Deuteronomy: Why It’s Hard to Love God
Did you know that the Founding Fathers referred to Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, more than any other source? What is it about this book that is so special? Dennis Prager has answers.
This video was made possible through our partnership with Dallas Baptist University. To learn more about DBU, please visit www.prageru.com/dbu.
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Script:
The only way to become a good person, or make a better society is by studying goodness. Many people think that all you need to do good or be good is to have good intentions.
But you can no more be good without studying how to be good than you can play piano without studying how to play piano or practice medicine without studying medicine.
There is a word for the study of goodness and how to make a good world: wisdom. Unfortunately, however, for much of the last century, few schools and few parents have taught wisdom.
The result is moral chaos.
Most of the wisdom of Western civilization—the civilization that has been the most successful in history in making good societies—comes from the Bible. That’s why the Bible is the most influential book ever written.
So, I will share with you some of the wisdom from just one book of the Bible—the fifth, Deuteronomy.
One. “Do not show partiality in judgment.” Chapter One, Verse Seventeen.
A compassionate society is built on justice, not compassion. That might sound counterintuitive. But while we should be compassionate in our private lives, the state must be preoccupied with justice. That is the reason for this law: judges are forbidden not only to show favor to the rich but also to the poor. The purpose of a judge is to dispense justice.
Two. “Do not be afraid of anyone.” Also Chapter One, Verse Seventeen.
Every human being has fears. The question is whom do we fear? And for most people, only if you fear God will you not fear men. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer,one of the few Germans to actively oppose the Nazi regime—and who was executed for doing so—feared God more than Hitler. If more Germans had feared God more than they feared Hitler, and if more Russians had feared God more than they feared Stalin, tens of millions of people would not have been murdered.
Three. You will find Him if you seek Him. Chapter Four, Verse Twenty-Nine.
Just as finding a spouse can take years of searching, so, too, finding God can take years of searching. But like a good spouse, the effort is worth it. Without God, life has no ultimate—no objective—meaning. If there is no God, every one of us is as insignificant as a grain of sand. It is not a coincidence that as fewer Americans take God and religion seriously, suicide and depression rates have risen dramatically.
Four. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Chapter Five, Verse Seven.
We have more ‘gods’ in modern life than idol-worshippers had in the ancient world. Just to cite one of a dozen examples, many secular people believe in science the way religious people believe in God and the Bible. But there is a big problem with that. Unlike God and the Bible, science has nothing, simply nothing, to say about good and evil or about the meaning of life.
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Well said Dennis.
Also Deuteronomy: A rapist must pay the father of his victim 50 shackles and force her to marry him without any possibility of divorce so that he can keep raping her until she dies!
Look it up: Deuteronomy 22:28-29
deuteronomy 21:10-13
Most people in the world are in love with themselves regardless of religion.
Thank you
Your commentary's are so inspiring ♥️🙏
I truly hope that you Denis find Jesus, the Wisdom of God
Explain 20:10-13… 22:38-29…..22:17
….13:13-19…. there alot of rape and murder and bringing the spoils to god… kill the men and kids and take the virgins for yourselves… and how could they tell…SMH
Can’t wait for the Lind-Ritzville-Sprague-Washtucna-Harrison baseball season (‘23)
when will the physical copy of Leviticus come out??
Pure wisdom. Thanks Dennis.
Because people love themselves more.
It’s Hard to Love God, because it's simply hard to love something that's not even real
It's not hard to love God. It is hard for those that don't have a relationship with Him, to love Him. It should be hard for God to love us, with all the wrong that humans do. But it's not hard for God to love us all.
If mental illness was a video
(1:55) If the catholic hierarchy feared God more than how the "church" looked in the public eye, thousands of children would not have been r@ped.
I love the book of Deuteronomy 👍✅💯❤📓🙏
Why is it hard to love God? It's called religious indoctrination, it's quite common to get someone to worship supposedly good beings that may or may not exist. You can easily find reasons to hate God simply based on the world around you, instead of taking your "goodness" advice from pastors. It's quite easy to formulate your own sensible morality without a religion. This video is clearly made by neurotypical millionaire pastors who have no idea how horrifically torturous existence is for neurodivergent people, on top of the supposed "punishment" of eternal suffering after death for the simple act of not believing they inherited a bloodline curse of evil-ity. It's tribal society shit.
4:52 so, if you are passing throw a really rough time, act happy to the others around you and don't tell them?
Shit man that is not healthy
3:46 so the point is " love God because this book commanded you to, also ignore every horrible thing that happened"
#5 is exceedingly difficult. My parents died and it wasn't as peaceful as I'd always imagined it would be for them. I loved my dad who I saw as an honorable man. And for the most part he was. It was that little bit of listening to Satan's whispers that I believe did him in. My mother was given the very rare gift of 'hearing' (more like knowing as it wasn't an audible hearing) God. This was proven unquestionably to me, I witnessed it untold times. And yet despite 'talking' with God over and over the decades I was there as her health failed and her body struggled to breath even as her last month of speech with us was robbed. Definitely NOT how I'd envisioned her passing. Part of me understands that she also had human failings and this is likely why even her closer relationship with The Father could not save her, but there is an active part of me that is angry at God for 'letting her down' despite that. It is really hard to reconcile these things: a powerful loving God… and the pitfalls of having free will.
It’s difficult because of the sexual slavery and conquest in deuteronomy 20
Woah. PLEASE, PLEASE do not push your religion on your children! Let them form their beliefs. I myself am a Christian, but if my parents hadn't pushed so hard I may have had some questions.
But please once your kid reaches an age where they can understand religion and see it something other the Sunday playgroup, let THEM decide.
I’m Torah observant.
So, Dennis, why do you pander to homosexuals?
"if more people had feared God rather than Hitler or Stalin millions of people wouldn't have died"
Either God was too lazy/ non existent to do anything about it himself OR it was his plan that these people should die. Not much of a God you've picked.
Would you care to explain why the most successful countries such as Denmark are also the least pious?
Thank you Dennis. You are one of my favorite moral touchstones. Jesus Christ, Dennis Prager, and Jordan Peterson, in that order. Dr. Peterson involves some level of chaos, which is interesting, and I love it, but you never fail to be spot on.
I feel that the reason that people hate, blame or deny God is that they forgot that we have freewill and as the price, sometimes people will do terrible things as that is part of freewill. Doesn't mean there aren't consequences, just that we decide and make our own choices and have to take action to solve our problems. .
Liar! Blasphemer! Praise Jesus! And now it's time for us to give a little love back to God. Hallelujah and amen.
“Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
Amos 3:1-2 KJV
“He has revealed his words to Jacob, his decrees and regulations to Israel. He has not done this for any other nation; they do not know his regulations. Praise the Lord!”
Psalms 147:19-20 NLT