Text: Deuteronomy 7:11

The past couple of days have focused on the love of God as you were to 1) meditate on the great love with which He loves us, for it is truly amazing; and 2) know with unwaveringly certainty that the Lord does love you. Why is love so important? For the believer love must ultimately become our true motivation in obeying God.

To the Romans Paul wrote, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10 ESV). And thus, he who loves his neighbor will not do to his neighbor any of the things forbidden by the law; that is, he will not steal, kill, commit adultery, bear false witness, and covet. Therefore his love fulfills the Mosaic Law. Yet Moses said, “You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today” (Deuteronomy 7:11) and that included the complete destruction of the various peoples of Canaan.

J. Vernon McGee offers some clarity to the apparent contradiction: “Remember that God had said, “Thou shalt not kill.” That is a command against personal animosity, personal hatred which leads to murder. The Hebrew word is ratsach. Here they are directly commanded to destroy these people [cf. Deuteronomy 7:1, 2] who were living in the land. It is an altogether different Hebrew word—charam, meaning ‘to devote (to God or destruction)’.” Warren Wiersbe adds, “People who do not understand the judgment of God or the awfulness of sin argue that God was ‘wicked’ to destroy these nations. If they understood the sinfulness of these pagan religions and the way these nations had resisted God, such critics would instead be grateful that Israel wiped them out.” Remember, one thing we were to know from yesterday was that the Lord repays to their face those who hate Him (cf. Deuteronomy 7:10).

I like the ESV translation of this verse, “therefore be careful to do…” much better than “thou shalt therefore keep the commandments….” It just seems to add more vigilance to God’s desire for obedience. That being said, reflect today on your carefulness to obey and ask yourself just what motivates your obedience.