Deuteronomy 6

Introduction

      Today is Saint Valentine's Day. Have you ever wondered where this celebration come from? It is somewhat obscure, but it seems that it has its roots in a Roman festival of love. As with so many of our celebrations, the church changed its meaning to a celebration of romance and attached the name of a saint to the festival. St. Valentine had been martyred on February 14 and so his name was attached to it. There are various legends about St. Valentine. According to one legend, Valentinus ignored a decree from Emperor Claudius II that forbade all marriages and betrothals. Valentinus was imprisoned and sentenced to death for secretly conducting several wedding ceremonies.

      While imprisoned, he cured a girl (the jailer's daughter) of her blindness. The girl fell madly in love with Valentinus, but could not save him. On the eve of his execution, Valentinus managed to slip a parting message to the girl. The note, of course, was signed "From your Valentine."

      Today we continue to celebrate Valentine's Day as a day to let someone know that we love them. We do so with cards, flowers and other such expressions. If you were to make a list of those you love and those you would like to tell that you love them, would God be included in that list?

I.                   How Do You Feel About God?

      How do you feel about God? Do you love Him or do other feelings and thoughts dominate?

A.                 Common Feelings About God

      The feelings people have towards God are often anything but feelings of love. I have had a few jobs in my life that I really didn't like. Although I didn't have any great love for my job or my boss, I did what I was told because if I didn't, I was afraid I might miss getting my pay cheque or even get fired. Sometimes we look at God like that. We know that God is big and powerful and holds our life in his hands and so we obey Him, but we do so only because we are afraid that if we don't we will get into trouble with Him. We see God as a master and ourselves as slaves and we give God a grudging obedience. The implications of living life looking at God like that is that it is not surprising if negative attitudes towards God develop. God is feared and we begrudge God and have a reluctant attitude towards Him.

      If we want to make a major purchase, we might do some serious shopping. We will compare products and prices and eventually come to a decision about which product is best and which price is best for that product. Sometimes we look at God in this way. We look at all the religious options in the world and decide that after all, God is the best possible option. He forgives sin and gives eternal life and all that just for believing and since no other religion gives a better deal than that, we believe. The implications of such a relationship with God is that there is a certain formality in the relationship. God is chosen on the basis of pragmatism and the relationship continues with that kind of formal acceptance. There is no warmth or closeness in the relationship. We are willing to pay the required price to get what we want, but that is as far as it goes.

      I have watched a few people step into a canoe for the first time. It can be quite comical. They are not sure if this thing will hold them up and so they fearfully and tentatively climb in never fully trusting the craft. Sometimes we have that kind of a relationship with God. We know He is creator and that He has saved us, but sometimes, since we do not see Him or hear from Him audibly, we are not sure we can fully trust Him. We have a tentative trust in God. We believe, but we make sure that we remain in control. We try to be insurance for ourselves. We avoid making decisions that take us beyond ourselves even if we know God wants us to make those decisions. The implications of a life lived in such a relationship with God is that it is filled with fear about life. When we have this kind of a relationship with God we are often questioning and worrying and filled with all kinds of stress.

      Have you ever felt like this towards God? Have you ever feared that if you don't measure up, he will punish? Have you ever felt that you are not sure you can really trust God? Have you accepted God, but there isn't really much more to the relationship than the assurance of sins forgiven?

B.                 But Do You Love God?

      In contrast to such a relationship, the Bible calls us to love God. As Moses gave his final instructions to the people of Israel as they were ready to enter the promised land and he was ready to leave them, he wanted them to look at God not merely as the holy God they feared at Mt. Sinai or another God among the many gods of the nations. He wanted them to have a love relationship with God which would sustain them in all of life. Deuteronomy 6:4,5 is Moses instruction to them. It is the "John 3:16" of the OT. "read"

      This commandment calls God's people to a whole-hearted love for God. Jesus repeated this command in the New Testament and so it is a command which is for us as well. I want to appeal to all of us to obey this command. I pray and wish for all of us here that we will not have a formal, or grudging or tentative relationship with God, but that we will have a whole hearted love for Him.

