the saints upon earth, and all the angels in heaven. We could not speak falsely; we could not utter with our lips what we do not feel in the heart; we could not talk folly; we could not speak evil of our brother or our neighbour; we could not speak unkindly of any one, if only we felt ourselves in the presence of God. In a word, the holy fear of the Lord, of which scripture speaks so much, would act as a most blessed restraint upon evil thoughts, evil words, evil ways, evil in every shape and form.
Moreover, it would tend to make us very real and genuine, in all our sayings and doings. There is a sad amount of sham and nonsense about us. We frequently say a great deal more than we feel. We are not honest. We do not speak, every man, truth with our neighbour. We give expression to sentiments which are not the genuine utterance of the heart. We act the hypocrite, one with another.
All these things afford melancholy proof of how little we live, move and have our being in the presence of God. If we could only bear in mind that God hears us and sees us – hears our every word, and sees our every thought, our every way, how differently we should carry ourselves! What holy watchfulness we should maintain over our thoughts, our tempers, and our tongues! What purity of heart and mind! What truth and uprightness in all our intercourse with our fellows! What reality and simplicity in our deportment? What happy freedom from all affectation, assumption, and pretension! What deliverance from every form of self-occupation! Oh, to live ever in the deep sense of the divine presence! To walk in the fear of the Lord, all the day long?
And then to prove the “vast constraining influence” of His love! To be led out in all the holy activities which that love would ever suggest! To find our delight in doing good! To taste the spiritual luxury of making hearts glad? To be continually meditating plans of usefulness! To live close by the fountain of divine love, so that we must be streams of refreshing in the midst of this thirsty scene – rays of light amid the moral gloom around us! “The love of Christ,” says the blessed apostle, “constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
How morally lovely is all this! Would that it were more fully realised and faithfully exhibited amongst us! May the fear and love of God be continually in our hearts, in all their blessed power, and formative influence, that thus our daily life may shine to His praise, and the real profit, comfort and blessing of all who come in contact with us whether in private or in public! God, in His infinite mercy, grant it, for Christ’s sake!
The sixteenth verse of our chapter demands our special attention. Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.” These words were quoted by our blessed Lord when tempted by Satan to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. “Then the devil taketh him up into the, holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
This is a very remarkable passage. It proves how Satan can quote scripture when it suits his purpose. But he omits a most important clause – “To keep thee in all thy ways.” Now, it formed no part of the ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. It was not the path of duty. He had no command from God to do any such thing; and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt God – to put Him to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in God – the fullest assurance of His protection.
Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty, in order to prove God’s care of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on God’s protecting hand, when we are treading the path of duty. But, if we are walking in a self-chosen path; if we are seeking our own pleasure, or our own interest, our own ends or objects, then, to talk of counting on God would be simply wicked presumption.
No doubt, our God is very merciful, very gracious, and His tender mercy is over us, even when we wander off the path of duty; but this is another thing altogether, and it leaves wholly untouched the statement that we can only count on divine protection when our feet are in the pathway of duty. If a Christian goes out boating for his amusement; or if he goes clambering over the Alps merely for sightseeing, has he any right to believe that God will take care of him? Let conscience give the answer. If God calls us to cross a stormy lake, to preach the gospel; if He summons us to cross the Alps on some special service for Him, then, assuredly, we can commit ourselves to His mighty hand to protect as from all evil. The grand point for all of us is to be found in the holy path of duty. It may be narrow, rough and lonely; but it is a path overshadowed by the wings of the Almighty and illumined by the light of His approving countenance.
Ere turning from the subject suggested by verse 16, we would briefly notice the very interesting and instructive fact, that our Lord, in His reply to Satan, takes no notice whatever of his misquotation of Psalm 91: 11. Let us carefully note this fact, and seek to bear it in mind. In place of saying to the enemy, “You have left out a most important clause of the passage which you undertake to quote,” He simply quotes another passage, as authority for His own conduct. Thus He vanquished the tempter; and thus He left us a blessed example.
It is worthy of our special notice that the Lord Jesus Christ did not overcome Satan, in virtue of His divine power. Had He done so, it could not be an example for us. But when we see Him, as a man, using the word as His only weapon, and thus gaining a glorious victory, our hearts are encouraged and comforted; and not only so, but we learn a most precious lesson as to how we, in our sphere and measure, are to stand in the conflict. The man, Christ Jesus, overcame by simple dependence upon God, and obedience to His word.
