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When we think about the blessings that God has given us in this land, it is truly amazing. We are blessed in this land with freedom, prosperity, and resources unparalleled in the history of the world. So many of the problems that our ancestors faced we no longer face or to a much lesser degree.
But that doesn’t mean that there are no challenges. What do we do with all this prosperity? How do we maintain it? How do we handle this technology that has made our life so much easier? How do we live in peace with other nations that have their own ambitions and different perspectives from our own? How do we deal with broader threats to health and economy that we have not yet experienced? How do we deal with the polarization that seems to inhibit us from acting in a rational way, grates on our spirits, and splits families and friends?
On a more personal level, we face the question of how to live a meaningful life? How do we deal with the pressures of relationships? And what about our children and their future? What about our children who now seem to be going off the rails? How do we manage our own declining health and learn to live within new limits? What about our church and its future?
What is our priority in the midst of this? If we go back 3,000 years to the book of Deuteronomy, we find the people of Israel facing a big challenge. They were going to go in and take a land that was already inhabited. They were going to have to fight many difficult battles in order to take the land that God had given them. Moses, their leader, was going to die, and they would have a new leader. As they thought about their situation, what was their priority? What was the most important thing for them to do? Our text gives the answer. Love God. That was their first priority. Moses taught them that their blessing did not depend on their skill or wisdom or life but on their connection with God. That’s what we want to see in this lesson, from reason, from Jesus, and from Moses.
Our First Priority According to Reason
If we do not believe that there is a God, then, obviously, loving God is not the highest priority. However, most of the world does and has believed that there is a God who is almighty and infinite and rules the world. If this is the case, then what could be more important than knowing Him and aligning our lives with who He is? He is the one who has made the world and made us. Doesn’t it make sense that we’d want to know something about Him?
You can see this in people’s lives. They try to make power, money, pleasures, or people the center of their lives. It really doesn’t work. It’s a fruitless quest. We need something much more stable to base our lives on. This center of stability is a relationship with God.
Humans throughout the world and throughout world history testify to this fact. Before they entered battle or took a voyage or began their reigns, they would sacrifice to the gods. Granted, they got badly wrong who God is, but they had enough sense to realize that their relationship to God was what mattered most.
If we believe the world is created by God and for God, then what could be a greater priority than knowing Him and loving Him? What Moses was teaching here in Deuteronomy 6 is what is in line with what is revealed to the hearts and minds of all people.
As Christians, we believe that God is one God, but we also believe that God is three persons. We believe this because this is how God has revealed Himself. We would never have come up with this on our own. It is something above reason that God had to tell us. It is a glorious and wonderful mystery. We confess that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, became a human being in order to die as a substitute and sacrifice for our sins, but He also came to teach us. He taught us clearly and simply what our first priority is. That’s what we’ll see in our second point.
Our First Priority According to Jesus
We learn our first and highest duty and priority from Jesus through a confrontation that He had with a teacher of the law. The Pharisees and Saducees had challenged Jesus with difficult questions. This teacher saw that Jesus had given good answers. So, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” In other words, of all things that God tells us to do what deserves the most attention and most effort? All commands of God are important, but we learn here that some are more important than others.
Jesus answers with the verse that we have just read. “’The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’” (Mark 12:29–30). Loving God is our first priority. It’s our highest duty. What is the second? “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:31). These are the greatest commandments. This is our highest priority: loving God and loving our neighbor.
What is interesting is that the teacher of the law thought that Jesus gave a good answer.
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32–33).
So, this teacher recognized that Jesus was right in what He said.
Listen carefully to how Jesus responded to this teacher. “When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God'” (Mark 12:34). In other words, loving God and loving our neighbor is what the kingdom is all about. When we pray, “thy kingdom come,” we are praying that God would turn us into people who love God and our neighbors. When Jesus said, seek first the kingdom, a lot of it was about becoming people who really love God and their neighbors.
One more thing. In Matthew 22, we have an account of the same event. There is an additional point that Matthew adds that I want to bring to your attention. After quoting the commands to love God and our neighbor, He says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Mt. 22:40). Just in case you are wondering, the command to love your neighbor as yourself is found in Lev. 19:18. What Jesus is saying is extremely important. The whole Old Testament is about loving God and your neighbor. That’s also what the New Testament is all about. So, they agree. When we read the Old Testament, we should think of it as being a book about love. That’s what Jesus is teaching us.
