Deuteronomy 6:12

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

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...

Verse Deuteronomy 6:12. _BEWARE LEST THOU FORGET THE LORD_] In _earthly_ prosperity men are apt to forget _heavenly_ things. While the _animal senses_ have every thing they can wish, it is difficult for the soul to urge its way to heaven; the animal man is happy, and the desires of the soul are absorbed in those of the flesh. God knows this well; and therefore, in his love to man, makes comparative poverty and frequent affliction his general lot. Should not every soul therefore magnify God for this lot in life? "Before I was afflicted," says David, "I went astray;" and had it not been for poverty and affliction, as instruments in the hands of God's grace, multitudes of souls now happy in heaven would have been wretched in hell. It is not too much to speak thus far; because we ever see that the rich and the affluent are generally negligent of God and the interes...

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...

THEN BEWARE LEST THOU FORGET THE LORD,.... To love, fear, and worship him, and keep his commands; creature enjoyments being apt to get possession of the heart, and the affections of it; Proverbs 30:9 WHICH BROUGHT THEE FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE; into a land abounding with all the above good things, and therefore under the highest obligations to remember the Lord and his kindnesses, and to serve and glorify him: Exodus 20:2....

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....

LORD. Jehovah. Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel Septuagint, Syriac, add "thy God". BONDAGE. Hebrew bondmen, put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for their bondage....

The chief temptations to forget the duties just enforced will meet Israel when they enter upon the enjoyment of the civilisation of the land they are about to reach: a civilisation to which they have not contributed, and which they may be moved to impute to other gods than their own who is bringing them to it. The relevancy of this section to the preceding, and their close connection, are clear....