Necessity of Covenant Obedience [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 7:12–16]

Why is covenant faithfulness necessary? Deuteronomy 7:12–16 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that covenant faithfulness is necessary for covenant blessing. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Pastor's devotional explores the intertwined concepts of unconditional election and covenant faithfulness, drawing from Deuteronomy 7 to illuminate God's character as both a gracious giver of blessings and a just sustainer of covenant relationships. It emphasizes that while God's love and promises are freely given, obedience is not meritorious but a necessary response to His grace, enabling the enjoyment of His goodness and preventing spiritual corruption. The sevenfold blessing detailed in the passage represents complete divine favor, highlighting that true blessing lies not merely in material prosperity but in enjoying the goodness of God Himself, ultimately fulfilled through the faithful covenant head, Jesus Christ.

2025.09.12 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 7:12–16

Read Deuteronomy 7:12–16

Questions from the Scripture text: What three things will they do (v12)? How will YHWH respond? According to what? What three primary things will He do to them (v13)? What seven things will He bless? In what land? How much will they be blessed (v14)? What will He take away from them (v15)? With what will He not afflict them? Whom will He afflict? What, then, must they do (v16)? What two things must they not do? Why not?

Why is covenant faithfulness necessary? Deuteronomy 7:12–16 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that covenant faithfulness is necessary for covenant blessing.

Unconditional election (v6–8) doesn’t eliminate the need for obedience; it requires it (v12a). For, God elects His people into covenant with Him (v12b)—in which covenant, blessings are contingent upon covenant faithfulness. Covenant faithfulness is met with covenant blessing. 

God elects in love, sustains faithfulness in love, and then blesses that faithfulness in love (v13a). God’s covenant blessing for Israel is experienced in sevenfold material fruitfulness (v13b). The nations that they are replacing treated material blessings as an end in themselves and ended up manufacturing all sorts of wickedness in false worship of that fertility. Material blessings are real blessings, and for Israel they are covenant blessings. But when Israel enjoys them (or when you enjoy them), they are enjoying not just the material thing but the covenant love of God. 

This blessing is a response to their obedience, but it is in accord with His promises. Their obedience protects them from all curse (v14–15a), but that very curse falls upon their enemies (v15b). This is the reason for complete destruction of those cursed people whom YHWH delivers to them (v16a): God is urgent with them so that they will not be ensnared to serve their gods

In what material blessings have you enjoyed God’s love and goodness to you? In what blessings do you hope to? What covenant faithfulness is required of you? What is your hope for that faithfulness?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for the covennt love in which You chose us and made promises to us. Since covenant faithfulness is required, on our part, for that blessing, make us faithful by Your grace. We thank You that Christ has been perfectly faithful on our behalf. Bless us for His sake, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH434 “A Debtor to Mercy Alone”

Choosing the God Who Chose Us [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 7:1–11]

Why should God’s people choose Him? Deuteronomy 7:1–11 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s people choose Him, because He has chosen them in love. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) The devotional lesson emphasizes the critical importance of unwavering devotion to God, warning against any compromise or covenant with the world, particularly those who oppose Him. Drawing from Deuteronomy 7, it highlights that Israel's election is not based on merit but on God's sovereign love and faithfulness to His promises, demanding complete eradication of false religions and a rejection of worldly entanglements that could lead to idolatry. Ultimately, the message underscores that true safety and blessing lie not in covenant membership alone, but in a grace-given, faithful love and obedience to God, recognizing His faithfulness and the consequences of rejecting Him.

2025.09.05 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 7:1–11

Read Deuteronomy 7:1–11

Questions from the Scripture text: What will YHWH their God do for them (v1)? What will He do to whom else? How do these seven other nations compare to Israel? What will YHWH enable them to do (v2)? What must they not do for them? What must they not do with them (v3)? What would intermarriage cause (v4)? And how would YHWH respond? What must Israel make sure to do (v5)? Why, what are they unto YHWH (v6)? And what had He done for/to them? What was not the reason that YHWH chose them (v7)? What were the two reasons (v8)? And what has YHWH done for them because of those reasons? What must they therefore know about Him (v9)? What does He keep? Whom does He repay (v10)? How? What must Israel, therefore, be careful to do (v11)? 

Why should God’s people choose Him? Deuteronomy 7:1–11 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s people choose Him, because He has chosen them in love.

There’s a great danger in the land, but it isn’t those great and mighty nations (v1), whom YHWH will enable Israel to destroy (v2a). The danger is Israel’s own sinfulness, in which they are prone to serve other gods (v4) and/or worship in ways devised by man (v5). If they intermarry with them, or leave any of their worship preferences intact, Israel will incur God’s wrath by breaking the first and second commandments. 

So, they have a choice between covenanting and covenant love with the nations (v2b, more literal than NKJ) and the God Who keeps covenant and covenant love with those who love Him (v9, same vocabulary). Why should they choose YHWH? He has chosen them. Not for anything good in them, but setting His love on them (v7), because of the love that is in Him, in which He has made promises to them (v8a), which He has kept in redeeming hem (v8b). He is the God of steadfast love (v9a), Who displays His character both in redeeming those whom His grace makes to love Him and obey Him (v9b) and in destroying those who hate Him (v10). 

Because this is Who He is, they should choose Him. And, their keeping God’s commandment, statutes, and judgments by His grace is a necessary component of His redeeming them.

Where is the danger that threatens you, if you identify with and join yourself to the world? Why should you choose the Lord? Why would He choose you?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for choosing us in Your everlasting love. Please give us to choose You over the world. Give us to love You with our lives, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH434 “A Debtor to Mercy Alone”

The Gospel Context of the Law [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 6:20–25]

How are we to teach our children God’s law? Deuteronomy 6:20–25 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should teach our children the law in the context of the gospel. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) The devotional emphasizes the importance of Christian families understanding and conveying God's law within the framework of the gospel. Drawing from Deuteronomy 6:20-25, it argues that answering children's questions about commandments should begin with acknowledging God's redemption, power, and faithfulness to His promises. Obedience to God's law isn't presented as a means of earning favor, but as a vital component of a covenant relationship, a means by which God faithfully brings about His promises and preserves life, ultimately fostering a vibrant fellowship between believers and their Creator.

