Life has its golden moments. The oldest psalm in the book of Psalms, the ninetieth Psalm, speaks of a man living threescore and ten years. God’s Word goes on to say, “If by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” We move swiftly through life, and the golden moments must be seized.
About the time that God gave Moses the ninetieth Psalm to pen, He also gave him the words in Deuteronomy 6:1-12. The Bible says in this passage,
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
There is an amusing story of a teacher who came to her class on the first day of school and said, “I want all of you little children to know that I am an atheist, and I would like to know how many of you are atheists.” In order to please the teacher, all the children except one raised their hands and said that they were atheists.
This singled out one little girl who would not raise her hand. So the teacher, in an attempt to embarrass the child said, “And may I ask, what are you?” The girl replied, “I’m a Christian.” The teacher said, “Why are you a Christian?” The child answered, “I’m a Christian because my mommy and my daddy are Christians and they have told me about Christ and I’m a Christian.”
The teacher said, “So you’re a Christian because your mommy and daddy are Christians.” The little girl replied, “That’s right.” To embarrass the child further, the teacher said, “What if your mommy and daddy were morons? What would you be?” The little girl said, “I’d be an atheist like you.” She had it right.
We need the help of heaven in our homes. God wants us to take care of our homes. In this Bible passage from the book of Deuteronomy, we have an amazing scene, and in this scene there is a very amazing man. One of the great mountain peaks of Old Testament Scripture, the man Moses, stood to address all the people of God, charging them with God’s commands.
Moses spoke about the only true and living God. We live in a world with many gods. Many people think it is sufficient to simply have a god, any god. The only true and living God, God Eternal, God Almighty, Creator God is the God of the Bible who gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our sin.
The Bible declares in Deuteronomy 6:2, “That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God.” Verse three says, “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee.”
Can we wonder why so many things are not going well when obedience is the secret to God’s blessing, and Christians are not obedient? So many Christians have knowledge but are not obedient to the knowledge they have. The secret to God’s blessing is not knowledge, but obedience. God said we are to hear and do these things. He said, “Hear therefore, O Israel.” Let us hear and heed God’s Word.
Moses thundered forth as he spoke to the people, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God is working in all our lives to bring us to the place where we love Him supremely.
Verse six says, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” If we do not have Him in our hearts, we cannot teach His Word to others. If you hear someone teaching and preaching from his head, his speech may be perfectly memorized and he may speak articulately and in a way that is winsome; but there is a great difference between speaking from the head and speaking from the heart. What we must deal with is the home, the family unit. It is possible to travel the world over, be acclaimed by many to be someone important, receive all kinds of awards, and think you have many friends, only to go home to an unhappy place and actually be a very unhappy person. Let us take care of our home life. We must seize the golden moments.