Deuteronomy 6:4-15
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This coming Sunday, we're starting something new, a sermon series on raising children in the faith. So all of these readings aren't part of our normal lectionary. Over the next three Sundays, we'll be talking about how parents and congregations can work together to raise children in their faith. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, October 1, is going to be Deuteronomy, chapter six, verses four through 15. Here we go. Here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is One, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk, by the way, and he went when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, then take care, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God, You shall fear Him you shall serve by his name you shall swear you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lets the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from the face of the earth. Here is the reading. The Book of Deuteronomy is a little bit like Moses, his last words to Israel before they cross over into the promised land. And one of the things he gives them is the command, the Shema, the hero, Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is One, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might. This is kind of a confession of Israel, the Lord is One, love him with all that you are. But what's interesting is that Moses has an eye towards the future in the book of Deuteronomy, he knows what the Israelites are like, and that he, they will go across into the promised land, and they will experience plenty and wonder and all these great things. And then they will be like they always were, they'll turn to other gods. So he gives them a hint of what to do, to help make sure that the next generation does not forget God. He says, You shall teach them diligently to 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, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What he's saying is he's giving this image of the Word of God being everywhere in the life of the family, and of the children. The idea is that God's people would constantly be talking about him in their day to day activities. This was specifically so that when they would go into the Promised Land, they would remember who God is. Now, for us, we are not in this same situation, we don't have a promised land to go to, like Israel did. But I think the advice of Moses is good for families today. We should talk about God, we should talk about his word about his gifts about all the things that he does for us, every single day, it should be so present in our lives, that it's like it's taped to our forehead, and written on our walls and on the doorposts of our house and on the backs of our hands. Perhaps the best way to do this is to have a regular ritual of family devotions. So that you can constantly be in prayer as a family and reading God's Word together. Now Moses continues when he talks about what will happen when they go into the Promised Land. He says, then when the Lord your God brings you into the land, he swore to your fathers, etc, etc. He offers them this this idea that there will be cities They did not build. And it says houses full of all good things that you did not fill cisterns that you did not dig, et cetera, et cetera. This is, well, the blessings that we have in Christ are not houses that we didn't build, but a salvation that we didn't earn, that Jesus provided this amazing blessing for us. And that he will complete it on the day that he returns and raises us to new life when we live in a perfect world. But what Moses knows about Israel is that when they go, and they eat, and they are satisfied and happy, they will forget that they need God. He says, is the Lord your God, You shall fear Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God lets the anger of the Lord be kindled against you. And we have to remember that in our families, all sorts of things tend to creep into our lives to be take the place of God from the first place in our life. We have to remember God is a jealous God. He is judgment, there is judgment for the people who turned from him. Let's keep him first in our families, and our lives. That's it for the reading today. Hopefully, we'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai