August 09, 2025
In Moses’ 1st speech, he focused on the importance of remembering.
In his 2nd speech, Moses will continue to emphasize “Not Forgetting” the importance of obedience to God’s laws. Even though he has been the spokesman, it is God who is the great lawgiver and the law has 2 main purposes:
• To bring the people into a right relationship with Himself.
• To regulate the conduct of the people for the benefit of the entire nation.
Moses summoned all the people…………
“Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that Yahweh made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.”
Moses wants to make sure this new generation understands that the covenant and the laws spoken directly from the mouth of God were not intended for their parents only. The covenant was an all-encompassing relationship between God and the people of Israel – from one generation to the next.
It was at this point that Moses repeated the 10 Commandments – originally spoken at Mount Sinai.
The first 3 and the last 6 are simple restatements of the original – with minor differences. However, in the 4th Commandment there is a significant difference:
Exodus 20:8-11 - "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…. For in 6 days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the 7th day. Therefore, Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 - "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as Yahweh your God has commanded you…. so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, Yahweh your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”
Context is everything.
The original generation experienced the power of God in their deliverance from Egypt, so the foundation of the Exodus version is that God is Creator (Genesis 2:1-3). He took Israel back beyond their own experience. The God who had delivered them was the God who had made the earth and everything in it. It was that God who declared that the 7th day was to be holy – sacred – set apart.
40 years later, most of the people who had been at Mount Sinai were dead. This new generation had not experienced the Egyptian deliverance, so the foundation of 4th commandment was expanded to point to God as deliverer. He took Israel back beyond their own experience. The God who had made the earth and everything in it was the God who had delivered them from bondage. He is not Creator OR Deliverer – He is Creator AND Deliverer and the 4th Commandment points to both as reasons for keeping the 7th-day Sabbath and extending that same blessing to everyone within your sphere of influence.
Moses’ primary goal was to impress upon this new generation the high privilege of being in a Covenant relationship with God. The grace and faithfulness of God should not be treated lightly or be taken for granted. Their response should be unreserved devotion.
As a result of this relationship the people would prosper and enjoy long lives in the land God had promised them and through their experience, they would witness to and bless the nations.
Chapter 6:4-9 is considered to be the most important prayer in Judaism. It begins with “Hear” or “Shema” in Hebrew.
According to Rabbi Eric Moffic, “When God says, ‘shema’ it is an invitation for us to listen, to respond, to appreciate to understand, to act.”
“The Shema” is spoken daily in the Jewish tradition:
“Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your 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.”
Many centuries later, Jesus will use it to answer the “greatest commandment” question in the book of Mark:
Mark 12:28-30 - And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’”
“The Shema” provides the foundation for obedience = Love. A love that encompasses the entire person – heart, soul and might = a TOTAL commitment.
“When Yahweh brings you into the land he promised your forefathers, into cities and houses you did not build, wells that you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves you did not plant, be careful not forget Yahweh, the One who brought you out of Egypt – the land of slavery”
There it is again….. when you have entered the Land of Promise DON’T FORGET your covenant relationship with God.
The expectation of total commitment to God was grounded in what he had already done for them – his “hesed” toward them. This knowledge was to be passed down – a living legacy – from generation to generation:
“In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws Yahweh our God has commanded you?" tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes Yahweh sent miraculous signs and wonders – great and terrible – upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. Yahweh commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear Yahweh our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."
As we have already noted, Israel had a deeply rooted problem with the pull of idol worship.
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land and drives out before you the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – seven nations larger and stronger than you – and has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them”
• You must destroy them totally – show them no mercy – do not look on them with pity.
• Make no treaty with them
• Do not intermarry with them
• Break down their altars,
• Smash their sacred stones,
• Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.
• Do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
From a human perspective the above directives seem harsh and inhumane. It is important that we don’t judge the commands of God based on “human ethics” and lose of sight of the fact that the Supreme Source of morality in the universe is God.
The character of God is foundationally love.
He says of himself, "Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6b-7)
And he would rather that these nations had responded to him with repentance:
Ezekiel 18:32 - For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
So, if God gave such a directive, he had a very good reason for doing it.
First and foremost, this command to drive out/destroy the Canaanites was a judgment on the wickedness of those nations, whose worship included veneration of the dead, temple prostitution and human sacrifice. God had given them a period of probation to turn to him and abandon these degrading practices:
Genesis 15:16 - In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
The fate of Sodom and Gomorrah would have been known:
Genesis 18:20-21 - Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-5 - Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom – both young and old-- surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
Genesis 19:24-25 - Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land.
But the nations would not repent and now their probation was over:
Deuteronomy 9:4-5 - After Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "Yahweh has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, Yahweh your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Secondly, God knew that the idolatry of these pagan nations posed a great danger to Israel. If they were to remain a holy nation and accomplish God’s plans for them, that temptation had to be completely removed.
At this point I will go on the record by stating that this very serious directive of God applied ONLY to the conquest of Canaan – and the specific nations named – during the time of the Exodus and should not be used as a modern excuse for genocide.
In the final section for today, Moses highlighted another temptation Israel will face: forgetting God when things are going well.
Five times in the chapter Moses called the people to remember all that God had done for them during the wilderness years. This was the same God who had promised that, if the people were careful to pay attention to and follow the laws, he would:
• Love and bless and increase their numbers – no one would be childless.
• Bless their livestock.
• Keep them healthy and they would be free from every disease.
The problems occur when the journey comes to an end and struggle is over – when you look out your door at your happy and healthy children and onto your land and your crops and your flocks and herds and when your bank account is in the black and all is in order and is as it should be – that’s when forgetting comes. That’s when pride and self-sufficiency creeps in, so Moses said:
“Be careful that you do not forget Yahweh your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…. You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
To increase the urgency of what he had just said, Moses declared a conditional prophecy and reminded the people of the consequences faced by those who had willfully rebelled:
“If you ever forget Yahweh your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations Yahweh destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying Yahweh your God.”
Should we be tempted to fall into the same trap of pride and self-sufficiency, let us turn to the New Testament:
Romans 2:11-13 - For God does not show favoritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Revelation 3:14-17 – "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
Until Next Time……………
