Deuteronomy 6 gives two motivations that are meant to move the Israelites to obedience. The first is found in verse 5 where we read that they are to love the LORD, their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. A few verses later, in verse 13, the Israelites are told to fear the LORD their God and serve him only. These verses indicate that either loving or fearing the Lord will lead to obedience.
As we consider these two motivators, it is important that we read what follows. Following the command to love God, the text goes on to say that the Israelites are to find ways to remember what God has said by repeating God’s commands to their children, by talking about them at home and on the road, and by placing written copies in prominent places such as doorframes and gate posts. The text reminds the Israelites what God did for them by giving them a land in which to live which they did not have to clear of trees or build roads or houses. All that was provided for them by God. Their love is founded on God’s prior provision for them.
The second command, to fear the Lord, is followed up by a warning to not follow other gods or question the Lord’s ability to provide for his people. The Lord is a jealous God, we read, meaning that he carefully guards his relationship with his people and does not look kindly on people going elsewhere to find help when he is the best provider. In cultures which recognize a whole pantheon of gods, people were encouraged to find the best god to meet their purposes because those gods, although believed to be capable in some areas, were not proficient in others. The Lord, however, is capable in all areas, and God didn’t want his people to turn to less capable gods. God’s jealousy, then, was meant for his people’s good, for he wanted the best for them, and he was the best. The text says that if his people do turn away from him, his anger would be aroused, and when God is angry, his people should fear him. Thus, to avoid God’s anger, his people should turn to him as their only God.
In a sense, this all boils down to loyalty. God is calling his people to be loyal to him, and loyalty is expressed in obedience to his commands. God’s commands, as we know, are not simply random legalistic requirements but, rather, are designed to cause his people to flourish. Considering all that God had done for his people, he had every reason to expect them to be loyal to him. Loyal people want to please the one who has blessed them, and thus, the Israelites would want to know what God expected of them, so at the same time, when God had done everything for his people, and they became disloyal, he had every reason to be angry with them.
Loyalty to the Lord seemed to be a problem for the Israelites. They repeatedly turned to other gods because it seemed to them that those other gods might offer a bit more than what they could get from the Lord. They had a hard time being loyal even though the other gods never really gave them anything. They were disloyal, and it showed in how they lived. The moment that they began to consider turning to other gods, they also began to forget what the Lord had done for them, and they also stopped caring what he said. Loyalty is something that must be earned, and God had done everything to earn it, but the people had a tendency to ignore his provision.
Loyalty is something that is in high demand today. We hear about loyalty programs offered by businesses to keep customers coming back. Buy six coffees and get the seventh free. Use our credit card, and we give you points that you can redeem. This kind of loyalty is rather fake because it is not based on what is real. If the coffee is good and the price is reasonable, people will return. The promise of a free coffee will not cause people to return if the coffee is bad. Earning points is nice, but fair treatment by the credit card company is far more important.
God does not try to earn our loyalty by offering us points or by assuring us that if we keep coming back to him, he will do something nice for us. God earns our loyalty by providing a product that is real, to put it in terms of commerce. What God has done for us is provide us with something that cannot be matched. While there are all kinds of salvation (salvation from financial difficulty, salvation from loneliness, salvation from illness, etc.), there is only one kind of salvation that is truly the kind we need. It is knowing that God is with us no matter what life may bring, and it is knowing that when we die, we will have eternal life. It is God’s commitment to us that is our salvation, and that salvation is centered and rooted in Jesus Christ. No other god, no human being, no institution can give us what God has already given to us. It is the same for us as it was for the Israelites in the Old Testament. It is because of what God has done for us and continues to do for us that makes us loyal.
Our loyalty, then, is expressed in our eagerness to do his will. It is seen in absolute reliance on him instead of reliance on other things. We show our loyalty by living for Jesus. But what happens when we are not loyal, when we start to depend on others instead of God? Yes, God is a jealous God, and he becomes angry, and sometimes he reveals his anger to us, but it is in those times that his anger is for our good, for we know that he is angry with us like a parent is angry with their child for doing something that results in self-endangerment or self-harm. It is an anger that is meant to bring us back to what is good and right.
It is loyalty that God asks of us, and it is loyalty that we can be confident to give, for God has earned it by being good to us. We are motivated to obedience by our love for God, but, if we fail to do that, we can also expect God’s anger, anger that results from our breaking a relationship with him, an anger that is designed to make us loyal to him again. God wants us to be loyal to him, for it is to our benefit that we are, and it is to his glory when we are.