This page gives you ready-to-use study questions for Deuteronomy 6, with leader’s notes for each one. It suits a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study. The questions move from what the chapter says, to what it means, to how to live it, so you can work through the whole chapter in one session.
Deuteronomy 6 at a Glance
Moses opens the chapter by stating that these commandments, statutes and ordinances are given so that Israel will fear the LORD and keep them in the land they are about to enter. The central moment comes in verses 4 and 5, where the people are called to hear, to acknowledge that the LORD alone is God, and to love him completely. Everything after that is about passing this love and obedience to the next generation, through daily conversation, visible reminders, and a clear account of how God rescued them from Egypt.
The chapter ends by warning against forgetting the LORD once blessing arrives, and by describing how a child’s question about the law should be answered with the story of God’s deliverance. Keep this flow in mind as you move through the questions below.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask the group to point to the exact words in the text and resist explaining yet. Let quiet moments last a little longer than feels comfortable.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
4 Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
(WEB)
This is the heart of the chapter and the most widely known passage in it. Reading it aloud together lets the group hear the call to hear, the affirmation of God’s oneness, and the command to love in one unbroken breath.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
6 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
(WEB)
These verses move the commandment from the heart into everyday life. Hearing them spoken aloud makes the picture of ordinary moments and daily teaching vivid for the discussion that follows.
Deuteronomy 6:10-12
10 It shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build, 11 and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; 12 then beware lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
(WEB)
Reading this passage aloud helps the group feel the shift from wilderness to settled abundance. The warning against forgetting comes through clearly when the words are heard in sequence.
Deuteronomy 6:20-23
20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD our God has commanded you mean?” 21 then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the LORD showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23 and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.
(WEB)
This is the prescribed answer to a child’s question about the law. Reading it aloud gives the group the same story the parents were meant to tell, which makes it easier to see why the commands rest on deliverance.
Deuteronomy 6:24-25
24 The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. 25 It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.”
(WEB)
These closing verses sum up the purpose of the commands and their good for the people. Ending the reading here gives the group a settled conclusion to carry into the discussion of application.
Memory Verse for Deuteronomy 6
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
(WEB)
This verse is the center of the chapter and a fitting memory verse for the whole group. Encourage each person to repeat it aloud at the start of the week, and to notice the places where love for God is tested in ordinary days.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you as people who have heard your word and want to love you with everything we are. Thank you that you are one God, faithful and near, and that you have rescued us from our own forms of slavery. Forgive us for the times we have forgotten you in seasons of ease, and help us to remember what you have done. Give us the grace to speak of your words in our homes, on our roads, and in our conversations with the next generation. Teach us to do what is good in your sight, so that it may go well with us and with those who follow after. Amen.
