Chapter 6 The Essence of the Covenant Is That Israel Shall Love Yahweh With All Their Beings And Reveal It In Their Obedience, Keeping Solely To Him As Long As They Lived.
Having reminded them of the awesome experience of the giving of the covenant, and of what it basically contained, Moses now seeks to urge on the people the need for total response and obedience to it. But note that he does it, not in terms of their listing the rules and keeping them, but in terms of a personal response of love, a love that responds to what Yahweh has already done for them. The covenant is not one of bargain, but of grace. Yahweh had graciously delivered them from the suzerainty of Egypt, from slavery and bondage. Now He calls on them to respond to Him in love, trust and obedience. There could be no enjoyment of blessing without that.
This chapter will then be followed by a stern warning of the need to deal severely with idolatry in Deuteronomy 7, the need to ensure that they remember and never forget what He has done for them in Deuteronomy 8, and a need to recognise the obstinacy of their own hearts in Deuteronomy 9. These are the three great enemies of man; things that turn us away from God as He is; unfaithfulness and forgetfulness; and obstinacy. It is these things that prevent us fulfilling His will.
Deuteronomy 10-11 then speak of Yahweh's positive preparations for His people, and recapitulate all that has already been said, preparatory to the giving of the detailed regulation.
In this we are drawing attention to the particular emphases of the Chapter s. There is of course much more. But the need to reject idolatry and the need to remember and not forget are constantly mentioned. These are one of the main emphases of these particular Chapter s.
Yahweh's Covenant Requirements Are Now To Be Spelled Out (Deuteronomy 6:1-3).
This opening introduction to Yahweh's Covenant requirements describes (1) what he is bringing them, Yahweh's commandment with its statutes and ordinances, (2) what he hopes they will do for them, make them have a reverential fear of Him, and (3) the final aim behind them, the keeping of those statutes and commandments resulting in long life. They are then exhorted (4) to listen well and observe to do them so that it might be well with them and so that they might become numerous, as Yahweh had promised, in the land flowing with milk and honey.
Analysis (expressed in Moses words).
a This is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land to which you go over to possess it (Deuteronomy 6:1).
b (These are given that) ‘you might do them in the land to which you go over to possess it, that you might fear Yahweh your God' (Deuteronomy 6:2 a).
c To keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you (Deuteronomy 6:2 b)
c You, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged (Deuteronomy 6:2 b).
b And that you might hear and observe to do His covenant (Deuteronomy 6:3 a)
a That it may be well with you and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in the land flowing with milk and honey (Deuteronomy 6:3 b).
‘ Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you (ye) might do them in the land to which you (ye) go over to possess it, that you (thou) might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you (thee), you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your (thy) life, and that your (thy) days may be prolonged.'
We must beware of seeing this as a new introduction. It rather combines with Deuteronomy 5:32-33 to form a connecting link. Both this and Deuteronomy 5:31-33 refer to ‘the commandment, the statutes and the judgments (ordinances)', and both refer to long lives in the land which they will possess. Thus this is to be seen as the carrying forward of the process described in Deuteronomy 5. It is entering the heart of the covenant. See also Deuteronomy 11:32 which finishes off this section and Deuteronomy 12:1 which connects this section to the next. See also Deuteronomy 26:16; Deuteronomy 30:16 (which also has a prosperous life in mind). It is a theme of Deuteronomy. Note the change from ‘ye' to ‘thou'. This indicates a heightening of the sense of command and a personalisation to each hearer, especially in view of the singular ‘son'.
“The statutes and the ordinances” were mentioned five times in Deuteronomy 4 where they were a summary of the covenant stipulations. In Deuteronomy 5:33 ‘the commandments, and the statutes and the judgments' were urged on Israel by Moses as something to be obeyed. Now he will declare them. This is so that they might do them in the land that they are going over to possess. God had given these statutes and judgments (ordinances) so that they and each of their sons and each of their son's sons might fear Him and keep them. They were not just to be known but to be observed. They laid out the manner of life that was expected of them as His redeemed people.
But note the stress in Deuteronomy 6:5 that they were to keep them, not in order to gain merit, but because they loved Yahweh with heart, and soul, and might. He wanted not a servile obedience, but the loving response of a firstborn son to his Father (Exodus 4:22). For this relationship in Deuteronomy see Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 14:1.
‘ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you (thee), and that you (ye) may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, (enjoying) a land flowing with milk and honey.'
So he urges them as one nation, and as individual people, to hear and observe Yahweh's commandment through these statutes and ordinances, so that it might be well with all of them, and so that they may grow and expand, (as Yahweh had promised to their fathers, and to them), in the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, the good land, where all was God's provision and good to partake of. That is what they had promised in Deuteronomy 5:27. Now he calls on them to do it.
“Enjoying” is included in the English translation in order to indicate the sense.
For us there is no land to enter. But we have a better land, the Jerusalem that is above and all that goes with it (Galatians 4:26). For the land offered by God through Moses was an earthly ‘Kingdom of God', which was why it failed, but what He was more importantly really offering was life under God's Kingly Rule. Thus we now enter into the heavenly kingdom of God by coming under ‘the Kingly Rule of God'. And having come under His rule by responding to Christ the King we are to fully keep all His commandments, and especially this commandment, that we love one another.