      Let us think about that for a moment. How does it feel to love someone? If you have ever experienced love as a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, child or parent, you know that in a true love relationship there is a longing for the other person. In a deep love relationship there is commitment. When those who love each other are together there is joy and peace and it is just a good feeling. My prayer for each of us is that we will have such a love for God. The Bible calls us to such a relationship of intimacy.

      The text says that we are to love God with all our heart. What does that mean? The heart is the seat of emotions. If we really love God, we must feel something towards Him. To love God with all your heart means that there can be nothing half hearted about it. Sometimes our heart can be divided, but in our love to God, there must be no division. Do you love God with all your heart?

      The text further invites us to love God with all your soul. The soul is the center of personality. That is who you really are. Loving God with all your soul means that it is not a show we put on or a mask we wear. Our love for God must be fully a part of who we are.

      The text also indicates that we are to love God with all our strength. True love acts. It is demonstrative. Our love for God must be shown in everything we do!

      So my invitation to you on this day which celebrates love is to love God fully with a love which dominates your emotions, directs your thoughts and is the dynamic of your actions.

II.               Why Love God?

      But why love God in such a complete way?

      Have you ever met people and wondered what reason they had for their love? I once knew a couple who had been married for many years and when I first got to know them, I wondered, "why do they love each other, they seem so opposite?" She was an accomplished musician and he a grader operator for the municipality. She drove a sports car and attended concerts in Winnipeg and he drove a half ton and spent a lot of time in his wood shop. I wondered what they had in common and what made them love each other, but they did.

      Well there is no mystery about why we should love God. Moses mentions three reasons in this chapter. We love Him because of who He is, where He is and what He has done.

A.                 Who He Is(4)

      In Deuteronomy 6:4, we have a key verse. There we read, "." This has a lot of meaning attached to it.

      It means that God is not divided within Himself. What God has revealed about himself remains true at all times. God is not changeable. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." We love God because we can rely on Him. He will not change, He will not forsake us, He will not turn on us. He is the God who is one.

      He is also one in the sense that there is no other. God does not reveal himself in one way to one people and another way to another people. Some people would like to believe that God has revealed himself as Allah to some, as Buddah to others and so on. But God has revealed Himself in only one way. The others are human imaginations. God is one and one only and so we can love Him because He is the only one who is God. The only one who has revealed Himself in holiness and with compassion.

      He alone is the faithful God and He alone is the one we are to love.

B.                 Where He Is vs.15

      It is very hard to love someone from a distance. Although occasionally we may develop friendships at a distance, true love depends on closeness to grow.

      Moses reminds the people in verse 15 that God is among them. Most of the gods at that time were perceived to be distant, uncaring gods who occasionally made trouble for people if they were not bought off. But God has chosen to live among His people. He is the God who is present and open to relationship. This is even more true for us as New Testament Christians who have God living in us by His Holy Spirit. Although we may sometimes feel that He is distant, in reality He is present and we have the privilege of loving God who is near to us.

C.                 What He Has Done 20-23

      The other reason to love God is as a response to His prior love. In 20-23, Moses writes about a time later when the children would ask, "why obey God." The answer was, because God brought us out of Egypt and gave us this land! This was the ever repeated theme of Israel, celebrated in the passover and remembered as the great salvation event. Love for God was to be a natural response of the heart to God who had first shown love.

      How true this is for us as Christians. John 3:16 reminds us of Gods prior love for us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son..." I John 4:10 says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

      And so as we contemplate that God is one, that He lives among us and that He has first loved us we realize that we have good reason to love Him and so I ask again, "do you love God?"

III.            How To Express Love

      Today is Valentine's Day, a day to not only think about the one we love, but a day to show our love. But real love is not only about showing it one day of the year. If we love someone, it will be obvious in many ways - in the way we think and especially in the way we act. If I say, "I love to play hockey" but never show up for a game, is it really true to say that I love hockey? If I say that I love my wife, but then put her down or seldom speak to her or take her out can it really be said that I love her? Love must be demonstrated in some way or it isn't really love at all. How do we show our love for God?

