It will be righteousness for us…
Deuteronomy 6:25 We need, and have, the atonement of the Perfect Sacrifice in Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world.
Moses and Aaron with the Ten Commandments (illustrative). Wikipedia Commons
“It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.”
Deuteronomy 6:25 NASB1995
Deuteronomy is the book of the Bible in which God gives the Ten Commandments to the Israelites through Moses. In the chapter just prior to this one, Moses has repeated the commandments to the people, ending with the words:
“So you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.”
Deuteronomy 5:32-33 NASB1995
The title used for Deuteronomy Chapter 6 in the NASB translation is “Obey God and Prosper”, and that is what Moses is trying to impress on the people. It begins with another repetition of the first commandment, or what Moses called the “One Commandment” — “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Jesus referred to this as the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-38) and said that the second commandment — “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” — was like the first. Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind transforms us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
At the end of Deuteronomy 6 is the verse for today, and by this point, Moses is telling the people how to avoid falling away from God when times are good. Have you ever wondered why so many people in our time are atheists or agnostic? Even with our current world economic woes, things are much better for the majority of the world population than they used to be:
Image via ourworldindata.org, licensed under Creative Commons by Max Roser
Sadly, as people find themselves less worried about having shelter, food, water and medical care, they also tend to worship the idols of prosperity and forget about God! It should be the other way around — we should glorify and praise God more for His bountiful provision.
Moses was aware of this sad fact over 3,300 years ago, so he was trying to impress on the masses wandering in the wilderness that when things got better (i.e., they or their descendants finally settled in the promised land), they needed to continue or even increase their worship of God — not fall away.
Toward the end of Deuteronomy 6, Moses warns the people of the tendency to fall in apostasy in good times. He knew that the next generation would probably grow up expecting the good blessings of God, without understanding the repentance and the literal walk with God that led to prosperous times. So Moses asks them to teach their children of God’s salvation of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. In our times, we need to teach the younger generation how we came to a personal relationship with Jesus so they also understand that they must come to the same relationship.
The last statement of Moses in this chapter is today’s study verse, and he’s saying that if the people wish to obtain true righteousness through the Mosaic Law, it just requires observing all the commandments… something that is achievable, though not easy. For Christians who sin (and who among us doesn’t sin?) and fail to observe the commandments to the letter, we need and have the atonement of the Perfect Sacrifice in Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for the important message You taught us through Moses. Keep us vigilant to focus our hearts and minds on Jesus, and not fall prey to the apostasy brought on by our prosperity. Thank You especially for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, that perfect sacrifice that took away the sin of the world. AMEN.