DEVARIM 6: You Shall Love God

After giving the introduction of the Law (with the 10 commandments), Moses began to expand on the details of the Torah:

(Deut. 6:1, NKJV) Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess…

Let’s begin by defining the different types of laws mentioned:

• Commandment: This is the order that a superior gives to his subordinates so that it is obeyed and executed. In Torah, this is everything God commands.
• Statute: They are fixed laws, established, unchanging. Many of them go beyond human reason, but they have a spiritual purpose.
• Judgments: This literally means verdict. In Torah, it is everything God considers just (good or bad).

Some commentators point out that the first part of the Law (in Devarim) consists of commandments and the second part of statutes and judgments.

a. Commandments (Chapters 6-11): model our relationship with God.

Interestingly, the word “commandment” in verse 6:1, in Hebrew is written in singular: Mitzvah.

The first commandment is defined in the beginning of this section: Love God.

(Duet. 6:4-6) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) And these words that I command you (Heb. M’tzavecha) today shall be on your heart. 

By the end of this section, we can read the conclusion and definition of the topic of this first part:

(Deut. 11:22) For if you will be careful to do all this commandment (Heb. Mitzvah) that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him…

b. Statutes and Judgments (Chapters 12-26): model our relationship with our neighbor.

[Note: sometimes the concepts for these laws are translated with different words in English, but in Hebrew they use the same words throughout this section: Chukim and Mishpatim].

(Deut. 11:31-32) For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, (32) you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules (Heb. Chukim v’Mishpatim) that I am setting before you today.

(Deut. 12:1) These are the statutes and rules (Heb. Chukim v’Mishpatim) that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.

The following verse ends this section:

(Deut. 26:16) This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules (Heb. Chukim v’Mishpatim). You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

THE REASON

Before beginning this first section, Moses gives the reason for which we need to keep the commandments, statues and judgments:

(Deut. 6:2-3) …that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. (3) Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Again, Moses emphasizes that the purpose of teaching them the Torah (Law) is so that they would do it, and that all would go well with them.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

As we’ve seen, the first “commandment” is recognizing that “Yehovah is God” (Deut. 5:6). Chapter six is related to this first commandment. In this chapter we will see that this commandment is not only about “recognizing” that Yehovah is God, but it also consists on loving God above all else. This is the same thing Jesus taught:

(Matthew 22:37-38) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is the great and first commandment.

YOU SHALL LOVE GOD

Many of us relate “love” with feelings and emotions. That is why, when the commandment is mentioned: “You shall love God”, many relate that to the emotions that they might have towards God. But in Biblical language, love has little to do with emotions and much to do with will and obedience. We can see this clearly in this chapter.

(Deut. 6:4-5) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

In God’s language, love is expressed through actions. Love is not a “feeling” but a “decision”. Jesus taught us that loving God is expressed by obeying the commandments.

(John 14:21) Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

(John 14:23-24) Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (24) Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

The evidence that we love God is that we obey him… in EVERYTHING that He says and asks of us.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN

After learning the Law of God (Heb. Torah), we need to make sure that we teach it to our children, so that they might also keep it and that all will go well with them…

(Deut. 6:6-7) And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (7) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

The phrase: “you shall teach them diligently” can also be translated as: instill (from the Hebrew verb, Shanan, which literally means: sharpen, pierce).

Teaching diligently implies doing it at all times, by “word” and by “actions”. The best way to teach is not only by “explaining”, but most importantly by being an example. Children learn more by what they see their parents do… “when they walk by the way, and when they lie down” (6:7).

SO THAT YOU WON’T FORGET

To help us not forget the commandments, the Lord gives us the following instruction:

(Deut. 6:8-9) You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9) You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Out in the world, we see examples of this all the time: a string tied to the finger can help to remember something –the modern version would be an alarm in an electronic device. We also see rings on fingers which remind us of marital engagements. In many cultures, people place images of their gods on the main door of their homes. Certainly God does not want us to make an image of Him, but He does want us to remember the Covenant that we’ve done with Him. Jews have taken this commandment literally, so they place mezuzahs on their doors and wear phylacteries on their hands and foreheads when they pray every day.

Even though these instruments can be useful reminders, the most important thing is the message it conveys: The signs in the hand represent our actions, and the ones in the forehead represent our thoughts. God wants our thoughts and our actions to reflect the Covenant that we’ve made with Him, doing things as God commands. In the same way, we see the Word of God written on the door posts of the house when we come in and out, and this reminds us that we have to live like God commands, out in the streets as well as in the intimacy of our home.

Jesus referenced the phylacteries.

(Matthew 23:2-5) The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, (3) so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. (4) They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. (5) They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long

Jesus didn’t criticize the instrument in and of itself, but the hypocrisy of those who used them, because they flaunted them but they didn’t keep God’s commandments.

Here Jesus references another reminder: the fringes (Heb. Tzit-tzit):

(Num. 15:38-41) Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. (39) And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. (40) So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. (41) I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

The instruments that we use to remember the commandments are not the objective, but what is important is the obedience.

THE RESULTING BLESSING

In his speech, Moses emphasizes the benefit of keeping God’s commandments: obedience brings blessing. This message appears from the beginning until the end of the book of Devarim.

Before this blessing, God gives out a warning:

(Deut. 6:10-12) And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, (11) and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, (12) then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

We must not forget that the blessing comes from God. Any blessing that we might have attained we owe ENTIRELY to God. We will expand on this message in chapters 7 and 8.

ONLY YEHOVAH

Moses then talks about other points that are related to the first commandment…

a. You shall have no other gods.
(Deut. 6:13-15) It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. (14) You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— (15) for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

b. You shall not test God.(Deut. 6:16) You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.

In Hebrews we find an explanation of what this commandment implies:(Hebrews 3:7-12) Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, (8) do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, (9) where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. (10) Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ (11) As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (12) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

c. You shall do what is right and good(Deut. 6:17-19) You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. (18) And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers (19) by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN

In this chapter it is made evident how much importance God gives to us teaching our children the order of God. If the parents don’t teach the children, in word and in action, the connection with God can be lost in the upcoming generation.

When children are little, they believe in everything their parents tell them, but when they reach their teenage years, these little ones begin testing and trying everything. The Lord anticipates that the children will question the validity of the Torah in their lives, because in a world of sin, God’s order doesn’t come “naturally”; on the other hand, the way that is lived in the world many times goes against God’s order. This chapter contemplates on the questions that the children will ask…

(Deut. 6:20) When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?

The Bible gives us the answer the parents are to give:

(Deut. 6:21-24) then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. (22) And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. (23) And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to 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 we are this day.

It first explains that we owe our freedom to God, so we must obey him. But we also have to obey so that all might go well with us and that we might have a good life.

In a spiritual sense, this explanation also talks about salvation: we were slaves to sin, but the Lord redeemed us, and now we must live as God commands us so that all may go well with us.

JUSTICE

The final verse of this chapter reveals a principle that is important for us to learn:

(Deut. 6:25) And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.

Do we want justice to be done for us? Then each one of us has to fulfill God’s justice, obeying his commandments.

More lessons on Deuteronomy: DEVARIM (Deut.)