Deuteronomy 6:5 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.”
“Love is a canvass furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.” – Voltaire
Every day every orthodox Jew will recite this verse, in Hebrew. Why Hebrew and not their own native language, like English? There are ceremonial reasons to be sure, but one fundamental reason is that you cannot recite this in another language, particularly in English and recite it exactly as it means in the Hebrew. With something as fundamental as this you want to be sure you are reciting it with its exact intent.
In Deuteronomy 6:5 the word “love” is “ahav.” The Septuagint uses the Greek word “agapos.” We all know what “agape” love is. What is really interesting is that this word is preceded by a “vav” and forms a vav construct state and thus is in a preterite form. Now a preterite in Semitic languages is not like the preterite in our Western languages which indicates a past tense. The preterite in Semitic languages is much like the aorist tense in the Greek which shows an action without any indication of its completion. Thus, you could say it is indicative of the past, when the action started and continues into the present and with no completion will continue into the future.
When God said “I am” to Moses, this was in a preterite form and thus when he called Himself Jehovah, “I am” or YHWH for you purists, He was saying: “I am, I was, and I will always be.” That was a good way to identify the God that was sending Moses out for only God could make such a claim.
So when a Jew is reciting this verse every day, what he is really saying is I have loved, and do love and will continue to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind. Not a bad promise to make. I think we all have made that promise to God that we would love Him unconditionally past, present and future.
So what happens if I lose my job, face bankruptcy, foreclosure, and/or health issues and God does not come riding up on His white horse with a rescue plan? In fact He does not seem to have any plan at all, and we feel sort of abandoned. For many the response is: “Well, God if that is your idea of loving me then you can just take this salvation/born again/relationship and shove it.”
But when I think back to the day I accepted Jesus as my savior, I remember promising to love Him with all my heart, soul and mind. There were no strings attached. There was no “so long as you keep pulling me out of trouble, or even keep loving me.” My promise was a commitment to Him to love Him, even if he gave me nothing in return, even if I felt he broke His promises to me, or abandoned me, even if I could find no reason to love Him in return, I would still love Him because I made a commitment to love Him.
Some people may look at your present circumstances and say: “Well, where is your God now?” Could you respond by saying that loving God does not depend upon where He is at or how He is responding to your circumstances? Loving God is a promise you made and by George, you are going to keep that promise which was made in a Hebrew preterite form. You have loved Him, still loved Him and will continue to love Him no matter what happens.
The Talmud tells the story that when God turned to the angels and said; “Let us make man in our image.” The angles asked: “Why do you want to create man in our image if you have us.” God then said, “I am going to give them problems with their health, with their families, and with their struggle to survive. These are things you as angels do not experience. When I give them these issues, I want to see if they will still love me.”
This verse states we will love (ahav, agapos) the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and mind. Sound a little like God has furnished the love and it is our hearts, souls and minds that will embroider it.
What a thought provoking devotion. Your point about loving God even if I could find no reason to love Him in return certainly hit home for me. Now that is what faith is all about. Thank you.
There were two thoughts that came to mind when you compared ahav to agape and then clarified the meaning of the preterite form – something I can’t find in my Hebrew textbook which teaches perfect and imperfect rather than preterite and future.
First thought, why did Moses include the clause “with all your heart and all your soul and all your might”? Doesn’t this type of love imply that it must be done with all the heart, soul and might – every ounce of our being? I know that there are many words for love but are there varying degrees of ahav? Can I only half-heartedly ahav?
The ahav of a new believer may well express itself differently from the ahav of an older believer. Nevertheless, they can both ahav God with all their heart, soul and might at the level of their faith. However, there is a perfect standard of love that only God can express. Yet I was wondering if the verb tense as you have pointed out could help me reach a better understanding of this requirement to love God with all my heart, soul and might.
If, in Hebrew, the verb tense is meant to be more of a linear mode (action without any indication of completion) as you describe preterite, then why hasn’t the Septuagint translated it into the present continuous? The Septuagint translates this verb in the future active “agapeseis” “you shall love”. Is this implying that a person must come to a time when he/she starts to “ahav” God but is not doing it now? Maybe this is so with a non-believer coming into faith but Moses is addressing those who had already entered into a covenant with the Lord and experienced His providence after many years in the wilderness. Also, I do not think that it is meant to be an imperative because as you pointed out in an earlier devotion, you cannot instruct someone to love you.
In my opinion, I think this scripture is more about developing a true love for God rather than the concern of cessation and/or continuation of giving love. We may well have every good intention to love (ahav) God and we may feel that we are doing just that but our love is still imperfect. It falls short of God’s standard of love.
If I relate to this scripture as prophetic as well as exhortative, the future tense fits well. It is a goal that God will achieve in me. I can not possibly comply with this very high standard of love that the Lord holds in His heart for me. Something has to happen to change (upgrade?) my heart so that it can love like His. This may well mean facing those faith-challenging experiences that you mentioned. It is a progressive work that God will do in my life. My role is to trust God in this process.
By reciting the shema, am I not simply reminding myself that I must out of my free will, consciously and genuinely ahav God to the level that God has enabled me to do – in the way that I have come to understand it to be. At the same time, am I not also asking God to continue with His work in me so that my ahav for God will progressively become more and more like God’s ahav for me. I love God now in the way that I believe He has taught me to love and there will come a time when I shall love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my might”.
You make an excellent point. I have to admit you are right. I can not argue against the Septuagint using the future active and it makes perfect sense that our love is a growing process, just as I believe my parents were more in love after 61 years of marriage than when they were first married. God arrived at perfect love but we work at it every day,just as the Orthodox Jew says the shema every day to remind himself to love God. I fear you have trumped me and I thank you for doing so. I would like to post your response on my main page if I can have your permission and we can figure out how to do it. You did a better job explaining this than I have done, I suspect you have Jewish background, I have not met many Christians who carry your understanding. Chaim
No I am not of Jewish background (unfortunately). I have just developed a love for Hebrew. I do thank you so much for your kind words. It means a lot to me. It would be an honour to have my response posted on your page as requested.