      Much of this passage speaks about practical ways of showing that we do indeed love God.

A.                 Obey(6-9,17)

      The first and foremost expression of our love for God is obedience to Him.

      Obedience begins with God's word on our hearts. The passage is interesting when it says in verses 6-9, " ". In later times, the Jews began to take this quite literally. They put a copy of Deuteronomy 6:4,5 on a piece of paper and nailed it to the door post of their house. They wore what are called Phylacteries, little boxes with a copy of Deuteronomy 6:4,5 in them tied to their forehead and to their wrists. Unfortunately, many of them forgot to put the word of God in their hearts. They knew it in their heads, wore it on their bodies, nailed it to their houses, but did not know what God really wanted in their hearts. If we love God, then His word will be in our hearts.

      And of course, if it is in our hearts, we will also do it. That was the intent of this command that as God's word became an internal response of obedience to God's Word, people would live their whole lives by that word. If we love God, we will do just that.

B.                 Fear(13),

      In verse 13, Moses goes on to call the people to fear God. We have become quite familiar with God and have emphasized his friendship, but God is still the awesome and holy God. It seems that sometimes there is a dichotomy, we either emphasize the otherness of God or the nearness of God. It does not need to be that way. As we fear God - that is recognize His awesome holiness, it makes it more wonderful that we can know Him and have a love relationship with Him. But such a friendship with God, if it is a true love for God will never forget who God is.

C.                 Service(13),

      Also in verse 13, we notice that loving God is acted out in serving God. How gladly we serve the one we love. How much more gladly ought we to serve God! Yet our lives are often filled with serving ourselves. What a privilege to offer Him our gifts, our hands and our minds.

D.                Trust (16)

      If we love God, we will also live in a trust relationship with Him. In verse 16 Moses warns the people not to test God as they had at Massah. This story is found in Exodus 17:7. Israel had just left Egypt. They had experienced God's great and powerful redemption from slavery. They had watched the dead bodies of the Egyptian army floating in the Red Sea. From the Red Sea, they had begun to travel across the desert. They had experienced God's provision at the first place they came to when the wells were poor and God made the water sweet. They had experienced God's provision of manna and quails in the midst of the desert. Then one day they came to Rephidim where there was no water once again. I don't know about you, but I get pretty anxious when I don't have water. I get pretty anxious when I might not get a good lunch even though I had a great breakfast. These people were in the middle of the wilderness and they knew very well that there wasn't much water there. They began to grumble and complain not because they didn't have water, but because they didn't believe that God who had just seen them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and daily gave them Manna would care for them. The issue for the people when they began to thirst was, "Is the Lord among us or not?" as it says in Exo. 17:7. It was "unbelieving doubt in the gracious presence of the Lord to help them." How similar to our distrust at times.

      What do you fear that makes you question the presence and care of God? One of the fears of many people today is the fear related to the coming millenium. Some of these fears relate to the second coming of Jesus, but with eternal life assured, we do not need to fear that. For some the fear relates to the crash which some say will happen when all the computers get confused with the number 00. Let me ask you, do you believe that God knows about this and will care for us even if this happens? We can trust in God's care for any future event no matter what happens.

      Loving God means that we trust Him. Do you love Him today?

Conclusion

      We notice in this passage that Moses' concern was to pass on a faith in God that was going to be passed on from one generation to another. This is a theme of 6:7 "teach them to your children." and also 6:20, "when your sons ask."  A faith that is fear based, or duty based or tentative and uncertain will not transfer well. Questioning and rebellion will soon dismantle this kind of a faith. A faith that is a love relationship communicates well. That is what Moses invited Israel to have - a love response to a God who loved them. That is what I invite you to have today - A love response to God who loves you.

      On this Valentines Day I invite you to realize that you are loved. I invite you to give a valentine to God and say to Him, "I love you."