Now, let’s begin to look more closely at what God revealed through Moses.
Our First Priority According to Moses
To understand what Moses is saying in Dt. 6:4–9, we must understand the situation in which Moses spoke. They faced at least three big challenges.
First, the people had to conquer the land. Here is how Moses described it:
When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally (Dt. 7:2–3).
This was not going to be easy. The people were intimidating. Rewind 40 years earlier. The first time the Israelites saw the Canaanites, they refused to go in and fight them. So, Moses warned them, “You may say to yourselves, ‘These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?'” (Dt. 7:17). So, this was a big challenge.
Second, their time in the wilderness was going to end. The wilderness was a trying time for them, but it was also a remarkable time. God had provided for them in unique and miraculous ways. That was all going to come to an end, and they would eat the produce of Canaan.
Third, Moses was no longer going to lead them.
Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the Lord said (Deut. 31:1–3).
This would be a big transition. From the time they left Egypt until that day, Moses had led them. Now, he would be gone.
So, they faced many big challenges and some huge transitions. And what were they supposed to do? What was their first priority? Love God. Listen to this, Israel! Moses says. The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Set your sights on God. Learn to see Him. Let this awaken love in you. Love him with all you have, with your heart and soul and mind. If you love Him, take His words and make them the constant part of your life and the life of your family. That is your first priority. That’s what we’ll explore in the coming weeks.
But for now, let’s think about how we can apply this to our lives today. We are facing big issues in our nation. We face big challenges, and we are perplexed about them. To mention only a few, we thought we had put Covid in the rearview mirror, but we now face a new surge. We face the uncertainty of what our disengagement in the Middle East will mean. We don’t know what to do. It’s hard even to figure out what to do because we are so polarized. So, what is our priority in the midst of this? Love God. That must be our focus. That is what God is calling us to do in this time. That is our first priority.
I was talking to Charles Strohmer about this a little bit last week. He found himself dismayed back in 2016 because he didn’t know what to say about the current situation, even though there were problems. It was something new. He had previously had a framework to analyze and speak into current events, but he felt himself at a loss. Eventually, he felt like he had clarity. He realized, where is my love for God? What is my own heart with God? You don’t need to figure it out, you need to let the refiner’s fire have its work. That’s the word we each need. In a way, this is similar to what Moses was saying in their new situation. Where is your heart with God?
For others of you, you face transitions. You see that your body is changing. You can’t do some of the things that you did before. You are having to adjust to a whole new way of life. What are you supposed to do? Love God. That’s your priority. Don’t worry so much about the other things. Loving God is something you can still do and the most important thing that you should do.
Others of you are on the other end. You are beginning to engage in the work world. You are making plans and preparing yourself to prosper. What will determine how you will do in the future? It is God. So, what is your first priority? Love God. Many things will distract you, but one thing is really important. The new things you experience will promise you the highest joy, but don’t forget that God is where the joy is.
Others of you are so busy that you may be thinking it’s a miracle that you’re even here today. You have so many urgent tasks coming at you that you don’t know what to do. Remember. Even in the midst of this, one thing is needful. To sit at the feet of Jesus. If you can’t do it for an hour, do it for a half hour. If not a half hour, then fifteen minutes. If not fifteen minutes, then five. But find some time to work on loving God. “But,” you may say, “won’t everything fall apart?” No. Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be given to you as well.
As we think about this, let us consider it from one more angle. As we pray about the future, what do we want the Lord to do in our lives? We should want what God wants. And what does God want? To turn us into the type of people who love Him above all else and so find our blessedness and happiness in Him alone. So, that’s what we should want. That’s what we should be praying for. That’s what we should be pursuing. If we align ourselves with what God wants, then He will surely give us what we ask for. As Moses looked down through history, he saw that this is what God would do, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). This is what God is after in this world. This is His first priority. Amen.
Benediction: What’s on your to do list this week? Remember that the most important thing you can do is to learn to love God. This means that you must keep Him in your heart and mind. Don’t walk out of here forgetting what you have learned. Let it be on your heart. Set the Lord before you. Whatever you’re facing, whatever challenge, whatever transition, set the Lord before you and do all you can to keep Him in your heart and mind.
This will focus you in a way that you can’t believe. You will find yourself experiencing all sorts of blessings that you never expected as you seek first the kingdom of God.
And as you do so, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.