A Little Deeper
And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your nephesh and with all your might Deuteronomy 6:5 (my adjusted translation)
All your heart – be-kol levavcha. Try saying it. “With all your heart.” YHWH wants – and expects – your whole heart commitment to Him. How will I know that I have made that commitment? I will follow His instructions for living in His world. This second verse in the Shema recognizes the obligation and the honor God has given me. I fulfill His mitzvot because each one is a way for me to demonstrate how much I love Him. There is no legalism here, only joy. “Lord, I love to do Your will.”
But what happens when I don’t fulfill His instructions? What happens when I succumb to the inner rebellion that pushes me away from a disciplined life of joyful observance? What happens when I obey out of compulsion or legalism rather than gratitude? Does this commandment change depending on my spiritual condition?
No. Not at all. To love God with all my heart is to love Him with both my positive and negative propensities.
The rabbis taught that be-kol levavcha means that I am to love God with both human inclinations, the inclination to good (yetzer ha-tov) and the inclination to evil (yetzer ha-ra). “It is incumbent on man to bless YHWH for the evil in the same way as for the good.” Why would the rabbis teach such a thing? They noticed that there is a redundant bet in the word levavcha. The word heart is lev, spelled in Hebrew lamed-bet, but in this verse, the word is spelled lamed-bet-bet before the pronoun “your” (kaf) is added. Why the double bet? The rabbis taught that the double bet represented one bet for each of the two inclinations. Therefore, both inclinations are included in the command to love God.
Consider the psychological impact of this teaching. In our usual religious thinking, men are bent toward evil. Some theological doctrines even suggest that men are inherently evil, born as sinners. In other words, it is not simply the case that men sin. It is rather that men cannot do anything except sin until they are granted a new constitution by God’s grace. They cannot love the Lord with all their hearts because their hearts are entirely wicked. Even their good deeds bear no positive moral currency. But if I view men as the locus of a battlefield between the two inclinations, then good deeds have positive moral value no matter what struggle is raging within me. Good deeds won’t save me because I am still accountable for my bad deeds, but there is a reason to continue to perform good deeds in spite of my sins. Good deeds please God and bless His creation. When I follow His instructions, I feed the good inclination. When I don’t follow His instructions, I feed the evil inclination – but even in my failure I am still called to love Him. Out of my sins, I am still exhorted to change direction – to start again and make it right. From the Jewish perspective there is absolutely no situation in life that does not demand honoring God. I can never throw up my hands and say, “Well, I’m just a sinner,” because there are two bet’s in levavcha.
How often do we become discouraged in our walk because we fall down? The yitzer ha-ra wins one round of the match, or two, and we think, “I’ll never be able to love God with all my heart. My heart is a mess. I am always struggling. I’m not pure in my affection for the Lord. I’m a loser!” At that moment we need a rabbi to say, “You may love the Lord our God with your yetzer ha’ra and your yetzer ha-tov. Why are you so downcast? If you do what is right, won’t it be acceptable? Let the anguish of your yitzer ha’ra become the source of blessing HaShem.”
What change would happen to you if you realized you are the battlefield, not the combatant?
Topical Index: heart, levavcha, sinner, Deuteronomy 6:5, yetzer ha’ra, yetzer ha-tov
Good news. The “battle” is over. “It is finished.” Not my words- His. The gospel is no longer spelled “do.” It is spelled “done.” “Jesus Paid It All- all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, -He washed it white as snow.
Well allright then, -I’m “saved.” There will be “pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by.” Now what? What do I do with myself in the betwixt time -from “now” until “then?” Born 1953 (-) died in the year.. ??? It’s all about the “dash.” What about the “nasty now-and-now?”
His words? “Occupy ’til I come.” Go and live. Live among them, but be ye separate, -saith the LORD. “Be holy, as I am holy.” I don’t know about you my friend, but for this man, (a sinner)- this is a tall order.
I am (by admission) a far cry from where I would like to be- especially in the “holiness” department. What does holiness look like anyway? Should I shave my head and wear an orange robe- maybe pass out leaflets at the airport? Or join a monastery where I could sit and contemplate all day long. (I might like that!- Hmm.. let me think about it..
