Teach Your Children Well

Deuteronomy 6:1–25

In chapter five, Moses repeated the Ten Commandments and reminded the people of the immediate circumstances and their awe-inspiring effect. He reminded them of their response of fear and shrinking and their awareness of divine preservation from death, for they had heard the voice of God. They asked Moses to go near and hear all the Lord’s instructions, and they would hear him and do what he instructed. The Lord said they had done well in what they spoke, but with a note of lamentation said, “Oh that they had such a heart in them that they fear Me and keep all My commandments always.” The words Moses spoke were not to be deviated from to the right or to the left. In chapter 6, Moses reiterates the divine origin of these commandments, the duties of the people to teach them to their children and the temporal advantage as well as eternal blessings to be attained in this way.

I. Moses begins with the absolutely preeminent command that undergirds and gives meaning to all others.

A. The Prologue.

1. 1. The Commandment comes from God Himself – “which the Lord your God has commanded” (1). Moses, like the prophets of Israel and the New Testament apostles knew that his words were given to him by God – “His commandments which I command you” (2).
   2. Obedient fear produces personal longevity and generational prosperity (2). Fear involves awareness of power, conviction of holiness, legitimacy of wrath, and infinite worthiness of devotion. In 5:29, The Lord indicated His knowledge that their words of compliance were not reflections of a heart of worshipful fear, but servile fear.
   3. Temporal well-being as a nation was directly connected with this commandment (3). Should they keep this commandment as holy and worthy and live in the light of its implications in all their relations with each other and in conformity with the specific commands of the two tables, their nation would prosper.

B. Under the authority of God Moses sets forth the Great Commandment (4, 5).

1. 1. The Shema, “Hear O Israel,” affirms both the exclusivity and unity of God. This ontological reality undergirds everything—everything that exists and every command, whether enduring as an intrinsic moral principle or serving only for a time to prepare the nation for the final revelation and ultimate salvation embodied in the Person and Work of the promised Messiah.
   2. The command to love God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your might is reaffirmed by Jesus as the great commandment (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–27.). In fulfillment rests eternal life and in failing on this point necessitates eternal death. Jesus performed every duty assigned Him in the eternal covenant of redemption with a heart of pure, untainted love of God, His Father, and of every aspect of the eternal flow of perfect fellowship and love that constitutes the Trinity. Love to God is an excellent duty, the singularly most pure duty, and an all-consuming duty.

C. The Dominant Importance of this commandment (6–9).

1. 1. The commandment primarily aims at the affections (6). Paul said, “The greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13) Peter gave the culminating virtue as well as the fount from which all virtue flows as love (2 Peter 1:5–7). Paul gave the very reason for condemnation as absence of love for Jesus, the Lord, and followed the anathemas with a prayer for the overcoming power of grace (1 Corinthians 16:22, 23).
   2. The affections increase in accord with advancement in knowledge and understanding (7). In verse seven, the command involves a consistent and virtually constant expending of earnestness in teaching these commands in every situation of life and at many times during a day. The absoluteness of the goodness of this command will be increasingly stamped on the mind of a child when it is earnestly taught as the most compelling and most beautiful duty of human existence—“when you lie down and when you rise up.”
   3. Conscientious repetition and meditation increases understanding (8, 9). To encourage permeation of the importance of this command to “Love the Lord your God,” one should carry reminders of this command with him so that throughout the day his mind will be jogged with the importance of meditating on divine goodness and covenant faithfulness. Not only do teaching times permeate the day, they appear in all the places of the home, including the doorposts and the gates.

II. Remember the Lord and Fear Him (10–15).

A. God’s rich and gracious provision should remind the people of His goodness to His covenant people (10, 11).

He is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) and gives to them the provisions of life for which they did not work—splendid cities, houses fill with good things, cisterns, vineyards, and olive trees. These free gifts were symbols of undeserved mercies to an undeserving people provided richly, abundantly, and sufficiently. This should sensitise them to the overarching truth that we are saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His abundant mercies (Titus 3:5).

B. Moses warned them of a tendency to forget (12).

They were in slavery, an onerous bondage, to cruel, unreasonable taskmasters governed by a malicious, ego-maniac. They were rescued by divine power to be the people of the Lord, the nation that would reflect and produce within it the One who would be the Hope of the world. They were not to forget this. Human arrogance asserts, “I am the captain of my fate, the guardian of my soul.” We say, “Look what my hands and industry have produced.” Moses said, “Watch yourself; … do not forget.”