2025.08.29 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 6:20–25

Read Deuteronomy 6:20–25

Questions from the Scripture text: Who will ask something, when (Deuteronomy 6:20)? What will he ask about? What will they tell their children that they had been (Deuteronomy 6:21)? What else will they tell them that the Lord did in Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:22)? What else will they tell them that the Lord did after that (Deuteronomy 6:23)? What will they say that the Lord told them to do (Deuteronomy 6:24)? Through which the Lord would do what? What would obedience be for them (Deuteronomy 6:25)? 

How are we to teach our children God’s law? Deuteronomy 6:20–25 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should teach our children the law in the context of the gospel.

This passage implies important duties of future generations of Israelites. 

Would they read and speak God’s “testimonies, statutes, and judgments” (v20) enough that their children would wonder and ask about them? 

Would they be so intent upon “doing” the statutes (v24, more literal than NKJ) and “doing” the commandments (v25) that their earnestness to put God’s Word into practice in life would demand an explanation from their children? 

Reading the rest of the Old Testament, it is apparent that this passage would condemn most of those generations. 

We would do well to ask those questions of our own home, church, and generation, lest this passage also testify against us.

If, by God’s grace, we do read and speak and live out the testimonies, statutes, and judgments of our God, then our job is not done. If our children do not ask, we need to prompt them to ask. And we need to answer.

The Lord has redeemed us! For Israel, it was especially the Exodus (v21), although certainly a godly Israelite would also want to answer with the greater redemption such as described in Psalm 32 or Psalm 130. 

The Lord has shown His almighty arm (v22)! Again, this has been true in wonderful ways throughout history, and all the more so spiritually. 

The Lord is keeping His promises to us (v23)! 

It is in this context of the Lord’s redemption, the Lord’s power, and the Lord’s faithfulness that we then tell our children about His commandments (v24–25). 

These commandments are the way by which He brings us into what He has promised (v24). 

And these commandments are the right way of relating to our God, before Whom (“before YHWH our God,” v25) we live. 

Dear reader, let us not only tell our children God’s commandments. In order that we might not enslave them in a soul-destroying, God-dishonoring legalism, let us make sure to tell them in the context and manner in which He has instructed us!

How are you living in such a way that children would wonder why God’s law is so important? How does your instruction to them put the law into the context of the gospel?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us Your good law to live by, as You faithfully bring us into what You have promised, by way of Your almighty power. Grant unto us not only to live this way, but to communicate this to the next generation of Your church, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP78B “O Come, My People to My Law” or TPH550 “Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds”

Living in Remembrance of YHWH [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 6:10–19]

What danger does prosperity pose? Deuteronomy 6:10–19 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that prosperity poses the danger of being forgetful of God.

(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) This family worship devotional warns against the danger of forgetting God, particularly when experiencing comfort, security, and prosperity, urging intentional gratitude and habitual worship as safeguards. Remembering God involves fearing Him, serving Him, swearing oaths in His name, diligently keeping His commandments and testimonies, and ultimately, doing what is right and good in His sight. The devotional emphasizes that while God promises blessings—possessing the land, casting out enemies—these are received through obedience to His Word, not as a means of earning them, and serves as a reminder of God's zeal for His own glory and love.

2025.08.22 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 6:10–19

Read Deuteronomy 6:10–19

Questions from the Scripture text: Who will bring them where (v10)? What things will He give them there (v10–11)? What will they not have done? What will they have done? Of what must they beware (v12)? What has He done for them? Instead of forgetting Him, what three things must they do (v13)? What must they not go after (v14)? Which “gods” will be a temptation for them? What, about God, would make forgetting Him particularly bad (v15)? What might be aroused against them? What would He do to them? What must they not do to Him (v16)? Where had they done this? What must they do (v17)? What three things must they keep? In order to do what two things (v18)? In Whose sight? In order that what four things may happen (v18–19)? In accordance with what?

What danger does prosperity pose? Deuteronomy 6:10–19 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that prosperity poses the danger of being forgetful of God.

“Forgetting” YHWH (v12) is a great danger to God’s people. In this passage, we see the circumstance that endangers them of forgetting Him (v10–12), His own definition of how they should remember Him (v13, 17), a warning of what will happen if they forget Him (v14–16), and a promise of what will happen if they remember Him (v18–19). 

Circumstances that endanger us of forgetting the Lord (v10–12). Surely, our sinful hearts are the great problem; we are capable of forgetting the Lord in any circumstance. But it is in the midst of prosperity that we are especially to “beware” (v12) of doing so. For Israel the danger was heightened. They didn’t build the cities, fill the houses, dig the wells, or plant the vineyards and olive trees. How quickly and easily they could come to find their satisfaction in those things (v11) rather than in the Lord Who gave them. If we have worked hard to obtain things, then we are in danger not only of finding satisfaction, but even in danger of self-satisfaction (forgetting that God sustained and enabled us, and acting as if we have done so for ourselves, cf. 8:17–18). Most who read these devotionals have been richly and securely provided for by the Lord in earthly things. Beware, lest you forget the Lord Who has provided for you!

What it looks like to remember the Lord (v13, 17, 18a). In vv1–9, we learned what loving the Lord looks like: a Word-saturated, Word-driven, Word-defined life. Now, we learn what remembering the Lord looks like: fearing YHWH, serving Him, and taking oaths in His Name (worship! v13); and “keeping to keep” His commandments, testimonies, and statutes (obedience! v17). Oh, dear reader, when it is the Lord that you remember, you worship Him. When it is the Lord that you remember, you obey Him. How is your life full of the worship of the Lord and the obedience of the Lord? If it isn’t, then you are forgetting Him!

What will happen if we forget the Lord (v14–16). Going after other gods (v14), or putting the Lord to the test (v16) provokes the Lord to holy wrath in which He destroys (v15). Going after other gods is exactly the opposite of worship; and, putting God to the test is exactly the opposite of obedience. These were the very things that Jesus rejected in His final two temptations in the wilderness. Where He succeeded, Israel would fail, and provoke God’s wrath. This wrath is “jealous,” which means that it comes from the zeal that God has for His own glory. Because we are not so zealous for God’s glory as He is, we don’t appreciate how offensive and wrath-provoking our sin is. How much we should hate our sin!

