Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;
Parallel Translations
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Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;
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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:
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Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it —
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 6:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
- Deuteronomy 12:1 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.
- Deuteronomy 4:45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt,
- Leviticus 27:34 These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
- Deuteronomy 5:31 But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess.”
- Numbers 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Deuteronomy 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.
- Deuteronomy 4:14 Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.
- Ezekiel 37:24 “ ‘ “My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, judgments.
Or, judgments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 6:1 Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes,…
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}
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{a} Primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur. - Luth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. That Moses taught the people all…
Observe here, 1. That Moses taught the people all that, and that only, which God commanded him to teach them, Deu 6:1. Thus Christ's ministers are to teach his churches all that he has commanded, and neither more nor less, Mat 28:20. 2. That the end of their being taught was that they might do as they were taught (Mat 28:1), might keep God's statutes (Deu 6:2), and observe to do them, Deu 6:3. 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, Deu 6:2. 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, Deu 6:3.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the…
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 Deu 4:1.
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A persuasive to obedience, ver. 1-3. The first truth,…
A persuasive to obedience, ver. 1-3. The first truth, God is One, the first duty, to love him, ver. 4, 5. The means hereto, ver. 6-9. A caution not to forget God in prosperity, ver. 10-13. Not to worship idols, or tempt God, ver. 14-16. Exhortation to obedience, ver. 17-19. And to teach their children, ver. 20-25.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The great design of God in giving his laws…
CHAPTER VI
The great design of God in giving his laws is, that the people
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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. עברים oberim, whither ye pass over, referring to the river Jordan, across which they must pass to get into Canaan.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Moses proceeds to set forth more particularly and to…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1, 2. The commandments — That which is commanded.…
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.
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That thy days may be prolonged — Comp. what Moses says in chap. Deu_8:1; Deu_30:16.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Not a fresh title, marking the beginning of…
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 Ḥoreb was delivered to Moses himself (as described in Deu_5:31) he now in Moab proceeds to present.
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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 Miṣwah, but the statutes and judgements as well. The point is not important. What is clear is that Miṣwah 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 Miṣwah 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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain FIRST PORTION OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE LAW (Deuteronomy…
VI.
FIRST PORTION OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE LAW (Deuteronomy 6-11).
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(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 words—its 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.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Deuteronomy 6
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."
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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.}
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-3. Some connect this with what goes before,…
Vers. 1-3. Some connect this with what goes before, and take it as a sort of epilogue to the preceding discourse; but it is rather to be regarded as introductory to what follows. Being about to enjoin upon the people the commandments they were to obey in the land on which they were about to enter, Moses prefaces this with a general announcement of what he was about to deliver, and with a statement of the reason for such deliverance, and of the benefits that would flow from the observance of what should be enjoined.
These are the commandments. In the Hebrew it is, This is the commandment, i.e. the sum and substance of the Divine enactment; equivalent to "the Law". (Deu_4:44) "The statutes and judgments" (rights) are in apposition to "the commandment," and explain it.
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Vers. 1-3. Obedience to God conducive to the highest good.
The Lord God had launched forth into the world a new nation, the basis of whose constitution was specifically religious. The worship, fear, and service of the one living and true God were the prime duties enjoined on the people, without which no bare morality as between man and man was accepted before him. In this paragraph, however, we get no indications of duty which have not previously been included in the ten commandments. How can we? The whole ground of duty was covered by them. Still, the same truths are ever being thrown into forms fresh and new. The primal laws of duty are not many; they may soon be recounted. But we need "line upon line, precept upon precept," that the very precepts which perhaps we deem commonplace may be graven on our hearts, and there become living powers! In the three verses before us the enjoined duties are summed up in the one phrase, the commandment (ver. 1: the word is singular, and includes in its meaning both statutes and judgments). Four expressions show how "the commandment" is to be kept.