If I am to be “salt” and I am to be “light” (that which reveals), I need to be where the salt and the light are needed- right “there” (wherever “there” is..)- out among the “sinners.” Rejects, reprobates and (thank you brother Brennan), ragamuffins! I must go where I am sent.
Now how are “these people” (whom G-d loves BTW) going to be impacted by this particular (and peculiar!) ambassador for Christ? -Do I have some praying to do? (we pause as the brain fruitlessly searches for the MIA “right words..”) Absolutely. His words? “without Me (Carl, Skip, Fred, Ian, Rodney.. etc.)- you (I’m talkin’ to you), can do nothing. Zero, nada, zip,squat. We (all) need Him. “Energize me” is not just for the Bunny. -It is for each of us who are called by His name.
His words? – “Love one another with a pure heart, fervently.” – Piece of cake,-right? His words?- Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5.44) -Not a problem..(?) Do I have some “repenting” to do!!
We love G-d by loving what He loves, and G-d loves people. (did you notice the period?) G-d is in the “people” business. His program is still the same as it ever was. Salvation. Deliverance. Sanctification. -He is still building a bride for the marriage supper of the Lamb- yet to be, -but it will be. It will “come to pass.”
We all “fall down.” Why?- because we are fallible, frail (amen on the frail part!), human beings. G-d knows this. He knows our faulty frame, yet He comforts and strengthens our inner man, yes, -the yetser hara is changing day-by-day- and praise be to G-d for doing this. I am delighted to share with all- I am not the man I used to me. I have changed and I am (still, today) changing. I am becoming (by the grace of G-d) more like the Master. In the way I think, act, and speak- and I like the changes He is making in me. For it is G-d that is working in me (and in you), both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and His good pleasure is to conform us (each and all) into the image of the Son, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of G-d, until the day we each draw our final borrowed breath. -Let it be so.. amen!
A small correction, if I may – the doubled letter is not a vav (the sixth letter of the Hebrew alelph-bet) but a “vet” – the “bet” (the second letter of the aleph-bet) without the dagesh (the dot) in the middle of the letter. This is one of those letters with 2 pronunciations – the dagesh makes the harder “b” sound while without it the sound is the softer “v”.
The meaning of the letter is the same – it is the pictograph of a house. According to Dr Frank Seekins, “Hebrew Word Pictures”, the meanings include:
A physical house or building
a body (house) of someone or something
a family, household
inside, within or amid
This last definition could indeed be applicable here, as the “yetzer ha-ra” and the “yetzer ha-tov” are indeed “inside”, in the heart of a person.
BTW, Skip, did you get the email I sent you last night? I sent it to your alternative email address, not the skipmoen.com one…I don’t know if that makes a difference to how quickly you receive it. If you need me to resend it let me know…
Got it. Thanks.
You are so RIGHT. I correctly gave the spelling and then incorrectly reverted to the phonetics. My error. Thanks for this. I have corrected the TW.
Missed one…”I can never throw up my hands and say, “Well, I’m just a sinner,” because there are two vav’s in levavcha.”
Yup. Got it.
Oops – just found one more that I didn’t pick up before, when I was reading it out loud to Laura…
“They noticed that there is a redundant vav in the word levavcha.”
Man, did I mess that one up. Got it.
What change would happen to you if you realized you are the battlefield, not the combatant?
Actually, quite a bit changes. This is a profound change of perspective and orientation; I am not sure words can described the change, but my heart just breathed a sigh of relief. Thank you.
The closing statement of Skip’s strikes me too.
Recently, I listened to an interview Chris Wallace of Fox News did with the lawyer of the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas; who also is the daughter of its founding pastor. He asked her if she believed Christina Taylor Green died and went to hell. Christina, you may remember is the 9 year old shot and killed recently in Tucson, AZ. The lawyer/daughter/christian/conservative/evangelical answered with a convicting “yes”. She added, that all people – from the “sucklings” to the oldest – is born with the “default” to go to hell; unless they “bear fruits of repentance”.
