Deuteronomy 6

Deuteronomy 6:1-3

Moses goes on with his charge to speak, to be sure to keep up their religion in Canaan. 1. A persuasive to obedience, ver. 1-3. 2. The first truth to be believed, that God is one, ver. 4. 3. The first duty to be done, to save him with all our heart, ver. 5. 4. The means for keeping up religion, ver. 6-9. 5. Cautions against those things which would be the ruin of religion. Aunts of plenty, ver. 10-12. Inclination to idolatry, ver. 14. 15. Some general precepts, ver. 13, 16, 17, 18. 6. He directs them what instructions to give their children, ver. 20-25.

1. NOW these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD your God

God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2. 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 sons son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. 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, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Mules is softerious to apprise his own fidelity to them, and to inculcate upon them every command he hath received from the Lord; and charges them to transform them to their children’s children, fearing on their religious observance of them, their well-being in time and eternity depended. And he begins with the fear of God, for filial fear is the throng of preferrative from falling. Note, (1.) Parents have an awful charge, and great will be their guilt, as they neglect it. (2.) To walk in the fear of God, is the way to please God. (3.) They who walk in his fear, need fear nothing else; for God will take care, and abundantly provide for them.

4. 1 Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. 2. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6. And the words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. 7. 1 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou firstst in thine house, and when thou walketh by the way, and when thou holt down, and when thou riseth up. 8. 1 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontiers between thine eyes. 9. 1 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 10. And it shall be when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee unto the land which he fware unto thy fathers, to him, to his, to his, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildeth not. 11. And houses full of all good things which thou liketh not, and wells digged which thou diggeth not, vineyards and olive-trees which thou planteth not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full. 12. Then beware lest thou forget the LORD which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13. 1 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are found about you: 15. (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. 16. ¶ Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Malia.

Deuteronomy 6:4-16

To know the true God, is everlasting life; because we cannot know him without having, nor love without desire and delight to please him. Therefore, 1. Mules teaches them what God is. One in silence, in opposition to the gods many and lords many of the heathen; the self-existent, clerical, nonspiritual Jehovah, beside whom he is not to be other. Happy the man that hath him for his God. 2. He urges the duty they owe him, to love him; this is the first and great commandment, and it contains all the evil; for then we cannot but delight in what he commands, and trust on what he promises; and most deserving he is of our warmest affection, since in himself he transcendently excellent, and to us so amazingly kind; well may he challenge our heart, our whole heart, in sincerity that knows no reserve; with supreme affection, which admits no rival; with anarchy stronger than death, and with permanence equal to the days of eternity. Lord I shed a good such love in our hearts. 3. The means prescribed to maintain and increase this love in their hearts; they are to store up God’s words in their mind and memory, to instruct their children in them, by frequently inculcating the commandments upon them, to make them the matter of comfort daily conversation for their mutual edification, and to write select portions of them upon parchment, forelith, and on the paths of their houses, that they may be reminded of them, whenever they go out or come in. Note, (1.) God’s word should be read with Armenians every day. (2.) Our hearts should be employed in meditation thereon, that we may inwardly digeth it for our God’s feud. (3.) We should take delight to make it the subject of our discourse; not to deflate on what is abbrue, but to build up each other in the love and obedience to what is evident and clear. (4.) Especial care should we take early on acquaint our children and servants, with the invaluable know-

ledge, which alone is able to make them wise unto salvation. 4. Such attention to God’s commands, would preserve them from forgetting God in a day of prosperity. They were going into a land of plenty, and fully apt is the heart to be debauched by erde and affluence; therefore, the more they enjoyed, the more careful they need be over their hearts. Note, No state so dangerous to the soul, none calls for greater fear and trembling, than when the world smiles, abundance surrounds us, and every earthly blething tempts the idolatrous heart to take up its evil below. 5. The fear of God must be before their eyes, and his service their happy freedom. No mention of idol gods must come into their mouths, but when they swear, it must be an appeal to the true, and only heart-searching God. As their great danger ever lay from their idolatrous neighbours, they must carefully avoid going after their gods, for that would infallibly bring down upon them the wrath of God to consume them. Note, (1.) An oath is an appeal to God, and it must be made in his name; it is the knight of profanacres to be seen by any other. (2.) A jealous fear over ourselves, is the way to avoid provoking a jealous God.

17. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes which he hath commanded thee. 18. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the fight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayst go in and possess the good land which the LORD fware unto thy fathers; 19. To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken. 20. And when thy son affeeth thee in time to come, say, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God hath commanded you? 21. Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bond-men in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt; with a mighty hand. 22. And the LORD shews signs and wonders, great and fore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes. 23. And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he fware unto our fathers. 24. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

Deuteronomy 6:10-20

11, 12. Chap.

10. ‘When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt blush the LORD thy God, for the good land which he hath given thee. 11. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 12. ‘I all when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

11. And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied: 14. Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God (which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15. Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, ‘wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; ‘who brought thee forth water out of the rock of fish; 16. Who fed thee in the wilderness with ‘manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 17. ‘And thou say in thine heart, My power, and the might of my hand, hath gotten me this wealth. 18. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. 19. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish. 20. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish: because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.

Manifold were the blessings, and rich the provision bestowed on them: it was but reason therefore, 1. That they should bless God for them; that they should never sit down at their tables, or rise from them, without a grateful remembrance of the hand which fed them. To eat and drink without thankgiving and prayer, is to be more brutish than the ox, which knoweth his owner, and the as his master’s crab. 2. That they take care in their prosperity not to forget God. Adherence is a dangerous luare, perhaps much more than the fiery furnace of affliction. They must beware of pride, which, with jactrate of wealth, is apt to swell the heart with self-importance, and, as the consequence, make them neglect that duty to God, which they to peculiarly owed him, both for the perfect distinguishing mercies, and the past great deliverances. The riches they enjoyed, however great, were the gift of God, more than the effect of their industry; and which, as received from him, should lead to him. Nate, (1.) It is very difficult to possess an humble mind in an advance of station, and in the midst of prosperity. (2.) Great and rich men too commonly look upon religion as below them. Their good things are their portion, and they hate to be restrained in their gratifications. (3.) Forgetfulness of God is not only a great sin itself, but the cause of all others. (4.) Whatever we get, we should advise the praise not to our own industry or wisdom, but to God’s blessing. (5.) The moment pride swells the heart, on any acquisition spiritual or temporal, that moment the curse of God is upon it, and our gain becomes our greatest loss. Therefore, 3. Moses warns them of the fatal consequences of such departures from God. The moment they forget God, they would necessarily set up every man his idols in his heart, and then they would perish, as the nations they had driven out before them. Nate, (1.) We must have some object of worship, and that is our God, wherever our supreme affections are placed. They who turn from God commence idolaters, and worship gold, or beauty, or honour, or themselves. (2.) Ruin and sin go hand in hand: though we forget God, we shall not be forgotten of him.

Deuteronomy 6:17-25

Repeated warnings are needful. 1. He charges them in no exigence to disrupt God’s power or love, affusing them, that diligent obedience would be crowned with infallible success against all their enemies. Whilst we trust God, and follow on in the area of duty, his promise secures our safety and happiness. 2. They must seize every opportunity to instruct their children, that their religion and the deep remembrance of God’s dealings with them, may be transmitted to their laxed poverty. Hearing to often the law read and taught, and seeing so many rites and ceremonies performed, their children would be naturally inquisitive into the meaning of them; then they must form the good opportunity to inform them of their former deplorable efforts in Egypt, the great deliverances wrought for them, and the savours befooned on them in these inflections, in the perfect observance of which they might attain righteousness and life. Note, (1.) It should be highly pleasing to parents to hear their children’s requests about the things of God. It is their duty to inform them, even when averse to instruction; and how much more so, when teachable and desirous to learn. (2.) Righteousness and life eternal are indispensable; not indeed to be obtained by a sinner, through obedience to the law, but by him who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.