The Shema (4)
And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5
All – “You’re so intense.” I’ve often heard this back-handed compliment. Maybe it’s true. When you get me wound up about Hebrew thought, it might take a long time for me to release the tension in the spring. The conversation will be laced with scribbles on a page, excited inflections and driving arguments. I’m definitely not passive about this stuff. Apparently God isn’t either.
Kol-levavka – with all your heart – intensifies the demand. Love God, but do not love Him partially, incompletely, imperfectly. Suddenly this seems impossible. Who among us has not wavered in our affection for God? Who has not failed to remain steadfast and true? Who has not doubted, stumbled or idolized what does not revere Him? Love Him? Yes! But with all my heart? How? There is hardly a single feeling in my life that doesn’t contain a hint of diversion or a twinge of conflict. It seems as if there isn’t a single event that doesn’t get a second-thought, a hesitation. Life is joy shaken and stirred with sorrow and questions.
But God doesn’t demand what we can’t deliver. So if He asks for all, He knows that we can deliver all. It might be hard, but it is not impossible. And if that is the case, then we better be very clear about the meaning of kol (all). “Everything, the whole of something, entire” is applied according to context, but the pictograph helps us see the underlying thread. An open palm (Kaf) and a cattle prod (Lamed) paint the picture of “open authority,” or “allow control.” How are these pictures related to “all”? Turn your thinking upside-down. Our view of “all” is usually couched in possession. When we think of “all,” we think of acquiring everything. Getting it all. That’s the name of the game. But the biblical view of “all” is giving everything, emptying the storage chest, distributing the treasure. We need to stand on our heads if we are going to display “all” in Hebrew (and, by the way, when you stand on your head, what’s in your pockets all falls out!). To love God with all my heart is to empty myself of normal agendas, personal plans and individual objectives. God fills empty containers.
The heart is the center of my will, my emotions, my actions and my cognition in Hebrew thought. There is no battle between the body, the mind and the spirit. All are combined in one indissoluble embodiment called me. God wants it all emptied for Him. What I decide, how I feel, what I do and how I think are to be consumed with His perspective. Heschel says that this is “sharing life with God.” He’s right. Life, in all the ways it comes, is to be saturated with His point of view. “Take every thought captive,” says Sha’ul. He might as well be commenting on Moses who is speaking for God. Fulfilling the command to love is divine Texas Hold’em. “I’m all in.” I’ve emptied my reserve. I’m going for broke (and I’ll have to become broke to get there). Maybe we ought to call it “Texas no-Hold’em”.
Are you in? Are you empty?
Topical Index: all, kol, empty, Deuteronomy 6:5
Please pay attention dear readers to “today’s word”,- “all.”
Why? Because as Skip and me (and hundreds of others) will testify- “this” is the only way it works. You cannot “dabble” in this “Christianity stuff.” Whatever name you wish to call it, just as brother Skip said- either you’re in or not.
There is no such thing as “cafeteria Christianity.” “I’ll have a little Saviorhood but no Lordship thank you.” He is both LORD and Christ. LORD of all or not lord at all.
Exhibit A. You and your beloved spouse are in an intimate relationship known as marriage. You love her,she loves you, kids love each other- it’s a beautiful thing- right? Okay, we’re going to do a little adjustment here for the sake of illustration.
Ask your spouse (don’t be shy now)- honey, is it okay if I love you 95%? Come on now, you have the majority of my love, what’s wrong with me “holding back” or reserving just 5%? (You may adjust these “numbers” any way you wish). Anything less than “all” just ain’t gonna cut it. (Is it?)
Mr.- are you going to be happy with less than “all” of your beloved? How ’bout you m’am? – I didn’t think so. You’re just like me. I want the “all” of her (-and what she wants is the “all” of me).
Please pardon me but I’d like to hammer a point. Please throw away all this falderal and “heed” this:
“Christianity” is not a religion- it is a relationship. (If you wish- you may argue this till you turn blue- and I invite you to do so-). We (you and I) are in a covenant relationship with the living G-d. The very same G-d (there is only ONE- remember?), of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His name? YHWH. (Ahh. but wait.. there’s more!) Search the scriptures and His name expands and expands. Over three hundred “names” for YHWH. Are names important in Hebrew thought? (hello?)
When my beloved became mine (and I became hers) a short thirty years ago- she received a new name. She and I became one flesh. The union of two houses. – Do you see where I’m going with this?
You and I also have entered into a covenant relationship with the living G-d. I am now His (and He is mine!). (I don’t mind telling you- I received the much better end of the deal.) I have “received”- (1) assurance. (2) adoption (3) authority. “All” my towels now are embroidered with my “new name”- “His.”
I belong to the Shepherd. I am a son of the Father. Stop- and think about what you have and who you are “in Christ!” – It’ll “pop your cork!” – Is it okay if I shout “Hallelujah?” Praise to the G-d whose name is Yah.
