Deuteronomy 13:4

NASB – You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

NRSVUE – The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

VOICE – Remain loyal to Him! Fear Him and obey His commands. Listen to His voice. Worship Him alone. Be fervently devoted to Him.

Relational Responsibilities to God

God’s people were to follow only Yahweh, no matter what signs, wonders, or other voices that could tempt them to follow idolatry. Following God requires us to live a life that’s grounded on our relationship with Him and following His command. Fearing God recognizes His holiness, justice, power, and mercy. Following God’s commands was a sign that people were loyalty, as these commands were a way to be a holy person set apart from other countries. God spoke to His people through Moses and the laws that were provided. His people were not to be able to follow laws that contradicted what God has shown them. God’s people were to worship God, obey God, and devote their lives to God in all areas of life. Our relationship with God means we stay faithful to His teachings instead of leaning on the pressures, fears, and the wealth of the world.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: The author of Deuteronomy points out many different commands: follow God, fear God, keep God’s commands, listen to God, serve God, cling to God. Which of these things stand out to you and why?

Setting the Tuner Correctly

Listening to God’s voice can be difficult in a world that divides our attention at all times. Too many things scream at us to pull to focus our attention, which is a way that we can be so anxious about what’s going on in the world. The biblical understanding of “anxiety” is to be pulled apart in a lot of different directions. When our minds are split between the events of the world, our relationships, our jobs, our families, our friends, our spouses or significant others, our kids, our hobbies, and then our own health – it’s no wonder why our minds can be so divided and hard to calm.

Christians are called to focus on God’s voice, so that He can guide us through the anxiety to a place of peace. This peace is not a stop to the anxiety, but to endure through the anxiety without fret. Some anxiety is good in life, but unfortunately our current society increasingly triggers it as each day goes on. We can find our guidance through Scripture, prayer, and the Holy Spirit. Studying the scripture can shine lights on our situation that we may not have thought about in the past, and give us wisdom that we may need to continue ahead on the path we’re on. Prayers don’t have to be formal or well thought out. It doesn’t even need to be a specific time of day to pray. What it needs to me is intentional moments when we pause, give our anxiety to God, breathe, and continue onward. Our prayers can be one sentence, or they be endless ramblings. The goal is to create that undisturbed place where we can conversate with God. It involves a lot of trusting God. It involves leaning on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us through paths, conversations, and actions that can make us feel uncomfortable. Instead of leaning into the discomfort and avoid doing what we must, we lean into the Spirit. We trust, by faith, that God is walking with us each step of the way.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When it comes to focusing on God, how can you listen to His still, small voice amongst the loud chaos of the world?

Standing Firm In Your Identity

Listening to God’s voice comes back around in Deuteronomy 28:1, which says:

NASB – “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord you God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God will put you high above all the nations of earth.

NRSVUE – “If you will only obey the Lord your God, by the diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth;

VOICE – If you listen closely to the voice of the Eternal your God and carefully obey all the commands I’m giving you today, He’ll lift you up high above every other nation on earth.

Moses wants all the Israelites to commit to a relationship with Yahweh before they entered Canaan. Acknowledging His voice was more than just acknowledging His authority. The Israelites were called by God to love Him wholeheartedly and live a life according to His will for them. The commands that Moses gave covered all parts of life under the old covenant – things like morality and justice. Israel couldn’t pick and choose what commands to follow. They had to follow them carefully, remembering God’s works, rejecting idolatry, and depending on God AFTER entering the Promised Land. Their national success, security, fruitfulness, and honor would show the rest of the nations that Israel belonged to Yahweh. It was to be about pride, but to show God’s holiness and faithfulness. Israel would struggle to do follow God’s commands, but God would bless all nations years later through the works of Jesus.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: God called the Israelites to stand apart from all other nations. How can you, as a Christian, stand apart from the world?

Listen to God

Listen to God. Hear God. The Hebrew word to listen and hear is the same as the word for obey. This shows us that to truly follow God, it starts with listening to what His word teachings us. The foundation of all of God’s commands is to love Him with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Each command that we read about can be traced back to one of these two commands. When we embrace God’s commands along that foundation, we start to understand why some of the commands were put in place to begin with. Now, there will be some commands that will not make sense to us. Why? Because we’re not in the same culture, time, or place that they were set in. The goal for us is to understand why these commands existed in the first place to glean what we can apply from them into our life today. Per the teachings of Jesus, it shapes into five key things: feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and the imprisoned. These things and more are what we’re to focus on. We give a voice to the voiceless, meet the needs for the needy, and love all people that we meet.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can we go out and meet the needs of those that we meet?