Obedience is Required with Holiness

a. Promised blessings of obedience (Deut 6:1–3)

(Deut 6:2–3). The Law was given so that the people could express their reverence (fear; (Deut 4:10) for and obedience to the LORD in a concrete manner.

(The need to obey Him is stressed repeatedly in Deut.)

By fearing and obeying Him they would find prosperity (on the words so that it may go well with you, (Deut 4:40) and a long life in their new land (Deut 4:10; 5:33) which flowed with milk and honey. (Ex 3:8)

Obedience is Required with Holiness

Deuteronomy 6:1–9

I. The Call to Perfect Obedience

1. Carefully

2. Consistently

3. Completely

The emphasis is on obedience.

There are actually only two classes of people in the world: those who love God and those who hate God.

The heart attitude of people is evidenced by their obedience or disobedience.

( Deuteronomy 5:29:) “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

” Through the prophet Isaiah, God had this to say: “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isa. 29:13).

Do you remember how the prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul? “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22).

They had promised to keep all the commandments of the Lord, and yet they fell so short—as we still do today.

II. The Call to Personal Obedience

1. Respectful

2. Responsively

3. Readily

b. The command and its importance (Deut 6:4–9)

(Deut 6:5). To love the LORD means to choose Him for an intimate relationship and to obey His commands.

This command, to love Him, is given often in Deuteronomy (Deut 5; 7:9; 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20). Loving Him was to be wholehearted (with all your heart) and was to pervade every aspect of an Israelite’s being and life (soul and strength).

III. The Call to Practice Obedience

1. Watchfully

2. Willingly

3. Wisely

(Deut 6:6–9). God’s people were responsible to meditate on these commandments, to keep them in their hearts.

This enabled them to understand the Law and to apply it correctly.

Then the parents were in a position to impress them on their children’s hearts also.

The moral and biblical education of the children was accomplished best not in a formal teaching period each day but when the parents, out of concern for their own lives as well as their children’s, made God and His Word the natural topic of a conversation which might occur anywhere and anytime during the day (Deut 6: 7).

The commands to tie them and write them were taken literally by some later Jewish readers.

However, the commands are probably emphasizing symbolically the need for the continual teaching of the Law ( Ex. 13:9, 16).