1. There is to be a fear of the Lord; a fear based on trust, not on distrust.
2. The Divine appointments are to be the rule of life.
3. The nurture and training of the family are to be in entire harmony therewith.
4. This family loyalty to God is to be continuous and unswerving the days of thy life." And in wealth and variety of diction the Legislator points out that in this loyalty of being Israel would find its well-being. Whence we get the topic for our present Homily: That our highest interests are ensured by the fulfillment of the Divine commands. Observe
I IT IS SUPPOSED THAT MEN WILL NOT BE INSENSIBLE TO THE QUESTION WILL BE MOST PROFITABLE TO US?" As a matter of fact, they do regard the measure of profit likely to accrue, as something which regulates their movements. Nor is there anywhere in the Word of God any censure passed on this. In fact, even our Savior himself appeals to considerations of profit in Mat_16:25, Mat_16:26. So also does the Apostle Paul in 1Ti_4:8. The working of self-love is recognized without rebuke in the Law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" and it is even remotely enjoined in the words, "Do thyself no harm." The distinction between self-love and selfishness is very decided, yet is far too little noticed. Selfishness is having regard to our own interests in distinction from those of others; self-love has regard to our own interests in harmony with those of others. The first is sinful; the second is lawful; yea, more, to fight against our highest interests would be wrong. We may demur to the maxim that "utility is the foundation of virtue," and rightly so, if utility" be taken in the selfish aspect thereof. But if by "utility" we mean "the tendency to promote the highest good over the widest sphere, for all time," then the maxim is lifted up to a higher level, and becomes at least practically wholesome, even if it may be objected to on philosophical grounds. If, then, we do but entertain a right and scriptural view of what our highest interests are, it is lawful for us, and even binding on us, to have a regard to them; and it is to the desire in that direction that the passage before us makes its appeal.
II IT IS SHOWN HERE THAT THERE IS A COURSE OF LIFE WHICH IS APPOINTED FOR US BY GOD. The appointments of God for us are specified here. We are to "fear the Lord." Evidently this is to be a fear, not of dread, but of love; for see ver. 5. in Psa_130:4 we read, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." God forgives, and so takes away the fear of the offender, that the fear of offending may take its place. There is to be dread of sin, but not of God. The fear is to be suffused with tenderness and brightened with joy. (Psa_33:1) See the phrases in this section, even touching in their pathos thy God," "the God of thy fathers." Yea, it is our own God who lays down our life-rules, and by all the force of his tender love would he win us to obedience.
III IN FOLLOWING GOD"S APPOINTED WAY WE ENSURE OUR OWN HIGHEST GOOD. (Vers. 2, 3.) The elements of good which obedience ensures are:
1. Peace. We remarked above that the fear of God, which we are called on to cherish, is one based on trust. The Christian form of this is reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ in all the aspects in which he is revealed to us as ours. The effect of this is named in Rom_5:1. Then there will be peace of conscience. (see Isa_32:17; Php_4:6, 7; Mat_11:29)
2. Harmony. Our nature will be in self accord when what we are and do corresponds to what we ought to be and do. There will be no schism between the judgment and the affections.
3. Health. Other things being equal, the man who is most obedient to God"s laws will have the soundest health in body, soul, and spirit. The gladsomeness and ease of a sound and well-balanced constitution will be his. Hence:
4. Continuance will be a part of the reward thy days may be prolonged". (see Psa_91:16; cf. Eph_6:3; Psa_36:9) The forms in which the rewards of loyalty to God will show themselves are very varied. The individual will find that godliness has "promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." The family will find that "he blesseth the habitation of the just." The city will find that the keeping of God"s commandments is among the things which belong unto its peace." And "the righteous nation which keepeth the truth" will find that "salvation doth God appoint for walls and bulwarks". (see Isa_26:1, 2 48:17) It is a remarkable instance of the Divinecondescension to cur ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, that our God should stoop to teach us what is profitable to ourselves, and that he should deign in mercy to reward with honor and peace those who fear him. (Psa_62:12) Mercifully meeting us on the low ground on which we too frequently stand in looking out for profit, God would raise us up to the higher platform of a pure, self-abandoning self-forgetfulness and love, in which we are content to be nothing, that God may be all in all. For observe
IV APPARENT EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE ARE EXCEPTIONS ONLY IN APPEARANCE. Sometimes obedience to God may be attended with a most unusual amount of affliction or of persecution. Take, e.g. the roll of worthies referred to in Heb_11:32-39. Can we say it was for their "profit" to serve God? Most certainly we can. For:
1. By their endurance they became witnesses for God, and served their generation in the very way they would most have desired could they have seen as God sees.
