Chapter Text
Love the LORD Your God
The Shema
Warnings Against Forgetting God
Summary
Moses delivers the Shema, Israel's foundational confession: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.' He commands them to love God with all their heart, soul, and might, and to bind these words upon their hearts. They are to teach them to their children, speak of them constantly, write them on their doorposts, and bind them as signs on their hands. He warns against forgetting God when prosperity comes in Canaan.
Meaning
The Shema is the cornerstone of Israelite faith and the passage Jesus identified as the greatest commandment. It establishes that the proper response to God is not merely obedience but wholehearted love. Duty without devotion falls short of what God desires.
The instructions to weave God's word into every dimension of daily life, conversation, household, and physical reminders, reveal that faith is not a compartment but a comprehensive way of living. Every moment and space is to be saturated with awareness of God.
Background
The Shema (from the Hebrew word 'hear') has been recited daily by observant Jews for over three millennia. The commands to bind God's words on the hand and forehead were later fulfilled literally through phylacteries, small leather boxes containing Scripture passages worn during prayer. The mezuzah on doorposts fulfills the command to write them on the gates.
Chapter Outline
- vv. 1-3Purpose of the commandments
- vv. 4-5The Shema: love God wholly
- vv. 6-9Teaching God's Word in daily life
- vv. 10-12Warning against forgetting God in prosperity
- vv. 13-19Exclusive devotion and obedience
- vv. 20-25Passing the faith to the next generation
Key Verses
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”— 6:4
Known as the Shema, this is the foundational confession of Jewish faith and the bedrock of biblical monotheism. Jesus cited it as the first and greatest commandment (Mark 12:29).
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”— 6:5
The greatest commandment according to Christ Himself (Matthew 22:37). It defines the totality of devotion God requires — not mere obedience but wholehearted love.
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”— 6:7
The primary biblical mandate for faith-based parenting and generational discipleship, commanding that God's Word permeate every sphere and hour of daily life.
“Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”— 6:12
A sobering warning that prosperity breeds spiritual amnesia. This theme recurs throughout Deuteronomy and the prophets as Israel's central temptation.
People & Places
People
- Moses — The implied speaker throughout, delivering God's commandments to Israel on the plains of Moab before they enter the Promised Land.
- Abraham — Patriarch to whom God swore the covenant promise of the land (verse 10).
- Isaac — Son of Abraham, named as a recipient of God's oath regarding the Promised Land (verse 10).
- Jacob — Grandson of Abraham, the third patriarch to whom God swore the land promise (verse 10).
- Pharaoh — The Egyptian ruler under whose bondage Israel suffered before God delivered them with signs and wonders (verse 22).
Places
- Egypt — The land of Israel's former bondage, referenced as the backdrop of God's mighty deliverance (verses 12, 21–22).
- Massah — The wilderness location where Israel tested God by demanding water, cited here as a warning against repeating such unbelief (verse 16; cf. Exodus 17:1–7).
Prophecy & Fulfillment
The Shema and the command to love God wholly (verses 4–5) are directly quoted by Jesus as the greatest commandment in the Law (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:29–30), confirming their enduring authority in the New Covenant. Christ also quoted verse 13 ('Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him') and verse 16 ('Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God') when resisting Satan's temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:7, 10), demonstrating that Deuteronomy 6 provided the very words by which the Messiah defeated the adversary.
Devotional
Deuteronomy 6 teaches that loving God is not a compartment of life but the atmosphere of it. The Shema calls us to an undivided heart — not a faith reserved for Sunday mornings but one woven into breakfast conversations, evening routines, and the walk to work.
Notice the rhythm: sit, walk, lie down, rise up. God's Word belongs in every posture of life. And the warning is equally practical — prosperity, not poverty, is the greater threat to faithfulness. When life is full and comfortable, we are most prone to forget the One who provided it all.
Let gratitude guard what discipline alone cannot.
Literary Style
Deuteronomy 6 is parenetic discourse — Moses exhorting Israel in urgent, sermonic prose. The Shema (verses 4–5) functions as a creedal declaration embedded in exhortation. The chapter employs merism ('when thou liest down, and when thou risest up') to express totality, and the question-and-answer catechism in verses 20–25 introduces a pedagogical dialogue form unique to Deuteronomy.