Deuteronomy 6:1-25

 

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the law of God – those two tablets of stone that we know as the Ten Commandments – all Israel was gathered before him. It was a family scene. All these families of Israel were still in the desert and were headed to Canaan. They would be in a land where the people would be hostile to them. They would also be in a land where if they were not careful, they would become corrupted by the evil culture of the Canaanites.

 

In other words, the Israelites, and their families, were in a situation very similar to ours. We too live in a society that has an increasing animosity toward true Christianity. Our society is willing to accept all sorts of false gods and false religions, but to have saving faith in Christ is considered to be an expression of ignorance and intolerance.

 

And, if we follow along and listen to the voices of our culture, we too, can so easily become indifferent and wander from the one true God revealed in Scripture. When Moses says in verse 4, “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one”, he is referring to God as the one true God whom we know from other Scriptures as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

Did you notice the footnote in the ESV? It explains that the verse can also be understood as “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” The Canaanites worshipped many different gods, but Isreal was commanded to worship the Lord God alone. And the same is true for us today, we are to worship the one true God revealed in the pages of the Holy Bible.

 

Because the people of Israel faced great challenges as they traveled through the desert to the promised land of Canaan, the Lord – our triune God – in his gracious wisdom, sent Moses with the message we have read in Deuteronomy 6. It is a message just as relevant for us today as it was for the people of Israel back then. For we too are traveling through the desert of this life to the promised land – the heavenly Canaan. Like Abraham, we are “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 12:10).

 

And we too have been brought out of bondage. Israel was in bondage to an incredibly evil ruler, when they were enslaved in Egypt. But unless we have saving faith in Christ, we are enslaved by a taskmaster far more evil and far more cruel than Pharoah. Apart from saving faith in Christ we are enslaved to sin and to Satan. How grateful we should be then, that the Lord has brought us out of bondage, and is leading us, even now toward the heavenly Canaan.

 

 

In this passage, Moses, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us a number of principles for living our lives as grateful believers – grateful that we are delivered from our bondage to sin and to Satan. And in this passage the Holy Spirit gives principles for building strong Christian families, families strong enough to resist both the animosity of the world and the seduction of the culture in which we live – for our culture strives to draw us and our children away, to draw us after the things of this fallen world instead of the truths of God's Word.

 

The first principle for building a strong Christian family, whether for Israel and their situation so long ago or for us today, is recorded in verse 3 where Moses says: “Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.” Moses is telling us, as he told the Israelites of old, to listen to the Lord and obey him.

 

That is the first key for every one of us. Each one, whether single or married, young or old, are to listen to God’s word, to read God’s word, to be immersed in the word of God, the Holy Bible, and then earnestly strive to put it into practice in our lives.

 

And children notice what adults will do. Our children take notice. They see whether we listen to the Word but don’t put it into practice, or whether by God’s grace we earnestly strive to put it into practice “with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might” even though, unfortunately, we so often fail.

 

 

A second key for building a strong Christian family is there in verse 5 where Moses impresses on us the need to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And,” he adds in verse 6, “these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

 

Moses emphasized the need to not only have the knowledge of God’s word in our head, but to also have that knowledge in our heart. The heart is the wellspring of life (Prov. 4:23), and we are to love the Lord with our whole heart – with all that is within us – which is what he is getting at when he tells us to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

 

How do we do that? How do we love the Lord with whole-hearted commitment and devotion? One way is by remembering him, not forgetting all his blessings to us. We see that in verse 12 where Moses instructs the Israelites to “Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

 

Perhaps as Moses spoke to the people, some of them were thinking, “How could we forget the Lord? He brought us out of Egypt; he is leading us to the promised land. When we sinned by making the golden calf he punished us, but then he made new tablets for Moses to bring to us, so that we would know from his law how we are to live. How could we possibly forget about the Lord our God?”

 

But did you notice how Canaan is described? Did you notice in verse 3, how Canaan is described as “a land flowing with milk and honey”? That is a description of prosperity. The people of Israel would be out of the desert, far from the bondage of Egypt. They would be in a prosperous land. And few things can make us forget about God quicker than prosperity.

 

Look at the distractions that would come Israel’s way there in verse 10 and 11. Those verses describe how Israel would receive a land with large, flourishing cities that they did not have to build. Verse 11 describes houses filled with all kinds of good things that they did not have to provide, wells that they did not have to dig, and vineyards and olive groves that they did not have to plant. With all these material blessings they would be well satisfied, so well satisfied with the gifts God was giving them that they could easily forget the Giver of those gifts.

