Deuteronomy 6:4-15

But how do I get to know God? This is a question often asked. Since God does not make himself visible and we cannot sit down and talk things over, how do I come to know God?

Moses gives us some clues to this question in our text. He is instructing the nation of Israel as they depart Egypt on how they can become reacquainted with their God.

By using the methods that Moses gave to His people, we too can know God and learn His ways.

• Recognition of God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
  • Recognize His being
    • No argument, just a declaration
  • Be aware of our responsibility
    • Love God with our heart, soul, and mind
      • Not in a fickle way
• Meditation on God’s Word (Deuteronomy 6:6)
  • Contemplate the meaning
    • From her fingertips to lips
      • In France, there once lived a poor, blind girl who obtained the Gospel of Mark in raised letters and learned to read it by the tips of her fingers. By constant reading, her fingers became callous, and her sense of touch diminished until she could not distinguish the characters. One day, she cut the skin from the ends of her fingers to increase their sensibility, only to destroy it. She felt that she must now give up her beloved Book, and weeping pressed it to her lips, saying, “Farewell, farewell, sweet words of my Heavenly Father!” To her surprise, her lips, more delicate than her fingers, discerned the form of the letters. All night she perused with her lips the Word of God and overflowed with joy at this new acquisition. *
  • Apply to your life
    • The master’s donkey
      • A Haifa policeman, who knew his Bible, got on the trail of a gang of smugglers. They used a donkey-drawn caravan to escape. The policemen managed to capture some of the donkeys, though the smugglers got away. The clever officer let the beasts of burden go without food for several days before turning them loose. Just as he predicted from Isaiah 1:3, “the ox knoweth his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib,” the starving animals led the police directly to the smuggler’s hideout. *
• Education in God’s truth (Deuteronomy 6:7)
  • The Bible needs to be the topic of conversation that is common to the family
  • The Bible is the source from which all knowledge flows
• Retention of God’s truth (Deuteronomy 6:8-9)
  • Methods that aid retention
    • Familiarity
    • Memorization
    • Constant reading
      • A poor prisoner confined in a dungeon had no light except for a few moments when food was brought to him each meal. He said, “I can find my mouth in the dark,” so he used those fleeting moments to read his Bible.
    • The benefits of retaining the truth
      • Ready reference
      • Using the Word as a weapon

Therefore, we can know God and learn His ways.

We are warned against knowing the truth, but not acting upon it. (Deuteronomy 6:12-15) God declares Himself to be a jealous God. There is one set of circumstances that makes God jealous… it is when His people participate in idolatrous activities. God declares, “You shall have no other god before Me.”

Our responsibility then is not only to know and learn, but also to follow our God.

* These are illustrations referenced from World Christian Digest