One-Dt 6:1-25

Deuteronomy, Old Testament, Sermons

Deuteronomy 6:1-25; Key Verse: Dt 6:4-5

“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.”

Theme:(Are you exclusively devoted to God? Are you practicing monotheism or polytheism?) The Shema (Dt 6:4-5)–meaning “Hear”–functions as Israel’s pledge of allegiance. It reveals that true spirituality arises from the heart and extends to all of life. The only God expects and demands Israel’s exclusive and total devotion to him. A child of God thus gives their exclusive love and devotion to their one God. Loving God is the only appropriate response to the God who loves you.

For reflection:

  1. Are you practicing monotheism or polytheism?
  2. How do you feel about God? How do you love God daily?
  3. What are the evidences that you love God?
  4. Do others perceive that you love God? Love them?

Are you practicing monotheism or polytheism? Do you feel, talk and behave differently at church and at work? At school? At home? With your Christian friends and with your non-Christian buddies? If you feel and act the same everywhere and with anyone, you are practicing monotheism. But if you feel and act differently in different places and with different people, you are practicing polytheism. (I am using the terms loosely.)

Is the God of Chicago different from the God of Malaysia? For 25 years I felt that I needed to be in Chicago where my church and my mission field of UIC is. If I visited my family and friends in Malaysia, I felt as though I was unfaithful to God and that I needed to be back in Chicago ASAP. I acted as though the God of Chicago was different from the God of Malaysia. In effect I was acknowledging and practicing polytheism. One day it dawned on me that the God I worship is the same God wherever I went: I am the same person in Chicago with religious UBF people as I am in Malaysia with non-churched people. By God’s grace, I experienced the liberation of monotheism!

A shocking confession. After 32 years of marriage, I have never told my wife, “I love you.” I strongly do not recommend this to any husband. I never said those three words to my dear wife, partly because I am a shy and introverted person from the east who has great difficulty expressing emotions of love to others. (Unfortunately, I likely have no problem expressing anger!) Also, a sad story of humanity is that countless millions of people throughout the world have said, “I love you,” yet behaved in ways where their loved one felt anything but love. Mainly, however, I thought that my love for my wife should be expressed in ways far beyond uttering three little words. I did not realize this but I might have backing from today’s text about loving God! It should be obvious that God does not want his people to love him by just saying “I love you.”

A person of “one“is the happiest person since God gave us one heart and one life to live. Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855) wrote a book with the title, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” In contrast, an unhappy person is one with a divided heart or one who is double-minded.

The great command of the Bible is found in Deuteronomy 6–to love God with all of one’s power (Dt 6:5). This follows the famous statement of the uniqueness of God (Dt 6:4). My original title of this sermon is “Love.” But since the word “love” is banal, hackneyed and trite, I changed it to “One.” This chap. comprises general exhortations to obey and warnings not to disobey. It may be considered in the following parts:

  1. One God (Dt 6:1-4): The Lord (Yahweh).
  2. One Love (Dt 6:5-6): The only appropriate response.
  3. One Book (Dt 6:7-9): Impress them on your children.
  4. One Caution (Dt 6:10-12): Be careful that you do not forget the Lord.
  5. One Disposition (Dt 6:13-19): Fear God.
  6. One Story (Dt 6:20-25): The Lord brought us out of slavery.

The heart of Israel’s faith and confession is found in Deuteronomy 6. The entire book itself is an expression and extension of the first two commandments in particular (Dt 5:6-10)–the Supreme Command. Chap. 4 and 6, like an envelope around the Ten Commandments in chap. 5, are really extended meditations on the first two commandments, which are then developed in chap. 6-11, and also take up fresh importance withint the laws of chap. 12-26.

  1. One God(Dt 6:1-4): The Lord (Yahweh)

Hear (Dt 6:4a). Dt 6:4-9 are known to the Jews for centuries as the “Shema,” patterned on the first Hebrew word “Hear” (Dt 4:1; 5:1; 6:3, 4), implying “listen carefully” and “obey.” It has been recited with Dt 11:13-21 and Num 15:37-41 as daily prayer.

Yahweh/God/Yahweh/one (Dt 6:4b). There are two main issues. (1) These four Hebrew words (“Yahweh” is translated “the Lord”) have no verbs within the structure of the phrase. It’s sense is governed by where “is” should be located, and if it should be once or twice. (2) It relates to the word “one.” Should it be translated as an adjective (“one”) or as an adverb (“alone”)? The NIV and ESV footnote points out that there are at least four (three additional) possible readings: The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

A monotheistic declaration or a love confession? Scholars are divided as to which is primarily. It depends on what the question is. If the question is “How many is God?” the answer is “one,” which is a declaration of monotheism. If the question is “Who is the only God of Israel?” the answer is “Our God is the Lord (Yahweh), the Lord alone,” which is a declaration of exclusive love and loyalty. The former declares who God is; the latter draws attention to the special relationship between Yahweh and Israel. While Deuteronomy does not argue theoretically for monotheism, it requires Israel to observe a practical monotheism (Dt 4:35, 39), in sharp contrast to the polytheistic Canaanites.

