The Bible Binge: The Family Portrait (Deuternomy 5:32-69)

Olan Mills

How many of you remember Olan Mills? The Olan Mills family portraits happened once a year. I don’t ever remember enjoying any of it. You get all dressed up for the annual photo shoot, it was usually hot. Everything had to be just right. Sometimes you had to wait what seemed like forever. It was like going to the dentist. There are now websites dedicated to the Olan Mills photos of the 70s and 80s. What I didn’t know was that Olan Mills was the name of a guy. Olan Mills and his wife started the portrait business in Alabama and eventually had a processing plant in Tennessee, and one right down the road from where we lived in Springfield, Ohio. Olan Mills was big business in every town in midwestern America because they captured families. Their family business was being the business of families.

Olan Mills no longer exists, but we still have the photo shoots. And Instagram and Facebook have exponentially grown the impact of the family portrait. We scroll through the feeds and we see the family portraits in an instant. We don’t have to wait for the Christmas card or the mailing. And there are hundreds of families to be seen all at once. And what do you see? You look at the old Olan Mills photos and if you know the people in the picture, you now have 40 years of history to think about when you see the picture. You know Uncle Jim died of cancer 3 years after the picture. You know your best friends’ parents got a divorce a few years later. You know your friend was smiling in another picture but life was anything but smiles. The pictures were fluffy. They were sunny. The legacy of many pictures never tells the real story… just give the picture a few years.

Bible Binge: The Book of Deuteronomy

If you were an Olan Mills photographer in the book of Deuteronomy, there would be a key feature noticeable in all of the family portraits: everybody is young. You scroll through your instagram feed back then and you realize that there are no recent photos of anyone over the age of 40. We’re in Deuteronomy 6 today, one of the most important chapters in the Old Testament. And what’s fascinating about Deuteronomy 6 is that one of the most important statements about God found anywhere in the Bible is given to families. It’s as if the family depends on what Moses is saying.

We’re in our Bible Binge again today and this past week we finished the book of Numbers and tomorrow we begin the book of Deuteronomy. You have a handout there with an overview of the book of Deuteronomy. And here’s a video from The Bible Project that will give us the gist of the first section of Deuteronomy:

The Video

That’s a good overview of the book of Deuteronomy.

What is Deuteronomy about?

What is Deuteronomy about? Having watched that video, here are some highlights to keep in mind:

Deuteronomy is (mostly) 3 sermons of Moses at the end of his life

Israel is near the Promised Land

Deuteronomy contains an explanation, expansion, and commentary on Israel’s past and the law given in Exodus

The main themes are God’s love, God’s justice, and Israel’s expected response

These are some of the main features of the Book of Deuteronomy. These are 2nd and 3rd generation Israelites. A new generation. But believing and acting like the first generation. They have picked up all of the old traits in the family portrait. But Moses wants more for them. He loves them. So he’s going to take some time explaining not just the details of what they are required to do, but also give quite a bit more of the reasons “why” they are to do what they are to do. This is kind of like the “cliff notes” of the law in the book of Exodus: here are the main points, but here’s also the “why”.

Deuteronomy 6: A Summary

Before Moses gets very far into the details though, he is going to summarize not just his sermons, but Israel’s entire law, their entire existence. Deuteronomy 6 is one of the most often quoted passages in the entire Bible. And to this day, religious Jewish people know these verses by heart. Here are the famous words:

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

This is Israel’s identifier. This is what sets Israel apart. This is Israel’s worldview. The Lord our God, the One who rescued us from Egypt and made us a nation, that God is One. That God alone is to be worshipped. He is not many Gods. He is One God. And He is the only true God, the only God to be worshiped. That was a huge deal then, that’s still a huge deal now. And because that God is the God who rescued you and is the Only true God, here’s the summary of all the commands:

Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Jesus called this the greatest of the commandments. And along with “love your neighbor as yourself”, this is a summary of the entire legal system. God’s Top Ten can be summarized with “love God with your whole person, completely, all of the time.”

Moses places these two statements front and center because it is obvious that Israel has not fully embraced this. The reason the family portraits don’t have anyone older than 40 is because the entire generation who left Egypt died in the wilderness because of their rebellion. Because of their lack of faith. Because of their rejection of God.

It’s fascinating that these statements do not occur in Exodus. Moses has had 40 years to think about all that has transpired. And now at the end of his life, what is it they need to hear? What is it that their parents missed? They were told to have no other Gods. Now here’s why: the Lord is One. He is the Only One. And all those commands? Here’s what lies underneath all of them: Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Moses has their best interests in mind when he says this. He’s setting them up for success. There are a couple of other things we need to see here. First, Moses wants them to do well in the Promised Land. Moses loves Israel. He tells them here that God wants him to teach them all these things:

Deuteronomy 6:1-3:

So that you may follow his Word

So that you may fear the Lord your God

So that you may have long life

So that you may prosper and multiply greatly

Moses wants all of those things for Israel. This is their mediator. This is the one who would die for them.. he actually volunteered once. This is the heart of someone who has seen them on their absolutely worst days. You need to know that the Lord is One God. And you need to love him completely. This means your new life in the Promised Land, the new garden, the land flowing with milk and honey, so that you will be your best. So that all will be well. At the heart of all of this is God’s Word.. it is God’s Word that is creating this good life for them in the land.

