Lookahead:  There are companion verses in Deut 13 and 30 that basically elaborate on the fact that the LORD will prepare the hearts of the people so that they will be able to love Him.  Also, false prophets who entice people to go after fake gods, constitute, in fact, a temptation that is permitted, in order to ultimately prove to God that the people love him IAW Deut 6:5.  So God empowers us to agapē Him and we demonstrate this love by steering clear of false idols. Is it possible that the “Thou shalt Love Me” command is actually a call to utterly depend on God—on an exclusive basis—to empower us to love?  

Returning to our previous thread about where the disconnect was that sabotaged the Kingdom Opportunity for the Wilderness Israelites:  was fear the culprit?

I took a look at the original Ten Commandments movie on DVD.  The Patterns of Evidence video series made multiple mentions of the Ten Commandments movie produced by Cecil B. Demille.  It occurred to me that Demille had produced two versions of the Ten Commandments movie.  In 1923 he produced and directed a silent black and white version; then 33 years later he produced the technicolor blockbuster full-feature Ten Commandments movie.  However, the silent movie was extremely interesting because it started with the story of God’s deliverance of the Hebrew slaves and included the Golden Calf incident that reflected Israel’s rebellion on a massive scale;  then it faded to a new plot—a “racy” 1920’s allegorical application of that same rebellion theme.  Plot #2 was the highly melodramatic story of a backslidden man and his poor mother who was trying everything she could think of to get him to repent and come back to God;  but this stubborn rebellion eventually led to the backslider’s demise in a state of sin (rejected by the sleazy woman he was consorting with, then shot dead while attempting to evade arrest and prosecution).  Prior to the man’s unceremonious end, his mother had been accidentally killed as an indirect consequence of his lawlessness.  Her last words to him were that she had failed—she had taught her son to fear God; but she had not taught him to love God.  I thought, whoooaaaa that was pretty deep for 1923 (all without sixty on-line translations of the Bible, hundreds of mega-church sermons on TV, and the Christian social media explosion).  I believe that Demille had perfectly summarized the dichotomous dilemma that generations have pondered upon for untold years:  Do we serve a God of Love, or a Fearful God?  Or both?  But I believe that Love and Fear (the phobic kind at least) are mutually exclusive.  On the other hand, the overwhelming awestruck kind of fear/ful reverence is compatible with love.   

Distilling these thoughts down in the blog leads me to the “love side of the equation” and decalogue-type questions that have been on my mind more and more lately:  Why did God command us to love Him?  Can someone truly “love on command?”  (And I should clarify that this is a both an Old and New Testament Commandment.) 

Mark 12:30

…thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:

Deut 6:5

…thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

The “love” word In Deut is אָהַבְתָּ (ā·haḇ·tā) meaning human love for another–includes family, and sexual; human appetite for objects such as food, drink, sleep, wisdom; human love for or to God; act of being a friend; God’s love toward man, to individual men, to people Israel, to righteousness

In the Septuagint ~130 B.C. Greek version of the Old Testament, agapē is used (the God kind of love). 

There are companion verses in Deut 13 and 30 that basically elaborate on the fact that the LORD will prepare the hearts of the people so that they will be able to love Him.  Also, false prophets who entice people to go after fake gods, constitute, in fact, a temptation that is permitted, in order to ultimately prove to God that the people love him IAW Deut 6:5.  So God empowers us to agapē Him and we demonstrate this love by steering clear of false idols. Is it possible that the “Thou shalt Love Me” command is actually a call to utterly depend on God—on an exclusive basis—to empower us to love?  

And then there’s the template whom I found by searching on the “all your heart, soul, strength” phrase in Bible Hub:

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did–with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.  2 Kings 23:25

Ironically, I came across a blog post during my Google search, written by the author of a book I synopsized in my last week’s blog post.  His post was written in 2015, and entitled:  America Needs A Josiah

“His name was Josiah. A godly king, Josiah passionately sought the Lord in his private life and pursued bold, sweeping reforms in his public life to get the Jewish nation turned around and headed back in the right direction.  As a result, the Lord in His sovereignty graciously chose to forestall the promised coming judgment for more than two decades. Indeed, during Josiah’s tenure in power, the Jewish people experienced one of the greatest periods of repentance, reform and revival in their ancient history…

“What kind of reforms did Josiah make during time in power?

• Josiah purged the land of idol worship. (2 Chronicles chapter 34:3-7)
• Josiah ordered the Temple to be cleaned and repaired (2 Chronicles 34:8-13)
• Josiah made the reading and studying of the Bible a top priority for the Jewish people…(2 Chronicles 34:29-30)
• Josiah publicly made a covenant before the Lord and…led the people to join him in this covenant to serve the Lord with all their heart and soul… (2 Chronicles 34:32-33)
• Beginning when he was about 26, Josiah reinstituted the celebration of the Passover to remind the people of God’s might and mercy…(2 Chronicles chapter 35, see especially 35:18)

“…What was the message that the Lord sent to Josiah?

‘[B]ecause your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,’ declares the Lord.” (2 Kings 22:18-19) (underline is mine)”¹

You will note that 2 Kings 23:25 does not say that Josiah loved God; it says he served or turned to God.  But 2 Kings 22:18 says that Josiah had a tender heart for God.  The Hebrew word means just that.  Fast-forwarding to 132 years before Jesus’ earth-walk, the Greek word means soft (heart). 🙂 Sounds like love to me. 

Next week…Jesus’ eyes of love described by an NDEer. 

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¹Flashtrafficblog website:  /2015/08/18/america-needs-a-josiah-why-an-ancient-jewish-king-provides-a-powerful-model-for-the-next-american-president/