One and only God

’Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is One’ (Deuteronomy 6.4).

In the NIV Bible our verse has some variations listed: the Lord our God is one Lord, or the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, or the Lord is our God the Lord alone.

The problem people have in translating this verse is that it doesn’t have a verb in it. It says, literally, ‘Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord one’. What you can say is that the word ‘one’ comes right at the end so obviously that is a very important word, the word that Moses emphasised. Is he saying that there is only one God, or is he saying that God is a unity? Both of those things are true, both of those things are very important, and for practical purposes they both amount to the same thing.

If there were two . . .

Imagine, just for a moment, that there are in fact two gods, endlessly fighting for control. One god would be the one who makes the electricity flow when you switch on the light switch, but he wouldn't always be in charge. Maybe the other god is a god who, when you flick the light switch, makes the whole building turn into jelly. You don’t know when you come in the front door which one you’ll get. If there were really two gods, or if god had two different personalities, two ways of dealing with the world, then everyday life would just be impossible. We wouldn’t live in a world anything like the world we live in today if there really were two gods, or if god really had two different ways in dealing with this world and switched from one to the other at random.

Therefore we should give thanks that there is one God, that he is a unity and that he is consistent. Otherwise life would just be a nightmare.

One God

It interests me that if you look at the myths and legends of gods that come in different pre-Christian societies, what you find is that a lot of them started out with all their different gods: the wood gods, the water gods, the god of the sea, and the god of the sun. However, as people started to think a little bit about the world they lived in they often seemed to come to the conclusion that there must be one bigger god behind all this lot. Sometimes they called it fate, sometimes something like Mother Nature, but, in either case, they realised that our world is one and it operates according to one set of predictable laws and principles. What people dimly grasped, the Bible tells us very clearly: ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one’.

Yet, this needs saying because there is something in human nature which seems to love to add new objects of worship. For example, when you visit Turin, see the place where they keep the Turin shroud. The shroud itself is not on display, but on the front of its box are words that say, ‘We remember your passion, Lord, and we worship your shroud’. Anybody who knows anything about Roman Catholicism, for example, will know that even in the name of this one God there has been a great multiplying of different objects of worship. That seems to answer to something in human nature that finds it very difficult to be satisfied with one God.

Another example is the respect that people give to the devil. I wouldn’t call this worship but I do think people treat him with a lot more respect than he deserves. Sometimes, to hear people talk, the idea seems to be that there are all these wonderful things that God wants to do, but the devil keeps contending with God, competing with him and spoiling his plans as if he was some kind of rival god. That is not how it works. There is only one Lord and King and ruler in this universe. ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one’, there is no other. The instinct to multiply gods is a sinful instinct, and one that we should beware of.

One love

Now look at Deuteronomy 6.5 for the implications of this. ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one’, so therefore, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’. The logic here is compelling: because there is one God, it is right to love him totally. There is to be just one love for your heart and soul, one great passion for your life, one great devotion for you and for your strength and energy, and for your minutes and your seconds. As one writer puts it, here is something that ought to claim the whole of a man; it ought to claim the whole of a man’s mental and spiritual powers and occupy him completely. Anything less sells him short. Indeed, it is not only wrong but dangerous (6.14-15).

I speak for myself, and perhaps I speak for you as an evangelical Christian: it seems to me that our love for God is not a great thing. Our work for God may be impressive, our organising and attendance at meetings may be good, but our heart attitude falls desperately short. You and I need to realise that there is no other. The things which draw out so much of our love and passion are not God. The things that take up so much time and energy are not God. The things that bring such empty pleasure and hollow happiness are not God. They are not worthy of the love we give them. There is only one God, so love him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

One word

One God, love him; how do we love him? According to Deuteronomy 6.1, he has told us. Just as there is one God, so he has one set of values and standards. These are good for all people everywhere, down through the generations (6.2,7). This is a great blessing: one law clearly set out for us in the Bible. So if your 15-year-old nephew is quite openly sleeping with his girlfriend, your first question to him, as a Bible believer, is not, ‘Did you use a condom?’ nor, ‘Do you love the girl?’ nor, ‘Are you sure you are ready for this?’ but, ‘Don’t you know it is wrong?’

Where does this perfect law find us? Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses repeatedly says to them that if they keep God’s laws they will flourish (e.g. 6.2-3,16-18,24). He also says that obedience will confer righteousness (6.25). Although they were perfectly good laws, however, the whole history of Israel from here on is of breaking them. So, by the time we get into the New Testament, the question is, can we have righteousness even though we are sinners?

One plan

I want you to imagine there is a massive computer printout of everything that has ever happened to anyone anywhere. This is, in fact, the entire record of God‘s dealings with his world, which he rules. However, there are several events he has marked out. He says, ‘If you want to know who I am and what really matters to me, consider these few events. This is my plan working out through history.’ One of these is the entry of Israel into the Promised Land (6.10,18,21-23).

If they keep God’s laws they stay in the land and God blesses them. However, they didn’t keep them and we couldn’t have kept them and we haven’t kept them today. So it is a very good thing that God’s plan didn’t stop here. As we read on through God’s ‘Key Events of History’ — the Bible — we see that his plan comes to Christ and the cross. Everything that he was doing was preparation for Jesus Christ and his death.

Like that rescue from Egypt (6.21), you also have a rescue from sin and guilt. God rescued them from Pharaoh but through Jesus and his death he has rescued you from sin so that you can have a righteousness in spite of the fact that you have broken his laws (6.25). Like that Promised Land that they were going to go into (6.23), God has prepared a new heaven and a new earth for you. You haven’t worked for this and you haven’t deserved it (6.10-11 cf 9.6). All you have to do now is trust him.

I hope you have seen that there is one God, one word and one plan. The plan brings life and honour to all who trust Jesus Christ. Is that you? If it is, do you now want to live by the one word of God? At the heart of that law, as we have seen, is to love him utterly — because there is only one God.

Tom Forryan,
pastor, Derby Road Baptist Church, Watford

Looking at Deuteronomy 6

If there were two . . .

One God

One love

One word

One plan

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