A cry of exclusive allegiance. Moses’ concern is whether God’s people would remain exclusively devoted to the Lord, or be seduced by the gods of Canaan. (This seems to be confirmed by the rest of Dt 6:5-19.) Answering to the Supreme Command (Dt 5:6-10) by uttering the Shema the Israelites were declaring their complete, undivided and unqualified devotion to the Lord. Thus, the Shema is not strictly a montheistic confession (Dt 4:35, 39) but a cry of allegiance, an affirmation of covenant commitment that defines the boundaries of the covenant community. It consists of those who claim this utterance as a verbal badge of identity and who demonstrate this identity with uncompromising covenant commitment (Dt 6:5).

  1. One Love(Dt 6:5-6): The only appropriate response

How would God’s people show that “our God is the Lord, the Lord alone“? (Dt 6:4) That the Lord alone is Israel’s God leads to the demand for Israel’s exclusive and total devotion to him. Dt 6:5 explains what is meant by exclusive allegiance to the Lord. In Hebrew, the word “love” (Dt 4:37) refers to covenant commitment demonstrated in actions (Rom 5:8) that seek the well-being and pleasure of one’s covenant partner. Dt 6:5 calls on the people to back up their verbal commitment expressed in Dt 6:4 with wholehearted and full-bodied love.

Love with a triad of qualifiers: “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5). This means to love God with the totality of our being. Yet the words “heart, soul and strength” might obscure just how profound this statement is in the original Hebrew language. Nonetheless, it is an emphatic reinforcement of the absolute and singular devotion to the Lord called for by Dt 6:4. To understand this triad requires an explanation of the three Hebrew expressions: lebab (heart), nephesh (soul), meod (strength).

Heart. The Hebrew word often functions metaphorically for the seat of the emotions and will, but equally often it refers to the “mind” or the seat of thought. The word serves comprehensively for one’s inner being, including the “heart” and “mind” (Mk 12:30).

Soul. The Hebrew word means “throat, gullet,” but is used in a variety of derived metaphorical senses: “appetite/desire” (Prov 23:2; Eccl 6:7); “life” (Gen 9:5; 2 Sam 23:17; Jonah 2:5); a person as a “living being” (Ezek 4:14); the whole self (Lev 26:11). Here the word refers to one’sentire person.

Strength. English translations “strength” (NIV, HSCB), or “might” (ESV, NASB) flattens the sense required by the Hebrew, which has the meaning of “greatly, exceedingly.” It’s meaning is best captured by a word like “resources,” which includes physical strength, but also economic or social strength, and it may extend to the physical things an Israelite owned: tools, livestock, a house.

Love God without reservation or qualification. Loving God begins from one’s inner being (heart), then moves to the whole person (soul), and ends with all that one claims as one’s own. This is the “yoke of the kingdom”–covenant commitment rooted in the heart, but extending to every level of one’s being.

Deep internal commitment to God, not ritual acts, performance or external obedience (Dt 6:6): Loving God should be from the inside out, from their hearts (Dt 6:6). The call for unreserved love for God must be indelibly written on one’s own inner being.

III. One Book (Dt 6:7-9): Impress them on your children

They were to be the people of “the word” or “the book” who love God. Dt 6:4-9 (the Shema) comprises a series of imperatives that dominate the paragraph of these six verses:

  • Hear
  • Love
  • Impress
  • Talk
  • Tie
  • Bind
  • Write

“Impress them on your children…Talk about them” (Dt 6:7) means repeating them constantly, when God’s people sit in their homes and walk on the road, when they lie down and when they rise up (Dt 6:7b). Every believer should value the Shema so as to seize every opportunity for instruction, beginning with their own children. Of course, this should never ever be forced, enforced, or overbearingly or legalistically imposed. Rather it should arise naturally, even spontaneously, out of daily occurances of every day life.

Wholehearted covenant love (Dt 6:4-5) is to be a public matter (Dt 6:8-9). The people were charged with a triadic expression:

  • Tie them as symbols on your hands: Demonstrates allegiance and ownership by the Lord.
  • Bind them on your foreheads (lit. “between the eyes”). Demonstrates their commitment to loving God wholeheartedly by obeying his commands.
  • Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. This reminds them of their primary allegiance to God when they leave or return home, and that loving God should govern all activities inside and outside the house. It also demonstrates to guests who the supreme head is. Inscription on the gates remind citizens and visitors alike of God’s rule over them, their homes, their towns and their nation as a whole.
  1. One Caution(Dt 6:10-12): Do not forget the Lord

The time when we are satisfied (Dt 6:11) can easily lead to the danger of self-sufficiency or idolatry (Dt 8:12; 11:15; 31:20). Moses thus warns that instead of evoking praise to their divine Benefactor, prosperity may yield a lapse of memory (Dt 6:12), especially concerning the source of the gifts.

