Deuteronomy 6:1-3—1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—'a land flowing with milk and honey.'” Now that Moses has reviewed the people’s history up to this point, it is time to move forward and see what it will mean for the people. As Moses says in verse 1, this is a prologue to the First Commandment in all the Law. All the 613 commands are but evidence to show that the people are obeying this First Commandment. The Commandment is found in verse 5, which we will reach shortly.
Many people today think that following God is a recipe for a dull and boring life, that it means following a bunch of rules and regulations, and that missing even one such regulation even once means eternal exclusion from the presence of God in the fires of Hell. And this is really backwards thinking. We do not keep commandments in order to love God—we strive to keep His commandments because we love Him. Think of your own relationship with your parents. Do you obey them in order to develop a kind of love for them? No. You love them, and because you love them you try to obey them. If you mess up, and stay out past your curfew one night, do they banish you from the family forever? No. You are chastened, as any good parent would do, because they give you rules so that you will not fall into ruin.
That was the reason God gave these people the commands. He did not do it in order to make their lives more wearisome and dreadful, He gave them commands so He could show them wat it meant to be a child of God. And these commands were not boulders to be strapped onto the people’s backs—they were so the people could know what it means to please Him. 1st John 5:3—For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (KJV—grievous). And what would be the result of following these commands? “That your days may be prolonged…that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you.” If one were to follow these commands, they would be in good standing with God, and He would look favorably on that person, and extend their life. Also these commands would keep the person away from those things which shorten their lives.
On the authorship of this passage, The Expositor’s Bible says—
To some readers in our day this repetition, and the renewed postponement of the main subject of the book, have seemed to justify the introduction of a new author here. They are scornfully impatient of the repetition and delay, especially those of them who have themselves a rapid, dashing style; and they declare that the writer of the laws, etc., from chapter 12 onwards cannot have been the writer of these long double introductions. They would not have written so; consequently no one else, however different his circumstances, his objects, and his style may be, can have written so. It is true, they admit, that the style, the grammar, the vocabulary are all exactly those of the purely legal chapters, but that matters not. Their irritation with this delay is decisive; and so they introduce us, entirely on the strength of it, to another Deuteronomist, second or third or fourth-who knows? But all this is too purely subjective to meet with general acceptance, and we may without difficulty decide that the linguistic unity of the book, when chapters 6 to 12 are compared with what we find after 12, is sufficient to settle the question of authorship.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9—4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 strength. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Verse 4 in Hebrew reads שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד (Shema Yisrael: YHVH Elohenu, YHVH echad). Verses 4-9 are part of a prayer that is still being recited to this day by observant Jews. If you notice, the Tertragrammaton (יְהוָה, YHVH) is used twice here, and these days Jews do not pronounce this, but rather substitute the word אֲדֹנָי (Adonai, “Lord”) or הַשֵּׁם (HaShem, “The Name”). They feel that they have lost the true pronunciation of the word, and rather than offend the Sovereign and mispronounce His name, they use a word which describes Him as Lord of all Creation without mispronouncing His name. At any rate, the passages that make up the Shema are Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41. These passages are combined into one long prayer, and is recited in the morning and in the evening.
Verses 4-5 are recited by Jesus when He is asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law (Matthew 22:37-38; Mark 12:29-32). When asked by one who wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life, and He asked what it said in the Law, the person quoted verse 5 and Jesus said "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." (Luke 10:28). This passage has always been important to the Jew, for this is the cornerstone of their faith, that God is One. So let’s look at these verses one by one
Deuteronomy 6:4—4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” The first word, “Hear” is the Hebrew שְׁמַע (Shema, lit., “hear”). Moses was commanding the people to listen to what he was saying, as this would be the foundation of their faith. They were not to just sit idly by while he spoke. They were to actively listen to his words. He was not speaking just to hear himself talk, he was imparting to the people what they needed to know in order to rightly believe in the God who brought them out of Egypt and to trust in Him and Him alone. “Hear”. A word we should remember today when the truth of God is being spoken. We should be hearing what our preacher is saying, and even more than that we should be listening. We can hear all kinds of things, that is the nature of that physical sense. But do we really listen? Do we actively take in what he is saying, and apply it in our lives? Or do we simply show up so we can say we have “done our duty and went to church”? Strong’s defines the word שְׁמַע (Shema) thus:
To hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively to tell, etc.): attentively, call (gather) together, carefully, certainly, consent, consider, be content, declare, diligently, discern, give ear, (cause to, let, make to) hear (harken, tell), indeed, listen, make (a) noise, (be) obedient, obey, perceive, [proclaim or make a proclamation], publish, regard, report, shew (forth), (make a) sound, surely, tell, understand, whosoever [heareth], witness.
Does this sound like a passive hearing of what is spoken, or do you get the sense that more is involved? As we will see in Verses 7-9 it involves not only hearing, but also listening, considering, pondering and telling, repeating and publishing publicly. As we are to do with our faith in Christ. We should not let our salt lose its savor, but use it to season the world with our faith (Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34). We are not to hide our light under a basket, but let it shine forth into the world, that they may see the true light, which is Christ (Matthew 5:14). “Hear”–listen, consider, meditate on the Lord and His word, and publish it forth, let the light you have been given shine forth into this world of darkness!
