Commentary - Deuteronomy 6:17-19

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent exhortation, Moses moves from the general command to love and fear God to the practical outworking of that love and fear. This is the rubber-meets-the-road portion of the sermon. Having established the great principle of singular devotion to Yahweh in the Shema, he now insists on a corresponding diligent obedience. The passage establishes a crucial covenantal sequence: heartfelt diligence in keeping God's law leads to doing what is objectively right and good in God's sight, which in turn unlocks the promised blessings of well-being, possession of the land, and victory over enemies. This is not a transactional, "if-you-do-this, God-owes-you-that" arrangement. Rather, it is an organic, cause-and-effect relationship established by a gracious God. Obedience is the pathway of blessing, not the meritorious cause of it. God is setting before Israel the constitution for a successful and thriving society under His rule, and the foundation of that society is a careful, thorough, and faithful adherence to His revealed will.

The core message is that there is an unbreakable link between ethics and eschatology, between what we do now and what we inherit later. The good life in the good land is contingent upon keeping the good law of a good God. The driving out of the Canaanites is not presented as a separate, unrelated military project but as the direct consequence of Israel's covenant faithfulness. In short, God is telling His people that if they take care of their walk with Him, He will take care of their enemies.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

This passage comes immediately after the warning not to test the Lord as they did at Massah (Deut 6:16). The incident at Massah was a demand for God to prove Himself on Israel's terms. Here, Moses presents the alternative: not demanding proof from God, but rather providing proof of our faith to God through diligent obedience. Chapter 6 is the heart of Moses' opening sermon. It begins with the foundation: the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and we are to love Him with everything we are (Deut 6:4-5). This is followed by instructions on how to inculcate this love and the law that flows from it into every aspect of life, particularly in the instruction of children. The warnings against forgetting God in prosperity (Deut 6:10-15) and testing Him in adversity (Deut 6:16) set the stage for our text. Verses 17-19 therefore function as the positive summary statement of what Israel should do, in contrast to the faithlessness of the previous generation. It is the path of life and blessing set before a people standing on the threshold of the Promised Land.

Key Issues

Obedience is How You Move In

There is a popular but mistaken notion that the Old Testament is about works and the New Testament is about grace. But that is a caricature drawn by people who haven't been paying attention. Here in Deuteronomy, on the plains of Moab, Moses lays out the logic of the covenant, and it is shot through with grace. God did not deliver them from Egypt because they were diligent keepers of the law. He delivered them by grace alone, because of a promise He made to Abraham centuries before. Their deliverance was a free gift.

But now that they are a redeemed people, they are given a way of life that corresponds to their new identity. Obedience is not the way they earn salvation; obedience is the way they enjoy salvation. It is how they live as a saved people. God is about to give them a magnificent gift, a good land. These instructions are the "some assembly required" portion of the manual. You have been given this great gift, and here is how you live in it. Here is how it works. Diligence in keeping the commandments is not a burden intended to crush them; it is the key that unlocks the front door of the house God has built for them. To neglect the law is to choose to camp out on the lawn, ignoring the feast set for you inside.

Verse by Verse Commentary

17 You should diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.

The key word here is diligently. This is not a casual, half-hearted, when-you-get-around-to-it kind of keeping. The Hebrew word shamar carries the sense of guarding, watching over, preserving. It means to pay close and careful attention. This is the opposite of the sloppy, forgetful attitude that characterized their fathers in the wilderness. This diligence is an affair of the heart before it is an affair of the hands. It flows from the love commanded earlier in the chapter. Because you love Yahweh your God with all your heart, you therefore guard His commandments with all your diligence. Notice also the comprehensive nature of what is to be kept: commandments, testimonies, and statutes. This covers all of God's revelation. The commandments are the direct orders, the testimonies are the witness God bears concerning Himself and His will, and the statutes are the decreed ordinances for the life of the nation. There is no picking and choosing. A diligent heart desires to keep all of it, because all of it comes from the God it loves.

18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to give your fathers,

This verse establishes the standard, the motive, and the result. The standard is what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh. This is a crucial point. The standard for ethics is not what is good in your own eyes, or what seems right to the surrounding culture. The standard is objective, and it resides in the character and revealed will of God. He determines what is right and good. Our job is not to invent morality, but to conform to the one that exists. The motive, or rather the immediate consequence, is that it may be well with you. God is not a cosmic killjoy. His laws are not arbitrary hoops for us to jump through. They are the manufacturer's instructions for human flourishing. When we live according to His design, things go well. This is not a promise of a life free from all trouble, but it is a promise of fundamental, covenantal well-being. And this well-being has a tangible, historical result: that you may go in and possess the good land. The inheritance is tied to the obedience. God's people are to live in God's place under God's rule. Their faithfulness is the condition for their continued tenancy in the land God graciously swore to give their fathers.

19 by driving out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

This is the capstone of the promise. Possessing the land is not a matter of signing some celestial paperwork. The land is currently occupied by squatters, enemies of God who have filled it with their idolatry and wickedness. Part of the blessing of obedience is the power to overcome these enemies. Notice the logic: you do what is right and good, and as a result, you are able to drive out your enemies. God fights for the obedient. When Israel walked in faithfulness, their enemies melted before them. When they turned to idolatry, they found themselves routed by the very people they were supposed to conquer. The victory is a divine gift, as Yahweh has spoken, but it is a gift that flows down the channel of covenantal fidelity. God had already promised to do this, but Israel had to walk in the way of that promise. He promised to give them the land, but they still had to go in and fight. He promised to drive out their enemies, but they had to be the instruments of that driving out. This is the consistent biblical pattern of divine sovereignty and human responsibility working in perfect harmony.

Application

We are not ancient Israelites standing on the banks of the Jordan, but the covenantal principles laid out here are timeless. We too have been delivered from a house of bondage, the slavery of sin. We too have been promised a glorious inheritance, not a parcel of land in the Middle East, but the entire renewed creation (Rom 4:13). And we too are called to live in this world in a way that is right and good in the sight of the Lord.

This passage calls us to a diligent, careful, and comprehensive obedience to the Word of God. We cannot be lazy Christians. We must guard the commandments, statutes, and testimonies of our King. This means we must know them, study them, meditate on them, and apply them to every corner of our lives. When we do this, we find that God's law is not a burden but a blueprint for blessing. It is for our good. It leads to genuine human flourishing, to things going well with us in the deepest sense.

And what about our enemies? We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Our enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. This text reminds us that victory over these enemies is directly linked to our walk of faith and obedience. As we do what is right and good in God's sight, empowered by His Spirit, we find that we are driving out the lingering pockets of sin in our hearts, our homes, and our communities. The Great Commission is our mandate to go in and possess the land, to disciple the nations. And the means by which we do this is by teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded. Diligent obedience is the path to victory, for our good, and for the glory of God.