What will happen if we remember the Lord (v18b–19). Finally, we hear about the good that the Lord intends to do them through their worship and obedience. It will be well with them (v18b), they will enjoy the full receipt of all that God has promised hem (v18c), and the Lord will give them victory over their enemies (19). All of these things are “as YHWH swore” and “as YWHH has spoken.” They are not earned by worship and obedience. Still, the passage describes the worship and obedience as being necessary. This is because the Lord, Who has promised and accomplishes the good that He does to us, has ordained the means through which He brings that good. What blessedness He gives us through worship and obedience! We should worship and obey in full expectation of that blessedness.

How are you battling against the danger of forgetting the Lord? How is your life full of the worship and obedience of the Lord? Why do you hate your sin? How much do you hate your sin? What are you expecting the Lord to give you through worshiping and obeying Him?

Sample prayer:  Lord, grant that by Your Spirit’s grace, we would not forget You, but live lives of worship and obedience unto You, in Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP128 “How Blessed Are All Who Fear the Lord” or TPH548 “Oh, Blest the House”

2025.08.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 6:1–9

Deuteronomy 6:1–9

Questions from the Scripture text: What had Who commanded Moses to teach (Deuteronomy 6:1)? To whom? So that they may do what? Where? What would they do to Yahweh (Deuteronomy 6:2)? Who is He to them? What would they keep? Who would keep it? How long? With what result? And what other results (Deuteronomy 6:3)? How can they know this would happen? What is the command in Deuteronomy 6:4? To whom? What is the declaration in verse 4? What are they commanded to do in Deuteronomy 6:5? With how much of their heart? With how much of their soul? With how much of their strength? What shall be where (Deuteronomy 6:6)? What shall they do with the commandments in their heart (Deuteronomy 6:7)? In what manner? To whom? In what four situations shall they talk about them? What does that leave? What two other things are they to do with the Lord’s words (Deuteronomy 6:8)? And on what two places to write them (Deuteronomy 6:9)?

How are God’s people as a whole prospered? Deuteronomy 6:1–9 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Scripture-saturated religious habits in the heart and the home are the means by which God prospers His people as a whole. 

In this passage, the prospering of the entire nation of God’s people (Deuteronomy 6:1, Deuteronomy 6:3), and of generations of God’s people (Deuteronomy 6:2), is connected directly to the day-by-day, moment-by-moment living of each particular household among that people (Deuteronomy 6:6).

Yahweh Himself is the point of all things’ existence (Deuteronomy 6:4). And this is true, in a special way, of those to whom He has given Himself as their very own covenant God in order that they would love Him with every part and aspect of who they are and what they have (Deuteronomy 6:5). 

Surely, you who have been redeemed by Christ and His blood, you whom God has taken to Himself as His very own covenant people, you to whom God has given Himself as your very own covenant God… surely You wish to make all of your living into a loving of Him with all that you are!

But what does it look like? Is it an emotional ecstasy that you experience as you go about doing whatever you otherwise would have done? Is it a volitional exercise, in which you do those things but offer your will in them unto the Lord? Is it merely measured by doing the right things with as much effort as possible? It is all of these things, but Deuteronomy 6:6-9  teach us that He Himself has made it all about His words: His words in the heart, His words in the hearing (and speaking), His words on the hand, His words in the head, and His words on the house.

Heart. “These words shall be in your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). The “heart” was used of the control center for the intellect, emotions, and will. God’s word must control the basic instruction set at the center of who we are, determining everything else about us. God’s word must be the non-negotiable, inalterable architecture of our “CPU.” However accurately we think about Him, mushily we feel about who we think He is, or diligently we obey His words, it isn’t love unto Him unless these things are in control of our identity, our being, our life. So when we read on our own, or consider His Word in family worship or public worship, we ourselves must be formed and shaped by His Word. It’s not enough to have that Word direct various other things about us. It must be in our hearts.

Hearing. The fundamental command in Deuteronomy 6:4 was to “hear” … “these words which I command you today” (Deuteronomy 6:6). How can the words get to the heart unless they are first received? God’s primary method for our receiving them is hearing. Yes, there is benefit to reading God’s Word, and we are commanded to do so in Scripture (cf. 1 Timothy 4:13, Revelation 1:3). But God especially uses the hearing (cf. Romans 10:14–15). So here, the command is “hear” in Deuteronomy 6:4 and then “you shall teach them diligently” (Deuteronomy 6:7a) and “you shall talk of them” (verse 7b). God’s plan for getting His words into our hearts is that we hear His words from a preacher. And God’s plan for getting His words into our children’s hearts is that they hear His words not only from a preacher but also from their parents.

Where should our children hear the Scriptures from us? Everywhere. “When you sit in your house” (Deuteronomy 6:7c), we should not “relax” from being “on” with God’s Word. That’s specifically where we should be verbalizing it. Where we make it auditorily available to our children. And when we go out—"when you walk by the way” (verse 7d)—we are not to “tone it down” because we’re “in public.” No, that also is a specific place that we should talk of God’s words. We mustn’t deprive our children based upon location (and who knows who else might get to hear those words as they eavesdrop upon us?).

When should our children hear the Scriptures from us? All the time. But especially “when you lie down” (Deuteronomy 6:7e). Speaking to them from Scripture isn’t just something that we are to do throughout the day, but we should have a special time of it at the end of the day. And especially “when you rise up” (verse 7f). We should have a special time of speaking God’s words to our children at the beginning of the day. This habit of stated times of discussing God’s Word with them is what facilitates saturating the rest of the day with that Word. The bookends of the day determine the manner in which we live through all the time in between.

Hand. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand” (Deuteronomy 6:8a). God’s words should determine what we are going to do and the way in which we are going to do it. But that needs to be evident to more than just ourselves. The words are to be “as a sign on your hand”—there should be a clearly evident connection that someone who hears those words and then sees what your hand does. Our children should be able to tell that the things that we are always talking about with them from the Scripture are the very things that determine what we do and how we do it. In this way, not only do you tell them the role that God’s words should have in their lives, but by observation of this “sign on your hand” they are also able to see what that looked like in your life, so that they can apply it to theirs.

