What relationship are we to have to God?

Yesterday we saw that in the Constitution of the Old Testament (Dt 6.4-9), the God of Israel told his people that he–YhVh, the God who called Abraham and saved Moses and his followers out of slavery–is their God, and that they were to follow no other god on offer in the Ancient Near East.

Today we will look at the precise instructions God gave his people for how they were to relate to him.  These instructions are in verse 4: V’ahav’ta eit YhVh Elohekha b’khol l’vav’kha uv’khol naf’sh’kha uv’khol m’odekha.

And you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

The Hebrew word for “love” was the same word used by ancient kings for the duties they assigned to their subjects.  It meant things they were to do, not ways they were to feel.  We need to hear this today in a world where feelings are dominant and too many Christians think their relationship with God is defined by their feelings.

The most important word in this verse is the Hebrew word eit, yet it is invisible in translation!  It comes after the word for “you shall love,” and means that a direct object is coming.  The idea is this: “You shall love in this direction” or “You shall love this particular being and no other.”

In other words, it is not enough to love, or to be a loving person.  This directly opposes what our culture tells us, which is that all that matters is that we love, and it doesn’t matter what or whom we love.  But the God of Israel, who is the only true God, tells us here that everything hinges on the object of our love. After all, Hitler loved.  He loved himself and the Aryan race.  Stalin loved–his own power.  What matters ultimately is the object of our love, not that we loved.

The object of our love is not just God.  After all, Allah is said to be God.  So is Buddha (at least by Mahayana Buddhists).  The key is not just the word “God” but the identity of that God.  Which God?

The God of Israel gives us his name here again: YhVh, which is the sacred Tetragrammaton, the name He revealed to Moses, the name we explored briefly yesterday.  The cause of all, He who gives life to all of reality.  But not some abstract Cause, as for the philosophers.  No, He is the Cause as revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The One whose character is revealed in great detail in the story of Israel in the Bible.  The God of Isaiah and Daniel and Jonah and . . . His Son Jesus of Nazareth.

Notice the text says “your” God.  The Hebrew here is singular.  In other words, each Israelite was to make “our” God become “your” God. They were to personalize God, as it were, by entering into personal relationship with Him.  But how?

By loving him and expressing that love in three ways.  The next three phrases contain words of do-ing.

The first is a phrase in English, but two words in Hebrew: “with all your heart.”

This is commonly misunderstood as a word that is primarily about feelings.  But the Hebrew root for “heart” (‌לֵב‎‏‎, ‌לֵבָב‎‏‎; levav, lev) was considered the seat of the mind or intellect, so that one could think with one’s heart.  So think of the first part of this command as follows: “Love YhWh with all of your thinking.”  That changes the meaning of this all-too-familiar command, doesn’t it?

The next phrase in English is usually translated “with all your soul.” But the Hebrews thought of the “soul” (‌נֶפֶשׁ‎‏‎, nefesh), not as separated from body and spirit as did the Greeks, but as the person himself.  Therefore it could be translated “being.”  We are to love God with all of our being.  The rabbis taught that part of what this means is that we are to be willing to give our lives for the God of Israel, to die for Him, and to die daily in little acts of self-denial.  This is what Jesus meant when he said his disciples are to take up their cross each day.

The last way that God gives us to express our love for Him is “with all of our strength.” The Hebrew word means”power or might,” but was taken by the rabbis to mean our material resources.  In other words, God calls us here to regard all our money and property as His, and to be willing to part with any of it for the sake of His kingdom.  One of the concrete ways that this part of commitment is shown is through the tithe, giving one-tenth of our income to the work of the Kingdom.  This is the minimum, not the maximum. In Israel, God’s people were called to give not only their tithes but also offerings over and above the tithe.

To sum up this verse, the God of Israel calls his people to commit to Him one-on-one, by giving him all of their minds, being willing to go to the death for Him, and regarding all of their money as His.