Daily Devotional Sunday 8th November 2020
by William Moody
Deuteronomy 6:1–8
The Greatest Commandment
6:1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules1—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.2 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Footnotes
[1] 6:1
Or just decrees; also verse 20
[2] 6:4Or The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone (ESV)
The First Commandment
(Shorter Catechism 45-48)
We’re beginning today a series on the Ten Commandments by using the Shorter Catechism to help us understand them. SC 45-48 are the relevant Shorter Catechism numbers. Having a Catechism at hand would be helpful.
‘The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ (A.45)
‘The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.’ (A.46).
‘The first commandment forbids the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.’ (A.47).
Moses’ commentary on the commandment is that you are to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’ (Deuteronomy 6 v5). This means God is to be at the very centre of every area of our lives and we are to give everything in serving Him. The Catechism says, “God, who sees all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.”(A.48)
Take time to prayerfully consider if God is really first in your life. Are there other things in life that have become too important and are hindering your devotion and service to God?
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