by Duane Maust
Deuteronomy 6: 1-9
November 1, 2009
We have an important text in front of us today. These are some of the most familiar verses in the Bible. Moses was wanting to make sure his people were getting one of the most important things out of life.
How is your fear of God and your love of God balanced? Moses was concerned that they have the proper level of fear and love for God. Several times Moses uses the word fear. It is not that we need to be afraid of God. We don’t need to be afraid of this big God that is just watching for you to make a mistake. We should have awe and wonder toward God. We need respect for God. We need to have reverence toward God. We need to feel God’s love and know he loves us.
Read 6:2 and 4; 10:12; 11:1,13,22
Moses was wanting the Israelites to get this point of loving God. He repeated to make his point. I guess it doesn’t hurt for me to repeat that God loves you.
Oh, don’t forget to help your family remember that also. Do anything that you can think of to help them remember.
Read verses Deut 6:6-9
The Israelites would put writings of Shema on their door post. I had to look up in a Bible dictionary what a Shema is. It is the Hebrew name for Duet 6:4, the most often quoted verse in the Bible, every good Jew repeats it several times every day: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” They would write it on their foreheads. They would wear wrist bands with verses on them. This is all good to do. But what you do often makes more impact.
What are some ways you can think of that would help your family or the people that come in your home to remember God’s greatness?
Can a person tell by coming into your house what you believe?
Are your children able to clearly tell what you believe? Are you teaching your children or are you just expecting them to get enough in Sunday School and worship? What do your co-workers see happen when you get in a tough situation?
I had one of those experiences this past week when the employee that was with me, was very quiet and watching what was going to happen next. The customer was wanting it different than what he had just told us to do a couple of days earlier. And I was trying to do what he wanted. We teach by being an example. Our children learn more then we want by watching.
I like the way it was said in the Barclay commentary. “You shall love your God with all your being, with every aspect of your personality, without exception or reservation. An impossible target? It is certainly an ideal, but much depends upon the wishes hidden deep within us: do we really want to love God, or merely keep on the right side of him?”
We have been looking at a passage in the Old Testament. Is this supported in the New Testament by Jesus?
Yes, yes and yes. Jesus spoke these very words.
Read Mark 12: 29-31
Matt 22:37-39
Luke 10:27 then tell the good Samaritan story
Well, it is almost the same. Except Jesus added this neighbor stuff. We are to love our neighbor. That is somehow the barometer that God can tell how much we love him.
Who is my neighbor?
We must help a person even when they have brought their trouble to themselves, as the traveler may have done.
Any person from any nation is our neighbor. Our help must be as wide as the love of God.
The help must be practical and not consist merely in feeling sorry. No doubt the priest and the Levite felt a pang of pity for the wounded man, but they did nothing. Compassion, to be real, deeds with action must be there. It may mean getting a little blood on your church clothes and being late for church.
What Jesus said to the scribe, he says to us, “Go you and do the same.”