Deuteronomy 6:1-3
Covenant life in the promised land requires hearing the Lord's instruction, teaching it across generations, and obeying it carefully in the fear of God.
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;
2 that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Covenant life in the promised land requires hearing the LORD's instruction, teaching it across generations, and obeying it carefully in the fear of God.
Moses introduces the commandments, decrees, and laws that the LORD directed him to teach by summoning Israel to hear and carefully obey them in the land, so that reverent fear of the LORD would shape the whole covenant community across generations and lead to life under the promise given to the fathers.
Moses speaks east of the Jordan to the generation about to enter Canaan. After recalling Horeb, the people's fear, and his own mediating role, he introduces the body of covenant instruction that Israel must learn and practice once the LORD brings them into the land promised to the fathers.
The Shema and the Whole-Life Response to the Incomparable God
The Shema — 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one' — is the covenant's concentrated heart, calling Israel to an undivided, whole-person love of God that saturates domestic life, memory, and community identity, and that must survive the most dangerous moment: prosperity in the land that tempts Israel to forget the God who gave it.