2. Their afflictions were the means of purifying their characters, strengthening their principles, and ripening their virtues.
3. In the midst of all, God was himself to them "their exceeding joy;" and what they had in him was, even on earth, an ample recompense for all that they had suffered for him.
4. They had respect to the recompense of reward. (Heb_11:10, Heb_11:16, Heb_11:26)
5. Their sufferings are long ago forgotten in the rest of the unseen state where they are "inheriting the promises". (Heb_6:12) They had faith to believe them and patience to wait for them, and now they have entered into the rest." Who need wish to change their lot for the smoothest and most prosperous career of a man "without God in the world?" Virtue may for a while seem "to have the worst of it," but "they that are losers for God shall never be losers by him in the end.
V OBEDIENCE IS EXPECTED TO BE THE RESULT OF AN INTELLIGENT AND CULTURED FAITH, AND NOT OF A BLIND ONE. Ver. 1, "The Lord your God commanded to teach you." Nowhere has the adage, "Ignorance is the mother of devotion," less warrant than in the Word of God. The priests of a spurious or alien faith may inculcate blind submission. Not so any of the inspired writers, whether legislators, prophets, or apostles. Men were to be taught not only what God required, but why he required it, that they might render him the homage of a heart quickened to love through the truth which reached the understanding and "commended itself to every man"s conscience." God appeals to reason. (Isa_1:18)
HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES. Vers. 1-3. Obedience the end of Law.
All the machinery of law is abortive, unless obedience be the result. As a mother teaches her children, giving them line upon line," frequent repetition and variation, so Moses patiently taught Israel. He was "faithful in all his house.
I SEE THE INTERNAL EXCELLENCE OF GOD"S LAW. It has so many qualities of merit, that no one word in human language can express them all. They are "commandments," which word indicates the just authority from which they emanate. They are "statutes," implying their fixed and permanent character. They are "judgments," a description which denotes thoughtful deliberation, patient forethought, and sagacious decision. No greater benefactor can men have than a wise legislator. These Laws, if reverently observed, would have been "health to the marrow," and life to the nation.
II THE DESIGN OF GOD"S COVENANT WAS HEARTY AND COMPLETE OBEDIENCE. It was unprofitable for God to command, or for Moses to teach, unless the people obeyed; just as it is futile for the husbandman to plough his land, pulverize the clods, sow the seed, water his crops, if no harvest ensue. The end which God had clearly in view the only end worthy of him, was not Israel"s possession of Canaan, nor prosperity there; the final end was obedience. The land was selected to be a theatre for practical righteousness. The land would be forfeited if righteous obedience did not abound. And obedience, to be acceptable, must be real. External conformity to law would not suffice. The whole soul must yield compliance. There must be harmony between man"s will and God"s. Obedience would foster reverence, and reverence would strengthen love. There is action and reaction amid the forces of the soul.
III PIOUS OBEDIENCE IS ENTAILED. It is a moral inheritance passing from father to son. Formal and superficial obedience will not reproduce itself in others, will not bear seed of the true kind. But genuine, vital piety is contagious. If bad qualities are communicated, surely good qualities are also. Else truth would be feebler than error, virtue feebler than vice. Thorough, straightforward, transparent, cheerful piety is the greatest power in the world. For our children"s sake, and for our children"s children, let reverent obedience brighten and beautify our life!
IV PIOUS OBEDIENCE PRODUCES PRESENT FRUITS. Its rewards are not wholly reserved for the future. On earth some advantages are reaped.
1. Length of days is a result. "Thy days may be prolonged." A green old age is a beautiful thing. "The wicked shall not live out half their days.
2. Numerous progeny is a result. "Ye may increase mightily." A growing population is universally regarded as a token of material prosperity. "They of the city shall flourish as grass of the earth." Success in all enterprise is announced as an effect. "It shall be well with thee.
