The Greatest Commandment (1)
Thus says the LORD, “Keep justice and do righteousness.” Isaiah 56:1
Keep Justice – One of the marks of Torah scholarship was the ability of the rabbi to summarize all the Law in a comprehensive and dense saying. The scribes posed this challenge to Yeshua when they asked for His summation of all the commandments in the “greatest” one. We should not think that they required Yeshua to set up a hierarchy of commandments, as though one is more important than another. All of God’s commandments are equally valid to accomplish His purposes through us. The holiness scale is digital – ON or OFF. If you ignore any of God’s instructions, you diminish His ability to use you.
The scribes were not asking for a hierarchy. They were testing Yeshua for His ability to summarize all the Law in one pithy saying; a saying that could then be unpacked to show that it contained the essence of all God’s instructions. This test of Torah scholarship wasn’t new. Moses received the six hundred and thirteen. David reduced them to eleven. Isaiah reduced them to six. Micah reduced them to three. Then Isaiah reduced them to two. Finally, Habakkuk reduced them to one. But here, in this verse, we get an insight into all six hundred and thirteen squeezed into just two verbs and two nouns. If we want to see how these two verbs and two nouns capture the essence of all the Law, we better take a very close look at Isaiah’s choices.
“Keep justice,” says Isaiah. The Hebrew is shimru mishpat, using the verb shama and the noun mishpat. The verb is important. To guard, to keep, to watch over, to listen, to obey. We are quite familiar with this verb: “Hear, O Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Now we see how “packed” it is. Isaiah uses this verb to summarize what Moses delivered in the second course of the divine banquet. Whenever we repeat The Shema, we are summarizing the whole Law, all of God’s instructions. We are called to observe (study), watch over (authenticate), listen (pay attention) and obey all that God says. By simply articulating the summary verb, shema, we endorse our commitment to the entire book of instructions.
So what about mishpat? The noun is derived from the root shapat, “to exercise the processes of government.” We’re certainly familiar with the operations of government. Unfortunately, today’s version of government seems to be more about personal power and leveraged advantage than it is about grace, protection and equality. But that’s because no human government is an adequate substitute for the moral government of God. Isaiah reminds us that proclaiming shema always entails civil order! Keeping God’s instructions brings God’s order to life. It is always about community. I can never keep God’s law alone. I can never watch over His ordinances by myself. Keeping God’s commandments necessarily involves me with others. Yeshua’s new commandment is a restatement of a very old one. Yeshua reminds us with His new commandment that if we are in Him, we are connected. There is no other way.
Isaiah’s summary shows us that God is the God of community, but not just any community. He is the God of the community that follows His instructions. If you are going to join Him, you will have to be connected to those who speak shema and live shema together. That’s where you belong.
Topical Index: Justice, shema, mishpat, community, the Law
