Israel's
Confession
Deuteronomy 6: 1-9
The Great Covenant
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Max
A Forsythe
Introduction:
It is always intriguing to my mind, that fallen man can take the best
elements of the revealed faith and twist and turn it into some form of idolatry
or heresy. And I have to admit that
I was once tempted to imitate one of those idolized elements within Jewish
religiosity. The specific case in
question is the Jewish practice of affixing the mezuzah over the doorpost.
I had just read a science-fiction novel where a character had scrawled
Hebrew lettering over his doorframe, and I could actually read it. It was the Shema, the Jewish confession of the fourth and
fifth verses: “Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”
We were remodeling our house in
the late seventies, and I thought it would be neat to inscribe the same on the
inside of the wood molding placed over the front door.
Now, you have to appreciate the sinful logic that led me not to proceed.
I was not bold enough to print it outside where it could be read, but
suspicious enough to wonder if having it back-masked on the reverse side, as the
record industry is often charged, if it could turn to a curse instead of a
blessing. So I didn’t proceed.
Looking backwards I often wonder if I will ever be free from every
superstitious notions?
In another instance, while I
respect the religious devotion of the urban Jews who wear phylacteries and
prayer shawls – I must state that the practice is a form of mistaken idolatry
because they celebrate the form but not necessarily the substance of the law,
which looks forward to Christ. Even,
the Jewish insistence upon the literalness of their confession leads them to
misunderstand the Triune nature of the only God in all of heaven and earth.
A few years ago, a Catholic scholar was dismissed from working on the
Dead Sea Scrolls because he was quoted as saying that Judaism was a dead-end
religion once Christ appeared. And
so we would have to agree because the long promised Jewish Messiah did Himself
proclaim, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John
14:6)
In a like manner, we in the
Reformed Christian circles must be careful not to worship the subsidiary
standards of our confessional doctrines. As
Gordon Clark so eloquently put it, “it is not
faith that saves”, but as we have to state it, it is faith in the only
One who indeed can save. Faith must
have its proper object to be effective. As
a confession for the people of Israel, the fourth verse of chapter six is
adequate to point us one and all to the only God of heaven and earth.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord
is one!”
But, there is more to Him, His
being, His power and His purpose than that which is revealed in the Great
Covenant. As the Giver, the Judge,
and the Administrator in and through Christ – His own Covenant and His
revealed Creed may be understood only in the light of His complete revelation
record. Yes, we love and appreciate
the Law of God, the Great Covenant here recorded, but this first version is not
the final Word. The necessary
Mediator between God and Man – Jesus Christ may interpret, may even set aside
portions and administer it in a fuller revelation by His own presence and
declaration.
Certainly, in the Old Covenant
time period – this was the very Word of the God of heaven and earth.
The Hebrews lived amidst worldly cultures that imagined gods and
goddesses in every tree, rock and body of water.
Even animals in various cultures were and still are considered sacred for
some purposes. The sacred cow of
the Hindi peoples is certainly one of the more ancient polygamous theories still
around.
Old
Covenant Milieu:
Please understand, in no way, shape or form do I wish to trivialize,
demean or discredit this ancient revelation to the Hebrew people.
What God has spoken still has force for today and all time.
There is much that we can learn in the study and understanding of this
Great Covenant, which the revelation of Christ enhances, reinforces and
reinterprets in His complete fulfillment thereof.
One point brought out by an
Australian lecturer, J.A. Thompson is the singularity of the word “commandment”
in verse one. He recommends, “the
term should probably be translated as ‘charge’.
In detail the charge is represented by ‘statutes
and commandments’, although these are
not formally given till chapters twelve to twenty-six. At this point the main concern is to express general
principles.”
That charge given to Israel here
and at Mount Horeb is in these verses an essential commentary on the first two
principles or commandments in Deuteronomy 5: 7-8.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate
Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My
commandments.”
But we must look back just a
little further to verses six for the Lord’s solemn announcement to get the
fuller context of the commentary of chapter six:
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
Dr. Patrick Fairbairn tells us that in the “personal
announcement which introduces the ten fundamental precepts; it is that same
glorious and unchangeable Being coming near to Israel in the character of their
redeeming God, and by the very title, with the incontestable fact on which it
rested, pledging His faithful love and sufficiency for all future time, to
protect them from evil or bring them salvation.”
Raymond Brown urges upon us the
idea that “His unique nature should inspire”
the love of His chosen people. “The
Lord is one. He is the only God
they can love; there are no others. In
times of drought or famine the Israelites may be tempted to turn to Canaan’s
fertility gods but the Lord here reminds them of his uniqueness; there are no
rivals. To love other gods is to
pursue nothing. They do not exist.
He is the one and only Lord.”
As most of the history of Israel
and Judea demonstrates, this first principle is a long time being sanctified in
the lives of the elect. So
difficult it was for the people of God that the personal iniquities of
generations brought down upon Israel the wrath of God.
The very people He would bless with a land flowing with milk and honey
were transported to foreign provinces. And
only with the restoration, did the Jewish people give up the false gods.
Almost a thousand years for God’s people to take this charge to heart
and show some consistent public polity that they finally understood and were
willing to obey it!
Of course each generation has
it’s own failings. It would seem
from the Media record that the principle or commandment most in need of learning
in our time is the seventh! But
that is another lesson the Lord must lay heavily upon the nations.
And why do the nations disobey
and every man go his own way? Isn’t
it because we do not love the God our Lord?
