Our Response of Love

 

Deuteronomy 6:4-19

Loving God is the Greatest Commandment

One of the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “

The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” （Mark12:28-31）

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

Through a careful study of Deuteronomy Chapter 6 we would come to understand why God instructs us to love Him wholeheartedly and how we could love God wholeheartedly.

Why Love God wholeheartedly? (vv. 4-5)

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your strength.” points out that the LORD our God” is “One”, and He is “your God”. This brings to our attention that the LORD (YHWH) is our only one God.

The immediate context before this scripture recalled the incident where the Israelites led by Moses, had exited Egypt, and reached Mount Sinai, where God then made a covenant with them and gave them the Ten Commandments.

Before the first Commandment that said, “You shall have no other gods before me,” God showed the Israelites who He was, and He said to them, “Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.” (Deuteronomy 5:1-2)

Hence, we can see that God instructed the Israelites to observe His Commandments, and His intention was for them to pay attention to “Who indeed is your God? Who is the One that rescues you?” It is the LORD (YHWH)!

Yahweh had first delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. Yahweh then entered into a covenant with them at Sinai. Yahweh said, “I am your God, and you are my people.” Since the Israelites knew that only the LORD YHWH is their God who had delivered them out of Egypt, they would have to love Him with all their hearts and minds, and to worship and serve Him only.

How about us today? We have experienced the amazing salvation of God. The Lord Jesus is the One who has rescued us from sin. He loves us and He has made with us a blood covenant to enable us to be the children of God. How should we respond to the Lord who has rescued us and covenanted with us?

We are to love and serve Him with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds and all our strength.

How to keep loving God and he faithful to Him? (vv.6-19)

If we were to be faithful to God wholeheartedly in our lives, the first and foremost thing we would do would be to keep the Word of God in our hearts.

The description in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 is considerably vivid and concrete: when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, you have to talk about God’s instructions; And they have to tie the Word of God as symbols on their hands, and to bind them on their foreheads, and write them on the doorframes of their houses and on their gates.

All these seek to help us keep the Word of God in our hearts.

It is very important to keep the Word of God in our hearts because the Word of God is able to help us from being ungrateful towards God’s kindness so that we won’t sin against Him by not observing the laws of God nor serving Him.

Then Moses issued three warnings to the Israelites:

1.      Man tends to be forgetful about the kindness of God (vv.10-12）

Moses warned against those Israelites who were about to enter the Land of Canaan, that as they enjoyed all kinds of blessings and good things, they “need to be careful that they do not forget the Lord, who brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Man tends to forget the kindness of God easily, and we would not remember the God who gives and blesses us when we are full and satisfied. The Lord Jesus has rescued us. We receive not merely His grace to pardon our sins, but His blessings of an eternal life. Moreover, the many blessings and happiness during this life are all out His grace and not a coincidence.

The Bible reminds us to be watchful, and to not forget the Lord who saves us. We are to keep the Word of God in our hearts, and to remember Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Whenever we partake the communion, we are reminded by the Word of God that His body was given up for us, and his precious blood was shed for us, so that we can have an abundant life. The Lord Jesus is the One who gives us this abundant life, and we should serve Him wholeheartedly, and give all our praises and thanksgiving to Him.

2.      Man is easily tempted (vv. 13-14）

Moses warned the Israelites that though people all over the land of Canaan were worshipping many gods, the Israelites had to worship and serve the Lord alone. Yet the Israelites did not take seriously the Word of God nor keep them in their hearts.

When other nations sought different gods for big harvests in their farms or blessing them with children, the Israelites followed them in worshipping those gods. They forgot completely that all these blessings were given by God.

We are easily tempted in our journey of following the way of the Lord. There are many things in our lives that would draw us away from following God wholeheartedly.

For example, our pursuit of money and materials, or other life purposes, have caused us to rely on our various experiences and strategies to achieve all these goals instead of trusting God for His leading in our lives. We do not follow God wholeheartedly.

