Deuteronomy 6:1, commentary and pictures

These are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord God commanded to be taught so that Israel would do them in the land they were going to possess, continuing the definite specification given in Deuteronomy 5 and spoken through Moses to more than a million people who had come out of Egypt. They reveal what God required of His ancient people that they might be a holy people unto Himself, laws they had promised to keep, and they are God's words expressing a complete standard reflecting Christ's character. The verse calls for covenant obedience with the whole person, fearing the Lord and keeping all His statutes and commandments all the days of life, loving Him with all heart and soul and might and observing His directions carefully, and this obedience was bound up with prolonged days, well-being, increase mightily, and life in the land flowing with milk and honey, even bringing health, life, and happiness through the laws that govern the physical being. Everyone who obeys from the heart receives the promise, with heavenly intelligences ready to cooperate in blessing and protecting care, while disobedience forfeits that protection and forgetting these laws is a path to forgetting God and turning to other gods. It lays a sacred duty on parents toward son and grandson and succeeding generations to teach diligently from infancy in the home and in everyday life, having God's words in their own hearts and talking of them continually, and this instruction in Deuteronomy 4-8 is to be studied now with profit because the world is nearing God's great final review when every character will have been investigated and every case decided.

Words and Historical Setting

The verse sets out the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord God commanded to be taught so that Israel would do them in the land they were going to possess. It is instruction given to be obeyed in the land being entered, with the laws to be taught in order to be practiced there. It continues the definite specification of God's commandments given in Deuteronomy 5, carrying forward that same defined body of requirement into teaching for life in the land.

Those words were spoken through Moses to more than a million people who had come out of Egypt. They were spoken by Jesus Christ to Moses to give to that multitude. In this setting the requirement brought the whole person into covenant relation with God.

What is listed reveals what God required of His ancient people that they might be a holy people unto Himself. These were the laws Israel had promised to keep. Forgetting them opened the way to forgetting God and turning to other gods.

The words are God's words and express a complete standard reflecting Christ's character.

Obedience and Its Blessings

The command calls for covenant obedience with the whole person, to fear the Lord and keep all His statutes and commandments all the days of life, to love Him with all heart and soul and might, to hold His words in the heart, and to observe His directions carefully from the greatest to what may seem least. Those carrying sacred responsibilities are guided by it toward consecrated service, and it is not to be turned aside from to one's own pleasure. The teaching was to pass to son and grandson in every generation, diligently in everyday life, with prolonged days as its aim.

Its special lesson is to study and do what the Lord commands according to His directions, for neglecting His Word leads to rebellion. The instruction was to be kept constantly before the people as frontlets between the eyes to keep them from every false way.

Obedience is connected with fearing God and with prolonged days, well-being, increase mightily, and continued life in the land flowing with milk and honey promised to the fathers. Each generation was to observe the commandments in the land to be possessed, and the people's lives being prolonged depended on it. The nation's welfare was bound up with keeping these laws, and well-being and continued life in the land depended on obedience to God.

Everyone who obeys the commandments from the heart and follows the path of obedience receives the promise. Heavenly intelligences stand ready to cooperate in blessing and in protecting care and guardianship. God can protect obedient people from the enemy who claims transgressors and seeks to bring his power to bear upon them, but disobedience forfeits that blessing and protection.

Forgetting these laws was a path to forgetting God and turning to other gods in apostasy. They were laws Israel had promised to keep, and forgetting them opened the way to the worship of other gods.

Obedience to God's requirements brings the obedient under the laws that control the physical being, so that health, life, and happiness result from obedience to the physical laws governing the body. Those who would preserve health must bring all appetites and passions into subjection, not indulging lustful passion and intemperate appetite, but remaining under control to God and wisely employing physical, mental, and moral powers so the bodily mechanism remains in good working order. When human will and way accord with God's will and way and do the pleasure of the Creator, He keeps the human organism in good condition and restores moral, mental, and physical powers to work through the person for His glory. His restoring power is constantly manifested in the body, so that cooperation with Him brings the sure results of health and happiness, peace and usefulness.

Teaching and Present Application

The commandments, statutes, and judgments were commanded to be taught so that they might be done in the land to be possessed, and keeping them and teaching them to children carries a promise. This lays a sacred duty on all parents toward their children and succeeding generations, that each person with son and grandson would fear the Lord and keep all His statutes and commandments all the days of life. Children's education in Bible principles is to begin early, from infancy and first lessons, diligently in the home and in everyday life, as part of education in the fear of the Lord. They were to be kept constantly before the people as frontlets between the eyes to keep them from every false way.

This teaching requires having God's words in the parents' own hearts and talking of them continually at home, by the way, at night and in the morning, keeping them as a constant sign before them. It is to be given line upon line and precept upon precept, including diligently teaching children what honoring father and mother in obedience to the commandment means. The instruction must be given as God directed, patiently, carefully, mercifully, and diligently, with physical, mental, and moral training that keeps the claims of God ever before children and never neglects religious training. Keeping them means fearing God, loving Him with the whole heart, soul, and might, holding His words in the heart, and teaching them diligently to children in everyday life, leading to prolonged days, well-being, and increase.

Parents must take every precaution to prevent objectionable traits of character in their children and to train them from infancy to form characters that meet God's approval. They must control themselves for the sake of their Creator and Redeemer, and must prepare themselves for the present and future life in order to be admitted into the city of God. God's directions are to be observed carefully, from the greatest to what may seem least, and they guide those carrying sacred responsibilities toward consecrated service. God accepts no service unless the one who offers it is first wholly consecrated to Him.

What God required of His ancient people that they might be a holy people unto Himself, in the instruction of Deuteronomy 4-8, is to be studied now with profit. The world is nearing the day of God's great final review when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for deeds. The present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity before that review.