Read Deuteronomy 5:6–7
Questions from the Scripture text: Whom does God declare Himself to be (Deuteronomy 5:6)? Whose does He declare Himself to be? From what place has He brought them in order to bring them to Himself? From what condition has He brought them in order to bring them to Himself? What are they not to have (Deuteronomy 5:7)? Before Whose face?
What is the great thing in all of life? Deuteronomy 5:6–7 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the great thing in all of life is to be devoted to, and dependent, upon the Lord as our own covenant God.
Deuteronomy 5:6 is really part of the first commandment. “YHWH your God” appears in each commandment in the first table (Deuteronomy 5:6, Deuteronomy 5:9, Deuteronomy 5:11, Deuteronomy 5:12, Deuteronomy 5:14, Deuteronomy 5:15—three times in the fourth). Even in what our catechisms call the “preface” to the Ten Commandments, the Lord taught them what it meant to have Him as their God, so that they would understand what it meant to have no other God.
Worship His Name. “I am YHWH,” the Lord begins in Deuteronomy 5:6. He had revealed His Name to Moses in some detail, eighty years earlier (cf. Exodus 3:13–17). Moses is dying, but YHWH continues. He is the alone eternal God, the uncreated Creator. He is not defined by other aspects or entities; rather, He gives definition to all. And He has revealed Himself especially by covenant, as the God Who takes certain people to be His own covenanted people, and to whom therefore He is their own covenant God. He has introduced Himself as a consuming fire, and begins by declaring His Name, so let us reverence and adore that Name!
Embrace your covenant relation to Him. The Name is glorious: “I am Yahweh.” Therefore, the identification is wondrous, “your God.” If He is the independent I AM, Who is over all and defines all and undefinable by any, is it not truly amazing (mind-stopping in its magnitude) that He proceeds to identify Himself with creatures? And this marvelous identity will take bodily form in the incarnation!
Some think that it’s gnat-straining to quibble about their exclaiming “my God” as a throwaway phrase. But the fact that He is “your God” to His people is one of the great marvels of Scripture, one of the great marvels of all reality. So, even thinking of it as gnat-straining is itself a violation of the third commandment!
Rather, we should rejoice that He is our own covenant God. And fulfill the obligations of being a member of His corporate people, since He is ours. And reject all incompatible allegiances, since He is ours. And count as small, any other blessing and honor, by comparison to the blessing on honor of having Him as ours. And be holy, and live holy, since He is ours. And hate all sin and unholiness, since He is ours.
Persist in your repentance. “Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” As we have seen throughout the wilderness wanderings, it is one thing to get the Israelite out of Egypt, but an altogether different thing to get Egypt out of the Israelite. God has glorified Himself in delivering them from bondage—from what they deserved to have God do to them. Now, He will glorify Himself by bringing them into a life of godliness in the land into which He is bringing them.
Is this not true of us? When God reminds us of that from which He has saved us, He also calls us to live in the manner for which He has saved us. Romans 6:20–22, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
Romans 13:11–12, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
Depend upon His power for your persistence. “Out of the house of bondage.” If Egypt was too strong, against whom they were powerless, then how much more powerless they are against sin! And yet God is about to declare His moral law to them. How can they keep it? Because He speaks to them as One Who has already saved them. He speaks to them as One Who has brought them into covenanted union with Himself as their God. He speaks to them as One by Whose power they are enabled to live in the way required of them as His people.
Devote yourself to, and depend yourself upon, nothing and no one apart from Him. Since He is their God, they must not devote themselves to any other. Since He has brought them out, they are not to depend upon any other.
The Lord gives us other allegiances, but they are all allegiances under Him. We may only be devoted to that, secondarily, which is under Him to Whom we are primarily devoted.
The Lord uses means, but they are all means that He uses. We don’t depend upon them; we depend upon Him Who has given them and uses them. Having no gods before Him is more than just not having the names of other “gods” on our lips. It is about giving nothing else, and no one else, the place in our life which belongs to Him alone.
In what situations do you find yourself living for (or depending upon, or delighting in) something or someone apart from the Lord? What are you living for at those times? In what way are you interacting with God at those times?
Sample prayer: Lord, all things are from You and through You and to You; to You be the glory forever and ever! And in You, we live and move and have our being, so that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we ought to do all unto Your glory. But often we think and speak and act as if we are devoted to some creature rather than You—especially to our own selves. O forgive us, and make us to receive all that is genuinely good in us or others as a gift from You. And make us to enjoy it all and employ it all unto Your glory, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP119M “O How I Love Your Law!” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”
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