Deuteronomy 6 – Moses Reminds Israel of the Commandment and the Warning

A. The Commandment: The essence of God’s law.

1. (1-3) Remember the commandment before entering Canaan.

“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

a. Now this is the commandment: The Hebrew is emphatic here. Moses called attention to the Commandment. In the following verses, God reduced the law to one ruling principle – one commandment that encompassed all the commandments.

b. That you may observe them: God did not give His commandments to Israel only for their education or to satisfy their curiosity. God gave His commandments so that they would be observed and obeyed. This was especially important when they came into the land of Canaan.

i. “It is this doing of them that is the hard part of the work. It is not easy always to teach them; a man needs the Spirit of God if he is to teach them aright, but practice is harder than preaching. May God grant us grace, whenever we hear his Word, to do it!” (Spurgeon)

c. That your days may be prolonged…. that it may be well with you: Israel’s fate rested on their obedience to this one great commandment. If they obeyed the commandment, their life would be long and filled with blessing. If they did not obey, they could expect to be cursed by God.

i. “God does not give long life to all his people; yet obedience to God is the most probable way of securing long life.” (Spurgeon)

d. A land flowing with milk and honey: This is an often-repeated figure of speech describing the agricultural abundance of Canaan. It appears at least 14 times in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. According to Thompson, this was a phrase also used in Egyptian literature to describe Canaan.

i. Many think the honey mentioned here is date honey, not that gathered from bees.

2. (4-5) The great commandment: Love the LORD your God.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

a. Hear, O Israel: Among the Jewish people, these words are known as the Shema (“hear” in Hebrew). It is the classic Hebrew confession of faith, describing who God is and what the duty of His people is towards Him.

i. Jesus specifically mentioned the Shema (Matthew 22:37), and its core truth was also in Paul’s mind (Romans 3:30, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:6, 1 Timothy 2:5). James challenged believers (nearly all from a Jewish background) that their confession that God was one was not enough (James 2:19).

ii. “So much so did the centrality of this confession find root in the Jewish consciousness that to this very day the observant Jew will recite the Shema at least twice daily.” (Merrill)

b. The LORD our God, the LORD is one: This is the essential truth about God. He is a person and not a vague pantheistic force. Being one, He cannot be represented by contradictory images. Since the LORD our God is one, He is not Baal or Ashtoreth – He is the LORD God, and they are not.

i. In the mind of many Jewish people, this verse alone disqualified the New Testament teaching that Jesus is God, and the New Testament teaching of the Trinity – that there is one God, existing in three Persons. According to Clarke, at some times and places, as Jewish synagogues said the Shema together, and when the word one (echad) was said, they loudly and strongly repeated that one word for several minutes, as if it were a rebuke to Christians with their belief in the Trinity.

ii. Christians must come to a renewed understanding of the unity of God. They must appreciate the fact that the LORD is one, not three, as 1 Corinthians 8:6 says: yet for us there is one God. Christians worship one God, existing in three Persons, not three separate gods.

iii. Yet, the statement the LORD is one certainly does not contradict the truth of the Trinity. In fact, it establishes that truth. The Hebrew word used here for one is echad, which speaks most literally of a compound unity, rather than the Hebrew word yacheed, which speaks of an absolute unity or singularity (Genesis 22:2, Psalm 25:16).

iv. The very first use of echad in the Bible is in Genesis 1:5: So the evening and the morning were the first day. This context shows a unity (one day) with the idea of plurality (made up of evening and morning).

· Genesis 2:24 uses echad in saying the two shall become one flesh. Again, the idea of a unity (one flesh), made from a plurality (the two).

· In Exodus 26:6 and 11, fifty gold clasps are used to hold the curtains together, so the tent would be one (echad). This is another unity (one covering) made up of a plurality (the many parts that made up the one covering, joined by the gold clasps).

