I think I lasted three practices with the freshman high school basketball team. What good is a 4’ 10” guard with limited vertical leap, so-so jump shot skills, and only a slightly above-average ability to steal the ball? But I well remember those three practices. We would change into gym clothes and head out for the shoot-around, trying to outdo one another until such time as the coach would come out, clipboard in hand, wave us over to the bench and say, “Listen up!” At that point he’d tell us a little about the plan for the practice and divide us up into groups, if necessary. It was the critical moment when practice really started.
I had another experience like that, even though I was merely an observer. I served in a volunteer capacity as an unofficial chaplain to the Redondo Beach (California) police force. About seven or eight of us who were ministers would rotate so that we rode entire shifts with some of the officers. Police work is a contrast between tedium and emergency, boredom and adrenaline-rush. It is mostly tedium and boredom. We rode with the officers so that they could use some of those dead hours on patrol where nothing was happening to talk about what was bothering them or gain some spiritual insight. We went to occasional county-wide meetings in order to gain more insights into the law enforcement psyche and, of course, we attended the pre-patrol briefings along with the officers with whom we were to ride on a given day or night. I well remember some of the raucous joking and harassment that went on prior to the lieutenant coming in and saying, “Listen up.” At that point, the talking ceased except for the occasional irreverent comment and nervous laughter after the supervisor read an incident report or watch bulletin.
We don’t say, “Hear, O Israel!” anymore. But as I just noted, we do use the idea of “listening up.” Both phrases mean to pay attention. So, after Deuteronomy retells the giving of the commandments in Chapter 5, we run into this paragraph on how to make the commandments integral to our lifestyles. Here’s the way I translate the first few verses in the text.
4) Listen up, Israel. Yahweh, our Lord, [in fact] Yahweh is ONE. 5) And, [as a result,] you shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your will (lit. "heart"), with all your being (lit. "soul"), and with all your resources (lit. "abundance"). 6) And these words which I am commanding you on this day shall be for your will (lit. "heart"). 7) And you shall repeat them to your children (lit. "sons") and speak them when you are living in your house or walking along the way, in your lying down and your standing up.
A lot of people don’t like it when I translate (or more accurately, transliterate) God’s personal name. I do it because the actual name in the Bible is unpronounceable. Most rabbis pronounce it by means of the vowels as “adonai” or “LORD.” Most Jewish translations simply translate it as the ETERNAL, all in capital letters. The reason for this is that God’s personal name (as God gave it to Moses in Exodus 3) means, “He causes to be what He causes to be; I am Who I am; and I will be Who I will be.” [Of course, it is actually revealed in the first-person in Exodus 3 because God says, “I cause to be what I cause to be; I am Who I am; and I will be Who I will be.”]
So, what does it mean that “Yahweh is ONE?” Does it mean that our God is the only real God? Yes, it does. But there is another option. The rabbis interpret this as meaning that out of all the false gods it would be possible to worship, Yahweh is the only ONE that is truly worth worshiping. Technically, that is “henotheism” instead of “monotheism,” sometimes called “practical monotheism.” The fact is, we believe, as do the rabbis, that there is really only ONE God. As Christians, we believe that ONE God shows Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But that doesn’t mean that God is the only choice out there. To be sure, God is the only valid, authentic choice, but that doesn’t mean that God is the only choice that people make. People choose fame, fortune, pleasure, pride, intellectual arrogance, and various personal causes over God. And, too often, we who call ourselves believers find ourselves choosing wrong. In much the same way that Israel would turn to the Baals, we sometimes find ourselves choosing our personal ambitions or actions of convenience instead of God’s will. We sometimes find ourselves choosing temporary pleasure or our own ideas of intellectual consistency over the difficult path of faith. Deuteronomy 6:4 calls us to attention and reminds us to focus on choosing God—the only REAL choice we should want to make, in spite of our frequent self-destructive errors.
