Deuteronomy 6: Shema Israel
1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which Yahweh your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as Yahweh God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’”
Torah was passed down from orally from Adam to Moses, but now the Pentateuch— or five books of Moses— is the Seed of the prophets and the apostles. We look to that Revelation of Yahweh God on Sinai for knowledge of God, as they did. We do not, like the Greeks, occupy ourselves in searching out other religious literature— nor “fanciful analogies, curious theories, or far-fetched illustrations. Many alas! have tried these things, and, instead of finding ‘comfort’ of the Scriptures, they have been led away into empty and foolish conceits, if not into deadly errors.” (C. H. Mackintosh's Notes) They seek to obey that Torah.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one! 5 You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one! Many use this and similar texts as supporting texts for the theory that all roads, that is all religions, lead to the same place. “We all served the same god,” they say. They assert that all religious men and women are all partakers of the same body. This theology is what makes the church today, that Laodicean church of Revelation, lukewarm and ready to be spewed out His mouth.
The patriarchs did not have the honor of knowing the covenant name for it had not been given. "And God said to Moses, 'I am Yahweh; I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.'” (Exodus 6:3) For that knowledge comes with the Commandments and these statutes and judgement which He commanded them to learn, obey and teach.
“Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.” (Exodus 34:5) Moses hid in the cleft of a rock. “And Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’” (34:6-7) “These glorious titles and attributes are those back parts of God. None can see more than these and live: and we need see no more than these that we may live.” (John Trapp) “Those attributes... were displayed in their most glorious light in the redemption of the world by the death of Jesus Christ..." (Thomas Coke) “Still, to prevent the fatal misapprehension that He is a Being of pure and mero benevolence (Butler, Analogy, Part I., Exodus 2, p. 41). He added, to complete the description, a reference to His justice. He 'will by no means clear the guilty' (cf. Nahum 1:3), and will 'visit iniquity to the third and fourth generation.’ (cf. Exodus 20:5.)” (C. J. Ellicott)
“Thus all other deities are brought to nought, and the people are commanded to fly and detest whatever withdraws their minds from the pure knowledge of Him; for although His name may be left to Him, still He is stripped of His majesty, as soon as He is mixed up with a multitude of others.” (John Calvin) This exposition of the First Commandment in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is “not a new law added to the Ten Commandments, but simply the development and unfolding of the covenant laws and rights enclosed as a germ in the decalogue…” (Keil & Delitzsch) Yahweh God of Israel is the absolute God, and there is none other.
The great truth is kept in word only, but not in deed, by many Jew and Christians alike. They say that they reverence His name, but do not regard His teachings. “These words form the beginning of what is termed the ‘Shema’ (‘Hear’) in the Jewish Services, and belong to the daily morning and evening office. They may be called ‘the creed of the Jews.’” (Albert Barnes) “On this verse the Jews lay great stress; it is one of the four passages which they write on their phylacteries, and they write the last letter in the first and last words very large, for the purpose of exciting attention to the weighty truth it contains… When this passage occurs in the Sabbath readings in the synagogue, the whole congregation repeat the last word אחד achad for several minutes together with the loudest vociferations: this I suppose they do to vent a little of their spleen against the Christians, for they suppose the latter hold three Gods...” (Adam Clarke) as some theologians teach or other might seem to assert. God's revelation of Himself is consistent from Genesis to Revelation.
