Kingdom Passion (2)

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you…?” Deuteronomy 10.12

Begin here
In order to discover what is most important in being a follower of Jesus Christ, we should go back as far as we can – turn to the beginning of the manual, so to speak.

The book of Deuteronomy is a good place start, for it was written shortly after the Lord redeemed His people from Egypt and before they began the work of laying hold on His precious and very great promises in the land of Canaan.

And here, sure enough, early in the book of Deuteronomy, we find the Lord Himself, through the mouth of Moses, putting before Israel what sounds very much like the one thing He expects of them as His people.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORDyour God require of you…”? That’s what we want to know. What is that “one thing” that will define Israel as the people of God, that “one thing” that should command all their passion and devotion? For surely in this one thing we should hope to find some clue as to what the Lord requires of us.

God answers His own question: “…what does the LORDrequire of you, but to fear the LORDyour God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORDyour God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD…?”

Oh. Is that all?

One thing, or many?
At first it might appear that Yahweh’s “one thing” is actually a variety of different things – fear, walk, love, serve, keep. That sounds like a lot to figure out, keep straight, and actually do.

But why should we fear the Lord, unless we know something about Him that might incline us to such a response? And how can we walk in His ways or serve Him if we don’t know where He walks or what will please Him? And can we love the Lord unless we know Him to be worthy of loving? Or keep His commandments, unless we would do so from the very depths of our being, knowing Him Who gave them?

All these affections and instructions assume a prior state – the state of knowing the Lord.

As Israel came to know the Lord they discovered that He was certainly a God to be feared. They saw what He did to Pharaoh and Egypt, as well as to all the kings and nations who tried to oppose Him. He is a God of great power, holy in all His being and ways, and not one to suffer fools and sinners indefinitely.

At the same time, this holy, awesome, and fearsome God had extended His saving mercy to them, an unworthy people, really, a people of no account at all. He simply loved them, and, once they understood that, it made it possible for them, knowing Him, to love Him in return. Knowing and loving Him, they would want to be with Him, and thus to walk in His ways, and it would be their heart’s desire to please Him because of His mercy and grace toward them.

Knowing God
So all the things that God “requires” of His people seem to flow logically out of their knowing Him. Indeed, the very first of God’s commandments begins with His declaration to them of Who He is – their Redeemer and Lord. To know God is to fear and love Him, and to follow, serve, and obey Him. God could not require such things of us if He did not first make Himself known to us. But once we begin to know the Lord, then all these requirements make perfect sense, and follow like night after day.

To know God is both to fear and love Him; it is to walk the path He walks, to look for ways of pleasing Him, to enjoy His favor and delight in His pleasure, and to obey the wisdom and promise of His revealed statutes and commands.

The one thing necessary for us to fulfill all that God requires is that we should know Him. And this involves receiving what He is pleased to reveal about Himself, as much as we can, from the words He speaks and the works He does.

God is to be known in His works and His words, and, since we will neither fear nor love Him, serve nor obey Him, enjoy nor delight in Him, apart from knowing Him, it appears that what lies back of what God requires of us is that we know Him, know Him personally and intimately, and relate to Him as His children, people, and friends.

One thing, therefore, is necessary, and one passion should consume us, if we would do what God requires and enjoy the blessings of our Kingdom citizenship, and that is that we should know Him.

Next steps: How did you come to know the Lord? Sort out your thoughts about this, then share them with an unbelieving friend.

T. M. Moore

Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Passion, is the third of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.