To Whom Will We Give Our Allegiance?

In Whom Will We Put Our Trust?

Deuteronomy 6:1-8

Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Her name was Mary Lou. His name was tom. they were both in their eighties, and they were celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

A news reporter was there to cover the big event, and he asked this question: "Mr. Tom, so many marriages are failing today, and yet here you and your wife are, celebrating sixty years together. How did you do it? What is your secret?"

Mr. Tom didn't even have to think for a minute how to answer that question. Without a moment of hesitation, Mr. Tom said with a warm smile, "Well, the answer is on the face of my watch." He said, "Mary Lou's father gave me this watch as a wedding present on the day we were married, and over the years this watch has played a large part in giving us a happy marriage." The reporter didn't understand until he looked more closely. Inscribed across the face of the watch were these words: Tom, tell Mary Lou you love her!

Think of that—every time he looked to see what time it was over all of their sixty years together, there was that message from his father-in-law: Tom, tell Mary Lou you love her!

Tom's father-in-law was a smart man. He realized how much all of us need good reminders, how much all of us need to be constantly reminded of who we are and whose we are and what we should be about.

Two men were talking one day over lunch. The first man said, "My wife has a terrible memory, the worst memory I ever heard of." The second man asked, "Forgets everything, huh?" And the first man replied, "No—remembers everything!"

Most of us are the other way around. We are so forgetful. We just have a lot of trouble remembering things, and consequently we have to come up with all kinds of creative ways to remind us of what we need to be doing.

Some, of course, use the classic reminder of tying a string around their finger.

Others have gotten more technically advanced—they call themselves on the telephone and leave themselves a message in voice mail or on their home answering machine.

Others e-mail themselves a message reminder.

Some rely on their secretaries to remind them of their priorities of the day.

Others put a sticky note on the steering wheel of their car.

Still others write down a list and put it in their pocket—but then they have to tie a string around their finger or put a sticky note on the steering wheel to remind them to look at the list in their pocket!

Now, this problem of being forgetful is not a new challenge. It's as old as the Bible itself. That's precisely what this famous passage in Deuteronomy 6 is really all about. Moses is reminding the people that "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing"! He does this by giving them the Shema. It's recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4, one of the mountain-peak moments in all of the Bible, the Great Commandment of the Bible: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

Now, let me tell you why Moses is giving the people this Great Commandment at this time. Moses has led the people out of Egyptian slavery. They have been a nomadic people traveling in the wilderness for a long time, depending on God for everything, and now two very dramatic things are about to happen to them. First, they are about to cross over into the promised land. Second, Moses can't go with them. He has grown old and weak now, and Moses will not be with them to lead them into the promised land as they establish themselves there. Moses will not be with them to remind them constantly that they are God's covenant people, God's servant people, and they must put their trust in God and God alone.

So to help the people remember, Moses "ties a string around their finger" by giving them this Great Commandment to constantly remind them to put God first and to serve God alone and to put their faith and trust in God alone. "No other gods. Love God alone with all your heart, soul, and might." Put these words on the doorposts of your homes. Put these words on the gates of your city. Wear them on your armbands and headbands. Speak them in every worship service. Teach them to your children. Don't give in to the temptation to worship the gods of the Canaanites. Don't water down or contaminate your faith. Don't chase after every new fad that comes along. Just put your trust in Yahweh. Serve God and God alone.

For all those years, the Hebrew people had struggled to survive in the wilderness. Now, they have come to the promised land. They had dreamed of this. They had longed for this. They had prayed for this. But Moses knew that now, as they went into the land, they would face an even more dangerous problem: other people already lived there, and these people had their own set of gods they worshiped. They had a god of wine, a god of war, a god of fertility, and a god of this, that, and the other. And Moses knew that as his people settled in, some of these gods would look attractive to the Hebrews, so much so that they might begin to worship them. So Moses gave them this Great Commandment to be a constant and...