· In Ezekiel 37:17 the LORD told Ezekiel to join two sticks (prophetically representing Ephraim/Israel and Judah) into one (echad), speaking again of a unity (one stick) made up of a plurality (the two sticks).

v. Largely, echad does not have the exclusive idea of an absolute singularity. The concept of the Trinity – that there is one God in three Persons – works well with the term echad.

c. The LORD our God: In addition, even the term referring to God in this line suggests the plurality of Deity. The Hebrew word is Elohim (God), and grammatically, it is a plural word used as if it were singular – the verbs and pronouns used with it are generally in the plural except when it is used in reference to Yahweh (the LORD), the covenant God of Israel.

i. Rabbi Simeon ben Joachi, commenting on the word Elohim: “Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other.” Adam Clarke adds: “He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words.”

ii. Leupold quoting Luther on the word Elohim: “But we have clear testimony that Moses aimed to indicate the Trinity or the three persons in the one divine nature.”

d. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength: Knowing who God is allows His people to act towards Him rightly. This is one way that believers give God His due.

i. God wants complete love from His people. This love is appropriate because He loved first and loved completely: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

ii. What God most wants from humanity is love. It is easy to think that God is more interested in many other things: time, money, effort, will, submission, and so forth. But what God really wants from humanity is their love. When people really love the LORD with all the heart, soul, and mind, then all else is freely given to the LORD. If one starts by giving to God all the rest – money, time, effort, will, and so forth – without giving Him love, then all is wasted – and perhaps, all is lost. “Israel’s obedience was not to spring from a barren legalism based on necessity and duty. It was to arise from a relationship based on love.” (Thompson)

iii. “Does not this show what is the very nature of God? God is love, for he commands us to love him. There was never an earthly prince or king whom I have heard of in whose statute-book it was written, ‘Thou shalt love the king.’ No; it is only in the statute-book of him who is the Lord of life and love that we read such a command as this. To my mind it seems a very blessed privilege for us to be permitted to love One so great as God is.” (Spurgeon)

iv. Jesus called this the great commandment (Matthew 22:37-39). Jesus added that the second commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, was like this first, great commandment. When God’s people love the LORD their God with all their heart, soul, and mind, they will then find the ability to love their neighbor as themselves.

3. (6-9) The continual reminder of the law.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

a. These words which I command you today shall be in your heart: This great command must first live in the heart. Then it must be communicated to the children, the next generation. This great commandment should be a topic of conversation and should always be prominent – as near as the hand, forehead, or the door posts and gates of the home.

b. Teach them diligently to your children: The people of God were not only commanded to teach their children, but to do it diligently. They are commanded to take on the sometimes-difficult task of teaching their children the truth about God and His works. Pastors, Sunday-school teachers, and other Christian workers have their roles, but never replace the role and responsibility of the parent to teach their children, and to do it diligently.

i. “God’s thought of the children, and care for them, is evidenced throughout all the enactments of the Law, and indeed in all the ceremonies of worship.” (Morgan)

ii. “However much we may love and appreciate the Sunday-school system, — and we cannot love it too much, — I hope we shall never forget that the first duty towards the child belongs to the parent. Fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “God’s testimonies must be taught to our children, and the utmost diligence must be used to make them understand them. This 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.” (Clarke)

c. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand: The first use of this concept for Israel was that the celebration of Passover would be a sign on their hand and a memorial between their eyes (Exodus 13:9, 16). This puts the phrase in symbolic context, meaning here that the truth of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was to be as familiar and prominent to them as a sign on the hand and head. Here, the context is also symbolic. The commandments of God were to be as familiar and prominent to Israel as a sign on the hand or head.

i. “In the larger sense they are to be committed to memory as the idiom ‘upon your hearts’ (Deuteronomy 6:6) makes clear.” (Merrill)

ii. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish people used this passage as the basis for their practice of wearing phylacteries. A phylactery is a small box holding parchment with Scripture passages written on it, and the box is held to the forehead or hand with leather straps.

iii. Jesus condemned the abuse of the wearing of phylacteries among the Pharisees; they would sometimes make their phylactery boxes large and ostentatious to show off their supposedly greater spirituality (Matthew 23:5).

iv. In the end times, there will be a Satanic imitation of this practice, when the number of the Antichrist will be applied to either the hand or forehead of all who will take it (Revelation 13:16).

d. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house: Like the command to bind the commandments as a sign on the hands and head, this is given in a symbolic sense, pointing to the kind of prominence and attention that should be given to the word of God among believers.

i. Write has the sense of engrave. “The image is that of the engraver of a monument who takes hammer and chisel in hand and with painstaking care etches a text into the face of a solid slab of granite. The sheer labor of such a task is daunting indeed, but once done the message is there to stay.” (Merrill)

ii. This command leads to the Jewish practice of the mezuzah. This is a small container nailed to a doorpost, with the container holding a passage of Scripture.

iii. “I could almost wish that this were literally fulfilled much more often than it is. I was charmed, in many a Swiss village, to see a text of Scripture carved on the door-post. A text hung up in your houses may often speak when you are silent. We cannot do anything that shall be superfluous in the way of making known the Word of God.” (Spurgeon)

B. The danger of disobedience.

1. (10-12) The danger of leaving God in times of prosperity.

“So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full—then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

a. To give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build: God planned to bring Israel into an abundant, prepared land. In this abundant blessing God had for Israel, there was an inherent danger: That they would forget the LORD who brought them out of the land of Egypt.

i. In the conquest of Canaan, the cities and farms were largely spared and became the inheritance of Israel. “The conquest did not result in major destruction of towns and properties so therefore did not leave archaeologically definable evidence. Any attempt to date the conquest must therefore rest on some basis other than the presence or absence of evidence of destruction.” (Merrill)

b. Lest you forget the LORD: Israel’s inheritance of Canaan, with its houses built, fields prepared, vineyards and olive trees flourishing, and cisterns dug, was something like winning the lottery. God warned Israel, “When you receive all this abundance, don’t forget Me.”

i. In future generations, Israel would often forget the LORD. A tragic cycle would be repeated throughout the history of Israel, especially in the time of the judges. God would bless an obedient Israel and they would prosper; they would begin to set their heart on the blessings instead of the LORD who blessed them; God would allow chastisement to turn Israel’s focus back upon Him; Israel would repent and obey again, and God would again bless an obedient Israel and they would prosper.

ii. Believers often fail to appreciate the danger of success and prosperity. Success and prosperity are often seen as theoretical dangers, without appreciating how they may be real and present dangers to the believer.

iii. When times are good, it is much easier to forget the LORD who brought you out…from the house of bondage. When there are no adverse circumstances compelling the remembrance of God, “We are no sooner grown rich, but we are apt to utter that ugly word, This I may thank myself for.” (Trapp)

iv. “Our blessings come from sources that are beyond our own industry and skill; they are the fruits of the holy inventiveness of God, and the splendour and fullness of his thoughtfulness towards his poor children. Let us not forget him, since evidently he never forgets us.” (Spurgeon)

2. (13-19) How to avoid apostasy in times of prosperity: honoring the LORD in everything we do.

You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

“You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.

a. You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him: The idea of the fear of the LORD is more of an awe-filled respect, an inner dislike at the idea of offending a great, loving God who has done so much for His people.

i. “The derived sensation of standing in awe of God and then of holding him in utmost reverence and respect is, however, essential to the understanding of ‘fearing God’ especially in Deuteronomy.” (Kalland)

ii. This is the passage of Scripture Jesus quoted back to Satan, when tempted by the devil to avoid the cross and win back the world if He would only bow down and worship Satan. Jesus rightly replied, based on the truth You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him; that it was only right to fear, and worship, and serve Yahweh as God – and it was wrong to bow down to Satan, no matter what might be given Him in return (Matthew 4:8-10).

b. And shall take oaths in His name: although the concept of the oath in God’s name can certainly be abused (as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 5:33-37), there is a permissible use of oaths by those who follow God. This is seen in the truth that God Himself uses oaths (Hebrews 6:13). Here, Israel was told, “you are to swear an oath only in the name of the LORD, not in the name of any other god.” Making oaths in the name of any other god would be showing honor and allegiance to that false god.