Many Jews treat these Words, as many Christians do the Lord’s prayer. Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7) And then He tries to teach them to pray in Matthew 6:8-14. And what do the masses do but recite His Words in vain repetition! Likewise, many Jews put the actual admonition only in the their little phylacteries but have not place for the precepts of Torah in their homes, nor hearts. The aforementioned Christians do the same. “The Bible”— the commandments, statues and judgments— they say, “must be taught.” But these seek not to obey it. “Binding these laws as a sign on Israel's hand is not literal, but rather speaks of applying these laws to the works of their hands. As frontlets between their eyes speaks of their seeing everything from God's viewpoint, consistently (8) Writing them on the doorposts of the house and on their gates is intended to keep Israel reminded of the law whether going out or coming in (9).”(L. M. Grant)
The New Testament teaches that the first spoken words of Jesus are “Let there be light.” Colossians 1:16-17 says: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” And only Yahweh can say, “I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). But Jesus said unto the sick of the palsy, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.”(Matthew 9:2) Only Yahweh can say, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have built for themselves broken cisterns that can't hold water!” (Jeremiah 2:13) “But in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’” (John 7:37) The world’s doctrines can’t hold water, but Jesus is the fountain of living waters. Only Yahweh can say, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:5) But Jesus said, “I am the bridegroom; how can the children of the bride chamber fast while I am with them.” (Mark 2:19) Only Yahweh can say, “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But Jesus said, “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:27) Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father…" (John 14:9)
“'You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.' Since there is but One God, and that God is Israel‘s God [— Yahweh by name], so Israel must love God unreservedly and entirely. The ‘heart’ is mentioned as the seat of the understanding; the ‘soul’ as the center of will and personality; the ‘might’ as representing the outgoings and energies of all the vital powers. The New Testament itself requires no more than this total self-surrender of man‘s being to his Maker Matthew 22:37. The Gospel differs from the Law not so much in replacing an external and carnal service of God by an inward and spiritual one, as in supplying new motives and special assistances for the attainment of that divine love which was, from the first and all along, enjoined as “the first and great commandment.” (Albert Barnes) “Reader! do you know anything of this precept in your own experience? If so, bless the Holy Ghost for shedding abroad this love in your heart: for he is the author of it. 2 Thessalonians 3:5.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
Deuteronomy 6: Beware Lest You Forget Yeshua, Your God
10 “So it shall be, when Yahweh 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, 11 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— 12 then beware, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 You shall fear Yahweh your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you 15 (for Yahweh your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of Yahweh your God be aroused against you and destroy you
from the face of the earth.
“So it shall be, when Yahweh (is Salvation or Yeshua] your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…”— They had not earned their possession based on their own merit. The grant was based on the obedience of their pious ancestors. Likewise, ours is based on the merits of Jesus.
Moreover, that generation would live in cities which they would capture, “which they did not have to build, and the houses full of spoils for them to enjoy, and the cysterns which were already there and full of water, and the vineyards and olive trees which they would take over, and the fruit that came from it which they would eat. They would enjoy the good things of the land for which they had not laboured.” (Peter Pett) Thus their wealth was to be founded on the “disgrace and disinheritance of others. God was dispossessing in their favour an ancient people with the accumulated stores of a long civilization. Moses warns them of the dangers of this position. ” (Church Pulpit Commentary)— “‘then beware, lest you forget Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.’ Let them not then be lulled into forgetting that it was Yahweh Who had brought them into this land of freedom and plenty in accordance with the promise sworn to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that it was He Who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, a land for them of non-freedom and non-plenty, and out of the house of bondage, and had brought them under His watchful care so that they could be free and live under His Lordship.” (Peter Pett)
