We have looked at the famous “Shema,” Deuteronomy 6:4, where we find the command to “listen up.” This favorite portion of Scripture really bears repeating. After all, and the passage itself is a repetition. Deuteronomy is a “second law” or the summary second statement of God’s commands for national Israel. If you read on in the passage, you find that everywhere your eyes are to turn you should be reminded of the Word of God. Repetition, repetition, repetition. We learn by immersion into a matter; God’s way of immersion into His thinking is repetition.

Well, the next verse, Deuteronomy 6:5, provides the “so what” of the command to listen and acknowledge God in verse 4.

The Command

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ” (Deuteronomy 6:5, NAS)

This is a so-called “perfect consecutive” command, which means it carries the same imperative force as the command in verse 4, “Listen.” The verb for “love” in Hebrew is אָהַב (ΑHAΒ), which looks familiar in English transliteration (a way to write the foreign letters so we can sound them out in English). We know this word elsewhere in the Old Testament: King Ahab?! Very quickly, no, this is not the basis in Hebrew for Ahab’s name. That would be a great irony, and it might make for a nice sermon! But let’s put that one to bed: Love = אהב, while Ahab = אַחְאָ֥ב. These are totally different words. Incidentally, Ahab does have a determinate meaning in Biblical Hebrew. It is the combination of “ACH” brother and
“AB,” father. Brother-Father? What does that mean? Don’t get carried away, the idea is not at all sordid! It means “he could be his father’s brother” or we might say “like-father-like-son.” Whether in exasperation or admiration, a little boy’s mother often might say, “You are just like your father.” Names can be fun in Hebrew.

Well, so much for what “love” is not. It is not
King Ahab. But the verb “AHAB,” to love, is a very common word we find in Biblical Hebrew, occurring somewhere between 217-220 times in the Old Testament, depending on how you count. Logos 4 and Bibleworks 8 software suites returned those results respectively.

Love can be a very complicated matter, but today let’s keep it simple: It is commanded, so what are we waiting for?

A Distinctive of Theocratic National Israel

We should keep in mind where we are in the Bible. Deuteronomy is Moses’ last word to Israel before they enter the Promised Land, without him by the way. “Speak to the Rock” will be a command to explore in the future. Nevertheless, the first word of Law for Israel is recorded in Exodus 20, where God Almighty spoke the “Ten Commandments” at Sinai and the people were frightened of His display of power.

All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” (Exodus 20:18–20, NAS)

How they missed the point in succeeding generations is a great mystery of our inherent problem with sin. In any case, notice the nature of Israel’s national “constitution.” This is the legislative function of the nation which God was about to set up in Canaan. God, the Lawgiver, was giving them the perfect law for His theocratic state, Israel. The reason for pointing this out is simple: God commanded their love as foundational to their function as a nation.

So we find in the Bible that not only is love something that can be commanded, but the proper function of God’s law is to command man’s love for Himself. Can you imagine the U.S. Congress passing a bill, signed by the President of the United States commanding love for anyone? It is an absurdity to suggest that secular government command men’s hearts and minds in such a way. They have no jurisdiction over our hearts. Yet when God set up a theocratic state He commanded love for Himself, the Sovereign of their nation-state.

By the way, this command is repeated–as in quoted—in the New Testament three times: Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27.  Jesus said this was the “great commandment” in Matthew 22:38, and it remains foundational to the lives of those who know the Father through His Son.

Three Thoughts

1. Man cannot command the heart-response of love, but God can and does command it.

2. If the Loving and Living God can command it, you can obey it. This is the ultimate purpose for which He designed you.

3. The difference between a believer loving God and not loving God is the decision to obey the command.

Passage to Pray

Exodus 20

Memory Verse: Deuteronomy 6:4-8

““Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ” (Deuteronomy 6:4–8, NAS)