Head. “They shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8b). Put your finger upon the bridge of your nose. Because you have binocular vision, the way that you see anything else will be affected, shaped by the presence of your finger. God’s words should be like that to us: affecting how we see anything and everything. But again, for our children, that should be evident to them. It’s strange to see someone who has always worn glasses around you without them, or who has always had a beard with it shaved off. And our seeing things according to God’s words should be so normal to our children, that they would find us strange-looking indeed if this ever were not the case.

House. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9). The Scripture-saturation of our lives should be evident to all who come onto the property or enter our home. These signposts in verse 9 are like fair warning that you won’t be toning anything down for outsiders. I had friends growing up whose parents liked to say, “my house, my rules.” But the believer should be someone who could consistently say, “my house, God’s rules.”

In some circles these days, someone who lives as described above may be accused of “bibliolatry.” But here in Deuteronomy 6:1–9, we can see that this is God’s own description of what it looks like to love Him with all that we are. A divorcing of God from His Word could certainly make someone what might rightly be called a “bibliolater.” But there is no level of intensity or frequency of discussing and following that word that is too much, any more than there is any level of loving the Lord that is too much. The Scripture-saturated life is simply how we love the Lord.

What is your thought life like? What are your days like? What might those who live with you conclude about the place of God’s words in your life? Based upon an honest answer to those questions, how might you better love the Lord?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us Your own words by which to love You. Forgive us for when we let something else be at the center of our heart or life, and grant that Your Spirit would make us so full of Your words, that our children would hear and see that, as also would anyone else who enters our house. For we ask this in Him Whose Name is itself the Word, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP128 “How Blessed Are All Who Fear the Lord” or TPH548 “Oh, Blest the House”

2025.08.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:22–33

Read Deuteronomy 5:22–33

Questions from the Scripture text: To whom did YHWH speak these words (v22)? Where? From the midst of what three things? With what sort of voice? What did He add? What else did He do with these words? To whom did He give the tablets? What had the people heard (v23)? From the midst of what? While what was happening? To whom did they come near in response? Who, specifically, came near? What did they say that YHWH had shown them (v24)? What did they hear? What did they see could happen, with what results for man? But what were they still afraid of happening (v25)? If what continued? What rhetorical question do they ask (v26)? With what implied answer? What do they tell Moses to do (v27)? Who heard them say this (v28)? To whom did He answer? What was His assessment of the elders’ statement? What did He desire that they would have in them (v29)? So that what would be the result? What does He tell Moses to tell them (v30)? But where does He tell Moses to go (v31)? What three things will He speak to Moses? And what is Moses to do with them? So that the people may do what, where? What does Moses now tell them to do (v32)? And what not to do? How should they walk (v33)? In order that what may happen? 

How does God display His glory? Deuteronomy 5:22–33 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twelve verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God displays His glory especially in His grace.

YHWH made a great revelation of Himself in fire, cloud, darkness, and loud voice (v22, cf. Heb 12:18–19).  Israel understand that this is a display of glory and greatness (v24). They are afraid that this glory and greatness will destroy them (v25).

But Israel don’t see that the greatest revelation of Himself here isn’t fire, blackness, darkness, and tempest. The greatest revelation of Himself is in His grace. 

That grace is already on display in the fact that they are not yet dead (end of v24). The rhetorical question in v26 should drive this home to them. When has this ever happened? It hasn’t! God has done an amazing, gracious thing. 

That grace is also plain in the desire of YHWH that they would have a heart that fears Him (v29a) and gives complete obedience: always obeying all His commandments (v29b).

That grace is explicit in the further purpose of this right-heartedness, “that it might be well with them and with their children forever” (v29c). 

But that grace is supremely evident in His provision of a Mediator. In the short-term, He provides Moses. God has given the moral law with His own voice and His own writing in stone (v22). But the ceremonial and civil law, He will now give through the mediator of this administration of the covenant of grace (v31). The mediator urges obedience upon them (v32–33a) for the same gracious purpose that the Lord Himself has already stated, “that you may live and that I may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess” (v33b). 

As mediator, Moses is a type of Christ. It is Christ’s intercession that is the greatest display of God’s grace, the greatest display of God’s glory. How wonderful, dear reader, that in our administration of the covenant of grace, we hear all God’s Word from God’s Son, Who loved us and gave Himself for us! When we worship God, we even come with Him, and through Him, into the glorious presence of God Himself (cf. Heb 12:22–29). God has chosen to display His glory especially by His grace, and that, especially in His Son, our Mediator!

What place does God’s wrath and power have in your thoughts about His greatness? What place does His grace have in your thoughts about His greatness?  What place does Jesus, the Mediator, have in your thoughts about God’s greatness?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for displaying the greatness of Your glory especially by Your great grace. And thank You for doing this, especially in Christ, through Whom we thank and praise You, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage” or TPH266 “Thou Art the Way”

2025.07.25 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:21

Read Deuteronomy 5:21

Questions from the Scripture text: What shall we not do to our neighbor’s wife? Nor what other five specific things of his? Nor what else?

What does God want us to do with/to our neighbor? Deuteronomy 5:21 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God wants us to give our neighbor not only our behavior but love from the heart.

This commandment, especially, sets the Ten Commandments apart from all of the civil/criminal codes of the history of the world. This commandment shows that this is a spiritual set of laws. Not just in the sense that they are given by the Spirit, though that is true. But in the sense that they govern our spirits. Coveting cannot be criminalized or prosecuted because coveting cannot be seen by law enforcement or judiciaries. But it can be forbidden by God’s law and prosecuted by God’s judgment, because God sees the heart. Not only does He see the heart; He demands the heart.

The bookends of the Ten Commandments are really the two great commandments that summarize all of the law. The first table is to love the Lord our God with all the heart. And to love Him really is to have Him alone as God and no other, commandment one. The second table is to love our neighbor as ourself. And to restrain our hearts from being covetous of our neighbor really is to love him as ourself. 

The Spirit grabs our attention, after several short commandments, by naming our “neighbor” in these last two. He could well have left it at “You shall not bear false witness” and “You shall not covet.” And now, in the tenth commandment, he says “neighbor” three times.

