Deuteronomy 6:14

_YE SHALL NOT GO AFTER OTHER GODS, OF THE GODS OF THE PEOPLE WHICH ARE ROUND ABOUT YOU;_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

14._Ye shall not go after. _In this passage Moses commands the people not to turn away from the simple service of God, although examples of superstition may present themselves to their sight on every side. For this was a very destructive temptation, that none could be anywhere found who subscribed to the doctrine of the Law, although the respective nations had some religion, or at any rate the name of it existing among them. Since, therefore, these various forms of worship were so many temptations to forsake the right way, it was needful to provide against the danger betimes, and so to establish the authority of the One God, that the Jews might have courage to despise the common belief of all the Gentiles. A threat is added, that vengeance would not be far off if they should fall away into these superstitions, since _God is a jealous God, _and dwelling _among them. _As to the former epit...

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 6:14. _YE SHALL NOT GO AFTER OTHER GODS_] The object of religious worship among every people, whether that object be true or false, is ever considered as the pattern or exemplar to his worshippers. Christians are termed the _followers_ of God; they take God for their pattern, and _walk _- act, as he does. Hence we see the meaning of the terms in this verse: _Ye shall not go_ _after _- ye shall not take false gods for your _patterns_. The Canaanites, Greeks, Romans, c., were a most impure people, because the objects of their worship were impure, and they _went_ _after_ them, i. e., were like their gods. This serves to show us that such as our Redeemer is, such should we be and indeed this is the uniform language of God to man: _Be ye holy, for I am holy_,...

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...

YE SHALL NOT GO AFTER OTHER GODS,.... To serve and worship them, and swear by them; and which indeed are no gods, only nominal and fictitious ones; idols which are nothing in the world, and ought to have no veneration and adoration given them; to go after them is to worship them, and this is to depart from the true God, and go a whoring after false deities: OF THE GODS OF THE PEOPLE WHICH ARE ROUND ABOUT YOU; the gods of the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, and Egyptians; all of which had their peculiar deities....

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....

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....