In today’s YouTube video, Rudy Ross explains that the passage for the day is part of a mezuzah scroll. This scroll, which includes the biblical passage from Deuteronomy 6:4–9, is affixed in a decorative case to the doorposts of his home and business.
It is easy to see why Deuteronomy 6 is so important to the Hebrew faith.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children (Deuteronomy 6:4-7a).
Loving God
Deuteronomy 11 continues the theme of loving God with a command and a promise.
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul
Then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied (Deuteronomy 11:13-15).
Jesus used similar words to describe the connection between love, obedience, and God’s promise to His followers. Let’s use His words to understand God’s directions in Deuteronomy.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:9-13).
Jesus set forth requirements and promises to His followers.
Requirements:
- We are to remain and abide in His love.
- We are to keep His commandments. Note what Jesus said about love and obedience provides an envelope around His message. Through this, Jesus emphasizes the importance of obedience as an expression of love.
This is consistent with the message in Deuteronomy: So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 11:13).
- We are to love other people with the same self-giving love as our Savior.
The Promise
- God gives us the gift of being able to live in the same sort of love that exists within the Trinity.
- Jesus commits His friendship to people who live in love and follow His guidance.
A Warning
There are three sources of temptation for humans: the world’s system, our flesh, and the devil.
“Flesh” describes human tendencies to live separate from God. Our own best thinking will always be less than God’s best for us.
Another source of temptation is the world’s system. Humans are surrounded by influences that will lead us apart from an obedient relationship with God.
The force behind the world’s system and our flesh is the devil. The devil and demons are taken seriously in the Bible, and we should recognize their influence in the world today.
Deuteronomy addressed the temptation of the world’s system in Deuteronomy 11 and warned the Israelites against being seduced by Canaanite idolatry.
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them (Deuteronomy 11:16).
Without a doubt, the other two sources of temptation (the flesh and the devil) played into the enticement to turn from God to serve the gods of the land.
The same is true for us today. The influences of money, power, sex, nationalism, and more are ever-present to draw God’s followers from love and obedience and into sin.
Deuteronomy 11 outlines several aids to help God’s people stay on the path of obedience.
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 11:18-20a).
We can summarize these admonitions by saying that the path to love and obedience is to fill our lives with the love of God. If we are entirely filled with love for God, there won’t be room for idolatry.
- If our hearts and minds are filled with thoughts of our loving Lord,
- If we have daily reminders of God’s love in our homes and workplaces,
- If we talk to our family members about God and His love,
- And if we include God in our daily conversation, we will have far less room in our lives for the idols of our culture.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 