Muchness!!

DT 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

I preached on this last Saturday. And it is also another of our favourite verses for recitation in Hebrew.
It's amazing how much you can get out of just these couple of verses.

Firstly the Lord OUR God - speaks of a personal God. Note that the pronoun is changed to "you" in the next line. And even then the "you" is singular - addressing the individual.
Secondly, the LORD is one - speaks of an all-sufficient God. No need to run to various idols, for different needs. It's all under one roof, people. One -stop shopping?? (Singaporeans rejoice!)
Thirdly, the word for "love" is written in command form - same as for the 10 commandments. Yet the writer did not use the imperative. How on earth do you stick a gun to someone's temple and say "Love me.."?

But what really gets me is the last part - with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Now it is very easy for us to get distracted by the meaning of heart, soul and strength, as many have attempted to dissect and expound upon ad infinitum (and ad nauseum, if I may add). But the entire emphasis of this is upon the ALL, which the English translation does try to bring out in the tireless repetition of the word. In fact the word for "strength" is actually "me'odeka". "Me'od" means "very" as in "very good". Now how do you translate that? "With all your very-ness"???? Or, as my lecturer has suggested, "with all your muchness"!!!!

I reently sat in as a judge for a cheerdance competition, and was vastly impressed by the enthusiasm and the very "extra"ness of the dancers. Shouting and moving to the beat and cheers, they put in their ALL. That seems to be best example I can think of to illustrate "with all your muchness". Unfortunately, it is taken not from a Christian context, and I ask myself, why?

God of nations, God of individuals

NU 6:24 " ` "The LORD bless you
and keep you;
NU 6:25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
NU 6:26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace." '

This Aaronic blessing we recite in Hebrew every lesson. Only in the Hebrew is it obvious that the "you" is the singular "you", as if addressed to an individual. Yet this was a blessing given to Aaron to speak over the people of Israel. Why so? Think about it....

Jonah Syndrome

I heard this really really profound question in Hebrew class this week. What if.... on Judgement Day, God decides that EVERYONE gets to go to heaven. What would your immediate reaction be?

Rememeber, reflect on your gut reaction, not on how you think you are supposed to feel.