Deuteronomy 6:1-9
1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The greatest commandment which summarizes the Ten Commandments is given here, just as Jesus the Christ later repeated in Matthew 22:37-38. This was to be the primary emphasis of the commandments, to be taught diligently out of reverence and fear of the LORD God whose almighty hand delivered His people out of bondage and towards the land promised to them. This land was given purely by grace with cities already established so that work did not need to be done to inhabit them. In Christ we find the parallel and fulfillment of the promise to enter the heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16, Hebrews 13:14) by grace alone an not by our works to ensure our place there. We have been delivered out of the bondage of sin and have been promised a new life in His presence which is heaven and the New Jerusalem. We are still His people as Israel was, chosen and grafted in as promised to Abraham long ago (Genesis 17:4-5, Romans 4:17-18), and are not saved by keeping the commandments of the Law, but saved to be able to keep them from a heart of willing desire implanted in us by His very Spirit present in these temples of His dwelling. How much more should we then seek to diligently teach them and live them to our natural and spiritual children (1 Timothy 4:11, 2 Timothy 2:2)! These words should continually be in our hearts and minds, not in frontlets holding the letter of the Law symbolically on our heads or hands or doorposts, but in our thoughts and heart and actions and very lives whose doorposts have been covered protectively by the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen and amen.
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