"Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH is one! You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:4-9)From the book of Deuteronomy, that is the beginning of the Jewish Shema (or Sh'ma, depending on who you ask). Now, we note right away that it's Old Testament and we see immediately that it is a command to ... Israel. Our tendency, then, is to dismiss it, to relegate it to the "Old Testament" pile and "not for us today." And maybe, as a flat commandment, it is not. I know of no non-Jewish Christians, for instance, that will "write them on the doorposts" or "bind them as a sign on your hand" or what have you. So maybe it's not a command for today. But surely you can see how it would be a very good idea for today.
The Middle East back then and even today was a more oral society, whereas we are a more written society. Parents taught children verbally and frequently and they got pretty good at doing word-for-word stuff, unlike our modern "telephone game" where we can't repeat what was said in a few minutes around a small circle. So imagine if we "civilized folks" took up this practice of teaching our children diligently that the primary command for life is to love God. Imagine if it was a repeated topic "when you sit in your house" and "when you walk by the way." Imagine if, every night and every morning, we were reminded -- children and adults -- that our job was to love God with all we are. Imagine if we put up reminders for ourselves all around so that all day long this fundamental truth -- what Jesus called "the great and foremost commandment" (Matt 22:37-38) -- would be on our minds. What would it be like if we were reminded of this one, simple command more often than anything else you can think of. What would it be like?
Well, fortunately we're not going to find out. Who needs that kind of extremism? That kind of repetition? That kind of "every day, over and over, in casual conversation with friends and family, everywhere you go" kind of reminder? We do, that's who. Often. Repeatedly. Without end. To our own embarrassment. Because anyone with any awareness would have to honestly admit that we don't even begin to love God that way. And we should.
3 comments:
I once heard it was said of John Bunyan that if you were to cut him he would bleed Scripture. We should strive to be so spoken of.
I appreciate this reminder to keep God at the forefront of all my thoughts, decisions, endeavors, priorities, etc.; this is His rightful place indeed, as Lord and King of all. The typical person barely considers God during their day at all until he/she wants something done by Him (and then they often fume if He doesn't comply). As a Christian, I must remember that God does not exist to serve me, but the opposite is true. May I always be mindful of the “great and foremost commandment” you highlighted today.
To “love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” is certainly my heart's desire, but it is so all-encompassing that I know I don't do it. Nobody does, sadly, and that reality should humble every person before God and replace any sense of entitlement they might harbor with pure gratitude for His mercy.
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