Part 1: Jesus’s summary of the Law and the Prophets:
““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.6.4-6.NKJV
I added the 6th verse because although Jesus didn’t quote it to the Pharisees, it’s still critical for us to understand and apply the command. It’s not just about technically obeying it; it’s about doing it from the heart—a prototype, if you will, of a key component of the New Covenant, namely living by the Spirit, which includes willingly obeying all the Lord’s commands from the heart and not just for appearance.
It was always about the heart, even from the start.
Part 2: This next section lists the different provisions for committing these things to memory and consequently to practice, including writing them on the doorposts.
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.6.7-9.NKJV
Again, the sense is that it’s less about the technicality (“how many doorposts do I have in my home that I need to write these things on?”) and more about ensuring that the present generation and all future generations will be reminded of God’s provision, goodness, mercy, and love, etc, without needing to demand constant proof of it.
Part 3: This next section really got my attention in a new way, as it speaks to an area of my understanding that needs to grow and to this point has not really been developed (beyond looking back, remembering, and understanding retroactively):
““So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.”
Deuteronomy 6:10-13 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.6.10-13.NKJV
The lines that stood out to me are as follows:
- “Cities which you did not build”
- “Houses which you did not fill”
- “Wells which you did not dig”
- “Vineyards/trees which you did not plant”
Honestly, this is closer to how my life has worked up to this point. I live in a world and particularly a section of the world where self-sufficiency is not only a value but an expectation. “If you want the American dream [or really any other dream, for that matter], you have to go earn it yourself. That means you have to do ALL the work. You can figure it out; good luck! (Oh, yeah, Philippians 4:13 says you can do ALL things through Christ who gives you strength, so you have no excuses!)”
And yet, more often than not in the Bible, it shows that the way God provides is not through human effort but rather through His provision and His provision alone. Yes, we have to believe for it (especially when God says it), and we have to also do whatever action steps that God tells us to do while we wait for the fulfillment of His promise. But expecting something just because we on our own strength are believing for something, or even when we claim a Bible verse (but misinterpret it), our faith in whatever we’re believing for is not the be-all, end-all. The be-all, end-all is God. It’s in His Sovereignty. It’s in the truth that, whether or not we get whatever it is we are expecting (and erroneously believe we are somehow entitled to), God is still good and nothing changes that.
I live in a culture and corner of the world that seems to scream that unless we build that city, we will not possess it; that unless we fill that house, we will not claim it; that unless we dig that well, we will not drink from it; or that unless we plant that tree or that vineyard, we will not consume its fruit. But the Bible makes it clear that God’s provision is God’s provision, which means that no one else besides He can make it happen. As such, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us only when we wait on the Lord, because when we wait on the Lord we renew our strength. Similarly, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us only when we let our wills become weak and surrender to His will, because then and only then when we are weak, His strength can be made perfect. Our submissiveness, our weakness, and our waiting are what is required in order for God to move in mighty ways, whether for us or in us our through us, or even all the above. Just like what the below passages state:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/php.4.13.NKJV
“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/isa.40.31.NKJV
“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
II Corinthians 12:9 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/2co.12.9.NKJV
I would dare add a fourth passage, to reinforce the message about waiting on the Lord (because honestly I need it):
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalms 46:10 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.46.10.NKJV
Regarding receiving provision from the Lord that I did not earn or directly work for, the first example I go back to is how my wife and I first were introduced to each other. The fact that we were introduced to each other by a third-party, rather than via online dating or somehow having already been placed in the same place at the same time without a formal introduction, that was God’s provision. (Now, my disclaimer is that I did have to do some work in order to be put in a position to say yes to this. It involved almost a decade of overall personal growth work which also included a couple years of dating-specific growth work, which included a previous relationship. But it did also include a direct conversation with the Lord regarding what I was looking for in a partner, with my answering His questions essentially in a vacuum as I had not yet been introduced to my wife.)