The commandment itself doesn’t regulate action so much as attitude, not conduct but a condition of the heart. It names several specific things with which we might be dissatisfied in our own life, or covet from our neighbor’s life. 

But what it is addressing is how we think and feel about those things. God wants our hearts. And He wants us to incline our hearts toward our neighbor as well. When giving the first commandment He said, “I am YHWH your God, Who brought you… out of the house of slaves” (v2). Now He tells them that they are going to have houses and slaves. 

But, most of all, they are going to have Him Himself. This is why when the apostle says, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have” in Heb 13:5, he immediately follows it up with, “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” You can be content with what you have, because You have Him, and He is enough. You don’t need to have what your neighbor has, because you have God, and God is enough.

Now, we begin to see how dreadful it is to covet something that is our neighbors. It is truly wicked to indulge a state of heart that would make us envious and hostile toward that neighbor. But isn’t it even more exceedingly wicked to indulge a state of mind that says that the Lord is not enough? I wonder how many believers, dissatisfied with their marriages, and wishing their spouse was more like another, have realized that they are in fact declaring to God that having Him is not really enough for them.

Truly, as the Lord Jesus taught in Matthew 5, God’s law makes demands even of the condition and impulses of our heart. And perhaps, as with Paul in Rom 7:7–12, it is this particular commandment by which we will discover how very much we are breakers of God’s law. Praise God, then, that out of love for God and love for us, Christ was willing to humble Himself and add all neediness and lowliness to Himself. He has suffered as if He had been covetous, in order to put away our sin, and so that His perfect contentment with God would be counted for us and reproduced in us. Hallelujah!

In what part of life are you most tempted to covetousness? What must you realize that you are really saying to God in those moments?

Sample prayer:  Lord, truly You are enough for us. Whom have we in heaven but You, and on earth there is nothing that we desire beside You. But, our hearts often fail and fall into covetousness. Forgive us our sins, and conform us to Yourself, we ask in Your Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly I Am with You” or TPH73C “In Sweet Communion, Lord, with Thee”

2025.07.18 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:20

Read Deuteronomy 5:20

Questions from the Scripture text: What must you not bear? Against whom?

What does God expect out of how we use our mouths? Deuteronomy 5:20 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the God Who designed us to be speaking creatures requires that we use that speech for the good of our neighbor.

In the eighth commandment, we were reminded that God is the good Giver of possessions, and that we should therefore respect the property of our neighbor and desire to be an agent of God’s good to him. Now in the ninth commandment, the Spirit extends that especially to one of our neighbors greatest possessions: his name.

Prov 22:1 says that a good name is better than great riches. There are many heart-reasons why a sinner might risk others’ names by speaking that which is false.

We must guard against the enmity or envy that would desire to take this good name away from our neighbor. And we must guard against the pride that seeks to advance our own name by some twisting or embellishing of what we say. And we must guard against the ambition of trying to get something by saying what we think the listener wants to hear. And we must guard against the unbelief that thinks that God needs us to lie in order to protect from evil or promote the good. 

As our larger catechism says, the ninth commandment requires “from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever.”

God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and Satan is the father of it (Jn 8:44). We were created to image God, especially in part by speaking. Our mouths exist, first and foremost to praise Him (cf. James 3:9a). But our mouths therefore exist also to bless men who have been made in the likeness of God (cf. James 3:9b). Our words, therefore, are greatly important. Whether to our neighbor’s face or behind his back, we must seek to do him good with our words. There is enough that could be said here that it would fill many of these little devotionals, but it might serve us well just to consider these two paragraphs from our larger catechism:

The duties required in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging talebearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth; keeping of lawful promises; studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.

The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are, all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as well as our own, especially in public judicature; giving false evidence, suborning false witnesses, wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth; passing unjust sentence, calling evil good, and good evil; rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked; forgery, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves, or complaint to others; speaking the truth unseasonably, or maliciously to a wrong end, or perverting it to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful or equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of the truth or justice; speaking untruth, lying, slandering, backbiting, detracting, talebearing, whispering, scoffing, reviling, rash, harsh, and partial censuring; misconstructing intentions, words, and actions; flattering, vainglorious boasting, thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts and graces of God; aggravating smaller faults; hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins, when called to a free confession; unnecessary discovering of infirmities; raising false rumors, receiving and countenancing evil reports, and stopping our ears against just defense; evil suspicion; envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any; endeavoring or desiring to impair it, rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy; scornful contempt, fond admiration; breach of lawful promises; neglecting such things as are of good report, and practicing, or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering what we can in others, such things as procure an ill name.

Here is one of the great places that Christ’s grace in the believer is seen: in the sanctifying of his speech.

In what situations are you most tempted to speak a falsehood or bend or exaggerate the truth? How does this relate to the purposes for which God has enabled you to speak?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for creating us with the ability to honor You with our speech and also bless our neighbor with our speech. Forgive us for turning our mouths into instruments of self-service, and give us grace from Christ to use our mouths in a godly manner, for we ask it in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP15 “Within Your Tent, Who Will Abide” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

2025.07.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:19

Read Deuteronomy 5:19

Questions from the Scripture text: What does this verse prohibit?

What is the proper relationship of God’s provisions to the obtaining of those provisions? Deuteronomy 5:19 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God, Who put His image in us, has appointed to us our possessions—as well as the right means of acquiring them.

Possessions are a good thing. As creation and creation mandates have been behind the first seven commandments, we would do well to see that connection in the eighth. God created everything else before He created man—an entire world to be possessed and enjoyed. And He created man needy of food and gave man duty of taking subduing the earth. Benefitting from what God created to benefit us, enjoying what God created to be enjoyed, and managing what God commands us to manage… this is good.

But there are right and wrong ways of possessing. We tend to think of work as the primary way of possessing. And Scripture does address giving good labor and paying a fair wage. And Scripture teaches us that one of the ways that God provides for us is good stewardship: not just hoarding what God gives us, but putting what He gives us to work in ways that make it even more productive.

And Scripture actually spends quite a few words on inheritance and trade. Two significant ways of stealing included moving boundary markers to take from someone’s inheritance and using unequal weights and measures to take more than was actually agreed upon in trade.