3. Robust health, domestic comfort, national peace, prolific harvests, security, contentment, honor, these are among the fruits to be anticipated. Obedience is an investment of moral capital, which brings largest and safest results. D.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-5. The essence of the Decalogue is love.
Moses here applies the Decalogue to their present circumstances. He wishes them to enter Canaan in an obedient spirit. He knows that the wellbeing of the commonwealth depends upon it. To assist them in the understanding of the Law, he sums it up in one all-embracing principle of love. God as the supreme object is to receive the homage of the entire nature of man.
I MOSES INSISTS ON THE UNITY AND ABSOLUTE CHARACTER OF GOD. This would distinguish Israel from the polytheists around them. "Jehovah our Mighty One is one Jehovah the uncaused, self-existent One in his absolute unity and strength. All perfection is thus briefly attributed to him.
II GOD CAN BE THE OBJECT OF LOVE. His unity is not an unsocial thing. Within his being there are social qualities demanding, and from all eternity receiving, satisfaction. Hence we believe in what Jon. Edwards called a "social Trinity." Our social nature is the reflection of God, since we were made in his image. His unity does not imply that in the by-past eternity, before anything was made, he was alone. It was the fellowship of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit three Persons in the one Godhead. The Trinity makes God lovable, for it is the condition of the satisfaction from all eternity of his social qualities.
III GOD DESERVES THE LOVE OF OUR WHOLE BEING. Heart, soul, and might are to be enlisted in this service. Our love to him should be intellectual and also emotional; it should be passionate and strong; an all-embracing energy of our nature.
All our faculties are appealed to by the Divine nature.
1. Our understanding is enlisted by God as the Infinite Mind. All our intellectuality finds its counterpart and culmination in the infinite intellectual powers which God possesses and exercises. We rest upon his superior intellectual power.
2. Our affections are enlisted by God as the Fountain of affection. God is a Heart of unspeakable tenderness as well as a Mind of infinite grasp. And so he elicits the love of the heart as well as of the mind.
3. Our will is swayed into passionate devotion by God as the Infinite Will. If the spectacle of will in resistless benevolence commands the homage of our powers, then God entrances our whole will-power into passionate devotion.
4. Our strength is enlisted by God as the embodiment of vital energies and powers in their highest form. So that as a matter of fact, God fits into every fold of human nature and elicits its loving and adoring homage.
IV LOVE MAKES LAWKEEPING DELIGHTFUL. The Law is not a pain to any who love the Lawgiver. Love is the essence of true loyalty. It makes service freedom. It is this which we must cultivate daily, and then life becomes delightful. R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL NOTES.—Moses had rehearsed the law, reminded the people…
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.
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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 Israel’s 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,” God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 converse—the 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. God’s 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. God’s relationship to us is a motive to prompt this required service. “The Lord thy God.” Jehovah was Israel’s 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. God’s 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. “Observe”—attendance is not attention—eyes 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 Israel’s belief. How sound in principle, elevated in tone and powerful in moral influence, compared with heathen religions!
2. The foundation of Israel’s 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 us—to check our presumption—kindle 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) God’s 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 Bible—the 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 sea—the 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 God’s 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 them—forgetfulness, 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 God’s 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 God’s presence. Even amid sensible and awful displays of that presence “they forgot God and His wonders that He had showed them.” Disregard of God’s 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 God’s 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 master’s 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 superstition—the expression and epitome of human nature—the 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 God’s 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 God’s 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; God’s anger and God’s 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. Inquire—I. 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 God’s 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 Israel’s 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 God’s 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 mercies—the 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 God’s authority. We find fault with God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s will, and dependence upon God’s 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 inheritance—residence 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 God’s patience.
2. They tempted God’s Wisdom
3. They tempted God’s power.
4. They tempted God’s wrath. Herein, as in a mirror, we see ourselves. Israel in the wilderness acted out, as in a drama, all the story of man’s 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 desired—“good.”
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 remark—I. 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
God’s 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 man’s 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 God’s 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 childhood’s 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. God’s 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 God’s people by holy life. They are God’s 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
Israel’s 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 worship—annoyed with pain and disease—turned 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 God’s delays are God’s 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 Children’s 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 God’s house. The School in the Family, pupils, teachers, lessons to be learned, and benefit of practising them.