Another example has been housing. Like every other American when I graduated from college, I expected (and was expected) to get a job and my own apartment and commence adult life, no matter how much the thought of doing so frightened me. By God’s grace – and exclusively by God’s grace – I managed to be able to do so for about a year and a half in Minnesota. He provided my first job with AmeriCorps, as well as what turned out to be the ideal living situation (and housemate situation) for where I was at at that time. But then reality set in when that AmeriCorps assignment ended and I had to move back to Chicago, relying on other people’s housing basically for the next 14 years (in which two of those situations were borderline toxic). To call either of those situations “not fun” would be a massive understatement. But it was provision. I was privileged to live rent-free (although not my preference by any means) and have food, shelter and clothing, while I was left to bumble around in the dark (often alone) trying to figure out how adult life worked, let alone being able to thrive. But as much as I could complain about the nitty-gritty details, the biggest truth is that God still provided even through these means. 14 years after moving out of my basement apartment in Minnesota, I was finally able to move into my own apartment with my wife in western suburban Chicago. I cannot say that at any time God didn’t provide, because He did.
A third example has to do with my faith and church journey. As I embark on this paragraph, I am aware of that there are yet some stones that are still unturned on this topic, namely, what I experienced in the Episcopal Church growing up. (And no, there was no abuse that I experienced personally; this wasn’t the Catholic Church! You all can breathe a sigh of relief.) But I find myself amazed, more than 20 years after I formally left the church I grew up in, as to seeing how God continually pursued me, even as I joined and then left FCA, wandered across different Protestant denominations curiously to see where I might find a home, spent a decade at the Vineyard, and now at an independent, non-denominational evangelical church where the Word is very deeply preached, more so than anywhere else that I’ve ever attended to date. I give God thanks and praise for that! What I find remarkable (and sad) is how, 20 years ago, despite being very aware of the deadness that I saw in the Episcopal Church, I still found a few people that I thought were possibly “real Christians” — and today I look at even those same people, finding that I’m pretty sure they’re not saved after all. I do feel sadness at that thought! And yet, in light of that, how even more poignant that I see God’s hand still in my life all these years later, in my life specifically out of all the people that I crossed paths with in church in all my growing-up years. Even at the Vineyard, the last half of my time there was marked by a subtle dissatisfaction with that church’s focus and direction. Until the very end, however, I found myself regularly dismissing that sense I continually felt, because I was trusting instead that somehow what the leadership was doing was still in obedience to the Lord’s direction. (Apparently it was not, but I wouldn’t find that out until I was finally leaving, and even more after I had formally left.)
Although I am currently happily married, and I’m grateful for the current blessings that my wife and I do share, I still find myself in a stuck kind of place. I do believe I’m waiting for something, but unlike previously, I’m finding myself waiting for something that I’m not even sure it is that I’m waiting for. Part of that is that what I think I’m waiting for seems to change day by day, depending on my mood.
So, somehow I find the passage from Deuteronomy very encouraging. Here it is again:
““So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.”
Deuteronomy 6:10-13 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.6.10-13.NKJV
I may not have a distinct “Promised Land” like the Israelites of Moses’s and Joshua’s generations did, but then again I may not need to. Because what I believe this passage is highlighting is that it’s about the Lord first and foremost. He – and only He – is the provider. There may be others who act as means of His provision, but only God is the provider. And instead of putting our faith in our faith (and in our use and interpretation of Scripture), we should be putting our faith in our God, Who made heaven and earth, Who sacrificed His one and only son Jesus Christ on the cross to die for the sins of the world, and He Who raised the same Jesus from the dead, paving a way for us to escape eternal punishment and instead enjoy eternity with Him.
In the past, God has provided for me by giving me things that I did not earn. Yes, He has work for me to do in various different areas, but His provision does not – and will not – depend on my self-sufficiency, or on any fruits thereof. This is a lie that must continually be broken in the hearts of many, many people around me. Clearly, when anyone repents, God is faithful to respond and move in their lives. But I also earnestly believe that once we as a people repent of our idolatry of self-sufficiency, will we be able to experience God in a way that I don’t think many of us, have experienced in a very, very long time.
May it once again be so of God’s amazing provision! To God and Him alone be the glory!