Man is easily tempted. We must keep the Word of God in our hearts and to remind ourselves to follow Him wholeheartedly. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Prov 3:5-6)

3.      It is easy for man to test God in his difficulties (vv. 16-17）

Moses warned the Israelites, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.” （Duet 6:16）

“Massah” means “temptation”. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and as they departed from Elim, they traveled to a place and started grumbling against Moses for bringing them out from Egypt to die in the wilderness in thirst because there was no source of waters.

Moses called out to the Lord, and the Lord instructed Moses to hit the rock, which caused water to gush out from the rock to be consumed by the Israelites.

Moses named that place “Massah” because the Israelites tested the Lord there, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Ex 17:1-7）

We still would face difficulties in life after we have come to believe in Jesus. When we face predicaments and feel desperate, our faith in God might be shaken, like the Israelites who almost died of thirst and who grumbled against God’s leading. They doubted whether God was still with them.

However, Moses reminded us not to test God, but to pay attention to God’s Word. (v.17)

We will have inner struggles when we encounter difficulties. The temptation of Satan will cause us to put our focus on those difficulties, and it will cause us to forget that we do have a powerful God. And it will even cause us to grumble against God and not to listen to Him. However, who should we follow? Whose voice should we take heed to?

It is easy for man to tempt God in his difficulties. We must put the Word of God in our hearts, and not to test God in our difficulties, but to listen to the voice of God. We must follow the example of Christ, who overcame the devil’s temptation in the wilderness. Christ held on to obey God’s word when facing temptation. He said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” (Matthew 4:10）

Conclusion

Many people think that in the Old Testament time, people obeyed the law in order for them to be saved and blessed. People would suffer punishment if they did not observe the law. But then in the New Testament, people are saved by faith and their salvation has nothing to do with observing the law.

In fact, this understanding of God’s relationship with His elects in the Old Testament is considered partial. In reality, the Old Testament first talked about God choosing Abraham and blessing him and his descendants. God rescued the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, and delivered them out from Egypt, the land of slavery, and led them into the Promised Land to enjoy their blessings.

Because God had saved the Israelites at first, hence the law of Moses commanded the Israelites to be grateful to God and hence love Him wholeheartedly and to obey His laws.

People who truly love God will naturally obey the laws of God, which requires them to love their neighbors. Therefore, all the laws hang on loving God and loving others.

So, the Old Testament and the New Testament both emphasize that God is gracious to his people, and thus God’s people must response by loving God and man. It is not an empty talk, but where one chooses, willingly and voluntarily, to listen to God’s laws and obey His Word and His will.

Moreover, our commitment to love God and love our neighbors will not be affected by environment changes, be it good or bad, or by temptations and oppression of the devil imposed on us.

We have gone through almost two years of MCO, and we can’t go back to church to worship God and fellowship with our brothers and sisters frequently. Given this scenario, some people conclude that many Christians will fall away from God and keep themselves away from other members. In other words, they will backslide in their faith under such a difficult situation.

Is it true? We need to ask ourselves personally. Let’s have a self-reflection:

Do we love God and man today? Or have we left both God and man already?

May God show us His mercy! May the Holy Spirit enable us to remember the teachings of the Lord, so that we will always remember God’s grace, which in turn help remind us to follow Him wholeheartedly. And, it does help us to be faithful to God’s even in our difficult moments.

Let’s love and serve the Lord with all our hearts and with all our minds, so that we will become a people who is pleasing to Him.

The Goal of Creation is Rest

 

Genesis 1:1 – 2:3

The Beginning of Creation

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the theme, which indicates that God was going to start His work of creation.

Verse 2, “the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” It talked about the original state of being before the creation. There were three problems in the original state:

1.      “Formless and Void “means without form and things. In Hebrew, it denotes a waste land that is not suitable for human dwelling.