Deu_6:24-25. God’s 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 God’s 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, God’s 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” God—a 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 given—offering 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 Maker—read the Bible every day of your life.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain (with Mat 28:19)
Deu 6:4
(with Mat 28:19)
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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.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Practical Exhortations
Practical Exhortations
To the repetition of the Decalogue Moses adds in the following chapters a practical exhortation to obedience founded on the special relation of Jehovah to Israel as their Redeemer (6-11). Deuteronomy 6 particularly insists upon the remembrance of God's statutes and the training of the children in them.
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4, 5. Our Lord calls these words 'the first and great commandment.' They express the highest truth and duty revealed to the Hebrew nation: the truth of God's unity and uniqueness; the duty of loving and serving Him with every faculty of the being. Consequently they became the Jewish Confession of Faith; and under the name of the 'Shema' (the first word of Deu_6:4 in the Hebrew) are still recited, along with Deu_11:13-21 and Num_15:37-41, as the first act of worship in the Jewish synagogue, and twice a day by every adult male Jew.
5. Love goes deeper than fear. It is the fulfilling of all law, and includes obedience. Both in the OT. and in the New it is the effect of God's greatest love in redemption. 'We love Him because He first loved us.'
8, 9. Cp. Deu_11:18-20. From early times the Jews understood this injunction literally; and in the time of our Lord a great importance was attached to three 'memorials,' or visible reminders of this obligation to keep the Law of Jehovah. One was the 'zizith' or 'fringe' which was worn on the corners of the outer garment: see on Num_15:37-41. The others were the 'tephillin' and the 'mezuza,' the use of which was founded on this passage of Deuteronomy. The 'tephillin' were two small boxes, about a cubic in. in size, containing each a piece of parchment, on which were written in a special form of handwriting the four passages, Exo_13:1-10, Exo_13:11-16; Deu_6:4-9; Deu_11:13-21. One was fastened inside the left forearm and the other on the forehead, to be a sign upon the hand and a frontlet between the eyes. They were worn at prayer on week days, and sometimes enlarged, as by the Pharisees of our Lord's time, to suggest particular devotion to the Law (Mat_23:5). The Hebrew name 'tephillin' means 'prayers'; but they were also called in Gk. 'phylacteries' or 'protectors,' from their supposed power to ward off evil spirits. The 'mezuza' was a small oblong box containing the passage Deu_6:4-9 and was affixed to the right-hand door-post of the house and of each inhabited room, in accordance with the injunction in Deu_6:9. It had a beautiful significance as a reminder of the presence of God in the house, and the obligation of all the inmates to keep His holy law, but has also been degraded into a mere charm to keep off evil spirits during the night.
10-13. Cp. Deu_8:10-14 and see on Deu_4:25.
13. Swear by his name] Jehovah, the God of truth, is to be recognised as the unseen witness of all agreements between a man and his neighbour, and the avenger of all falsehood: cp. the Third Commandment.
16. They tempted God at Massah by insisting that He should prove His presence among them in the way that they prescribed: see Exo_17:7. But man must beware of dictating to God, in unbelief and presumption. Our Lord refused to demand from God a special token of His presence and care, and quoted this warning against the tempter: see Mat_4:7. It is to be observed that our Lord not only took all His answers from the Scriptures, but from the same portion of Deuteronomy, viz. Deuteronomy 5-10 : see Mat_8:3; Mat_6:13; Mat_10:20.
20-25. Cp. Deu_6:7. The keeping of the Law is required by the fact of redemption, and is rewarded with the divine blessing.
25. Our righteousness] Obedience increases merit. For a particular instance see on Deu_24:13.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 2. The First Commandment and What It Involves
2. The First Commandment and What It Involves
CHAPTER 6
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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 God’s” (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 God’s Word. But such was not God’s 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.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Emphatic Admonition
The Emphatic Admonition
v. 1. Now, these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, the general laws, the special ordinances which concerned Israel as the covenant people, and the observances which flow from the obligations which men owe to God and to their fellow-men, which the Lord, your God, commanded to teach you that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it;
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v. 2. that thou mightest fear the Lord, thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command thee, in his capacity of teacher, of representative of God, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged, for the blessing of a long life often follows obedience to God’s commandments. That is the object which the Lord had in mind in giving His Law, to awaken the fear of God in the hearts and to have this faith manifest itself in good works.
