“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Moses has just retold the story of the golden calf, the tablets he smashed, and God's refusal to give Israel up. Then he turns from history to a question: what does God ask of a people who had just proved themselves rebels?
The ground of the claim
What God asks rests on what He has already done. He chose Israel in love, and love is the answer He looks for:
Numerical Bible NotesWhat did God require of them but a loving obedience to commandments which were always for their good? Love to One who is infinitely great, who owns heaven and earth, and who still chose them above all people in His love? This is what made them responsible beyond all others, and it should also have made their duty easy. They had only to wear the light yoke of love — and that love is the moral power of the gospel: "We love Him because He first loved us."
Fear and walk
The first two demands are not the same thing. One describes the inner state, the other the visible life that follows from it:
Edward Dennett"Fearing the Lord" describes a man who acts with a good conscience before Him. That is why we read, "Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always" (Proverbs 28:14). This is the man who, with holy fear, seeks grace to avoid everything that would grieve the Spirit of God. And "walking in His ways" points to the conduct that follows from fearing the Lord. It is a walk that the word of God forms and governs.
The whole duty in one sentence
Jesus was later asked to name the first commandment of all. His answer did not come from the Ten Commandments:
J. N. DarbyOne of the scribes came and asked Him which commandment was first of all. The scribes believed that the commandments differed in value, and that some were worth more than others. This time the Lord answers without turning the question back on those who asked it, to shame them. Instead He sets up the two great pillars of man's responsibility: that God is one, and that man owes a duty to Him and to his neighbour. This was Israel's faith, and his duty towards all. The Lord does not quote the ten commandments, but the great principles of the law as to the whole duty of man. He knew how to bring them out, hidden by God as they are in the books of Moses; Deut. 6:4-5; 10:12; Lev. 19:18.
Required — and for their good
What God asked was aimed at Israel's own good:
C. H. MackintoshIt was all for their real good, their deep, full blessing, to walk in the way of the divine commandments. The path of whole-hearted obedience is the only path of true happiness. And blessed be God, those who love the Lord can always walk it.
What law asks and cannot give
The demand was right. But it met a people who could not meet it:
Leslie M. GrantHow perfectly right it was of God to ask this of Israel! He asked them to fear Him, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve Him with all their heart and soul, and to keep His commandments and statutes (vv. 12-13). Yet, weighing each of these carefully, could Israel be confident of obeying them? In fact, God's legal requirements for Israel were bound to fail from the very start, because people will never do what God requires of them. So law requires, but the grace of God provides.
The gap is sharpest at the word "love." A rule can name it but cannot produce it:
William KellyNo law ever produced or called out love. It may demand but cannot create love; it is not within the nature or power of law to do so. God knew this well. In the gospel He becomes the great Agent Himself: He is the One who loves, and who gives according to the strength of that love.
A greater claim now
God has given us more than Israel ever had. So the claim on us is greater:
C. H. MackintoshGod has given us His precious word, the perfect revelation of His mind. He has also given us what Israel did not have: His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts, so that we can understand and value His word. So our obligations are far higher than Israel's. Every argument that can reach the heart and the understanding binds us to a life of obedience.
Summary
- Love first. God loved and chose Israel first. What He asks back is love — a light yoke, not a heavy one.
- Love defined. Fear is a conscience kept clear before God. Walking in His ways is the conduct that follows, shaped by His word.
- Love summarised. Jesus drew the first commandment from verses like this one. It gives the whole duty of man towards God and towards his neighbour, not a ranking of rules.
- Love commanded is not love created. Law can require the heart; it cannot supply it. Law requires; grace provides.
- Love owed more. God has given us His word and His Spirit. So the claim on our obedience is higher than Israel's — and that path is the only happy one.