2.      Darkness over the surface of the deep

3.      Chaotic primordial water

Subsequently verses 3-31 give a detailed account of how God had orderly created form and things out of a formless and void state. Hence, God did not merely create something out of nothing (“creatio exnihilo”), but also created order out of chaos.

Today we are born again in Christ, the Spirit has transformed our lives that were once messy and meaningless (formless and void) into fruitful, orderly and meaningful lives in accordance with God’s plan. The Devil seeks to destroy human lives, turning them formless and void, but God saves us by giving us new lives in Christ that we can live abundantly.

Interpretation

God is the Creator and the great “I Am”. He has existed before all the creation. Philosophically, he is a Necessary Being not a contingent being. Everything else are contingent beings. Necessary Being must exist and not be created. Contingent beings may or may not exist  because they are created. So, we cannot ask, who created God?

Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

So, God is the Creator and Designer of all things in the universe. He is sovereign over his creation and He has His purpose for His creation. All creation must submit to Him and observe His ordinances and statutes and fulfill His will.

Verse 2: “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

It means the Spirit was striking, overcoming and containing the chaotic waters (evil forces), and hence ushering in God’s magnificent work of creation.

The genre of Genesis Chapter One is a poetic song, and the second chapter is a narrative prose. In Chapter one, God used six days to create all things in the universe. The description of creation is poetic in nature, and its structure is rhythmic and lyrical:

God’s sacred command: “God said, ……” （vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29）

The result of the command: and there was the creation.

God handled the chaotic state: God said, “to separate…from…”

God showed His contentment, “And it was so.” (v 6, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30）

God named the creation, “God called…” （v 5, 8, 10） (Appeared in the first three days of the creation)

God’s comments towards His creation, “God saw that it was good” (v 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25).

Conclusion: “And there was evening, and there was morning…” (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31）

The creation of God in the first three days was the forming of the structure or the form, which settled the problems of formlessness and darkness.

God created light in the first day. He spoke and light came into being.  By then God had not yet created the sun and the moon, but there was light. The author emphasizes the light that did not come either from the sun or the moon. The sun and the moon were Canaanites’ gods. This light came from the presence of God.

Light is in fact a form that God created. Then God separated the light from the darkness, and He called the light “day” while the darkness, “night”.

God solved the issue of darkness. He turned darkness into a soothing time that man sleeps. Revelation tells us that in the future New Heaven and New Earth, the glory of God would shine on the entire city of Jerusalem, and it will be mere day time without nights and darkness (Revelation 21:22-25; 22:5). Darkness then is destroyed completely.

God sovereignly created the vault, firmament, or sky in the second day, and hence waters under and above the vault were separated.

This vault was a big hard canopy that protected all things under it from being flooded by big waters. If God were to open the window of the sky, waters would then pour down from the sky and it would become an overwhelming flood.

God said in the third day, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”

God separated the sea and the dry ground. God solved the problem of the chaotic waters by setting boundaries to it. God made the dry ground fertile, and it grew with all kinds of plants and vegetables.  It foreshadowed the emergence of the living creatures on earth as their food is vegetables and fruits.

On the first three days, God used His Word in the creation. For He spoke, and it came into being. By this, God created the air, seas, earth, and named these creations as day and night, sky, earth and sea. So, the way of His creation approach was separation and naming them. In this way, God created order and meaning for them.

The air, sea and earth are all forms, and they solve the problem of formlessness. However, the issue of voidness still exists. Thus, God placed all things in the air, sea and on earth in the subsequent three days of creation which helped solve the issue of voidness.

And the pinnacle of creation was the creation of man after God’s image. And God appointed man to be His representative to manage all of His creation.

God created the greater light on the fourth day to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. God also created other stars. These heavenly bodies have their respective functions, and they shine in the vault, to differentiate day and night, and to serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years.

The author did not call them sun and moon, because these were Canaanites’ gods.

Then, God placed various living creatures in the sea and birds in the air, and commanded them to reproduce according to its kind on the fifth day. He also blessed them and commanded them to increase in number.