“You shalt fear Yahweh your God, [and serve Him … as translated by the LXX.], and cited by our Lord in His temptation. It is remarkable that all His answers to the tempter were taken not only from Deuteronomy, but from one and the same portion of Deuteronomy—Deuteronomy 5-10 inclusive—the portion which applies the principles of the Decalogue to Israel’s life.” (C. J. Ellicott) This again is the very Covenant. “Thou shalt respect and reverence Him as thy Lawgiver and Judge; as thy Creator, Preserver, and the sole object of thy religious adoration.” (Adam Clarke) “‘Fear’ contains in it the idea of subjection, when men devote themselves to God, because His terrible majesty keeps them in their proper place. Hence results worship, which is the proof of piety.” (John Calvin)
“‘And shalt swear by His name.’ The principle was not unknown to the patriarchs. Laban appealed to the ‘God of Nahor,’ but Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac’ (Genesis 31:53).” (Ellicott) “The reference is to solemn and judicial oaths, an appeal to God being evidently sanctioned by the terms of the third commandment, though limited in practice to grave occasions, and directed by serious considerations. (Cf. Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12, which refer to swearing in common conversation.” (Jameson, Faussett, Brown) “So, to swear by any other name than that of the true God, is to recognize another god as the true one, and to fall into a polytheism. Hence it follows, that the words, thou shalt swear by His name, are synonymous with thou shalt profess the true religion.” (Coke)
“‘You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you for Yahweh is a jealous God amongst you’—
Let the gods of the heathens be good fellows, our God will endure no co-rivals. He is both a jealous God, and is ever amongst us, so that our faults, our furtas, cannot be hid from His eyes. Now he that dares sin, though he know God looks on, is more impudent in sinning than was Absalom, when he spread a tent upon the top of the house, and went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel and of the sun.” (Trapp)
So, Moses warns them that though the occupation is not based on their merit, the longevity of it would be on their account… to their own merit or disgrace. So, beware for the present must be redeemed. Serve Yeshua only- “‘lest the anger of the Lord, thy God, be kindled against thee,’ like a fire that grows beyond control, ‘and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.’ That was the punishment which He threatened in the case of gross idolatry. These admonitions apply also to us. It is our duty not only to ponder the will of the Lord in our hearts, but also to confess it with our mouth and to practice it in our lives.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)
“The song of Moses supplies a prophetic comment upon this; ‘Yeshurun [poetical name for Israel- likely because it contains the tetragrammaton, representing the name of his God], waxed fat, and kicked.. then he forsook God.’ In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us.” (C. J. Ellicott) “‘And'— also — 'shall take oaths in His name’— God himself, foretelling, by the mouth of Isaiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, does it in these words; unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear, chap. Isaiah 45:23 which St. Paul explains, every tongue shall confess to God. Romans 14:11. See also Isaiah 19:18; Isaiah 65:16. Jeremiah 4:1-2; Jeremiah 5:7.” (Thomas Coke)
Deuteronomy 6: You Shall Not Tempt Yahweh Your God
16 “You shall not tempt Yahweh your God as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19 to cast out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh spoken.
Yahweh God gives signs to His people, but here they tried “to make Him act in a certain way to prove His goodness and power.” (Eerdman) “A ‘sign’ is a visible event intended to convey meaning beyond that which is normally perceived in the outward appearance of the event… On some occasions, it is used as an insignia of the Mosaic covenant. Thus, the wearing of the law on the wrist and forehead and the keeping of the Sabbath are considered signs of the relationship between Israel and God (Dt 6:8; 11:18; Ez 20:12, 20)... [also] signs are used to confirm that God has spoken to the prophet. Thus, when Moses received the message of deliverance that he was to bring to the children of Israel in Egypt and the pharaoh, he was given two signs: his staff was changed into a serpent and his hand was afflicted with leprosy (Ex 4:1-8).” (Tyndale Dictionary)
But no such sign is given to workers of inequity, who keep the traditions of men rather than the Commandments of God, thus making His Word of none effect. Jesus rebuked such as these, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. etc.” (Matthew 12:33-40)
“Before, it was that we should in prosperous times do right, now that in the opposite condition we should suffer right, and be certain that God is near us in the time of need.” (Martin Luther) Israel had been in the wilderness at Rephidim and had no water. And they were thirsty. That was the setting. And the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” They knew that there was no water and looked for the creation of some as a sign— proof that Yahweh was with them and not against them, intending to kill them and their children and livestock. The very character of Yahweh God seems to be is at stake.
So Moses preached to the next generation in the wilderness, even to us: “‘You shall not tempt Yahweh your God’ - You shall not provoke Him by entertaining doubts of His mercy, goodness, providence, and truth.— ‘as you tempted Him in Massah.’ - How did they tempt Him in Massah?