 

Is it any different for us today? Materialism and the pursuit of “things” – not “needs” but “wants” – can so easily consume our lives, causing us to forget God. In the parable of the Sower and the Seed, recorded in Matthew 13, Jesus warns about the deceitfulness of wealth – of how materialism leads so many people astray.

 

As you build your family, you naturally want to provide nice things for them. And there’s nothing wrong in that, to a point. But if we are not careful as parents, we can provide material blessings for children, forgetting about God, and not giving them the spiritual blessings that far outweigh all the material blessings that the world can offer.

 

Another aspect of wholehearted love for the Lord includes not following other gods. In verse 14 we are warned, “Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.” The culture that the Israelites would face in Canaan was a culture that worshipped all sorts of false gods. They had the Baals; they had gods and goddesses of fertility who demanded immoral practices in their worship. They served gods like Molech, who required the sacrifice of their children, as the firstborn was sacrificially burned to death in Molech’s arms.

 

Maybe as we consider the culture of Canaan, where the Israelites would live, we think that our culture is far removed. Yet, although our culture does not have those same false gods, we live in a culture that serves so many other false gods. Materialism, pleasure, entertainment, sports – things that can be good in themselves – can also take over our lives and be worshipped, just as false gods and idols were worshipped by the nations surrounding the Israelites.

 

It is so easy to make a god of our own mental conception; the same is true for idols. The fallen human mind has been accurately described as in idol factory (Calvin). Part of loving the Lord our God “with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might” is examining our life to see whether we are serving the one true God revealed in Scripture, or, if our true love is found in the false gods of the world, along with idols of our own making. This passage warns us that following the false gods of this world is incompatible with wholehearted love and devotion to the one true God revealed in Scripture.

 

In verse 16, Moses adds that we are not to test the Lord. We test the Lord when we pursue false gods, get entangled in idolatry, and also, we test the Lord with our complaints against his providence.

 

One of the ways that the Israelites tested the Lord was with their complaints. In verse 16, Moses declares: “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” At Massah, the people complained that they had no water. It was a repeated complaint and led to Moses, on another occasion – at Meribah – striking the rock the Lord had commanded him to speak to.

 

That Rock, which produced the water for the people, is one of the Old Testament “pictures” or “types” of Christ. Christ is written about throughout the Old Testament. You might recall how when Jesus arose from the dead and was walking on the road to Emmaus, he came across two disciples who were talking about all the unusual events that had recently happened. Jesus had been crucified. The temple curtain had been torn in two. Darkness had covered the land for three hours during the day of crucifixion. Dead men had risen to life; raised from the tombs and they walked into Jerusalem. These men – they were disciples, not the twelve, but followers of Christ – were walking on the road to Emmaus. And they were so perplexed. They heard that this Jesus, who had been crucified, had risen and was alive. How could that be?

 

And then Jesus began walking with them, but they did not recognize him. Luke 24:25-27 describes how Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

 

Christ is written about in all the Old Testament books including Deuteronomy 6, where we read how the people complained against God, even though it was the eternal Christ who led them, provided for them and promised them the land of Canaan. Christ is the Rock who accompanied the Israelites through the desert, 1 Corinthians 10:4 describes how “they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” He is the Living Water who provides the life-giving water of salvation to his people. As he said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

 

If we truly love the Lord, we will guard ourselves from testing the Lord with complaints, as the Israelites tested him. Instead, we will trust him to provide what we need in life, the water of life – our salvation – and whatever else we need – our daily bread – at the appropriate time, without complaints. We will learn to put into practice the truths of an old familiar hymn:

 

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul!

 

 

These principles outlined in Deuteronomy 6, are crucial for us to follow, whether young or old, whether single or married. And these principles are crucial for parents. It is crucial to impress these truths of how to live grateful, obedient lives to our children.

 

It has been pointed out that raising children is somewhat like pouring concrete. A solid base is needed so that when the concrete is poured it will be shaped into the base that has been formed. If done correctly, a concrete foundation will far outlast the person who poured and shaped that concrete. Done incorrectly, the evidence will soon appear as the concrete cracks and crumbles, causing the structure based upon it to shift and collapse.

 

The same is true with children. They need that solid base, and that solid base comes from parents who have a wholehearted love for the Lord, who seek to live by his Word and who admit their many failures, confessing their sin with complete trust in the forgiveness found through saving faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

That is why the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to speak to the people the words recorded in verse 6 and 7: “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.” Impressing these truths on our children is crucial, and we do so in the everyday events of life by both discipline and encouragement.

 

The discipline of children today is not a popular topic. Instead of discipline, parents are taught to let their children seek out the path that they would like to go in life, and then to validate the decision of the child. Unfortunately, that even goes so far as to include sexual identity. If already at a young age a child identifies themself as being the opposite sex from that with which they were born, then parents willingly accommodate. A shocking number of children today are receiving sex change hormones and therapy, as well as gender-altering surgery.

