Bible Commentaries

The Message of the Book of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 6:4

The book which lies before us Deuteronomy 6:4

On this verse Prof. Harper observes: "The worship at the High Places had led, doubtless, to belief in a multitude of local Yahvehs, who in some obscure way were yet regarded as one, just as the multitudinous shrines of the Virgin in Romanist lands lead to the adoration of our Lady of Lourdes, our Lady of taples, and so on, though the Church knows only one Virgin Mother. This incipient and unconscious polytheism it was our author's purpose to root out by his law of one altar; and it seems congruous, therefore, that he should sum up the first table of the Decalogue in such a way as to bring out its opposition to this great evil."

References.—VI.—A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons, vol. ii. p398. J. Johns, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p354. J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p123; The Law of the Ten Words, p35. J. Vaughan, Sermons (10th Series), p6. VI:4 , 5.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p25. VI:6 , 7.—E. W. Attwood, Sermons for Clergy and Laity, p369. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p140. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p254. VI:6.—M. Briggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p125.

Deuteronomy 6:7

On the religious education contemplated in this passage, Prof. Harper says: "To compensate for the restrictions which the Decalogue puts upon the natural impulses, Yahveh was to be held up to every child as an object of love, no desire after which could be excessive. Love to Yahveh, drawn out by what He had shown Himself to be, was to turn the energies of the young soul outward, away from self, and direct them to God, Who works and is the sum of all good. Obviously those upon whom such education had its perfect work would never be fettered by the material aspects of things. Their horizon could never be so darkened that the twilight gods worshipped by the Canaanites should seem to them more than dim and vanishing shadows. Every evil, incident to their circumstances as conquerors, would fall innocuous at their feet."

Reference.—VI:10-12.—Archbishop Benson, Sermons Preached in Wellington College Chapel, p1.

The Lamp of Memory

Deuteronomy 6:12

Dr. Johnson defined a patriot as "one whose ruling passion is a love for his native country". Jesus Christ showed Himself to be a profound patriot, and the Old Testament, which was His Bible, is the most patriotic book in the world.

I. The gift of memory is a strange and mysterious power which holds its seat in the very fortress and citadel of the inward man. We are persons, because we can remember. We English are anxiously unmindful of our own national past, though few people ever had such a past to be proud of and thankful for. Each green battlefield where English liberty was won, each crumbling castle and cathedral on English soil, is preaching its silent sermon, warning us, and teaching us how much God has done for us, and for our fathers.

II. "The sense of greatness keeps a nation great." Mr. William Watson's line comes true if "greatness" be the greatness of our calling and election in God's will, of our high privileges by God's grace, of our sacred charge and duty to be the standard-bearers of liberty and mercy and truth in the world. But if the sense of greatness only inflates us with a conceit of ourselves and contempt for other peoples, if we use our privileges selfishly and recklessly, and boast ourselves like Nebuchadnezzar over our imperial state and power—then England's decay and downfall have begun already. For that insolent temper in any nation has its root in rottenness and its blossom in the dust.

—T. H. Darlow, The Upward Galling, p70.

References.—VI:16.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No2178. VII:2.—M. Biggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p134. VII:2-4.—T. Arnold, The Interpretation of Scripture, p24. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p192.