And these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you, that ye may do them in the land whereunto ye pass over to possess it,
Moses speaks on the edge of the promised land. This verse is his heading for all that follows: the commandments, statutes and rules Israel was to live by once inside. It raises two questions. Why did God tie His law to a place? And what do "teach" and "do" mean when a whole nation is the pupil?
Deuteronomy was given to a people about to cross over. It tells them how to live once they are in the land.
Deuteronomy gives the possession of the land in history, and on conditions. It gives directions for Israel's conduct in the land. And even after the warnings, it gives the secret things of faith. It was the practical guide for life in the land, suited to the state Israel was in when they entered. These were the real terms for holding the land, with responsibility and conditions attached. God gave them before Israel was in the land. They do not assume the final possession God purposed. They look to obedience as the way for Israel to keep the land.
The verse uses three words for God's word. Each one carries its own weight.
The Word has different characteristics, and we need to pay attention to all of them… His statutes are the things He has established, and His authority is attached to them. His commandments are the expression of His will, and we must submit to them. His ordinances (or judgments) are the principles He conveys, and He acts according to them.
Chapter 6 does not add new laws. It opens up one commandment Israel already had, and the chapters near it do the same for others.
Deuteronomy 6 is a sermon-like application of the first commandment, as Deuteronomy 7 is of the second. Deuteronomy 8 presses the whole of it home from their experience in the wilderness — of God, and of their own heart — with Canaan in view.
Israel had to keep these laws. What could ever make them want to? Commentators find the answer a few lines later in the same chapter.
And what would move them to keep all the laws and statutes set before them? Nothing indeed but faith which works by love. So in verse 5 we get the words our Lord referred to, as recorded in Matthew 22:36-37, and which He called "the first and great commandment."
God commanded Moses to teach these laws. The teaching was to reach every part of ordinary life.
He has bound His word round the heart, before the eyes, and on the hands of His people. The gates of the field, the doors of the house, the morning and the evening family, the walk outside and the rest inside — all was to witness it. (Deuteronomy 6, 11) It was to mix into all the personal and social life of His people. It was to shed its light on every path of their daily journey, however ordinary.
God wanted more than a rule-keeping people. He wanted a certain kind of heart.
Here the grand principle of the book of Deuteronomy shines out with uncommon brightness. It is contained in those touching and forceful words which form the very heart of the splendid passage just quoted: "Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments…"
Chapter 6 holds the first passage our Lord quoted. Its central truth is the one Israel found hardest to hold.
In Deuteronomy 6 we find the first of those texts which our Lord quotes. So there is a special solemnity in its character. The passage insists on the unity of the true God. This was a truth which Israel was most prone to disregard. The very point of faith we are most responsible for is the one we are in most danger of forgetting, under pressure or through carelessness. Whatever we are called out for is what Satan tries to destroy.
- Taught — God gave the commandments to Moses to teach, so obedience starts with instruction, not instinct.
- Feared — the goal of the teaching is reverence for God, and what He longs for is a heart that fears Him always.
- Loved — only faith working by love could produce such obedience. That is why the great commandment comes next.
- Passed on — God bound His word to house, road, gate and family, so it reached the children through ordinary daily life.
- Lived in the land — Deuteronomy directs how Israel lives inside the promised land, where keeping it hangs on obedience.
that thou mayest fear Jehovah 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.
Moses stands with Israel on the edge of Canaan, about to repeat the law God gave them. This verse tells us why: God wants a people who fear Him, obey Him, and pass that fear on to their grandchildren, and He ties long life in the land to it.
Commentators read Deuteronomy as the terms on which Israel would hold the land they were about to enter.
This book takes up Israel just on the borders of Canaan. It insists that they faithfully keep up their relationship with God and obey His commandments. That is the only ground on which Israel can enter the land and stay there. It also adds warnings about what failure to obey would bring... The people are under responsibility to walk in obedience, with only God as their king and ruler.
The word "fear" can suggest terror. Commentators say the verse means something else.
This fear of the Lord is not the cringing dread of superstitious people. No. It is reverent trust joined with a hatred of evil. "The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil" (Proverbs 8:13). "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever." Where this fear is kept up, the presence of the Lord is real and a joy.
The verse expects Israel to keep all God's statutes. No list of rules can produce that by itself.
What would move them to keep all the laws and statutes set before them? Nothing but faith which works by love... If He is the supreme Object of love, obedience will surely follow. Now He had shown His love for Israel by everything He had done for them. That should have drawn out their love toward Him.
The verse names three generations in one breath. Moses appeals not only to what a person gains by obeying, but to what his family gains from his character.
Moses appeals also to the people on the ground of their concern for their sons and their grandsons (v.2). How deeply we should be concerned — not only for our own generation, but for our children and grandchildren! Our character now will have an effect on them.
The promise attached is earthly and specific. Commentators warn against reading eternal life into it.
They were to listen and to do. Hearing and doing stand in the foreground of this section. The result of obedience is life and possession of the land. "That you may live" does not mean the possession of eternal life, but a long earthly life in the promised land. See chapters 5:33; 6:2; 8:1; 11:21; 16:20; 25:15; 30:6, 16; 32:47.