When G-d gave the Son- He gave Himself. “For G-d was in Christ- reconciling the world unto Himself.” I don’t understand all that I know, but to say- it was our Creator we crucified on that tree. We, (knowingly) killed the One who formed and fashioned us, our Maker. And yet, still comes forth from the lips of the G-d/man, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
My friends, “knowing” it was my sin that nailed Him to the cursed cross, I can scarely fathom, the love poured forth at Calvary- that my G-d would willingly suffer, bleed and die as a sacrificial substitute, a propitiation for my sin. Blessed be the Name. Worthy is the Lamb.
Yes, my friends, Messiah has come and His name is “Salvation.” (Ah.. but wait.. there’s more!- lol!) Yes, tell me please- “Who is this King of glory?” What is His name? (and what is His Son’s name?).
Let us “fast-forward” to Revelation chapter 5 for a glimpse of glory. Who is it sitting upon the throne? Who has conquered death,sin and the grave? Who (now) reigns victorious over HaSatan and has been given “all” authority? What is His name? Are names important in Hebrew thought? What is His name?
“Blessed” is the name of Adonai. Baruk Hashem. Y’shua HaMashiach.
I’m going to ask for the fifth time brother Drew (need some help here-) give us His name from Isaiah 53. Notice please- there are no commas in Hebrew. There is a dash between names. Now, -think of (over) three hundred “dashes.” Sweet little Jesus boy? I hardly think so. Let us review His name together and find out just “who” this “Jesus” is. It will be a game-changer for all of us, for this is the ONE we crucified at Calvary and this is the ONE who laid down His life for us. No greater love- ever.
The antithesis of “all” in this case appears to be “double minded”. “All” leaves no room for anything else, nothing mixed, nothing separated or divided. I think some refer to this as “fanatical”. Yeshua told us that if our eye be “single” then our being would be “full” of light. Full=all. If we have a problem in this area, ask the Author and Finisher of your faith for help (BTW-the faith to trust and believe Him was given to you by the giver of every good and perfect gift!) He knows and understand our struggles and as the Captain of our faith, the Holy Spirit is able to lead us along. He is happy to bless His children. After all, we can nothing in ourselves, our strength originates and is sustained by Him and for His glory!
“The antithesis of “all” in this case appears to be “double minded”. ”
Hi Mary,
Good point Mary, we must always make the two one if we want to enter the Kingdom, according to RD Laing as I recall.
“double minded” makes me think of Alexandre Dumas and The Three Musketeers, first serialized in March–July 1844.
It recounts the adventures of a young man named d’Artagnan after he leaves home to become a guard of the musketeers.
D’Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
They are inseparable friends who live by the motto “all for one, one for all” (“tous pour un, un pour tous”).
Hi Michael,
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for all God’s people to have the same mind, the mind of Christ…to all be in one accord? The Scriptures tell us as much and I am trusting this to be the case simply because He said it. So, that means I, as a citizen of His Kingdom, must live according to his law of love-He sets the standard-I have to walk it out! The more I hear Skip talk about love being a verb. rather than an emotion, this has become quite the challenge. Sometimes I think the more I learn of His ways, the more work I see within me that needs to be done.
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:5
God bless you, Michael.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful for all God’s people to have the same mind, the mind of Christ…to all be in one accord?”
Hi Mary,
Thank you for the kind words and beautiful thoughts and I agree it would be wonderful.
I think all God’s people do have the same mind, but to all be in one accord is most difficult.
My sense is that you probably don’t need to do a lot more work on yourself.
Rather you might want to spend time meditating; becoming more conscious of His ways.
I was just watching a silent film from 1944, so beautiful it made me think of heaven.
The young actress looked like my mother did in the forties and it was shot around LA.
It was almost as if I had lived in that movie and seen that world.
But I had never seen the movie or heard of the director until I downloaded it from Netflix.
And after watching the wonderful little film I find your wonderful message 🙂
About the director:
IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN
“More than anything else, cinema consists of the eye for the magic—that which perceives and reveals the marvelous in whatsoever it looks upon.” –Maya Deren
With IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN, documentary filmmaker Martina Kudlacek has fashioned not only fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking and influential artist, but a pitch-perfect introduction to her strikingly beautiful and poetic body of work.
Crowned “Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body” by the L.A. WEEKLY, Maya Deren (née Eleanora Derenkovskaya) is arguably the most important and innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema.
Using locations from the Hollywood hills to Haiti, Deren made such mesmerizing films as AT LAND, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME, and her masterpiece, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, which won a prestigious international experimental filmmaking prize at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.
To really hear “Shema” makes it very easy to obey. To obey offers an opportunity to be freed from religiosity, and to give up its false hoidays, and doctrines. But, to really hear requires that I give up all of what I hold to “be mine”. When I release what I hold on to, and myself will to Yah’s truth I become a son of God. The Shema is only for the sons of YHVH. Hearing has a price, and Shema is the reward!