Our Old Testament reading today takes us to the Book of Deuteronomy. This book is a reiteration of the Law given by God to Moses. Right before the people of Israel were to enter into the Promised Land, Moses repeated God’s laws to them one more time, which is contained in the Book of Deuteronomy. Our passage today contains one of the most familiar verses from this Old Testament book.
This is an important passage to the Jewish people, both in Biblical days, and also today. Devout Jews will recite these verses everyday. Several days prior to the crucifixion, an expert in the Jewish law came to Jesus, and trying to test Him, asked Him which was the greatest commandment in the law (Matthew 22:35-40). Jesus responded by quoting verse 5 of our passage. This command, along with loving one’s neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) encompasses all of the Old Testament law. Since He believed this was the most important command of God, it is well worth looking into.
The Hebrew people were unique in that they only believed and worshipped one God, Yahweh, the only true God. At the time that Moses wrote Deuteronomy they were shortly going to be entering into the land of Canaan, among a people who worshipped a multitude of gods. They had recently come out of servitude to the Egyptians who also had worshipped a great many gods, as well. Moses wanted to reiterate in their minds that Yahweh was the one, only, true God, and not be lured by the false gods of these foreign people. Unfortunately the Israelites failed miserably in that, and they quickly started to worship these false gods. Many of them completely forsook the Lord God, while some combined the worship of Yahweh with these idols.
Verse 5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”, is the central and most important commandment of all. When we love God first and foremost, obeying Him will be natural, and not seem like a chore. Jesus said in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. The Apostle John repeats the same thing in I John 5:3. Believers show their love for God, not by bowing and burning incense to stone or wooden idols, but instead by obeying His Word.
Moses goes on to instruct the people that they need to keep these words in their hearts, and to teach them to their children (vs. 6-9). They are to speak of God’s Word to each other all through the day, every day. God is not to be relegated to only Sundays, and possibly an additional night of the week. Many people are just “Sunday Christians”, and once they leave the church Sunday morning, that’s it for God until next week. Our passage today said that this should not be the case. If we are truly His children, then He is to be a part of our life every moment of every day. We need to read and meditate on His Word daily, and be in communication with Him all the time. Make God a part of everything you do. That doesn’t mean we are literally on our knees praying every waking moment. Instead, we should weave God into our whole lives, having Him as our constant companion.
Another thing Moses strongly stressed to the people is their responsibility to teach their children about the Lord (vs 7). Parents can’t leave that task to the Sunday School teachers, and the pastors or priests. They can’t leave it to some religious program or DVD they put on TV. Though it is important to take them to Sunday School, it is the parent’s responsibility to teach their children all about Jesus and His Word, the Bible. Again, Moses stresses, not just at church on Sunday, but every day, when you’re in your house, when you’re driving in the car, when you wake up, when you go to bed. Moses said, life with God is a 24 hour a day life, every moment of every day. If parents leave off this responsibility, then it may end up being too late. Their children grow up, and they have no room for Jesus in their fast-paced life. They may face eternity separated from God. As a parent, I can’t even think of a worse prospect then knowing that.
Do we love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul, and strength? Is He number one in our life? If He isn’t, then we have set up some other idol in the place that rightly belongs to Him. Let’s be sure we keep the Lord God on the throne in our life, and be sure we are teaching our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, any children that are in our life, all about the Lord Jesus.
Amen... thank you Sarah
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