Hear, O Israel

Notes:

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 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. 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.

“As a soaring assertion about the essence and nature of YHWH, the Shema undergirds the First Commandment and set the ideological fundamentals of Israelite religion, paraphrasing in fact all the Ten Words and asserting the truth upon which the covenant and the book of Deuteronomy rest… As the ‘fundamental truth’ of Old Testament faith, this assertion leads naturally to ‘the fundamental duty founded upon it,’ which is the duty to love YHWH with one’s entire being.” Arnold

“And the three components of v. 4 communicate succinctly its core themes: (1) Yhwh has initiated communication with Israel (Hear, O Israel), (2) Yhwh has done so personally (our God), and (3) Yhwh has no ambivalence about relating to Israel (is one). Yhwh’s character as an indivisible and unified selfhood is thus singularly resolved in his devotion to Israel, without divided loyalties or reservations about being Israel’s God. As sovereign Lord of the created order, Yhwh has no competitors, and no one can interfere with or disrupt his ardor for Israel (he is a “jealous” God; cf. 5:9b). Thus there must be no rivals to compete for Israel’s affections or devotion to Yhwh (cf. v. 5).” Arnold

Introduction:

Phrases that are loaded with significance?

“Just do it.”

“Few texts in the Old Testament are as pregnant with significance as this passage.” Block

Shema Part I: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One”

Hear:

Leah: Genesis 29:33 [Leah] conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.

Simeon=Shimah-on

Shema=More than just listen, but to pay attention, the Lord HEARD and did something about it.

Shema=Obey. No other word for obey.

Tim Mackey points out: “I will listen and DO what you say”=Shema

!Listen to this! !Pay Attention!

What is it that we need to pay attention to?

First: Confession about who our God is:

The Lord Your God.

The Lord is One

“This is the nucleus of Israel’s relationship with Yhwh.” Arnold

Enigmatic: No Verb

The Lord you God, the Lord One.

At least 4 options: Arnold:

“As for our YHWH our God—YHWH is one.”

“YHWH our God is one YHWH”

“YHWH is our God, YHWH alone.”

“YHWH is our God; YHWH is one”

“There is one YHWH prescribed for one Israel in one Torah. The rest of the book is essentially spelling out the specifics of that reality.” Arnold

YHWH is Israel’s God

There are all these options out there, but they aren’t options for you. YHWH is YOUR God.

Exclusive Worship

YHWH One: One

Craigie: “God UNIQUEness” or “The Unique” vs. “Unity”

One=#1

Half dozen instances= “unique, only, alone.”

Block: “Within the immediate and the broader contexts the purpose of this statement is not to answer the question, “How many is God?” but “Who is the God of Israel?” To this question the Israelites were to respond in unison and without compromise or equivocation, “Our God is Yahweh, Yahweh alone!””

Concern with this statement is about exclusive devotion without being seduced by the gods of Canaan.

“complete undivided, and unqualified devotion” to YHWH. Not a monotheistic confession, “but a cry of allegiance, an affirmation of covenant commitment that defines the boundaries of the covenant community.” “Verbal badge of identity.” Block

One-way worship: “YHWH is the one and only [God for Israel].” Emphasis on Israel’s relationship to YHWH.

One YHWH: About the essence and nature of YHWH. Mono versus poly YHWHism.

Poly-Yahwehism. Mono-Yahwism, Monolatry,

“YHWH alone” v. “one YHWH”

One-way worship or One YHWH?

YHWH is supreme? “THe creed is a powerful positive statement about who YWHW is; that is, YHWH is a singularity—and this can be said only of YHWH—and consistently dependable deity, worthy of the category divinity like no other.” Arnold

One=Integrated and supreme unity of YHWH. God is one in essence.

God is not fragmented or fluid

ANE gods: gods are fluid. God’s topple over other gods.

