Resolutions for godly living.
A roadmap for life according to God’s word.
Deuteronomy is, perhaps, one of the more intriguing books in the Old Testament. At first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a slightly varied reproduction of Exodus. However, Deuteronomy is more than just “God’s Law, Part 2.” It is a vital document of Old Testament Scripture not in the least because it gives us a glimpse at how God’s law was interpreted by God’s people. As Raymond Brown puts it, Deuteronomy is a “faithful repetition and more detailed amplification of God’s word addressed to his servant at Sinai, applied to life in a different context prior to the entry into Canaan, and relevant to us in present-day life” (15). In the simplest of terms, Deuteronomy is a series of sermons originally delivered by Moses, each of which focuses on reaffirming the words of God for the people of Israel before they enter into Canaan.
After four decades of wandering rather aimlessly in the wilderness, the Israelites are finally on the cusp of occupying the Promised Land. Their sojourn was about to be over and all those promises that had been passed down for generations were about to come true. Even though Moses was prohibited from entering Canaan himself (which is a story for another time), he, nevertheless, resolves to bring to bear the seriousness of God’s law for the sake of his countrymen. Consequently, rather than being a remix of Exodus with a dash of Leviticus, Deuteronomy is a challenging, convicting, and comforting look at life lived “according to the word of the Lord.” It is a “call to arms,” that is, a corporate resolution to live under the auspices of what God alone has said and not by what anyone else says. In that way, it serves as an exceptional rubric by which we, in 2025, might likewise resolve to live “according to the word of the Lord” in the new year.
1. Obedience, the trademark of God’s people.
Integral to understanding the law of God is comprehending the duty of God’s people to obey it. In short, these words were binding. God wasn’t handing down “suggestions” when he gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Rather, these are the decrees of El Shaddai, God Almighty. Each of the eleven instances of the words “command” or “commandment” throughout this chapter (Deut. 6:1–2, 6, 17, 20, 24–25) reminds us of the “testimonies, statutes, and rules” given to Moses (Deut. 4:44–45). While many of these codes sound foreign and overbearing to us, for the people of God, they were vital. As God’s chosen nation (Deut. 7:6), the Israelites were the ones with whom and through whom Yahweh covenanted to unfold his plan of redemption. It was specifically Abraham’s Seed that would bring blessing and salvation to the world. Accordingly, as “the apple of his eye” (Deut. 32:10), Israel was compelled to distinguish themselves as the covenant community of faith and devotion. The Mosaic Law, therefore, is what differentiated Israel from every other pagan nation. This is what set them apart; this is what identified them as those who belonged to Yahweh.
The rest of Israel’s history is essentially a painstaking record of all the foibles and frustrations that followed Israel as they wrestled with and against this covenantal identity. With their new homeland encompassed by pagan nations, societies, and religions, all of which had their own allure, Israel’s vocation mostly involved resisting any offering that would entice them to renounce their allegiance to Yahweh and join in the fray. But despite how loud or enchanting all of this was, the people of God were called to set themselves apart by obeying and “keeping all his statutes and his commandments” (Deut. 6:2). It was precisely Israel’s obedience and obeisance that identified them as the “treasured possession” of Almighty Yahweh (Deut. 7:6). They didn’t just belong to one among many gods, they belonged to “the” God, that is, the only God of the whole universe (Deut. 4:35, 39; 6:13–14). Moses’s words, therefore, remind them that these laws are more than mere “recommendations.” Rather, they are the revelation of the authority, majesty, and holiness of the one true God.
No other god deserved such “careful” service (Deut. 6:3, 12, 17, 25).
No other deity was owed such total obedience (Deut. 6:4–9).
Yahweh, though, deserves it all. He’s owed everything.
