Hear, Fear and Love the Lord. This is the key we discover in the second major section of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapters 6 through to 11 is a deeper exploration of the mindset the Israelites will need to take the land that God their Lord will give to them. It starts and ends with the vital framework. The Israelites are to hear, love and fear the Lord. (Chapters 6, the end of 10 and chapter 11). In between these chapters, three threats to the Israelities are dealt with. These threats are not from outside of the Israelites but from the inside – inside their hearts and minds.
Chapter 6 Hear the commands, decrees and laws of God.
So, Hear the Lord & Love the Lord
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Deuteronomy 6:4-6
So, Fear the Lord.
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Deuteronomy 6:13-15
These commands are for all generations. These truths are for now and the future.
Chapter 10-11 returns to these same truths:
Fear the Lord
Love the Lord
For all generations.
Chapter 7: Don’t fear the nations. God will drive out the nations.
But when the nations are driven out, you’ll think it is because you are mighty and great. But you aren’t. Rather it is God who is great, loving and faithful.
Key verses:
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Chapter 8: You will have incredible blessings but don’t forget the Lord your God
All the goodness is coming to you because God is good and has given a great land to you. You’ll be tempted to think it is all about your greatness. Don’t think this. Don’t forget the Lord who saved you.
Don’t forget 8v10, 14, v18 (remember), v19
Key verses
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise … 14 your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:10-14
Chapter 9 &10: Don’t think you’re righteous, holy or better than other nations.
You’re not better than the nations around you, nor the ones you are conquering. Remember all the failures in the desert and even at Mount Sinai. It was really bad. No, you’re not righteous. But God is and he is using you to end the wickedness of the nations in the land.
Key verses.
After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord 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 the Lord is going to drive them out before you.
Deuteronomy 9:4-6
And so, Chapters 10 & 11: Fear the Lord, Love the Lord, Obey the Lord
Fear the Lord: 10:12-21
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Love the Lord: 11v1-7
Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Deuteronomy 11v1
Obey the Lord for all generations and you will be blessed. 11v8-31
Live by the word of the Lord
Finally, a handful of verses, 8:1-3, near the centre of chapters 6 to 11, reveal the crucial truth that must be held onto in the land. These verses remind the nation of their wilderness wanderings because of their sin and what they should have learned. Then comes the crucial truth:
He (the LORD) humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8v3
These are the words that Jesus rebuke Satan during his temptation Matthew 4 verse 4.
Concluding thoughts
The Israelites are to live in the land as God’s people under God’s word. Their existence as a nation, their place in the land with all its goodness and their success in conquest are all things that are given to them by God their Lord. He is to be their Lord alone. They are to see that everything they have is from him because of his love and mercy. If they forget this or loosen their grip on this truth, found in God’s word to them through Moses, they will see themselves and their place land wrongly. They will walk away from God and so lose their land and salvation. This is why they must hear and fear the Lord their God.