You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. You shall therefore loveThe Hebrew word for "love" here is "אָהַב" (ahav), which implies a deep, covenantal love that goes beyond mere emotion. It is a call to a committed, loyal relationship with God. In the ancient Near Eastern context, love was often associated with loyalty and allegiance, especially in covenant relationships. This command to love God is foundational, as it sets the tone for the Israelites' relationship with Him, emphasizing that their obedience should stem from love rather than obligation. the LORD your God
The term "LORD" is the English representation of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the personal name of God revealed to Moses. It signifies God's eternal, self-existent nature and His covenantal relationship with Israel. "Your God" personalizes this relationship, reminding the Israelites that YHWH is not a distant deity but their personal God who has chosen them as His people. This phrase underscores the intimate and exclusive relationship between God and Israel, calling them to recognize His sovereignty and faithfulness. and always keep
The Hebrew word for "keep" is "שָׁמַר" (shamar), which means to guard, observe, or give heed. It implies a vigilant, careful attention to God's instructions. The word "always" suggests a continual, lifelong commitment. This phrase calls believers to a consistent and enduring faithfulness, highlighting that obedience to God is not a one-time act but a perpetual duty. His charge
The word "charge" in Hebrew is "מִשְׁמֶרֶת" (mishmeret), which can refer to a duty or obligation. It often denotes a specific responsibility or task assigned by God. In the context of Deuteronomy, it refers to the overall responsibility of the Israelites to uphold God's covenant. This term emphasizes the seriousness of their commitment and the importance of fulfilling their divine responsibilities. His statutes
"Statutes" comes from the Hebrew "חֻקִּים" (chuqqim), which refers to decrees or laws that are prescribed by God. These are often seen as permanent regulations that are to be followed by the community. Statutes are part of the covenantal framework that guides the moral and religious life of the Israelites, reflecting God's holy and unchanging nature. His ordinances
The Hebrew word for "ordinances" is "מִשְׁפָּטִים" (mishpatim), which means judgments or legal decisions. These are the specific applications of God's law to various situations, ensuring justice and righteousness within the community. Ordinances reflect God's just character and His desire for His people to live in a way that reflects His justice and mercy. and His commandments
"Commandments" is translated from the Hebrew "מִצְוֹת" (mitzvot), which refers to the specific commands given by God. These are the direct instructions that God has provided for His people to follow. Commandments are central to the covenant relationship, serving as the practical expressions of God's will for His people. They are meant to guide the Israelites in their daily lives, ensuring that their actions align with God's purposes. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's laws and commandments to the Israelites. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, receiving instructions on how to live in obedience to God. 3. Promised LandThe land of Canaan, which the Israelites are preparing to enter, contingent on their obedience to God's laws. 4. Mount SinaiThe place where God originally gave the law to Moses, establishing the covenant with Israel. 5. CovenantThe agreement between God and Israel, requiring their obedience in exchange for His blessings. Teaching Points Love as the FoundationLoving God is the foundation of our relationship with Him. It is not merely an emotional response but a commitment to live according to His will. Obedience as an Expression of LoveTrue love for God is demonstrated through obedience to His commandments. Our actions reflect our devotion. Holistic CommitmentThe call to keep God's charge, statutes, ordinances, and commandments suggests a comprehensive commitment to His ways in every aspect of life. Covenant RelationshipUnderstanding our relationship with God as a covenant helps us see the importance of faithfulness and the blessings that come from obedience. Consistency in FaithThe word "always" indicates the need for consistency in our walk with God, not just in moments of convenience or crisis. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the command to love God in Deuteronomy 11:1 relate to the greatest commandment given by Jesus in the New Testament? 2. In what ways can we demonstrate our love for God through obedience in our daily lives? 3. How does understanding the covenant relationship between God and Israel help us in our own relationship with God today? 4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure we are consistently keeping God's commandments? 5. How do the blessings and consequences outlined in Deuteronomy 11 motivate us to live a life of obedience to God? Connections to Other Scriptures Deuteronomy 6:5This verse emphasizes the command to love God with all one's heart, soul, and strength, reinforcing the call to love God in Deuteronomy 11:1. John 14:15Jesus speaks about the connection between love and obedience, echoing the principle found in Deuteronomy 11:1. 1 John 5:3This verse highlights that loving God means keeping His commandments, which are not burdensome, aligning with the message of Deuteronomy 11:1. Joshua 22:5Joshua reiterates the importance of loving God and keeping His commandments as the Israelites settle in the Promised Land. Psalm 119:1-2The psalmist speaks of the blessings of walking in the law of the Lord, which is a theme central to Deuteronomy 11:1. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Alway, Always, Charge, Commandments, Commands, Continually, Decisions, Decrees, Hast, Instructions, Judgments, Kept, Laws, Love, Loved, Orders, Ordinances, Requirements, Statutes, WorshipDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:1 7021 church, OT anticipations
8208 commitment, to God
8297 love, for God
8315 orthodoxy, in OT
8632 adoration Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:1 NIVDeuteronomy 11:1 NLTDeuteronomy 11:1 ESVDeuteronomy 11:1 NASBDeuteronomy 11:1 KJV
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