So much so, he then says this about God’s Word:

Deuteronomy 6:7-9:

Repeat them (to your children)

Talk about them

Bind them

Write them

If there’s another characteristic of Deuteronomy it’s this: the importance of God’s Word and passing it on to the next generation.

The importance of God’s Word

Their entire life is to be saturated with God’s Word. God’s life-giving Word. Conversations. What is read. Even to the point of making it part of their architecture.. writing God’s word on the doorposts of homes. That there’s never a moment in which they are not reminded that God’s Word is what gives them life and what they need most. In fact, in a few moments, he will say this about God’s Word:

Deuteronomy 8:3 “A person does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

More important than the bread we eat is the Word given to us. God’s Word. This is why our lives must be oriented around the Word we hear and the Word we receive in Sacrament. It is life. So we repeat God’s Word to our kids, we talk about it, we bind it to our hearts, it becomes a focal point of both our life here and our lives at home.

THE main theme of Deuteronomy: God’s Love

But there’s one more thing we need to understand about Deuteronomy. And if we miss this, we miss it all. It’s not just Moses who loves the people. In fact, it’s not just knowing that God is one that will make their lives great. And certainly, no one is ever going to completely live up to the standard of loving God with heart, soul, and strength.

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 “The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

God loves them. God has his heart set on Israel and chose Israel because He loves Israel. And the only way Israel can love God and love neighbor in keeping the commands is for God to love her first. The command to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and strength, can’t make me love God will all my heart, soul, and strength. What I need is for God to love me.

God’s love on display: Jesus

It can be very easy for all of this to be theoretical. But this love of God took on flesh and bones. The family portrait starts to look a little differently. Jesus came and he was everything Israel never lived up to. He’s everything we can’t live up to. And in fact, he gives us his love so that we can begin to love others. There is no love to speak of unless we have Jesus coming as a baby and then dying and rising for us.

One of Jesus’ best friends, writing hundreds of years later, sees this rhythm in Moses and writes it this way:

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

We love, not because He told us to. Us being commanded to love doesn’t begin to produce the first act of love toward each other. We love, because Jesus first loved us. And why is that? Because Jesus is the only one to ever love God with ALL of his heart, soul, and strength.

What is it that causes us to love our neighbor? What is it that causes us to be kind and generous to those who we don’t like? It’s not the command to love. It’s the fact that Jesus loved us first. Jesus died for us. Jesus loved God and loved neighbor completely and then gives us that love to love others.

God’s Word on mission in the family

But there’s also a missional aspect to what we see in Deuteronomy 6. What is it that we think we should be portraying in family portraits? What does your family portrait look like? What should our families look like? When you look at families on Facebook, what is it that causes you to want to be like them? We think families are supposed to have it all together. Dad has this kind of job. Mom has this kind of job. This is where they go on vacation. This is their house. This is their car. And there is a way to look at Deuteronomy 6 through that lens. Look at our family… we have God’s Word all of the time. Deuteronomy 6 is all too frequently a theology of power and glory. A way to see who the real Christians are. There is an an entire movement based on trying to get Deuteronomy 6 right. We’re all serving the church, we’re all memorizing the Bible, we’re all doing all the great things Christians are supposed to be doing.. we’re all thinking like good Christians, we’re a Deuteronomy 6 family. Is that the way we are to read Deuteronomy 6? When I look at the movement, I see a lot of superficial standards that has no gospel and no need of Jesus.

What is it that we repeat, and talk about, and bind to our hearts? It’s the Gospel. It’s forgiveness. If you want a takeaway for the family here in Deuteronomy 6 it’s this: we’re living in a house full of sinners, we’re all sinners living with a need for Jesus all of the time, and we’re all sinners trying to practice the forgiveness and grace that Jesus gives us. That’s it. That’s all. Success with the Word is being broken and honest and forgiving with each other. Unconditional love. Unconditional grace. Unconditional kindness. Repeat that kind of Gospel. Talk about that kind of Gospel. Bind that kind of Gospel on your hearts and the hearts of your children.

Mission begins in the home. Moses was interested in fathers and mothers passing the legacy of the gospel on to their kids. That’s real Gospel living and mission. The church historian Rodney Stark writes in “The Rise of Christianity” that Christianity exploded in just a couple hundred years from the 3000 on the day of Pentecost to millions. That kind of exponential growth didn’t happen because of a great evangelism program. It did not happen because church’s had the latest and greatest services. That explosive growth happened because of families. Families living and practicing and talking about the gospel, from parents to kids and to their kids and to their kids.. and their cousins and their aunts and their uncles. The Gospel multiplies the gospel. That’s the story of the Bible. That’s the witness of history. What does that look like here in Los Fresnos? What does that look like in our homes? Ever thought that mission and witness begins with us passing the unconditional love and unconditional grace to each other in our homes? That’s the family portrait as it is saturated by the gospel. The family is not perfect. It is forgiven.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

This is your family portrait right here. This is Jesus making you part of his family. This Table. Table is where family gathers. And so we come here, warts and all. We come to this table as sinners seeking forgiveness. Wanting Jesus to tell us again that we are his family.

The Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.