Deuteronomy 6:10

_AND THOU SHALT WRITE THEM UPON THE POSTS OF THY HOUSE, AND ON THY GATES._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

10._And it shall be, when the Lord thy God. _Since wealth and prosperity for the most part blind men’s minds, so that they do not sufficiently attend to modesty and moderation, but rather grow wanton in their lusts, and intoxicate themselves with pleasures, God prescribes against this error by anticipation. For not without cause does he admonish them to beware lest they forget God, when they shall have been liberally and luxuriously treated by Him, but because he knew this to be a common vice, for abundance to beget arrogance; as afterwards he will say in his song, “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked: thou art waxen fat, etc., then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15.) First of all, he shews how base and unworthy would be their ingratitude, if, when loaded with so many excellent benefits by God, they should cast aw

6-16 Here are means for maintaining and keeping up religion in our hearts and houses. 1. Meditation. God's words must be laid up in our hearts, that our thoughts may be daily employed about them. 2. The religious education of children. Often repeat these things to them. Be careful and exact in teaching thy children. Teach these truths to all who are any way under thy care. 3. Pious discourse. Thou shalt talk of these things with due reverence and seriousness, for the benefit not only of thy children, but of thy servants, thy friends and companions. Take all occasions to discourse with those about thee, not of matters of doubtful disputation, but of the plain truths and laws of God, and the things that belong to our peace. 4. Frequent reading of the word. God appointed them to write sentences of the law upon their walls, and in scrolls of parchment to be worn about their wrists. This see...

The Israelites were at the point of quitting a normal, life for a fixed and settled abode in the midst of other nations; they were exchanging a condition of comparative poverty for great and goodly cities, houses and vineyards. There was therefore before them a double danger; (1) a God-forgetting worldliness, and (2) a false tolerance of the idolatries practiced by those about to become their neighbors. The former error Moses strives to guard against in the verses before us; the latter in Deuteronomy 7:1. Deuteronomy 6:13 The command “to swear by His Name” is not inconsistent with the Lord’s injunction...

AND IT SHALL BE, WHEN THE LORD THY GOD SHALL HAVE BROUGHT THEE INTO THE LAND,.... The land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were, and were just going into: WHICH HE SWARE UNTO THY FATHERS, TO ABRAHAM, TO ISAAC, AND TO JACOB, TO GIVE THEE; of his own free favour and good will, without any merit and desert of theirs, and in which would be found GREAT AND GOODLY CITIES, WHICH THOU BUILDEDST NOT; large and capacious, delightfully situated, well built, and strongly fortified, without any pains or expense of theirs; all ready for them to take possession of, and dwell in; and so should no longer reside in tents or booths, as they had for forty years past, but in spacious and noble cities....

Deuteronomy 6:1. _Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged._ Obedience to God should arise from the fear of him, or from a holy awe of God felt in the heart, for all true religion must be heart work. It is not the bare action alone at which God looks, but at the motive at the spirit which dictates it. Hence it is always put, «That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments.» Neither are we to be content with keeping commands ourselves. It is the duty of parents to seek the good of their children to

2. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT AND WHAT IT INVOLVES CHAPTER 6 _ 1. Hear, therefore, O Israel! (Deuteronomy 6:1)_ 2. The first commandment (Deuteronomy 6:4) 3. The remembrance of these words and practical obedience (Deuteronomy 6:6) “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD.” Much has been made of this verse by orthodox Jews, who reverence it greatly. They call it the “Shema” after the first word “Hear.” It is often used by Jews and Unitarians to deny the three persons of the Godhead. The Hebrew word “echod” (one), however, excludes forever such a denial, for it means a compound unity. The Hebrew has another word which expresses exactly what Jews and Unitarians, who reject

In the land promised them they will be tempted to substitute Canaanite deities for Yahweh and to swear by them. Oaths formed part of the social and commercial fabric of the time, and they are not forbidden here. Contrast Christ's teaching (Matthew 6:34 f.). In trading with Caananites it would require courage to refuse to swear by their gods....

ABRAHAM, &C. Note inclusion of all three patriarchs. See note on Deuteronomy 1:8....

_And it shall be, when_ JEHOVAH _thy God shall bring thee into_, etc.] A formula partly derived from J (Exodus 13:5; Exodus 13:11, _the land of the Canaanite_), but varied by D, which adds _thy God_and otherwise characteristically expands it. Similarly Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 11:29. See also Deuteronomy 4:38; Deuteronomy 6:23; Deuteronomy 8:7