Blessed fact! A fact full of comfort and consolation for us. Satan could do nothing with one who would only act by divine authority, and by the power of the Spirit. Jesus never did His own will, though, as we know, blessed be His holy Name, His will was absolutely perfect. He came down from heaven, as He Himself tells us, in John 6, not to do His own will, but the will of the Father that sent Him. He was a perfect servant, from first to last. His rule of action was the word of God; His power of action, the Holy Ghost; His only motive for action, the will of God; hence the prince of this world had nothing in Him. Satan could not, by all his subtle wiles, draw Him out of the path of obedience, or out of the place of dependence.
Christian reader, let us consider these things. Let us deeply ponder them. Let us remember that our blessed Lord and Master left us an example that we should follow His steps. Oh! may we follow them diligently during the little while that yet remains! May we, by the gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost, enter more fully into the great fact that we are called to walk even as Jesus walked. He is our great Exemplar, in all things. Let us study Him more profoundly, so that we may reproduce Him more faithfully!
We shall now close this lengthened section by quoting for the reader the last paragraph of the chapter on which we have been dwelling; it is a passage of singular fullness, depth and power, and strikingly characteristic of the entire book of Deuteronomy.
“Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and His statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers; to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgements, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve as alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.”
How prominently is the word of God kept before the soul, in every page and every paragraph of this book! It is the one great subject on the heart and in all the discourses of the revered law-giver. It is His one aim to exalt the word of God, in all its aspects, whether in the form of testimonies, commandments, statutes or judgements; and to set forth the moral importance, yea, the urgent necessity of whole-hearted, earnest, diligent obedience, on the part of the people. “Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God” And again, “Thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord.”
All this is morally lovely. We have here unfolded before our eyes those eternal principles which no change of dispensation, no change of scene, place or circumstances can ever touch, “That which is right and good” must ever be of universal and abiding application. It reminds us of the words of the Apostle John to his beloved friend Gaius, “Beloved, follow not that which is evil; but that which is good.” The assembly might be in a very low condition; there might be very much to try the heart and depress the spirit of Gaius; Diotrephes might be carrying himself most unbecomingly and unwarrantably toward the beloved and venerable apostle and others; all this might be true, and much more, yea, the whole professing body might go wrong. What then? What remained for Gaius to do? Simply to follow that which was right and good; to open his heart and his hand and his house to every one who brought the truth; to seek to help on the cause of Christ, in every right way.
This was the business of Gaius in his day; and this is the business of every true lover of Christ, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. We may not have many to join us; we may perhaps find ourselves, at times, almost alone; but we are still to follow what is good, cost what it may. We are to depart from iniquity – purge ourselves from dishonourable vessels – flee youthful lusts – turn away from powerless professors. And what then? “Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace” – How? In isolation? Nay. I may find myself alone in any given place for a time; but there can be no such thing as isolation, so long as the body of Christ is on earth, and that will be till He comes for us. Hence we never expect to see the day in which we cannot find a few that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; whoever they are, and wherever they are, it is our bounden duty to find them; and, having found them, to walk with them in holy fellowship, until the end”
{P.S. – We must reserve the remaining chapters of Deuteronomy for another volume. May the Lord be graciously pleased to grant His rich blessing upon our meditation thus far! May He clothe these pages with the power of the Holy Ghost, and make them to be a direct message from Himself to the hearts of His people throughout the whole world! May He also grant spiritual power to unfold the truth contained in the remaining sections of this most profound, comprehensive and suggestive book!
We earnestly beseech the Christian reader to join us in prayer as to all this, remembering those most precious words, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father which is in heaven” C. H. M.}
Deu 6:1-3. Exhortation to obey Yahwehs commands, referring to the Decalogue (Deu 5:6-21) or to Deuteronomy 12 ff. to which it would make an excellent introduction, as it may have been originally.
Deu 6:1. commandment: better, commandments; Heb. uses the singular where in other languages the plural would stand.
Deu 6:2. fear: Deu 4:10*.
Deu 6:3. See Deu 4:1*.milk and honey: Exo 3:8*.
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
(vs.1-9)
The ten commandments have been reaffirmed in chapter 5; now Moses emphasizes and enlarges upon the significance of the four commandments, which we have seen deal with Israel’s relationship to God. He introduces this in verses 1-3 by again pressing on Israel the importance of obedience. This would prolong their days in the land and that would thus multiply greatly in accordance with the Lord’s promise as to their land flowing with milk and honey.
