Deuteronomy 6:20

_AND WHEN THY SON ASKETH THEE IN TIME TO COME, SAYING, WHAT MEAN THE TESTIMONIES, AND THE STATUTES, AND THE JUDGMENTS, WHICH THE LORD OUR GOD HATH COMMANDED YOU?_ When thy son asketh thee. The directions given for the instruction of their children form only an extension of the preceding counsels In referring to the laws, institutions, and observances special to their nation, the Israelites were taught to recognize the right of Yahweh to enact these as founded on His special relations to them as a people. Indeed, in no passage of Scripture is God's right to prescribe laws for the Hebrew nation ascribed to His being the Creator and moral Governor of the world, but to His character as King in Israel, who founded and upheld their theocratic polity, (cf. Exodus 20:23: see Michaelis, 'Commentary,' arts. 33: and xxxiv.)...

20._And when thy son asketh thee. _The sole point which Moses urges in these verses is, that the people should testify their gratitude by obeying the Law, and that the same religion, (232) which he commands the fathers to teach, should descend to their posterity. The sum is, that there was good reason why all the precepts of the Law should be observed, since by them it was that God desired His people, after their deliverance, to shew forth their sense of His loving-kindness. Again, therefore, in this passage, he commends the Law by reminding them of their redemption, that the people might more willingly and more earnestly reverence it; for its authority has stronger claims upon them, because it was not imposed before God had laid them under obligation to Himself; and it would have been too base and absurd in them to refuse God as their Lawgiver, when they knew that by Him they had been p...

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...

Verse Deuteronomy 6:20. _AND WHEN THY SON ASKETH THEE, C._] "Here," as Mr. Ainsworth justly remarks, "followeth a brief _catechism_, containing the grounds of religion." WHAT MEAN _THE TESTIMONIES, C._] The Hebrew language has no word to express to _mean_ or _signify_, and therefore uses simply the substantive verb _what is_, i. e., what mean or signify, c. _The_ _seven thin ears_ ARE, i. e., _signify_, seven years of famine. This form of speech frequently occurs....

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 WHEN THY SON ASKETH THEE IN TIME TO COME,.... Or "tomorrow" x; that is, in later times, as Jarchi interprets it; any time after this, and particularly after they were come into the land of Canaan, when the several laws, statutes, and ordinances appointed, would take place and be obeyed: WHAT [MEAN] THE TESTIMONIES, AND THE STATUTES, AND THE JUDGMENTS, WHICH THE LORD OUR GOD HATH COMMANDED YOU? what is the reason of the various rites, customs, and usages, the observance of which is directed to, such as the feasts of passover, pentecost, tabernacles, sacrifices, and other duties of religion? x מחר "cras", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus....

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....

IN TIME TO COME. Hebrew "to-morrow". Definite date put for indefinite....