“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
God became a man, and literally spoke to us, to enable us to clearly “hear” what He wants us to hear. And who did He come to earth to speak to?
Israel. “Hear, O Israel.” The Israelites were the people of God and represent the people of God today in the context of this verse. This is not to say that God is finished with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because He is not. But that is a topic for another discussion. For the sake of this discussion, Israel represents those who would follow God today and be or become His chosen people on earth at any given time. The Hebrews are officially God’s chosen people for all time, but their story has diverged from the rest of humanity after Jesus showed up and they rejected Him. They have been locked up in disobedience until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled, at which point they will be reactivated so to speak, and come back online as God’s people – I can’t wait. (Romans chapters 10-11)
But for now, the command for Israel to “Hear” is given to everyone, to all people, Jew and Gentile, male and female, barbarian and civilized, black and white, etc. God speaks to all people, in the hope that ALL will hear Him, believe Him, repent and be saved from the coming judgment. Deuteronomy 6 is a call to all people to “hear” God. And those who have “heard”, in the biblical sense of understanding, believing, and acting on the words of God, are the followers of God, like Israel was literally following Him in the wilderness when they left Egypt. So what does it take to become a follower?
Passover
The Hebrews had been delivered from Egypt by God just before God gave these words to Moses. God delivered them from their slavery to Pharaoh. This is the story of the ten plagues and Moses crying out to Pharaoh to “Let My people go,” played so well by Charleton Heston in the movie “The Ten Commandments”. But Pharaoh would not let them go until after the final plague occurred, which was the angel of death. This story can be found in the book of Exodus, and it is so gripping that it is hard to put down once you start reading it. If you have not ever read it for yourself, or if it has been a long time since you did, please stop reading this and read it now for the benefit of the following discussion. (if you do not have a Bible, you can find the bible free online or on your phone for free)
So Israel had become slaves in Egypt for 400 years. That is a long time to be in slavery, twice as long as blacks were enslaved in the US for example. Because they had been in slavery for so long, slavery had become a way of life to them after 400 years. There was a lot of momentum to be slaves, to think like slaves, to act like slaves, to remain slaves. Moses had fled Egypt because he tried to rescue the Hebrews in his own strength, killing an Egyptian in the process. God has exiled Moses in the wilderness for a time where Moses meets God personally and is given a mission.
God sends Moses back to Egypt, and his mission from God is to set Israel free. It is time to get the Hebrews out of slavery. Moses is successful, and the Hebrews are now wandering in the wilderness, between their slavery to Egypt, and the coming freedom of life in the promised land. They are stuck in no man’s land, so to speak. And God says “Hear me, Israel.”
Our Passover Story
Similarly, we were born into the world innocent little babies, hardly a thought in our heads, but before long we have become slaves to sin, just as Israel became slaves to Egypt. And just as the Hebrews built temples and monuments to the false gods of Egypt during their slavery to Pharaoh, so we were building temples and monuments in our life to the false gods of sin and idolatry during our slavery to sin. And as Moses came to Egypt to set the Hebrews free, so Jesus has come to us to set us free from our slavery to sin.
The Hebrews had been slaves for a long time though, (400 years), and it was not long in the wilderness before they wanted to go back into slavery to Pharaoh, go back to their old life. They even talk about remembering the good old days of slavery when they had plenty to eat, etc. (Exodus 16:3) Hard to believe, but true. Similarly, before Jesus shows up in our lives, we have been slaves to sin since birth – it’s all we know. And when Jesus delivers us from sin, it is usually not very long before we start to pine for the good old days of slavery to sin in some way. Also hard to believe, but true for many.
So the message of Deuteronomy 6 today is specifically directed toward those of us who have been set free from slavery to sin by Jesus. The Israelites of the Old Testament were like an analogy that God put in history to teach us today how we are to live. They were real people, and the story really happened as it is recorded in God’s word. And God is not finished with Israel, they still have a very big part to play in His grand scheme of things. It is only a temporary pause, in order for other people to have a chance to get right with God. But for the purposes of this discussion, the rest of this verse is directed at those who have been delivered from sin by Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, the modern day Moses, our deliverer. That is who God is speaking to today – to those who have been born again.
Where are You Living Today
Have you personally left Egypt, or are you still a slave to sin? If you are still living in Egypt, in sin, why? What is keeping you there? Has Jesus set you free? Do you want Him to set you free, just as Moses set the Hebrews free? Or maybe you find yourself in the wilderness now, longing for the good old days back in Egypt, when life was “fun”. Your life now is drab by comparison. What sins of the past seem to pull on you the most, tempting you to go back to Egypt? Maybe you are stuck in the wilderness and are ready to move on into the Promised Land, but you seem to be stuck in life. What is it that is keeping you stuck in the wilderness? Why have you not crossed over into the Promised Land in your life? Are you looking forward to your future life in the Promised Land, or are you still looking back at your old life in Egypt and wanting to go back, like the Hebrews wanted to go back to Egypt?
After we hear, believe, and act on what we heard and believed, God is now our God, and we are now His people. We now belong to Him, like Israel belonged to God in the story. Have you made God your God? Have you been born again into the new life that Jesus offers us? You can be free from slavery to sin, just as the Hebrews became free from slavery to Pharaoh. Let Jesus, the new Moses, come into your life and set you free. Pray this prayer with me now:
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, and have been bound by sin my entire life. I believe in you, that you have the power to set me free, just as Moses set the Hebrews free from the house of slavery in Egypt. Set me free Jesus. Set me free from my sins and the grip that they have on my life. Deliver me from the house of slavery, and cause me to walk in newness of life. Help me to let go of my past, and to not look on it fondly, but to see it for what it really was, slavery. Teach me to set my gaze upon you now, rather than looking back into my sinful past. I want to pass through this wilderness, and get to the Promised Land. Take me there Jesus, that I may walk with you all the days of my life in freedom and newness of life, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Set me free, set me free, Lord Jesus set me free, from this body of sin and death set me free. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””
John 3:1-3
Two Rivers Blog 
2 thoughts on “Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – O Israel”