Metaphysical Bible Interpretation of Deuteronomy Chapter 6
Metaphysically Interpreting Deuteronomy 6:1-9
6:1Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it;6:2that thou mightest fear Jehovah 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. 6:3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
6:4Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: 6:5and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6:6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; 6:7and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 6:8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. 6:9And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
May 1, 1921: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Explain: “Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.” God is always endeavoring to express through man. Love is a magnet which draws to us whatever we set our love upon. To love God with the whole heart draws into consciousness the full expression of God's love.
What fundamental principle is also contained in these words? In these words is contained the fundamental principle which acts as a basis for the operation of the whole spiritual law. The mathematical exactness of the law does not excuse mistakes, but love softens the law and forgives the ignorant sinner. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
How do we teach this law diligently to our children? Metaphysically, our children are our thoughts. We should mentally talk and think Truth and love in the body (house), when in outer consciousness (walkest); also when we feel negative and lack energy (liest down), and when we are positive and buoyant (risest up).
How do we write the truths of Divine Wisdom upon the door posts of the house and upon the gates? Through spiritual memory, or a conscious realization of the innate wisdom and love of God in man, the “house,” or body, receives the imprint of the mind, and becomes wise and loving.
January 16, 1927: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
What is the central idea in today’s lesson? The central idea in today’s lesson is the necessity for meditating and concentrating the mind upon Jehovah God as the one and only I AM identity.
What specific form should our meditations and concentrations take? Our first thought should be of the love of Jehovah. Our love should proceed out of the heart, the center of love consciousness in the body. Having attained a consciousness of love we should direct the soul or thinking mind toward Jehovah with a final thought of might and abiding strength in him.
How shall we make Jehovah manifest in our outer consciousness? Jesus endorsed Moses' teachings in the words, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” All things are formed by words. We should teach the truth of Jehovah to our children; we should talk about Jehovah when we sit in our homes and when we walk abroad, when we lie down and when we sit up.
How shall we bind words of Truth upon our hands and make them frontlets between our eyes? The hands represent the executive power of the mind; consequently we should realize that back of even the menial work of the hands is the activity of the Jehovah life. Back of the eyes are the brain cells that govern language. These cells should be mentally charged with ideas of super-fluency and freedom of speech.
How shall a person write true words upon the door-posts of his house? The door of the mind is that in man which opens to the inflow and the outflow of thought. The I AM establishes the door and guards it by the power of its will. When a person proclaims that the door of his mind is protected against error thoughts, his words are written or impressed upon the part of his consciousness through which thought enters, and he is thereby protected from the entrance of evil thoughts.
July 1, 1928: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
What proclamation does the expresser of the Word make about Jehovah? Hear the one reality: Jehovah is supreme I AM!
What further proclamation does the expresser of the Word make about Jehovah? “Thou shalt love the supreme I AM with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.”
How shall these truths be established in the world? “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
How do we impress the living Word upon our minds? We impress the living Word upon our minds by speaking the Word and affirming it until it is written upon the door-posts of our houses, and upon our gates. The house of the mind is the body and the door represents the mind receptive to Truths. The gates represent the accessibility or openness of the whole consciousness to Truth. All of these avenues that enter the consciousness of man must be impressed with the great spiritual truths that come from the super-mind, the Jehovah of God.
September 12, 1937: Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Why should we love God, the invisible Spirit? We cannot help loving life, for to do so is ingrained in us. To know completeness it is necessary for us to love the life principle rather than allow ourselves to become attached to any one expression or manifestation of that principle in ourselves or in another. Therefore we should love God, the invisible Spirit of love.
May 11, 1941: Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Why is man commanded to love and reverence the one God? God is the eternal principle of life, and through love man is brought into harmony and conscious unity with Him.
By what term is the pursuit of unity sometimes known? Concentration or the centering of all one's thoughts on one idea.
How is concentration of all the thoughts of the heart achieved? Through love. Love brings about this concentration of the thoughts and faculties without conscious effort on man's part.
Where a person has not developed his consciousness of love, how does he learn to concentrate his thoughts on God? By faithful practice of the presence of God.
What aids him in this practice? Prayer and meditation are the chief helps in bringing man to a consciousness of God and to self-dominion.
How are words most easily borne continually in mind and heart so as to be taught to one's children in the manner indicated in this lesson? A great desire to keep the mind turned toward God and the truth of life helps one to keep the words of Truth that one chooses to live by in one's mind and heart. As one lives by these true words, one teaches children by the power of example whether one also teaches by word of mouth or not.
November 8, 1942: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
When we make the statement “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,” what is accomplished? Our thoughts are all brought into harmony and focalized in exalted contemplation.
What does this lesson teach especially? That we are to be diligent in learning the truth and abiding in it.
How do we make a thought habitual? By holding it constantly in mind until it penetrates the subconsciousness. When it takes deep root there, it becomes an involuntary prompting to action and partakes of the nature of an instinct.
How is continual thought of Jehovah referred to in this lesson? As love. “Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” One cannot think of God continually with all one's heart, soul, and might without loving God.
