CHAPTER 6

(1451 B.C.)

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

¹Now these are the Commandments, the Statutes, and the Judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it (the prosperity of Israel, and the Blessings of the Lord upon the land, and in every capacity, had to do with Israel understanding and obeying the Law; it is the same with us presently as it regards obeying the Word of God):

²That you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His Statutes and His Commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your sons son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged (the fear mentioned here is not a slavish fear, but rather a fear of the Lord in respect to disobeying Him, and of that to which such disobedience would lead).

³Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey (to do the best they could to obey the Law; the Lord promised that it would go well with them, and that they would be greatly blessed; the word blessing actually refers to increase; so Israels increase depended upon her obedience to the Lord).

⁴Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD (there are two Hebrew words for the English word one; the first means a single or only one; the second, a compound unity; it is the second that is used in this Verse; so this Verse implies the Trinity):

⁵And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Jesus quoted this Verse in Matthew 22:37).

DUTIES OF PARENTS

⁶And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart (Alexander says, Where true love to God exists in the heart, it will manifest itself in a regard to His Will, and in the diligent keeping of His Commandments; the Believer can keep the Commandments of the Lord only by understanding that Christ is the Source, while the Cross is the Means; when our Faith is anchored exclusively in Christ and His Cross, the Holy Spirit will keep the Commandments through us):

⁷And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up (the Word of God must be the criteria for all things; the command given then has not changed, it is the same presently).

⁸And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes (the Israelites took this literally, and made phylacteries, putting them on their foreheads and their wrists; it was a small boxlike affair, containing a thin piece of leather on which were inscribed one or more Passages of Scripture; unfortunately, the Jews made a ritual of such, doing it more for show than anything else [Mat. 23:5]).

⁹And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates (the Word of God was to ever be before Israel, and in every capacity).

DISOBEDIENCE

¹⁰And it shall be, when the LORD your God shall have brought you into the land which He swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and goodly cities, which you built not,

¹¹And houses full of all good things, which you filled not, and wells digged, which you dug not, vineyards and olive trees, which you planted not; when you shall have eaten and be full;

¹²Then beware lest you forget the LORD, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage (prosperity often occasions forgetfulness of God).

¹³You shall fear the LORD your God, and serve Him, and shall swear by His Name (refers to worship).

¹⁴You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you (the command still holds for modern Believers [II Cor. 6:14-18]);

¹⁵(For the LORD your God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and destroy you from off the face of the Earth (God cannot abide sin in His Own, any more than in the world; in fact, He can abide it, much less in His Own; He is jealous of anything in the life of any Believer which is not wholly according to the Word of God).

¹⁶You shall not tempt the LORD your God, as you tempted Him in Massah (the Lord quoted this Verse to Satan in the temptation in the Wilderness).

¹⁷You shall diligently keep the Commandments of the LORD your God, and His Testimonies, and His Statutes, which He has commanded you (Jesus said the same thing in John 14:15; as stated, this can only be done by Christ living this life through us, which He does according to our Faith anchored in Himself and the Cross, which then gives the Holy Spirit latitude to work in our lives; then, and only then, will the Commandments be kept [Gal. 2:20-21; Rom. 8:1-2, 11]).

¹⁸And you shall do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore unto your fathers,

¹⁹To cast out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken. (The Lord working thusly for Israel was predicated solely upon them keeping the Law. Being unable to do so, they were at least to try, and then fall back on the Sacrificial System, which pointed to the One Who was to come. Unfortunately, Israel tried to obtain Righteousness by keeping the Law, with a dependence on self instead of the Lord [Rom. 10:3-4].)

THE CHILDREN

²⁰And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the Testimonies, and the Statutes, and the Judgments, which the LORD our God has commanded you?

²¹Then you shall say unto your son, We were Pharaohs bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:

²²And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:

²³And He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers. (This was to be told repeatedly and, as well, so is our conversion to be told repeatedly.)

²⁴And the LORD commanded us to do all these Statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.

²⁵And it shall be our Righteousness, if we observe to do all these Commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us. (As stated, Israel had to try; however, no man except Christ was fully able to keep the Law; consequently, they were to fall back on the Sacrificial System, and what it represented, namely Christ and the Cross. Righteousness has never come to anyone except by Faith, and that refers to Faith in Christ [Gen. 15:6]. Unfortunately, Israel attempted to attain to Righteousness by the simple fact of their effort to keep the Commandments, which meant that their faith was in themselves instead of the Lord. The modern Church has the same problem.)