What Doth The LORD Require

As Moses spoke final instructions to the Children of Israel before their entrance into the Promised Land, he posed the question that has been asked by every generation since the beginning of time, “What doth the LORD require of me?” At the dawn of a new year the answer to that question is as pertinent as ever to each and every person living in this time. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Moses instructed the Children of Israel to first of all “Fear the LORD thy God,” to reverence who HE is, be in awe of who HE is for His great power and majesty revealed to them throughout their forty years of wilderness wandering.

As they first and foremost were to “Fear the LORD,” they were also to “Walk in all His ways,” not to walk after the idolatrous ways of the heathen they were about to encounter. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

They were also to “Love Him” as Moses had previously instructed them in Deuteronomy 6:5, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Later in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses told them “That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days,” (Deuteronomy 30:20).

In like manner were they also to “Serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” As King David later wrote in the Psalms, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing… Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise,” (Psalm 100:2-4).

Moses then told them it is required of them to “Keep the commandments of the LORD,” not only the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets by the finger of God, but additionally some 600 commands found throughout the Law of Moses given to him by God during his long stays on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19-31; Deuteronomy 9:10)

God also required the Children of Israel to keep “His statutes” found throughout The Book of Leviticus concerning clean and unclean foods, dealing with leprosy in the camp, keeping their festivals throughout their generations, honoring the Sabbath, and much more.

Moses then asked a question of them concerning, “What doth the LORD thy God require of thee;” he asked, is it “for thy good?” He then reminds them of who God is and how He cared for them in the wilderness when they had to rely on Him for everything, telling them, “He is thy praise, and He is thy God that hath done for thee these great and terrible (wonderful) things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons (70); and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, alway,” (Deuteronomy 10:14-11:1).