Why were the Children of Israel commanded to talk of the commandments continually and teach them to their children? A person who continually gives himself to the love of God grows daily in spiritual stature, and eventually demonstrates joy, happiness, and satisfaction. By teaching others to realize that God is love he helps to establish peace in their hearts and in the world.
What besides love results from our continual holding in mind of the thought of God? Reverence or the continual thought of God opens the ideal realm of our soul and quickens all our faculties. Among others, we develop good judgment.
October 14, 1945: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Why should faith in God be developed in early childhood? If the first great commandment is to be kept, faith must become instinctive. Consciousness of God is gained more easily and fully before a mass of negative sense impressions are made. Instinctive faith is most easily developed in childhood, while the mind is receptive.
What is insured by the habit of loving Jehovah with all the heart, soul, and might? The in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit “I will dwell in them, and walk in them,” The Spirit of God in-dwells in him whose heart, soul, and might are preoccupied with the thought of God.
What conception of God is the child best fitted to understand? God as love. The child knows that love is a spirit within the heart to be expressed in words, thoughts, and acts. He is easily taught that this spirit animating him and causing him to love his parents and others is God.
In what respect is God thought of as Father or Son and not as Spirit only? As the source or origin of the life principle, God is Father, but this definition does not imply personality. Life is a universal principle. It becomes personal only as it is incarnates in form. The perfect expression of the life and love principles, expressed in terms of the absolute as God's idea of man, is the Son. The Son is the ideal God-man or man of God.
What is the significance of the injunction to talk of loving God continually and to “bind” the commandment upon the hand, between the eyes, upon the door-posts and upon the gates? These are outward signs or, expressions of consciousness of God. It is first stated that the commandment “shall be upon thy heart.” There it becomes part of the consciousness.
February 24, 1946: Deuteronomy 6:4-12
How can we speak habitually of God when to do so is considered a sign of cant or hypocrisy? We must first become conscious of God as within us. Once this consciousness is gained, we can speak naturally and convincingly of what fills our heart.
Does a universal interest in our common heritage of faith in the spiritual verities justify our speaking feelingly of God? Yes. A subject that is of universal interest can be mentioned without embarrassment and with conviction.
Should faith in God be developed early in life? It should be, the earlier the better. Doubt and unbelief will then be kept out of mind until an age when, the foundation having been already laid, the mature mind is able to deal with negation instead of surrendering to it without a struggle.
Can the mental fields with safety be left uncultivated during childhood? It is not safe to omit all teaching of faith in God from a child’s training. In nature weeds takeover an uncultivated field. Likewise the mind that knows nothing of God gives birth to undesirable ideas concerning life and its meaning. A standard of judgment is needed, and orderly thinking should be started early.
Is the child properly trained or taught who takes for granted that he can do as he pleases and be a law unto himself? He is not, for he knows nothing of his responsibility to the Supreme Power and to the society of which he is a member.
Should the teaching of children follow the lines laid down in the text of this lesson? Yes, as far as their spiritual wellbeing is concerned.
What basic principles should everyone learn in developing his faith? That life is spiritual in its essence; that its source is supreme Spirit; that all men are spiritual in origin and must become consciously one with supreme Spirit through aspiration and continued endeavor, if they are to know fullness of life; that the Spirit of truth, when fully developed in anyone, rewards him with a consciousness of love, joy, peace of mind, and other inestimable gifts.
What is the great need of our civilization today? Diligence in learning Truth and abiding by it.
What reward comes to those who conscientiously teach others the way? A deepening of their faith. Faculties and powers increase greatly as the law of Being is kept.
What gain accrues to us from our accepting the idea of the one God? The idea of oneness as the supreme truth of life centralizes thought and masses all true ideas in one unassailable body of belief.
July 7, 1946: Deuteronomy 6:4-9
[How do we make good thoughts habitual?] By holding them in mind and meditating upon them, probing their full meaning, until they become impressed upon the subconsciousness. The heart is the center of our deepest feelings.
What words are worthy of holding this supreme position? Words of Truth, embodying the law of life.
What is the primary truth of life? The unity of Being, namely our unity with the Supreme Being through aspiration and faith. “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah; and thou shalt love Jehovah.”
Besides the full strength of the heart and soul what else is required of us in the keeping of the first commandment? All our resources. This includes the weight of our influence over our children as well as our example to them and definite teaching of Truth to them, since they are our direct responsibility. In addition it includes the strength of our character and our daily living so as to express our character truly.
Should the commandment to write the words of the law upon the doorposts and upon the gates, as well as to bind them as a sign upon the hand and for frontlets between the eyes, be taken literally? This part of the commandment is entirely metaphysical. We understand by it that our mind is to be pervaded by the thought of God until that thought irradiates our whole life.
Metaphysically Interpreting Deuteronomy 6:10-25
6:10And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God shall bring 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 buildest not, 6:11and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; 6:12then beware lest thou forget Jehovah, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 6:13Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name. 6:14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; 6:15for Jehovah thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of Jehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
6:16Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. 6:17Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 6:18And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of Jehovah; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, 6:19to thrust out all thine enemies from before thee, as Jehovah hath spoken.
6:20When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you? 6:21then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt: and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 6:22and Jehovah showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house, before our eyes; 6:23and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. 6:24And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. 6:25And it shall be righteousness unto us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us.
September 15, 1907: Deuteronomy 6:1-15
Moses, the representative of the Higher Law, is always pleading with the mortal for a more faithful observance. This innate understanding of the Divine Law is a part of our birthright from our original Source, Supreme Mind, and by fearing, or better, reverencing the Lord, we open up the ideal realm of the soul and the Spirit of good judgment becomes part of our consciousness. An understanding and observance of the Law of Being increases mightily every force and faculty of man. When we know positively that all our ills are the result of error thoughts, we strive to think right, that we may possess the land. The “promised land” is a realization of Divine Substance and it is the foundation of the substratum of the new body in Christ. It is not a dream that man is to possess a body of immortality but a solid fact. Science perceives the possibility and is groping for the key in indestructible germs. This is the right clue, but the source of the immortal microbe is not discerned because of the materialism of science. There must be enough religion in physical science to cause it to think logically of cause and effect, then its germ theory will bear fruit.
The idea of the One God centralizes thought and masses all true ideas. Unfoldment of thought power follows and man begins to see himself as he truly is. It is uphill work trying to love the Lord God. The way to make it easy is to mass all love thoughts at the heart center, and affirm the might power of the Spirit of Love. Then sending thoughts of love to those we have considered our enemies opens up soul graces we never knew we possessed.
The introduction of true words into the heart, and other brain centers in the body, is a part of the soul's education. These children of thought in the subconsciousness are to be diligently taught the truth through constantly carrying to them right ideas. These ideas are to be mentally written upon every part of the body-house until the new land is revealed in a new body. Then it will be found that we are full of good things which we have not developed of personal effort, but which are ours through spiritual inheritance.
– UNITY magazine.
May 5, 1918: Deuteronomy 6:1-15
What is the meaning of the commandment, “Fear Jehovah thy God, to keep all his statutes”? To “fear Jehovah” is to reverence Jehovah. Jehovah is the Divine Law, which is set into activity through the executive faculty of mind.
What is the effect in consciousness of recognizing the One True God? When one recognizes only the One Supreme Presence, all ideas and thoughts become centralized about this Presence, and the soul becomes conscious of its inherent spiritual powers.
How are the laws of Jehovah written “upon the heart”? The “heart”' is the subconsciousness of man. Man writes the laws of Jehovah “upon the heart” through meditating upon and realizing spiritual ideas as the reality of his being.
What in consciousness does the “land” referred to in this lesson represent? The “land” represents the substance in consciousness in which ideas of Truth function.
What is promised to the soul that enters into possession of the “promised land” (perfect body consciousness)? The soul which enters into harmonious relation with the realm of the perfect body within comes into his spiritual inheritance of fullness of all “good things” under the original creative law of “multiply and replenish the earth.”
What is meant by a “jealous God,” referred' to in verse 15? God is Creative Principle, and is continually seeking expression through man. God is not “jealous” in the sense that men exhibit this trait of character, with selfish demand, but with righteous claim requires man's loyalty to him and his law.
November 8, 1942: Deuteronomy 6:20-25
In what does good judgment reveal itself? In right thinking and acting or righteousness. “It shall be righteousness unto us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as he hath commanded us.”
How does Jehovah “give us the land which he sware unto our fathers”? By training us to recognize the law of our being and the importance of thinking and living up to this law. The “Promised Land” represents a realization of divine substance, the foundation of the new body in Christ.
October 17, 1948: Deuteronomy 6:20-25
What is meant by the term “the divine law”? In Truth teaching the term “the divine law” is used to denote the law that governs the expression or manifestation of life by all living creatures. In the measure that living creatures conform to the law they express life.
How is the divine law evidenced in the animal? As instinct to follow a course of action that tends to preserve and continue the animal's existence.
How is the divine law evidenced in man? As an inner impelling urge to live and act so as to develop his innate powers and abilities and to aspire and progress continually toward the highest ideals he can conceive.
What is the highest interpretation of the divine law that we yet have? The two great commandments summed up by Jesus Christ as love of God and love of neighbor. We are to love the true and the good. We are to love others as ourselves.
Under the divine law how is our good made manifest? In the longer, deeper, richer life: “That he might preserve us alive, as at this day.”
April 22, 1951: Deuteronomy 5:20-25
What “covenant” does God make with us that involves the divine law? The covenant that as we keep the divine law we are freed from the bondage of sense consciousness (Egypt) and come to know the liberty or true freedom that is in Christ. Unless we keep this law, we remain in bondage to sense with all its ills.
Does God free us, or do we work out our own salvation? God frees us by giving us the desire to work out our own salvation and by providing the law under which we can do it. Without the law we should have no standard by which to work, and we should have no way by which to gauge our progress.
Transcribed by Lloyd Kinder on 02-01-2014