Israel never received the long life this verse offered. Commentators look ahead to a day when God gives it anyway.
Even under the law, this health and long life would have been theirs if the people had been obedient. They would have escaped the diseases of Egypt and lived long in the land (see Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 4:10; 5:16, 33; 6:2; 11:9, etc.). But they forfeited it all by their disobedience and sin. But in the future God will give His people all the blessings He promised long ago on the condition of keeping the law. He will give them even more than that.
Deuteronomy itself closes with the same contrast.
At the end, the book clearly brings out the difference between holding the land on the condition of legal obedience, and holding it by the grace which accomplishes its purpose in spite of failure.
- Terms — Deuteronomy sets out on what terms Israel would enter the land and stay there, with God alone as their king.
- Feared, not dreaded — this fear is reverent trust joined to a hatred of evil. It is not superstitious dread.
- Loved — no list of rules can produce the obedience this verse asks for. Only faith working by love can, drawn out by all God had already done for Israel.
- Handed on — the verse names son and grandson. Your character today will affect children not yet born.
- Lengthened days — the reward is a long life in the land, not eternal life. Israel forfeited it, and God will yet give His people even more than He promised.
And thou shalt hear, Israel, and take heed to do [them]; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase greatly, as Jehovah the God of thy fathers hath said unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Moses speaks on the plains of Moab, just before Israel crosses into the land. His charge comes down to one call: listen, then act. The nation's welfare and growth hang on that response, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
The verse pairs hearing with doing. One writer sees that pairing running through the whole book.
Here, right in front of us, is the special mark of the whole book of Deuteronomy. "Hear," and "do"; that you may "live" and "possess." This is a universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The path of life, and the true secret of possession, is simple obedience to God's holy commandments. God has given us His word, not to speculate on it, or discuss it, but that we may obey it.
Another writer notes that this order of hearing and doing controls the promise attached to it.
They were to listen and to do. Hearing and doing stand in the foreground of this section. The result of obedience is life and possession of the land. "That you may live" does not mean the possession of eternal life, but a long earthly life in the promised land.
The verse hangs Israel's welfare on obedience. Commentators tie it to enjoying what God had already sworn to give.
Moses puts obedience before them again. That is the great aim of this book: Israel is placed under the condition of obedience if they are to keep enjoying the promises. He reminds them that in this way they would live long in the land they were going in to take.
The condition shapes what Israel would enjoy. It does not touch the promise God swore to their fathers.
Whether they obeyed or not, God will keep that covenant made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the end. It is unconditional. Yet if Israel had obeyed God, they would have reaped the benefits of the covenant in the land. As long as they obeyed, they would never be put out of it.
The promise here is national and earthly. One writer, working through a similar promise later in the book, marks its limits.
It is merely national. It has nothing to do with the soul in the sight of God. This is not what a poor soul wants. It in no way meets a sense of guilt or a dread of judgment. The sinner needs something which will stand for ever. He wants what will be in heaven, and not merely in the field or in the city. He wants acceptance for himself with God.
Christians should therefore not read this verse as a formula for prosperity.
Israel had the promise of earthly blessings if they were to keep the law faithfully (Deut. 6:3, 7:13). We as children of God have no promise of material blessing or prosperity. In fact, we have no promise of spiritual blessings either. Because you are no longer promised something you already have. As Christians, we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing!
The phrase describes a real country. One writer traces both what it was and what it will be.
He declared His purpose to deliver His people from the slavery of Egypt and bring them into a land "flowing with milk and honey." This is what Palestine was, as the spies confirmed in Numbers 13:27. It is what the land will be in a coming day, though for centuries it has lain desolate. The blessings of that land were earthly, but they came from the hand of God. They were not won by irrigation and hard work, as they were in Egypt.
Some also read the two foods as a picture for believers today.
Milk speaks of the Word of God (1 Peter 2:2). Honey symbolizes the ministry of the Word of God (Song 4:11) — the sweetness believers have gathered from the Word and pass on to others.
Israel boasted in this call, but did not listen.
Jehovah kept claiming their attention. When they became the keepers of the divine law, He introduced His great declarations with those well-known words they boasted in, though the boast was empty: "Hear, O Israel" (Deut. 5:1; 6:3-4; 9:1; 20:3). But Israel was deaf to all the revelations made... They had a separate and favoured position given them as a nation. Yet they completely failed to use the privileges and opportunities given them.
- Hear — the verse opens a chain that runs through Deuteronomy: hear, do, live, possess. God gave His word to be obeyed, not discussed.
- Do — obedience was the condition for going on enjoying the promises. God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stands whatever Israel does.
- Well — "that it may go well with you" is national and earthly welfare. It never answered the guilt of a soul before God.
- Multiply — God held out increase in the land as Israel's reward. Christians have no such material promise, because every spiritual blessing is already theirs.
- Land — milk and honey came from God's hand, not from hard work in the fields. Yet Israel could repeat "Hear, O Israel" and stay deaf to it.