This theology forms the basis and justification for the disciples of this family church to protest funerals of slain men and women who defend our country, and little girls brutally slain by a mad men. Regardless of the faith, beliefs, religion, sexual orientation, and lifestyle of America’s service men and women I and my community benefit from their good deeds. It doesn’t matter that Christina was raised in a religion different from mine. Her death and the death of every soldier, seamen, and airmen cause me to be both grateful and generous. Their deeds remind me and move me towards the Creator and His continuing work – bringing cosmos to chaos.
What a travesty of theological stupidity! It doesn’t take much for the world to realize that if this is Christian belief, they want nothing of it. No one can believe in a God who would send a child to hell, even a babe, just because the child was born after Adam’s disobedience. The more I think about the atrocity of Augustine’s Platonism and its impact on the doctrine of “sinful nature,” the more I realize how ridiculous Christians appear to a world filled with pain and suffering. Augustine might as well have been a Stoic. In fact, I wish that he were since then we could have relegated him to the dustbin of Greek philosophy rather than the hallowed halls of the Church saints.
Just yesterday I discussed with a client the etymology of the word “christian”. He found it fascinating that it’s roots lay more in culture than in scripture. The insight led to an understanding that biblical terms tend to be defined by ancient biblical principles, and cultural terms tend to be defined by shifting cultural mores. No wonder when one person says to another, “I am a christian”, that no one really knows what was just said. Christian comes to mean whatever the speaker or hearer wants it to mean (kinda like Childs would suggest).
In 1939 German citizens give up their neighbors – who are Jewish – to the Gestapo; all the while claiming to be Christian. In 2011 Christians preach that babies dying in their mother’s arms are not fit for the Kingdom of God. In 72 years nothing has changed. Correction, there has been change. We have become more degenerate.
In contrast, if one says I belong to the House of Israel, I seek to observe Torah, or I am a devoted follower of a Jewish Messiah named Yeshua, then there is clarity and no room for doubt who this person is. Further, it is understood that to be a follower one must imitate – walk in the ways – of the Creator. The Beloved’s starting point becomes our starting point; since He is love, then I must be love. I cannot be, what I do not do. I cannot claim to be loving if I do not provide what is beneficial.
Words do matter.
I was also touched by your battlefield comment, Skip. Why do I find comfort in knowing I’m not the combatant?
I’m not Skip (duh!), but here is my thought. A battlefield is the ground that the King fights to keep, retake, protect, and secure. The King is not fighting me, He is fighting over me.
Yup. And in a battlefield, barrages come from both sides while I attempt to hold my ground. Perhaps that’s why “rescue” and “salvation” in Hebrew is more like “reinforcements” than it is like “escape.” It’s simply not possible to escape from myself – even on a cruise.
Sounds a bit like “Blessed are the peacemakers…(for they shall be shot at from both sides).”
🙂
Having trouble with this one, to be honest…Psalms 51:5 comes to mind. Maybe this is all just semantics but still don’t get the import of this position that I am effectively a neutral being when I am conceived/born into this world. Maybe I would agree that it isn’t “evil DNA” that we have inherited through Adam but I am not prepared, nor do I understand, the wholesale abandonment that we are merely spiritual stick-shifts and that we can either go from neutral to forward (good) or from neutral to reverse (evil) simply by choosing which way we will go – and certainly not without the aid of God, through the work of Christ and while yielding/submitting to His Spirit IF (big “IF” here) it is going to have any redeeming or eternal value that truly glorifies God on His terms. After all, what about the verses that describe unredeemed “good works” (when apart from God, I apparently choose wisely the “good” inclination) – righteous deeds as filthy rags, right? And what did Solomon in Ecclesiastes have to say about everything in our temporal existence (including “good works”) that do nothing but end up going to the grave with us? Meaningless, vanity, vapor right? Only fearing God and obeying His commands seems to matter to God, Solomon concludes. And what about “righteous activity” (tithing, praying, fasting) in which it is done as “good works” but only for external observation or reward? God says, “nice going”? Nope…you have received your reward, He says. The applause and admiration of men who will also end up in a grave along with your “good job, Joe’s” for having done good deeds in God’s world. Reflecting God’s good order by doing good deeds out of your good inclination for His created world might give God glory as