Deuteronomy 6:1-9
I heard a story about a guy who was getting ready
to go out of town for the weekend to a formal
event. And as the week went along, he got toward
the end of the week and realized that he hadn’t
gotten his formalwear dry-cleaned, and it was in a
mess, and the cleaners where he normally went
couldn’t handle it.
But he had remembered across town, there was a
cleaning establishment that had “One Hour
Cleaner” on the front of it. So he got in his car, took
his clothes to this establishment, and he filled out
the claim ticket. And he said, “I’ll be back in a
couple of hours to get my clothes”. And the guy says,
“No, no,” he said, “we can’t have these for you till Thursday”.
He says, “Well, it says on this establishment,
‘One Hour Cleaner.'” “Oh,” he said, “that’s just the name
of our business. We can’t do that”.
Isn’t that the way it is for a lot of Christians? We
have the word “Christian” plastered over us, but it
doesn’t really mean anything. That’s just the name
we call ourselves, and we are not expressing that
in what we do.
As we look forward to 2025, it’s imperative that we take
a look at our lives and prepare to live the way God wants
us to. We are going to be studying Deuteronomy 6:1-9
this morning.
For context, we need to take a look back.
In chapter 5 we read of Moses giving the 10
commandments to Israel after God brought them out of
Egypt. They are now about to go into the promised land
and God wants to remind them how He desires them to
live.
They were eager to hear what the Lord was telling them.
Deut 5:27 “Go near and hear all that the Lord our
God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our
God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.”
Unfortunately, this won’t always be their attitude towards
God.
Notice God’s response to Moses in Deut 5:29 “Oh that
they had such a heart as this always, to fear me
and to keep all my commandments, that it might go
well with them and with their descendants
forever!”
Deuteronomy 6:1-3
Moses Introduces his Mission
God has commanded Moses to share His commandments
with the nation of Israel. See in verse 1, this is the
commandment that the Lord your God commanded me to
teach you.
Before Moses gets to the commandment, he speaks to
the heart of what God wants from them. This applies to
us as well.
Fear the Lord – Proverbs 1:7 teaches us that the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear is a combination of being afraid like they were when
God delivered the 10 commandments at Mount Horeb
along with a reverence and respect for God.
But it goes deeper than that. Fear of the Lord is to
surrender our lives to Him, to obey His commands, and
to grow in holiness.
Listen to what Peter wrote in I Peter 1:15-17 “but as
he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all
your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy,
for I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who
judges impartially according to each one’s deeds,
conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time
of your exile.”
When we fear the Lord we will naturally want to obey
Him.
Obey the Lord – three times in verses 1-3 Moses
mentions the importance of obedience to God’s
commands.
That you may do them in the land v.1
By keeping all his statutes and his commandments v.2
Be careful to do them v.3
Obeying the Lord comes with two benefits for Israel.
Longevity – as they obey God, He will give them long life
and keep them in the land that He had promised them.
Multiplication – God had promised Abraham that He would
make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth.
We know from reading the Scriptures that God did bless
Abraham and his descendants are greater than we can
number.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Moses Explains the Greatest Commandment
The word translated “hear” is the Hebrew word Shema.
It is more than just the act of hearing, the idea is one of
hearing and immediately putting into action what was
said.
Have you heard delayed obedience is disobedience?
When Moses writes the Lord our God is one, he means
God is the only true God. He is the only living God.
All other gods were made by men using wood, stone or
metal.
They have no power. They don’t even come close to the
God of all creation.
Verse 5 is the greatest commandment – you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your might.
Jesus quoted this verse when He was asked what the
greatest commandment was.
The point is that we are to love Him with our whole
being.
He ought to be the most important person in our lives.
2 Kings 23:25 describes king Josiah this way, “Before
him there was no king like him, who turned to the
Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with
all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor
did any like him arise after him.”
The first commandment is to have no other gods before
Him.
We must also remember that our love for Him is a
response to His love for us.
“We love because He first loved us.” I John 4:19
It is only because we have received God’s love that we
are able to love Him and others.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Moses Provides the Practical Application
These words shall be on your heart means that we should:
Internalize the Word
Moses wants Israel to put the word into action. Loving
God will be displayed by the way we live our lives. If the
word goes into our heart it will make a difference in the
way we talk, act and live.
As Christians we should study and memorize God’s word.
Psalm 119:11 “I have stored up your word in my
heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Moses also encourages Israel to:
Teach the Word
The phrase teach is the Hebrew word Shah nan.
It means teach or sharpen.
Think about iron sharpening iron.
When we teach the word we are sharpening each other.
Parents must do this diligently. The idea here is one of
repetition.
When something is important you want to repeat it.
That way, hopefully no one will miss it.
We used to tell our kids “make good choices”
We want them to hear us saying that when the
temptation to make a bad choice presents itself.
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he
should go, even when he is old he will not depart
from it.”
Next, Moses encourages Israel to:
Discuss the Word
Moses expects parents to talk about the word during
daily life.
It should be a constant conversation.
That can be sharing what we have learned during our
Bible reading that day.
It could be sharing something that God has done in your
life.
We need to make sure our kids know that we recognize
God at work in our lives.
Dinner is a great time to have those conversations.
Also, discussing the word can come in the form of Bible
study.
It is the parents responsibility for the spiritual growth of
their children. Sunday school and other teaching should
supplement what is happening at home.
Moses believed that parents should always be having
spiritual conversations with their children.
There are so many ways we can put this into practice.
We can have spiritual conversations while we drive in the
car.
We can turn the radio off and discuss the word with our
family.
When we see something happen around us, we can pray
together as a family – like an ambulance driving by or a
traffic accident.
Finally, Moses encouraged Israel to:
Communicate the Word nonverbally
Moses told them to put signs on their hands and their
foreheads as identifiers of their faith.
He also told them to mark their houses so that people
would know what they believe.
Many people in Moses’ day were not able to read.
They would depend on someone else to relay the
information to them.
Today people know how ,but they choose not to read.
They prefer other methods of receiving information.
There are many ways we can communicate the gospel
nonverbally. We can wear a cross or a bracelet.
There are T-shirts that have Bible verses on them.
We can also put symbols on our cars to let others know
what we believe.
We must take care however when we put on these things
because it holds us accountable to live in a way that is in
line with God’s word.
It is a terrible witness to live contrary to God’s word while
advertizing that we are Christians.
Just like the one hour cleaners.