  1. One Disposition(Dt 6:13-19): Fear God

How should the Israelites respond to prosperity? Expounding on the shema, Moses begins with three emphatic positive statements in Dt 6:13:

  • Fear the Lord your God.
  • Serve him only.
  • Take your oaths in his name.

Fear God. These statements cover most of life (Dt 10:20; 13:4). “Fear” denotes the fundamental disposition of holy reverence and submission before God demonstrated by obedience (Dt 5:29; 6:2, 24; 10:12; 13:4; 17:19; 31:12-13). The negative command of Dt 6:14 presents the flip side of Dt 6:13 and Dt 6:15 explains how impassioned God is as a jealous God and the severe consequences of idolatry. If God’s people, the Israelites behaved like the Cannanites they may expect the same fate.

  1. One Story(Dt 6:20-25): The Lord delivered you from slavery

Four essential elements of OT theology. Dt 6:20 says, “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?’” Moses posed this question to instruct the people of God on the importance of passing the faith on to succeeding generations (Dt 6:21-25). The answer Moses prescribes has been interpreted as a “family catechism.” Instead of getting straight to the point of the answer, Moses offers a four-sentence exposition of the prologue to the Decalogue (Ex 20:2; Dt 5:6) in Dt 6:21-23. In so doing he declares that their lives were not to be primarily driven by a system of rules but by a knowledge of God, particularly his saving acts on their behalf and their special relationship with him. By highlighting four critical moments in the nation’s history, the confession declares in a nutshell the essential elements of OT theology.

  1. They were slaves (Dt 6:21a).
  2. God rescued them with a mighty hand (Dt 6:21b).
  3. God performed great signs in Egypt before their eyes (Dt 6:22).
  4. God brought them out of slavery into the promised land (Dt 6:23).

Four purposes of the law. In Dt 6:24-25 Moses finally addresses the question raised in Dt 6:20. Moses stated four purposes of the stipulations, decrees and laws:

  1. To govern their conduct (Dt 6:24a – “obey all these decrees”).
  2. To instill in them reverent awe for God (Dt 6:24b – “to fear the Lord”).
  3. To ensure their well-being forever (Dt 6:24c – “that we might always prosper”).
  4. To maintain/sustain their life (Dt 6:25 – “that will be our righteousness”).

“Righteousness” denotes behavior that conforms to norms established in the law (Dt 33:21). Israel’s laws are righteous because they derive from God, who is absolutely righteous and upright (Dt 32:4). The Hebrew word suggests that righteousness will be credited to faithful Israelites when God observes their scrupulous obedience to the Supreme Command (Dt 5:7-10). The significance of the law is that in his mercy God rescued Israel from Egype and revealed to them the appropriate response to grace that they might fear and obey him. If they do, they will not only live and prosper (Dt 6:24), but they will also hear God’s approval, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:21, 23).

VII. Conclusion

True love. Those who claim to be religious tend to be subject to two temptations:

  1. treat spirituality as primarily interior and private, or
  2. treat it as a matter of external performance.

True love for God is rooted in the heart, but it is demonstrated in life, specifically in the context of the family and a public declaration of one’s allegiance to the world (Dt 6:7-9). Love is not merely an emotion, a pleasant disposition toward another person, but covenant commitment demonstrated in actions that seek the interest of the next person. Christians must indeed praise God with our lips and song. However, from biblical patterns we might learn to be more modest about professions of love for God in both prayer and song. Words come easily. But true love for God is demonstrated primarily in active obedience to God, as Jesus himself said (Jn 14:15, 21, 23). Such obedience is the fruit of union with Christ (Jn 15:1-11).

Paul and Moses are on the same page. In ancient Israel, the truly godly–according to the Shema (Dt 6:4-5)–were covenantly committed to him (1) in their inner beings [heart], (2) with their entire bodies [soul], and (3) with all their resources [strength]. Dt 6:4-5 is the OT equivalent of Rom 12:1-2. A Christian’s true and proper worship, one that would be holy and pleasing to God, is to offer oneself as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). This would be the only appropriate response in view of God’s mercy (Rom 12:1).

Jesus is the perfect example of loving God and loving us. Jesus loved God with his entire being. Jesus loved God at the cost of his life by being obedient to death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8). Indeed, Jesus loved God with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his strength. By loving God in this way, Jesus also expressed and demonstrated to us just how much he loves us (Rom 5:8). When we realize how much God loves us, and to the degree that we know we are loved by God, then our only appropriate response would be to love him with the entirety of our being.

May God bless you to know the depth of his love for you.

References:

  1. Block, Daniel I. Deuteronomy: The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2012.
  2. Fernando, Ajith. Deuteronomy: Loving Obedience to a Loving God. Wheaton: Crossway. 2012.
  3. Woods, Edward J. Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press. 2011.
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