After that, God created all kinds of living animals and placed them on the earth according to their kinds on the sixth day. God also created man in His own image, and He blessed them to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the entire earth. He also appointed man to rule over all the creation in the sea and in the air and on earth.

Genesis gives us a very unique description about man’s creation, and we can see it when it makes a comparison between the creation of man with the rest of the other creation.

Firstly, the first person is used when it records about the creation of man. “Let us ……” （v 26）But when it describes the creation of all things (v 3,6,14), the third person is used instead, “God said, let there be….”

Secondly, the author uses “according to its kind” when he describes the creation of animals and livestock (vv. 21, 24, 25); but when it comes to man’s creation, the author emphasizes that he was “created in our (God’s) image.” (vv. 26-27）

Thirdly, the creation of man and woman includes the description of their sex (v27), and this was not mentioned in the creation of other creatures because it was relatively not important.

Fourthly, only man was endowed with the authority and responsibility to rule over the creation in the air, sea and on earth. Hence, the creation of man is truly unique in comparison with the other creation, not merely because man was specially created, but more importantly, he is specially created in the image and likeness of God.

Fifthly, the author emphasizes that God’s creation is good in Genesis 1. This word appears seven times in chapter 1, and it indicates the goodness of God and His creation. It is also served as a contrast where God says “very good” on the sixth day when He created man.

Just think about the beauty, harmony and order of God’s creation and it is really amazing! It is indeed, very good!

Verses 1-3 of chapter 2 says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.”

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 

	Form			Things/substance
1st day	Light		4th day	Greater light, lesser light, stars
2nd day	vault/sky /Firmament		5th day	Birds in the air, fishes in the sea
3rd day	Dry ground, vegetables		6th day	creatures on the earth, man
		7th day
		Sabbath

 The whole project of the creation of God stopped at day 7 (2:3), and not at day 6 (1:31). The Seventh Day is special and holy. In the seventh day, God was quiet throughout the day and night, and He did not work because He rested. God has His own pace in working, He worked six days and rested on the seventh day.

The pinnacle of God’s work of creation is in fact, rest. The author underlines that God has created all things in the universe, especially man, and His intention is for all the creation to rest in His presence and be blessed.

Jesus was born to deliver sinners, He also promised rest for those who are heavy burdened.

Since man is created in the image of God, man should imitate God by resting on the seventh day. God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath, and it is one of the Ten Commandments. This commandment is also given to you and me (Exodus 20:8-11).

Conclusion

The Old Testament YHWH as the name of God, as He entered into a covenantal relationship with the Israelites. However, the word “Elohim” was used in Genesis 1 and it is a generic name of a universal God who creates all things. The author uses the name of Yahweh in the creation story of Genesis 2.

The Genesis author through the two creation stories of Chapter one and Chapter Two, emphasizes that the God who covenanted with the Israel is the Creator of all things in the universe. He superseded many other paganistic gods of the Canaanites, which included the sun god and the moon god.

God is the Creator. and He is the God who covenants with His people, and He is their guardian and their provider. God turns darkness into light and death into life, and He transforms chaos and emptiness into an orderly and meaningful life.

Thus, we must trust Him in all things in our daily lives. In God’s presence, we are fearless of sicknesses or death or Covid-19 viruses. Let’s cast all our worries and bitter burdens unto the Lord and come before Him and rest in His presence.

Moreover, God has created us, and He is the Master Designer. He knows what is best for us, and He also set forth plans and targets for our lives. Let’s offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to be used by God, in order to fulfill His plans for our lives.

When we seek God and pray to and ask of Him, He would surely reveal to us the path that we should take.

If we pursue only to fulfill our dreams, we could only have our own goals realized, fulfilling the “minimum I”, or we might be trapped in the state of formlessness and voidness. But if we obey the Word of God, and fulfil God’s plan for us, we will be able to maximize our full potential, and fulfil the “maximum I “.