Deuteronomy 6:18

_YE SHALL NOT TEMPT THE LORD YOUR GOD, AS YE TEMPTED HIM IN MASSAH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

17-25 Moses gives charge to keep God's commandments. Negligence will ruin us; but we cannot be saved without diligence. It is our interest, as well as our duty, to be religious. It will be our life. Godliness has the promise of the continuance and comfort of the life that now is, as far as it is for God's glory. It will be our righteousness. It is only through the Mediator we can be righteous before God. The knowledge of the spirituality and excellency of the holy law of God, is suited to show sinful man his need of a Saviour, and to prepare his heart to welcome a free salvation. The gospel honours the law, not only in the perfect obedience of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ; but in that it is a plan for bringing back apostate rebels and enemies, by repentance, faith, forgiveness, and renewing grace, to love God above all things, even in this world; and in the world above, to love...

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 THOU SHALT DO THAT WHICH IS RIGHT AND GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD,.... And what is such appears from the declaration of his mind and will in the commandments he has given, and obeying which is therefore doing what is right and good; for his commandment is holy, just, and good, being agreeable both to his nature and will, Romans 7:12 that it may be well with thee; as it is with those that fear God, and keep his commandments: AND THAT THOU MAYEST GO IN AND POSSESS THE GOOD LAND WHICH THE LORD SWARE UNTO THY FATHERS; to give to them and to their posterity, even the land of Canaan; but if they did not what was right and good in the sight of God, they might expect to be kept out of it, as their immediate parents were, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness....

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

DEUTERONOMY 6:16. See Exodus 17:7 *, _cf._ Matthew 4:7. TEMPT: better test; _cf._ the cognate noun (temptation = testing) in Deuteronomy 4:34 *. MASSAH (= testing) is another cognate noun (Exodus 17:7 *). The word-play is lost in the translation. Deuteronomy 6:20. See Deuteronomy 4:10....

_do that which is right_, etc.] Cp. Deuteronomy 12:25. _mayest go in and possess_ See above on Deuteronomy 6:1....

_VER._ 16-19. _YE SHALL NOT TEMPT THE LORD,_ &C.— He had warned them, ver. 12 against the sin of ingratitude, and forgetfulness of God, to which they might be tempted by prosperity: here he cautions them against the vice that they were liable to from the other extreme, adversity; namely, distrust of Providence, and murmuring against God, which is justly termed _a tempting of God;_ for it is calling his goodness and veracity in question. In the first words of the eighteenth verse, we have the true definition of good works, and one which should be the only rule of our conduct; namely, the will of God, and not the caprices and decisions of our own will. REFLECTIONS.—1st, Moses is solicitous to approve his own fidelity to the Israelites, and to inculcate in them every command that he has received from the Lord; and he charges them to transmit them to their children's children, seeing that on...

5. GOD NOT TO BE TEMPTED (Deuteronomy 6:16-19) 16 Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. 17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of Jehovah; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, 19 to thrust out all thine enemies from before thee, as Jehovah hath spoken. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 6:16-19 147. Didn-'t Gideon tempt God with God's approval? Cf. Judges 6:36-40. Explain. 148. Read Exodus 17:1-7 to understand the word Mas