 

How radically different our culture is from the truths of Scripture! The rod of correction is used many times in Scripture, not to be mean and abusive, but to lovingly shape and mold the sinful child after the image of Christ for their own good. And the rod of correction doesn’t need to aways be a literal rod. There are many effective ways to discipline. But at certain times, the literal rod may be necessary.

 

The author of Hebrews, quoting from Proverbs 3, points out that God disciplines those whom he loves. He writes, in Hebrews 12:7-11: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

 

As we raise our children, God gives us not only the proper use of the tool of discipline, he also tells us to encourage our children. In Ephesians 6:4 fathers are told not to provoke their children. As one translation puts it, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (NIV)

 

Sometimes parents will rely so much on discipline, that they overlook the need for encouragement. 1 Corinthians 12 describes how each person in God’s family is unique. One is like a hand, another like a foot, still another, the tongue or ears. Each is unique, and yet each individual, if they have saving faith in Christ, is a part of the body of Christ, part of the family of God.

 

It is no different with our children. Each child is unique; God has given each one different gifts, and when those gifts begin to blossom, don't squelch them in the bud. We as parents have a tendency to do that. We may want our child to go one direction, and if their gifts point in another direction, we sometimes try to squelch their abilities in that area. Why? Because that area is an area not included in our plan for their lives. Maybe a banker wants his son in finance and the son has gifts in carpentry. Or the farmer’s son doesn’t care for farming but is great with computers.

 

When those gifts begin to blossom, even if they send your child toward a different direction from your dreams, don’t squelch them in the bud. Only squelch them if they are in direct opposition to God’s Word and God’s revealed will. If we as parents are always critical, we may break the spirit of our children. Our constant criticisms will bring about cracks in the cement of our children’s lives.

 

Those of us who are blessed to be parents, grandparents and great grandparents, are to take every opportunity to use the means God has given us to shape the young ones entrusted to our care. We are to use both discipline and encouragement in shaping our children, just as our heavenly Father uses discipline and encouragement to mold and shape us after the likeness of his Son.

 

And those opportunities to shape and mold our children after the likeness of Christ come up repeatedly in the everyday activities of life. That’s why Deuteronomy 6:6-7 commands us: “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.”

 

In the everyday events of life, we have so many opportunities to teach our children. Sometimes words aren’t even necessary. We are a model, an example, and what we do – or don’t do – is noticed by our children: Did the cashier give you too much change back, maybe an extra five-dollar bill, and you slipped it into your pocket without saying a word? Or maybe you said, “Thank you!” Or when you are cut off by a rude driver, do you teach your children, patience and consideration – “Oh, they must be having a bad day!” – or is there an explosion of anger?

 

But in addition to the everyday opportunities to teach our children, there must also be structured times to teach our children, specifically to teach our children by reading the Bible with them. That’s why family devotions are so important. Reading the Bible together as a family is crucial. For many families, that time is especially opportune after eating a meal together. After being fed with a meal, so that we are nourished physically, we also read the Word of God, so that we are nourished spiritually. For others, it may be in the beginning of the day, or before bed, but it is crucial to have family time in the word of God.

 

Share verses that have been especially meaningful to you with your children. Explain how that passage or that verse has impacted your life. Take time to memorize verses with your children. It is only by memorizing that we can also meditate on the Word, that is, to review it time and again in our mind and heart. We will then find the truth of Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” We will clearly see how we are to live grateful, obedient lives, and how we are to teach our children to live.

 

One of the vivid memories I have of growing up in a Christian home is of the family devotions that we had after supper every day. We always had to wait after the meal for my father and mother to have a cup coffee. During that time, my dad and my mom talked about the events of the day, and my brothers and I listened quietly, knowing that their conversation would be addressed by the Word of God that my father would read when he and my mom were done with their coffee, which could take, in a child’s mind, a very long time.

 

I don't remember much about the actual reading of the Word, except that it was in the old King James English and as a child it was hard to follow the “Thee’s” and the “Thou’s.” But because it was done without fail after every supper, I realized that it was something important. I began to realize that it was more important than the conversation that led up to it, and that in many ways the conversation leading up to it anticipated the reading of the Word of God.

 

All of us who are parents are to set a crucial example by reading the Word of God with our children around the table, as well as other times. Both we as parents, and our children, need that structured, systematic reading of the Word of God.

