Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 5-7.

Moses recounts the Ten Commandments and makes some commentary on them.  He tells the Israelites that the purpose of God’s commands was so that it would go well for those who obeyed them.  Moses then tells them that they should have God’s commandments on their hearts and should impress them on their children.  We should strive to do the same thing.  Moses even told us how we can do that.  We do it by talking about God’s decrees and commands when we are at home, and when we travel; by talking about them when we get up and when we lie down; by putting reminders of them on our hands, our foreheads, and on our house, and in our houses.  We should strive to bring up God’s laws whenever and wherever we can.  We should carry things and have things in our houses which lead our children, our guests, and the strangers we meet ask us about God’s laws and what they mean to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 5-7.

Moses recounts here how God spoke the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel and how they were frightened by His voice.  Moses reminds them that God had spoken to them in order to incline their hearts to fear Him and obey His commands.  It is good for us to think about the times when God has done things which have led us to fear Him.  But we also need to remember why God wanted the Children of Israel, and us, to both fear and obey Him: so that it might go well for them (and us) and their children.  Moses goes on to emphasize the importance of loving God and obeying Him because we love Him.  We should write His commandments (or, perhaps, request that He write them) on our hearts.  We should talk about them when we are at home, and when we are not at home, when we get up in the morning, and when we lie down again.  Let us write them out in the open, so that others will know that we intend to obey them, and can call us to account when we fail to do so.  Moses gives the people, and us, two more reasons to make sure that God’s commands are written upon us and around us.  If we have references to God’s commands written upon the spaces we occupy (our homes, our cars, perhaps even our workspaces) we will be less likely to forget God when we receive His blessings.  And, if we have references to God’s commands written where others can see them, they may be drawn to obey them as well.

Moses also speaks here of another thing which is closely related to the above.  The Lord our God is the One and Only God.  There is no other.  Therefore, we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the worship practices of those around us who serve other gods.  They will try to draw us into their worship.  Let us be on guard to not allow that to happen.  But, even when they do not seek to draw us in, we may be tempted by their practices.  Let us not give into that temptation and be drawn away from God.  Let us not desire the fruits of those practices, even those which appear pleasurable.  And let the only pity we feel for them when they suffer the consequences of their sin be that which inspires us to call them to turn to God and to obey His commands.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 5-7.

The translators footnote on verse 3 of chapter 5 says that it could be translated as “It was not only with our parents that the Lord made this covenant.”  I suspect that to the original readers of that verse it conveyed both that and the way in which the NIV translators chose to translate it.  Each and every one of us must choose to accept God’s covenant for themselves, whether or not our parents did so.  However, I want to focus on chapter 6 verses 4 to 7.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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.

I really find this to be inspirational.  First, it contains what Jesus tells us is the greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  I could spend my whole blog today on that, but I want to focus on what comes next.  God’s commands should be in our hearts at all times.  We should talk about them when we are at home, and when we travel.  We should talk about them as we go to bed, and when we get up in the morning.  We should spend all day every day thinking about what God wants us to do, and then doing it.  Of course, that follows from loving God with all of our heart, soul, and strength, but sometimes we need to spell that out.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 5-7.

I really liked doing something different yesterday.  Perhaps next year I will seek out a different daily Bible reading schedule.  Now I return to reading my way through the Bible.  Starting today Moses presented the generation of Israelites who would enter the Promised Land with God’s commands for them which He had given to the previous generation.  Many of those listening to Moses on this day had been present when the commands were first given, but they were young and not yet responsible adults when they heard them.  Moses starts by repeating, with slightly different wording, what we know as the Ten Commandments.  In a way, these ten commands build upon each other.  I really think of them from two directions.  First, following the commands which come later in this list of ten is meaningless if you do not follow the ones which come before.  It is of no consequence that you do not steal if you murder someone.  It is of no consequence that you do not murder if you worship anything other than God.  However, as I said, it also goes the other way.  If you murder or steal, you clearly do not worship only God.

Then in chapter 6 Moses says something which tells us the most important part of making any set of rules work.  If we wish to truly be made holy by God we must worship and obey Him with our whole being, we must seek His will whole-heartedly.  Pleasing Him must be our chief desire.  All else must be subordinate to that.  If we do that, we will not look for loopholes or ways to get around God’s commands.  “Do not murder” means that we should value the lives of others.  “Do not steal” means that we should respect others ownership of the things which they have.  Jesus was absolutely correct, all of God’s other commands follow from two commands.  Actually, all other commands follow from this one: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all of your strength.  However, the second command is one that offers clarification as to what doing the first one means: Love your neighbor as your love yourself.  This second one follows from the first, but needs to be stated so that people cannot claim they did not realize that the first one meant the second one.  All of the other commands are just applications of these two.