Hear, O Israel

Hear, O Israel September 11, 2015

Deuteronomy 6 is the closest thing the Old Testament has to a confession of faith: “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh your God, Yahweh is one” (v. 4). That isn’t merely a “doctrinal” confession. The text immediately goes on to exhort those who confess the one God to love that one God with all their hearts and to demonstrate that love in obedience to His commandments.

But the “Shema” is not merely a confession of God’s uniqueness or unity. In fact, Deuteronomy 6 is only one of four “Shemas” in Deuteronomy, and the others fill out the “confession” that Israel makes about their God.

Deuteronomy 5 begins with “Hear, O Israel,” and Moses directs Israel’s ears to the Lord’s “statutes and ordinances which I am speaking today in your ears.” That is the introduction to Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Words. Israel confesses and worships the one God, and that one God is the God of exodus and Sinai, the God who saves and the Lord who commands.

Deuteronomy 9 also begins with a “Shema.” Here the text goes on to remind Israel of the looming task of conquest. The land is filled with Anakim, “a people great and tall” but Israel is to remember that the Lord is a “consuming fire” who subdues Israel’s enemies before them. At the same time this text emphasizes Yahweh as Israel’s hero, it humbles Israel: “Do not say in your heart . . . . ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in TO possess this land’” (v. 4). The land belongs to Israel not because of Israel’s righteousness but because of Yahweh’s covenant (v. 5).

The final Shema is also related to conquest: “Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them” (20:3).

To sum up: Israel’s confession is of the one God who saves and commands, the consuming divine Fire who gives them a land and fights for them. Serving this one God requires single-hearted, whole-souled devotion, a love that drives out fear and faintheartedness. 

And then we might note in passing that there are four such passages in Deuteronomy, and we might reflect on the four-cornered extent of Israel’s confession of faith.


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