Isn’t the thought of leaving a lasting legacy a prideful and self-centered desire of wanting others to remember us? Doesn’t this contradict the biblical concept of dying to the self which is required of us as disciples? Yet, we see God instructing Moses to tell His people to leave behind a legacy for the future generations in Deuteronomy 6:1 and 2. “These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you.”

Legacy is not prideful or self-centered when done for the right reason since it reminds others to fear God. Furthermore, it is for their benefit as seen in verses 3 and 4, “So that you may enjoy long life” and “that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey.” The benefits of longevity, prosperity and posterity are blessings that everyone, believers or not, would desire to enjoy here on earth. Fearing the Lord provides an example for our children and their children to follow. All three generations are blessed as well as the generations that follow after. Thus, legacy is not prideful or self-centered when it is not about being remembered but fearing God and setting an example.

How can we build a legacy that will help others fear God? In verses 4-9, Moses said, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

There are three things Moses instructed God’s people to do. First, God instructed us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength. Therefore, in everything we do, we must be expressing our own love for God with our whole being and not half-heartedly for them to be able to notice and relate it to our fear of God (verses 4-5). For example, punctuality in coming for worship on Sunday itself is a simple expression of such a wholehearted love in having a reverent spirit for God. Second, we are instructed to keep (hide) His commands in our hearts as well. This means we must not only know God’s word but we must be serious about living it out in our lives and teaching it to others as our deeds and words are reflections of the importance of God‘s word to us (verse 6). This leads to the third thing. We are to help our children remember God’s commandments. As parents, we are to use every opportunity and method we can to help our children remember the scriptural teachings and principles taught in the Bible, whether it is by directly teaching them or by teaching through our own examples, or by reminding them in our conversations when an opportunity arises (v. 7-9).

These three broad principles guide us to show that we have the fear of God in us and also build a legacy for the future generation so that they will also fear God. The practical outworking of our legacy is to be “carved” out by us individually in our own context at home or in the church. However, many believers do not take their faith or their responsibility as a disciple of Jesus Christ seriously. The majority of us are just merely going to church on Sunday instead of passionately following the Lord every day. The Lordship of Christ is only given lip-service and not seriously pursued. Instead, we pursue our own happiness whether in our work or for our family. Jesus’ expectation of His disciples is giving Him total allegiance even if it means choosing Him over our family. Unless we take the Lordship of Christ seriously, we are trying to serve two masters and are not exemplary in building a legacy for anyone to know how to fear God.

May it be our goal as we embark on this theme of leaving a lasting legacy to be exemplary in submitting to the Lord and doing what He expects of us as a disciple!