February 19, 2025 - Deuteronomy 4-7

Moses spoke to the people:  “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you” (4:1).  Not only were the people to obey; also, they were to remember and tell the stories to their children:  “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life” (4:9).  Obey and remember; not a bad way to live.  Israel was to obey but she was to do so only because, previously, God had covenanted with them to make them great and to give them a land.  All that God had done for them – his acts and his words – was to serve as a foundation for living life in the present.  They were not merely another nation.  They were a nation chosen and loved.  Not only should the people have felt the obligation to obey, remembering all that God had done, but she should have gladly followed after God’s commands.  God’s people, who have been loved, will naturally love him and his commandments and do them.  With John, we testify, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

Let children hear the mighty deeds

which God performed of old,

which in our younger years we saw

and which our fathers told.

He bids us make his glories known,

the works of pow’r and grace,

that we convey his wonders down

through ev’ry rising race.

Our lips shall tell them to our sons,

and they again to theirs,

and generations yet unborn

must teach them to their heirs.

Thus shall they learn, in God alone

their hope securely stands,

that they may ne’er forget his works,

but practice his commands.   -- Isaac Watts (1719)