Deuteronomy 6

Impress [the commandments] on your children (verse 7). The only way we can impress God’s commandments on our children is by first having them impressed on our own hearts (verse 6). Our children will be more impressed by what we do than by what we say. When we ourselves show our love for God by our wholehearted obedience to Him, then our children will learn to love and obey Him too. And that will be the best legacy we can ever leave to them (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4).

10–12 Here Moses warns the Israelites not to forget the Lord when they have become settled and prosperous in their new land. When we’re in difficulty, we turn to the Lord; when we’re not in difficulty we act as if we could get along without Him. Years later, the Israelites ended up doing exactly what Moses had warned them not to do: they forgot the Lord.

This warning is for us also: the more prosperous we become, the more likely it is that we will forget God. Instead of thanking God for our prosperity and well-being, we will be tempted to think we have brought it about ourselves. Indeed, material prosperity is one of the greatest obstacles to our spiritual development, because it so easily takes the place of God in our affections (Matthew 6:24; Mark 10:25; 1 John 2:15–17). Let us listen to Moses’ warning.

13 Fear the LORD. Jesus quoted this verse when He was being tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:10), but instead of using the word “fear” He used the word “worship.” This suggests that “fearing” the Lord in the true sense is equivalent to worshiping the Lord²² (see verses 1–3 and comment).

. . . take your oaths in his name. This verse is not commanding us to take oaths; but if we do take oaths, we must take them in the Lord’s name and not in the name of any other god. Jesus taught that it is unnecessary to take an oath simply to affirm that we are telling the truth; we should always tell the truth whether we take an oath or not (Matthew 5:33–37).

14–15 See Exodus 20:3–6; 23:23–24 and comments.

16 Do not test the LORD. Moses refers here to the first time the Israelites began to grumble in the desert after their deliverance from Egypt. They grumbled against the Lord—or “tested” Him—because of a lack of water in a certain place; and so that place was named Massah, which means “testing”²³ (see Exodus 17:1–7 and comment). They “tested” the Lord by casting doubt on His ability to provide for them; they, in effect, were “testing” His patience. The people’s grumbling angered the Lord because it demonstrated both a lack of faith and a lack of gratitude on their part.

17–19 See verses 1–3 and comment.

20–24 The Lord, through His spokesman Moses, frequently expressed concern that the succeeding generations of Israelites understand the meaning behind all the laws He was giving: namely, that since He had redeemed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, they now belonged to Him and therefore were expected to obey His laws—which, after all, were being given for their benefit. So when their sons asked about the meaning of the various laws and festivals, they were to answer by telling them about God’s marvelous redemption of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 12:26–27; 13:8); then the meaning would become clear.

Moses then briefly repeated the highlights of Israel’s deliverance, and exhorted the Israelites once more to obey all of God’s commands so that they might enjoy long life and prosperity in the land (see Deuteronomy 4:32–40 and comment).

25 Moses ended by saying that the Israelites’ obedience to God’s law would constitute their righteousness. Here RIGHTEOUSNESS means the right relationship with God that comes when people walk according to His laws. From other verses in Scripture, we know that true righteousness is based on faith (see Genesis 15:6 and comment). But true faith always includes obedience (James 2:17,20–26). The obedience that God demanded from the Israelites—and demands from us—is the obedience of faith, an obedience that grows out of our faith. Formal, ritualistic, lifeless obedience will not be counted as righteousness by God; but obedience that comes from our hearts and is grounded in faith will indeed be credited to us as righteousness.²⁴