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, Gen 15:5, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. There are three promises included in this statement: That God would surely bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, that they would there enjoy the rich prosperity which the fertility of the land assured, and that they would increase greatly in numbers, as the Lord had said to Abraham. Moses now formally pronounces the first and most important command, the summary of all the other commandments.
v. 4. Hear, O Israel: The Lord, our God, is one Lord, Jehovah the One. The Lord of Israel is the absolute God, and there is none other. With these words Moses opens the exposition and the inculcation of the Lord’s precepts; for unless the worshiper gives his whole heart and mind to this God alone, he cannot perform His will.
v. 5. and thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might, Mar 12:30. All the powers of the inner life, of affection and will, should be centered in God, in the fulfillment of His will.
v. 6. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, that is the prerequisite, the condition which is necessary if the believer will do the Lord’s will: he will have the words containing His will before his mind’s eye always.
v. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, impressing and inculcating them upon their minds while they are still in the plastic state, 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. They should, in other words, form the chief topic of consideration and of conversation in the Israelitish family. There is a fine hint here that home devotions and home teaching of the words and will of the Lord should be a prominent feature in every Christian family.
v. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, as a reminder that they should be performed at all times; and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, as a reminder that the words of the Lord should be the chief object of meditation in the believer. The Jews, in later times, insisted upon a literal understanding of the command, and it became the fashion among the more devout Jews to wear little cases with the Scripture-texts Exo 13:1-11; Exodus 11-17; Deu 6:4-10; Deu 11:13-26, called Tephillim, fastened to the left hand and to the forehead-the phylacteries of Mat 23:5.
v. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, on the door-posts, and on thy gates. This command was later also reduced to a mere outward observance in the Jewish custom of the Mesusah, according to which a piece of parchment containing Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-20 was placed in a small wood or metal case and fastened to the right door-post of the 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, all of which emphasizes the rich temporal blessings which the children of Israel might expect in the land of Canaan,
v. 12. then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. There is always this danger connected with material prosperity, that men forget and deny the Lord, Pro 30:8-9.
v. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord, thy God, not with slavish terror, but with reverential awe, and serve Him, which follows and flows out of the true fear of the Lord, and shalt swear by His name. Note that oaths of the right kind are not forbidden, but that they must be made in the name of the true God, for as such they are a manifestation of the worship of the heart, of the proper attitude toward the one true God, namely, as the Witness of truth and the Avenger of falsehood.
v. 14. Ye shall not go after other gods, follow them like misguided sheep, of the gods of the people which are roundabout you, the various objects of worship adored by the heathen nations of Canaan,
v. 15. (for the Lord, thy God, is a jealous God among you, Exo 20:5) lest the anger of the Lord, thy God, be kindled against thee, like a fire that grows beyond control, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. That was the punishment which He threatened in the case of gross idolatry. These admonitions apply also to us. It is our duty not only to ponder the will of the Lord in our hearts, but also to confess it with our mouth and to practice it in our life.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues the speech to the people of Israel he began in Deuteronomy 5:1. Beginning in verse 2, he speaks to the people of Israel as if they were one person. (See: Forms of You)
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might keep ... to keep
"might obey ... to obey"
going over the Jordan
"going to the other side of the Jordan River"
that your days may be prolonged
Long days are a metaphor for a long life. This can be stated in active form. This can be translated similarly to "prolong your days" in Deuteronomy 4:26. AT: "that I may prolong your days" or "that I may cause you to live a long time" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
translationWords
command
statute
decree
Yahweh
God
Jordan River
possess
honor
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:1-25 Moses here explains how the stipulations in the…
6:1-25 Moses here explains how the stipulations in the following sections should be applied and handed on to future generations.
6:1 Moses added commands to decrees and regulations, the usual formula for covenant stipulations (see 4:1; 5:1); commands is a general term for the whole body of instruction.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.