Other righteous ways of obtaining include spoils from just war, God giving His people favor in the eyes of kings and others in high position, and especially generosity of others. This generosity includes both allowing the needy to gather leftovers, as in the gleaning laws, and direct contributions (whether through the church via Levites and later deacons, or immediately to the recipient).

To possess in the wrong way is to deny God as Provider. It’s most important in spiritual things to remember that although God provides all, He does through so appointed means. Trying to be counted righteous or grow in righteousness in a way other than He has appointed is to deny Him as Savior. The eighth commandment gives us an analogy in the area of material provision. He is our Provider. We pray to Him for our daily bread. He feeds the birds and clothes the flowers. He knows what we need before we ask, and tells us that we are of much more value than birds or flowers.

So if we steal, we do something even worse than infringing upon what God gave others. Stealing says that we don’t trust God to give us what we need in His ways. It says that we must be our own provider because He is unable or unwilling or both. The dishonesty offends against God’s truth and justice. The distrust offends against God’s goodness and power.

On the other hand, when the thief no longer steals, his goal is not only to provide for himself, but to have enough to become a means of God’s generosity to others (cf. Ephesians 4:28). Our goal in all material dealings—whether giving or receiving—is to glorify God as the provider of all good gifts.

What means do you have? How are you stewarding them? How are you enjoying and using them? How are you blessing others with them? What more means could you have? What is your goal in all of this?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for loving us and providing for us. Thank you for employing us and enabling us to do good to others. Forgive us for all of our doubtings of your provision and attempts to get things by wrong means. Forgive us our lack of generosity toward others. And make us both more grateful to you and more generous with others we ask, in Jesus Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP15 “Within Your Tent, Who Will Abide” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

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Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

2025.07.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:18

Read Deuteronomy 5:18

Questions from the Scripture text: What does this verse prohibit?

What is the proper relationship of God’s provisions to the pleasures of those provisions? Deuteronomy 5:18 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God has made marriage, and other things, pleasurable in order that we might enjoy His goodness in what He has designed, and therefore forbids seeking the pleasure apart from or in contradiction to God’s design.  

The sixth commandment, prohibiting murder, rested upon the fact that man is created in the image of God. The seventh commandment, prohibiting adultery, also takes us back to the creation. For, God made them from the beginning “male and female” so that the two could become one flesh in the God-joined covenant of marriage (cf. Matt 19:4–6, Prov 2:16–17). 

Marriage is a glorious arrangement that not only supplied the man and the woman with an honorable and blessed estate (cf. Heb 13:4) but was the means by which they would be fruitful and multiply. So greatly is it to be honored that the connection with father and mother which is so strongly upheld by the fifth commandment must become a lower class connection by comparison to marriage (cf. Gen 2:24a), so that spouse always takes precedent over parent (cf. Ps 45:10c). Furthermore, marriage itself serves as a picture of Christ and His church, and marriage done well communicates many good things by analogy to the Lord Jesus and His Bride (cf. Eph 5:22–33).

What a glorious thing is marriage! Therefore, we praise the wisdom of God that has so blessed that special marital knowing of a man and his wife: the mutual and exclusive commitment, the treasuring of one not just like oneself but as being one with one’s own self, the intertwining of heart and life, and even the privilege and pleasure of the marriage bed.

But just as murder disregards God in man, so also adultery disregards God in marriage. In fact, apart from marriage itself, it seeks to have the pleasures of marriage: feastings of the eyes or attractings of others’ eyes, intertwining of the heart, the special knowing of another and various pleasures that come with it. Whether it’s immodest dress, the wandering eye, indulging thoughts of romance or lust, or even worse the involving of others in actions that stir up these sins of the heart—all of them seek pleasures that belong to marriage without the marriage to which they belong. 

When we go after these with our heart, we show that we do not care for God’s institution, for God’s covenant, for the multiplication of God’s image through it, or the display of God’s redemption in it. It is bad enough that adultery, fornication, pornography, etc. communicate that we do not need our spouse to have the pleasures that belong properly to marriage. Even worse, it communicates that our pleasure is chief and that other things are a means to the end of our pleasure, putting ourselves and our pleasure in the place that rightfully belongs to God. 

Chastity is much more than refraining from sexual sin. It is a commitment to enjoying only those pleasures which come in the way that God has designed and commanded them, because He Himself is our chief joy. Indeed, once a man and woman are married, chastity actually demands their romantic enjoyment of one another, of their conjoined life, of the marriage bed (cf. 1Cor 7:3–5). For it is the Lord Who has given these as part of the goodness of marriage, which He has designed for so many good purposes.

Why is marriage good? What purposes does it have? Whose marriages’ health ought you to be guarding and promoting? How do you do that for yourself? How do you do that for others?

Sample prayer: Lord, we bless Your Name for the good gift of marriage. Preserve each of us for our spouse alone, and give us pleasure in the exclusive fellowship and fecund fruitfulness of marriage. Make us to be zealous for faithfulness in others’ marriages as well. Give us modesty of dress and behavior and a chastity that delights in You and Your good design. Forgive us and help us by the life and power of Christ, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

2025.06.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:17

Read Deuteronomy 5:17

Questions from the Scripture text: What does this verse prohibit?

What is the most basic requirement for honoring God in our interactions with others? Deuteronomy 5:17 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that valuing God in others means especially valuing man as made in the image of God.  

In the first five commandments, the primary interaction was with God. Even in the fifth, the honor/glory/ weightiness was primarily God’s, with father and mother as surrogate authorities under Him. Now, as the moral law turns from loving God with all the heart to loving our neighbor, the first thing that it highlights is a proper valuing of God’s image in man.

It was obvious, when Cain murdered Abel in Genesis 4, that it was wicked. Genesis 1 had emphasized that man is made in the image of God, and God had warned Cain that sin was crouching at his door, desiring to control him (cf. Gen 4:7). 

But the logic prohibiting murder is explicitly detailed in Gen 9:6, “Whoever sheds man’s blood by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” There, God Himself makes a distinction between that killing that despises the image of God (murder) and that killing that justly vindicates the image of God (by man his blood shall be shed). 

