Serve Him Only Series

Theme: Serve Him Only

Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-14

Greetings:

The Lord is Good and His love endures forever.

Introduction:

Moses proceeds to set forth more particularly to enforce the cardinal and essential doctrines of the Decalogue. He emphasises the nature and attributes of God and the fitting mode of honouring and worshipping Him. Two objects are the glory of God and the welfare of man (Barnes). Moses taught Israelites a way for prosperity and poverty based on obedience and disobedience.

- Lord Alone (4-6)

- Word Alone (1-3,6-9), and

- Serve Him Alone (10-14)

1. Lord Alone (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

'Hear, O Israel'. It is the Shema, a classic confession of faith. He is the LORD and no other gods. Israelites were familiar with the gods of Egypt, the gods of Canaan, the gods of Babylon and the gods of Assyria. They know the names such as Baal, Ashtoreth Morduch Dagon, etc., However, they know that they were not gods and YHWH alone GOD.

Jews never believed in TRINITY. They never accepted God in three persons. Hebrew word Echad (refers to Compound unity – Genesis 2:24, Exodus 26:6,11) means 'One God' and not the word Yacheed (refers to absolute unity). It describes who God is and what is our duty towards him in this verse (David Guzik).

Rabbi Simeon Ben Joachi, commenting on the word Elohim says “Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other.”

1 Corinthians 8:6 affirms that we have three persons in one God in unity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, we do not worship three Gods but one God.

In many parts of the Old Testament, ‘The three-fold mention of the Divine names and the plural number of the word translated God, seem plain to intimate a Trinity of persons, even in this expressive declaration of the unity of the Godhead. But it was not understood and interpreted by the Jewish Robbie.

Matthew Henry says ‘Happy those who have this one Lord for their God. It is better to have one fountain than a thousand reservoirs; one all-sufficient God than a thousand insufficient friends.’

The grand design of all the institutions prescribed to Israel was to form a religious people with a national character distinguished by fear of the Lord their God with divine observance of His worship and their steadfast obedience to His will. The basis of their religion was an acknowledgement of the unity of God with the understanding and the love of God in their hearts (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary).

2. Word Alone (Deuteronomy 6:1-3, 6-9)

According to the teachings of Moses, the ‘commandments denotes the moral law, statutes to the ceremonial law, and judgments to the decrees by which the judges decided on those days (Matthew Henry).

God reduced the commandments, rules and regulations into one commandment. That one ruling commandment is “Love the Lord your God”. God told the Israelites to keep the Law of the Lord and observe the statutes and commandments. The blessings and benefits are prolonged life, everything will go well with them, and he will multiply them greatly.

The Lord God has worked out a plan and strategy for keeping the Law of the Lord. God has summed up the religious life for the Israelites in and out of their houses. They were expected to seal the Word of God's on their hands (in our actions) and between their eyes (in our minds).

a. Meditate within you (Laid up in hearts, and thoughts and employed on daily basis)

b. Educate your children (Teach the truth and repeatedly do as often as you could)

c. Interact (relate in your talks with due reverence and seriousness, for the benefit of your children, your friends and your employees).

d. Frequently read the word (Keep with you the word of God, printed or digital forms).

Simply it means that no matter what we do, no matter what we say, no matter what comes into our life, every day we should be reflecting the mind of God in our life, in our speech, and in our attitude, and reinforce our example by teaching the children verbally and practically. (Sanctification and Teens by John W. Ritenbaugh).

A Christian child should know and practice fundamental values, such as respect for authority, courtesy, honesty, respect for a public property with civic responsibility, etc. If they do not see in their parent's life, they would not do it by themselves till they matured enough (I Kings 1:1-6, Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:1-4).

First parents must practice the way of God to the best of their abilities in every aspect of life. Training a Child- in the way of God is correct parental leadership and a major responsibility. Most of the children were at home during the Lockdown and Pandemic. Now the entire responsibility lies with parents for the behaviour of their children.