Read Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 4:23. What is the Lord telling them to do here, and why is this admonition so important for the nation?

Two verbs dominate the opening of both these verses: “take heed” and “forget.” What the Lord is saying to them is: take heed so that you don’t forget. That is, don’t you forget what the Lord has done for you nor the covenant that He had made with you.

Image © Mary Rumford at Goodsalt.com

The verb “take heed,” smr (which is also used in a different form in Deuteronomy 4:9, translated “keep yourself”), occurs all through the Old Testament, and it means to “keep,” “to watch,” “to preserve,” or “to guard.” Interestingly enough, the first time it appears in Scripture is even before sin, when the Lord told Adam to “keep” the garden that He had given to him (Genesis 2:15).

Now, though, the Lord tells the people, each one individually (the verb is in the singular), to guard themselves, lest they forget. This is not “forget” so much in the sense of memory loss (though over time and in new generations that could come) but more in the sense of being lax about their covenant obligations. That is, they were to be mindful about who they were and what that meant in terms of how they were to live before God, before other Hebrews, before the strangers among them, and before the nations around them.

Read again Deuteronomy 4:9 (see also Deuteronomy 6:7 and Deuteronomy 11:19), but focus on the last part, about teaching them to their children and grandchildren. What would that have to do with helping them not to forget?

It’s not a coincidence that right after Moses tells them not to forget, not to let these things “depart from your heart,” he tells them to teach these things to the next generation and to the generation after. Not only did their children need to hear about these things, but perhaps even more important, by telling and retelling the stories of what God had done for them, the people would not forget what those things were. Hence, what better way to preserve knowledge of what the Lord had done for His chosen people?

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/tuesday-take-heed-lest-you-forget/

Key Thought: The Lord and His prophets always told the people not to forget, or to remember. We are always to remember and not forget God’s interaction in our lives..
December 4, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Genesis 9:8-17.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. How is the word remember used here and what can we learn from its use?
3. Personal Application: How should we remember what God has done for us in our lives? Share your thoughts on what you remember God has done for you specifically.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “The rainbow is a natural result of a physical reaction in the clouds. It is a pretty natural phenomenon. What does it mean to you?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 4:32-40.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the Lord telling them to remember? Why is it important to remember these things?
3. Personal Application: What has Jesus done for us, and how are we to respond to what He has done for us? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 4:9,23.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What is the Lord telling them to do here, and why is it so important for the nation?
3. Personal Application: How has telling your experience with the Lord benefited not just others, but yourself as well? Has recounting God’s leading in your life helped you not to forget His leading? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “Why would teaching the nation’s history and geneology to their children and grandchildren help them not to forget?“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 8:7-18.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What warning is the Lord giving His people here, and what should it mean for us today
3. Personal Application: What does this teach us about the danger that comes from wealth? Do wealthy people and healthy people tend to forget their need of the Lord? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Flipping through the new quarterly, there are a number of titles that have the word ‘love’ in them – Love, to Be Loved; To Love God; He First Loved Us; To Love the Lord Your God; to name just a few. Hence, I believe a wonderful hymn to devote to as a theme will be
Hymn 349 – God Is Love. Our first Memory Text says “for God is Love”, 1 John 4:8. As the book of Deuteronomy is the book of the covenant, it would also be good to add
Hymn 347 – Built On the Rock as verse four tells us of God ‘Making with us His covenant”.

Oh the joy of being able to have the Everlasting Covenant which we find in
Hymn 469 – Leaning On The Everlasting Arms of our Lord Jesus.

The story in
Hymn 394 – Far From All Care (verse 2) tells “a remnant love Thee and remember Thy holy law and each sweet Sabbath hour” as the people are instructed in our lesson study this week. One beautiful part of the commandments asks us to remember – “Remember the Sabbath….”.
Hymn 388 – Don’t Forget the Sabbath uses the other words in our lesson title ‘Do not (don’t) forget’.

We are reminded of the love of our God in the rainbow, as is sung in
Hymn 76 – O Love That Will Not Let Me Go (verse 3). God promises Noah, and us, to send no flood again to destroy the world. There are promises in
Hymn 682 – As You Have Promised Lord and today we can say we are
Standing on the Promises – Hymn 518. Sunday’s study then ends with us trusting God and His Word –
Hymn 279 – Only Trust Him.

Moses, on Monday, continued to talk to the people, trying to point out how thankful they should be to God, and they should have been able to sing
Hymn 559 – Now Thank We All Our God and Hymn 566 – Father We Thank Thee.

Today we ask
Savior, Teach Me – Hymn 193 just as Moses was instructing the people to teach the next generation all that God had taught them (Tuesday).

Our General Conference brother’s story on Wednesday invokes the thoughts of
Hymn 602 – O Brother, Be Faithful.

We finish up with Paul reminding the people of God’s grace given to them:
Hymn 108 – Amazing Grace and
Hymn 109 – Marvelous Grace.

We are bound for The Promised Land! Hallelujah!! Come, Lord Jesus, come – very soon.

Blessings for a wonderful week ahead.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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In Deuteronomy 4, we have read the wonderful admonitions that the Lord gave to His people through Moses regarding their great privileges as God’s chosen people. He had redeemed them out of Egypt “by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes” (Deuteronomy 4:34). In other words, not only did God do something great for you, He did it in ways that should help you remember, and never forget, what great things He had done for you.

Read Deuteronomy 4:32-39. What was the Lord telling them to remember, and why was it so important that they remember these things?

Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com

Moses points the people back through all history, even to the creation itself, and asks them, rhetorically, if anything in all history had ever been done as was done for them. In fact, he tells them to ask; that is, to study for themselves and see if anything such as what they experienced had ever happened before. By asking them a few questions, Moses was trying to get them to realize for themselves what the Lord had done for them, and thus, ultimately, how grateful and thankful to Him they should be for His mighty acts in their lives.

Central to these acts was the deliverance from Egypt and then, perhaps in some ways even more astonishing, His speaking to them at Sinai, which allowed them to hear “His words out of the midst of the fire.”

Read Deuteronomy 4:40. What conclusion, then, did Moses want the people to draw from these words about what God had done for them?

The Lord didn’t do all those things for no purpose. He had redeemed His people, keeping His end of the covenant that He had established with them. They were freed from Egypt, about to enter the Promised Land. God did His part; they were now called on to do theirs, which was, simply, to obey.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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