ESOCS Devotional 26 May 2024 – A Call for Wholehearted Righteousness
MEMORY VERSE: “Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors.” Deuteronomy 6:18 NLT
TEXT: DEUTERONOMY 6:1-25
“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15 (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.
16 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, 19 to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’
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In our text, God calls on the children of Israel for a wholehearted commitment to Him, as the only God, both in heaven and on earth. This they must do by observing all His laws and commands. That was also a condition precedent for them to enjoy long life and hallowed living throughout their lifetime. In other words, God warned against committing themselves with the idle gods of the heathen nations around them.
In verse 4, there is a clear indication that the Lord God of Israel is one God. Moreover, and without any atom of doubt, God is one, though He has manifested Himself throughout human existence in three personalities. These three entities include God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. As God, He could have chosen to reveal Himself through multiple personalities. But He has wilfully chosen to manifest Himself through the Trinity, in order to accomplish specific tasks for the salvation of the human race.
For us today, the emphasis therefore, is that the totality of our being must be devoted to God. One must not just “visit” God occasionally in times of need or trouble. God should be seen as the central focus of our entire existence. All of one’s life must be consumed with the presence of God – spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). In Israel’s case at this point in history, materialism had become their source of downfall and backsliding. As a nation, they had begun to slide away from focusing on the things of the spirit. Undoubtedly, Satan’s best weapon against the spiritual life of men is to cause man to be focused on things of the physical and material orientation (Matthew 4:10, Luke 4:8).
Our God is a jealous being, who will stand for no competition or rivalry in the hearts of men. God will not compete with the minds of those who seek to create their own gods, in order to have it their own way.
What then is our righteousness? In the Old Testament parlance, it was strict obedience to the laws of God. However, in the New Covenant championed by Christ Jesus, righteousness is attained when the people obey God in response to Christ’s engendered grace and mercy, through His atoning sacrifice on the cross (John 3:16, 1:14). No more, No less!
- In the New dispensation, God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. Without exception, He does this to all who believe in Christ’s saving grace. Discuss.
- Lord Jesus, give me the grace to follow.
Further Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-end; Luke 10:38-end-11:1-13; Acts 13:26-43
ESOCS Devotional 26 May 2024