C. Learn the proper and rational fear of God (13–15).

1. 1. Jesus quoted verse 13 in Mt 4:10 after Satan promised the gift of kingdoms in exchange for a moment of worship. The fear and worship of God alone overwhelmed any sense of shortcut for gaining the position of the ruler of the nations. That would come in the path of redemption and his commitment even to the death of the cross.
   2. Following other gods provokes Jehovah to anger. False gods will abound, they are warned. The people that will surround them will worship and promote their false deities. The fleshly style of worship they promote, and the destructive rituals of child sacrifice destroy any true human piety and epitomize rebellion against the holy, just Creator
   3. Other Gods cannot protect you against Jehovah. They should know through their forty-year experience in the wilderness that their covenant God is jealous. Sin and infidelity provoke His anger and His legitimate response to violations of His covenantal arrangement is destruction (15). He will carry on and execute His covenant faithfully; but will find a new generation to act faithfully.

III. Do Not test the Lord’s Faithfulness by Disobedience

A. Verse 16 is quoted by Jesus after Satan tempted Him to jump off the pinnacle of the temple based on a text from Psalm 91:12; Jesus knew the meaning of the text but did not engage Satan in a battle of hermeneutical insight.

He simply quoted this verse that forbids setting before God a test to overcome our sinful presumptuousness. We have the sinful propensity to rest our faith in God on His rescue of us when we are foolish or disobedient.

B. True and proper test of God comes when obedience seems to involve difficulty (17–19).

1. 1. We do not invent schemes to test God, but we obey His commands even when danger and difficulty seem embedded in the command. Jesus taught, “If anyone wants to come to me and not hate father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes- even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, 27).
   2. They were to obey all commands that governed their personal lives and gave regulation to their corporate life. Paul shows tat these principles (Ephesians 4:17–32) are to be applied to relations in the church: “You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off our old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (22–24).
   3. They were to obey that command to drive out all the enemies they would confront when they entered the land. They would be seen as hostile invaders, but His promise of the land had been present since the time of Abraham, and God would judge, displace, and destroy these morally bankrupt and destructive people as a matter of His sovereign prerogative.

IV. Perpetuity of Obedience built on Singularity of Demonstration

A. Our religious instruction and convictions will provoke appropriate questions (20).

Careful instruction as commanded (7–9) will give rise to curiosity about the commands that the children are taught.

B. Knowledge of the true God is built on historically demonstrable revelation (21–23); its uniquely redemptive character forbids a request for its repetition, but is convincing in itself.

The commands came in the context of amazing manifestations of power and serve to verify the claims and promises embedded within the events. Paul attested in 1 Corinthians 15 to the compelling credibility of the historical events upon which the entire gospel is built. See the assertion of truth in verse 1 and 2. See the evidence in verses 3–11. See the doctrinal implications of its falsity in verses 12–34. See the soteriological coherence of the resurrection in verses 35–58.

C. Obedience to God is both for good and for righteousness (24, 25).

“It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all the commandments before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us” (25).

1. 1. Righteousness as it pertains to the people of the covenant consists of conscientious and loving desire to conform personal and corporate life to God’s judgments and statutes characterized by real progress and humble detestation of any degree of failure.
   2. The Righteousness accomplished by Jesus and by which we are justified by imputation is absolute, perpetual, thorough, never-failing, and loving conformity of heart, effecting both motivation and actions, to the Law of God.

V. Application

A. Can we conceive of any circumstances under which the command to love God ceases to be the most solemn and preeminent duty of mankind?

B. What constitutes evidence of our love to God?

C. Can we justify any sort of disobedience to God’s revealed will?

D. Can we conceive of any circumstance under which God will not be faithful to honor his great name? Look at 2 Timothy 2:11–13 cf. 19.

E. What is the greatest evidence of His faithfulness to His great name? Romans 3:24–26; Hebrews 7:26–28.

F. What is the greatest evidence of His love for His people? (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:7–14).

G. Is it appropriate to ask for further demonstrations of God’s love and faithfulness or to doubt that He is accomplishing what He determines to be to the glory of His name?

Poem on Deuteronomy 6

Promise and commandment came to Abram many years ago;
By grace it was delivered and by faith it was received.
Houses and villages, fields, and farms with milk and honey flow.
A plan for sinners’ restoration eternally conceived.

To love the Lord our God with all our soul and mind and strength;;
What great mercy, glorious grace, to have this mandate to obey.
What depth the love, what width the wisdom what extent their length!
The command to sons and daughters and their sons you must convey.

Speak these truths throughout the day and put them places in your home.
Abhor the charade of spurious idols; love the Lord who’s spoken.
Your enemies will be disbursed, this fertile land your own.
If you are faithful to your Lord, His care will be unbroken.

When children ask, “Who is the Lord and why follow His commands?”
Say, “Pharaoh’s bonds were set at nought by God’s invincible pow’r;
His love and favor rest on us; still waters flow from His hands.
If we fear, love and obey this Lord, His righteousness is ours.”

Our Lord has taken on Himself to grant these favors to us.
The Son of God assumed our place, was emptied of His glory.
He cherished every point to humble self, though He was glorious.
For us He lived, for us He died, finished redemption’s story.