See Exodus 17:1-7 They said, ‘Is Yahweh among us or not?’ After such proofs as they had of his presence and his kindness, this was exceedingly provoking. Doubting God's kindness where there are so many evidences of it, is highly insulting to God Almighty.” (Adam Clarke)
These words were quoted by our blessed Lord when tempted by Satan to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. See Luke 4. At the end of His wilderness stay, Jesus was thirsty and hungry, like the children of Israel. The devil came to Him and tempted Him three times. Here- the last of them: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ Satan quoted Scripture to get the Son of God to sin. “The enemy knows how to do that; but he either leaves something out from the Word or he adds something to it. In quoting from Psalm 91, he omitted seven words, ‘to keep thee in all thy ways.’” (Gaebelein) Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, even the Word of God. And Jesus answered, “It is said, ‘You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test' (Deuteronomy 6:16)" (Luke 4:12)
And when the devil ended the temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. “He would not deviate from His ways. Now, it formed no part of the ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. It was not the path of duty. He had no command from God to do any such thing; and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt God — to put Him to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in God — the fullest assurance of His protection. Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty, in order to prove God's care of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on God's protecting hand, when we are treading the path of duty. But, if we are walking in a self-chosen path; if we are seeking our own pleasure, or our own interest, our own ends or objects, then, to talk of counting on God would be simply wicked presumption.” (C. H. Mackintosh)
This was Moses' message. Rather than seeking after signs, he admonishes them, “‘You shall diligently keep, literally, "observing ye shall observe,"— the commandments of Yahweh your God,’ not only the ten commands, but all others: ‘and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee’; those of a judicial and ceremonial kind.”(John Gill) “It requires a great deal of care and pains to keep up religion in the power of it in our hearts and lives. Negligence will ruin us but we cannot be saved without diligence.” ( Matthew Henry)—
“‘And [thus] you shall do what is right and good in the sight of Yahweh,”— “not that which is right in thine own eyes, as many superstitious and sinful practices seem right and good to evil-minded men. Let God’s will and word, and not thine own fancy or invention, be thy rule in God’s service.” (Matthew Poole)— “that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh spoken.’ The infinitive וגו להדף contains the further development of וגו ייטב למען : ‘so that He (Yahweh) thrust out all thine enemies before thee, as He hath spoken.’ (viz., Exodus 23:27).” (Keil & Delitzsch) (Deuteronomy 6:17-19)
“All this is morally lovely. We have here unfolded before our eyes those eternal principles which no change of dispensation, no change of scene, place or circumstances can ever touch, ‘That which is right and good’ must ever be of universal and abiding application. It reminds us of the words of the Apostle John to his beloved friend Gaius, ‘Beloved, follow not that which is evil; but that which is good.’ The assembly might be in a very low condition; there might be very much to try the heart and depress the spirit of Gaius; Diotrephes might be carrying himself most unbecomingly and unwarrantably toward the beloved and venerable apostle and others; all this might be true, and much more, yea, the whole professing body might go wrong. What then? What remained for Gaius to do? Simply to follow that which was right and good; to open his heart and his hand and his house to every one who brought the truth; to seek to help on the cause of Christ, in every right way.
This was the business of Gaius in his day; and this is the business of every true lover of Christ, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. We may not have many to join us; we may perhaps find ourselves, at times, almost alone; but we are still to follow what is good, cost what it may. We are to depart from iniquity.” (C. H. Mackintosh)
That old serpent who tempted Adam to sin in paradise had overcome the first Adam in the garden of Eden. Yea, he had overcome Israel at Rephidim and the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ days. "Why should he not overcome the second Adam in the wilderness?” (J. C. Ryle) “Oh! that we might have grace to walk before him with a holy, childlike fear, that so we may walk always in the light of His countenance.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
As a sign for the future remnant, “Moses called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the 'contention' of the children of Israel, and because they 'tempted' Yahweh, saying, ‘Is Yahweh among us or not?’” This qualifies Jesus for office that "He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." See Hebrews 2:14-18.
Deuteronomy 6: Costly Grace in God's Word
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Yahweh our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and Yahweh showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And Yahweh commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as He has commanded us.’