 

The importance of God’s Word being always before us was emphasized to the Israelites in verse 8 and verse 9. They were commanded to bind the Scriptures on their hands, to make frontlets by their eyes, and to write Scripture on the doorpost of their houses and gates. In the New Testament we read how the Pharisees did that literally as a show of self-righteousness. They had the outward show, but not the inner grasp of God’s word in their heart. To have that inner heartfelt grasp of the word of God we need to be constantly immersed in it, as individuals and as families.

 

 

And the reason we are called to teach these truths is so that our children will see that their redemption out of bondage to sin is through saving faith in Christ alone. In verse 20 we read, “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD has commanded you?’ Tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD has brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’”

 

Just as Israel was in bondage in Egypt, all of us have been in bondage to sin and Satan. But just as God graciously redeemed his people out of their bondage in Egypt and brought them to the promised land of Canaan, so through faith in Christ we and our children are brought out of our bondage to sin and Satan and brought into the eternal kingdom of the heavenly Canaan.

 

But entrance into the heavenly Canaan only comes by God’s grace. That was true for Israel of old, and it's true for you and for me today. Did you notice how the chapter ends with a self-righteous sound? Verse 25: “And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

 

But none of us can keep the law perfectly. I look back at my life as a parent and I’m appalled at all the times I failed to encourage my children and to discipline my children as I ought. I’m appalled by all the times that I set a bad example in many ways, hearing and knowing the Word, but not putting it into practice in my day-to-day living.

 

Yet, although I cannot live a perfect life, there is one who could and did – Jesus Christ. My righteousness, and that of my children, depends not on what I have done, but on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Titus 3:4-7 explains it this way: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

 

It is by the Holy Spirit’s conviction – the realization that our own righteousness can never save us – that drives us to Christ in humble repentance and true saving faith. As Galatians 3:24 puts it: “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (NKJV). And that is the goal of our parenthood: to raise our children to believe – by God’s grace and Holy Spirit’s regenerating power – in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation.

 

And it is by God’s grace and Spirit’s power that our children believe. It is not because as parents we do such a good job in raising them. Some of you have instilled in your children the biblical truths this passage describes, only to see them leave the church, leave the biblical teaching they grew up with, and run after the world.

 

Don’t ever give up on praying for them and modeling for them what it means to live as a Christian. God, in his grace, may bring them back to himself long after you have gone to glory. He is sovereign in salvation, and his word never returns to him void, Isaiah 55:11 reminds us, but always accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.

___

 

The people of Israel, there at the base of Mount Sinai so long ago, were in a situation so similar to yours and mine. They were ready to enter a society that would be hostile to their faith. They would be in a prosperous society that would tempt them to forget the Lord. It would be a society that would try to seduce them away from the Lord to follow false gods and idols of their culture.

 

But the Lord sent Moses to give the people of Israel principles for Christian living that apply to everyone – whether parents or children, single or married, young or old. But the principles also apply specifically to parents. All of us who have the responsibility and the joy of parenthood are to use these principles of Scripture to mold and shape our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We are to point them to Christ in the everyday events of life as well as through structured reading and discussion of the Word. We are always to uplift them in prayer, so that by God’s grace, they love and serve the Lord, as they trust in Christ alone for salvation. Amen.

 

 

 

Bulletin outline:

 

 

                                     Deuteronomy 6:1-25

 

I.  Israel would possess the land of Canaan (1, 23) which had a similar

    culture to ours, with many temptations (3f, 10, 11). To live as a

    Christian in such a society, we must be strong in the Lord by:

     1) Listening to the Word of God and living it out in our lives (3)

  

 

 

 

     2) Loving the Lord wholeheartedly (5-6), which includes remembering

         Him (12), not following other gods (14) nor testing the Lord (16)

 

 

 

  

 II. Impressing these truths on our children is crucial:

      1) We do so by both discipline (Hebrews 12:7-11) and encouragement

          (Ephesians 6:4), teaching in both everyday events (6, 7) and

          structured times of reading God’s Word (8, 9)

 

 

 

 

      2) Our goal is to pass the truths of God’s Word on to the next

          generation, so that our children understand that salvation from sin

          and the gift of eternal life (20-24) is through faith alone in Christ

          alone (25; Romans 3:20-24; Galatians 3:24)

 

 

 

 

 

 

In what way was the deliverance of Isreal out of bondage in Egypt

symbolic of our deliverance from sin through saving faith in Christ?

 

 

 

 

 

In what ways is our culture similar to the culture the Israelites

would encounter in Canaan?

 

 

 

 

 

What everyday events in your life do you use to teach your children

 about Jesus?

 

 

 

 

 

What specific ways do you use to both discipline and encourage

your children?

 

 

 

 

 

What is the most opportune time for you to read Scripture together

as a family?

 

 

 

 

In what way does the law point us to Christ?