It Really Is That Simple

“Know therefore this day, and consider [it] in thine heart, that the LORD he [is] God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: [there is] none else. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong [thy] days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.” (De 4:39-40 AV)

Verse thirty-nine is often thought of and preached separate and apart from verse forty.  We look at verse thirty-nine as a proof text of God being only one God.  We correctly teach there is no other God but our God.  The singular nature of God and that fact there is none else is often a source of encouragement.  The fact there is only one God intimates security and predictability.  There are no other gods who might contradict one another.  There are no other gods who may have opposing wills.  Because there is one God means His ways are simple, singular, and discernable.  Because there is only one God, our relationship with Him is focused and personal.  We need not divide our devotion between multiple Gods.  This is a truth of great comfort.  But the context above refers to obedience.  Verse forty is clear.  Because there is one God and only one God, we are to obey His commandments.  It really is that simple.

There has been a trend of late.  I don’t know where or when it started, exactly.  But there is a trend to humanize the LORD.  The humanity of Christ is elevated above His divinity.  The Godhead is minimized for a less intimidating idea of who and what God is.  Truths like the fear of God and the wrath of God are seldom preached truths.  We want a friendlier and more relatable form of Creator who isn’t all that concerned with how we live our lives.  We have gone the way of the Gnostics who believe knowledge means spiritual maturity.  The more ‘nuggets’ we discover, the more mature we believe ourselves to be.  The definition of spiritual maturity is reduced to writing a book, hosting a video, or solving some obscure puzzle that the saints of God have been arguing for thousands of years.  God is reduced to a theological construct, no more to be feared than the textbook from which we are gleaning these concepts.  God has been neutralized.  He has been humanized.  God is no longer the Creator of all things, Owner of all things, and Controller of all things.  His creation believes it owes Him nothing, and that He is there to accommodate us.  Our prayer life is usually about what God can do for us.  Although we are encouraged to lay before Him our needs, it is not with the presumption that He owes us those needs.  We have wandered far from the true nature of our Creator and unless we return, there are hard days ahead.

The conclusion of the declaration of God’s sole existence is that His creation must obey Him.  Our walk with God is no more complicated than that.  Most of today’s preaching centers on the felt needs of the saints.  Just the other day I went by a community church who was advertising a series of messages on surviving in a difficult world.  When will we hear old-fashioned sermons on the commandments of God?  When will we get back to the laws, statutes, and principles of the Bible to which we are commanded to heed?  When will we hear honest preachers of truth warn the sinner and the saint that God is our Creator and He is not pleased when we walk in disobedience to His law?  There is no fear of God and no desire for salvation because we have abandoned the preaching that once grew our churches.  We have neglected holiness as a command of God and reduced it to a preference for better living.  When do we hear again that God will judge?  When do we fall on our face and seek forgiveness from a merciful God because we have utterly failed to live according to His word?  I fear the longer time marches on without the understanding of fearing God and obeying His commands, the closer the LORD is to conclude His plan for mankind.  God is God!  He owes you and me.  He has every right to do with that which He has created.  As it pleases Him!  Fear God and keep His commandments, because that is the whole duty of man!