This, of course, wasn’t a popular mantra; it’s still not. The world’s creeds and philosophies are still hellbent on the idea that mankind can be his own authority. But despite how accommodating this might sound, we must recognize it for what it is — namely, an affront to God himself and a regurgitation of that blasted serpent’s original lie (Gen. 3:4–5). Like Israel, we are called to resolve ourselves to live faithfully and obediently “according to God’s word,” no matter what anyone else says, does, or thinks. Our obedience is like a name tag in that it identifies to whom we belong. “By this,” the apostle John writes in the New Testament, “we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). This, by the way, is the exact ministry which the Spirit of God is dispatched to perform in us. While our resolve to obey is weak and feeble, it is the Spirit of Christ who puts the words of Christ in us.
2. Reverence means responding to grace.
Not only is it crucial to know “why” Israel was bound to obey God’s words but also “how.” The “why,” of course, is because God is God and he said so. The “how” is, perhaps, more difficult to pinpoint. How was Israel supposed to obey? What motivated them to follow these binding commands above all else? To be sure, the manner of Israel’s obedience should not be understood through the lens of “karma,” even though that is often how this passage is read. “Karma” is a philosophy commonly associated with Buddhism that boils down to doing good things and treating others with respect with the expectation that good things will come your way in the end. “What goes around comes around” and “Pay it forward” are truisms of this philosophical framework, which has been adopted so seamlessly into our cultural vernacular that we barely stop to question its veracity. More to the point, though, and more detrimental is when this same framework is adapted to how we relate to the God of the Bible.
At first glance, it can appear as if God is, in fact, dealing with his people through some sort of “covenant of karma,” especially when you notice all the “if” statements that populate the text (Deut. 6:3, 15, 18). It almost seems as if God is saying, “If you do this, then this will happen, and good stuff will be given to you. If you obey all day, I’ll give you ice cream!”
Maybe you’re familiar with that “if you do this, then you’ll get that” parenting tactic, but this is not how the Father operates.
He is not a God of karma nor does he employ our techniques for keeping his children in line.
To illustrate God’s demeanor with his sons and daughters, we might imagine a dad and his son at a local state fair. At the beginning of the day, the dad says that if his boy behaves well, he’ll get treated to an ice cream cone at the end of the day. But the boy isn’t well-behaved; not at all, in fact. He whines, complains, throws a fit, and says he wants to go back home almost as soon as they walk through the gate. The whole day goes on like this without much improvement, but to the surprise of every passerby, the dad still shares an ice cream cone with his son. While our natural reaction might be, “What a softy,” the theological term for that is grace.
In many ways, this is precisely what was about to play out with the people of Israel. After forty years of wandering, complaining, and grumbling — even declaring they’d rather put themselves back under Egyptian slavery than wander past one more tree — the Israelites were on the brink of inheriting the Promised Land. That which was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was about to be brought to fruition. Now, did they deserve this? Had they “earned” any smidgen of what was waiting for them there? Had they “paid it forward” enough to win the favor of God? Certainly not. Indeed, if “karma” were true, Israel wouldn’t have been allowed to enter Canaan at all. Why, then, were they allowed to occupy this land and revel in the profuse blessing of Yahweh? Because God is a God of his word:
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut. 7:7–8)
The abundance of the “land flowing with milk and honey” (Deut. 6:3) was not a reward for being nice and good. Rather, they were a gift from God whose unending prerogative remains to give and promise unilaterally on behalf of those he loves. Moses reminds them that they are about to inherit a land that is “full of all good things” — things they had nothing to do with (Deut. 6:10–11). “They are reminded,” says Allan Harman, “that their possession of the land and its contents was all of grace, and the adjectives used (‘large’, ‘flourishing’) emphasise the bounty of God to his people” (96). The “milk and honey” was already there; it was already waiting for them. God had prepared it for them beforehand. Indeed, the Promised Land is just that: a land promised to Yahweh’s people, and Yahweh always keeps his promises. God, you see, isn’t a God of karma, he’s a God of covenants. Israel’s eventual catastrophe and calamity didn’t occur because they failed to “pay it forward” enough. Rather, their desolation was a result of their lack of reverence.
