Day 140: First love – Deuteronomy 6 vs 12 – 25

12-13 Take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery - it is the Lord your God you shall fear, Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. 14-15 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God - lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

16 You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17-19 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

20-23 When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24-25 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’ Deuteronomy 6:12-25 (English Standard Version)

Did anything strike you as you read vs 16? Jesus quoted the words “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” when Satan suggested he should throw himself off the highest point of the temple because God promised angels would catch him so that he wouldn't be hurt. I find it encouraging to think that Jesus read the same book of Deuteronomy we are reading today and thought about its words just as we are doing. And so he was able to see through Satan's trap. What are your thoughts on vs 14-15.

People sometimes confuse jealousy with envy. Envy, however, is when we want something that belongs to someone else. Jealousy is when we deeply love and care for what is our own. It's natural for a husband or a wife to be jealous for the love of the person they married. They don't want their spouse to give that special marriage love to anyone else. God didn't want the Israelites to give their love and devotion to other 'gods'. And that's true for Christians as well. God wants to be our first love. We should fear and love Him more than anything and everything else in life. Jesus put it clearly when he said: “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.” (Matthew 10:37)

Does that mean God is like a 'possessive husband' who treats his wife more like his property than his partner? Some people would see it like that. But that is not true of God. What results can you see in vs 18-19 and 24-25 will come from putting God first in our life?

We read that if Israel followed His commandments 'it would go well with them' and God would defeat their enemies. We see too that God would preserve them and that righteousness would flourish in the land. Those are all good things. It's completely fair for God to say He wants to be our first love because He gives us far more than we can ever give back to Him. Can you see why vs 20-23 are so important then?

Our reading started with the words “Take care lest you forget the Lord.” Just as it's possible for a husband or a wife to lose their first love if they forget the early years of their marriage, so it’s possible for the next generation to lose it's love for God if they are not taught from an early age how wonderful God is, and how He gave His beloved Son to save us out of our sins. Oh let us seek earnestly to keep that flame of first love alive in our hearts and in our homes.