Moses continued to recount the great story of how the Lord had led the people from bondage in Egypt to freedom, and had made covenant with them at Mount Sinai. He recited the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments as we often call them, though they are more than a list of commands (Deuteronomy 5:6-21). And then he said these words: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord 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” (6:4-5).

This is an all-encompassing love that we are commanded to hold toward our God. We often resist being quite that devoted: we may well want to have some religion, but the text here requires a fullness of will and emotion and strength. We mostly don’t think that love can be commanded: to our modern romantic sense of 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: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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” (6:7). Moreover, they should not be surprised when they encounter resistance from their children, who would ask why they had to learn all these lessons of ancient history (6:20). Moses proposed that the people were not to be put off by this resistance; they should simply retell the story yet once more: “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand” (6:21).

This story of how “we” were Pharoah’s slaves, and how the Lord brought “us” out of Egypt: that again demonstrates the generational thinking of ancient Israel, for it 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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And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:25-28).
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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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