Deuteronomy 6 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Ch.4 – 7   Calls to Holiness – frequent exhortations to follow the laws given by God, to enable them to be God’s people in the Land

Passage: Deut 6:1-12

1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.

10 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you – a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

A. Find Out:

1. What was Moses to do, & for what 3 consequences? v.1-3
2. What is the starting point of all their belief? v.4
3. So what was the first call on them? v.5
4. What were they to do with God’s commandments? v.6-9
5. What was the Lord about to do? v.10,11
6. What were they to do when He does that? v.12

B. Think:

1. What instruction is being given again and again?
2. Yet what is there that requires that to be more than merely legalistically following a set of rules?
3. How is that also true of Christian faith?

C. Comment:

      Again and again in these passages Moses is exhorting the nation to hold onto the commands that God has given them. As we said previously, they are the building blocks for civilization. In this passage Moses not only exhorts them to obey these commands but he also explains why it is necessary. The first reason is to maintain a right relationship with the Lord (v.2a). The second reason flows out of that – that they may enjoy long life (v.2b). Life flows out of relationship with the Lord. Then comes the third reason: that they may increase and do well in the Land (v.3). Blessing follows obedience. This is very practical; if they follow God’s ways, they will do well materially.

        Then he gives them a command that rides over all other commands: to love the Lord whole-heartedly. Jesus reaffirmed this (Mt 22:37 ). Love is to be at the heart of all rule-keeping. It is not to be a hard obedience, but a glad obedience. Verses 6-9 may be summed up as, hold onto these commands wherever you are, and in whatever you are doing. Never let them out of your mind. He then looks to the future, when they actually enter the land and enjoy the fruit of it; that is when they particularly need to hold onto these laws. Affluence can dull awareness of need, but they (and we) need these laws for the reasons given.

D. Application:

1. God knows best. He designed us and knows what is best for us.
2. If God says do it, we would be stupid not to!

Passage: Deut 6:13-25

13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

20 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders – great and terrible – on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.’

A. Find Out:

1. What 2 instructions does Moses now give them? v.13,14
2. Why? v.15
3. What further 3 instructions does he give? v.16-18a
4. Why? v.18b,19
5. When questioned in the future what are they to say? v.20-24a
6. What will be the 2 outcomes? v.24b,25

B. Think:

1. What are the ‘negative’ reasons for keeping the Law?
2. What positive outcomes for keeping the Law are given?
3. How does the past dictate the present for them?

C. Comment:

     Moses continues to encourage Israel to keep the commands of the Lord (the Law) when they enter the land. He does it negatively and positively, also reminding them of their past origins.

     The ‘negative’ encouragement is simply the fear of the Lord. He reminds them that God is jealous and will act against them if they fall away and go after idols. He also warns them against repeating the incident of Ex 17 where they tested the Lord. (The fact is that before Sinai the Lord allowed them to get away with their grumbling, but after the Sinai encounter He did not. Before Sinai they did not know the Lord. After Sinai they knew His call on their lives).

      The positive encouragement is the promise that if they keep the commands it will go well with them so that they can go in (v.18,19) and then prosper in the land (v.24). When they keep the Law they will also be declared righteous (v.25). There is also an encouragement by looking back to their origins. When their children ask why they have these laws they are to tell them about the past, how the Lord miraculously delivered them from Egypt. This is something they are to keep alive, remember, and pass on to their future generations, and as they do that it will be a further motivation to keep God’s commands. Thus, again and again, we see Moses motivating them to obey the Lord as they enter the Land.

D. Application:

1. Obedience to God is at the heart of the Gospel.
2. Failure brings trouble, obedience brings blessing.