There was an interesting movie recently. It bombed at the box office, but it was a very interesting film. “The Soloist” was a true story about a Los Angeles Times columnist named Steve Lopez who discovered a homeless person on the street who, in turn, was a Julliard School of Music dropout. At one point in the film, the homeless person (exhibiting evidence of the schizophrenia he denied) shouted that Steve Lopez was his god. And Lopez, believing that he was turning that stated devotion into a good thing, commanded the man to do something that he thought would benefit the man. As a result, Lopez went through a personal crisis when he was rejected by the homeless man, frustrated because he had tried to provide good things to the fellow, but experienced only hostile ingratitude and even assault at the hands of his intended beneficiary. The truth remains, no matter how beneficent our intentions, we be God for anyone else, we can only point people to God, the ONLY authentic and valid choice.
A lot of people don’t like the idea that God would “command” people to love Him. They would perceive this as weakness in God, some human type of insecurity and neediness. As with all of the commandments, though, the commandment is for our benefit. God wants us to love the One who loves us. Did you ever see someone who was in love with someone who was bad for them? I’ve known wonderful women who were oppressed by “bad boys” who had seemed enticing and interesting when they were dating, but were now causing depression, doubt, and destructive in their lives. And I’ve known intelligent, talented men who have battled depression and lost self-confidence over rejection by shallow women who flirted with them, but had no real interest in them. People of both sexes who found themselves trapped in unloving relationships because they made the wrong choice.
Well, it works with regard to other choices, as well. If we care about someone, we don’t want to see them make bad choices. In the same way, God cares about us so much that God doesn’t want us to make choices that will eventually hurt us. God may be jealous, as the Old Testament tells us, but God is jealous for our benefit.
Now, what does it mean to love Yahweh with all our heart? Does it mean that when we meet God in worship we’ll have an adrenaline rush that will cause our heart to pump fast? Not really! Remember that the heart was considered to be the center of the will in the ancient world. I’ve called it the “Decider” on several occasions because it represents our volition, our determination, and our ability to set our objectives. To love God with all our heart means that our goals, objectives, desires, intent, and fulfillment comes from agreeing with God concerning what we’re doing every day.
The next part of the verse gives some trouble to some people. You see, we sometimes confuse the Greek idea of the soul with the Hebraic idea of the soul. The Greek idea was that the soul itself was immortal. Many of them separated the idea of the soul and the body such that they even believed in reincarnation. To the Hebrew, the soul was all of you. It was body, mind, and spirit. You wouldn’t be you without all three. The Semitic word translated as “soul” is usually better translated as “life.” It represents your whole being.
But I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering what happens to us when life leaves the body. Fortunately, the Apostle Paul helped us with that when he told us that there is an earthly body and a heavenly (or celestial) body. If you follow the logic, it suggests that our entire being will shift from this worn-out earthly body into a perfect heavenly body prepared for us. Paul uses the illustration of a tent in I Corinthians 15, but I would suggest it would be like moving from a camping tent into a mansion. We move from limitation and gradual disintegration to the limitless and never-ending experience of God.
Finally, the verse tells us that we are to love God with our “muchness.” I know that’s not a real word, but it comes closer to anything in terms of translating the Hebrew word that usually ends up reading “might” in our English translations. In reality, it’s the same word we translate as “very” when God sums up the creation in Genesis and says that it was “very good.” The rabbis sometimes translate it as “material possessions.” I think it means to give God your “everything,” all of your resources.
Verse 6 sounds a whole lot like Proverbs 3:3. Here, Israel is told that God’s commandments are for Israel’s heart. In Proverbs 3:3, wise listeners are told to write the teachings of the wise man on the “tablet of the heart.” That imagery reminds me simultaneously of the clay tablets upon which ancient youth were said to practice their writing skill and the wax tablets that were used in the early years of our country. Pupils would write their exercises and then, rub them out and start over again. God’s people need to learn to practice writing (with our decisions rather than a stylus) God’s commandments until we become familiar with God’s purpose and expectations for our lives, much like my beautiful wife practices her Chinese calligraphy as regularly as she can or like young school children practice their cursive for the first time.
