Deuteronomy 6:23

_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.)...

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 HE BROUGHT US OUT FROM THENCE,.... By means of those miraculous plagues, even out of a state of bondage and misery: and in order THAT HE MIGHT BRING US IN, TO GIVE US THE LAND WHICH HE SWARE UNTO OUR FATHERS; to bring them into the land of Canaan, give it to them, and put them in the possession of it; and so fulfil his promise and his oath made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob....

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....

These verses return to a favourite theme of Deut.: the close relation between Jehovah's Laws and His Deeds. When a future generation shall ask the meaning of the Laws it shall be referred to the Lord's deliverance of the nation from bondage in Egypt and His conduct of them to the land He promised. Having thus made them a nation, He would now preserve them as such by the Laws which He commands. These _vv_., throughout in the Sg., expand Deuteronomy 6:7 _a_, and contain nothing which leads us to doubt their originality. See on Deuteronomy 6:24....

_VER._ 20-24. _AND WHEN THY SON ASKETH THEE,_ &C.— What Moses says in this place principally concerns the observation of the solemnities established to keep up a perpetual memory of God's mercies towards the Israelites, particularly the observation of the sabbath, and the passover. Compare Exodus 13:14. In the following verses, Moses offers three motives to obedience, which the Jews ought never to forget. 1. The happy liberty which God had procured for them, with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm. 2. The rich country which he gave them. 3. The assurance that they should share in his favour, by the observance of his laws; and, in the opinion of the Jews, this last (ver. 24.) comprehended the hope of eternal good things, as Grotius has remarked....

3. TEACHING THE LAW (Deuteronomy 6:7-9; Deuteronomy 20-25) 20 When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you? 21 then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt: and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and Jehovah showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house, before our eyes; 23 and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. 24 And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. 25 And it shall be righteousness unto us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 6