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The Great Commandment6 Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the L ord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the L ord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the L ord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The L ord is our God, the L ord alone. 5You shall love the L ord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Caution against Disobedience10 When the L ord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, 11houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, 12take care that you do not forget the L ord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13The L ord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. 14Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, 15because the L ord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the L ord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth. 16 Do not put the L ord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17You must diligently keep the commandments of the L ord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in the sight of the L ord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the L ord swore to your ancestors to give you, 19thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the L ord has promised. 20 When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the L ord our God has commanded you?” 21then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the L ord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The L ord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24Then the L ord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the L ord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the L ord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.” New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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10. And it shall be, when the Lord thy God. Since wealth and prosperity for the most part blind men’s minds, so that they do not sufficiently attend to modesty and moderation, but rather grow wanton in their lusts, and intoxicate themselves with pleasures, God prescribes against this error by anticipation. For not without cause does he admonish them to beware lest they forget God, when they shall have been liberally and luxuriously treated by Him, but because he knew this to be a common vice, for abundance to beget arrogance; as afterwards he will say in his song, “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked: thou art waxen fat, etc., then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15.) First of all, he shews how base and unworthy would be their ingratitude, if, when loaded with so many excellent benefits by God, they should cast away the recollection of Him; for, as His goodness was inestimable, in giving them cities built by the hands of others, and in transferring to them whatever others had prepared by their great labor and industry, so would their impiety be the more detestable in neglecting Him, when He daily set Himself before them in this abundant store of blessing. Let us learn, therefore, from this passage, that we are invited by God’s liberality to honor Him, and that whenever He deals kindly by us, He places His glory before our eyes; but, on the other hand, we should remember, that what ought to be as it were vehicles, to lift up our minds on high, are, by our own fault, converted into obstacles and clogs, and that therefore we ought to be the more upon our guard. At the end of verse 12, he reproves their folly by another argument, if being thus suddenly enriched, they should give way to intemperance; as if he had said, that their absurdity would be insupportable, if, when uplifted by God’s bounty, they should not remember their origin; for nothing should have served more to incline them to humility than that wretched state of servitude from whence they had been rescued. Therefore he contrasts with that ample dominion to which God had exalted them, the house of bondmen,”245245 Margin of A. V. in order that the recollection of their former lot may restrain all frowardness. |