Deuteronomy 6:1-25
Love the Lord Your God
The Lord your God has directed me to teach you his commands, rules and laws. Obey them in the land you will take over when you go across the Jordan River. Then you, your children and their children after them will honor the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I’m giving you. If you do, you will enjoy long life. Israel, listen to me. Make sure you obey me. Then things will go well with you. The number of your people will increase greatly in a land that has plenty of milk and honey. That’s what the Lord, the God of your parents, promised you.
Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is the one and only God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength. The commandments I give you today must be in your hearts. Make sure your children learn them. Talk about them when you are at home. Talk about them when you walk along the road. Speak about them when you go to bed. And speak about them when you get up. Write them down and tie them on your hands as a reminder. Also tie them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses. Also write them on your gates.
The Lord your God will bring you into the land of Canaan. He gave his word. He promised he would give the land to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The land has large, wealthy cities you didn’t build. It has houses filled with all kinds of good things you didn’t provide. The land has wells you didn’t dig. And it has vineyards and groves of olive trees you didn’t plant. You will have plenty to eat. But be careful that you don’t forget the Lord. Remember that he brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves.
Worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you should serve. When you make promises, do so in his name. Don’t serve the gods of the nations around you. The Lord your God is among you. He wants you to worship only him. If you worship other gods, God will be very angry with you. And he will destroy you from the face of the land. Don’t test the Lord your God as you did at Massah. Be sure to obey the Lord’s commands. Obey the terms and rules he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s eyes. Then things will go well with you. You will go in and take over the land. It’s the good land the Lord promised to your people of long ago. You will drive out all your enemies to make room for you. That’s what the Lord said would happen.
Later on, your child might ask you, “What is the meaning of the terms, rules and laws the Lord our God has commanded you to obey?” If they do ask you, tell them, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. But the Lord used his mighty hand to bring us out of Egypt. With our own eyes we saw the Lord send amazing signs. They were great and terrible. He sent them on Egypt and Pharaoh and everyone in his house. But the Lord brought us out of Egypt. He planned to bring us into the land of Canaan and give it to us. It’s the land he promised to our people of long ago. The Lord our God commanded us to obey all his rules. He commanded us to honor him. If we do, we will always succeed and be kept alive. That’s what is happening today. We must make sure we obey the whole law in the sight of the Lord our God. That’s what he has commanded us to do. If we obey his law, we’ll be doing what he requires of us.”
Deuteronomy 7:1-26
The Lord Will Drive Out Many Nations
The Lord your God will bring you into the land. You are going to enter it and take it as your own. He’ll drive out many nations to make room for you. He’ll drive out the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Those seven nations are larger and stronger than you are. The Lord your God will hand them over to you. You will win the battle over them. You must completely destroy them. Don’t make a peace treaty with them. Don’t show them any mercy. Don’t marry any of their people. Don’t give your daughters to their sons. And don’t take their daughters for your sons. If you do, those people will turn your children away from serving the Lord. Then your children will serve other gods. The Lord will be very angry with you. He will quickly destroy you. So here is what you must do to those people. Break down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Cut down the poles they use to worship the female god named Asherah. Burn the statues of their gods in the fire. You are a holy nation. The Lord your God has set you apart for himself. He has chosen you to be his special treasure. He chose you out of all the nations on the face of the earth to be his people.
The Lord chose you because he loved you very much. He didn’t choose you because you had more people than other nations. In fact, you had the smallest number of all. The Lord chose you because he loved you. He wanted to keep the promise he had made to your people of long ago. That’s why he used his mighty hand to bring you out of Egypt. He bought you back from the land where you were slaves. He set you free from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So I want you to realize that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps his covenant for all time to come. He keeps it with those who love him and obey his commandments. He shows them his love. But he will pay back those who hate him. He’ll destroy them. He’ll quickly pay back those who hate him. So be careful to obey the commands, rules and laws I’m giving you today.
Pay attention to the laws of the Lord your God. Be careful to obey them. Then he will keep his covenant of love with you. That’s what he promised to your people of long ago. The Lord will love you and bless you. He’ll cause there to be many of you. He’ll give you many children. He’ll bless the crops of your land. He’ll give you plenty of grain, olive oil and fresh wine. He’ll bless your herds with many calves. He’ll give your flocks many lambs. He’ll do all these things for you in the land of Canaan. It’s the land he promised your people of long ago that he would give you. He will bless you more than any other nation. All your men and women will have children. All your livestock will have little ones. The Lord will keep you from getting sick. He won’t send on you any of the horrible sicknesses you saw all around you in Egypt. But he’ll send them on everyone who hates you. You must destroy all the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t serve their gods. If you do, they will be a trap for you.
You might say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” But don’t be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptians. With your own eyes you saw what the Lord did to them. You saw the signs and amazing things he did. He reached out his mighty hand and powerful arm. The Lord your God used all those things to bring you out. You are now afraid of the nations that are in the land the Lord promised you. But the Lord your God will do to them the same things he did to Egypt. The Lord your God will also send hornets among those nations. Some of the people left alive will hide from you. But even they will die. So don’t be terrified by them. The Lord your God is with you. He is a great and wonderful God. The Lord your God will drive out those nations to make room for you. But he will do it little by little. You won’t be allowed to get rid of them all at once. If you did, wild animals would multiply all around you. But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you. He will throw them into a panic until they are destroyed. He will hand their kings over to you. You will wipe out their names from the earth. No one will be able to stand up against you. You will destroy them. Burn the statues of their gods in the fire. Don’t wish for the silver and gold on those statues. Don’t take it for yourselves. If you do, it will be a trap for you. The Lord your God hates it. Don’t bring anything he hates into your house. If you do, you will be completely destroyed along with it. So hate it with all your heart. It is set apart to be destroyed.
Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Remember What the Lord Has Done
Make sure you obey every command I’m giving you today. Then you will live, and there will be many of you. You will enter the land and take it as your own. It’s the land the Lord promised to your people of long ago. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way. He guided you in the desert for these 40 years. He wanted to take your pride away. He wanted to test you to know what was in your hearts. He wanted to see whether you would obey his commands. He took your pride away. He let you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat. You and your parents had never even known anything about manna before. He tested you to teach you that man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes didn’t wear out during these 40 years. Your feet didn’t swell. Here is what I want you to know in your hearts. The Lord your God guides you, just as parents guide their children.
Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he wants you to live. Have respect for him. The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. It has brooks, streams and deep springs of water. Those springs flow in its valleys and hills. It has wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. There is plenty of food in that land. You will have everything you need. Its rocks have iron in them. And you can dig copper out of its hills.
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God. Praise him for the good land he has given you. Make sure you don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I’m giving them to you today. But suppose you don’t obey his commands. And suppose you have plenty to eat. You build fine houses and live in them. The number of your herds and flocks increases. You also get more and more silver and gold. And everything you have multiplies. Then your hearts will become proud. And you will forget the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. He led you through that huge and terrible desert. It was a dry land. It didn’t have any water. It had poisonous snakes and scorpions. The Lord gave you water out of solid rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Your people had never even known anything about manna before. The Lord took your pride away. He tested you. He did it so that things would go well with you in the end. You might say to yourself, “My power and my strong hands have made me rich.” But remember the Lord your God. He gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of the covenant he made with you. He promised it to your people of long ago. And he’s still faithful to his covenant today.
Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t serve other gods. Don’t worship them and bow down to them. I am a witness against you today that if you do, you will certainly be destroyed. You will be destroyed just like the nations the Lord your God is destroying to make room for you. That’s what will happen if you don’t obey him.
