As Moses continued to recount the great story of how the Lord had led the people from bondage in Egypt to freedom, he recited the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments as we often call them, though they are more than that (Deuteronomy 5:6-21). And then he said these words: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (6:4-5).

This is an all-encompassing love that we are called to live out toward our God. We resist being that devoted: we may well want to have a little religion, but the text here requires a fullness of will and emotion and strength. We resist the notion that love can be commanded: to our modern romantic way of thinking about love, it’s something that just emerges on its own, a feeling that just magically happens to you. But in the biblical way of thinking, love follows a particular three step pattern, heart to soul to might: it begins with a decision of the will in the heart, which leads to an emotional stirring of the soul, and then results in vibrant actions made with strength.

Moses insisted that they would need to teach these words to succeeding generations: “Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” (6:7). Moreover, they would encounter resistance from their children, who would ask why they had to learn all these lessons of ancient history (6:20); and they were not to be put off by this resistance, but were simply to retell the story yet once more: “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand” (6:21).

This story of how “we” were Pharoah’s slaves, and how Yahweh brought “us” out of Egypt: that was already barely true for those listening to Moses’ speech: the eldest of them were small children when they left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, and most of them had been born during the succeeding forty years in the wilderness. But from then on, down the generations we would tell our children “we” were slaves and our Lord set “us” free: and therefore we must love God, completely, forever. That’s who we are.

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When you rescued our people, Lord: that was us. You saw us all, in that moment, all down the generations, and claimed us for yourself. Teach us to love you, with all our heart and soul and might, in diligence and devotion, this day and forever.

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