Monotheism: 3rd Century BC development? “Prior to that time, the ancient Israelites themselves simply did not objectivize or intellectualize their relationship with YHWH in this way, but rather defined faith in moral, ritual, and symbolic practices that were a subset of life itself rather than an abstraction intended to cope with life.” Arnold

One=Unwavering

Shema Part II: Love the Lord

The Supreme God deserves supreme affection.

5a: First reference to love God in the book, and it comes after the most important confession in the Old Testament.

Arnold: The focus isn’t on obedience to the law, but to love of God!

Arnold: “stated negatively, just as fragmentation and fluidity are not part of God’s character, so they must not be part of Israel’s devotion to Yhwh. And indeed, human personhood finds singular purpose in the love of God, which becomes a unifying principle for humanness itself.”

“The truth about God’s trueness leads to true devotion.” Arnold

YHWH is the only divine being worthy to be declared God, therefore He is the only one worthy of our adoration.

Eastern Orthodox Jews recite vv.4-5 twice a day

Craigie: “E. W. Nicholson, commenting on the sermon-like style of the book, has noted that “it is in a very real sense true to say that the entire book is a commentary on the command which stands at its beginning: ‘You shall love the Lord your God …’ ”

With your whole heart

With your whole soul

With your whole strength

Heart, soul, strength: “obscures the profundity of this statement.” Block

Not a Greek way of breaking apart the different aspects of being human, but a Hebrew understand, “Emphatic reinforcement of the absolute and singular devotion to Yahweh.” Block

Heart=Seat of emotion and will, ‘mind’ ‘seat of thought’

Soul= “throat, gullet,” appetite/desire

Strength=Power, always functions adverbially, ‘greatly or exceedingly.’ “With all my ability.” “With all my resources.” “economic or social strength”

Block: Inner being, whole person, and all that one owns. “This is the yoke of the kingdom”—covenant commitment rooted in the heart, but extending to every level of one’s being.

Block: “As in the original Shema, the issue here is not the unification of God in one deity, but expanding the boundaries of those who claim only Yahweh as their God to the ends of the earth.”

5b: Why with all three times?

Missing one of them means you’re missing the mark on all of them.

“True love of God is wholehearted, single-minded, and all-encompassing.” Arnold

Heart: Your Thinking Center, your gut.

Soul: The Life Center. “A mind and life in which there is not doubt or equivocation.” Arnold

Strength (new term!)=

“Deuteronomy envisions a “complete absorption in God,” and “calls for a degree of unified concentration of individual personality on God unknown before in ancient Near Eastern religions.” Yhwh is supreme; you must love him supremely! The wholehearted love of God thus accomplishes a unity of the human self, combining one’s mind, appetites, and life-strength into an integrated attachment and devotion to God. This singular love is merited because of the unity of God’s selfhood; “the two unities proceed hand in hand.” Arnold

Bind these Words:

“These six remaining commands internalize the credo with external actions, marking the Israelites inside and out as lovers of YHWH.” Arnold

Outline of the Rest of the verses:

(1) you must love …, (2) these words … must be upon your heart …, (3) you must repeat them …, (4) you must talk about them …, (5) you must bind them …, (6) they must become a headband …, (7) you must write them.

Commitment:

Is a family matter. ‘Impressing’ words on children. Includes repetition.

Public Matter: On foreheads and doorposts and gates.

Gates=entire community. City Gates=courthouses, “these incriptions will also remind those participating in legal or administrative proceedings that all must be done in honor and on behalf of the divine ruler.” BlockBlock: “In 1 Corinthians 8:5–6, Paul declares hypothetically that even if one concedes the existence of other gods (which, in the light of v. 4, he will not do), “for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord [i.e., Yahweh], Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” The christological effect of inserting the name “Jesus Christ” after “Lord” is extraordinary, in that Paul identifies Jesus unequivocally with Yahweh, the one and only God to whom true Israelites declared allegiance (cf. Rom. 3:29–30; 10:13). What the Old Testament has said about Yahweh may now be said about the Christ.”