Despite being given a prodigal amount of blessings the likes of which they did not deserve, they still found themselves entangled with other deities. If Israel is the ill-behaved son enjoying undeserved ice cream, the ensuing seasons of punishment aren’t indicative of God taking their ice cream away. Instead, they’re instances of Israel throwing the ice cream in God’s face. Consequently, Moses’s sermon was a powerful reminder for God’s people to properly revere the God whose word of power and blessing had accomplished everything on their behalf. This is what Moses means when he beckons the people to “fear the Lord” (Deut. 6:2, 13, 24). The deeper their reverence, the more willing their obedience. Accordingly, obedience is not about recompense; we aren’t “paying God back” for anything nor are we “paying it forward.” Obedience is all about reverence. “Our obedience is responsive,” Raymond Brown notes. “The loving and serving begins with him, not with us” (23). We shouldn’t be motivated to obey because we’re afraid of what God might do. Rather, we should be resolved to obey because we hold who God is and what he’s done in the highest esteem.
3. The heartbeat of the faith is all about remembering.
Moses’s resolve for Israel to obey and revere God alone has a specific purpose, which comes to the surface when he alludes to a scene in Israel’s past by only mentioning the name, “Massah”:
You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised. (Deut. 6:16–19)
This was all it took for Moses’s congregation to remember the awful memory of what transpired at that place (Exod. 17:1–7). Massah, you see, was the site of Israel’s gross distrust and disbelief in God’s provision. As the Israelites set up camp in a new location, they soon found out that “there was no water for the people to drink,” which was understandably cause for alarm. Eventually, the blame falls on Moses for his apparent failure of leadership. In this instance, though, the people do more than just complain, they start to “quarrel” with Moses, so much so that Moses cries out to God in fear that he is on the verge of being stoned! But with Israel in an uproar, and Moses fearing for his life, God still provides. He instructs Moses to strike a rock with his staff and water will gush out of it, which is exactly what happens. But rather than being remembered as a place of divine blessing and provision, Massah is known as a place of unbelief.
Accordingly, Moses’s sermon in Deuteronomy 6 aims to prevent a repeat of that event by exhorting the people to “diligently” keep all of God’s words (Deut. 6:17). Their reverence for God was so that they might not “forget the Lord, who brought [them] out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut. 6:12). The reason for all the “testimonies, statutes, and rules” — the reason for Moses’s sermon itself — was so that the people of God would remember. In particular, they would remember what God had done for them generations later:
When your son asks you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And 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 we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.” (Deut. 6:20–25)
In other words:
The law wasn’t a list of cold or lifeless checkboxes Israel was made to follow.
The law was a divinely instituted system of ongoing remembrance of God’s gracious providence and provision.
He was their God and they were his people. “He had redeemed them,” Raymond Brown comments, “bringing them out of the bitter experience of Egyptian slavery, a great and mighty act of undeserved salvation which ought never to be erased from their corporate memory” (99). This was central to everything that they believed since much of Israel’s religious traditions were all about keeping the handiwork of God’s grace on their heart (Deut. 6:6). Consequently, this is why the church exists. The church of God is the gathering of God’s people assembled in one place to remember what God in Christ did to emancipate them from slavery to sin and death and then respond in reverent obedience. As the church congregates week after week, they do so with the knowledge and assurance that their deliverance is sure not because they earned it but because the Son of God accomplished it when he offered his own self as our ransom on the cross (1 Tim. 2:5–6). May our truest resolution in all the days ahead to remember, revere, and live in light of this good news.
Works cited:
Raymond Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy: Not by Bread Alone, The Bible Speaks Today, edited by J. A. Motyer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).
Allan Harman, Deuteronomy: The Commands of a Covenant, Focus on the Bible Commentary Series (Ross-shire, England: Christian Focus, 2019).