There are many words for killing in Hebrew, and this one has the shade of meaning of striking down or assassination. This is important not only because it highlights the component of intent and premeditation but also because, as we have seen in other commandments, its focus is especially on the heart. Our Lord Jesus’s own expounding upon this was that rash anger, name-calling, and lashing out are all worthy of condemnation (cf. Mat 5:22). 

Combining these two, we see that we are not just to treat people as made in the image of God, but we are to love God, to love God’s image, to love that He made people in His image, and to love from our hearts His image in those people.

When that is the case, both with ourselves and others, we become diligent and zealous for the preservation of life and dignity. We treat others and ourselves with respect. We take care of our health. We bear patiently with others and exercise gentleness and compassion, refusing all strife or bitterness. Indeed, when others are mistreated, we defend and protect them. And all of this not primarily to feel good about ourselves or make others feel good about themselves or about us, but to respond rightly to the infinite value of God Himself.

In all of this, the regard is first for the Lord. No one actually keeps this commandment apart from knowledge of Him and love for Him. And so the place for us to begin is with fostering love for Him by His Word and meditation upon His love for us (cf. 1Jo 4:19). We dare not trust ourselves to think of or interact rightly with others until our hearts have been set right by love for Him.

What people do you have a difficult time loving well? What truth about them will help you? What interaction with God will help you? What must be recovered in our culture for life to be valued properly?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for making us in Your own image. Forgive us for failing to value Your image will either in ourselves or in others. Thank You for valuing us infinitely and eternally in Christ. Grant that we would imitate you in this, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP5B “Listen to My Words, O Lord” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments” 

2025.06.20 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:16

Read Deuteronomy 5:16

Questions from the Scripture text: What one-word command begins Deuteronomy 5:16? Whom does it command to honor? Who had previously commanded this (cf. Exodus 20:12)? What was His covenant relation to them? That what may be long? And that what else may happen? Where? Who was giving it to them? What was His covenant relation to them?

What are we to do with authority and why? Deuteronomy 5:16 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Lord starts us out with the best of authorities, so that we will learn to honor authorities as part of His means of bringing us into the blessings that He has promised us.  

There is no authority except that it comes from God (cf. Romans 13:1). Sometimes, this is harder to see than others, so the Lord has designed to give us a good start in honoring and obeying authority. The first authorities He gives us to deal with are father and mother. Those from whose flesh we have come, and who, by natural affection, would sacrifice themselves for us. Sadly, there are those parents who lack natural affection for their children and thus do violence to this commandment. And there are parents who lack wisdom to see the needfulness of the authority over their children, and thus deprive them of the designed benefits.

Just as with the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 10th commandments, the 5th focuses especially upon the heart. The Lord Jesus would plainly teach that all of God’s law was to be obeyed first and foremost from the heart. Indeed, all of Scripture teaches that. 

Here, it is important to see that this is much more than a commandment to obey. It is a commandment to honor. To treat father and mother as weighty. Worthy of respect. It’s the word that is even most commonly used to convey the idea of “glory.” 

When parents and children fulfill their God-given roles, they enjoy a provision that helps turn our hearts to the Lord from the youngest age. And when the church and society are full of such life-long-trained appreciators of authority, then those who come into other seats of authority do so with fatherly affection and service unto those entrusted to their care.

When sin is resisted, so that abuse of authority is restrained, and the heeding of this good authority is maintained with respect and affection, the result in the state or church is the benefit of all. 

The LORD had given them to have Him as their covenant God.

The LORD was giving them the land to which they were coming.

And the LORD had given them authority structure, beginning in the household, beginning from birth, by which to prosper them in that land.

The provision of the commandment itself is highlighted here, in Deuteronomy 5, by the addition of “as YHWH Your God has commanded you.” The commandment itself is a gracious gift.

Resisting authority and abusing authority were two core components of the curse upon fallen humanity (cf. Genesis 3:16). Now the Lord assures His people that part of His gracious covenant with them was that as they depended upon Him to conform their hearts to His law, He would bless the keeping of that law unto their good in home, church, and state. If we hope to see His blessing upon us, we must recognize that resistance to authority is ingrained in the fleshliness of the old man, and watch against it by fostering not only obedience but grace-sustained honoring.

What authorities do you have the most difficulty honoring? What would honoring them more look like? What authority roles, if any, do you have? In them, how are you aiming at the good of those under you?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for taking us to Yourself as Your very own people, and for promising to give us every good thing along with You. Forgive us when we forget that You are behind every authority. Many of them are evil, but they are not a terror to us, since You rule and overrule them for our good. Help us to honor them as lesser authorities under You, so that all our obedience comes from obeying You, and all our disobedience to them also comes from obeying You. So, give us grace to maintain humble spirits, wisdom to discern, and integrity to live consistently, in Jesus’s Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly I Am With You” or TPH550 “Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds”

2025.06.13 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:12–15

Read Deuteronomy 5:12–15

Questions from the Scripture text: What are they to do to the Sabbath (Deuteronomy 5:12)? In order to do what to it? In keeping with Whose command—Who is He, and Who is He to them? What are they to do for how long (Deuteronomy 5:13)? What special identity does the seventh have (Deuteronomy 5:14)? Whose Sabbath is it? What mustn’t they do? What eight other entities must do no work? So that who can do what? What else are they to do (Deuteronomy 5:15)? What, specifically, are they to remember? Who did what about that? How? What does this do to their Sabbath-keeping?

What are we supposed to do with the Sabbath? Deuteronomy 5:12–15 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should be guarding the Lord’s Day in order to hallow it well.  

Guard the Sabbath for yourself. The Sabbath is a perpetual, moral commandment, originating from the manner in which God created, and in His making us in His image—more for having fellowship with the Creator even than for managing the creation (cf. Genesis 2:1–3). God has already made the day happy (blessed the seventh day) and holy (sanctified it). 

In Exodus 20:8, the presiding commandment was that we should remember the Sabbath day. This is because we are so apt to forget the Sabbath day. 

Now, as the people are on the verge of entering the land, the presiding commandment is to “Guard in order to consecrate” (Deuteronomy 5:12, more literal than NKJ). This is because we are so apt to lag in our diligence for he consecration of the Sabbath day. The work of consecrating the day is done the entire week long. What we do on the other six days (Deuteronomy 5:13) is in order to the guarding of the day. If that time is going to be spent only in worship, then we must “guard” it in several ways, among them: clear the docket of our lives on the other six days, prepare mind and heart, and reflect in a way to continue benefiting from it—especially with those texts of Scripture that are read/preached/sung/prayed.