Creator. Perhaps. But, I am not sure how good works done out of a good inclination of an unrepentant and unredeemed heart can necessarily give God the glory He is truly looking for – unless of course, we remove Yeshua from the equation who was both Creator and Redeemer. Finally, are toddlers in the church nursery capable of exercising their good inclination over their evil inclination because if that is true, I have personally observed an awful lot of evil inclination going on without anyone ever necessarily teaching them the difference (across the spectrum), nor acting on them to choose one or the other (except with the strong aid of adult supervision so that no toddler dies) and while, according to this teaching, they have the ability to choose one inclination over the other once they understand their choices and can use their will to choose their inclinations….Sure seems to me like if there is an equal balance between their good inclination and their evil inclination, one side seems to be winning an awful lot more. I am not prepared to say that toddlers are born with evil DNA, nor am I prepared to suggest that infants/toddlers who die without choosing Christ will end up in hell. That is not my theology. Just don’t get this line of rabbinical exposition. Need some help here. Doesn’t seem to jive with either the theological or practical world I live in….For now, I am inclined to say that given the choice between a good inclination and a bad inclination that is housed in my heart, and apart from God, Yeshua already decided that verdict: “Light has come into the world…but men loved darkness.” That sounds more like a love problem more than it does anything else.
This deserves a longer reply but for now please note that you have confused righteous redemptive acts in the world – the process of restoring the creation – and removal of guilt before a holy God. Not your fault. The themes are tightly woven and often not distinguished. I’ll be back on this one.
Thanks for recognizing and perhaps diagnosing my confusion. I think I understand your reply but looking forward to your return to this particular topic.
Thanks for your battlefield comments, Roderick and Skip.
The reason our theology is wrong is because early church thinkers and subsequent theologians have defined our relationship with God outside the matrix it was conceived and brought forth in. Instead of allowing the womb and the place our faith was birthed into, to continully give us roots and a place to grow, flourish, and live out our lives in fruitfullness for the kingdom. This abortion that took place so long ago is still being clung to by countless people within the Christian movement, and they are not even aware that this violent death has taken place (please forgive me for the use of abortion here, I find it a profound image to communicate forcefully). We have made a faith into our own image (an image that produces death) and not into the image of the ONE who came to give us life and life more abundantly!
I am of somewhat the same opinion concerning the philosophical and theological restructuring of the faith, but I would point out that God somehow used all this rearrangement anyway. That’s why I am here today and why over the course of 2000 years many wonderful believers have accomplished His purposes in spite of the divergence from the root. God is able to work His will even through the sins of men. While we can now regret that things were not more in line with what we now realize, we cannot discount God’s ability to use even that for our good and His glory.
Of course, now that we do know what has happened, we can no longer perpetuate it.
Yes, I would agree and I am so thankful that God somehow used all this rearrangement anyway. I am exaggerating a point to make a point, realizing as I am writing what I am writing, that God is able to work through our divergence from the root and our so called replanting in an alien soil. God plans and His ability to carry them out are a lot bigger than our ability to recognize and draw from the soil that our faith was planted in and emergered from!
I am more and more aware of the miracle of my life and the faith that He has brought me into and am thankful for the godly heritage that has been given. There are a lot of Christian brothers and sisters who are loving people in extraordinary ways that is making a difference. I do celebrate that and will encourage them as they strive to let His love change our world.
We have a history of faith that goes further back then the time of Yeshua, and yet the very people who love Yeshua so very much, and I do not doubt that they do, are fearful of His Father that gave Torah for our joy and blessing, and the santification of His great Name and through the Holy Spirit the magnet that the world would be drawn to Him. The depth and simplicity of this plan aches and consumes my heart, and the rejection of this plan by those who have called on His name for salvation, breaks and disturbs my heart deeply.
You have seen this is my writing today!
‘Our ability’ written above ^, should have been ‘our inability.’ Blessings to all!