c. You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him at Massah: In Exodus 17:1-7, Israel tempted the LORD by doubting His love and concern for them. This was tempting or testing God regarding His love for Israel, something that was not only high-handed against the LORD (because man has no right to test the Almighty) but also disregarding His previous, and constant demonstrations of love and care for Israel (by demanding that God prove His love for them now by giving them what they wanted).

i. Whenever man denies God’s love, or demands He do something, man is testing God as if He must answer to man’s standards, and man is tempting God to judge him. “To test God is to impose conditions on him and to make his response to the people’s demand in the hour of crisis the condition of their continuing to follow him.” (Thompson)

ii. This was the passage of Scripture which Jesus quoted back to Satan in the wilderness, when tempted to make God the Father prove His love for the Son by spectacularly protecting Jesus if He should jump off the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:5-7). Jesus knew it was wrong to demand this sort of “proof” from His Father, since every day was proof of God the Father’s love for the Son.

d. And you shall do what is right…that it may be well with you: This theme is repeated once again. Under the old covenant, Israel’s blessing was based on their obedience. When they obeyed, they would be blessed; when they disobeyed, they would be cursed.

i. This is not the source of blessing in the new covenant. In the new covenant, we are blessed by faith in Jesus since He fulfills the law in our place (Romans 8:3-4). The watchwords for blessing under the old covenant were earning and deserving; under the new covenant, blessing is based on believing and receiving.

ii. The new covenant system works because when we receive the new covenant, God sends with it an inner transformation, where the law of God and the desire to do His will is now written on the heart of the believer. The inner transformation promised by the new covenant helps to protect against the abuse of God’s grace.

iii. Under the new covenant there is no judgment from God for the disobedience of His people because all the judgment the believer deserved was put on Jesus at the cross. However, there may be correction from the hand of a loving God the Father (not in the sense of making believers pay for their sin, but in the sense of training them to not continue in sin), and there are the natural consequences of disobedience, which God has not promised to shield the believer from.

iv. Christians who fear the “freedom” of a new covenant relationship with God must ask this question: did Israel come to greater obedience to God through the old covenant? Does the system of earning and deserving blessing make us truly godlier than the system of believing and receiving? Actually, the old covenant leaves one either in total desperation (where they may then look to Jesus), or in a dangerous confidence in one’s own works to make them righteous before God.

3. (20-25) How to avoid apostasy in times of prosperity: Teach your children to understand and honor the LORD.

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

a. When your son asks you in time to come: Often, the apostasy that comes from prosperity afflicts the next generation more than the present. The next generation grows up expecting such prosperity and blessing, often without understanding the repentance and walk with God that led to the prosperity.

b. Then you shall say to your son: Therefore, it was essential for Israel to teach and warn their children so that the blessings given to one generation would not become a curse to the next generation.

i. Key to the teaching was the simple recounting of Israel’s history – how God saved them from the bondage of Egypt. Parents need to relate to their children how they came to a personal relationship with Jesus, so the children understand that they must come to the same relationship.

c. He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in: This is a wonderful summary of what God did in the exodus. He brought Israel out, for the purpose to bring Israel in. Deliverance from Egypt was only the first step and would have been incomplete without the completion of the work of bringing Israel into Canaan.

i. This is a similar idea to what Paul would later write: He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

d. Then it will be righteousness for us: The it here that will be righteousness does not refer merely to obedience to the commands of the law, but faith in and loyalty to God as expressed through the entire covenant. The covenant God made with Israel included a significant priesthood and sacrificial system, which addressed their inevitable failures to keep the law and pointed to the perfect sacrifice God would provide through the person and work of Jesus Christ, especially His substitutionary sacrifice at the cross and His resurrection.

i. If someone desires to achieve true righteousness through the law, it is simple, though not easy. All they must do is observe all the commandments. However, if anyone fails in their obedience, they then need the atonement of a perfect sacrifice – Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

ii. “The commandments were designed, not as a burden to be borne, but as the gracious provision by a beneficent Sovereign of a guide for good living. Thus would Yahweh preserve Israel alive.” (Thompson)

© 2017-2024 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – ewm@enduringword.com