Unreserved Allegiance

The word commonly translated “one” in Deuteronomy 6:4 carries connotations in the ancient Near Eastern royal and divine literature that are often lost in English. Kings and gods could be called “one” as a means of conveying their uniqueness and incomparability. It could be used to point to the sole authority before whom all rivals rank as nothing. A Ugaritic text has Baal declare himself “one who rules over the gods.” Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions use similar language of supreme deities and rulers. Given this context, “the Lord is one” (Deut 6:4) isn’t likely to be a numerical claim but the assertion of God’s kingship. He is the sole supreme authority to whom Israel belongs. The Shema is not first metaphysical but relational. Israel is to give all they are and have to the Lord.

The Shema is the call to a loyalty that begins not with Israel’s choice but with the Lord’s action (Deut 7:8; cf. 4:37; 10:15). God redeems Israel from Egypt. In doing so, he does not free Israel so that they can decide how they want to live as a nation. They are to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6) representing God to the nations by obeying his laws as a means of showcasing their wisdom and understanding before the nations (Deut 4:6–8). Having been delivered by God from slavery and given God’s revelation, the Israelites are called to live in light of God’s active presence among them. They are called to recognize reality, particularly the reality of God.

Deuteronomy 6:5 reinforces this understanding by calling Israel to love the Lord with “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The vocabulary of love is drawn from a similar context as “one.” It is covenantal, denoting the loyalty that is owed by one party to another. In the ancient Near Eastern political treaties, suzerains (the ruling party) commanded their vassals (the subservient party) to love them. The vassals were to be loyal to the suzerain, obeying his laws, being prepared to commit their resources to the king’s interest, and being willing to die in battle for the sake of the kingdom. Heart, soul, and might in Deuteronomy 6:5 are three dimensions of a person’s existence: the interior commitment (“heart”), life itself (“soul”), and available material resources (“might”). The Shema demands all three because partial loyalty is no loyalty at all. One is either committed to living on the Lord’s terms without reserve or one is serving the Lord on one’s own terms and only when the Lord’s interests happen to align with one’s own. The second is not loyalty. It is convenience that has retained the vocabulary of loyalty. A vassal who reserved his wealth from the king’s call, or his life from the king’s wars, or refused to recognize the king’s authority, is a vassal who isn’t really loyal at all.

Remaining loyal to God through obedience reflects Israel’s recognition of reality. The people are to build in practices that remind them of their commitment to the Lord. For instance, they are to internalize the law (Deut 6:6), teach it to their children (6:7), and saturate their lives with God’s law (6:7–9). God’s commandments, and the Shema in particular, were to be the constraint within which everything else in Israel’s life took place. The loyalty the Shema requires demands that Israel live according to the instructions given by their divine Suzerain. Loyalty makes obedience to the rest of the commandments intelligible.

Because Israel is about to enter a land where other gods are being worshipped and because the Lord is going to make them prosperous within that land, the people will be prone to forget God (6:10–15; 8:11–20). Their loyalty to the Lord will be divided by the redistribution of heart, soul, and might among rival claimants. The Shema and the rest of the law reminds Israel that they belong to the Lord and gives them a set of instructions that will allow them to live according to the governing dynamics of reality. As we see in Deuteronomy 30:19–20: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Apart from the revelation of God, the people of Israel will be incapable of arranging their society as a mirror of sacred order. God’s cosmic order must be revealed. It cannot be observed, or at least not observed with sufficient clarity, detail, and nuance. The law allows Israel to see the world as it actually is, to understand its problems, and to grasp the solutions. For Israel, the solution is to remain near to God by following his instructions. The revelation of God broadens Israel’s vision so that they can see the world as God’s creation ordered by obedience and moving toward a radical restoration.