Nielsen’s Nook

⁴ שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה׀ אֶחָֽד׃

⁵ וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃

Writer’s Translation
⁴ Hear O Israel, YHWH your [pl] God, YHWH is one. ⁵ You [sg] will love YHWH, your [sg] God, with all of your [sg] heart, with all of your [sg] life^a, and with exceedingly all of you.

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^a nephesh has a broader semantic field that can range from “life” to “soul” and generally refers to the immaterial component of the composite whole of a creature.

Continuing to explore the idea of 1) the Decalogue as descriptive of God in his essence as righteousness in contradistinction from some kind of prescriptive imperative, telling us what to to in order to be righteous (see previous post); I wanted to chase this idea curiously through this chapter to consider its merits.

In this light, chapter 6 the last half of the literary unit that contains the Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5 would seem to be a redemptive historical address of YHWH to his people. The commands to hear in verses 3 and 4 are clues to this. In otherwords, “Listen to me, let me tell you who you are as I created you, and to whom I am restoring you as a people out of the grasp of sin and death!” YHWH declares himself to be one, that is, undivided perfect unity. Humanity as God’s image has been fractured and is no longer one but a living contradiction of principles. We see the divine element in us, and yet at the same time we see the anti-divine element that can so forcibly compel us.

YHWH is bursting onto the scene, speaking light into this dark contradiction. He described himself, humanity’s archetype and now describes himself as undivided. As He is undivided so shall his people be. That is one day they will not be rent and ruined by this living contradiction. This is explained in the statement that follows in verse 5: You - the People of God - who know this contradiction all to well, will be those who will love YHWH from the heart, from the inside, with your life, in fact with exceedingly all of you. Notice that the words which describe the faculties of love by which a person is described as loving YHWH are all intrinsic. The kind of love to which God is redeeming his people is not behavior modification, but dissolution of contradiction, a radical resolution of the dissonant into marvelous redemptive historical harmony. It is in this symphony that we live and move and participate.

Lord have mercy, that we might today, this day, adore more fully Christ to whom we are as his people bound, that in us the perfect image of the Father, Christ Himself, would be more deeply evident in us, His people. Amen.