Keep his commands and obey him
Deuteronomy 13:4 - In six short requirements rolled up into one verse, we have a description of what was required to obey God’s covenantal laws completely.
Following the one true path and forsaking the others. Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.
“It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”
Deuteronomy 13:4 NIV
It’s always fascinating and a bit humbling to see where God directs me to go with these devotionals. After a recent string of New Testament verses from various gospels and epistles, He has pointed me back to the Old Testament and a verse from Deuteronomy.
A little bit of back story is necessary to begin our study of this verse: At the beginning of Deuteronomy 13, Moses is giving the Israelites some rules they need to follow in order to enforce the second commandment. If your Sunday school memory of the commandments is failing you, this is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” (from the Jewish Talmud). Moses has just finished telling the Israelites to avoid following or listening to any prophets who might cause them to drift from their faith; now he lays out six rules for them to obey.
1 - “It is the Lord your God you must follow.”
Young’s Literal Translation of the original Hebrew is “after Jehovah your God you walk”, or in more modern English “walk after the Lord your God.” Following or walking are actions, so this is the Old Testament equivalent of part of my last devotional on Philippians 4:9 in which Paul instructs the church at Philippi to put their faith into action.
From The Bible Says:
To walk after Him means to meditate upon and decide to make His ways our ways, and to make intentional decisions in every area of life that are consistent with His directions. Since God made the world and all aspects of cause-and-effect, and since God desires the best for His own, walking in His ways will always be in our longterm best interest.
2 - “and him you must revere”
Revere means to fear, to be afraid of. When Moses commanded the Israelites to fear Yahweh, he wanted them to be consciously aware of their behavior and the potential consequences so that it would change their behavior for the better. Think of the present time — most people would fear crossing a street when a truck was bearing down on them because of the consequences. You could be struck and killed by that truck.
In the context of Moses’ command to the Israelites, he’s telling them to care about what God thinks and says, and to consider the consequences of His disapproval of their behavior.
Sadly, most humans tend to fear the lack of approval of other people more than God’s disapproval! Fearing God above all other things can free us from other, less important concerns. We can never please other people fully, but we can do our best to fear God. Doing so frees us from the consequences of poor choices and from the loss of His blessing upon us.
3 - “Keep his commands”
Keeping God’s commandments means to obey Him and do what He requires of us. Doing so secures His blessing, and avoids the negative consequences of going out own way. God, through Moses, told the Israelites what to do to receive His blessings, and that is true even today. Once again from The Bible Says:
The pagan way of life is exploitive of others, and seeks to satisfy our own appetites at the expense of others. This leads to societal decay as well as decay in our own souls. God’s way is to seek the best for and serve others. This leads to societal benefit as well as fulfillment within our own souls.
4 - “obey him”
The NASB95 translation of the Bible for this phrase is “listen to His voice,” which I think is much more appropriate and closer to the original meaning than the NIV. The Israelites had the unique honor of being the recipients of God’s communication to humans. With this command, they were being told to listen to the voice of God (via Moses) which was teaching them His directions and precepts.
God wasn’t just coming up with random commands; He was giving them instructions on how to live by His commands and thereby prosper. As we see throughout the Old Testament, the consequences of disobedience are disastrous.
5 - “serve him”
This command (and in general, the second commandment) was necessary to try to turn the Israelites away from serving the gods of the Canaanites and towards serving Yahweh alone. In the Old Testament covenant, the Israelites were to make offerings to Yahweh only in order to reap the benefits of following His ways.
6 - “hold fast to him”
What does the author of Deuteronomy mean when he says “hold fast to him”? Time for a short word study. The ancient Hebrew word used here is דָּבַק (dāḇaq), which means (among other definitions) “to cling, stick, stay close, cleave, keep close, stick to, stick with”. Precept Austin had a fun take on this word, with a subheading that said “Stick like glue to Yahweh!”
In six short requirements rolled up into one verse, we have a description of what was required to obey God’s covenantal laws completely. Although as Christians we are no longer under Mosaic Law, obedience to God’s commands is outlined in the New Covenant as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40:
“And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.””
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, help me to serve only You, to fear You alone, and to keep Your commandments. May I listen to Your voice and cling to You in all aspects of my life. Forgive me for the times I have allowed distractions to pull me away from You. Strengthen my commitment to follow Your ways and trust in Your plans for me. AMEN.