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimony— הָעֵדֹ֗ת (hā-‘ê-ḏōṯ)’? We must seek Him at His tabernacle. “The notion by which the Word of God is expressed is ‘testimonies’; whereby is intended the whole declaration of God's will in doctrines, commands, examples, threatenings, promises. The whole Word is the testimony which God hath deposed for the satisfaction of the world about the way of their salvation. Now because the Word of God branches itself into two parts, the law and the gospel, this notion may be applied to both. First, to the law, in regard whereof the ark was called ‘the ark of the testimony’ (Exodus 25:16), because the two tables were laid up in it [along with Aaron’s rod which budded suggesting new birth. And the mercy seat was over it]. The gospel is also called the testimony, 'the testimony of God concerning his Son.’ ‘To the law, and to the testimony’ (Isaiah 8:20); where testimony seems to be distinguished from the law. The gospel is so called, because therein God hath testified how a man shall be pardoned [once and for all], reconciled to God, and obtain a right to eternal life. We need a testimony in this case, because it is more unknown to us. The law was written upon the heart, but the gospel is a stranger. Natural light will discern something of the law, and pry into matters which are of a moral strain and concernment; but evangelical truths are a mystery, and depend upon the mere testimony of God concerning his Son.” (Thomas Manton) Blessed are those who seek Yahweh with their whole heart. ”Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of… the statues— וְהַֽחֻקִּים֙ wə-ha-ḥuq-qî’?
God’s religious statues are meant to be kept. These are broader than the Ten Commandments of God. “A soldier who enters on a march does not settle for himself the order of his going, nor begin the journey at his own will, nor yet choose pleasant short cuts, lest he should fall out of rank, away from the standards, but gets the route from his general, and keeps to it; advances in a prescribed order, walks armed, and goes straight on to the end of his march to find there the supplies provided by the commissariat. If he goes by any other road, he gets no rations, and finds no quarters ready, because the general's orders are that all things of this kind shall be prepared for those who follow him, and turn not aside to the right hand or the left. And thus he who follows his general does not break down, and that for good reasons; for the general consults not for his own convenience, but for the capability of his whole army.
And this, too, is Christ's order of march, as He leads His great host out of the spiritual Egypt to the eternal Land of Paradise.” (Ambrose)
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of…the judgments— וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים wə-ham-miš-pā-ṭîm’?
“Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your judgments (mishpatim) are good.” (Psalm 119:39) “By this time in life, the only reproach we dread is God’s. We’ve already failed plenty of times. We’ve already disappointed at least a whole boatload of people. We’ve disappointed ourselves. We’ve had a few people make fun of us, and a few people talk about us behind our backs. Probably they still are. But if God, our wonderful, loving, merciful Savior Jesus, should look at us with reproach – that we should dread. Because He would be right. His judgments are always correct.” (Kathleen Dalton) Without Him, we are guilty and un-pardoned.
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Yahweh our God has commanded you? ’‘He who is his own pupil,” remarks S. Bernard, “has a fool for his master.”—> “then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and Yahweh showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there,’— In Exodus 12 is the Passover ordinance and Moses commanded in His name: “It will come to pass when you come to the land which Yahweh will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service— הָעֲבֹדָ֥ה hā-‘ă-ḇō-ḏāh— of the Passover, “and it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’” (Exodus 12:25-28)
This was not cheap grace; they had blood of the Pascual Lamb on the doorpost of their houses, which was also typified in the animal sacrifices, and fulfilled in Christ's Sacrifice for the sins of the world. “Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be [they reason] if it were not cheap?... Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
— “that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.” Yahweh brought us out of Egypt; but — "Equally true is it that He brings us in. Canaan was a long way from Egypt, but the Lord had determined to do the work thoroughly. It was not enough to cross the Red Sea, nor even to pass the desert; the chosen people must ford the Jordan, and enter the promised land. Oh, believe me, the Lord is prepared to do just this in the realm of spirituals for all His believing people.
Whom He justifies them He also sanctifies, and whom He sanctifies them He also glorifies. He is all our salvation and all our desire. At the first He gives us by His Spirit all needed grace that we may come repentingly, look believingly, and go on our way rejoicingly. ‘Tis He produces joy, and peace, and hope, and love.” (Thomas Spurgeon)
“And Yahweh commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us,— ”the Hebrew reads, ‘righteousness shall be to us’; that is, all covenant mercies shall be ours— ‘if we are careful to observe all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as He has commanded us.’ So is the running language of the Holy Scriptures. The merciful shall obtain mercy. But righteousness cannot come by the deeds of the law…” (Sutcliffe) but by the Holy One of Israel.