Digging Deep in God’s Word

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

The command to love has always been a difficult concept for me to understand as a Christian. Mainly because the words “shall love” don’t seem like they belong together because commanding love doesn’t seem like genuine love. Our world history is replete with human leaders implementing such dictates, like Saddam Hussein who demanded compulsory adulation from his citizens until he was overthrown.

A grave misunderstanding of this passage, among others, has also colored the opinions of many atheists, most famously Richard Dawkins who in his book The God Delusion wrote, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a … megalomaniacal, capriciously malevolent bully.”

So, as Bible-believing Christians, how should we approach a passage and a concept that is twisted to criticize our God and our faith, and which we also find ourselves struggling with?

I’m reminded of the technical process of rock preparation called thin-section manufacturing. I used to train new employees in this long, tedious manual process when I worked at a geologic laboratory. The process involves thinning a piece of rock, fossil fragment or crystal to a thickness of less than a hair (~50 microns) so light can shine through it.

I remember several new employees giving up or quitting because this process was too difficult to master. The trickiest bit of the process, especially with dinosaur eggshells, is when you are nearly done and are grinding the sample down, carefully checking it in a microscope as you shave away microns at a time.

It was so discouraging to look through the microscope and see the dino eggshell just looking like a blob. It didn’t seem like you were making any progress at all. But if you patiently continued and trusted the process (rather than handing in your notice!), the sample would be thinned to the exact right thickness and would finally look like an eggshell, complete with amazingly detailed structures.

I bring up this process because sometimes we can look at passages like Deuteronomy 6:4 and misunderstand or not see them clearly because we haven’t been patient with the process and followed the idea to its end goal. It can be so tempting to make a judgment call prematurely, and end up taking a passage out of context, or treating it as an isolated statement, but if we follow the process we’ve been given, what initially appeared like a “blob” will turn into a wonderfully-detailed and beautiful truth.

So what’s the process in this case? Well in a nutshell (or an eggshell) it’s simply Bible study and prayer. It means getting serious about studying the word including reading other passages of Scripture, and allowing the Bible to interpret the Bible.

For example, a book of the Bible that has really helped me understand the passage in Deuteronomy is Hosea. Many Christians are familiar with the prophet Hosea who was commanded by God to marry a harlot. God even forewarned Hosea that his wife would not remain faithful to him.

It is very challenging when we see in Hosea chapter three that God commands Hosea to, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.” (Hosea 3:1-3)

Not only was Hosea commanded to love and marry an unfaithful woman but when she left him for another man and got herself into slavery, Hosea was instructed to use his own money and resources to buy her back. But that’s not all! Not only was he to rescue her but he was commanded to love her again.

I’ve thought about this a lot and personally I know that in my own strength I could never go through with what the Lord commanded Hosea to do. Enduring a difficult relationship is one thing but putting your heart into it – being vulnerable and spending money and affection on someone who’s actively pouring their heart out to someone else … that’s an entirely different thing.

However, with God all things are possible! Indeed, as we look at the passage in Deuteronomy in light of what we see in Hosea, the truth of God’s word begins to grow clear, and full of beautiful meaning.

The fact is I am Hosea’s wife. I am the one who betrayed God. I am the selfish and adulterous one who left Him and got myself into slavery. And He, at great personal expense, had to pay my debt with the life of His Son because He still chooses, and continues to choose, to love me with an extraordinary love.

This command to love God is not a burden or a compulsory action demanded by a cold distant god, but a natural expression of love to a God who sacrificially gave His love to us.

A shallow survey of the Bible will always yield a shallow understanding. Difficult passages invite us to dig deeper in the Word, to get out our microscopes if you will, and really examine the scriptures. This process will not only yield greater biblical understanding, but it will also allow us to realize one of the rarest treasures and that is intimate knowledge of God Himself.

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:17-19)