“The LORD our God…” YHVH was their God. Not one of many gods they were to worship, but THE God, the only one to whom they were to devote their lives and their devotion and their worship to. The only One who had done for them and the only One who could do anything for them. What could idols and images do for them? As he said just a few verses prior, Deuteronomy 4:27-28—27 “And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.” The gods of the pagans—the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Moabites and the Ammonites—these could do nothing, as they were simply images made by the hands of men, and had no sense of sight, smell, hearing, touch or taste. They were simply statues and poles, which could not be animated and which could not animate. But YHVH, He was—and is and always will be—the God who is, the God who has been since eternity past and will always be until eternity future. He formed the Earth, He created the stars and the moons and all the planets—not only in our Solar System, but throughout the Universe—He gave us not only the brains to think, but also the ability to think. He gave us emotions to feel. He alone is God, has always alone been God, and always will be the only God who does. Ba'al cannot see, Chemosh cannot feel, Ashteroth cannot guide into the right ways. Buddha cannot save, Allah cannot deliver, none of the Hindu gods are alive and can do anything. YHVH is our God, the only One to whom we may look for salvation and deliverance.
“…the LORD is one!” Many are the ones who take this verse to mean that only the Father is God, and to deny the deity of Christ (like Jehovah’s Witnesses). Still others use it as the basis of Modalism, and to say that God only appears as the Father in the Old Testament, the Son in the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit today. This was the theory posited by Sabellius (and before him the Monarchians) and promulgated today by the Modalists like TD Jakes. But this is to deny the truth of the Tri-unity of God—that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all at the same time.
Is this too hard a thing to believe? That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also God who appeared in the flesh and dwelt among men? John says as much, in John 1:1, 14—1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. “Well, John 1:1 says the Word was with God. That means the Logos was a separate being from God.” To that I would say See my post concerning John 1:1 here. The idea of the Trinity was not one that (as is supposed by some) was invented by Constantine and the Council of Nicea (for all the great things this Council did and spoke, it is treated by many as the moment when Christianity, and all things pertaining to it, were invented). The Trinity, and the deity of Christ, was something believed by the Early Church (Ante-Nicene) Fathers, even in the 100s and 200s AD. Ignatius, in his “Epistle to the Ephesians” (chapter XIX) wrote the following:
Hence every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God. Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult, because He meditated the abolition of death.
In his “Dialog With Trypho” (chapter CXXVIII), Justin Martyr wrote:
And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.
Hippolytus, in “Refutation of All Heresies” (Chapter X):
The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God.
“Well, that’s all well and good. But these are simply men, who were not writing under the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit. Besides, they were writing long after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Is there any Scriptural proof?” As a matter of fact, yes, there is. Titus 2:10, 13—10 not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things…13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 1st Timothy 2:3—For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. “But the people of Israel did not believe in a Savior besides the Father.” But that does not mean that the Son was not their Savior. 2nd Samuel 22:3—The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior. Isaiah 45:15—Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior! “Okay, so what does that mean? It is God who saves through Jesus Christ.” Read Titus 2:13 again. Jesus is referred to as our Savior and as our God! To say that Jesus is a separate Savior from God is to deny the words spoken by God in Hosea 13:4—“Yet I am the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me.” 2nd Peter 1:11—For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God is the only Savior, and yes, He does save through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is because Jesus is the Word of God, the Son of God, the Lamb of God—in short, Jesus is God!
This also speaks to something Jesus said, in John 17:11 (ESV)—“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me (“which” refers to those whom the Father gave Him), that they may be one, even as we are one.” The Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness, the Modalist, the denier of the Trinity will try to say “This just means they were unified in purpose. This is no ‘proof text’ for the Trinity! Are you trying to say that Peter and Thaddeus were one being?” Yes, that is what I am saying. “HUH?” 1st Corinthians 10:16-17—16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. 1st Corinthians 12:12-14—12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. If we are in Christ, then we are one body, members of one another. Romans 12:4-5—4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Ephesians 4:25—Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. So yes, we are one with the other members of Christ—same flesh, same blood, same essence, same everything. We all share in the one body, which we are in Christ. And just as God is One—the Father being the First Person, the Son the Second Person, the Holy Spirit the Third Person, but all these are one—so should we, though being different members of the Body of Christ, be One in Love, in Fellowship, and in Purpose. Charles Spurgeon—
Hence the diversity. If the hand were made exactly like the foot, it would not be a tenth part as useful; and if the eye only had the same faculty as the ear, it would not be able to see, and the whole body would be a loser thereby. Do we begin to compare eyes, and ears, and feet, and hands, and say, “This is the better faculty”? No. They are each one needful. So do not compare yourselves among yourselves, for if you are in the body of Christ, you are each one needful, and the peculiarity which you possess, and the peculiarity which your brother possesses, have their place in the body corporate, and must be precious before God.
Part 2 next week
