Scripture Text (NRSV)
6:1 Now this is the commandment--the statutes and the ordinances--that
the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that
you are about to cross into and occupy,
6:2 so that you and your children and your children's children, may
fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his
decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your
days may be long.
6:3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it
may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land
flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors,
has promised you.
6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your might.
6:6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.
6:7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at
home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
6:8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your
forehead,
6:9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Comments:
As Israel enters the promised land, the people are bid to keep the Law
in future generations. Verses 4-5 are called the Shema, which is used
in Jewish daily prayer.
Just a note of thought. I find it intriguing that He asks us to keep
the words in our heart which is where we traditionally view love to
originate. I guess then love originates with a commitment to live out
the truth of the word. Micah in VA
I think that acknowledging the "Shema" here is important, because when
we relate this passage to the Gospel, how does Jesus introduce us to
the two great commandments of all times? He begins by repeating the "Shema".
By acknowledging God before introducing our own thoughts, doesn't that
take us in a more positive direction as we seek to be true to our
Christian calling in today's world? Rev. Tim, South Central Ontario,
Canada
Deuteronomy -
religious education par excellence! You have the ten commandments, now
here is the greatest commandment of them all - love the Lord your God.
Write it on your hearts, on your
wrists, on your foreheads. Teach it to your children. Know it inside
and out so that it becomes part of you and part of living. My, what
wonderful stuff we have from God! Amazing grace!
I will have my congregation writing this out and taking it home to put
on door posts, sleep with
under pillows...
Sue, West
Wickham
I am preaching
to a congregation rent by conservative-liberal conflict. I feel called
to preach on this passage, but am not sure how. In particular, the
Shema in 6:4 in the wake of the shootings in Pittsburg calls to me,
because I think all faiths need to stand together to proclaim the
centrality of God, but I worry about how the congregation will take
it.
MARev
Friends,
When the children were reciting these words, they would become
increasingly aware, as they grew up, how impossible this command
really is. First of all, by carrying out a command to love guarantees
that very love will be eliminated in
the heat of that duty. Love cannot survive it. We know this also. You
cannot force someone to love!
Secondly, it is humanly impossible to love God who cannot be seen.
Like all of the commandments, and this one especially, Israel stands
in hopelessness when it comes to their God. The more they try, the
less they accomplish. And so they
devise ways to get around them --traditions. These traditions were
designed to help them avoid the very thing the commandments intended:
A people dependent upon God, not upon themselves. This dependents
brings them closer to
God (the kingdom), and at the very same time, closer to themselves
--the true selves they were created for.
When Jesus came along and we see most clearly what that self really
looks like...
steve souther
