Be Deliberate: One God and His Word (Deuteronomy 6)
Verse 2 Moses reminds the people that if they follow God’s ways and fear Him, things will go well for them.
Verse 3 Here Moses introduces another concept, a land flowing with milk and honey.
o This is both a blessing and a temptation.
Verse 4 This makes for bad English but he is reminding them that there is only one God.
Verse 5 This is the most basic and boiled down commandment.
Verse 6 The word “heart” is a good way to translate this, but the Hebrew concept is inner man.
• But this is where we start to see this idea of being deliberate.
• Notice it says upon your heart and not in your head.
Verse 7 NASB “You shall teach them diligently to your sons” That really speak of being deliberate.
• Talk about what? The commands of God, the word of God. When? pretty much all the time.
• Now during this time period there were no written copies of the law.
o It was an oral tradition, repeated over and over again.
Verse 8 Now it moves to a more tangible act of being deliberate.
• It was common during this time period among the other religions of that area for them to wear amulets.
o Even arm bands and wrist bands were also common in Syro-Palestine.
• Moses is telling the people redeem those kinds of thing as you seek to be deliberate with God’s word.
Verse 9 This is certainly reminiscent of the Passover when they put blood on their door posts.
• This is to remind us, the ones who live in the house of God’s word.
o And serves to welcome the presence of God in the house.
Verses 10-11 They have just come through the exodus and have been wandering in the wilderness for years.
• As they prepare for the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, Moses warns them to be deliberate.
Verse 12 These deliberate acts that Moses has suggested are all for this purpose. Do not forget the Lord.
Verse 13 This fear is a reverent holy fear for the Lord.
• The result of that holy fear is that we serve Him only.
Verse 14 Those small g gods look different today; but they are still just as prevalent.
Verse 15 God is always among us, that’s really good news. But he is also a jealous God.
o His jealousy will protect me when I am following Him.
o But his jealously can work against me when I go my own way.
For Us today: The same temptations still hold true for us today. So we also need a plan to be deliberate.
• 1. The Word: Be deliberate with the Word of God.
o Make a plan to read the Word. And also make a plan to understand the Word.
• 2. Don’t forget the Lord Your God, He is One
o Don’t focus on the blessings.
o Let’s be deliberate about rooting out our small g gods.