Moses appeals also to the people on the ground of their concern for their sons and their grandsons (v.2). How deeply we should be concerned, not only for our present generation, but for children and grandchildren, for our character now will effect on these.
“How, 0 Israel, The Lord our God is one” (v.4)! This is basic to every department of our lives as it was to Israel’s. There is no division in the Godhead: therefore God is the absolute. He is absolute in truth, absolute in supremacy, absolute in authority. Since this is true, it is only right that Israel be told, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (v.5). In Luk 10:25-27 a lawyer who tested the Lord quoted this verse (Deu 6:5) and added from Lev 19:18, “and your neighbor as yourself.” However, Deu 5:1-33 confines itself to loving God, for this must come first. What a law was this! Who could dare to say that the one absorbing object of his heart and soul is God? — and that his entire strength is devoted to God’s pleasure? This law is a perfectly righteous one, but man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying it. The Lord Jesus is the only one who has done so.
Yet Israel was to lay up these words in their hearts and to teach them diligently to their children, talking of them when sitting or walking or lying down (vs.6-7). God’s standard was to be standard for believers today. The only acceptable Standard for us is Christ. Certainly no one measures up to this Standard either, but we can allow no lower standard. How good to teach Christ to our children, to speak of Him while sitting or walking or lying down. How much more precious is this than teaching law!
Binding these laws as a sign on Israel’s hand is not literal, but rather speaks of applying these laws to the works of their hands. As frontlets between their eyes speaks of their seeing everything from God’s viewpoint, consistently (v.8). Writing them on the doorposts of the house and on their gates is intended to keep Israel reminded of the law whether going out or coming in (v.9).
GUARDING AGAINST DANGER
(vs.10-25)
God was graciously bringing Israel to a land of beauty and prosperity and Israel is told to keep in mind that they did not develop this land: it was already prepared for them by the previous inhabitants whom God was dispossessing. Houses, wells, vineyards and olive orchards were there for them to possess and benefit by (vs.10-11).
But prosperity has its very real dangers and Israel was told to beware lest they forget the Lord (v.12). We can easily begin to depend on our Lord. Let Israel cultivate the true fear of the Lord and serve Him, not influenced by other gods such as the nations served (vs.13-14). How great a temptation it is to believers today also, to want to be in some measure like the nations! We see what they do and what they have and in seeing this we allow our eyes to wander from the Lord and are tempted to imitate those who are ungodly. But the Lord is a jealous God, jealous of our affections, and cool disobedience may incur His present judgment (v.15). By such disobedience Israel could be destroyed. Therefore let them not tempt the Lord as they did at Massah when complaining against His dealings with them (v.16).
“You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. His testimonies and His statues which He has commanded you” (v.17). This would require their applying themselves to learn and to obey, to “do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord,” that they might prosper in possessing the land God promised them, from which He would cast out their enemies (vs.18-19).
They could be sure that in due time their sons would be asking questions. What was the meaning of all the commandments of the Lord that caused a clear separation of Israel from all the nations (v.20)? The answer would take them back to the days of Israel’s slavery in Egypt and the great intervention of God in bringing them out of this slavery with great signs and wonders against Egypt and Pharaoh (vs.21-22). God brought them out that He might bring them in to the land He had promised (v.23). Therefore, He had a special claim on Israel, and commanded them to observe all His statutes, giving proper reverential fear to Him who had so greatly blessed them (v.24).
Verse 25 is specially interesting, “Then it shall be our righteousness, if we are careful to observe” etc. If Israel had perfectly kept the law, this would be their righteousness. But they miserably disobeyed and for centuries now, in spite of their disobedience, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). If they would submit to God’s righteousness by true confession of their guilt before Him, they could find that God will impute righteousness to them on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ — the only place now where anyone can find true righteousness. But it is tragically sad to see Israel clinging to a law they have badly broken, and ignoring God’s beloved Son!
Exhortation to observe the principles 6:1-3
These verses announce the commandments that follow and give the reason for obeying them: God’s blessing. God’s blessing would come in the form of long life, peace and prosperity, and numerous descendants. The "fear" of God (Deu 6:2; cf. Deu 5:29, 35 (Deu 6:2); et al.) is the respect that comes from an appreciation of His character.
"It is a fear that produces not obeisance but obedience, not worry but worship (Deu 6:13)." [Note: Sailhamer, p. 439.]
"Israel’s continued enjoyment of a habitation in God’s land, like Adam’s continued enjoyment of the original paradise, depended on continued fidelity to the Lord." [Note: Kline, "Deuteronomy," p. 163.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)