Guard the day, dear reader. Its consecration will be under constant threat. God has sanctified it; we must consecrate it; guard it!

Guard the Sabbath for others. The special concern of the list in Deuteronomy 5:14 are the male and female servant at the end of the verse. If everyone else isn’t resting, and if even the animals aren’t resting, the manservant and maidservant will be unable to rest. Guarding the Sabbath, in order to hallow it, means having regard for the effect that we will have upon others. This is especially true, when we are in positions of authority: so, parents with their children, employers with their employees, consumers and their service industry workers, etc. But, there is also application for regarding those above us and equal to us.

Guard our attitude about the Sabbath. Other than the presiding command (“guard” vs “remember”), the major difference between the presentations of the fourth commandment in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 is the supporting rationale. There, remembering went along with the Lord’s instituting the Sabbath at creation. Here, guarding means there is something else to be remembered: it is a redemptive gift. Slaves in Egypt did not get a Sabbath, but when they were redeemed to have YHWH as their God and Master, part of belonging to Him was receiving this sweet and generous command: to consecrate unto Him a day every week, not only now as their Creator, but as their Redeemer. Israel would lose sight of this, treating God’s requirements as a burden (cf. Isa 58:3), and needing Him to highlight this command, specifically, as a command to delight (cf. Isa 58:13–14). 

How much more, now that YHWH the Lord has made Himself known to us especially in the person of Jesus Christ! The Sabbath is not resurrection day, as if it commemorated an event. It is the Lord’s Day, consecrated unto a Being, Whom we know in a Person. It is the sweetest, most delightful command imaginable. And if we are going to consecrate the day well, we must guard our attitude about it.

What is your habit for clearing all earthly duties on the other six days? Whom could you better be enabling to keep the Lord’s Day? How are you using God’s means to foster delight in His Day?

Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for the sweet command to respond rightly to You by devoting one day in seven to drawing near to You, to act upon You in worship. Grant that, by Your Spirit, we would be enabled to guard the day well, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP122 “I Was Filled with Joy and Gladness” or TPH153 “O Day of Rest and Gladness”

Taking God Seriously [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 5:11]

What must we do with God’s Name? Deuteronomy 5:11 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we must carry God’s Name weightily upon our lives and upon our lips. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.05.30 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 5:11

Read Deuteronomy 5:11

Questions from the Scripture text: What shall we not carry (“take,” Deuteronomy 5:11) in the wrong way? Whose/which Name? What relation does He have to us? In what way shall we not carry that name? Who will punish the breaking of this commandment? What will He not do for them (cf. Matthew 12:31)?

What must we do with God’s Name? Deuteronomy 5:11 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we must carry God’s Name weightily upon our lives and upon our lips.  

As creatures made in God’s image (cf. Genesis 1:26), man has always had a special responsibility to display and apply Lordship of God in all the creation (cf. Genesis 1:28).  But rather than view subjection to God as a display of His Lordship, man attempted to be Lord over himself (cf. Genesis 3:5–6). Still, marvelously, even from among sinners, God has chosen to save some to be His own special people (cf. Deuteronomy 5:6). This amazing note rings out of each of the first five commandments: “before Me” (Deuteronomy 5:7), “YHWH your God” (Deuteronomy 5:9), “YHWH your God” (Deuteronomy 5:11), “YHWH  your God” (Deuteronomy 5:12), “YHWH your God” (Deuteronomy 5:14), “YHWH your God” (Deuteronomy 5:15, twice), “YHWH your God” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

So, while all humanity has a special duty among the creation for the honoring of God’s Name, those whom He has redeemed have a special duty even among humanity for the honoring of God’s Name. He gave man speech, so that we could call upon His Name, and the capacity for worship so that we would praise His Name. And He has redeemed sinners so that they will call upon His Name for salvation, and so that they will praise His Name for redeeming them (cf. Revelation 5:9). 

What a weighty thing is the speech of a Christian! It is on this basis that the Spirit warns us against any improper use of our mouths whatsoever (cf. James 3:9–10). But that which is true so intensely with respect to our mouths is also true of our lives as a whole. The people of God are always to be a reflection upon the God of the people (cf. Deuteronomy 4:6–8). 

If we are not careful and intentional about how we speak and how we live, then we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

If we come thoughtlessly or heartlessly to worship itself, then we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

If we use the gospel as an excuse for remaining the same, rather than as an assurance that the pursuit of holiness will ultimately succeed, then we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

If we treat empty pleasures as if they are joyous and the worship of God as if it is dreary, then we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

If we use the Name of God to add force to our empty words, rather than as a reminder that we are always before Him and dependent upon Him, then we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

If we use that which is foul or crass to add weight to our words, rather than carefully choosing what comes out of worship-lips, we treat the Name of God as an empty thing. 

If we treat worship as a superstitious magic by which we act in the spiritual realm, rather than an engaging of God Himself; or if we treat worship as a way to feel a certain way, rather than a felt interaction with God; then, we treat the Name of God as an empty thing.

But there is something greatly dangerous about treating the Name of God as an empty thing. By “the Name of God” we mean every part of how He communicates Himself to us. And if He is not divinely weighty unto us, there is no way that we can be saved. His divine weightiness is what makes us see the true guilt of our sin. His divine weightiness is what makes us see the true salvation that there is in the Savior.

Whenever we speak or live irreverently—and especially whenever we do this in worship—we expose the kind of thinking that demands us to ask, “will God really hold me guiltless?” Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain!

When are you most tempted to be silly or crass? What most hinders your reverence in worship?

Sample prayer:  Lord, how marvelous that You have put Your glorious Name upon our lips and upon us ourselves! Grant unto us to speak and live as those in whom You have invested Your glorious Name, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP8 “LORD, Our Lord, in All the Earth” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”

Truly Loving the True God [Family Worship lesson in Deuteronomy 5:8–10]

What should worship seek? Deuteronomy 5:8–10 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that worship seeks the true God in the true way. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)