In his comments on verses four to nine, Dr Craige tells us that these
verses contain “what have been called ‘the
fundamental truth of Israel’s religion’ and ‘the fundamental duty founded
upon it.’ The fundamental truth has to do with the nature of God as
one; the fundamental duty is the response of love which God requires of man.”
Verses six through nine explore
the relationship and importance of those two themes. The first theme we have already discussed at some length, so
let us focus upon the second charge to love the Lord our God.
Basically we are only asked to return to the Lord what He has so
graciously given to us – His love!
Look at the depths of love
desired by our Sovereign God. His
words and our love for Him must be heartfelt.
Recently we have read and heard of a man who has a completely artificial
mechanical heart. That is all the
world sees in the heart – a mechanical pump for blood.
But, the media people never ever look too deeply into these things, even
the rumors here and there of personality changes that come with heart
transplants. Of course the
artificiality of today’s culture is beyond description.
There are words, phrases, historical incidents and literary reports that
easily bring a tear to my eye. Yet,
the depth of ignorance being supplied through our public ‘skools’ makes it
impossible to convey a literate symbolism of the traditional heart felt concepts
of the great ideas of the Western world.
And look at how our culture as
failed. It is clearly marked out
for us in these short verses. “You
shall teach them ... and talk about them”, you shall know them as well as the
back of your hand and see them as clearly and closely as your own eyelids, if I
may paraphrase the intentions there. The
emphasis is not only upon knowing, but understanding and comprehending the
purpose of the law given by our personal Creator God who would have returned to
Him a small portion of the great and abiding love given freely to all of
mankind, but especially that which is redemptively given to His own peculiar
people.
New
Covenant Continuum: It is common in today’s church to assume that the
first tablet of four commandments describes our proper relationship to the God
of heaven and that the second tablet of six commandments outlines our proper
responsibilities to the peoples around us.
And yes, I have taught that concept for many years.
However, as I study deeper into the Covenant I am more and more convinced
that our primary responsibility is to love God and study His word more
diligently so that He may reflect His greater glory through us as we relate His
love for us to them by fruitfully living the whole of the law as we are given
grace and ability.
We may sadly see around us the
public fallacy of concentrating on the humanistic enlightenment principles of
reversing the two tablets and working upon our relationships with mankind to the
detriment of knowing and obeying the Creator God of heaven and earth.
Therefore let us turn to the revelations of the New Covenant to see how
Christ would interpret the Old for our better benefit.
Let us turn to Paul’s first
letter to the saints at Corinth,
1 Corinthians 8: 5-6: “For
even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are
many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all
things, and through whom we live.”
This passage comments upon the
first theme in our passage from Deuteronomy – the simple Monotheism of the Old
Covenant: One Godhead revealed in and through the person of Jesus Christ. “Even
if”, Paul writes sarcastically – “even
if there are so-called gods”, he charges us have a higher calling.
“There is one God, the Father, of whom are
all things.” The Christian revelation in and through Christ does not deny
the charge to or confession of Israel. One
God, who as Paul describes it here, has chosen to work through Jesus Christ.
This same Jesus has plainly and
bluntly told us “I and My Father are one.”
(John 10:30)
In Luke
10: 25-28 we read:
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying,
‘Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’
He said to him, ‘What is written in the law?
What is your reading of it?’
So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.’
And Jesus] said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you
will live.’”
In Matthew
22: 38 Jesus tells us that “on these two
commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
On these and other occasions
where we find such references, Dr Fairbairn notes:
“On both occasions alike, as the question
was respecting things to be done, or righteousness to be attained, with the view
of grounding a title thereon to eternal life, Christ pointed the inquirers to
the written law of God – in the one case more particularly to the precepts of
the Decalogue, in the other to the two great comprehensive precepts of supreme
love to God and brotherly love to man; and, in connection with each, affirmed
that, if the commands were fulfilled, life in the highest sense, eternal life,
would certainly be inherited.”
Contemporary
Application: Amen to that, but of course we should well note in our
culture and every other culture since time began – the vast majority of the
people do not arrive at the proper conclusion.
Even, the very covenant people of God who would trivialize the Word with
mere trinkets to demonstrate an outward appearance of devotion but refuse to
love the God of heaven and earth from their heart. Now please understand – it is not just cultural Jews who do
this, but all to many Christians who fill their homes with plaques, pictures,
candles, angels and the lot – all of whom miss the prime directive, if I may
use a modern term: to love the God of heaven because He first loved us!
And let me go further, there are even some tares amidst the wheat who
have bookshelves of Reformed titles who still miss the whole point and
invitation of the Scriptures: “to love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your
mind.”
One last point, if I may, before
we close. We must always remember
that it is the prerogative of the One God to offer the generous terms of this
Great Covenant to peoples of His own choosing.
It was to Israel and the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt that the
Covenant was revealed on the Mountain and through Moses.
Other nations and peoples were passed by, but in the course of time, all
of those He intended to save were brought within the fold of Christ’s Old
Covenant Church. The New Covenant
administration has not changed in this respect.
Jesus clearly states, “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall
anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (John
10: 27-28)
So let us take to heart this
charge of Moses to love Him who first loved us.
Then, and only then – let us go on to love His law and demonstrate our
obedience to that law before the nations so that in our time as well, all of
those He intends to save may know the glory of His name through the power of the
Holy Spirit as well as in our work and witness. Amen.