Now, I see the meat of this passage in verse 7. Here, God’s people are commanded to “teach” God’s commandments to their children. Actually, “teach” is a pretty abstract translation. For centuries, scholars believed that the weak verb used here (weak verbs in Hebrew have a tendency to drop letters in certain forms and scholars sometimes argue over which letter has dropped) was from a rare root that meant to “sharpen.” This verse was the only time it was used for “teaching,” but commentators thought “sharpening” or “penetrating” was a colorful way of saying that one was honing a child’s intelligence or getting something important through the child’s “thick head.”
Today, however, comparative studies of other Semitic languages make us almost certain that the verb comes from the same root as the one where we get the number two. It is sometimes used for doubling something over, folding it to make “two.” It is also sometimes used for indicating that something is being expanded or repeated. So, it seems most likely that it means to repeat something over and over until it becomes second nature. I know that when I was preparing my role in a play (mostly during my college days), one of the first tasks I had to do was to memorize my lines. And I never figured out any better way to learn them than to repeat them over and over again until they became second nature. And, when I was learning verb forms in Hebrew and Greek, I had to memorize all those crazy paradigms.
In this case, God’s people are commanded to repeat the truths about the goodness of God, the promises of God, the purpose of God, and their relationship to God so that their lives and the lives of those around them are permeated with praise and obedience. Repeating the truths about God’s goodness, God’s promises, God’s purpose, and our own calling is the way we obediently mold our lifestyle into God’s likeness. Of course, as noted already, we can’t do that without God’s help and direction.
The kicker in this verse is that the repetition is supposed to take place both when one is residing at home and when one is “on the way.” In short, no matter where one is, God’s goodness and God’s purpose is to be recited. It’s not only “all in the family” at home, but it is intended to be affirmed when one is away from home on business (whether at work, school, or on the road). God’s people don’t have a “code of the road” that’s different from their “code at home.” They can’t get away with being like the grandpa of a Jewish friend of mine. His wife kept a kosher kitchen at home, but he would always stray whenever they would go out to eat. “What?” asked his wife, “Do you have two stomachs? One that’s kosher for home and another that’s trafe for when we go out?” There’s no double-standard in God’s service.
I also like the fact that we are to repeat the commandments of God and keep talking about them when we are lying down and when we are standing up. It doesn’t matter whether we are passive (lying down) or active (standing up), we are to be thinking about the things of God and sharing them. Whether we are not in control or we are in control, we need to be tuned into the things of God.
The section ends with the commandment to bind these commandments to their hands and on their foreheads, as well as on their doorposts. In the Jewish religion, the former are called phylacteries. Orthodox Jews tie these on prior to prayer. In ancient Israel, they probably served a similar purpose to the tattoos used by those of pagan faiths with one major difference. The pagans thought the tattoos obligated their gods to their needs and desires with these permanent markings of loyalty and devotion. The difference with the Israelites and their phylacteries is that the bindings are temporary (at least, for most) and that they remind the Israelites of their obligations toward obedience instead of trying to earn a false god’s favor.
In the same way, the mezuzahs (little wooden decorations) on the doorposts seem to be in antithesis to the idols placed at front doors or on doorposts in pagan homes. The pagans believed that their false gods would protect their houses. The Israelites posted the mezuzahs to remind them of how they were supposed to live in their houses. How do I know? I’ve looked inside a mezuzah and know what’s inside. Do you know what’s inside? The passage we’ve studied this morning. And what does that mean? It means that we need to be focused on God’s commandments in everything we do.
And what does that mean for the New Testament believer? I believe that it means that, instead of binding our arms with phylacteries, we need to be constantly in God’s World. Instead of trying to bend God to our way of thinking, we need to be reading, studying, repeating, and sharing the great news, the important guidance, and the amazing encouragement we find in the Bible.
So, listen up, believers. Our God is the only valid answer to finding purpose in life. As a result, we need to put our goals and determination, our whole existence, and all of the resources at our disposal into doing God’s will. We need to focus on God’s Word so much that it becomes part of our thoughts and our speech, and infiltrates our lifestyle. Otherwise, we might as well be wearing another god’s tattoo. I challenge you to spend regular time in God’s Word on a daily basis.
